My Little Pony: Second Gear

by BNuts

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure
Length: 221342

Gearhead's secrets revealed! Book 2 in 'The Gear Series' takes place during season 2 of 'FiM.' Discord! Intrigue! Dragons! Changelings! All right here. Complete.

As Gearhead continues to find a place for himself in Ponyville, the secrets behind his 'knack' are finally revealed. At the same time, he must contend with a dangerous political game against his own older brother, who has prepared for this his whole life. As greater threats against Equestria rise, Gearhead creates an engine that could save or destroy the world as we know it.

This story runs parallel to season 2 of Friendship is Magic, weaving in and out of events viewers will recognize. Book 2 is now completely available for your reading pleasure.

Please leave any comments and feedback you might have. Thumb indicators will be ignored unless accompanied by a helpful comment on what was done poorly, and how to improve. Thank you.

If you are an artist and this story inspires you, please let me know. I would certainly like to have better pictures available for OC and cover art than I currently do.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-08-23 11:45:46 UTC

1. To Test Your Metal

Chapter 1: To Test Your Metal

“Whoa!” Rainbow Dash had to push extra hard to climb out of range. The blue Pegasus flew a loop to get reoriented before hovering at a safe height. “For a horse without a head, this thing moves pretty fast!”

“I told you it’s called a Dullihan,” Twilight Sparkle said, trying to regain the mythical beast’s attention with a salvo of magical blasts.

“All I know is it’s headless and it’s a pony. That makes it the Headless Horse,” Applejack said as she sprung past the Dullihan so she could aim a swift double-kick at it. The Earth Pony’s bucking kick sent the Headless Horse more into Twilight’s range, and she started to score more solid hits. Applejack took out her lasso and started to get ready to go after the creature’s legs.

“Whee! Over here!” Pinkie Pie continued jumping around the small clearing, constantly redirecting the Dullihan’s attention. “This is fun!”

“No, it’s terrifying!” Fluttershy was frozen to the ground, surrounded by the bravest of her animal friends, all similarly frozen with fear.

“What I find frightening is this thing’s lack of fashion sense,” Rarity the Unicorn said. “If one must haunt, at least do it in style!”

“It’s not doing anything by choice,” Twilight said. “According to my books, Dullihans were once warrior ponies who became cursed to search for eternity for a head to replace the one they lost. They can get minor injuries, but they can’t get killed, and some of them even have mystical attacks.”

“So how do we deal with this?” Rainbow Dash asked, diving in across the Dullihan’s flank again.

“With the same plan as before,” the purple Unicorn said.

“H-h-how much longer?” The yellow Pegasus asked.

“Unfortunately,” the nearby earth-coloured Earth Pony stallion said, staring between the sparks that danced from his unshod forehooves, “this sort of thing tends to take awhile. If you can distract it a little longer, I will have the next step in the plan ready.”

The Earth Pony in question was Thirdson Gearhead, something of a mechanical genius, blacksmith, and geomancer. He had come to Ponyville to sell his wares and to find out as much as he could about his ‘knack,’ which he was now using to shape the minerals in the ground below him into a form of containment for the indestructible Dullihan. Gearhead’s ‘knack’ was to understand the relationship between the different materials of an inanimate object he touched, and thus to change and optimize it.

Despite growing up on a farm like Applejack, Gearhead was smaller and physically weaker than the head of Sweet Apple Acres. He had a brown coat, a reddish-brown mane and tail, green eyes, and a telescope for a cutie mark. He was wearing his usual green vest of many pockets, geomancy-friendly horseshoes, two daggers, and one black pouch.

One of Gearhead’s daggers was one which he had forged from carbon-steel using his best metalworking methods, so it was highly durable, but otherwise ordinary. The other dagger was made from a variety of gemstones, and responded to Gearhead’s needs on the battlefield. It could enlarge to the size of a sword, and he could even use it to absorb and fire ambient magical energy.

Gearhead’s most powerful item, though, had to be the orb contained in his black belt pouch, which sealed much of its magical signature so it would not be easily detected by a greedy pony, and stolen. The orb fit comfortably in one hoof and contained a living flame. It shone gold and orange, red and pink, green and blue. It was the Fireheart Gemstone, and it contained power gained from Shadow Wright the Black Firedrake, Princess Celestia and her little sister Luna, and Celestia’s pet phoenix, Philomena.

At the recent Grand Galloping Gala, the others assembled and fighting to contain the Dullihan had found out Gearhead’s best-kept secrets: he was the third son of a farming family so old it predated the formation of Equestria, and naturally the rule of the Two Sisters. This family contributed a large portion of foodstuffs to ponies across Equestria, and Gearhead’s ambitious big brother, Vines, wanted to control it as the next Patriarch.

Because Gearhead’s ‘knack’ had been unpredictable and dangerous before he had mastered it to the current degree, he had been slapped with the title of ‘Black Sheep.’ By Herd law, this title protected him from most physical and emotional harm, as well as preventing him from being forcefully excluded or exiled from the family. It also was a brand that he would have to earn his way out of, because it was a black mark against him, and it had precluded him having a normal childhood. Because he was a Black Sheep, Gearhead would not use his Herd’s name of Verdant, although he was one. Because he was a Black Sheep he was constantly seeking ways to be useful to his family and to other ponies, despite being far away from Hoofington and Verdant Fields.

But it was not all doom and gloom, because Gearhead had these six friends backing him up. That was why he had gone back to ask them for their assistance when he had first encountered the Dullihan.

As the owner of Gearhead’s Gadgets, Gearhead had to gather the wood, metals, and gemstones he used to build and repair the gadgets he sold (and one or two he was not selling). He often mined the area around Ponyville for resources, and this included the Everfree Forest, which did not behave according to the same rules as the rest of Equestria. The Forest was also home to a number of dangerous creatures, from Cockatrices to Timberwolves. This time Gearhead had ventured northeast of the mountain where he had encountered Shadow Wright to investigate rumours that a rare metal was buried nearby.

Those rumours had included hints of the place being haunted, but Gearhead had not gotten any hints until he was well within the Dullihan’s territory, and then he was able to confirm it for himself. As methodical as he was, Gearhead could not pass up an opportunity to test the creature when it stopped pursuing him past a stand of trees. Gearhead had slowly worked his way around the area, and discovered that the Dullihan only came at him if he entered within a roughly circular range of something. Which meant the Dullihan was guarding something, and being limited to a certain distance from that something.

Thus armed, Gearhead had returned to Ponyville to see if any of his friends would be willing to help him investigate what the Dullihan was guarding. Naturally they had dismissed Gearhead’s encounter with the creature, as the Headless Horse was a common enough ghost story. Twilight had brought one of her books on legendary creatures along anyway. Gearhead had another such volume, which he had brought along in his wagon, having driven it along a track that was barely wide enough to accommodate it. But Gearhead had not wanted his friends to be more fatigued than they had to be when the ‘fun’ started. Plus, if there really was a rare metal to be found, he wanted to be able to take back as much of it as was possible.

The first sign the group was entering the Dullihan’s territory was that the forest critters accompanying Fluttershy suddenly became rooted to the ground. Gearhead had already had to leave his wagon behind, so they had continued moving alertly until they first saw the grey pony who had only a thin trail of mist where its head should be.

Now, because they could not completely flank the creature, they were fending it off and trying to contain it. As their fastest member, Rainbow Dash would swoop in and just barely buzz it, while staying away from the Dullihan’s powerful counterattacking swings. Pinkie Pie was a constant distraction, with her ability to pop out anywhere, and even to defy gravity while she was at it. Twilight harried the Dullihan with her magic, while Applejack supported her with physical blows. Rarity provided a light source, but she had discovered that she was not fast enough to get out of the way if she let the Dullihan get too close to her. A sprained hindquarter was the result of her troubles. Fluttershy had become all but useless in this case, except as a detector for the supernatural creature they were facing. And it was Gearhead’s job to come up with a method of containing the once-warrior.

“Clear on my mark,” Gearhead said, focusing. More blue-green lightning shot out along the ground all around them. The other ponies redoubled their efforts, causing the Dullihan to come to a complete stop. “Mark!” The others leaped away even as great slabs suddenly grew out of the ground, pinning the Dullihan from each of the cardinal directions all about its forelegs.

“Finally!” Rainbow Dash said, coming in for a landing.

“I hope it’s strong enough,” Twilight said, seeing the Dullihan struggling in the earth’s vice-like grip.

“It probably will not hold for more than an hour, but we should have enough time to complete our investigation,” Gearhead said. He and Applejack went to collect Fluttershy, although they had to lean in under her to keep her on her feet even as she shivered uncontrollably.

“Lets get this over with,” Twilight said.

“I just hope this’s worth trekking though all this gloom and gunk,” Rarity said, looking back at the three closely-packed ponies with an odd expression.

“Ooh! I hope it’s a big rock,” Pinkie Pie said.

* * *

Earlier Gearhead had used a map to calculate the rough center of the Dullihan’s territory. The group approached the location to find it occupied by a short black tower, whose only windows occupied the top and bottom floors. “It’s a lotta rocks,” Pinkie Pie said.

Rarity and Twilight shivered, but fortunately Fluttershy was, once again, mobile enough to move on her own. Gearhead closed his eyes for a moment to shift his focus. “There is a concentration of dark magic here,” he said, thinking about the dark Unicorn whom the ice dragoness had said had trapped her in the mountains behind Canterlot.

“I don’t like this feeling,” Rarity said.

“Me neither, but now I have an idea of what kind of pony’s here. This could be very dangerous, if it’s true,” Twilight said.

“Oh, it’s true,” a new voice, a little like nails on a chalkboard, said. “And you’ll never get in here!”

“In where?” Just then, Rainbow Dash collided with a hitherto invisible force field. At the impact, red-black energy coursed from everywhere else on the spherical field to intersect where the Pegasus had ‘landed.’ It shot through her painfully, and ejected her back in the direction in which she had come. Thinking quickly, Twilight managed to use her magic to grab ahold of her friend and guide her safely down to the ground beside her.

“Ha-ha-ha! Even a dragon can’t pierce my barrier. So go away and leave me alone, afore my Headless Horse comes back to nab you all.” The pony witch cackled.

“Your Dullihan?” Gearhead asked. “You are responsible for the curse?”

“Well yeah: curses come from witches and other dark Unicorns, not from thin air.”

“Do you happen to know anything about a curse to trap a dragon in a mountain?”

“Ooh, that would be a doozy. I wonder if it’s something I can do… to you!”

“We’re here to look into rumours of a rare metal,” Rarity said. “If you would be so kind as to let us look, we’ll soon be on our way.”

“Absolutely not! What you see here is all mine, so go away!”

“Will you heal our friend first?” Gearhead asked.

“That flying foal? It was her own fault she got hurt, so answer’s ‘no!’”

“Actually, we can’t just go away,” Twilight said. “I have a mandate from Princess Celestia herself to investigate some black magic that’s been spreading around here, and I believe you’re responsible for it. So we’re responsible for taking you in!”

“I never heard about that letter,” Applejack said.

“I was waiting until we had some form of confirmation on the black magic. Now we do, and everything we’ve seen since we got into the guarded zone matches up with what the Princess wrote.”

“You’re still not getting in here,” the witch said. “Remember?”

“’Not even a dragon,’ that is what you said,” Gearhead said.

“Exactly! Which means you ponies better turn ‘round and go home! And apologize to your precious princess for your failure.”

“Ooh! I could crack this thing wide open if I had a sharp enough implement to act as a chisel,” Twilight said, clearly frustrated.

“In other words, you can provide the hammer, Miss Twilight?”

“I think so,”

“Then I shall do,” Gearhead said. He drew the geargem dagger and turned it flat-up in his mouth. At the same time, he took the Fireheart Gemstone out of its pouch with his tail and tossed it into a low arc. The dagger extended to sword length, the half-gear guard rotating around and parting to accept the stone. The sword immediately became a little bigger. The blade split open, and the gemstone started to charge with energy, wings of light and lightning extending from the stone in both directions past Gearhead.

“Huh? What? No, impossible. Stop this right now!” The witch started to run down the stairs of her tower to the bottom floor.

“Get ready,” Gearhead said past the pony-style hilt of his weapon as it continued to charge.

“Ready!” Twilight called, forming a purple mallet high above her own head.

Gearhead fired a single spiralling javelin almost directly ahead. The tightly-packed and helical Fire, Light, and Lightning energy dug into the energy shell cast around the tower, sending shockwaves out with each impact. The spiral shell peeled away, revealing a core of charged energy underneath it. At the head of the javelin was a core of Fire magic, held to the Lightning aft section by Light energy. This core layer dug into the shield again, and then Twilight hit the back with her mallet.

Everything exploded. The javelin shot through the hole the impact had made, buried itself a ways in the ground on the other side of the barrier, and then exploded again. The seven friends were watching, still somewhat shocked, as the force field shattered and fell apart from the hole, outward. Gearhead was the first to move in, sword still ready, and look down the impact crater.

“What have you done?” The witch railed at him, marching out the front door of her tower. “You coulda killed us all if that’d been just that much off!”

“No he couldn’t,” Rainbow Dash said, finally recovered.

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because our friend here’s a geomancer. That means that if it’s in the ground, he can sink or float it easily. There’s no chance he’d let this stuff get blown up.”

“Do you know what this is?” Gearhead asked, still staring down at the red and blue glowing boulder the explosion had unearthed. When nopony answered, he said, “Dragonstone. It is no wonder she was so confident that a dragon could not break it. Dragonstone comes from the living flesh and fire of dragons. With even a little of it, I could learn the process behind dragonfiring metals and woods. Even adamantine.”

“Oh, you must think you’re so accomplished. But you ain’t gettin’ any of my Dragonstone, ya hear me, ya daft ‘mancer?”

Gearhead turned to the witch, in the process bringing his sword into line. “I heard. And you heard what Twilight Sparkle had to say. You are coming with us.”

“I ain’t!” Red-black energy started to coalesce around the witch’s horn, but Gearhead tapped the horn with his sword, and the energy fizzled.

“You are, and you may as well come quietly to avoid injury.”

“Fiddlesticks!”

* * *

The seven friends returned to Ponyville aboard Gearhead’s cyclic wagon, which was laden with as much Dragonstone as it would carry, nearly the entire boulder, plus one crotchety dark witch. Her language had been so foul that Twilight had decided to gag her before they had even passed Zecora’s hut.

Gearhead drove the wagon over to the Golden Oak Library first. Twilight went inside to send a letter to Princess Celestia through her baby dragon assistant, Spike. Spike could send any paper letter directly to Equestria’s ruler by breathing his green fire on it. The Princess’s swift response was that she was sending a detachment of the Royal Canterlot Guard to escort the witch to the city dungeon. That would take about an hour, so the ponies would have to watch the witch in the meantime.

The friends did not want anyone in Ponyville to come to harm, so they set up a tent that Rarity brought from Carousel Boutique in a field. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Gearhead took turns keeping careful watch of the witch because they did not know the extent of her power. Anytime she started to charge up her horn, somepony leaned over to flick it and disrupt the spell. Finally, the guards arrived, and the witch was no longer the friends’ problem. Thus relieved of guard duty themselves, the ponies returned to their respective homes. Gearhead drove back to his shop and proceeded to take his new material down to his workshop for examination.

Gearhead’s Gadgets was a spacious building with two floors above the ground. The main floor was the shop floor, with small- to medium-sized gadgets on display. In the back, a stairwell led upstairs to Gearhead’s living quarters, which he also used to display mid-sized gadgets like his telescopes, and downstairs to his standard workshop and forge. A waterwheel drove the forge, while a wind turbine on the roof drove a press. Material bins held all kind of metals from iron to carbon-steel, wood, and gemstones. This was not the workshop to which Gearhead took the vast majority of his new find.

Gearhead had built a second, ultimate workshop well belowground underneath the border between the river and the Everfree Forest. To get to it he had to use his geomancy to reveal a short staircase, unlock a door with the signature of his geomancy, and take four elevators, with specific stops, and again use his signature to unlock a door. Without the proper count for the vertical and horizontal cars, a pony could quickly become lost in the maze of false tunnels Gearhead had excavated, and by lining the tunnels with iron alloy sheets, he prevented other ponies from detecting precisely what was inside, and hopefully fowled up any attempts to find the tunnels in the first place. But one could never be too careful.

Gearhead’s ultimate workshop was lined in a double-layer of sheet metal, one iron alloy for counter-detection and the other in adamantine. The forge and press were also adamantine so they could process any material under the sun (or moon). Gearhead had only recently come to completely understand how adamantine was structured so he could produce more than the dragonfired samples Shadow Wright had left for him. Now he could come to understand how to dragonfire metals to make them even stronger.

Maximizing the strength even of adamantine, the strongest metal known to many beings in Equestria from ponies to dragons, was a critical step in Gearhead’s latest project, the core turbine system. Using seven rings constructed of only the highest-quality gemstones in a conical configuration, he would generate and focus a high quantity of high-quality energy, which he would then harness both as a general power source and as a source of propulsion, and perhaps even flight. Gearhead already had assembled the gemstone rings, but he wanted to dragonfire the adamantine he was using for the frame and unit housing and harness. Once all that was done, Gearhead planned on trying to activate the system by connecting it to the waterwheel. If that did not work, and only if it did not, he would use the Fireheart Gemstone to ignite the core.

To get that far, Gearhead had to first analyse the Dragonstone he had confiscated from the dark witch. He carefully placed a set of five ingots onto an examination table and, using his blacksmith tools, began to subject them to stress tests, using his geomancy in between each test to get a read for any changes that occurred. For that to have any relevance, of course he had to take a read before anything else so he would have a benchmark with which to work. Once he had that, it was a simple matter of trial and error. By following a methodical process, Gearhead would have an understanding of the Dragonstone, perhaps even in a matter of days.

Naturally there were other things Gearhead had to do in a day: There was no way he could allow his business to go under, so he had to have his shop open to make sales. He always needed material to make his gadgets, so just as he had done earlier that day, he would go out and collect them, using his geomancy to unearth useful minerals and remove timber without damaging the environment.

Gearhead had to continually observe the ponies around him in case they had a need that was not being filled, and which could be filled by another of his inventions – which he would then create. Occasionally ponies came to him with special orders, and then he only had to design and create them.

Whenever possible, Gearhead used his skills as a blacksmith to create his gadgets, because the resulting devices would be stronger, unless they were made of gems. When he made something with gems, such as the gemstone daggers, or when he needed to make something quickly, he resorted to using his geomancy. And occasionally he could mix the two methods to create something of mixed quality. Still, everything he made was of highest-quality, wearing extremely slowly and almost never breaking down. Such was the case that he sold everything with a subscription service fee that activated after three months, and was ongoing. Gearhead had to do these things and maintain his reputation because he was competing with other businesses, such as Rich’s Barnyard Bargains.

But Gearhead’s main concern was being able to send much of his profits back home to Verdant Farms, to be used to improve his family’s lifestyle as much as was possible. Gearhead kept whatever he needed for living, material, and travel expenses and sent everything else. He did so so he would be able to contribute to his family’s successes beyond simply equipping them with his innovations.

One of the unforeseen consequences of these personal policies was that Gearhead’s father, the current Patriarch of the Verdant, had decided to use much of the funds Gearhead had sent home to expand the farm’s East Field into the east. This meant that Father was backing Gearhead as a candidate to succeed him as the next Patriarch, and this despite Gearhead being a Black Sheep.

This was a great risk, although not as great as the action Father had taken in asking Gearhead to join him for a conversation in Verdant Fields – where the former showed the latter some very interesting pages from The Codex Verdante, the near-sacred book on Herd genealogy and law.

What Gearhead had seen showed him that somepony had done something to a pony in every generation of the family to impair or reverse their Earth Pony ability to grow crops. Somepony powerful had meddled in the parts of his family’s blood that made them who they were in order to make them something different. Until now, they had not manifested abilities quite like Gearhead’s geomancy, although they were all disastrous on some level. Gearhead meant to discover who had done this, and to do so he meant to ask Princess Celestia the next time he went to Canterlot for training.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had taken a keen interest in Gearhead’s geomancy and his potential as a caster, despite his complete lack of a Unicorn’s horn. So far they had discovered that he could manipulate magical energy, although once he had taken it within himself, he could no longer direct it back outside in any way that was meaningful or useful. He could, however, use the absorbed energy to enhance his physicality or to heal himself. What was more useful was his ability to manipulate energy he kept external to himself, through a spell medium such as his geargem dagger – just as he had done in using the Fireheart Gemstone. The Fireheart Gemstone’s element was, of course, Fire, and just with a flame, it could be applied to something and spread to that other object, and regenerate itself over time.

After Gearhead had come to Ponyville, Twilight and her friends had also involved him in ensuring the three fillies in the Cutie Mark Crusaders (Applejack’s little sister Apple Bloom, Rarity’s little sister Sweetie Belle, and the Pegasus filly Scootaloo) did not injure themselves seriously in their efforts to earn their cutie marks. In Gearhead’s case this involved supplying them with gadgets that would allow them to complete their attempts safely. It also meant that as often as possible he would summon Fluttershy to help instruct the fillies on the safe use of a given device. The fillies listened most carefully to Fluttershy because they respected her as ‘the Stare Master,’ a title she earned by staring down a Cockatrice, to the point where she did not just stop the stoning process as it was mid way through, she completely nullified it.

Because Fluttershy was at Gearhead’s Gadgets so often, there was a rumour in Ponyville that she and Gearhead were dating. This rumour had stalled, however, because during the Gala, Gearhead had come to Rarity’s defence against a loutish Prince Blueblood. Opinions had become split on which of the mares Gearhead could be seeing. The truth was that although Gearhead liked and respected both mares, he saw himself as not being in a position to date, since he was a Black Sheep. Besides, he did not have any idea if either of them actually liked him in any manner even close to that sort of love.

Because of his efforts in Ponyville, Gearhead was finding himself in social situations more often. He was comfortable as long as there was a chance to make a sale, and for that purpose he usually brought along a sample or six, with which he could intrigue other ponies. He would have them drop by the shop later to see if they wanted to buy anything. But get Gearhead in a completely social situation without a sale on the horizon and no honour to defend, and suddenly he did not know what to do.

This was not anypony’s fault in particular: as a Black Sheep he had not been able to step outside the house without setting off a disaster with his ‘knack,’ at least not until he and Father had developed the knack-proof horseshoe. After that, Gearhead had gone into research mode on his own, and then into sales. He had not had any time to be social, or to make friends with ponies his own age, until now.

But pity was not something Gearhead was after, least of all in this matter. He wanted recognition and acceptance for his deeds, not for what or who he was. He did not care about being old blood, as long as he was helping his family and the ponies around him. That was why he risked blowing himself up to create an engine of unimaginable power – although not without safeguards without which to protect the ponies around him.

One set of safeguards was the process through which one had to go to get to the ultimate workshop. Another was the air-spring suspension system that would cushion the workshop from earth shocks, and the earth from explosions inside the laboratory. Gearhead had also memorized the core system’s complete blueprints and the formulae behind it, creating a mental maze of data, while burning the paper portions essential to running the systems, and which told of built-in safeguards. This would prevent pirated versions of the system from being able to run, even if other ponies could build them. Gearhead knew what greedy ponies could do with a weaponisable system like this, and he would not see it happen.

Gearhead returned his full attention to his analysis of the Dragonstone. As essential as this step was about to become, he could not leave it incomplete. The core system would have to be complete as soon as possible, just in case it was needed.

* * *

Rainbow Dash flew up and into her cloud castle home. Pegasi were the only ponies who could touch and manipulate cloud matter, which was what made them such great weather managers, as well as being great flyers – most of the time. Rainbow had made her castle from several clouds, binding them together along with some rainbow falls and pools. And when she took an object, even something from the ground, and introduced it into her cloud home, only she or another Pegasus could get it back out.

Rainbow opened a long drawer near her bed and took out the gemstone dagger lying within it. This was one of the first of the series, which Gearhead had made for her in case the friends needed to fight the Diamond Dogs in their rescue of Rarity. As it turned out, fighting became largely unnecessary because Rarity was able to persuade the Diamond Dogs to let her and her friends leave with several carts heaped full with gemstones.

Rainbow had used her gemstone dagger then, and then she had put it away and forgotten about it. But seeing the way Gearhead wielded his own weapon had renewed Rainbow’s interest in the item. She knew it was useful to have, but had always figured on her own skills being enough to back up her friends. Only, that hadn’t been the case against the Dullihan or the dark witch pony. Only Gearhead had been able to neutralize the monster, and only he had had what it took to break her barrier. Rainbow could only guess what would have happened if Twilight had been the one providing the nail, and Rainbow had been the hammer, using her Sonic Rainboom to boost the force of her dive. Maybe they would have gotten through, but if a situation like that ever happened again, Rainbow wanted to be a dash more prepared. She thrust the dagger back into its scabbard and strapped it on.

* * *

When Rarity first met Gearhead on the road, she had thought him less than spectacular because he was small for a stallion. By helping her get un-stuck, though, Gearhead had made the Unicorn change her mind, and she had viewed him as being an admirable pony, if dressed a little strangely.

Since then, Rarity had seen Gearhead do a great many things, including helping her sister and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Rarity knew, as the others did, that Gearhead sometimes got called to Canterlot, but she did not know exactly what he did there. Chances were good that it all had something to do with learning how to fire the magic lance with which he had pierced the witch’s barrier, shattering it. That much power being harnessed by an Earth Pony was unheard of, as far as Rarity knew. It was frightening and enlightening at the same time, and it made her wonder what else he could do.

What impressed Rarity the most about Gearhead, though, was what he could do without his power. His sales manners were impeccable, but his gentlepony-ly manner was even more so, especially in light of his big brother’s arrogance. Rarity could believe that Vines had been a relentless bully as a colt, and that Gearhead had had a terrible foalhood, except that the Black Sheep Clause offered him some protection.

The Verdant’s other redeeming family member, so far as Rarity had seen, was Ivy. The mare carried herself with such elegance and poise that Rarity had at first been convinced that she was a real princess. At the same time, she seemed to lack all of Vines’s harsh qualities. Rarity had thought that her friend Fluttershy was the most calming pony in Equestria, but Ivy could probably make a volcano reconsider its eruption. With Ivy around, Rarity did not doubt that Gearhead could have been as happy as he wanted to be, assuming she could spend as much time as she wanted to with the colt. But since Ivy lived on a farm, she was probably out in the fields more often than not, working them as hard as Applejack did at Sweet Apple Acres. That thought proved jarring to Rarity, because Ivy had had such a polished image at the Gala. The Unicorn simply could not imagine her being down to earth and dirty!

In contrast to Vines’s snobbish attitude toward ponies not of the Verdant, Gearhead was painfully polite to everypony. He was downright chivalrous to any mare or filly he met. He encouraged colts to put forth their best effort, and he was friendly toward stallions, whether or not they had more of anything than he did.

As another salespony, Rarity knew that this attitude was a thick armour that Gearhead wore. As a result, she wondered what the real Gearhead was like. She hoped his intervention on her behalf against Blueblood, and the emotion he had shown when interacting with Ivy, were hints of what he was really like. Rarity wanted happiness for all her friends.

At the moment, however, Rarity had to continue her progress on her next designs, which she had interrupted in order to help Gearhead with the Dullihan. In returning to her workroom, she passed the drawer that contained the gemstone dagger Gearhead had made for her. She wondered if she could make powerful energy bolts like he did, or maybe something more, given that she could use Unicorn magic normally.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle was considered to be unique among the Unicorns because while most Unicorns had a very limited set of spells they could use, Twilight seemed to be able to learn all kinds of spells. She thus had high potential power, and Princess Celestia had made her her personal protégée as a filly in order to help her train.

That said, Gearhead was an Earth Pony. The only magic they were supposed to have was to enhance the growth rate on plant life. According to the story Rarity had coaxed from Gearhead himself, it was the one talent he did not have, instead being able to influence the inanimate. The power Gearhead had deployed against the dark witch had been enormous, and Twilight wanted to know what it was. She knew it had something to do with his dagger, as well as the orb he carried.

Twilight went to a chest she kept in her room and, unlocking it, took out the gemstone dagger Gearhead had made for her. She had not used it because she felt it was impractical to carry it around all the time, what with her horn being a part of her. But if it could help her learn more magic, there was not any reason Twilight could not make use of it. She strapped it to a foreleg in imitation of Gearhead, and started pacing to see if it would be comfortable walking with it. At the very least, Gearhead had been smart in his design of the belt and scabbard, so neither rubbed the wrong way as she walked.

Twilight nodded and returned to her studies. She wanted to master a failsafe spell she knew Princess Celestia used to dispel other ponies’ magic. If she could master it, other Unicorns like the dark witch would not be a problem.

2A. Dissonance

Chapter 2, Part A: Dissonance

Morning dawned bright and clear. As he did every day when he got up, Gearhead went over to the dresser positioned where it would always be in shadow in the room. On it was a transparent ball within which was an egg sitting in a bed of snow. Gripping the top portion of the ball with his teeth, Gearhead twisted, and then lifted it free of the bottom half. He set the top down on the dresser, and then leaned in to carefully touch the egg with his cheek.

The egg was the sole surviving offspring of the Arctic Dragoness that had been trapped in the magma chamber of the mountain on which Canterlot was built. The dragoness had been near death when she had made Gearhead promise to take the egg or hatchling to her homeland, and to take care of her in the meantime. Gearhead did not know how the mother dragon was doing, however the cold frost shell still coating the dragon egg meant that it was doing fine. Satisfied, Gearhead replaced the lid and fixed himself some breakfast.

After breakfast, Gearhead went down to his laboratory. He had finished his analysis of the Dragonstone late the previous night, and then tried applying the dragonfiring technique he had learned from the analysis to an ingot of adamantine. Next, for comparison’s sake, he mixed fresh adamantine, using the dragonfiring process before the metal cooled. The result, which he was testing now, was that the metal he had dragonfired in the process of forging was far stronger than the stuff he had ‘fired retroactively.

Gearhead melted down the adamantine he had previously been preparing for the core turbine system prototype and replaced the ingots in their bin. He would use them for something else, but for this build he wanted to use the absolute strongest metal he had on hoof. That meant dragonfired adamantine, or at least the version of it he could produce. Of the sample Shadow Wright had given him, only three bars and the box containing the dragonfired ironwood remained. That was not nearly enough even for the core system’s frame, nevermind the rest of it.

Gearhead set the forge’s temperature higher and gathered the ores he needed to form the adamantine beside the Dragonstone ingots he had left. Then he got his armourer’s hammer, tongs, and vices and got to work.

Even with his geomancy it took two hours to properly prepare the amount of dragonfired adamantine Gearhead needed, but he worked patiently and persisted. Next he was ready to shape the metal, his blue-green energies racing from his hooves along his hammer as he went. Gearhead completely lost all track of time as he kept working, but he figured everything would be okay, what with him keeping the shop closed and locked up tight. ‘Lord’ Vines could call him naïve all he wanted, Gearhead was familiar with the way the world worked.

Suddenly something seemed to click, and Gearhead’s vision became crystal sharp, as though he had been looking through a plastic film the entire time before. His understandings of the minerals all around him seemed so much more complete than they had before. Caught up in the novelty of this sensation, Gearhead harnessed the sudden surge of magic that he felt at his hooves, and increased his working pace. He did not stop until he had a conical framework and a conical covered housing sitting on the cooling shelves nearby. While those pieces cooled and hardened, Gearhead set about the task of seating the gemstone rings into the frame, and then attaching the housing over top of everything. Finally came the harness system, complete with a gemstone condenser unit, which was called that because it was designed to collect, compress, and store the energy the core system would produce.

Gearhead was of a mind to begin putting the completed prototype through its paces, but he suddenly felt as though something was very unusual up above his head somewhere, and it seemed to press down on him. Curious, Gearhead went back up to the shop. When he went upstairs to grab his daggers, the view outside his window made him pause.

Pink clouds were racing all around the sky, raining some brown liquid down everywhere. Little forest critters suddenly had long legs, and were using them to speed all about the place. The most trouble seemed to be happening at Sweet Apple Acres, so Gearhead grabbed his hat and popped into his cyclic cart, which was smaller and faster than his wagon, and which had an enclosed top so he would not get rained on. He pedaled over to see if he could help Applejack and her family.

Gearhead arrived to see that Twilight and the others were already on the scene. Rainbow Dash was trying to chase the clouds down, and getting stuck by them in the process. Applejack was trying to cope with abnormally-large apples and the long-legged critters, which Fluttershy was trying to dissuade from eating Applejack’s fruit. As Gearhead dismounted from his cart, Twilight charged up a spell that would ‘fix everything.’ He came over, his hat’s brim extended and dripping, in time to see an impressive wave of light wash over everything. But nothing changed. “My failsafe spell failed!”

“Don’t worry, darling, I’m sure you’ll think of something,” Rarity said, giving Twilight her elaborate umbrella.

“Can’t you do something?” Spike asked Gearhead.

Gearhead looked up at the clouds, in the process getting a mouthful of chocolate milk. “Would you like me to change some of this rain into chocolate and milk? Because I doubt I could do anything except separate some of these things into their components.”

“Don’t you dare turn off this rain!” Pinkie Pie said, gorging herself.

“I guess that also precludes shooting the clouds down, even if magic blasts could hit them,” Gearhead said. “My options are rather limited.” He closed his eyes to shift focus, and looked again. He saw a white residual magic signature everywhere. “Now that is new.” He drew his dagger and had it change into the configuration he used to absorb external magic, but the opening between the split half-gear only absorbed some of the magic before it was full. Firing the energy back into the air to absorb more would not get the friends anywhere, and Gearhead was not certain it would be safe to absorb any of it into himself.

“I’ve got it!” Twilight said. “Rainbow Dash, could you corral the clouds in one corner of the sky?”

“Got it!” Dash immediately started to chase the clouds, herding them into one section of sky.

“Applejack, could you bring those high-strung clouds down to earth?”

“Absolutely,” Applejack took out her rope, made a lasso, and aced the throw, pulling the clouds down and securing them to a set of nearby posts.

Twilight, meanwhile, was whispering something to Fluttershy, who goaded the long-legged critters into eating the chocolate milk-filled cotton candy clouds, which irritated Pinkie Pie since she wanted to eat it. “See? There’s nothing we can’t accomplish if we stick together and do our part!”

Gearhead had been hovering a hoof over the energy he had collected. “It is bothersome that I cannot get a solid read on these energies, especially as it is as thick as milk in the air.”

“And if it’s this thick here…” Twilight said.

Which was when Spike spat out a letter from Princess Celestia. She read through it once then said, “We have to get to Canterlot right away!”

The others looked toward the castle on the mountain, which was visible from almost anywhere in Ponyville. The train was the fastest way up there, although it wound up the mountainside.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle led the others, bursting through the palace doors to Princess Celestia, who was clearly very distressed. “We came as soon as we heard,” Twilight said.

“Thank you all for coming,” Princess Celestia said. She was a tall, white Winged Unicorn, or Alicorn, with a stylized sun for her cutie mark and a flowing, ethereal mane and tail in stripes of blue, green, and pink. If the stories were all true, she was untold thousands of years old. She was also the older of two sisters, and responsible for raising and lowering the sun every day.

“Does this have something to do with the weird weather all over Equestria and my magic not working? Princess, what’s going on?” Twilight blurted.

“All in good time,” the Princess smiled. “In the past you have completed great services for the good of Equestria. I’m afraid I have to ask you to do so again.” She led them on a walking tour toward one of the palace’s higher towers. “An old enemy of mine I had thought defeated forever has returned. His name is Discord, and in the past he ruled absolutely over what is now Equestria. When Luna and I saw how miserable life was for Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns alike, we confronted Discord, and using the Elements of Harmony, we defeated him.”

“Why don’t you do it again?” Twilight asked.

“If only it was that simple, but the Elements are no longer attuned to Luna and me, so I must ask you six, who brought my sister back to me, to wield them to defeat Discord once more. If Discord isn’t defeated, he will reign in eternal chaos. I know this is a great task, and I have every faith in you to complete it. The fate of Equestria rests in your hooves.”

“Hang on you guys,” Pinkie Pie said, “eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain!”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “You can count on us, Your Highness.”

“This is Canterlot Tower. I had the Elements of Harmony stored here for safekeeping after your defeat of Nightmare Moon.” Conveniently, there was a stained glass window depicting the event, among other things. Gearhead examined them with interest. “This room is protected with a powerful spell only I can remove,” Princess Celestia continued. She inserted her horn into a hole in the door and charged it with her golden magic, which spread along engraved lines. Once her magic had reached the entire door, it opened, revealing a small room that contained a golden, bejewelled box.

“You can keep the Elements of Harmony,” Rarity said, overcome with emotion, “I’ll take that case!”

“The mission ahead of you is dangerous,” Princess Celestia said, levitating the case out of the room and toward the waiting ponies, “but you will be able to defeat Discord with these!” She opened the case.

It was empty.

And only Princess Celestia could open the door when it was sealed.

“Oh well,” Pinkie Pie said into the stunned silence. “If anypony needs me, I’ll be outside with a giant swizzle straw!”

Gearhead shifted his focus again. The white aura was extremely thick in the tower, but it was practically opaque around the open vault and the case, which Princess Celestia had dropped in her shock. Someone started to chortle, low and throaty.

“Ah, Celestia, did you miss me? I certainly missed you,” the voice said, although no source was visible. Not at first, anyway. It turned out to be the stained glass Discord, which startled Fluttershy.

“Discord! You won’t get away with this.”

“Ah, I forgot how tiresome you could be.”

“Hey! Nobody insults the Princess!” Rainbow Dash, brashly charging the window only to bash into it without hurting anyone but herself.

“Ah, you must be Rainbow Dash, famed for her loyalty.”

“That’s right! I’ll always be loyal to the Princess.”

“We’ll see about that. Here’s Fluttershy, whose element is Kindness, Rarity who embodies Generosity, and Pinkie Pie with my favourite element of all, Laughter.”

Pinkie couldn’t help going from a snort to full-out laughter when she saw Discord dancing on the stained glass Twilight’s head.

“You seem to know all our strengths,” Twilight said.

“Yes, and all your weaknesses too. But your element is the strongest and most elusive of all, Twilight Sparkle: Magic. On the other hand, I’ve no idea who this fellow is.” Discord smirked, his expression saying ‘must not be important.’ Gearhead merely smirked back.

“Enough stalling, Discord, what have you done with the Elements of Harmony?” Princess Celestia demanded.

“Oh, I’ve just borrowed them for a bit. You weren’t using them anyway.”

“Discord! Tell me where they are now.”

“Oh, very well, I’ll tell you. But I’ll only tell you my way.

“If you want to find your precious Elements

Just make sense of this chain of events:

Twists and turns are my master plan

Then find your way back where you began.

“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!” Discord vanished.

“What d’ya think he meant by ‘twists and turns and end up back where you started?’” Applejack asked.

Twilight repeated ‘twists and turns’ as she moved to an open window. “I’ve got it: the Elements must be in the maze!”

“I shall investigate the other line,” Gearhead said. “Shall we meet back here or in the maze?”

“Sounds good to me,” Twilight said.

“Good luck, my little ponies,” Princess Celestia said.

Twilight and the others went down to the maze’s entrance. Gearhead galloped back to the train station, where the train itself was preparing to depart.

If I was Discord and I was speaking to any one of those six mares, it would probably be Twilight. He did single her out as the ‘most powerful,’ after all. She grew up here in Canterlot, but the Elements are clearly not here where they are supposed to be. Besides, Twilight now calls Ponyville and the library ‘home.’ So that is where I shall start. Gearhead boarded the train just before the doors closed. He showed his ticket to the conductor, and took a seat.

“No wings and no magic, that’s the second rule of our game,” Gearhead heard in Discord’s voice. There was a pause, and then he said, “Rule One is that everypony must play. Find your Elements and you win, but break the rules, I win, and Chaos rules forever. Good luck everypony!” The slight pressure Gearhead had felt lifted. So the game had started, and it seemed like time would be limited. Still, either Gearhead or the mares would get to the Elements, Gearhead felt confident. Those six were not ones to surrender, although if anypony out of them all cheated, he also figured it would be Pinkie Pie.

* * *

As soon as the train rolled into Ponyville, Gearhead raced off to the library. He found Spike asleep on the floor, curled around a mop. He nudged the baby dragon awake. “Whah? You’re not Twilight.”

“I know, however she does require a favour of you, provided my hunch is correct.”

“I’m at your service, at least by proxy. What’s up?”

“The lot of us are in a power game against an extremely powerful adversary, so I need you to think carefully. Spike, is there any book or item in here that would represent the beginning of Twilight’s friendships or adventures here in Ponyville?”

“Well, there wasn’t really anything in particular that got used during Twilight’s welcome party, but that was just before the Summer Sun Celebration. Nightmare Moon interrupted that one, and then they had to rush off and stop Nightmare from casting an eternal night over Equestria. Oh, that’s right: There was that book, The Elements of Harmony: a Reference Guide! After Pinkie Pie found it, I know exactly where it is.”

“Excellent. Could you retrieve it for me?”

“Will do!” Spike climbed a ladder and retrieved a thick volume. He brought it to a nearby reading pedestal and opened the cover while Gearhead walked over. The latter nudged a sheath of the pages to flip more closely to the middle of the book – and there they were in a cut-out recess of the book, a set of five necklaces and a tiara, all with a gemstone shaped like one of the cutie marks of each of the six friends set into them. “They’re here!” Spike said.

“Not so good that so much of the book was cut out, though. At least now I can take them back to the others, but I shall need a faster way to return to Canterlot than the train.”

“What’re you gonna do, magic yourself over?”

“There is a rule against magic, and flying. But I do not have to fly,” Gearhead said. “Please stay here and guard the library. Oh, and thank you for your help, Spike.”

“My pleasure!”

Gearhead made sure the Elements were still in the book before he closed it and placed it in one of his saddlebags, and then he was off at a gallop toward Gearhead’s Gadgets, leaving Spike alone again.

* * *

Despite the necessity to expedite his progress, Gearhead knew that if he messed up the count, he would end up in the wrong elevator shaft, and he did not want that. He set the clamp on the fourth car, turned around, and opened the door into his laboratory. Still concerned for the installation’s security, he closed the door and secured it.

Gearhead went to a small storage unit set into the north wall, which was also a dumbwaiter that would go straight up to his main workshop, in case he needed an item from the laboratory here and could not go down to get it, for whatever reason. Within the unit, he found the core turbine system prototype and the harness. He wheeled them out on their gantry until he had a couple meters to any wall.

Given the urgency of the situation and the need to get back to Twilight and the others before Discord did whatever damage he could to them, Gearhead placed the Fireheart Gemstone into a slot on the harness’s back that corresponded with another slot in the core prototype’s wide end. He grabbed some leggings that had adamantine scales sewn into them, and then strapped himself into the harness. Using a ratcheted wheel set to the side of the gantry, he lowered the core into place, and then twisted slightly in his harness until he heard the click of harness and core locking into place.

Leaning on the gantry, Gearhead pulled a hood that was attached to the neck of the harness into place on his head, and let its transparent visor slide into place in front of his eyes. The hood had dragonfired adamantine plating, and would double as a helmet while also improving Gearhead’s aerodynamics. He did not have any idea how badly an impact at speed might hurt, so he refused to take chances where he could avoid them. He adjusted the leggings, to which he had transferred his daggers, so they lined up with the harness, and then shifted his focus to the Fireheart Gemstone.

Energy surged from the gemstone into the first and largest ring of the core, which made it start to turn in its housing. This turned each subsequent ring in turn, until the seventh one, more a cone than a ring, was also turning. By then pinpricks of blue-green light were streaming from vent-like horizonal verniers set two-thirds down the housing and spreading all around the laboratory. The gemstone condenser on the harness’s chest slowly lit up as it filled with the pinprick energy, all packed in as tightly as possible. Gearhead could feel the whole unit begin to feel lighter as it powered up.

Wireframe displays came online on the inside of Gearhead’s visor, and it went translucent from the outside, so other ponies could not easily see the displays, but Gearhead could see them and through them perfectly. One display showed the seven rings of the core system, outlined in blue and rapidly filling from orange (the seventh ring) to green (the first ring). Another display showed the condenser, which had stored energy in the green zone. Gearhead had also included a map of Equestria that showed his position, which he could zoom in and out at a thought. He had topology, location names, and magic signatures displayed as a default. These displays would keep his head up, for the most part, allowing him to focus more on the physical objects ahead of him. He may as well call it a Heads-Up Display, or HUD.

When Ring Three was in green condition, Gearhead released the lines securing the core system to the gantry. Ordinarily he would feel the full weight of the pack on his back, but the assembled turbine was doing a significant portion of the heavy lifting now. Gearhead did an experimental hop, focusing on the concept of thrust and staring straight ahead – and found himself leaping toward the opposite wall. He thought of the impact, and blue-green lights flowed into his helmet and leggings even before the core quickly put a halt to his forward motion. It seemed the system worked well enough, but he would have to put it through the rest of its paces on the way to Canterlot. Gearhead grabbed the book from his saddlebag and transferred it to a pouch on his harness.

Gearhead used his geomancy to access a one-way elevator to the surface, coming up on the Ponyville side of the river that separated the town from the Everfree Forest. He took off in the direction of the train station, careful to keep to a loping motion and avoid flying, so he would not break the rules.

By the time Gearhead hit the tracks less than a minute later, he was getting the hang of his high-speed trot, and looked behind himself to see the blue-green trail of energy he was leaving behind. He wondered if he was getting a hint of what it was like for Rainbow Dash to fly, although he was careful to stay more or less grounded. Gearhead followed the route set out by the iron rails, and as his confidence rose, he picked up speed, leaving Ponyville further and further behind.

Soon Gearhead was approaching the mountain’s foothills. Here, the tracks wended back and forth on switchback turns in order to climb the mountain in a way that would allow the steam engines to make the climb. The only restriction Gearhead had was time. He turned at a right angle to the steep incline and the next level of tracks, and took an experimental leap. Landing on the outside curve of the tracks, Gearhead felt pleased that he had made it despite calculating on the conservative side. He adjusted his math as he aimed his next leap, and then jumped again. This time he landed in the middle of the tracks.

Going like this, Gearhead figured he had to be cutting minutes more off of his run. He wondered if he could make it two levels up if he pushed harder, but he did not want to correct his descent path in mid-air, which could be construed as flying, and break the rules. Besides, he did not want to land in the space a train might be using, or about to use. It was safer to take it tier by tier, and he would still arrive faster than if he had gone by train, even if the train left the station at Ponyville as soon as he boarded.

Once Gearhead was at the same altitude as Canterlot, his going became much simpler, as he could just gallop, allowing the core to add a little glide and a lot of speed to his every step. Gearhead realized that the City Guards probably would not recognize him in the harness and hood, but there was no way they could stop him anyway. He shouted a short “hi!” to them as he passed, and headed right for the palace.

Having found the Elements of Harmony himself, Gearhead knew that the mares could not have found them in the maze, so he angled for the hedge maze, and was surprised to see how absurdly large it had seemed to grow during his few hours away. Gearhead also knew he did not have the time to navigate through the maze properly, but he still could not break the rule against flying. As he approached the first hedge that divided the path, he jumped to land on top of it and get a look at the maze’s layout. While he was resting, he ejected the Fireheart Gemstone from the core through his harness and dropped it back into its pouch: the system had more than enough energy to run on its own, with each ring displaying blue.

Gearhead felt a slight tug from something in his harness. It was coming from his pouch! On a hunch, he shifted his focus to get a read on the magical signatures around him. There was that thick white residual signature, but he also now had bands of six colours weaving in and out. The bands wound all the way back into the pouch. They had to be coming from the Elements, which were resonating with their owners!

Gearhead turned to bear in the direction in which the most concentrated bands led, and resumed his leaping, high-speed progress.

* * *

“Well lookie here,” Applejack said, “Rainbow Dash’s abandoned us!”

“Now I know that’s a lie,” Twilight said, dumping the huge boulder from her back – Rarity was convinced it was a diamond, but somehow Twilight had gotten stuck carrying it. After they had been split up upon entering the maze, Twilight had rendezvoused with her friends one by one, only they were now behaving very strangely: Applejack was lying with almost every statement she made. Fluttershy was being exceedingly unkind, usually by hitting or laughing at her other friends, particularly Pinkie Pie, who could no longer take a joke. Rarity was being so deliriously greedy she thought the rock was a diamond. Twilight looked up, and was stunned to see Rainbow Dash was really flying away. Flying?

“Well, well, well,” Discord said, appearing in front of the remaining five friends. “It looks like someone’s broken the no wings no magic rule.” The labyrinth’s walls sunk into the ground one by one.

“Yes. You,” a familiar voice said. Everyone turned to see somepony clad all in black and white come to a sudden stop meters behind Twilight. The newcomer’s hood flipped back, pulling the visor he also wore onto his forehead. With those earth-tone colours, green eyes, and scars, this was unmistakably Gearhead.

“Pardon me?”

“Unfortunately not,” Gearhead said, approaching with confidence, while glancing cautiously at the others, who were staring at him but still acting unkindly to each other. “The first rule, ‘everypony must play,’ includes both you and me. The second rule, ‘no flying and no magic’ means that beyond the flying you are doing right now, whatever you did to make everypony so faded, and to make Miss Dash fly away – these actions disqualify you from your own game.”

“And what’re you gonna do about it? It’s my game, and I made the rules. Besides that, I am the Spirit of Disharmony and Deceit. Did you really expect me to follow any rules?”

Gearhead snorted. “You lost anyway, Discord.”

“Oh? How do you figure that?”

“Wait a minute,” Twilight said. “How did you expect us to find the Elements after you’ve taken away the maze?”

“You actually thought they were in the maze? How droll! I never said that,”

“Discord is correct, Miss Twilight. But as I was saying, he lost even without all of his cheating: Spike and I—“

“Enough of your analytics,” Discord suddenly appeared behind Gearhead and touched him on his head. The stallion was completely unprepared, and felt his vision and mind go fuzzy. “Now, as I was saying – yow!”

“Cease your prattling and foul cheating, Villain!” Gearhead called, unleashing another magical blast from a green-blue energy horn that had suddenly appeared on his forehead, while the strange cone on his back had stopped glowing.

“Okay, that’s just plain impossible,” Discord said, while Twilight’s jaw hung open.

“Perhaps thou think thy plot shall succeed, however despite thy prowess, I say thee neigh!” Gearhead unleashed a charged blast.

“Hey, they actually hurt a little, I think.”

“Oh, so? Rethinking thy strategy?”

“In a way,” Discord vanished and reappeared on Gearhead’s other side. “I’m thinking I liked you better before you got zap-happy.”

“That felt… strange,” Gearhead said, his colour and the function to his pack having returned, while his horn vanished.

“I’ll have to ask you to explain that some other time,” Discord said.

“Oh, it’s quite simple: seeing Miss Dash just flying away suggested to me that you were not affecting the others in a purely chaotic manner, but inverting the characteristics which you admitted you knew corresponds to their Elements. So when you tried the same on me, I focused on my being a scientific-minded pony, in the hopes that your magic would make me magically-minded.”

“Well, on that I must congratulate you, even if it should have been impossible. But then, it takes awhile to recognize one’s own handiwork. Let me guess: you couldn’t farm to save your life, right?”

“I am disturbed that you know that.”

“Oh, this is rich: I did that for the entertainment value, and a thousand years later it comes back to bite me in the tail! Well, catch up to me later and I’ll gladly tell you the rest. It’ll be a hoot!” Discord vanished.

“Now what?” Twilight asked. “And if the Elements aren’t here, where are they?”

“Oh, they are here now,” Gearhead fished in his pouch for the book with his tail, and dropped it to the ground between himself and the purple Unicorn. Twilight used her magic to turn the pages, and the necklaces and tiara were there. “I asked Spike to get the book for me.”

“You were in Ponyville? And you came back so quickly?”

“All courtesy of my newest device. Currently I call it the core turbine system. I shall come up with a better name later.” Suddenly it started raining and thundering.

“Chocolate milk?” Pinkie asked crankily. “I hate chocolate milk!”

“Right after we deal with Discord,” Twilight said, levitating the book containing the Elements with her magic. “C’mon, if he’s not in Canterlot anymore, he’s probably in Ponyville!”

The other mares looked like the last thing they wanted to do was follow Twilight, but she managed to coax them along. Gearhead brought up the rear to guard against stragglers and last-moment escape artists, despite the ability to go ahead and arrive in Ponyville well before the others: at this point, staying together was clearly more important.

2B. Resonance

It was with great difficulty and an even greater amount of bickering that the remaining six friends approached Ponyville. “Come on,” Twilight said, exasperated. “Can’t we all just please, please, please get to the library so we can plan how to look for Discord and be done with all of this?”

Each of the other four mares continued to gripe sarcastically, and Gearhead watched, stunned, as they each turned grey. Looking at Twilight’s lack of reaction, he wondered if it was something he could see because he could see magic auras, or if it was something else.

Gearhead’s thoughts were interrupted when the sun suddenly vanished below the horizon, casting the land into night. It was so dark the ponies could not see the path on which they strode, so when the texture changed, they were all caught off guard. Twilight fell to her stomach. Applejack also lost all traction and started to slide, moving frantically to try to regain control. “Wow. I can see so much better now. I meant to do that,” she said, slipping and falling. Gearhead was using his core system to hover in place every time he lost his traction enough that he would have fallen.

The sun came back up, and everypony could see again. “Discord has turned our dirt roads into soap!” Twilight said. She had gotten back up, but now she was stunned.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Discord seemed to extend himself from beside Twilight as he lifted her into the air. “This is the new and improved Ponyville. Just imagine it: the Chaos Capital of the World!” The Draconequus said in awed tones.

Night chose that moment to fall again. Twilight squinted. “I can’t see anything; it’s too dark.”

Discord dropped Twilight back to the road, which was still made of soap. “Well, just wait awhile and you’ll see it in the beautiful light of day. Or not.” Then he vanished again.

“Ponyville, the chaos capital of the world? Not if I have anything to say about it!” Twilight proclaimed.

“Don’t worry, you don’t,” Fluttershy snickered as she slid past. Twilight turned more, to see Pinkie skating, pretty much as she had during the Winter Wrap-Up, on the soap.

“This may look like fun, but it’s not!”

Twilight sighed in exasperation again. “Can we please just move on?”

“Discord obviously wants us here for this,” Gearhead said. “In that case, it should be really easy to find him. Why not head for the town square directly?”

“Why, so you can steal my Tom?” Rarity asked.

“Tom?” Twilight asked.

“My gorgeous hunk of a diamond, of course!”

“Miss Rarity,” Gearhead said. “You recall what my ability is, correct?”

“Yes! And you’re not getting your hooves on my Tom, you hear me? He’s mine, all mine!”

“Do you not want ‘him’ to be smaller and easier to carry, at least?”

Rarity looked Gearhead over suspiciously. “You’ll just break him to pieces!”

“Do you really believe I can break a diamond?”

“Well…”

In that instant of hesitation, Gearhead drew his carbon-steel dagger and threw it into a precise spot on ‘Tom.’ The blade went in with a loud ‘thunk!’ disappearing into the boulder even past the pommel. Then cracks began to radiate outward in all directions, and Rarity’s supposed diamond shattered, leaving a pile of rubble and the unmarked dagger.

“Wha? You? Tom!”

“Miss Rarity, do you truly believe such an ordinary tool as this could possibly shatter a real diamond?” Gearhead hovered over, again staying near the ground, to pick up his dagger, only Fluttershy swooped by and grabbed it first.

“Fluttershy, give that back!” Twilight called.

“No,” the Pegasus merely zipped away, toward the library, with the dagger in her mouth.

“Onward, then,” Gearhead said, returning past Rarity, who snapped out of her stunned state enough to follow along silently. The stallion steered Twilight to continue on toward the town square, as he had suggested earlier. As he had privately predicted, Fluttershy flew back to the struggling group to continue to torment them.

“Hold on,” Twilight said as they were coming to the square. She looked at the book that held the Elements, and around at her reversed friends. Nodding, she opened the book and started putting necklaces on ponies.

“Are you certain?” Gearhead asked. “They are not exactly themselves, and we are missing Rainbow Dash.”

“If there’s any chance we can end this now, I say that’s what we do,” Twilight said.

“If that is your decision, Twilight Sparkle, then I shall support you.”

“You’ll do better than that,” Twilight put the Element of Loyalty around Gearhead’s neck, and he felt a slight jolt. “Alright everypony, lets get this done and get out of here!”

The other mares cheered half-heartedly, but followed anyway. They entered the square to find that Discord had set himself up on a throne at the top of a checkered hill. As he watched pigs fly, he filled a glass with chocolate milk (it filled from the top), then drank the glass and threw away the empty milk, which exploded forcefully behind him.

“I see you’ve found the Elements of Harmony,” Discord said.

“That’s right, Discord. We’re here to put an end to your shenanigans!”

“I’m ready to face the music. Fire when ready,” Discord said, putting on some oversized sunglasses and waving an archery target in front of his belly.

“Everyone, positions! Now!” That last was in response to the groaning from Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. Rarity stepped into line looking like she was pondering something, and Gearhead took the position that the others left open.

“Oh, hang on, everypony.” Discord snapped his fingers, and Gearhead suddenly felt a little smaller. The others turned and stared at him.

“What is it?” Gearhead asked in a higher-pitched, honeyed voice. “Oh please do not tell me: I am a mare.” Pinkie Pie actually giggled, but Fluttershy was louder in her snickering.

“Trust me, it’s an improvement,” Applejack said.

“What did you expect would change, Discord? That I would crumble under the weight of my pack? Sorry, but it is doing much of the heavy lifting. Besides, I am not as weak as I may seem. So in this at least, it does not matter whether I am a stallion or a mare.”

“Very well. You may resume firing.” As Discord watched, interested but clearly not worried, the Elements all began to glow, although most of them did so faintly. Rarity’s and Gearhead’s were slightly brighter. Gearhead snapped her visor and hood back into place so she could call on the core for a boost, using the energy to shrink her harness and leggings to fit more snugly.

[Additional Artefact detected. Identifying…] The text popped up on the HUD.

[Element of Loyalty (Omicron-level) connected.]

[Temporary user: Verdant Gearhead accepted.]

[Element functions now available.] The Element of Loyalty ramped up to a luminosity that nearly matched Twilight’s Element of Magic, a wave of sound accompanying it. Twilight opened her eyes wide, but only a weak wave of energy expanded outward, barely pushing Discord at all. Everypony except for Gearhead got dropped back to the ground, and she quickly landed.

“Why didn’t it work?” Twilight asked.

“Mine’s working,” Applejack said. “Something must be wrong with yours.”

“I hate the Elements of Harmony!” Pinkie Pie said.

Fluttershy took hers off and threw it on the ground. “Good riddance,” she said and flew off. Rarity looked like she wanted to claim it, but Gearhead was standing in her way, looking directly at Discord.

“This is all your fault,” Pinkie Pie said.

Twilight turned on her. “Who are you talking to?”

“Any of you. All of you!” One by one the other mares stormed off, leaving a confused Rarity, an exasperated Twilight, and a curious Gearhead.

“Congratulations, Twilight Sparkle, harmony in Equestria is officially dead. Discord rules, Celestia drools.”

“Do you not have something else to say?” Gearhead asked.

“You still want to know, do you?”

“It would not actually matter to me whether or not you explained your earlier comments in regards to farming ponies who cannot farm, however it would fill in some gaps, I imagine.”

“It’s simple enough, and since you’re fairly interesting, I’ll tell. See, when I ruled I kept looking for various ways to entertain myself. I decided to take the Earth Pony family with the most pride in its abilities and twist things a bit, but at the same time I still wanted some good food. That’s why it’s only once a generation. What I did, you see, was to take a bit of Pegasus and a bit of Unicorn. I turned it inside out, upside down, and backwards and then put it right into your family’s little genes. That way, even those who inherited those bits wouldn’t be able to use Pegasus or Unicorn magic properly – what fun would that possibly be?

“I also saw some fairly entertaining drama when the first backwards pony was born, but then the Patriarch of the time did something I couldn’t predict and can’t forgive: he curbed the drama, and by putting forth a motion! Normally that kind of thing wouldn’t have worried me, since motions usually take months, years, or even decades to pass through Council. But this guy goes and pushes it through in a week. The nerve!”

Gearhead grinned. “I would expect nothing less from a Patriarch of the Verdant, but this is great: I never thought of myself as anything more than an Earth Pony who could not do what an Earth Pony should be able to do. Now I know that I have something of all three pony tribes, and now it all fits together perfectly – although I suppose it always did, I just did not know about it.

“Thank you, Discord, for what you did. Now I can stand against you.”

“Well, that’s a fine way to thank me, not that it matters at this point.”

“It is more interesting this way, but I doubt it is truly over,” Gearhead said.

“Oh, but it is: the Elements of Harmony are the only things capable of sealing me away again, and you can’t even use them. I’m free to wreak whatever chaos I wish, and not even Celestia can stop me! So if you’ll excuse me…” Discord vanished.

“What now?” Rarity asked.

“Regroup and plan,” Gearhead said.

“What ‘group?’” Twilight asked, tears in her eyes. “The others are all gone!”

“Absent, not gone. There is a difference. Just as with me, there must be a way to restore everyone.”

“But I don’t know what it is,” Twilight wailed.

“Please do not lose hope, Twilight Sparkle. Rest and the answer will come. Miss Rarity and I shall keep watch.”

Rarity and Gearhead followed Twilight, who had grabbed the Element of Kindness, into the Golden Oak Library. Sighing, Twilight climbed the stairs to her room. Spike woke up from his nap. He watched Twilight going up, and then looked across at the others. “What happened? Where’s everyone else? Why does Rarity look so faded, and… are you a mare?”

In exchanging glances with Rarity, Gearhead noticed that she had regained some of her colour, although not all of it. “Yes, Discord turned me into a mare. It is temporary, but not something that should bother anypony, since I am still me.” She put the core into Standby Mode and sat it down on a study carol before coming out of the harness. Gearhead’s muscles were sore, so she proceeded to stretch, realizing how long she had been wearing the core system. “Discord turned everypony into the opposite of her Element. Now we must wait for Twilight to come up with a way to bring them all back.”

“They’re all their reverse? Even Rarity?” Spike’s fear was clear on his face.

“Miss Rarity is actually doing the best out of all of them: the others are grey, where she has reverted to just being faded.”

“Grey? Faded?! Well, I’d never! Such a thing will simply not do. We must defeat Discord, if for no other reason than to avoid the many crimes against fashion that would result otherwise!”

“Glad to see you’ve still got your priorities,” Spike said. He started to climb up the stairs, and stumbled midway up.

“Are you okay?” Gearhead took a couple of steps after him.

“No, I’m fine. Just a... stomach-ache.” And the dragon had gone up.

Gearhead looked back at Rarity. “Don’t look at me. I only know that he gets like that when he eats too much ice cream, and I don’t think he’s had any ice cream.”

“Then we wait,” Gearhead said, taking out a spellbook primer. “I wonder, now that I know I have Unicorn blood, if I could cast spells any differently than before.” Intrigued, Rarity joined her. Gearhead kept a good watch on Rarity in case she reverted to previous form, but apparently she was too disturbed by the shattering of her ‘diamond’ and the prospect of turning grey to try anything.

* * *

Gearhead and Rarity looked up when they heard Twilight’s voice raised, not in frustration or anger but in elation. Gearhead dropped the book she had been working with, and together she and Rarity started toward the stairs, but Twilight was already charging down at them. “I’ve got it! What Discord attacked first was our friendship, so we have to show the others that our friendship is what’s worth fighting for!”

“Alright,” Gearhead said. “That means it is time for me to suit back up.”

“Our friendship’s worth fighting for? That’s what’ll beat Discord?” Rarity asked.

“By its very nature, yes. I would have missed it if Princess Celestia didn’t start sending all the letters I wrote her about the lessons I learned since coming here. Rarity, you taught me lots of lessons about friendship too.”

“I did?”

“Let me show you,” Twilight touched her horn, lit up with her magic aura, to Rarity’s forehead below her own horn. Rarity shuddered, closing her eyes, but her full colour returned.

“Oh my! I see it now too, but Twilight?”

“Yes, Rarity?”

“Let us never speak of ‘Tom’ again.”

“I am ready,” Gearhead said, her hood still off of her head. “Who shall be next?”

* * *

“Applejack!” Twilight called from the entryway to Sweet Apple Acres. “We’re here to fight for our friendship.” The  Unicorn was flanked on her left by Gearhead and on her right by Rarity.

“Great, where were you when I was fightin’ off Discord?”

“You can stop telling ties, Applejack. I know this isn’t the real you.” Twilight led a quick march right up to the grey Earth Pony. Applejack tried to back away, but suddenly Gearhead was right behind her, and Rarity was getting into position to her right. Twilight tackled her, bearing the larger pony to the ground. “I can help you remember,” Twilight said, touching her horn to Applejack’s forehead to spread the memory spell. Like Rarity, Applejack shuddered and closed her eyes, but she went straight from grey to full-colour, completely restored.

“I’m sorry, Twilight. I saw a vision of us feuding and fighting and I couldn’t stand up to the truth, so I started lying. Can you ever forgive me?”

“I already have. Now lets go save Fluttershy!”

* * *

The first time Applejack tried to lasso Fluttershy, the Pegasus batted her rope aside with one of her wings, but the second time Gearhead pinned her personally, coming in from her left while both of them were airborne. It had certainly been a surprise, considering nopony had seen Gearhead in full flight until now. “What can I say?” Gearhead said once Fluttershy was restored to her true self. “I am part Pegasus. This is now part of what I bring to the group.”

"What do I bring?"

"Unfailing kindness and a calming influence. Like my sister."

"Thank you," Fluttershy said, blushing.

From there, pinning Pinkie Pie was easy, but nopony had seen any sign of Rainbow Dash. “Isn’t that her right over there?” Pinkie Pie indicated a nearby cloud. Sure enough, the others spotted a faded rainbow-coloured mane.

“Rainbow Dash! We could really use your help to defeat Discord.” Twilight said.

“No way! Have you seen Ponyville? It’s a mess! I’m staying right here in Cloudsdale where everything’s awesome.”

“How in the wide, wide world of Equestria could she possibly believe that little patch of cloud is Cloudsdale?” Rarity asked.

“The same way Discord made you believe a giant rock was a diamond?” Applejack said.

“I thought we agreed never to speak of that again,”

“We all have something embarrassing we don’t want to be reminded of,” Fluttershy said, “but it would be kinder to just move past it and get back to what’s important.”

“I wish to forget the way I was speaking when I was turned magic,” Gearhead said. “Or am I living through my Noodle Incident right now?”

“You have noodles?” Pinkie Pie said.

“Not today. Lets just get Miss Dash, shall we?”

They got the Sparkle Balloon so the landbound ponies could get up to altitude. Applejack was perched on top of the balloon, ready to lasso Dash, while Fluttershy and Gearhead moved in slowly to corner their target. The former was coming in from behind, while Gearhead moved first across Dash’s left to get her attention. She saw Fluttershy rear up behind Dash menacingly, but then Fluttershy tapped the latter. “Excuse me, would you mind terribly if I held you down against your will for a little while?”

“Nice try!” Dash grabbed her cloud and motored off. Gearhead took off after her, while Applejack threw out a loop for Fluttershy to use as a line to pull the balloon. When they started to pull too far away from the balloon, Gearhead dropped back and turned to jet back. The core system allowed her to turn and change direction more quickly than a regular Pegasus, but even then Dash was one of the fastest flyers in Equestria.

“She’s coming back!” Twilight tossed a line up to Applejack, who readied her throw. Gearhead turned around to face Dash’s incoming charge. Inspiration came just a little faster, and Gearhead performed a vertical roll so the end of the core’s cone faced Dash, and sprayed a screen of particle energy in her face. Disoriented, Dash went into a wild spiral, and when she began to pull out of that, Applejack successfully caught her in the lasso. Unfortunately, the other end was not tied to the balloon, but it caught around Pinkie’s and Rarity’s hooves, dragging them out of the basket. This slowed Rainbow Dash with their weight, and annoyed her with Rarity’s complaint.

While Twilight coaxed more speed out of Fluttershy by reminding her what was at stake here, Gearhead flew ahead of Dash and looped back, so they were playing chicken. Dash could not pull a course correction fast enough to evade Gearhead with two mares weighing her down. She started to hesitate, and then Applejack roped her. The mares brought their friend down to earth, and then Twilight used her memory spell.

Catching Rainbow Dash up to speed only took a few moments, although she did a double-take and then exploded into laughter when she saw that Gearhead was a mare. “I can’t believe that Discord turned us against each other by making us the opposite of our elements, and you he turned into a girl!”

“Yes, well, turning me magic did not turn out so hot for him, believe you me. And I do not have an element to reverse.”

“In any case, now we’re back together and we have exactly what Discord fears. We’ll have to keep him from counterattacking us,” Twilight said.

“You can leave that to me,” Gearhead said. “I have been looking at Discord’s magic signature this whole time, and I believe I have come to understand it enough to be able to use it in battle. And I am sure he will get a kick out of being attacked with his own power, which means he will stay interested in fighting me.”

“Okay. Then we’ll get into position and activate our Elements.”

“And if I am in position, I can provide a boost.”

“No, I think fighting Discord one-on-one as a distraction should be more than enough.”

* * *

As Discord was watching the chaos unfold all around him, Gearhead came swooping in from his left, geargem dagger in mouth and charged with a Light Javelin. She let loose, and Discord turned to look. Seeing the incoming strike, he took out a large frying pan and caught the shot, turning the projectile into an omelette. “Hmm, this’ll definitely be delicious,” he said.

Gearhead allowed the blade to close as she set up for another pass. If a single powerful blast can be countered like that, what about multiple smaller blasts? She opened fire with the blade arrows, cycling through Fire, Lightning, and Light. Discord blocked some of them, and when others made an impact, he made himself look sunburned. “Hey, that smarts!” He pulled off his skin like he was a snake shedding its own skin, to reveal another perfect skin underneath.

If blasts do not work, how about a physical charge? Gearhead came about and, for the first time, charged at her target with the intent to cut into him. Discord raised one claw, caught the blade, and wrested it from Gearhead’s grip. “You could really hurt someone with this,” he said, pointing to it. “Better to… play nice?” When the blade would not change, Discord merely threw the sword over his shoulder.

Discord looked back at Gearhead, standing five meters directly in front of him, and noticed that ahe had sprouted a horn made of blue-green energy. “Mea virga,” she called in sing-song, and the discarded sword flew right back to her, so she could handle it with her tail.

Gearhead had been studying magic theory for years, even before he had left Verdant Fields and Hoofington for the first time. He had been intrigued by the relationship between music and magic, but lacked a voice even close to Big Sister Ivy’s, so had never felt like he could ever pull it off. Now, though, Gearhead’s female voice was melodic, and she felt like giving spellsinging a chance – especially if it allowed her to supercharge her spells.

“Aperite portas quonium tempor elit. Inveniet tua potential,” she sang, and felt a thrill as magic energies began to flow through her, and back out to the sword. She had indeed ‘opened the gate’ and ‘made a temporary connection.’ She continued, the melody coming to her and flowing through her. “Veni unidecim Spiritus Luminent. Consinnant sagittas meas comblebo. Percusserit me inimicus. Undecim Magica Sagitta Lucis!” As Gearhead sang, a magic circle in her signature colours appeared in front of her upraised sword and hoof. Eleven points of light appeared on the outer ring, strengthening as they coalesced. Then, as she reached the final line of the spell, the light arrows raced off toward their target, a waiting Discord.

Gearhead took off into full flight again, but watched her Magic Arrows closely. As they were getting close enough for Discord to block with his pockmarked frying pan, she took hold of them and steered them sharply around the blocking shield. Most of them still did not hit, but Gearhead was certain that Discord was stinging from the experience in a whole other way.

Gearhead picked up speed, looping and spiralling to avoid Discord’s counterattacks and to avoid his grasp as he reached out toward her magically. Gearhead could no longer slow down enough to take the time to cast her spells, but she could still loose blasts from her sword using Discord’s own energy. Staying ahead became more and more difficult as Discord focused more and more of his power on capturing her. Gearhead kept pushing the core system harder and harder.

[/!\ Warning /!: Normal operations limit breached.]

[Burst Mode activated.]

The verniers that acted as directional vents on the outside of the casing opened up as wide as they would go, and the seven rings began to spin as fast as they could, each in the opposite direction from the one next to it. The energy thrown from the core formed a ball that had a ring following it behind Gearhead, and she felt her speed increase exponentially. The HUD showed a timer, and Ring Seven turned back to green. Thinking she had plenty of time, Gearhead continued to push the core and continued to return fire on Discord, whose efforts were so far behind her it was actually kind of funny.

Suddenly an alarm went off even as Gearhead was starting to push Discord back. She focused on the display and saw that Rings Four through Seven were red or dark red. Rings Two and Three were in the orange, and only Ring One was still green.

[/!\ Warning /!: System overload underway.] The timer showed a matter of seconds. Gearhead tried to back out of Burst Mode, but the system had stopped responding to her commands, both verbal and by eye-based prompts. Gearhead turned toward the closest isolated area and went immediately to her highest speed to get there before the worst could happen. She left just as the others had finished getting into position.

Gearhead found a landing spot that was as close to ideal as she could make it, and dove for it, deploying an energy shield both for protection in the high-speed landing and to bleed off some of the energy the core was still generating. Her landing raised a dust cloud and created a crater, but Gearhead did not have any time to admire her handiwork. She ejected the core from the harness and lay down on top of it, trying to cover it as best she could. The timer was in the final three second when she closed her eyes, and then there was a bright flash of blue-green light, and undeniable warmth.

* * *

Twilight knew they could not afford to be distracted at the crucial moment. “Formation!” The others leaped in, but somepony was missing. “Pinkie?”

“Hang on,” she said around a mouthful of chocolate milk. “Okay, I’m good!” She jumped into her spot, growling full-out at Discord.

“Back for more?” Discord sniffed.

“That’s right, and you couldn’t destroy our friendship!” Which was when a massive tower of energy climbed into the sky from the direction they had all last seen Gearhead flying.

“Oh, what a shame. And I was just thinking that he-she was getting interesting,” Discord said. “You win some, you win some, I guess.”

“Oh no!”

“He can’t be --!”

“You can’t mean..?”

“In whatever form, I can assure you I’d recognize an explosion anywhere. It is one of my favourite forms of Chaos, after all. See for yourself -- there’s no way anypony short of Celestia or myself could survive that.” The tower began to fade.

“You’ll pay for making him push that hard!” Twilight said.

“You… hurt… my… friend!” Fluttershy railed.

“Oh, come now, it was his-her mistake, after all. I didn’t do anything besides play the target.”

“Oh, you’re still going back where you belong,” Twilight said. “Only now we have another reason to do it. Gearhead was a friend, and now… well, lets just say that we’re angrier than before!”

Discord merely looked annoyed. “Fine, avenge your so-called friend. But make it quick. I’m missing some very good Chaos here.”

The six friends firmed up their formation.

“On second thought, I think I’ll be taking those Elements,” Discord said as they started to charge up. He reached out and grabbed the Element of Honesty with his magic, dragging Applejack along with it. He lifted his talon and grabbed everypony else except for Twilight. Twilight focused, and teleported into the middle of the floating formation and then expanded a protective bubble around her friends before floating them back down to the checkered ground – and where her bubble touched the ground directly, it was returned to normal.

“You can’t win, Discord, because our friendship makes us stronger than ever!” Twilight said.

“You’re beginning to bore me, but if it’ll make you feel better, fine. Take your best shot, but lets be done with it!” Discord went to sit back down on his throne when a Fire Javelin shot in from over and behind the ponies, exploding and melting the high-backed chair.

Gearhead landed with force between the mares and Discord. His scars were healed, he had a blue-green steak in his mane and tail, and yes, he had reverted to his normal stallion form. “Any report of my demise has been exaggerated,” he said in a soft voice which, somehow, carried to everyone anyway.

“How? We all saw that light. Didn’t your thingy explode?”

“With the only type of explosion for which I was unprepared, Miss Dash: the type that does not harm whoever is caught in it. Which, come to think of it, is much of what I was going for with this build.”

* * *

Gearhead felt a slight heat all around him, and let out a breath he had not realized he had been holding in the first place. He could not help thinking that he would not be breathing if he was dead, or if he was dead that meant the newly-dead could breathe because it was habit. He did not remember any sensation of being lifted or thrown anywhere by the explosion, which was also curious. So was the fact that he could feel the curve and bulge of the core underneath his harness. Gearhead dared to open his eyes.

He was lying on top of the core, surrounded by the pinprick energies that it had released. Gearhead could only surmise that the sheer concentration of light particles had pushed Discord’s enchantment over him out of his body, reverting to his natural stallion form. Fortunately, checking his hooves, Gearhead realized he still had his geomancy, and now also his magic, although he might not spellsing again.

Gearhead inspected the core, visually as well as getting a Read. He could not find any evidence of melting or burning on the casing, however he could see the disk-like rings had been fused together. He was not getting a reading on his visor, but he decided to take a chance and reattach the core anyway, and did so by rolling into his back and then twisting with his whole body.

With the core attached, Gearhead switched to the power supply stored in the condenser in the harness’s chest, and set it up to flush the core’s rings with the stored particles. When the HUD showed that all was ready, he executed the command. Light swirled around him, until the particles were spent.

The HUD showed Rings Six and Seven in black, irreparable or irrecoverable. Rings Four and Five were in red, for significant damage but still operational in an emergency. Ring Three was orange. Rings One and Two were the only ones in green. Gearhead released the link between Rings Five and Six and between Three through Five. Now, only Rings One through Three would turn and generate power, but at least he still had them. Gearhead used the small supply of reserve energy to kick-start the system again, and was relieved to see the HUD showing that the energy flow was still nominal, and the condenser was recharging.

Gearhead did not have time to wait for the recharge to complete. He took off immediately, and headed somewhat sluggishly back toward Discord and the others.

* * *

“We’re all just so glad you’re okay,” Fluttershy said.

“As are you,” Gearhead said.

Discord summoned another throne and sat down, chin in paw. “As interesting as all that is, do you think we could finally get on with this?”

“Oh yes, we have unfinished business here,” Gearhead said. “You turned me into a mare, did you not? Now let us see what we can turn you into, shall we?”

“Thrill me,” Discord said dismissively.

Twilight rolled her eyes, and then fell into focus. The Elements charged and Gearhead, sword again in mouth, joined the formation as well, pushing the core only as far as it could go. The different Elements began to project their own energies, boxing Discord in and puzzling him. Then a massive double-rainbow shot out from the mares, shooting up and enveloping Discord.

He turned to stone and crashed to the ground.

The Elements were not done. The double-rainbow formed a dome which, when closed over the ground, reverted everything else back to normal. The mares looked around, exhausted but satisfied that they were all okay.

“That is the most amazing magic I have ever seen,” Gearhead said, his crystal clarity having faded back to normal.

“More amazing than being turned into a mare?” Pinkie asked.

“And let us never speak of that again,” Gearhead said.

* * *

Days later, the friends returned to Canterlot for an awards ceremony in the Throne Room up at Canterlot Castle. Gearhead had specially requested that his part in the fight against Discord be whitewashed over, so he neither joined the others on the dais, nor was his likeness shown on the stained glass window showing the friends sealing Discord in stone.

Gearhead preferred it that way, and in any case, his friends joked that they did not know which of Gearhead’s forms would have had to be used on the window. He was still a Black Sheep. It was just as important a part of who he was as everything else, because it was a reflection of him being able to do amazing things – for somepony who was supposed to be an ordinary Earth Pony.

3. Old Tricks

Chapter 3: Old Tricks

In examining the core prototype in his laboratory the day after Discord’s defeat, Gearhead had found several things that changed everything. First, Rings Six and Seven were indeed irrecoverable. The best he could do with them was to compress them into a single unit and seed them in the hopes of getting a new gemstone out of them sometime in the future. Ring Five had somehow recorded the magical signatures of the Elements of Harmony when they had been activated. Gearhead did not know how that had happened, but he removed the ring for study anyway. Rings One through Four were repairable, and Gearhead found that the first one only required minimal reconditioning until it was functional. That left him with four functional rings in the prototype, while the frame and housing were still perfectly functional once the verniers were closed to their original positions again.

Gearhead had decided to create an array of condensers in case he accidentally rendered the core prototype inoperable during the repair process. He took an entire shelving unit set against a wall and filled it with the circular gemstone units, and then hooked them up to the core, running it carefully to avoid overloading it while he charged the condensers. Having them on-hoof would ensure Gearhead had enough power to start a second unit without having to use the Fireheart Gemstone again.

The prototype unit had clearly been insufficient against Discord even in perfect condition. It simply lacked enough power to do much good, and Burst Mode certainly did not help, since pushing it just a bit too far led to instability, and then the clock dropped precipitously.

Gearhead decided that the first change he would make to the core system was to lock Burst Mode so it could not be used. He would find a different way to get a power boost out of the unit.

Unless he found a different way of configuring the rings, Gearhead had already found the limit to how much power a single core could produce, and seven rings was the most a unit could house without overburdening the pony using it. If Gearhead had experienced the limit of one core, then what could two cores produced at a reduced size achieve? Having decided to test his hypothesis, Gearhead decided to only repair the functional rings on the single-core prototype and commit his future pure gemstone and dragonfired adamantine resources to a dual-core prototype.

First, though, Gearhead wanted to make sure he got all the improvement he could from the core he already had. While he went through the repairing process on the remaining four rings, he also integrated the data from everything for which he had used the core so far, from traveling between Ponyville and Canterlot, to flying, to fighting against Discord. Using this data, Gearhead was able to tune the four rings and optimize their operation. He then added a single large condenser to fill the space in the housing that Rings Five through Seven used to fill.

Mathematically speaking, with four out of the seven original rings, Gearhead should have been able to expect to get a maximum of 57% of the previous energy yield, which he got from the operations data. Before optimization, the core returned 52% power, so there was significant loss. After the tuning, however, Gearhead managed to coax 60% power from the core. That would have to do until he could forge the dual-core system. Gearhead still was not comfortable with a 40% power loss, so he modified the harness to accept a condenser on the outside of each knee.

After lunch, Gearhead went to see Twilight to ask her about the Elements of Harmony, and to ask Spike if he could send a letter to Princess Celestia, asking her for permission to study each Element. He was curious, because it seemed he was loyal enough to use one of them, if temporarily and only at partial power. He also wanted to know what the core system had meant by the Element of Loyalty being ‘Omicron-level.’

Twilight told Gearhead about how she and her friends had found the Elements of Harmony at the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest. Gearhead understood that not only did they only function for the right ponies, but they could only be summoned when the right ponies were in play. If it had been someone else, or if Twilight had gone alone, she would not have been able to get the Elements, and she would have been defeated at the hooves of Nightmare Moon.

“How’s your core system?” Twilight asked.

“It is functional, but parts of it were rendered irrecoverable in the explosion. I feel fortunate that I had realized more of my objective with it than I had thought, and was not harmed myself.”

“Well, I think the green highlight suits you,” Twilight said.

“Coming from one with a purple and pink highlight, I shall accept that,” Gearhead said, bowing slightly.

Twilight blushed. “So, you want to study the Elements?”

“They are intriguing, and very mysterious. I see some minor similarities between them and my gemstone daggers. Very minor ones. So I wonder who or what created the Elements.”

“They are a mystery. I just sort of assumed the Princesses always had them. You’ll let me know what you find out?”

“Certainly. You are the leader, after all.”

“Make any headway with your magic?”

“Hm. I think what Discord did was to overwrite whatever it is that would make an Earth Pony able promote a plant’s growth with the Pegasus and Unicorn bits. That these bits were warped, and probably incomplete due to their combination, would explain why I need to use an activation key and incantation to cast spells.”

“Whereas most Unicorns can just think and imagine the spells,” Twilight said.

“Exactly. I have only tried spells in Latin, because I am not yet confident in my abilities to venture into the older ones, which I suspect will be more powerful because the languages are older. I have also noted that the spell is more powerful when I sing the incantation, however I was only confident to use the Aria when I was a mare.”

“What are you going to do if we need just that little extra power, turn yourself back into a mare?”

“I just might,”

“I was just joking!”

“But circumstance might prove that the punchline, and does Discord not enjoy such entertainment?”

“As much as he likes popcorn,” Twilight said sourly. “Learn anything from all that residual energy?”

Although the Elements of Harmony had neutralized Discord’s changes to the world, there were still white mists of residual magical energy floating around. Gearhead had started going around with gemstones in order to collect the energy so others could not misuse it for themselves, but his range in this task was limited. If he was truly serious, he would have to go on a journey and be away from Ponyville and Canterlot for months, or at least wait on the mission until he had completed the new system. “I have collected as much as I could within my range, and the crystals are in safe storage. I would prefer to have them studied in a single place.”

“I understand. Have you heard from Fluttershy?”

“She seems not to have left her cottage since we came back. I shall go see her. I think, perhaps, that she is disturbed by the changes she underwent while under Discord’s influence. Seeing her friends supporting her may help.”

“I agree, so maybe I’ll consult Pinkie.”

“Perhaps not loudly, however,” Gearhead suggested. “I will go investigate now, and then return to the shop.”

“Okay. See you later.”

* * *

“It really is you,” Fluttershy said upon answering Gearhead’s call and opening the door.

“I thought it was time for me to come and see you,” Gearhead said, smiling.

“Heh. Because I usually come over to your house?”

Gearhead nodded. “May I come in?”

“Oh, of course!” Fluttershy stepped back so Gearhead could enter her cottage. It was as it usually was, although the curtains were drawn. The usual assortment of woodland creatures stood or sat about, keeping Fluttershy company. She guided Gearhead to a seat in the main room. “I wasn’t expecting company. Let me get you some tea,” she said.

“Thank you,” Gearhead said, watching her in silence until she came back with a tray and two cups.

“Do you take it with sugar or milk?”

“Thank you, no.”

“You know, you’re different, but the same.”

“Just a little different, but I choose to see it all positively. And now I know a little more about myself that I did not know before. Like this: Aperite portas quoniam tempor elit. Inveniet tua potentia.” Gearhead held his dagger in his tail, and the energy flowed through him. “Ventus transmutare alas.” A small wind stirred in front of Gearhead, and he willed it to move to his teacup, surrounding it and lifting it so he could drink.

“That’s amazing!”

“I have studied magic theory for many years without any application for the knowledge, or so I thought. It turns out all I needed was the right knowledge, and I can finally make some of the connections I was supposed to all along.”

“The right knowledge and connections?”

“I have only just now begun to understand myself, and in no small part from Discord and his meddling. I know a little more, but Fluttershy, I only know it in relation to you and my family and the rest of our friends.”

“Our friends?”

“That is right. Before I came to Ponyville, I knew few ponies whom I could truly call ‘’friend.’ That is because in my perception of my place in the world, I did not have what is necessary to make friends. I did not fully understand what it means to have them, other than othrs seeing you as a curiosity or a novelty. Now most of my friends are also your friends, so they are our friends.”

“But I hurt them!”

“That was Discord’s doing, not yours. But if it might help you to feel even a little better, perhaps you could try an apology.”

“Would that really make up for all the hurt feelings and hitting?”

“According to Big Sister Ivy it is a good start, at least. And in my own experience, she is correct. Apologies, a sincere smile and embrace, and time to heal. That is Big Sister Ivy’s formula for healing wounds of the heart. But please do not tell anyone else: it is a secret.”

Fluttershy giggled. “Your big sister is very smart,” she said.

“That is what makes her the ‘big sister,’ Fluttershy. You are you, and you have your own way. I, and the others, will always need you for your way of doing things, as well as simply for your friendship.”

“Just that?” Fluttershy said, looking disappointed.

“I apologise. This ‘being friends’ thing is new to me. I shall endeavour to learn all I can, so I can be better.”

“Okay,”

“This tea is delicious, by the way.”

“Thank you. My critter friends help me gather the herbs, and then I’m very careful brewing it.”

“It is my experience that while care does not facilitate expedience it is more than worth it. So then, would you care to join me for a walk?”

“As long as it’s not into the Everfree Forest,” Fluttershy said, shivering.

“I can assure you, it is not.”

“I’ll just clean up the tea, and then we can go.”

“I shall lend you a hoof, or horn, as it were. I am, after all, one of your friends.”

* * *

Everypony the two ponies met were very glad to see Fluttershy out and about. After the walk, Pinkie Pie dragged them both into Sugar Cube Corner for a 'Welcome Back to Ponyville!' party. That blew away the doldrums any of those who came might have had, although Gummy found his way into the punch once again.

Fluttershy took Gearhead’s (or Ivy’s) advice and apologized to her friends for her abhorrent behaviour when her personality had been reversed. Naturally, they all accepted her apology, and while the mood was good, everypony but Twilight also apologized for their own behaviour, and were forgiven.

The one strange recurring thing was that ponies kept staring at Gearhead, especially when they thought he was not looking. “Is there something on my face?” He asked.

“Oh, ignore it. They’re just not used to your new hair colour. It suits you perfectly, darling,” Rarity said.

“It does seem to be my colour,” Gearhead said.

“Yes,” Fluttershy said. “I like it.”

* * *

For the rest of the day, Gearhead’s Gadgets was open for business. This was unusual, as Gearhead usually opened for morning until lunchtime when he only wanted to have a half-day of sales. But since Discord had gotten loose, Gearhead had not done any business at all, so it was time to start making up for being lax.

The next day, Gearhead opened up in the morning as per usual and kept the shop open for as long as possible, with his supplies being almost exhausted from a lack of regular resupply runs. The day after that was the awards ceremony in Canterlot, and with the attendant celebration, Gearhead and the others did not return to Ponyville until the following day.

As more positive news, Princess Celestia had granted Gearhead permission to study the Elements of Harmony one by one, curious as to what the geomancer would find. She and Princess Luna were also looking forward to the progress Gearhead would make as a general magic practitioner, now that the mental block he had had before was removed.

Upon their return to Ponyville, Gearhead loaded up his wagon for a supply run, and headed into the Everfree Forest, where he met Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity on a similar run. On a whim, Gearhead decided to go check whether the Dullihan was still in the area. The ponies found, to their concern, that despite the dark witch being absent, it was still guarding its defined territory. None of them really wanted to engage it in battle as they were, so they left it to its devices and continued with the business of getting more resources.

The run went remarkably quickly with Fluttershy’s ability to stop dangerous animals from attacking, Rarity’s ability to detect gemstones at a distance, and Gearhead’s ability to extract metals and gemstones without disturbing the ground. Applejack helped to guard the group against attacks, and they soon had the wagon piled high, and returned to Ponyville satisfied.

As his shop was closest to the Everfree Forest, Gearhead off-loaded his share of the loot first, before driving to Carousel Boutique and then Sweet Apple Acres. Gearhead then looped around to Fluttershy’s cottage so she could begin preparing for a picnic to occur the following afternoon. From there, Gearhead went straight back to the shop and started the fabrication process so he would have more things to sell the following day. It was already late when he returned to studying Ring Five, but Gearhead was ready for a little mental exercise.

* * *

Gearhead’s morning routine now included checking his ice dragon egg and reviewing his spell primer. He might not need to be holding his geargem dagger to cast simple spells, but he still needed to use the incantations aloud. He had read about delayed spells and unincanted spells, but those casting styles were still beyond him. Maybe he could pick them up with help from the Princesses, who were almost certainly old enough to have some experience with incanted magic.

Having been invited to the mares’ picnic, Gearhead spent his morning hours running the shop. He then mixed a thermos of iced tea, packed cups, and went on his way to the park. He was wearing his vest and hat as usual, and of course he took his daggers and the Fireheart Gemstone everywhere he went.

Gearhead was thinking about the core turbine system as he walked. He knew that the single-core version worked, but its yield was far too limited to be applied against an opponent of Discord’s calibre. The prototype remained functional, if at a lower setting. A dual-core version might be able to give the yield Gearhead wanted, but then there was the issue of being able to synchronize the two cores so they would run properly together and not be completely off-set and off balance. He could set up a simulation, using the power stored in his condensers to show the probable results, but he would not know for certain until he built the prototype and turned it on. It could very well overload and explode. Or it could do nothing.

When Gearhead arrived at the picnic site, the others were already there. In contrast to her calm demeanour from a couple of days ago, Twilight looked extremely frazzled. “What have I missed?”

“Oh, just the end of my world,” Twilight said.

“Pardon?”

“If I don’t solve a friend’s problem and report on it to Princess Celestia by the end of the day, I’ll be tardy! My whole life depends on that report!”

“Miss Twilight, do you truly believe Princess Celestia would give you a major penalty over one late? As a pony whose studies have always had an impact on my ability to control my power, I know what it is like to have something crucial hang on one’s work. Are you certain one late will result in a life-changing penalty?”

“She’s the Princess; of course she can do it!”

Gearhead sighed. “Very well, I have a problem I cannot wrap my mind around at the moment. It has to do with my core system project, so I ask for the utmost discretion on the matter. If you would join me in my workshop, I could really use a fresh set of eyes, and the mind of a pony who can easily understand the math and science of the matter.”

“That’s me!” Twilight said triumphantly. “But we’d better hurry because the clock. Is. Ticking!”

* * *

Gearhead had a simulation display set up on the wall opposite the forge in case somepony came to call about any of his more… unique projects. When Gearhead had set it up, he had been thinking more in the line of Princess Celestia or even Shining Armour. Showing his work to Twilight was a huge risk, but he could show her a limited piece of it so she would not be able to assemble her own core system. Besides, it was more important that Gearhead help her keep her own sanity from slipping.

When Gearhead flipped the display on, the gemstones within it fed magical power through the machine’s circuits. The display screen lit up, and then Gearhead started to gesture in front of it with his right hoof. Two wireframe renderings of a single core appeared on the top portion of the screen with some calculations. A wireframe of two cores joined together appeared on the bottom half of the display.

“The top left diagram is the original prototype. It has not been tuned, but all of the gemstone rings are functional, giving it a yield rating of 100%. I have it serving as the baseline and benchmark.

“One hundred percent power, zero percent tuning. Got it.”

“The top right diagram is the prototype in its current condition, more or less. Four of the rings are repaired and functional.” Gearhead waved a hoof, and the top half of the rings vanished. “With the non-functional rings removed, and just with the repairs the yield rating is 52%, which if you have never seen that grade, is just barely a pass. Full tuning and optimization brings the yield to 60%, and in practice I can compensate for part of the 40% loss by using some of the energy storage units, condensers, like a large one to fill the available space in the housing.” He waved a hoof, and the empty space filled with a single cone representing the large condenser. “For all intents, the yield is still 60%, but it can make 100% for a limited amount of operational time.”

“Sixty percent power with one hundred percent tuning. Right?”

“Correct. The bottom diagram represents a hypothesis I have that if I want to get a greater yield out of a core unit while increasing its stability so it does not explode on me again, I could do it with multiple cores working in harmony with each other. With the weight limit for ponies such as us to carry other objects, I am starting with two cores. At full size they would be less than useless, being overweight. Therefore, I decided to reduce their sizes by about 10%, and the power yield loss should be roughly the same because I would have less material in the rings.”

“If you keep your assumption that reducing the size will cost 10% of your yield, each core would run at 90%, but if you tune them the same as the repaired prototype, that brings you up to 98% per core. But can you really make all the components exactly the same?”

“What do you mean?”

“This simulation assumes that the quality and materials for your new core system are the same as the one you used against Discord, doesn’t it? That would mean having to produce the components the same way every time, otherwise all these numbers are…” Twilight swallowed, “meaningless. That is, except for the first one, because you have it acting as a benchmark, so you can tell whether everything else is more or less.”

“Not only do I produce the rings at different times, but I use whatever materials I have on hoof that qualify for being used as materials in the rings. Naturally each one would be different, with unique topological defects. That means that even the order in which they are stacked inside the housing could affect the total yield, but I will not know the order anyway until I have all the rings, and it would mostly be determined by their sizes anyway: I cannot put the smallest one at the bottom, after all.”

“Do they have to be the same?”

“Making them exactly the same may be incredibly difficult and add unnecessary complications to the project, so no. But the two cores will have to balance each other out and work well together, otherwise they would affect the unit’s control, assuming they do not overload or tear themselves apart.”

“Can you create two cores that are exactly the same?”

“It would take more time than I probably have, so it is something I could try, but perhaps that should be the second option. Still, if I make the cores different I have to find another way to get them to work well enough together to function as a single unit.”

“You can get different ponies to work together just fine, regardless of their differences. I mean, look at our little group. We even have to work together to get six magic items to work together, but we can do it because we’re friends and we can agree with each other. At the same time, we’re so different that sometimes it’s hard to believe we’re friends at all. So we find ways to meet each other halfway. We compromise, and we believe strongly in each other. So what if, like us, you can get your cores to agree with each other and compromise?”

“I could certainly tweak the settings to adjust the yield on one core to match the other more precisely. If that prevents them from tearing the unit apart, it might be worth trying. Even so, I will not know until I try starting it for the first time, and at that point I will have had to have it already built. I do not even have the materials for it just yet.”

“You will.” Twilight paused in thought for a moment. “How do you plan on starting it up?”

“I still have the repaired single-core prototype, and I have been using that to generate more energy, which I am storing in condenser units.”

“Will you have enough of those?”

“I do not know, but I certainly hope so.”

“Wait, how did you start the first one?”

“I used the Fireheart Gemstone, which you have seen me use against the dark witch, to kick-start the core. I had to design a place for it to sit in the core and interact with the rings, and then be ejected safely without interrupting operations.”

“What about with two cores? No, let me guess: you have to start them up at the same time.”

“Exactly correct.”

“So you’ll be splitting the energy you stored between them, but not evenly if you have to raise or lower the yield on one core to match the other. How can you manage to get them to a high enough rating for a kick-start at the level of the Fireheart Gemstone?”

“I will not, but maybe I can simulate it and get close enough that the difference will not matter. I already know how to get the yield over 100% because of Burst Mode. If I can use a stable version, it might not matter how many full condensers I have ready when it is time to activate the new unit.”

“By the way, where are all these condensers and the prototype you have?”

“Below,” Gearhead said. “You know how I said I was prepared for explosions?”

“Yes,”

“Well, one of those preparations is a suspended test chamber far enough below us that nopony ever notices when I do have an explosion. Mind you, though, the ones I have had have been very small. More like ‘poofs’ than real explosions, but with the safeguards in place I do not have to worry, and neither does anyone else.”

“Unless you’re in the room and you get a big explosion,” Twilight said.

“I have other safeguards in place too, just in case a core does not explode the same way the prototype did.”

“You’re lucky it only damaged itself,”

“That I am,” Gearhead said. He looked at the simulation, which showed spinning turbines when he adjusted the yield numbers a certain way. “That takes care of the theory end of things, but in practice one always encounters the unexpected.” He glanced over at Twilight. “I do so enjoy the practical end of things. Thank you for your assistance, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Glad I could help, although it doesn’t feel like I did much.”

“I am certain it would have taken me a long time to think of tuning the cores to each other. Somehow I was thinking more clearly when Discord was around, and now I am back to normal – for me, anyway. I may need help making some connections in the future, too.”

“You can count on me!”

* * *

When Princess Celestia appeared, Gearhead was glad he had decided to follow Twilight instead of returning to his own work right away. There was something forced in the Unicorn’s manner that made him think that she was not quite back to normal yet, even after writing her letter to the Princess.

Twilight’s other five friends were also quick to intercede on her behalf, asking Princess Celestia to reconsider a punishment. But the expression Princess Celestia wore was one that Gearhead had seen on his own mother’s face, as well as on his father’s face, when either wanted to teach any of Gearhead’s siblings a particularly poignant lesson.

“I’ll reconsider Twilight’s punishment on two conditions. One is that from now on, you, as friends, also contribute to her reports on friendship. The other is that you report to me only when these lessons occur.” Naturally, the pony friends were only too glad to comply.

It also turned out that Spike had consulted Princess Celestia on what to do about Twilight’s concerns this time around, making him the only one to really take those same concerns seriously.

“Oh, before I go,” Princess Celestia continued, “Gearhead, regarding your study of the Elements of Harmony, I believe you may first find some valuable material at the castle ruins where Luna and I used to live. Come and see me again when you are done there.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Gearhead said.

“You’re gonna study the Elements?” Applejack asked.

“They are very interesting Artefacts,” Gearhead said. “I know something about you as their Bearers, but next to nothing about them as magical items. I wish to rectify that oversight.”

“Well then, I hope you don’t think you’ll be going in alone, because the Everfree Forest is always dangerous. You never know what you’ll find near that old castle.”

“I will be in need of a guide anyway,” Gearhead said.

* * *

It was past the lunch hour when Fluttershy, Spike, and Twilight Sparkle departed on Gearhead’s cyclic wagon for the Everfree Forest. It was now habit for Gearhead to check the dragon egg and open the shop for at least half a day. The others had joined him for lunch in order to plan their exploratory journey – after all, none of the Bearers had returned to the Castle of the Two Sisters since they had gone there to recover the Elements of Harmony.

It was Gearhead’s idea to take the wagon so they could conserve their strength. Much of the path was fairly easy to follow, and since they were traveling during the day, they could see trouble spots well before coming upon them. When the sight of the odd wagon would not ward animals away, Fluttershy was sometimes able to gently guide the critters away, in the process making friends. She use her Stare to ward the more dangerous animals away. Gearhead forded the river where the friends had encountered the serpent the first time around, but this time he used his geomancy to find a crossing shallow enough for the wagon to make it and keep his passengers dry.

When they arrived at the rope bridge, still secure and even repaired, Gearhead swung the wagon around to the left side and parked with enough space for three ponies standing behind each other before they would have started to block the bridge. Twilight used her magic to get everypony their saddlebags, one of them being filled with supplies just in case they needed them, and then Gearhead helped everyone get out of the wagon. Finally, he put on his harness, and Twilight lowered the core into its slot, giving it a twist to lock it into place. The small group was ready.

The four explorers were in awe as they entered the castle ruins. Fluttershy and Twilight recognized the ornamental stand that had held representations of the Elements. Gearhead held a cursory examination over it, and determined that it was able to hold the Elements safely within itself.

“Okay, let us begin with the preliminary search. The library will certainly hold more material, however I believe that if the Princesses were reading any worthwhile material before abandoning this place, they would have left them in their own chambers.”

“Are you sure we should be barging into their rooms?” Fluttershy asked.

“Princess Celestia practically told Gearhead to come here,” Twilight said. “This place hasn’t been used for a long time, probably even since Luna was banished to the moon as Nightmare Moon. If either of them minded, I’m sure the Princess would have told us.”

“Miss Twilight, please take Fluttershy and, if you would not mind, check Princess Celestia’s chambers. You may collect anything that seems interesting, but please focus on volumes about artefacts, law, and genealogy.”

“Gotcha. I take it you’ll take Spike and go look in Princess Luna’s chambers?”

“That is correct,” Gearhead said. “If there is any remnant of the darkness that created Nightmare Moon, I may be able to purify it using the particles my core generates.”

“You really need to come up with a name for that,” Twilight said.

‘'’The darkness’ seems fine to me,” Spike said.

“No, I meant the core.”

“Oh. ‘Fleck System?”’

“That makes it sound smaller than it is. Anyway, we’d better get started before we lose all our daylight.”

“Good idea,” Fluttershy said.

They moved together as they examined the passageways, looking for the residential wing. They soon found it, and followed the curving lines around to a section where there were two doors opposite each other. Each was marked with one of the princesses’ cutie marks. “Oh, they’re across from each other,” Twilight said.

“What a relief,” Fluttershy said. “We can easily get to each other now if there’s a problem.”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Spike said, nervously fingering his gemstone lance.

“The faster we explore, the faster we can move on,” Gearhead said, opening the door to Luna’s chambers and then guiding Spike through. Opposite him, Twilight did likewise with Fluttershy.

Naturally, Princess Luna’s chambers showed 1,000 years of disuse. Thick wooden timbers had become rotten and splintered, shattered, or collapsed. There was dust everywhere, and not a single intact fabric. A mirror occupied a wall opposite what was once a canopy bed, and on a shelf many books or scrolls had turned to dust. By the position of the rings on the curtain rod in front of the window, the drapes had once been drawn. Now what was left of them was on the floor.

As he walked about the room, Spike made the wooden floorboards creak and moan slightly, but once he managed to scare himself without anything happening for the tenth time, he became braver and went to check a set of dresser drawers. Gearhead, watching the baby dragon out of the corner of his eye, began to check the parchment flakes to see if anything could be restored. He collected what he could in a smooth metal case for later examination, then turned to the bedside table, which was small enough not to have collapsed itself, and covered in dust.

As Spike disappeared into a closet to look around, using his dragon-beam vision for light, Gearhead drew himself up to the table and looked at the cover of the volume still placed there. Since it looked perfectly intact and the layer of dust resting on it was easily removed with a breath, Gearhead had little doubt of the item’s title.

It was indeed The Codex Verdante, and its preservation magic was certainly intact. When Gearhead went to open it, however, he felt a chill right through his shoe, so he slid his visor and hood into place. The core was fully charged and at his command, all five condensers ready. Still, Gearhead took it slow, taking off gently and then positioning himself above the book. He rotated so the cone was pointed directly at the volume’s center and focused.

“Condeser-5, emergency purge,” he whispered. The HUD put a white outline around the circle representing the condenser on his right knee, and then a deluge of blue-green particles sprayed out and bathed the book. For fifteen second, the core’s output reached 110%, then it faded back to 60% after the condenser went dark. Gearhead landed to try opening the book again.

Experimentally he opened the volume and held one hoof above it, focusing on his great-grandfather. The pages responded immediately, turning themselves until the right page was open. Gearhead thought again of his first ancestor to be declared a Black Sheep, and again the book responded. He thought of the Successor Clauses, which determined the eligibility of ponies to earn the Patriarch Title. The book went into the legislature section, and flipped to the correct page. Gearhead closed the book and slid it into his saddlebag, nodding once.

“What’cha doin’ all secrety-like?”

Gearhead turned at the sunny-sounding female voice. “I am checking for materials, as Princess Celestia recommended, Pinkie Pie. When did you get here?”

“Oh, I was secretly following you the whole time! What did you do with that book?”

“You remember Nightmare Moon, correct?”

“Of course I do,” then Pinkie gasped. “You don’t think she went into that book after Twilight and the rest of us zapped her with the Elements, do you?”

“Perhaps not an aspect of Nightmare Moon herself, but perhaps a sliver of darkness instead. It is gone now. But the point is, I was prepared for that.”

“Hey Gearhead, look at what I found!” Spike ran out of the closet bearing a pair of night-blue dresses, each sporting a sash with Princess Luna’s cutie mark on it. “Don’t you think Rarity would look great in these? Hey, what’s Pinkie Pie doing here?”

“It seems we had a tail straight out of Ponyville,” Gearhead said, poking at the rubble that had once been a bed. It certainly would make searching under it for a lockbox more challenging, at least for a normal pony.

Pinkie grabbed the end of Gearhead’s tail and lifted it up a bit. “Where did you think your tail was? I hope you don’t think I’d steal it for Pin the Tail on the Pony!”

“I am certain you only use your own tail for that, if the mood strikes you.”

“Oh,” Pinkie snorted, “you’re right!”

Gearhead, meanwhile, had finished zipping his shoes up. He set his mind to repair work, and gently tapped both front hooves on the floor near the pieces of the bed. His geomancy shot out in all directions, strengthening the floor back to its original specs. But it also reassembled the bed, purging it of the rot of a millennium – or at least the bed and frames. The sheets and canopy were still ruined from too much exposure to the sun after the drapes had failed. “Ooh,” Pinkie said appreciatively.

“Hey, what about the dresses? I’m sure Princess Luna wouldn’t mind, or she’d have come back for them.” Spike fussed while Gearhead went fishing under the bed.

“Maybe you’re right,” Pinkie said. “If they were important, I’m sure she’d have at least had the Royal Guards pick them up.”

“The Canterlot Royal Guards have duties in and around Canterlot, and cannot always be bothered to venture so far from the princesses they are supposed to keep safe,” Gearhead said. “Besides, I doubt either princess has fond memories of this place in light of the fight that happened between them.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Pinkie said.

“Oh, so maybe that’s why Princess Celestia told you about the castle,” Spike said.

“And perhaps, because you are all able to help me, we can recover a number of important items and return them to the princesses,” Gearhead said, pulling a locked box out from under the bed. It was midnight blue, with gold trim and heavy lock.

“Ooh, what’s in there?” Pinkie said.

“I do not know, but it is bound to be important. Fortunately I do not sense any darkness about it.”

“You could open it with your dagger,” Spike said.

“No doubt this lock would give way as though it was hot butter –“

“Mm, butter!”

“—however I believe it is important to respect Princess Luna’s privacy. And who knows whether the box is trapped against thievery, or perhaps just a simple prank.”

“A prank?” Pinkie the Prankster asked.

“Princess Celestia seems to enjoy them, so maybe Princess Luna does as well. We will take the box back using the wagon, contents and all.”

“Okay,” Pinkie said, picking it up and balancing it on her nose.

“Could you please be more careful with that?”

“Of course I can,” Pinkie slipped the box down onto her back. Sighing, Gearhead returned to searching the room.

* * *

At first Twilight had been hesitant to root around in a room once used by her mentor, but she got into the mood to search as soon as she noted the titles of some of the books that were still in good shape on the shelves. She clapped her hooves together in joy, and started to flip through them, dropping as many of those books as she could into her saddlebags, and then into Fluttershy’s saddlebags. There were a lot of books.

Too nervous to get too far from Twilight, Fluttershy checked the dresser drawer and found a variety of hairclips and a pair of brushes, one plated in gold and the other made of gold. Fluttershy noticed that Twilight was lying down to read. “Um, Twilight? I don’t want to interrupt your reading, but I think we should keep checking over here before we get distracted. If you don’t mind.”

“Oh, there’s a closet. You can go check it out, can’t you?”

“But it’s so… dark,”

“I had a feeling you were going to say something like that,” Twilight said, getting back up to walk over. She lit up her horn and walked into the closet ahead of Fluttershy. There were horseshoe boxes up on shelves, and hangers on rods, although most of those were empty, the clothes having been taken a long time ago, or dissolved. But there was a pair of intact dresses that looked really nice. Fluttershy rushed over to examine them thoroughly, and Twilight remembered how the Pegasus had been instrumental in finishing the design for Rarity’s dress for the Gala. “What do you think, should we take them back to Princess Celestia?”

“Oh yes! I’m sure she’ll be pleased to have these classical-period dresses back.” Fluttershy took them down from their hangers. “Oh, but we mustn’t let them wrinkle; we’ll never find material like this if we let them get ruined.”

“In that case, lets take them down to the wagon,”

“But what if they got stolen. Or eaten?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I’ll carry them,” and she demonstrated with her magic. “Just please don’t tell me you’re worried about dirt or chocolate stains: you’re starting to sound like Rarity.”

“Rarity would be furious if we let anything happen to these,” Fluttershy said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep them way out of reach of anything that could ruin them,” Twilight said. “Lets finish checking these boxes, and then we can meet up again with the others.”

“We have so many books already,”

“We really do. I guess we’ll get to the library another day.” Twilight sighed at the thought of what she was missing out on. Searching through the boxes took another ten minutes, which added some more trinkets to the pair’s recovery collection. They decided to use one of the boxes as a carrying case, and then went out to the bedroom.

Where the ruins of the bed had been replaced by the frame, springs, and box of said bed. The floor was similarly in peak shape, as was the rest of the furniture. Once Fluttershy and Twilight finished gawking, Twilight decided to look under the bed while her partner held the dresses. The Unicorn found a locked chest in white with silver trim. She used her magic to detect any traps set, and saw by the complex aura that there were. Without knowing what exact traps Celestia had set, Twilight decided it was safer not to try to untangle them herself. She used her magic to set the chest on her back and took the dresses back from Fluttershy. Then they did a final circuit of the room to try to see if they had missed anything.

The two ponies were surprised, when they exited the room, to find that Pinkie was there, and also to find that Gearhead and Spike had also found two dresses and a treasure chest. “We’re all full up on treasure!” Pinkie said.

“I can settle with this for today,” Gearhead said.

“I’d be glad to settle for this period,” Fluttershy said.

“Oh, but I was so hoping to check the library,” Twilight said.

“Perhaps another time,” Gearhead said as he watched Fluttershy squirming. She quieted down a bit. “Why not see what the Princesses have to say first?”

“Sounds good to me,” Fluttershy said.

“By the way, the bed and floors being fixed – that was you, wasn’t it?”

“It spread that far?” Gearhead asked, surprised.

“It did,”

“I guess I did not focus on ‘how much’ when I was focusing on ‘fix.’ This could be better, though.”

4. Taking Inventory

Chapter 4: Taking Inventory

On the wagon ride back to Ponyville, Twilight catalogued the items the five of them had recovered, and created an inventory to send as a letter to Princess Celestia, that way they would likely know what to do with all the items when they got back to Gearhead’s Gadgets. If the princesses wanted them to bring the items to Canterlot Castle right away, they could have it all there by late evening, or so Twilight thought. They were lucky to have Spike along, since he could send their messages to Princess Celestia almost instantly.

The sun was setting on Ponyville when Gearhead pulled the wagon up in front of his shop. Filthy Rich was sitting by the door, a smirk on his face. “I see you’ve been out again, my boy!”

“Indeed, Mister Rich, but you need not worry about me or my profit margins.”

“I’m not. Worried, that is. Hey, what d’you think you are with all that on, some sort of superhero?”

“A cautionary measure,” Gearhead said. “One never knows what to expect to come out of the Everfree Forest.”

“Including ponies,” Filthy Rich said, watching Gearhead’s passengers get down from the wagon. “I just came by to tell you that I’ve started to run a line of products similar to some of yours. I didn’t want you to feel like I was stepping on your hooves, but I also know that you have an issue with my policies on product quality.”

“I am not afraid of competition, friendly or otherwise,”

“And yet I hear you leave towns behind within a matter of months of your arrival. What’s that all about?”

“A limited demand in highest-quality products. Also, I tend to reach my goals in further research and development fairly quickly. In this case, however, Ponyville is situated far more ideally than the other towns and cities in which I have merely sold my wares. I may even decide to make this my permanent home.”

“The one good thing about competition is that it drives you further than you would go otherwise. A little friendly competition can bring out the best in a pony, but get hostile and suddenly you see the worst of equine nature. If I was you, Gearhead, I wouldn’t get too comfortable: Barnyard Bargains has been around for generations, so we know how ponies’ minds work.”

“I look forward to the competition, Mister Rich.” If he has looked into where I have been, Gearhead thought, he should also have been able to look into how I did versus the local competition. Not that I have ever aimed to put anypony out of business, but my goods are better than ‘good.’

“Is it true you move on in a couple of months?” Pinkie Pie asked as Filthy Rich strolled smugly away.

“In every other place I have been, I stayed long enough to completely saturate the market with my products, and to finish researching my ‘knack.’ The first condition means that everypony in town has whatever gadgets of mine they want, so sales suddenly take a dive unless I can think up new gadgets fast. The second means that I have dug up every scrap of information the town has on unusual ponies and stranger abilities. This is often not a lot. When my only business is from out of town, it has already been time to move on.

“As I just said to Mister Rich, though, Ponyville is different. Being so close to Canterlot, I have two markets and more than twice the demand as normal. Both the town and the city have libraries that are rich in material, along with knowledgeable individuals like Miss Twilight and Princess Celestia. There are plenty of interesting things to do here, with plenty of interesting ponies. Yes, I will soon reach full market saturation, but my supply will soon change again, and I even have a new aspect of my abilities to bring out. So even though my usual decision time is coming up, I do not see myself leaving Ponyville for another town or city anytime soon.”

“Whew! That’s a relief,” Pinkie said.

“Yes,” Twilight said, “it would be a shame to lose you just when we were getting to be good friends.”

“Or maybe something better,” Pinkie said, bumping her flank into Fluttershy so the latter bumped into Gearhead.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry!” The Pegasus said quickly, and blushed furiously in reaction to them brushing head to head.

“Fluttershy, you need not be so quick to apologize. Pinkie might want to consider it, though. Mind you, I do not mind being close to you. Just not much closer than this,” Gearhead said when Pinkie tried to nudge them even closer.

Spike spat out a letter, saving them all from further tragic romantic action. “It’s a letter from Princess Celestia,” Twilight said. “She wants you to bring the items over as soon as possible, but she wants you to take a night’s rest first. And she wants me and Spike to work on combing through the more obscure books. Oh, that’ll take a long time. We’ll have to stay here in Ponyville.”

“Will you be okay with you shop being closed again tomorrow?” Fluttershy asked.

Gearhead looked thoughtful for a moment, and his expression brightened. “I have a plan,” he said. “Miss Twilight, while you are doing your research, could you and Fluttershy take turns minding the shop? The two of you know my gadgets almost as well as I do, so I have every faith you can do it.”

“I shall do my best,” Twilight said.

“Um… I’ll have to sell?”

“Do not worry, Miss Twilight can help you.”

“And me!” Pinkie Pie said.

“Maybe a little, but carefully. Items do not tend to sell as well if they have been bounced or dropped around the room.”

“I super promise I’ll be super careful!”

“What am I gonna do?” Spike asked.

“You can take some of the books and do some research of your own, while you keep the library open.” Twilight said.

“If I’m over there, I might as well do my normal chores, too.”

“Great thinking, Spike.”

“Hey Gearhead, won’t you need somepony to help you keep this stuff safe?” Spike asked.

“That is true. I know Applejack is usually busy, but I might be able to get Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and maybe one of the others, too.”

“Oh, I’ll come if you’re short a pony!” Pinkie said.

“That means you will not be able to help out at the shop,” Gearhead said.

“Oh, that’s true. But I don’t want the princesses to get mad at you if I’m not there and you end up losing something. Plus, the shop should be fine with Twilight and Fluttershy helping out. Okay, I’m coming to Canterlot!”

“Quite frankly,” Twilight whispered to Fluttershy, “I think we got off easy.”

* * *

When Fluttershy and Twilight came to Gearhead’s Gadgets early the next morning, Gearhead walked them through a tour of the items they usually did not look at, plus some of the more untraveled areas of the shop (at least, the parts that were not hidden away for security reasons). Fortunately, the catalogue volumes Gearhead had created for his inventory did most of the work, so if either mare forgot a detail or panicked, they could easily refer to the literature. Knowing where to look was the important thing.

It was also important that Twilight and Fluttershy knew what to say to the customers, as well as when to leave them alone to browse, and what to look for to know when to lend a friendly hoof. Tending to the needs of a customer at a store meant saying very different things from when you met the informational needs of a patron at a library, so teaching Twilight took a little longer than teaching Fluttershy, whose petting zoo could be said to be similar to a shop anyway.

Neither mare was particularly interested in working the forge or mill, although Twilight was fascinated by how they worked. Neither pony had been upstairs since the friends’ last strategic meeting regarding the Cutie Mark Crusaders, so Twilight was surprised to find that it was no longer as open an area, with the bed area blocked off to the public.

Gearhead showed Fluttershy and Twilight where he was keeping the egg, which had developed a single helix of swirling snow that blew around it. Gearhead did not want the mares to remove the covering orb, since he could not predict where the snow would go. If it was a sign that the unborn dragon was doing well, he certainly did not want to spoil it. The egg was maybe a third the size Spike’s egg had been, and Twilight could not tell how different caring for an ice dragon hatchling would be. It was almost a certainty, though, that the egg would hatch before Gearhead could take it to the Ice Dragon ancestral home in the arctic north, where it was so cold a pony would quickly freeze to death under normal conditions.

While Fluttershy fussed over the egg, Twilight ran a judicious eye over Gearhead’s reference collection, which included the volume he had used to identify Philomena as a Phoenix. It was a respectable selection, if a bit on the small side. Gearhead finished up, giving the mares a list so they would not have to memorize anything. It covered up to four days, since that was the amount of time he usually spent away from Ponyville when he went to Canterlot. Given the different circumstances, though, Gearhead expected to be back by the next morning.

Fluttershy and Twilight started helping Gearhead load the items they had recovered from the Castle of the Two Sisters onto the wagon, taking their time to ensure everything was tied down and secure for the journey. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie soon arrived, and immediately lent a hoof. They were almost done when Rarity got there, all dolled up for the journey. Sweetie Belle was pulling a small cart full of luggage, sweating but smiling. She obviously felt it was important enough to spend time with her sister, even if she was doing all the hard work.

“I hope you don’t mind, Darling, but Sweetie Belle is with me for the day,” Rarity said as the others started loading her luggage into the wagon.

“We may be gone for more than just a day,” Gearhead said.

“Oh, it’s fine, I’m sure. How many days do you think it will take, though?”

“We could be gone for up to four days, depending on what the Princesses would like us to do while we are in Canterlot.”

“Is that four full days?”

“More or less, but most of it will be spent in the city,” Gearhead said.

“I feel somewhat torn: that’s four days in glamorous Canterlot, but also four days in which a little sister can get into trouble.”

“Oh, I’m sure it’ll be fun,” Fluttershy said, helping Sweetie Belle clean off.

“Is it okay?” Rarity pouted at Gearhead. Sweetie Belle gave her best puppy eyes look, although both were unnecessary at this point.

“Even if we are struck by bandits on the road we should be fine,” Gearhead said, tapping his ever-present daggers.

“Bandits?”

“Like the Diamond Dogs,” he supplied.

“Those ruffians? Yes, we can handle them,” Rarity said.

“Okay, let us mount up,” Gearhead said. He helped Rarity and Sweetie Belle get up into the wagon, which was quite full of the various items from the castle, luggage, and supplies. Rainbow Dash merely flew inside, while Pinkie Pie bounced her way in.

“Good luck,” Twilight said, waving a hoof.

“Take care,” Fluttershy said. “Oh, please do take care!”

Gearhead smiled reassuringly, waved, and then started pedalling, and the wagon pulled away from the shop. It would be slower going than usual, because the wagon was laden down more heavily than usual, but they would still make better time than they would with a normal wagon. As they got underway, Pinkie Pie burst into song for no apparent reason, with the others joining in. Soon, however, the novelty of riding together gave way to boredom. Rainbow Dash flew around a bit to stretch her wings, and Rarity and Sweetie Belle joined Gearhead for a bit in the front. The filly quickly discovered that she was not tall enough to reach the pedals on the passenger side, so she sat between Gearhead and Rarity. At first Rarity was reluctant to pedal because she did not want to sweat, but it was easy because Gearhead was already doing all the work, and his gear system made pedalling smooth anyway.

* * *

As low as the wagon rode under the full load of its cargo, Rainbow Dash’s frequent flights, Pinkie Pie’s antics, and the clearly-displayed daggers on Gearhead’s legs kept any highwayponies that might have been out and about between Ponyville and Canterlot at bay – which was strange, considering they were on land and not at sea.

The Canterlot Royal Guards guided Gearhead to his usual parking space, and then they helped unload its cargo. That they took Rarity’s luggage up to a room meant that the Princesses did indeed have at least one full day of activities in mind.

“Welcome to Canterlot,” Princess Celestia said to Sweetie Belle, since it was her first visit. Pinkie, Dash, and Rarity had not been back since the Gala, and the palace looked very different without all the livery. “Thank you all for bringing so many items back for Luna and me.”

"Oh, you’re quite gracious, Your Highness,” Rarity said, bowing profusely. “Besides, how could we have possibly left these wonderful dresses behind, unused and unappreciated?”

“Oh my, I haven’t seen these in over a millennium,” Princess Celestia said, and indeed she appreciated the four dresses as Rarity levitated them gently. Even the guards, on-duty and all, appreciated the way the sunlight reflected off the fabric. “We had such fun parties!”

“Ooh, I love parties!” Pinkie popped up, spreading confetti and balloons everywhere. Princess Celestia and Sweetie Belle giggled in appreciation of Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.

“Your Highness, I would like to personally return one of the items to Princess Luna,” Gearhead said. “Might I find her on the Sky Terrace?” When one of the princesses was on duty, that was where you would find her, aided by one of Gearhead’s telescopes. Although it was day, the sisters sometimes swapped out when some duty demanded the attention of the other sister. Most ponies did not know that Princess Luna could also raise and lower the sun, as well as the moon, but it stood to reason that she could, since Princess Celestia could do the same. While the latter was older, they were practically in the same power bracket. Their major difference in power lay in their specialized abilities: Princess Celestia could bolster morale with the shining sun, while Princess Luna was a Dreamwalker, an actual Night Mare.

“Indeed. Why don’t you go see her, while I give a tour of the castle to your friends?”

Gearhead bowed, while Rarity said “we would be honoured!” She helped Gearhead put his core on, and then they parted company. It would take a normal pony quite a while to traverse the halls between the courtyard and the Sky Terrace, but Gearhead was anything but normal. Even at a non-threatening cruising speed, the core system gave him a direct path, so he was able to join Princess Luna in a pair of minutes.

“Greetings, Thirdson Gearhead,” Princess Luna said. “We have been expecting you.”

“Thank you for the gracious reception, and also for taking care of my friends, Your Highness.”

“It is our pleasure,”

“Princess, I found this in your chambers,” Gearhead took out the Codex Verdante and held it out for the younger of the sisters.

“Ah yes, we were reading that shortly before… everything happened. It is a most interesting read, do you not find it so?”

“I have not been permitted to read it, at least not openly, Highness.”

Princess Luna shook her head. “It is a shame for a pony of your potential greatness to have to restrict himself because he does not fit the traditional definition of greatness,” she said. “As you are of the Verdant, and have no doubt contributed greatly to it, you should be able to be rid of your Black Sheep status, as I have been rid of the dark shroud of Nightmare Moon.”

“It is Herd Law, Your Highness. To the Verdant, it stands above most considerations laid out in the Law of the Land. Still, I am certain Council will acknowledge me once I have properly earned it in the traditional manner. In any case, this is yours.”

Princess Luna pondered for a moment. “We will have you hold it for us awhile longer, for there is much to do. My sister may have accepted us back immediately, but most of Equestria still fears us. We can appreciate the need to earn one’s way in normal society, as we must do the same. But sometimes, a non-traditional action is required to resolve matters in the best way possible.”

“I know something about non-traditional action,” Gearhead said, still holding the book out to the princess.

“Indeed, and to that end we ask you to meet Princess Cadence and Shining Armour in the Practice Room. You are to begin the next stage of your training there.”

“We brought one of the fillies with us from Ponyville, so I was wondering how long you and your sister wanted us to stay this time around?”

“That depends on you, and how long you need to accomplish your goals here. My sister and I fully expect your progress to be far greater than before, now that you have unlocked the path to magic within yourself.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.” Gearhead bowed and took his leave, exiting through the normal corridor instead of flying out among the towers again: The Practice Room was closer to the Sky Terrace than it was to the courtyard.

* * *

The bell chimed, and Twilight looked up from the counter where she was reading to see Mayor Mare staring back at her. “Oh, were you working here? I was expecting to find Gearhead.”

“It’s okay, Mayor. Gearhead left me to watch over things while he’s away on business.”

“He did? Who’s watching the library?”

“Spike, of course.”

“Of course. Handy little dragon assistant, although I've always found it a bit on the strange side to keep a dragon around very flammable books.”

“He usually doesn't burn them even if he sneezes on them. And when Princess Celestia gets anything unusual from him, she just sends them back. Anyway, is there anything with which I can help you?”

“Oh yes, the reason why I came in here. You see, I bought one of these doo-dads from Rich’s last week, and it broke. I was wondering if Gearhead’s carried anything like it.” Mayor Mare strode over and placed a bulky, cylindrical device on the counter for Twilight to examine.

“As a matter of fact we do,” the Unicorn said, and then she moved out from behind the counter to lead her customer over two aisles. She used her magic to remove a slimmer cylindrical gadget from its place in the display case and held it in the air for Mayor Mare to examine. “Of course, it costs much more than the one you had, but it’s also only made out of the best materials.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that Gearhead’s gadgets don’t break, unless you really torture them.”

“Well, I haven’t heard of any of them breaking, including the ones he gives to the Crusaders, and they aren’t exactly the most gentle of fillies. So there’s a monthly fee that starts up three months after purchase.”

“After the other one I bought, thinking it’d last long enough to pay for its own replacement, I’ll be happy if it just makes it to the three month mark,” Mayor Mare said. “I’ll take it.”

“Thank you for your business, please come again!” Twilight said, after the deal was done. She saw Mayor Mare glance again at the broken, bulky doodad on the counter, then at the new device she had bought as a replacement. Besides both being cylindrical, there was no true resemblance.

“What was I thinking getting that one?” Mayor Mare asked aloud.

* * *

Gearhead, Princess Cadence, and Shining Armour sat in a triangle around the middle of the Practice Room. Gearhead had the Element of Honesty between his unshod hooves where Cadence had placed it, surrounded from below by a faint blue-green glow. Finally, Gearhead finished his preliminary reading and nodded his head once, sharply.

His goggles having fallen into place, Gearhead began his incantation in a soft voice. “Aperite portas quoniam tempor elit. Inveniet tua potentia Lux transmutare alas.” As had happened with the teacup at Fluttershy’s cottage, a wisp of energy stirred up around the Element on the floor, only this time it was composed of Light instead of Wind. Gearhead lifted the necklace off the ground, turned it around so the gem set into it faced the others, and then guided it to clasp around his neck before releasing it from his spell. As before, the system had some notifications for Gearhead.

[Additional Artifact detected. Identifying…]

[Element of Honesty (Omicron-level) connected.]

[Temporary user: Verdant Gearhead accepted.]

[Element functions now available.]

“The system reads the Element of Honesty similar to the way it did the Element of Loyalty during the incident with Discord,” Gearhead said, checking the power reading. “I might get 60% of what Miss Applejack can get out of it. No more than that, most certainly. Beginning second reading.” With the core system’s rings spun up, Gearhead sent his geomantic energies to the Element by going through himself. This second reading gave him different results because he, the Element, and the core were now connected, which apparently made the Element itself more open to Gearhead’s probes.

Cadence and Armour endured nearly an hour of this near-silent observation, the only change in Gearhead being that sometimes his energy horn made an appearance, only to vanish again a short time later. Obviously the Earth Pony was combining his methods, and there was nothing wrong with that.

Gearhead came out of his trance-like state and removed the Element with his Light spell, his HUD giving him a safe disconnection message when he did so. He put the core back into Repose Mode so it could recover from the exertion. Cadence took control of the Element in mid-air, and Gearhead let go. She replaced it in its chest, and brought out the Element of Kindness. Gearhead again repeated the same process as before, only this time it took twenty minutes for him to pick out the differences between Honesty and Kindness. At this rate, they might finish all of this before lunch, a prospect that pleased Armour, although Cadence did not mind the quiet time.

* * *

Fluttershy took over after lunch so Twilight could get some of her research done. With Angel Bunny beside her, she quietly and patiently looked over everything. A few minutes in, Bonbon and Lyra came in, complaining that a pair of gadgets they had bought at Barnyard Bargains had broken down. “It’s not a bargain anymore if it keeps breaking like this,” Bonbon said. “I was hoping Gearhead could fix it, but I guess a replacement is better, even if it’s more expensive.”

“Um, yes. Follow me this way, if you don’t mind.” Fluttershy walked lightly to a display case against the left-side wall, and took out one device with her mouth, then let Angel take it to carry on her back. Fluttershy closed the case again and moved mid-way down the neighbouring case. Again, she passed the item to Angel before returning to the counter, where he put both gadgets down so the mares could look at and test them.

“You know what? I don’t think these would break if you threw them at the floor,” Lyra said. “This is definitely worth every bit.”

“Yeah, I need this one,” Bonbon said. “We’ll take them!”

“Thank you for your business, please do come again,” Fluttershy said. Once the two mares were gone, she smiled down at Angel. “I’m so glad that went so well.”

* * *

Princess Celestia led the group into a large room with a set table, a veritable feast ready and waiting to be consumed. “Just in time, we have reached the Dining Room. Please do seat yourselves and enjoy the lunch the palace chefs have prepared.” The princess paused, smiling. “I know I will.”

“Ooh,” Pinkie Pie said, appraising the contents of the plates at different sides of the table at random. “This looks positively scrumptious!”

Sweetie Belle looked pleadingly up at Rarity. “Oh my, that does smell delicious. Very well,” she said, and approached the table with increasing enthusiasm. Despite the princess’s earlier phrase to ‘seat themselves,’ there were service ponies waiting to pull chairs out for her guests. Rainbow Dash settled herself slowly into a chair from above, as though afraid she might break it. Pinkie looked at the ornate chair that one servant had pulled out for her, and casually bounced into the one next to it. Rarity gasped at the apparent affront, but Princess Celestia just giggled as she seated herself. The Unicorn mare looked for approval to start eating, and the princess nodded.

The first bite, it seemed, was the bait, and it was all Rarity could do to resist taking unladylike bites of the irresistible meal. Pinkie and Rainbow, on the other hand, had no such compunction, and dug right in. Sweetie Belle endeavoured to follow her big sister’s lead, but both Unicorns began to slowly lose their own resolve.

It was when Rarity herself was on the verge of shovelling her food into her mouth that Gearhead came in through another door. Rarity froze, and was further surprised that the stallion was on his own, expecting Princess Luna to join them as well. Then again, when the tour had arrived at the Sky Terrace, only the princess had been there. Gearhead had obviously moved on to wherever he went when he came to Canterlot. Perhaps he had gone to sell some of his gadgets. The thought put Rarity in mind of Twilight and Fluttershy, who had been left to tend to Gearhead’s shop. Rarity hoped the terminally-shy Pegasus would be okay.

Gearhead kept his expression as neutral as he usually held it, but something glinted in his eyes as he strode up to the table across from Rarity. He whispered something, and the chair moved back before the nearest servant could reach it. At Princess Celestia’s nod, he sat down and joined the others in the meal, holding back from gobbling it down almost as well as the princess herself.

“So!~ Did you manage to study the Elements like you wanted?” Pinkie Pie asked, her mouth apparently free of food.

“Is that what you came here to do? Study the Elements of Harmony?” Rarity asked.

“What’re the Elements of Harmony?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Indeed,” Gearhead said, cutting off the awkward moment. “And they are every bit as powerful a set of Artifacts as I previously believed, and more. Mind you, I look rather silly in them as they are not designed to be worn by a stallion.”

“You didn’t put on Twilight’s crown-thing… did you?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Not only did I put it on, I looked far stranger wearing it,” Gearhead said with a grin. “But my subsequent Read on it confirmed what our Draconequus acquaintance was saying about Miss Twilight.”

“What’s a Draco… oh, like that statue in the garden. It has a lion’s paw and a serpent’s tail, and lots of other things, too!” Sweetie Belle said. “But I think they moved that statue or something, because I didn’t see it anywhere.”

“We did indeed move it,” Princess Celestia said. “It turns out it wasn’t safe enough there.”

“The only thing still bothering me about the Elements is that I am still no closer to finding a clue about who the Artificer might have been. Such things have to come from somewhere, as it is impossible for items that powerful to make themselves. Yet each Element is free of all of the usual signature markings that Artificers reportedly put on their Artifacts.”

“And what is your mark?” Princess Celestia asked.

“If I have a mark it is the hat-bearing geared head that I use as a sign for my shop, but I am not an Artificer anyway.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Quite sure,” Gearhead said, and the princess shrugged.

Rarity thought a moment as she continued to eat, more slowly now. If the pony who created powerful items like the Elements of Harmony was called an Artificer, and Gearhead had created a number of powerful gemstone items, plus his core system, wouldn’t that mean he was an Artificer as well? Well, he might not have enough confidence to call himself an Artificer, but he still called himself a Gadgeteer, and he was a capable businesspony.

“This is so good,” Pinkie said, salivating disgracefully. “I never want this meal to end!”

“Say, what’ll we do after lunch?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“No! Talking about ‘after lunch’ will make it come faster!” Pinkie protested.

Princess Celestia ignored Pinkie Pie’s comment. “There are still some parts of the castle you haven’t seen yet. Finishing the tour will let Gearhead finish up his work here for the day, and then we can meet for dinner.”

“If dinner is as good as this, I’m all for it!” Pinkie said.

“Can we see the guards’ training grounds?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Of course,”

“Where do the great wizard ponies cast their great spells? Can we see that?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Princess Celestia said. “You know how wizard ponies are, don’t you? They like their privacy quite a bit. Even when you think they aren’t there!” When the filly shivered, the princess winked, causing her to relax. “We can get started again once you’re all finished with your meals.”

“No,” Pinkie said. “It’s the end of lunch as we know it!”

* * *

“What is the meaning of this?!” Filthy Rich burst into Gearhead’s Gadgets like he was his own one-horse stampede. He zeroed in on Fluttershy, who was working at the counter again, and her appearance made him stall out for a moment. His momentum was lost, but he quickly found his anger again in his purpose for coming. “I need to speak to Gearhead,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said, “he’s out right now. But you can come back tomorrow, if you don’t mind, to speak with him directly.”

“No, no, that’s quite alright,” Rich said, seeming to calm completely. “Maybe you can help me. After all, Gearhead’s left you in charge all on your own. That means he trusts you, my filly.” That made Fluttershy blush, and she looked down at her hooves, pleased. “In all probability, he’s taught you how to make his wondrous gadgets, too. Isn’t that right? Don’t you know the method behind it all now?”

“Actually, Mister Rich, I don’t know about that at all. Gearhead didn’t tell me, and I didn’t ask.” She shrunk back from his resurging glare. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“Fine, so you don’t know anything,” Rich returned to the business at hoof. “I came down here, all the way down to the river at the edge of the Celestia-forsaken forest, to get the answer to a single question.”

“Yes?”

“How in blazes did you, or your boss, get so many of my customers to complain about product defects all at once?”

Fluttershy blinked. “We didn’t do anything.”

“And you expect me to believe that?”

“Actually,” Twilight said, coming out of the stairwell, “she’s right. Gearhead builds his gadgets out of the highest-quality materials in order to make them high-quality too, and they complete their function with extremely minimal wear. Why, in three or so years the most he’s had to do is repair the gadgets he first made. The only replacements I’ve heard of him doing has to do with the original items.”

“Nothing he can sell can be that different from my inventory, or do you expect me to believe that he knows some special way after all?”

“Gearhead is a very special Earth Pony with his own unique knack,” Twilight said.

“That’s right,” Fluttershy said. “He’d never make anything that wasn’t good enough he wouldn’t buy and use it himself.” Having said her piece, Fluttershy shrank back again.

“So yes, he has his own special method, one which I don’t know how to duplicate. Plus, even if he showed us how to use his forge, I’m not sure about the quality of the works the two of us could produce. So only Gearhead can make a ‘Gearhead Gadget.’”

“I beg to disagree,”

“I have the feeling someone would end up begging, provided you continue to try to reverse-engineer Gearhead’s inventions. They just don’t work quite as well as their original version, as your customers have already found out.”

“There’s nothing wrong with what I’m doing,” Rich said. “There’s a market and I’m trying to fill it at a more affordable price.”

“Well, that’s up to you. I would suggest making your own stuff to sell, though, because a Gearhead design will always be a Gearhead design first. If you can’t duplicate it, you’ll likely end up with more trouble like today.”

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe all I need to do is come up with something original. Then again, maybe I want the competition anyway. Well, I guess we’ll wait and see who corners this market.” Rich turned around and cantered out the door.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy said.

“’Wait and see?’ I already know who’s cornering the market in Ponyville – from Canterlot, at the moment.”

* * *

Gearhead returned to the Practice Room to find that Princess Cadence and Shining Armour were once again waiting for him. Sometime during lunch they had returned the Elements of Harmony, in their chest, to Canterlot Tower, where they were once again secure under Celestia’s spells. Gearhead took his place within the inner circle.

“For this session’s first exercise in magic, Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna want to determine your magical capacity,” Cadence said.

“We’ve expanded a barrier at full power, so that nothing should be able to break it,” Armour said. “Still, it’ll be easier for our purposes if you only use Magic Arrows.”

“Fully open your magic aura field, and then start shooting Magic Arrows into the sky. Start a little higher than you know you can already go, and keep increasing the number until you can’t increase them anymore. From that point, decrease the number to keep it manageable, until your magical energy is completely exhausted, and then we’ll have a count. That will directly give us a clear picture of what you can do.” Cadence and Armour exchanged a look and a nod. “Begin when you’re ready.”

Gearhead took up a position facing the sky and drew the geargem dagger, which he would need to properly manage the amount of magical energy he was going to be using up. “Cantus de Proelio,” he intoned, and a wide area of turquoise energy enveloped him, describing a flame all around him.

“Oh, one more thing,” Cadence said. “You’ll be using your internal energy, not the energy contained in this room. That’s the point of completely exhausting it yourself.”

Gearhead nodded, and then continued to focus on drawing his magic out from himself. “Aperite portas quoniam tempor elit. Inveniet tua potentia. Veni Spiritus Lumenet viginti novem. Consinnant sagittas meas complebo. Percusserit me inimicus. 29 Magica Sagitta Lucis!” At his command, twenty-nine points of light gathered and shot out, striking a barrier that had, until that point, been invisible. The shield appeared to take the salvo without being damaged, but then Gearhead had expected that.

Gearhead continued, taking advantage of the fact that his magic gateway was already open. “Veni Spiritus Lumenet triginta unus. Consinnant sagittas meas complebo. Percusserit me inimicus. 31 Magica Sagitta Lucis!” So it went, through 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, and 101 Magic Arrows of Light. At that point, Gearhead had already been feeling the strain, so he started to back down on his own. The problem was that when he reached 23 he started to feel like he was getting a second wind. When that feeling had not changed after three salvos of 23, Gearhead raised the number back up to 29, and stayed there for five additional rounds before he had to back down again. He did not hold for an additional round until he was down to just seven arrows per round, and then he slowly succeeded in completely exhausting his supply of magical energy, so that he could not even cast a single arrow.

At the same time, the barrier had held magnificently. “Over 2,400 Magic Arrows is quite impressive, especially using a stronger element like Light,” Armour said, adding up the numbers. “Now, while Cadence is healing you, take in the ambient magic and show us your most powerful spells, one at a time, until you’re exhausted again.”

Gearhead nodded to Armour, who nodded to Cadence, who nodded to Gearhead in turn before focusing her healing magic on him, enveloping him in her own turquoise magic aura. Gearhead reached out to the golden and blue fogs of magic and pulled them in toward himself, through the middle of his expanded geargem dagger, as he had always done before. He soon felt reinvigourated, the fatigue fading into memory as he and Cadence worked in tandem to recover the energies he had spent in the past few minutes. As soon as that was done, Cadence disengaged and stepped back to stand beside Armour and watch. Gearhead recovered his original stance.

“Aperite portas quoniam tempor elit. Inveniet tua potentia. Evoco Spiritus Lux et Spiritus Solis. Maturarent procella Ventis Austrinos. Torquent Aquae Aquilonis gelida. Congregate, et efficiamini mei ensis. Iovem Tempestas!” At Gearhead’s summons, balls of Light and Fire Magic developed to both sides of him, which he gathered together with a gesture from both forehooves, mixing the energy until he could release them in a single continuous blast, blue-white light racing against, and spiralling around, crimson-white energy. The spell, Jove’s Thunderstorm, hit the barrier and dissipated, but the shaking sensation and impression of it remained for a couple seconds even after its last light had faded.

“Do you have another one?” Armour asked.

“Aperite portas quoniam tempor elit. Inveniet tua potentia. Evoco Domine Ignis et responde contractum. Congregate ad me ecercitus vestros. Incedant sub manu mea ut ad comburendum solum me inimucus. Contra me positum est adolebitique quod Creatio. Reducere eos ad cinerem. Vincula eorum dirupit. Omnia purifica ante me ab omni imperitatem. Obedite mea ensis esto contractum. Incendium de Caelum et Inferno!” This time a deep red ball of pure flame formed. When Gearhead launched it, it was slower than the previous spell, but on impact with the shield there was no doubt that the Fire of Heaven and the Underworld was the more powerful of the two. At the same time, its incantation was longer and generally harder to use. As it was, Gearhead did not expect to get a lot of time to chant his spells in combat. Besides, he could not see himself using a spell that ‘burned everything,’ even just those things he designated as targets, in actual combat – not unless he was up against an extremely powerful and utterly evil opponent.

From Cadence’s and Armour’s expressions, they fully agreed with Gearhead’s resolve not to use that spell except under the most extreme of circumstances. “Please tell me your next one isn’t so sinister,” Armour said.

“It is not,” Gearhead said, and launched into his third high-level, middle-tier spell. “Aperite portas quoniam tempor elit. Inveniet tua potentia. Veni Spiritus Terra, et congregate et foras cum florebit pleno vigore. Circumda calido sole universum orbem. Fiat clypeo pro invalidis et ensis pro illis qui eis. Resurgere subtus lenissimam auram et vivificantem pluvia. Protege amicos meos. Percusserit inimicos meos. Gale Terra!” This time emerald vines struck at the shield alongside a rain of amber earth, silver stone, and metal. Upon striking the barrier the constructs fell apart, once again becoming magic energy before they dissipated. This made it clear that Gearhead was not creating matter out of the energy he was using: it was all still energy, just more tightly packed together.

Gearhead was panting heavily, and although he could have focused enough to pull off a mid-level spell or two, Cadence held up a hoof. “I wouldn’t want to push you too much further on borrowed energy. Lets end the session for today. Tomorrow you can show us the rest of your repertoire, but for now you should rest and recover your own powers.”

“I think… I can agree with that,” Gearhead said. He sheathed his dagger and, with Armour’s help, made his way to his room. The Unicorn promised to summon Gearhead for dinner, but the latter was out as soon as his head touched the bed.

6. Marching Forward

Chapter 6: Marching Forward

Over the past few days, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had been taking turns escorting Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Sweetie Belle around Canterlot. They visited all sorts of shops, from candy to textiles, and even went to the Princesses’ favourite spa.

Princess Celestia admitted directly that much of what she and her sister knew about Rarity and the others came from Twilight’s letters. It was more incredible that the Princesses had seen more of Rarity’s work than she had first thought, and therefore they were taking a direct hoof in helping out in her budding business. Not only were they taking her and the rest of their party places where they could see how the ponies of Canterlot lived, but Rarity was seeing a lot that was inspiring her. The Unicorn was in the habit of taking a sketchpad along with her whenever she went on journeys, and that was coming in useful now: anytime she got any inspiration, Rarity would take out the sketchbook and for the next few minutes all that could be heard from her was the furious ‘skritching’ of her quill or pencil.

The other girls were enjoying their time with the Princesses as well. Both Pinkie and Sweetie looked in awe at all the new sights and sweets. Pinkie quickly showed that Rarity wasn’t the only one being inspired by Canterlot, saying that this or that would make a great candy or confectionary for Sugar Cube Corner to sell. Sweetie was looking for ideas of what she and her friends could do to earn their cutie marks, even while she indulged her sweet tooth.

When Rarity was not sketching or basking in awe at the Princess who was their escort or at some Canterlot specialty, her thoughts often strayed back to Gearhead. If he was exerting himself in training as fully as he seemed to be by his state at previous mealtimes, he was most probably not having the ball that the girls were having. On the other hoof, Rarity understood what he had said before about the danger represented by somepony with unbridled, uncontrollable power. She didn’t think Gearhead had to worry overly much about it at this stage, considering he had already spent the majority of his life gaining control over his geomancy – and most of that time he hadn’t even known what it was. Of course, his personal brand of magic was new, so maybe this and that required different controls as well.

This train of thought brought Rarity around to Gearhead’s promise to help Sweetie look into her difficulties with magic. Rarity knew that not all Unicorns were gifted magic users, and that most Unicorns had a very limited set of magic skills. Rarity’s own gifts were limited to the usual telekinesis (although her control was more precise than that of some other ponies), gemstone detection, illusions, and material meshing. When it came to magic skills, nopony except the Princesses themselves could possibly outshine Twilight Sparkle, and Rarity was proud to be one of her closest friends.

She did not know if she would be more grateful than Sweetie if Gearhead could unravel why she couldn’t cast spells yet. It was possible that this was just normal for Sweetie, considering Unicorns came into their magic at different times in their lives, although it usually activated before they matured – and certainly there were uncontrolled fits when they were still foals.

When Princess Celestia and her entourage returned to Canterlot Castle, they came across Gearhead as he was finishing loading their luggage onto his wagon in the courtyard. Looking inside, Rarity barely saw even one of the Earth Pony’s trademark gadgets. “It looks like you’ve been doing well here,” Rarity said, smiling.

“Here and at home, my stores are practically bare. I have also made considerable progress in research and training. I would like to stay longer and continue, however I do believe we have stayed away from Ponyville for too long already.” Gearhead took a letter out of one of his bags and gave it to Rarity. In it, Twilight and Fluttershy said that their efforts in the shop had been highly successful, and that they were missing their traveling friends.

“I think you’re right,” Rarity said. “Time,” she smiled, knowing that Gearhead tended to choose his words very carefully, “to go home.”

“Aww,” Sweetie and Pinkie said.

“Not doing everything means we’ll have more to do if we get invited back,” Rarity said.

“When you get invited back,” Princess Celestia said, “my sister and I will have much for us to do together.”

“Thank you very much, Princess,” Rarity said, and they all bowed.

* * *

The wagon was trundling swiftly along when Sweetie Belle poked her head into the cabin from the cargo section where she had been lounging with Pinkie Pie. She looked at Rarity, who was sitting in the front passenger seat beside Gearhead, and said, “Hey, what about teaching me magic?”

“But Sweetie, we’re on the road,” Rarity said.

“It should not be a problem to at least go over the basics,” Gearhead said, “and then Sweetie Belle can practice independently.” That made Sweetie Belle smile. “Miss Rarity, please switch with me.”

“If you’re sure,” Rarity said, uncertain herself.

Gearhead put on a reassuring smile. “You would not have been watching me drive for nothing, Miss Rarity. I assure you, this is easy.”

“Okay,” Rarity moved over, closer to Gearhead, and took the steering column. As he slid back and out of the seat, she moved in, taking over control of the wagon. When they did not careen off the road, Rarity let out a breath she had not been aware she had been holding, and looked surprised. Gearhead patted her reassuringly on her right shoulder for a moment, then moved over to where she had been sitting and indicated that Sweetie Belle should take the middle seat.

“Magic,” Gearhead started, “is the gathering, shaping, and release of the energies inside and around us.”

“Lemme guess: ‘it surrounds and binds us?’” Sweetie Belle asked, looking sceptical.

“That would indeed be one way to see it, yes. And regardless of exact method or result, it is the ability to sense and gather the flow of energy that is most crucial to spellcasting. Energy, you see, is a dynamic thing. If we can attribute any living characteristic to it, it is that it likes, and wants, to change. That is why it is easier to get the energy to move than to stay in one place.”

“I like to move it, move it!” Pinkie said, sticking her head into the cab with a smile.

“Precisely,” Gearhead said, and the ponies chuckled. “Now, imagine energy as something you can see moving and flowing around you.”

“Flowing?”

“Yes, like…” Gearhead thought a moment. How could he describe the magic auras he could see in the air, especially when it was thick? “Like water, fog, or a sort of soup.”

“Yay, soup! I hope it’s Hot and Spicy.”

“Pinkie, we’re not stopping for soup,” Rarity said.

“Aww,”

“Anyway,” Gearhead said, although he could not keep a bit of a smile from his voice at Pinkie’s antics, “if you can imagine the energy flowing around you, you can also imagine gathering it in to a single point in front of you. When you have gathered the energy, you can use your horn to focus it into, say, a single flame or point of light, which is a fairly basic spell. Basic as it may be, though, it is the perfect way to show whether you are capable of manipulating magic energy. This is because magical flame can even be summoned in places like underwater, since it does not require the usual three factors to burn.”

“It doesn’t? Wait, what three things?”

“Air, heat, and fuel to burn. But magic flame can exist in the cold, can burn without wood, and even in places with little air, or none at all -- Aperite portas quoniam tempor elit. Inveniet tua potential. Parva ignis.” Gearhead held up one hoof, and a single candle’s worth of orange flame lit just above it.

“Wow!”

“As I said before, it takes some time to get used to the words if that is your method. All but ‘parva ignis’ is the practice activation key.”

“But that’s still amazing,” Sweetie Belle said. “Most Unicorns can only levitate stuff and do one or two other things. You made fire appear!”

“Yes, well, my magic is different, after all,” but Gearhead was pleased, and his flame intensified to a blue hue, which made the others ‘ooh’ in appreciation. “Anyway, this sort of focusing through an incantation is just one method of casting. Some ponies can cast better using other methods, and most Unicorns do not use incantations at all – at least not aloud. Maybe just picturing it happening works, or maybe you have to sing or dance your spell.”

“Ooh, a magic song!”

“That is not a joke, Pinkie Pie. And given your propensity for spontaneous singing, together with your ability to pull all of Ponyville into the song, I do believe you can appreciate the power of a spellsong the best out of all of us.”

“I never thought of it that way before,” Pinkie said, pondering. “Nah!” They had another good laugh.

“Do you want to give it a try, Sweetie Belle?”

“Okay!”

Despite her enthousiasm (at least to start), Sweetie Belle did not produce so much as a spark, and became discouraged. Gearhead had to admit that she went to a lot of effort to try to learn the practice activation key, which was extremely long and difficult. He zipped a shoe up and patted her on the head to reassure her. “You will only be able to get it if you do not give up, and keep trying.”

“I know,” Sweetie Belle’s sour expression faded, apparently enjoying the attention. When they entered Ponyville, she was smiling again. “Parva ignis,” she said, and giggled even though nothing happened.

* * *

Upon his group’s return to Ponyville, Gearhead all but vanished from the outside world in order to build up a stock of items to sell. He quickly exhausted his stockpiled gemstones, wood, and metals, which meant he had to mine more. This was when the mares came to him offering their assistance, in order to speed up the process. Gearhead not only realized that he did not have the luxury of turning them down, but that because they were unlikely to listen to his objections, the process would only end up chewing up more time without changing the outcome.

Twilight Sparkle and Applejack searched one quadrant of the Everfree Forest. Twilight made good use of both Gemfinder, which she had learned from Rarity, and Read, which she had seen Gearhead do often enough. While she lacked Gearhead’s knack with geomancy, the spell itself proved useful enough. And what Twilight found, Applejack dug up and carted back to the shop.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie took the fields around Ponyville, looking for both gemstones and metals. Rarity had the original Gemfinder spell. Pinkie Pie was just good at finding things without seeming to be looking for them. Plus, she had grown up on a rock farm, so rocks were still very much her thing – mostly in the context of how they might make parties more fun.

Fluttershy asked her animal friends if they might know where there might be some wood, gems, or metals Gearhead could use. Sometimes asking nicely worked just fine, but other times she had to resort to The Stare. Once she had gleaned the locations of these possible deposits from the wildlife, Fluttershy gave Rainbow Dash a vector to follow. Dash had recruited several of Ponyville’s flyers to help out. Not only could they fly to and confirm the deposits’ presence, but they could fly small amounts directly back to the shop. Volunteers for this duty included the always-together Flitter and Cloudchaser, Thunderlane and Snowflake, and Blossomforth.

All of this assistance allowed Gearhead himself to range further from Ponyville than before. He took his wagon and ventured to the other side of the mountain again, gathering what he could before returning with a full load of usable resources, including some diamond and dragonstone – more of the supplies he needed for his new core system.

When Gearhead returned to find a large pile of each of his needed resources waiting and available for use, he immediately thanked those nearby and got to work replenishing the store’s stock so he could be ready to open back up for business that much sooner. The others, meanwhile, continued to scavenge for as long as they were able to do so. They would all return home fatigued but satisfied.

The sun was setting when the main group gathered just outside the shop “I would like to thank everypony for their efforts in helping me to get my shop into ship-shape for sales again that much sooner,” Gearhead said, raising a mug of apple juice. “So truly, thank you all.”

“Aww, we’re always ready to help out a friend,” Dash said.

“And I see again that I am fortunate to be able to count you as my friends,” Gearhead said, raising his cup again. “Some of you helped me to keep up with sales while I was away. Some others were by my side during that time. And the rest of you pitched in whole-heartedly so my business would barely miss a beat. Tomorrow morning, Gearhead’s Gadgets opens for business as usual, all thanks to all of you.” The others raised their cups and cheered at that.

“Hey Gear,” Dash said, “Nightmare Night’s in just a couple more days. Got yourself a costume yet?”

“What is Nightmare Night?”

“Seriously? It’s only the most awesome night for dressing up and getting free… oh, I see you’re joking.”

“I admit I am only partly joking, Miss Dash: I have never been able to participate before, however I do have a costume in mind. I am told that it is something that everypony in this town can appreciate.”

“Told by whom?” Twilight asked.

“That is a secret,”

“And wait, you’ve never dressed up and gone door-to-door for candy before?!” Pinkie Pie asked.

“The tendency for my feet to spark, and then my business, always pre-empted such things before. Now things are different, again thanks in no small part to you.”

“Ooh,”

“So you can all look forward to my costume in a few days. Nights, actually. In the meantime, I think it would be wise for us all to get some rest: it has been a busy day.”

* * *

Although he had told the others otherwise, Gearhead remained sceptical regarding his participation in the Nightmare Night festivities until that very day. Fortunately, with their help, operations and sales at Gearhead’s Gadgets had indeed returned to normal. The only remaining wrinkle was that Gearhead had to design a few custom gadgets for some of the costumes, which, when they were not designed by a pony’s parents, Rarity made.

It was fairly good business for both Gearhead’s Gadgets and Carousel Boutique, not to mention all the individually-wrapped candy from Sugar Cube Corner, and the fruit from Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack was even planning on hosting some of the game booths herself.

Among the custom builds that Gearhead had on his plate was the more complicated one for his own costume, which he was careful to keep secret until it was time to put it on and pick up the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Gearhead had agreed to participate as a chaperone for the fillies and colts, lending a hoof to Granny Smith and Pinkie Pie.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were meeting at their clubhouse, which would probably make things a little easier for Gearhead, since they would all be in the same place. He drove his wagon over so Applejack could use it to bring the last of the festival’s supplies for the last of the set-up in the main thoroughfare. Gearhead helped Applejack and Big McIntosh load up some fresh fruit for the stands, and then he donned his costume to go get the fillies.

Once he reached the foot of the clubhouse’s ramp, Gearhead called out “Hullo up there!” Almost immediately, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo poked their heads out the window. The former broke out in a fit of giggles at the sight of him, while Scootaloo just arched an eyebrow.

“What’re you supposes to be?”

“Hm, it is something I gathered the citizens of Ponyville had all seen before, but was I mistaken?” He hovered a bit, using his core system to fly. His costume consisted of a light blue, furry ball with short, stubby insect wings. He had a set of extra-large goggles with thick green lenses. The way he had designed the costume’s body, the particles the core generated came out around the wings, causing them to flap as he flew. But that was not the ‘trick’ it had taken him the longest to incorporate: when Gearhead clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth, a much smaller version of his costumed self, this one brown with blue eyes, popped out from his left shoulder, its spring having been released. It bobbed about wildly before settling down, but continued to bob again when Gearhead moved.

“Oh wow, you’re a Parasprite!” Apple Bloom squeeled.

“Just one?” Gearhead wiggled his right ear and another sprite ball popped out of his cap.

“How many of those ya got?” Scootaloo asked.

“Keep your eyes peeled, and perhaps you will find out by the end of the night. But more importantly, are we missing a number?”

“If you mean Sweetie Belle, she’s in here too,” Apple Bloom said.

“Yeah, just having trouble with her costume,” Scootaloo said.

“Shall I lend a hoof, before another sprite poofs in?” Gearhead saw the two fillies at the window look inside, and a moment later they gestured for him to come up. “What seems to be the problem?” He asked as he came through the door.

“It won’t stick,” Sweetie Belle said around the object in her mouth, which muffled her words slightly. Now that Gearhead was inside, he could see that Apple Bloom was wearing something that had heavy, intentionally-jagged stitching and spots, Scootaloo was wearing grey fur, and Sweetie Belle had a cape with a clearly nocturnal theme to it. It was safe to say that she was struggling with a set of false fangs.

Gearhead rummaged in one of the pouches hidden in his costume and produced a small tube.

“Glue? Seriously?” Scootaloo asked.

“You sure that’s safe?” Apple Bloom asked, while Sweetie Belle turned the false teeth around with her tongue and then spat it out of her mouth and onto her waiting hoof.

“I figured my sprites might fall off, and do not know when or where. Without knowing whether somepony might eat them, I had to turn to edible materials.” He paused, as though thinking, although he already had tested it rather thoroughly without any lasting after-effects. “Just do not eat too much of it,” he said, carefully applying a thin layer of glue to the false fangs while Sweetie Belle held them up. “Open please?” He said, the took hold of the fangs with his Light Magic. This had the side-effect that when he moved them into Sweetie Belle’s mouth, the teeth seemed to illuminate her cheeks from the inside, which made the others laugh. But more importantly, they allowed Gearhead to draw a sight on where he should affix the teeth. “Close, please,” he said when he was done. “Three times.” Sweetie Belle chomped three times as instructed, and then poked at her false teeth with her tongue for a bit before smiling through them. “All set?” Gearhead asked, deploying another sprite. Sweetie Belle giggled the loudest, since this was also the first time she’d seen it done.

“Just a few more details,” Scootaloo said. She climbed up on a table, what looked like a sack with tall black hair balanced across her back. Apple Bloom stood with her back to her friend and waited. Sweetie Belle turned to a full-length mirror and started to slick her hair back.

“Oh, this cannot end well,” Gearhead muttered, and prepared to catch either of the fillies with his magic.

* * *

Once the fillies were all ready, Gearhead led them off, and up the road toward Ponyville. On the way, they inevitably turned to batting at his sprites, so he turned it into a game: how hard could they strike the sprites while avoiding having them fall off? Scootaloo was the first to strike just a little too hard, but even then Gearhead felt validated as he glued the errant ball back on. And he inspected the costumes his charges were wearing.

Apple Bloom’s costume was a Bride-of-Frankenpony variant. What he had seen Scootaloo helping Apple Bloom with was the head, a complete mask with the trademarked white-shot hair (and another on the other side of the suit for her tail). It was even thought through far enough that Apple Bloom’s usual pink hair bow had the same stitchy look as the rest of her costume.

The main feature on Scootaloo’s werewolf costume was the snarling head. If she was up to a little acting, Scootaloo could even pretend the wolf was eating her, because her head was in its mouth.

Sweetie Belle’s vampire cape and batty broach was probably one of Rarity’s designs. Gearhead gave Sweetie Belle credit for not being too proud to ask her big sister so the costume could be done right: if anything, the Crusaders’ entry in the town talent show had shown that their talents matched up elsewhere – if only they had not switched their jobs around quite so much. It had taken Sweetie Belle almost an hour to comb her hair back into a slick widow’s peak, and that had only happened so quickly with a little help from the others, including Gearhead.

But the effort on these three did indeed show, so that when they arrived at Sugar Cube Corner, everypony congratulated them on their costumes.

Granny Smith and Pinkie Pie were waiting with their own charges, which included a smaller colt, Pipsqueak, who was dressed as a pirate pony. It was his first Nightmare Night, and like the rest of Ponyville, he was not about to go halfway on this.

“Now what in Sam Hill are you supposed to be?” Granny asked Gearhead.

“Are we in need of a clue?” The Crusaders’ giggles turned to delighted gasps as some slight twitching and ear-wiggling later, sprites popped out of the ones that Gearhead had already deployed, on top of four new ones.

“Parasprite swarm!” Pinkie Pie jumped up and ran ahead. Heads swung around in all directions, pure terror on everypony’s faces.

“And here I thought they were just cute,” Gearhead said. Hearing his voice made those in the area look at him, and they realized, when they saw the fillies and colts around him pawing at his sprites, that it was just a clever costume. The relief was palpable.

“Oh hey, I thought I heard somepony shout ‘parasprites,” Twilight Sparkle said, Spike at her side.

“That was Pinkie Pie,” Scootaloo said.

“Ah, of course. Nice costumes, girls.”

“You make a great Beardo the Clown too, Twilight!” Pinkie said, clucking. She was wearing a chicken costume.

“Clown?!”

“I have never seen Starswirl the Bearded depicted so accurately before,” Gearhead said.

“Thank you! And you must be the swarm,” Twilight said.

Gearhead deployed three more sprites. “What gave me away?”

“Seriously, how many of those do you have?” Scootaloo asked.

“The size of the costume ought to provide a clue,” Gearhead said.

“But not the whole inside,” Apple Bloom said.

“Right, I needed room for some supplies –“

“Like the glue,” Sweetie Belle said.

“And also for this,” Gearhead flew a short distance, which made his wings flap a bit. It also made his growing collection of sprites dance.

“Very nice costume,” Twilight said.

“It’s so bobbly,” Spike said.

As they made their way over to the main area together, Gearhead spotted Rainbow Dash flying around in a dark flying suit. “What do you make of that?” He asked softly.

“If the Wonderbolts are Princess Celestia’s elite guard, then the Shadowbolts belong to Princess Luna, I think. Rainbow said that when we went to get the Elements, some of them invited her to join the group, but since we were on a quest and everything, she turned them down.”

“I did not know any of that,”

“Well, since Rainbow is one of my closest friends, I figured I should know a thing or two about the organization she’s trying to join.”

“Howdy Twilight,” Applejack said as they approached her stands. “Wanna try your luck at bobbing for apples?” Applejack was dressed as a straw scarecrow, which was appropriate for a farm pony. Twilight again tried to get a compliment on her own costume, but Applejack was too focused on the beard to understand it fully.

Gearhead clicked his tongue. “Not everypony is going to know about Starswirl,” he said as more sprites sproinged! into view.

“Clever,” Applejack said, and then Major Mare started making a speech. Dressed as a clown. In a rainbow-coloured afro. Gearhead raised an eyebrow at Spike’s comments, but the larger effect was lost because his goggles made his eyes look oversized compared to the rest of him.

And as for bobbing for apples, Derpy Hooves put a hold on that until Applejack could refill the tank, simply by pulling the plug. Zecora saved the mayor whatever dignity she might have left by taking over with a guided (and rhyming) narrative explaining the legend of Nightmare Night. Gearhead listened carefully with the others, then turned to Twilight.

“I guess the more general legend of Nightmare Moon and the myth surrounding Nightmare Night were created at different times and with separate beliefs.”

“Notwithstanding the fact that the Elements of Harmony released Princess Luna from being Nightmare Moon,” Twilight answered in equally hushed tones. “But why, in particular, do you say that?”

“One says that Princess Celestia banished Nightmare Moon, and that her release from her lunar prison would only take place one thousand years later on the Summer Solstice. The other says that once a year, Nightmare Moon roams free, looking for candy, or ponies, to eat.”

“I guess it’s just a way to explain the tradition,”

“And get free candy!” Pinkie added.

“Hmm,” Gearhead half-turned toward the darkening sky. His goggles, while modified for his costume, still had some of the functionality that his normal pair carried. They detected a larger-than-normal object moving toward the group. “I wonder what she would say about that,” he said, just before lightning and thunder, rather fortuitously, struck.

The chariot was outlined in light and darkness, pulled by a team of Night Pegasi. They did one loop, then landed. The rider barely dismounted before Pinkie Pie shrieked “it’s Nightmare Moon!” and ran off, leading the children in panic.

“Somepony certainly knows how to make an entrance,” Gearhead said. The newcomer removed her hood, and as she advanced on the petrified group, her cape became bats and flew off. It was, of course, not Nightmare Moon but Princess Luna. Gearhead clicked his tongue again, and several younger ponies stopped and turned to watch as five more sprites sprung into position. And thus the evening’s fun truly began.

Gearhead was all set to simply watch as Princess Luna interacted with the citizens of Ponyville, but then Twilight started interceding on the princess’s behalf. He guessed she did not know that she was taking the situation rather seriously, especially considering the town’s welcome for the princess after Nightmare Moon was vanquished. In other words, everyone already knew they were not dealing with Nightmare Moon. Instead, everyone from Pinkie Pie to Pip was set to play a role: the role happened to be set by the legend of Nightmare Night: It was that of the terrified villager.

And then, as though to complicate matters, the princess seemed to forget her own role in all this, when a momentary slip brought back the mock terror. But since Nightmare Night was about the princess’s darker half, Gearhead figured she was entitled to suspend the festival, until things cooled down.

There was a moment, after Princess Luna went off to sulk, when she was free of company, even that of Twilight Sparkle. Gearhead took the opportunity to sneak in for a few choice words. “Is Her Highness certain she is not pushing her role too far?”

“What do you think, clever Gearhead, about those games?”

“They are fair, and you are a natural.”

“I have played many such games and pranks with my sister,” Luna grinned. “I am enjoying your execution of the costume idea, by the way.”

“It was an excellent suggestion,” Gearhead said, the costume itself punctuating the statement with a ‘twang!’ Princess Luna giggled.

“Too clever by half, my young friend. Oh, here comes my cue,” Princess Luna spotted Twilight making her way to their place in front of the Nightmare Moon statue.

“Then I had best make myself scarce,” Gearhead moved as quickly as he dared away from the statue, and looped around. He would rejoin the Crusaders, and make it look like he had done nothing more than go looking after them after Pinkie caused that panic.

After rejoining the Crusaders and the rest of the fillies and colts, all Gearhead had to do was watch and wait. It was not that he enjoyed watching his friends being yanked around for one or two assumptions, but it was good to see Princess Luna having fun, because it seemed like it had been ages since she had, the way she spoke about the pranks she and Princess Celestia used to pull. Near the end of Nightmare Night, Princess Luna really got into the spirit of the occasion, surprising other ponies from within the apple bobbing tank, and even one-upping Dash on her scare streak.

And of course, after Pinkie had explained that sometimes getting scared was fun, both Twilight and Princess Luna came to realize that the whole night had been ‘all in good fun.’ Naturally, however, Granny had headed back to the farm for a well-deserved rest long before that point.

It was late when Gearhead noticed that even the Crusaders were beginning to weave a bit as they walked. He decided that they had had enough for the night. He brought Apple Bloom to Big McIntosh to take home, then delivered Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to Carousel Boutique to sleep off their own sugar crashes.

“Consider me impressed that you stayed with them for so long,” Rarity said as the two of them put the fillies down for bed. She had been working the entire time, so she had been unable to make an appearance of her own.

“Ah, but I have a little brother and little sisters of my own. One of the things I could do was to help take care of them when they were foals.”

“You’ve spoken about Vines and Ivy before, and they both made quite the impression at the Gala. But I’ve never heard you talk about your younger siblings.”

“They were still very young when I left, so I barely knew them for who they were then, and they most probably changed since then. I am afraid there is not much I could tell you about them. Except that I always felt happy when I was helping out. So I do not mind looking after the fillies on occasion.”

“I see. Well then, how about as a reward, I show you the costume I planned on wearing tonight?”

“If you insist, at the very least the occasion will not have gone unmarked.”

“Trust me: waste is the furthest thing from my mind.”

Minutes later, when Rarity put her devil-mare costume on for Gearhead, the only appropriate way he could think of responding was by springing another set of sprites from his own costume, which made her giggle.

"How many mini-sprites do you have?"

"The same number as there is in a swarm."

7. Small Problems

Chapter 7: Small Problems

“I’m just so frustrated!” Sweetie Belle paced between the aisles, while Gearhead finished helping out a customer. He had two more, and figured that with the filly there fuming, he would not have any new visitors for awhile. That would allow him to close up shop so he could take her upstairs to help her work through whatever was bothering her: It was probably more dangerous to let her keep building her anger up around the display cases.

“I can see that,” Gearhead said, adding up the next pony’s purchases. The third one was already in line, so Gearhead made some mental calculations and had the total ready before his customer was. That expedited the process, and soon the store was officially closed. “Come on up, and you can tell me what is going on.”

Going upstairs did abate Sweetie Belle’s rage for the few moments it took her to look around, and Gearhead realized that this was probably her first really good look at his living space. He had the usual assortment of medium- and large-sized demonstration gadgets, although the assortment had changed over the months. His walls were lined with bookshelves, almost entirely crammed with reference volumes. And there was the dresser on top of which he kept the dragon egg. Sweetie Belle watched the little snowflakes swirling around the egg. Gearhead had always assumed that the more helices there were, the healthier the baby was, and now there were four of them weaving around the egg. He could only check the shell’s temperature by using his Wind Magic to contain the flakes, but some almost always slipped from his control. Gearhead rarely checked now, to try to keep from interfering with the unborn dragon’s growth.

“This is so pretty,” Sweetie Belle said.

“There is a cave system in the mountain behind Canterlot. A Jackrabbit tribe lives in the upper caverns, moles in the middle, and Goblin Ponies in the lower chambers. But in the heart of the mountain, there is an Arctic Dragoness, whom a dark magic-user trapped there. I promised her I would take care of her egg, and someday return it to their ancestral homeland in the north.”

“Will a real dragon hatch?”

“I hope so,” Gearhead patted his young visitor gently on the head.

“I’ve been practising, you know.”

“Let us keep that away from the egg, shall we?” Gearhead steered Sweetie Belle toward the bed, and the bookshelves on both sides. “How have you been progressing?”

“The same,” Sweetie Belle’s tone left little doubt in that regard. “So no progress.”

“I can understand your frustrations, however these things do take time.”

“Oh, that’s not why I’m angry. It’s Rarity!” Sweetie Belle jumped up onto the bed when she said the name, making her taller than Gearhead.

“Oh?”

“She’s supposed to be spending time with me, but all she wants to do is work. Any time I try to do something helpful, I just mess up. And she won’t go to the Sisterhooves Social with me!”

“What is that?”

“It’s a fun event at Sweet Apple Acres, just for sisters. It has races and other competitions. I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to do stuff together, but Rarity says it’ll be too dirty.”

“And what did you say?”

“That maybe I’d try it without a sister,”

“The Social?”

“Everything. That’s how frustrated I am!”

“Even so, you really want to spend time with your big sister, correct?”

“Yes – no! I mean, she doesn’t want anything to do with me. That’s why she hasn’t come looking for me, and just keeps working, right?”

“Maybe she is just uncertain about what you can do together, given her business as well. Older siblings do not want to let their younger siblings down, ever. That feeling can generate a massive fear of failure.”

“I don’t know. Is your big sister like this?”

“Big Sister Ivy is kind and beautiful like Fluttershy, strong like Applejack, reliable like Rainbow Dash, fiercely intelligent like Twilight Sparkle, and unstoppably persistent on important issues like Pinkie Pie. Family is incredibly important to all of us, so perhaps like her, Rarity also puts high importance in being the big sister.”

“You think Fluttershy is more ‘beautiful’ than Rarity?” Sweetie Belle asked slyly.

“They have different kinds of beauty, like glamorous as opposed to a sort of more natural grace. Rarity has the first kind, while Fluttershy and Big Sister Ivy have the latter. That is why I used Fluttershy for comparison, although maybe I was mistaken to do that.”

“No, never mind. I just wanna know what I can do with Rarity.”

“You were unable to persuade her to go, and forcing her will obviously only work against you, given your difference in strength and size. All the same, you are family. You cannot ignore each other forever.”

“I could stay here with you, and you could keep teaching me magic,” Sweetie Belle said hopefully.

“Not only do I only have the one bed, but I am guessing you would get tired of my efforts to teach you all the more quickly.”

“Aww. What else can you do to help?”

“I think the Sisterhooves Social is a good idea. If you can find a way to get Rarity involved in it, both of you will be able to see what you can do as sisters. It will be a bit out of Rarity’s comfort zone, so she will have to want to take a bit of a leap together with you.” Gearhead thought about using his female form to help out, but did not think it was worth the embarrassment, or the questions other ponies might ask. Besides, he wanted to save that form for when he needed the extra strength that a proper Aria provided to a spell. “I certainly cannot accompany you to the Social.” But I know who might be able to lend you some help, Gearhead thought. “At least it is not far away, so it should be possible to ask for help.”

Sweetie Belle popped her eyes open wide and smiled. “And I know just who I can ask for help,” she said. “Applejack and Apple Bloom should be there right now. Thanks!”

“You are welcome,” Gearhead said. He watched the filly pause again to look at the egg on her way out, and saw her smile more widely. Then she was gone. Gearhead wished her the best of successes, and then he returned to his work.

* * *

Gearhead found that he was still concerned for Sweetie Belle and Rarity, the former of whom he guessed he was starting to see as not just a pupil, but as another little sister, on top of the two biological ones he already had. Gearhead decided to close up shop and seek out information about the Sisterhooves Social, so he could provide back-up if necessary. This did not prove to be hard, as somepony had posted fliers all around Ponyville – and judging by the height at which they had been posted, Apple Bloom was the one who had been doing it.

With a little more digging around, Gearhead found out that Sweetie Belle had spent the remainder of the day with Applejack and Apple Bloom, and that they planned on camping out for the night. He found Rarity, already on her way back to Carousel Boutique.

“Shall I take it that things did not go as planned?”

“Oh, I meant to apologize, but I think I just made things worse. But I have a plan,” Rarity said, looking hopeful.

“If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

“Really? There won’t be many stallions around. Or is it that you plan on showing your feminine side again?”

“Is this really an appropriate time for such jokes?” Gearhead asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry,”

“I would like to think I can lend a hoof without resorting to magic,” Gearhead said.

“Well, thank you for your concern,”

“It is not a problem. I would also like to see my student happy,” Gearhead said.

“Oh, are you really continuing with that?”

“Yes. Sweetie Belle claims she has been practicing, although to no avail so far. She was not in the right frame of mind to make any attempts today, however.”

“She has really been practicing a lot since the trip.” Rarity paused. “She really came to you for help about… the two of us?”

“Yes, and too many more instances like this and I may begin to think of her similarly to how I think about my own little sisters,” Gearhead said.

“What would that make me to you?” Rarity asked wryly.

I’m the older one in this instance as well, Gearhead thought. “Unavailable,” was what he said instead.

“Getting back at me for springing my costume on you the way I did?”

“Let us say I was not expecting it, and leave it at that, shall we?”

“I do have more pressing concerns,” Rarity said. “Can you get up early tomorrow to help out?”

“I can do that,” Gearhead said.

* * *

Gearhead and Applejack were up dark and early the next day to go over the obstacle course where they were planning on making their play, looking for possible switch points. “There’re not many choices,” Applejack said. “Almost everything’s in sight of the racers. Besides, any area Rarity could go through, Sweetie Belle could follow. This has to be seamless to work.”

“There is only truly one choice that would work that way,” Gearhead nodded toward the mud pool at the start of the course. “It can even be used as a good place to hide the second mare for the duration of the race. The only real issue is the air supply.”

“’Only issue?’ Not if Rarity’s gotta hide in there: she wouldn’t even put a hoof on it under normal circumstances!”

“Fortunately for us, this is far from a ‘normal circumstance.’ Should Rarity wish to prove to Sweetie Belle that she wants to be sisters badly enough, she will go through with it.”

“Well okay, but we’d better get moving on this soon if we want to get it done before anypony can get here and witness it, to tip off Sweetie Belle afterwards.”

“I will create the air pocket immediately,” Gearhead said. He stepped up to the mud hole and took off his hat, vest, and shoes, arranging them neatly to the side.

“You sure you can deal with the mess?”

“Miss Applejack, have you forgotten who I am? I will not be dealing with the mud; it will be dealing with me.” And he jumped in.

Applejack and Big McIntosh had dug the pit right, filling it to capacity with mud that was just a little thicker in consistency than water on the top, and thicker still at the bottom. Gearhead felt that there was something he could do to improve the odds of their plan’s success, but first he had to create a reservoir where the second mare could wait.

Working with absolute patience, but also with considerable speed, Gearhead applied his geomancy to creating several small tubes along which air could travel to the bottom of the pit. He then created a small area that was clear of the mud, so the waiting mare would not have to worry about anything besides waiting for her cue. From the sounds of Applejack’s and Rarity’s voices drifting downward, Gearhead figured that they would not have a problem figuring out the start and end of the race – especially when Applejack fell into the pit.

Next, Gearhead made it so the mare in the pit could pull herself into the mud of the ceiling for the cleared area, at the same time that the mare coming into the pit could slide in. Then he changed the mud’s consistency so it would stick properly and keep the racing mare covered. Literally. All the changes done, Gearhead did a little test and then pulled himself out. Before he put on his clothes, he activated his geomancy one last time, to get the mud to slide off him and back into the pit.

“Well, that’s useful,” Applejack said as Gearhead dressed. “Ready to get dirty?”

“Oh my. I guess I could pretend it was just a mud bath… no, that’s not right. I’m doing this for Sweetie Belle, after all. Yes, Applejack, I’m ready.”

“Well then, grab all the fresh air you can, because you’re unlikely to get more for awhile.”

“You need not concern yourself with that, Miss Rarity: The air zone is quite secure. I would, therefore, advise you to consume a moderate amount of food and water.”

“Yes, I think I’ll do that,” Rarity said. “Although,” she added, “now that I’m ‘all in’ I’m starting to feel slightly queasy.”

“I’m sure that’s just nerves, and rightly-earned enough, if you’re serious about this,” Applejack said.

“It’s the least I could do for my own sister,” Rarity said.

* * *

As Gearhead watched from a nearby copse of trees, he saw the Sisterhooves Social unfold smoothly. Rarity was fed, watered, and in the pit before anypony else, other than Apple Bloom, could arrive. Once enough ponies got to Sweet Apple Acres, Granny Smith started things off, with some help from Big McIntosh.

Then Sweetie Belle arrived, and they were all on. From the point when Applejack gave her hat and kerchief to Sweetie Belle, there was no longer any going back on the plan.

Sweetie Belle lined up at the starting line with Applejack, and everypony got pumped up for the race. As soon as Granny yowled “go!” the racers were off. Sweetie Belle and Applejack made it over the starting line together, the former taking the lead out of the pair. Sweetie Belle hopped across the mud, her lighter weight keeping her aloft. But Applejack stepped fairly precisely on the trapped spot that Gearhead had indicated for her, and fell right into the pit with a ‘whoa!’ as planned. When Sweetie Belle stopped and asked Applejack “are you alright, Sister?” it was Rarity who, coming to the surface and jumping out of the mud, smiled and nodded – Gearhead immediately noticed the difference in eye colour, but Applejack’s Stetson covered the Unicorn’s horn perfectly. Likewise, Gearhead’s thicker, stickier mud kept Rarity’s white coat, purple hair, and diamond cutie mark out of view.

Arriving as early as she had, Rarity had had time to go over the course, and practice how she would pass every section alongside Sweetie Belle by mimicking what Applejack would have done with Apple Bloom. This meant that when it came time to do the real thing, both Unicorns were able to go through the course with minimal communication between them. That was how well they had planned their parts, although the younger Unicorn did not know who it was she was racing with – until, in her jubilation, she knocked the Stetson from Rarity’s head, revealing her horn.

Since the cat was out of the bag, so to speak, Rarity used her magic to shed the rest of her mud covering, leaving her as glamorous-looking as usual. It also left Sweetie Belle surprised but pleased, because it also meant that her plan had also worked, proving that Rarity was willing to compromise if it meant spending time with family.

Gearhead silently excused himself and made his quick retreat to Gearhead’s Gadgets, where Fluttershy had been covering for him. The yellow Pegasus left through an upstairs window so Sweetie Belle would not see her going when she came with Rarity to thank Gearhead for his advice.

* * *

The next day, after a successful morning of sales, Gearhead closed the shop to practice his spellcasting. He did most of his practice routine outside, where his battle magic would not damage anything, however he took his more powerful spells inside. That day he wanted to practice his Dextrous Transformation spell, and because there was little or no damage associated with it, he took his practice in his living space upstairs.

Gearhead completed his evocation of the Four Spirits, remembering what Armour and Cadence had suggested about him being an Elemental Mage, when a stray gust of wind stirred up some of the loose perma-flakes from the dragon egg. Despite the distraction as they swirled around Gearhead’s face, he continued the incantation – and then the snowflakes started to tickle his nose.

Gearhead struggled mightily against his natural reflexes, twisting his muzzle this way and that, contorting his mouth while still trying to get the words of power out intact. The itch persisted in rising as the flakes continued their irritating attack. Gearhead kept contorting his muzzle and nose. He paused for breath, and even as he began to inhale, the tickling intensified.

He blew it. Gearhead’s sneeze sent up a dust cloud that obscured everything. The pony coughed and waved one hoof to try to clear the air even a moment more quickly, unable to gather a solid enough breath to summon a clearing wind.

Finally the dust cleared away. Gearhead noticed immediately that he was closer to the ground than he had been previously, and his furniture and sample gadgets seemed to be higher up. Fearing the worst, he trotted toward a full-length mirror that he kept for seeing the effect of various outfits, to see what would make him look more business-like. That the journey took much longer than usual did not help Gearhead’s sense of foreboding. And the pony reflected in his mirror was merely the latest nail to be hammered down.

“Pony feathers,” he said, and cursed his higher-than-normal voice too, silently.

* * *

Although Fluttershy’s cottage was the closest of his friends’ residences, Gearhead knew that going there would prove to be a mistake that would cost him a lot of time, and even more dignity and self-respect. Still, he needed to get this problem solved, and the quicker the better.

At his reduced size, Gearhead was too small to fit into his core system’s harness. He was not even large enough to wear his geomancy-proof shoes anymore. Fortunately, he no longer seemed to have any problems keeping his geomancy from leaking when he went outside. Just as unfortunately, he did not seem to be able to access it readily when he wanted to. Nor could he cast any spells, despite his many efforts to undo his transformation before leaving the shop. Similarly under the ‘bad news’ heading, his new wings could not carry him. He was starting to be able to appreciate how Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle felt about their own tribe-oriented abilities.

Since Gearhead could not use his magic, he needed to get to somepony who might be able to do so in his stead, or at least he needed to get in contact with another pony who might know something about the transformation that had occurred to him. While Gearhead knew that getting help was necessary to resolving his current predicament, he also dreaded the others’ reaction when they saw him like this. This was precisely the reason why he felt he could not go to Fluttershy. Similarly, he would dread being seen in this form by Shining Armour or Cadence who, until now, respected him as a fellow warrior and mage. But not if they see me like this, Gearhead feared.

In the hope that turning to one of the more rational of the six friends would guide him swiftly to a resolution, Gearhead took to trotting into Ponyville on his shortened legs, as serious an expression of determination as ever fixed to his face, his feathered wings furled tightly to his body. If Twilight did not know how to solve this one, at least she could get Spike to contact Princess Celestia. Not that Gearhead was looking forward to seeing how she might respond to this new form: Gearhead could very well predict the reaction of any mare who saw him, even, and perhaps worst of all, Big Sister Ivy. Thankfully, she was in Verdant Fields and nowhere near Ponyville.

Gearhead made his way to the Golden Oak Library as fast as he could move. For a moment he was worried he would not be tall enough to reach the knob, or be able to open the door, however it was made so that ponies of all sizes could use it.

Unfortunately, Twilight was not the only pony present when Gearhead came through the door. He also saw Applejack and Apple Bloom. Their panicked expressions showed that they were already dealing with their own issue, which seemed to explain why Apple Bloom had a number of cutie marks instead of the normal one. Or none, considering all of the Cutie Mark Crusaders were supposed to be Blank Flanks.

“Isn’t there somepony else who might have a remedy to stop this?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Not somepony, some Zebra!” Twilight said, hitting upon an idea.

“Zecora!” Applejack grinned. “Lets go,”

Which was when they turned toward the door and noticed Gearhead standing there. For a moment everypony froze. Gearhead realized that they probably did not recognize him. Maybe it would be better to let them deal with Apple Bloom’s crisis first, he thought, and sidestepped to clear the doorway. “After you,” he said, clearing his throat.

“Oh. Right!” Twilight led the others outside, and they started to head for the Everfree Forest. Gearhead watched them go out of the corner of one eye, trying to make it look like he was not staring back – because there was enough staring going on. To be fair, however, male Alicorns were a practical unknown, at least in Equestria. As far as Gearhead himself knew, the only Alicorns around were the Princesses – Celestia, Luna, and Cadence.

Gearhead (he might have to think about a cover name depending on how long it took to find a spell that would revert him to normal) heard a commotion coming from down the street, and after trotting a short distance he found that Twilight had not led the others very far before Apple Bloom derailed their plans. He watched in amazement as a whole series of cutie marks appeared on the small Earth Pony, and she was subsequently forced to do whatever talent was linked to them: chimney sweeping, fencing, weight lifting.

Fortunately, while everypony else had headed inside, afraid of catching whatever it was that was afflicting Apple Bloom – Spike named it as ‘Cutie Pox’ – Zecora strode into Ponyville. Gearhead strayed well within earshot as the Zebra explained that a truth-sensitive flower could cure Apple Bloom of her Cutie Pox.

After the pressure from the situation forced Pinkie Pie to confess pigging out, Gearhead was certain that this was a ploy to get Apple Bloom to confess to meddling with one of Zecora’s many potions, however as soon as she ate the flower that her full confession and apology evoked, the cutie marks vanished, leaving one contrite and exhausted, but relieved and forgiven, Blank Flank.

Gearhead quickly made his way back to the library to wait for Twilight, hoping nopony else had noticed him. He took the time to take a full catalogue of his new form. Judging by his size and mass, he was somewhere in the same age cohort as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It would probably be wiser to call it as ‘ten,’ rather than ‘eight,’ although Gearhead did not know how his own maturity level compared to that of an average colt: he had spent much of his childhood studying or setting up his first store.

His coat was light gold, and his mane was darker with a thin turquoise streak, perhaps the sole remainder from his original form. The transformation had left it long, as though he had never cut it. His eyes were a bright green, and as before, all of his scars were gone. Perhaps if he let his wings grow in he could fly like a normal Pegasus, however he did not intend on staying a colt for long.

“Now,” Twilight said, returning to the library, “is there something I can help you with?”

“That would be why I came to you, Miss Twilight,” Gearhead said, in part hoping his distinctive speech pattern would tip her off as to his true identity. “After all, if you cannot help me to revert to my normal form, I expect that the solution would only be found by sending a letter to Princess Celestia.”

“I’m sorry: you know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

“You do know it, however I have become too small for my distinctive shoes, and even more distinctive core system. I can assure you, I am still myself.”

“No way, that’s impossible! Who put you up to this? Was it Pinkie?”

Gearhead felt his frustration begin to build. “Does this look like a joke?” He asked, flapping his wings. Then, thinking better of the situation and his reactions, he took a deep breath to restore his calm. “Listen carefully, Miss Twilight: I was practicing a different transformation spell and sneezed on some errant perma-flakes from the egg. This happened, and I cannot access my magic at the moment. This is extremely serious, since as long as I am in this form, I cannot use the core system to help you protect Equestria in an emergency. Also, who would not ask questions if I tried to operate the shop in this form?”

“So you’re really Gearhead?”

“The same, and therein lies the issue. I need to change back.”

“What issue?” Spike said, returning.

“You may need to take a letter for the Princess, Spike,” Gearhead said.

“He says he’s Gearhead,” Twilight said, obviously still sceptical.

“Of course he’s Gearhead,” Spike said. “Who else could do something like… this?”

“It was not on purpose,” Gearhead glared.

“Oh, but you’re such a little –“

“Do not, I beg, finish that thought,” Gearhead said with a growl. “This is precisely the reason why I decided to go to you first, instead of to Fluttershy, who would have been the more convenient choice.”

“But—“

“I may be a colt physically, but you would do well to remember that I am, in reality, older than you are, Miss Twilight Sparkle. Also, being fawned upon makes me extremely uncomfortable.”

“I guess I can understand that,” Twilight said.

“Oh, unless it’s your big sister doing the fawning, right?”

“She must never know. Ever.”

“Well, if nothing else you’re definitely serious about this,” Twilight said.

“Emphatically serious,” Spike said.

“Okay, Spike, lets see if we can find anything about disabling transformation spells, as well as youthening spells.”

“On it,” Spike saluted, and then he started examining the shelves.

“I may as well help out, discreetly: the less ponies who find out about this, or even see me, the better,” Gearhead said. He chose another section of shelves to peruse, while Twilight went from section to section, searching in a targeted manner as only a librarian could.

After an hour of searching, even Twilight had to admit that maybe Ponyville’s limited research material would not be up to the task. “I think it’s time we sent that letter to Princess Celestia,” she said.

“Already on it,” Spike said. He had penned the letter after become bored with scanning shelves and reading, so all he had to do was to seal and send it. “Maybe there’s something at the library in Canterlot?”

“There might be,” Twilight said. Canterlot was Equestria’s capital for many reasons, and one of those was that it was also a center of magical research and knowledge. Princess Celestia had built one of Equestria's largest libraries there, as well as her Academy for Gifted Unicorns. Twilight did not know of any other towns or cities that had as large a collection, however Gearhead knew that the Conclave had the Hidden Library, because he had studied there for a time.

“If there is,” Gearhead said, “maybe we should let the royal researchers look after that angle.”

“But we’re out of options here,” Spike said. “Nothing’s helped at all.”

“Ah, but there is another option: the Castle of the Two Sisters also has a library. The last time we were there we only removed some intact books from the Princesses’ quarters.”

“That’s right,” Twilight said, “we didn’t get to the library. You really are Gearhead!”

“To think you still doubted me,” Gearhead shook his head. “Are we not friends, then?”

“Of course we are! Oh, but if we’re going to go to the Castle, we’ll need some more help: the Everfree Forest is extremely dangerous. Especially for smaller ponies.”

“I am not going to enjoy this, am I?”

Gearhead did not enjoy this, and just as unfortunately it was inevitable that the rest of the Elemental Six be brought into the loop. The fawning that put Gearhead so on edge was, therefore, also inevitable.

Fluttershy had been understandably excited to see a new, male Alicorn. She was always excited about new and exotic animals, and especially ones that could speak back. Her reaction to seeing Gearhead in his new form was nearly identical to how he had heard she had reacted to Spike. But a quick reminder as to who Gearhead was reduced her enthousiasm to quiet excitement. Gearhead could tell because Fluttershy kept staring. But she also kept looking like she wanted to cuddle with him, and that could be awkward given their relationship is mature adults.

Rarity was more reserved, but no less fawning, when it came down to it. She insisted that Gearhead sit with her as they rode in his cyclic wagon to the castle. She would have continuously teased him about his newfound childish status, except that she had already surprised him with a sexy devil costume on Nightmare Night. In retrospect, also teasing him because his body had become younger would not be fair.

Pinkie Pie had wanted to throw an ‘alicorn party,’ but Gearhead put that idea to rest with his repeated requests to keep his new state a secret. Rainbow Dash could not wait to get a new flying buddy, and was disappointed to see that he could not fly – yet. Fluttershy was far less disappointed by this.

Applejack was the most practical out of all the mares, yet she still struggled with the impulse to mother the colt. She combated her instincts by powering and driving the wagon, beside Twilight in the front. Fluttershy and Rarity had to content themselves with simply sitting with him, and sneaking the occasional pat in whenever his guard slipped. Gearhead was only too glad when Twilight called out “we’re approaching the castle.”

“Alright,” Gearhead said, getting up. “We do not have a definite deadline, however I would like to return to my normal, adult form as soon as possible. I would like to ask Twilight and Fluttershy to finish searching Princess Luna’s chambers. Rarity and Applejack, could you please take Princess Celestia’s rooms? Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and I can start off by searching the library. We should have enough time to finish checking the chambers, so we should meet in the library, and time things so we will have nearly exited the Forest before sundown. Questions?” They had left Spike at the library in case Princess Celestia had any suggestions as to what material to search for. He was, therefore, omitted from the search party.

“Sorry, I can’t take you all that seriously in that voice,” Dash said.

“When you look this way, let us see you try to sound serious, eh? I admit, however, that I am open to suggestions.” No one had any, so they split up.

It took some time to find the library, and the growing shadows that came off of the walls made it easier to lose track of time. Although the party’s Unicorns could provide light magically, the rest of them had some smokeless torches that they could use in the darker spaces of the castle. It was somewhat creepy to be walking around the castle ruins in the late afternoon, however not even Pinkie was in a mood to pull a prank at the moment.

As soon as Gearhead’s party found the library, they realized that their task would be a little different from the way they had first thought it would be: the library was formed from a cluster of circular chambers, all of which were lined with completely full bookshelves. Gearhead strode over to the nearest set of shelves and started searching along the lowest row. Dash flew up to the top, and replicated Gearhead’s efforts, but at a higher speed. Pinkie jumped in, and was instantly all over the place.

For awhile, Gearhead’s only marker for time was that Twilight’s, and then Rarity’s, party entered the library. While neither had found anything pertaining to Gearhead’s situation, they had found a few more volumes of general interest, which they could return to the princesses in Canterlot. They kept up the search until they noticed the sun was setting, and then they made for the wagon.

When the group returned to Ponyville and the library, they found that they had a visitor.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight bowed. “Apologies for keep you waiting.”

“It’s quite alright, Twilight Sparkle. After I read your letter, I decided that I had to see this for myself. Spike told me that you’d gone to the Castle to look for clues. I’ve dispatched my own research teams to scour Canterlot Library for the same answers. If a book or scroll holds the solution to this puzzle, we will find it.”

“See?” Gearhead said, “there was no point going to Canterlot if there was somepony there already to do the research for us. Not when we had elsewhere to look.”

“And I take it that so far your search has proven unsuccessful, little one?”

“So far,” Gearhead said, tilting his head. “And before you go any further, only my physical body has changed.”

“I am aware of that, and also about your discomfort regarding physical contact. The reason why I had to come here is something else, rest assured.” Princess Celestia started circling Gearhead, and her horn lit up with her magic: she was using it to inspect him, and to detect traces of magic that a Unicorn like Twilight might not be able to find. “If you would be so kind, please unfurl your wings and open them to their full span.”

“Very well, Your Highness.” Gearhead flexed muscles he had not had before, and shakily moved his new appendages into position, watching every little twitch to control them. This was different from moving his legs, or even from moving his limbs in Agile Form. But it did feel somewhat similar to some of the movements he remembered making while flying using the core system. Maybe, subconsciously, he had duplicated some of the necessary wing muscles in the interface between core and harness.

“You have made some very interesting changes,” Princess Celestia said. The magic faded from both her eyes and her horn. “And yet, there is much within you that has remained the same. I would like to study you more at length, however I believe that we can use your time in this form more meaningfully.”

“What do you mean, Your Highness?”

“For one thing, the research will go faster if I lend a hoof. At the same time, I must also focus on my own royal duties. I have been pushing much of it onto Luna as of late.” Princess Celestia paused, waiting for an indication from Gearhead.

“Understood,” he said.

“For another thing, you have been given an opportunity that is quite literally golden. You should consider this as a second chance at the childhood that was cut short.”

“Wait, what?” That was from Rainbow Dash, although most of the others carried the same sentiment.

“Forgive me, Your Highness, but I do not believe I missed anything in particular as far as childhood in my family goes.”

“Ah, but you never played with other ponies your own age. In this day, at least, that is an important part of a pony’s childhood.”

“Perhaps, but I have more friends now, and that is perhaps the most lasting part of childhood, is it not?”

“It is, and it is not,” Princess Celestia said, “because whether you realize it or not, because you lacked the more intimate sort of relationships with your peers, you never got the opportunity to learn one of the most important lessons life has to offer. And it is one a pony can only learn in the formative years of childhood. That is why it is perfectly opportune that your accident has caused you to physically regress.”

“But I am not a foal,”

“Then it is time you learned to be one, my little pony. You could probably start by being less formal in your speech.”

“I have always spoken this way,”

“No, not always. Remember how it was before, and speak that way. You will also need a new name to use as a cover, and let me see… yes, we can enrol you as one of my and Luna’s many-times-great nephews.”

“’Enrol?’”

“Yes, in the school here in Ponyville.”

“School?!”

8. Scholastic Specials

Chapter 8: Scholastic Specials

For him, ‘school’ was his own living space or a library, filled with books. It was halls and rooms steeped in traditions where he learned from the best and brightest the neighbouring Conclave had to offer. It was apprenticing to the best blacksmiths and carpenters and other craftsponies in Hoofington with connections to Herd Verdant. It was also studying magic under the tutelage of three princesses and the Captain of the Royal Guard. To have to go to a schoolhouse and study more mundane matters? That was simply embarrassing, so in a way, it was a good thing his face was already yellow.

As though to complicate matters, he had to keep all his tension out of his voice and face, and even control his body language as much as possible. He hoped his new peers would misinterpret him keeping his wings tight against his flanks as a simple case of nerves. Indeed, he could not simply relax. He understood the need to act more like a colt his physical age in order to maintain his cover (once it was properly established), but that did not mean he had to like it.

“Class, I’d like to introduce you to a new friend today,” Cheerilee said from beside him at the front of the classroom. Everypony stopped what they were doing and stared straight at him. Now that he had their attention, he would have to play his role as well as he could, or the whole thing would fall apart. He knew this was not ‘being sent back to magic kindergarten,’ which was what Twilight Sparkle had feared, but it was definitely real. He tossed his head to reset his short braid. Rarity had done that for him because his hair was too long otherwise, and yet she was unwilling to cut it. He took a deep breath.

“Good morning. I’d like you all to treat me the same as anypony else, so we can be good classmates – so you can just call me ‘Dusty.’” The name upon which Princess Celestia and Gearhead had agreed upon was ‘Stardust,’ but Gearhead had decided that this was an Alicorn who would be fed up with being treated differently just because he was related to royalty. He would want to be as normal as possible, and to him, that would start with an ordinary-sounding nickname. It would also start with something else. “I’m very very distantly related to some VIPs in Canterlot, but again, I don’t want to be treated any differently from anypony else, so no titles. It’s just ‘Dusty,’ another pony without a cutie mark, just like some of you.”

“You’re a Blank Flank?” That was Diamond Tiara. Gearhead knew that she and Silver Spoon antagonized the Crusaders on a normal basis. In other words, they were bullies.

“That’s right,” Gearhead said without missing a beat. “My destined path is undecided.”

“But! – just look at you: you know you’ll end up raising the sun.”

“Oh, but I don’t know,” Gearhead said with a sly grin. “Not only does Princess Celestia’s long lifespan mean that she may not become fatigued enough to require a successor in our lifetime, but there’s no way of knowing whether raising and lowering the sun is something that I will see as being cutie mark-worthy. I haven’t decided yet.”

The class gasped.

“’Dusty’ is right about one thing, class, and that’s that ponies without cutie marks simply haven’t had things decided yet. It’s when a pony does what she or he truly enjoys that they get their cutie marks.” Cheerilee gave Gearhead a warning glance. “Please take a seat,” she said, with some of the lightness in her voice gone.

Gearhead nodded respectfully, and then made his way to the back left corner of the class where a new desk had been added for his benefit. The stallion-turned-colt copied the others in where their school-saddles were attached to their desks, then he took a seat himself.

While class began, some pony or other kept turning to glance or stare at Gearhead. Naturally, Alicorns were something of an oddity since most ponies here would only be aware of the Princess Sisters. A male Alicorn was entirely unique, and Gearhead would be fortunate if nopony called him a freak, even if only behind his back, by the end of the day.

But such a moniker would not bother Gearhead at all, considering it as an acknowledgement that there was nopony else around who was like him (which, as far as he knew, was entirely true). He had also been called worse, like ‘Lord’ Vines calling him a walking disaster. Which, at face value, had been true anyway. Nothing these foals could call ‘Dusty’ could hurt Gearhead’s self-esteem. Although for appearance’s sake, he might have to respond to a choice barb as though it did hurt, just because it would be an appropriate reaction.

To Gearhead, most of what Cheerilee taught sounded like fairy tales for foals. Much of what he had learned and retained, including in the fields of agriculture and pony lore, had practical applications for his work, or would lead to practical applications. In his case, since he could not farm, he used his knowledge to figure out ways to make farming easier for those who could. Similarly, knowledge in other fields allowed him to design gadgets for other ponies. His gadgets allowed others to cut down on their efforts without cutting corners or compromising their work quality. That said, Gearhead was certain that some of the things Cheerilee taught could help him when he returned to normal, so he kept his ears open even as he doodled other designs, and took the odd note.

Nopony did anything in particular to bother Gearhead until free time early in the afternoon. Half the school had a recess from school activities where they could play outside, while the other half was given time to eat lunch. Halfway through the free period, they would switch. Gearhead had joined a class that had lunch scheduled first.

Right at the signal for lunch, quite a few colts and fillies ran off to line up for the school-provided meal. Figuring that it would be more trouble than it was worth to line up, Gearhead had aimed to prepare his own meal. It turned out, however, that his reduced size made him more prone to accidents without having any magic to compensate for his loss of dexterity. He had, therefore, had to ask for some help preparing his meal – and Fluttershy had been only too happy to assist him.

This, however, had led to some unplanned embellishments to Gearhead’s planned meal. He usually ate basic meals, with all of the nutrition his body would require and little in the way of seasoning for flavour. Fluttershy not only used more seasoning, but she also put in more colourful fruits and vegetables. As Gearhead took his first tentative taste, a sweetness he wasn’t used to spiked through his tongue, and he made a face without realizing it.

“Well, look who’s got a cat’s tongue,” Diamond Tiara said. She and Silver Spoon peered into his lunch box from both sides of Gearhead’s desk, where he had decided to eat.

“It would be a shame to waste any of your mommy’s carefully-prepared love,” Spoon said.

“As they say, ‘waste not,’” Gearhead said, rolling with it and taking another bite. “I’ll admit it takes some getting used to.”

The two bullies exchanged a glance, then Tiara ‘accidentally’ bumped the bottom of the desk with her rump. Gearhead moved swiftly, having expected something similar, and caught the box in both forehooves, nearly planting his face in the desk in the process.

Spoon bumped the desk next, but her target was already leaning back, box balanced over his head. He turned around in his seat and hastily devoured the rest, then smiled at the fillies through the crumbs.

Tiara and Spoon were about to turn away, completely foiled, when a funny look came over Gearhead’s face. Curious, they watched closely as he belched right in their faces. “Pardon me,” he said, putting the empty box down. “Seems I ate too quickly.”

Tiara and Spoon waved a hoof in front of their noses, and making disgusted noises, moved away. “That was awesome,” Scootaloo said as she and her friends approached.

“Disgusting, but brilliant,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Those two wouldn’t be the first bullies to try something like that, nor the first to fail at it,” Gearhead said.

“Mind if we join you?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“As long as you don’t mind the occasional burp,” Gearhead said.

“Oh, we don’t,” Apple Bloom said, then she belched to demonstrate. Hers was louder than Gearhead’s had been, and brought a disapproving look from Cheerilee. The filly smiled and waved apologetically, which made Cheerilee shake her head with a wry smile. “I’m Apple Bloom,”

“Scootaloo,”

“I’m Sweetie Belle,”

“And we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” the three fillies said in unison.

Ah, I was wondering when the pitch would come, Gearhead thought. “It’s nice to formally meet you. As you heard in my public introduction, I’m Dusty.”

“I wouldn’t think that’d be a name for an Alicorn from Canterlot,” Apple Bloom said. “That’s more like a name I’d expect from a farmpony, like my family. In fact, we might even have a ‘Dusty’ of our own!”

“It’s a nickname,” Gearhead said, “and all anyone really needs to call me. But what’s this about ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders?’”

“We’re so glad you asked,” Scootaloo said, and it was obvious that she really was pleased to be explaining their group.

“We’re a group of like-minded young ponies,” Apple Bloom started.

“And we’re also friends,” Sweetie Belle said. “Since none of us have our cutie marks yet…”

“We’re working together in order to earn our cutie marks all at the same time,” Scootaloo said.

“Is it an all-filly group?” Gearhead asked.

“I guess we did start that way,” Apple Bloom said, “but not necessarily.”

“But we will have to change the pledge a bit,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Huh?” Apple Bloom whispered in Scootaloo’s ear. “Oh, that part.”

“It’s not a problem,” Apple Bloom said, smiling.

“Would you be interested in joining?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Oh, I’m not sure how long I’ll be staying in Ponyville.”

“That’s alright,” Scootaloo said. “You can always start a new chapter when you go home to Canterlot.”

“How great would that be: Cutie Mark Crusaders in the kingdom’s capital?” Apple Bloom said.

“That’d be so exciting!” Sweetie Belle jumped a bit, and sparks bounced from her horn. Apparently she really was excited about the prospect, which was interesting on its own. But that feeling of excitement had also come closer to breaking through whatever was preventing Sweetie Belle from casting spells than anything she had tried while practicing with Gearhead. Interesting, he thought.

“As long as it’s okay with your parents for you to have a colt around, it’s fine with me,” he said. Not that he’d try any funny business with any filly anyway.

“Applejack and Big McIntosh won’t have a problem with it,”

“You’re nice, so Rarity shouldn’t have any issues either.”

“No problems here either. Shouldn’t you ask your parents though?” Scootaloo asked.

“No need: I shall be the perfect gentlecolt,” Gearhead raised a hoof as though swearing an oath. While this evoked some laughter, it did bring up a serious matter: while Gearhead was pretending to be Stardust, there was no way he could stay in the shop. At the same time, having anypony stand in as his make-believe parents would be to invite questions, and with them, trouble. It had therefore been determined that Gearhead would stay with a member of the Elemental Six. But they had yet to determine which one.

Applejack and Sweet Apple Acres was not an option because Gearhead could not predict how his geomancy would react at any time. He preferred to stay away from the farm until he knew for certain. Also, living with Apple Bloom could produce some problems.

Although Fluttershy had provided Gearhead with his lunch, he did not feel like staying at her cottage: It would take a long time for him to walk to school. He felt like living alone with the mare he was supposedly courting in his adult form would lead rather easily to more questions. Also, she was the one who was most likely to smother him.

Pinkie Pie was out because Gearhead’s presence would get in the way of her lifestyle, and because it would gather too much attention. Too many ponies walked into and out of Sugar Cube Corner as it was.

Carousel Boutique was out for reasons that resembled those of all the others combined: Rarity had a wide range of customers, any of whom could see Gearhead and start asking uncomfortable questions. Besides, if Gearhead lived with Rarity, she’d probably be merciless in teasing him, the way she did. Cohabitating with Sweetie Belle would also be a bad idea, especially since she was the closest to Gearhead out of the three fillies. The more time Gearhead spent with them, the more risk there was of them finding similarities between ‘Dusty’ and Gearhead. At the same time, he did not believe he could avoid the Crusaders altogether. He figured it might be better to face them head-on.

Rainbow Dash’s cloud castle was not an option because Dash would not always be there to ferry Gearhead back and forth, and since he could not fly yet, somepony would have to be able to do it. And Dash was usually away, even when she was just napping.

That left the Golden Oak Library. While it, too, had customers, it was neither a candy shop nor a clothing store so the volume was not the same, and Gearhead could be much more discreet about his movements. He respected Twilight too fully as a fellow-scholar to really think about courting her, nor was he attracted to her in that way. And she and Spike shared his secret, that he was really the Earth Pony Gearhead. As long as Twilight did not plan on pacing in the loft while he and Spike tried to sleep, Gearhead did not see any problems with staying at the library.

Of course, this left other measures to take care of. First, they had closed Gearhead’s Gadgets, posting an ‘away on business’ notice on the main entrance. Next, Fluttershy had promised to be very discreet in checking in on the dragon egg. Finally, extra supplies and resources would go directly into the forge room in the basement for use when Gearhead returned to normal. That activity would be performed by various ponies, and in the open, so it would have the appearance that all was well.

“Great,” Scootaloo said, bringing Gearhead out of his reverie. “We can show you the clubhouse after school!”

After lunch, the Crusaders led Gearhead outside to play in the yard. Almost immediately, Tiara and Spoon took up blocking positions. “Hello, Blank Flanks.” The Crusaders cringed, so obviously they had not gotten used to being called that yet. Gearhead would have preferred that the fillies find a way to resolve their conflict with their bullies on their own, but as things stood they would not make any progress anytime soon.

“You say ‘Blank Flanks’ like it’s supposed to be an insult.”

“It is,” Spoon said.

“If you don’t have a cutie mark, it means you’re not special and don’t know what you’re gonna do,” Tiara said.

“We’re young; there’s plenty of time for us to figure out what to do with ourselves. In the meantime, none of us are locked in with any one special talent. That means more than one potential vocation – that’s job and lifestyle.”

“Don’t kid yourself: you’re an Alicorn, and that means your power will be to raise and lower the sun or the moon, but like you pointed out yourself, you’ll never get to do it because Princess Celestia will be around for longer than you will be,” Tiara said.

“I certainly hope she will be: she’s very good at her vocation. And that leaves me free to explore other possibilities.”

“Oh? Like what? Are you going to go into apple farming?”

“That’s a possibility,”

“Chimney sweeping?”

“Also possible,”

“Magic knight!” Scootaloo said.

“I suppose if I had the knack, I could join the Royal Guard,” Gearhead said. “The question is, do I want to protect Princess Celestia or Princess Luna? So many possibilities!”

“Ugh! You’re no fun,” Tiara said, and led Spoon in storming off.

“’Apple picking?’” Apple Bloom asked, once the two fillies were gone. “I wish I could come up with something to just make them stop,” she said.

“It’ll only get worse if you react to their prodding: that’s exactly what they want. It’s better to just deflect their verbal attacks aside, leaving them nothing to use as a follow-up. Even counter-attacking is a reaction that they’d prefer to simple acceptance,” Gearhead said.

“I’m not sure that’d work for us,” Sweetie Belle said.

“It will if you want it to work,” Gearhead said. “You can shut them down by boring them.”

“It’s a good idea in your head, but in reality..?” Scootaloo was sceptical.

“I think it’s worth a try,” Apple Bloom said.

“Then you’ll all have to go for it,” Gearhead said. “They’ll go for any gap they see, so the three of you will have to stand together.”

“Four, including you,” Apple Bloom said.

“I won’t always be here. You’ll have to be able to deal with them without me, then.”

“Will you really have to go back to Canterlot?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Eventually, yes. When that happens, you’ll have to be ready for your bullies.” None of the fillies knew what to say to that. “And on that note, what do you do for fun around here?” The Crusaders immediately brightened.

“Four Square!”

“Jump Rope!”

“Ball games!” They set off together to complete the Herculean task of showing Gearhead everything they could do before recess came to an end. Games and sports were generally not Gearhead’s thing. Certainly he had played simple games with Big Sister Ivy, but nothing like these games. He paid careful attention to the rules, so nopony would have to explain them to him twice.

Regardless, he was awkward to say the least. One reason was that he still was not used to his new size, so he found it hard to coordinate his movements. The other reason was because he had never played such games before, so everything was new to him. It takes time to learn anything new.

Because Gearhead focused well on his endeavours, he might have mastered each game by the third go-around. Unfortunately for him, they only played each game once or twice. With each new challenge, he got to look like a fool all over again. But, because he had taken Tiara’s and Spoon’s barbs so well, he had to take losing in stride as well. That was, until he lost the tenth game in a row. Then he acted sour, because he thought that was the way a colt might act after losing so much. Fortunately for all involved, recess soon came to an end.

When Cheerilee called on ‘Dusty’ for an answer in class, he could have easily answered each question correctly. In order to more realistically play the part of an ordinary student, however, he weighted his answers in order to get about two thirds correct, or to answer a multiple-part question mostly right. All of this effort was in order to look average, but Cheerilee certainly did not seem to appreciate it when his answers were off. “Is this the way a princess’s nephew studies?” she asked.

“I’m sorry. I’ll try to answer more correctly in the future,” Gearhead said, despite his intentions to act otherwise. He decided to be more subtle with his answers from then on.

“I think it’s funny how you set Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon back so much, yet you couldn’t get the questions in class all right,” Scootaloo said. They had left school and were heading toward the clubhouse at Sweet Apple Acres.

“Nopony’s perfect,” Gearhead said.

“But you could have answered correctly,” Sweetie Belle said. “Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t want anypony thinking I was getting any favours just because of my connections in the capital. I just wanna be normal.”

“Is that why you don’t spread your wings?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I don’t use my wings because I can’t fly yet,” Gearhead said. “It’d be pointless to flap ‘em without ‘em doing anything. It’s the same with magic for me, so far. And,” he grinned, “that also makes me more normal.”

“So you don’t wanna fly?” Scootaloo asked.

“I suppose not,”

“And you don’t want to use magic?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“That could be useful, actually. But I haven’t learned how yet.”

“A stallion friend gave me some good tips,” Sweetie Belle said. “He said that you have to be able to feel the magic flow around you, and then be able to move it.”

She is talking about me. “So can you feel the flow yet?”

“Not yet, no.”

“Any good tips on flying?” Gearhead asked Scootaloo.

“Not really, no. Oh, but if you can’t fly, you can always try to find other ways to get around. I have my scooter, and I can really move when I flap my wings while I’m riding it.”

“Good to know,” Gearhead said. “I guess we all just have to keep at it until we find something that works.”

“That sounds about right,” Sweetie Belle said.

“I have to wait for my wings to grow in,” Scootaloo said.

“Very nice,” Gearhead said. Of course he had to say something when the fillies showed him the clubhouse for the first time. Gearhead had seen it before. He knew about the Cutie Mark Crusaders and their attempts to get their cutie marks by doing things, often dangerous, as quickly as possible. He had even facilitated some of those activities by providing them the gear with which to do them, while also making the activities themselves safer to attempt. Counter to all that, however, ‘Dusty’ had not known any of that, nor known the fillies, until that morning.

“My sister used to use it when she was our age, but then she stopped. She decided to give it to us,” Apple Bloom said.

“That was nice of her,”

“It was a dump,” Scootaloo said.

“We fixed it up.” Apple Bloom said, leading the others up the ramp.

“It was Apple Bloom, mostly,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Ah, so you’re skilled with tools,” Gearhead said.

“I guess,”

“And you’ve never explored getting your cutie mark through your skills in… carpentry? Painting? Renovation?”

“Not really,”

“We broke one of Fluttershy’s tables and then made it into ‘modern art.’ I’m pretty sure that means carpentry’s not our thing,” Scootaloo said.

“Ah, but nopony has to have the same talent,” Gearhead said. The inside was just as impressive as the outside – just as he remembered it. He made appreciative noises anyway.

“That’s why we’re doing all kinds of things,” Apple Bloom said, “and we’re doing it together!”

“Okay, how many different activities have you done so far?”

Sweetie Belle looked like she was actually trying to count. “A lot,” Scootaloo said.

“How many of those activities have been hazardous or inconvenient enough in their aftermaths to say you never wanted to do them again?”

“Most of them,” Scootaloo said.

“Okay, how many of the rest of the activities you’ve tried have you enjoyed doing?”

“Two?” Apple Bloom guessed.

“Three?” Sweetie Belle said.

“Not a lot,” Scootaloo said.

“So maybe it’s a good idea to focus on the stuff you like to do. After all, our cutie marks will help to determine what we’ll all be doing with the rest of our lives. We may as well try to enjoy it.”

“But if we don’t try everything, we might miss the one thing we’re supposed to be,” Apple Bloom said.

“And it would be worse if even one of us was left without a cutie mark because we missed,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Okay then, what have you tried so far?”

“We’ve tried carpentry, singing, and chicken herding…” Apple Bloom started counting them off.

“Pig farming, taffy making, and hairdressing…” Sweetie Belle continued.

“Mind reading, mountain climbing, and snorkling…” Scootaloo said.

“We even tried zip-lining, being librarians, arguing –“ Apple Bloom said.

“Arguing? I’ve no idea what that would look like, and I don’t want to know.”

“Right?” Sweetie Belle said.

“I wanted to try going for demolition, tight-rope walking, or tiger-taming,” Scootaloo said.

“Sounds deadly,” Gearhead said, completely deadpan.

“Yeah, Twilight and Cheerilee didn’t want us to do those either,” Apple Bloom said.

“What about juggling, magic tricks, or dancing?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“At least those aren’t liable to get anypony hurt,” Gearhead said, “or has your experience since suggested otherwise?”

“Not really,” Scootaloo said.

“Anything else?”

“We tried bowling, potion-making, and dentistry.”

“You didn’t actually..?”

“I thought they’d grow back!” Sweetie Belle said.

“Considering ponies study for over ten years before getting started, I think it’s safe to say you got ahead of yourself.”

“I know that now,”

“Right. So what d’you wanna do today? Keeping in mind that there’s not that much time left in the day.”

“So stuff we can do quickly?” Scootaloo asked.

“Exactly,”

“Lets try crocheting,” Sweetie Belle said.

“I’ll get the rackets,” Scootaloo said.

“No, that’s croquet,” Sweetie Belle said. “Fortunately I’ve got some needles and the other stuff right here.” She took the supplies out of a chest that was sitting against the wall and set herself up to start.

Scootaloo blinked. “Looks boring,”

“Maybe, but you said you wanted to try everything,” Gearhead said. He took a set and started to follow Sweetie Belle’s lead. Apple Bloom quickly joined in as well, so Scootaloo rolled her eyes.

“Fine. It’s just until we can tell whether or not we’ve gotten our cutie marks anyway,” she said.

Gearhead himself would have found this challenging without magic. He had some experience making clothes and other items using textiles, so he knew how to use his mouth and tail to grip the tools properly. He fumbled with them a bit and worked slowly, since ‘Dusty’ would not have much experience in anything like crocheting or knitting. Sweetie Belle outpaced him easily, but her patterns were loose. Apple Bloom worked more patiently, so hers looked right to Gearhead’s less experienced eyes. Scootaloo put forth an honest effort, but because she was trying to rush things her work always unravelled.

“I think we can call this one a failure,” Scootaloo said a few minutes later. And it was true that they did not have any marks for their efforts.

“You can choose the next thing,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Then how about juggling?”

“What should we juggle?” Apple Bloom said.

“Something that doesn’t hurt or make a mess when it falls,” Sweetie Belle said.

Scootaloo took out three soft balls just a little bit bigger than their hooves, and the four ponies took turns. Scootaloo herself was pretty good at juggling, but Sweetie Belle quickly lost control and ran for cover. Apple Bloom looked like she would be fair at it too, but she kept hitting the balls too hard with her hooves, sending them bouncing off the ceiling and walls. “Apple sauce,” she said. Gearhead dropped the balls almost as quickly as Sweetie Belle had lost control of them. He decided not to try a second time, so he would not improve his skills at juggling. “Another failure,” Apple Bloom said.

“At least nopony got hurt. I could get behind that,” Gearhead said.

“Okay,” Sweetie Belle said. “I think we’ve got enough time to try one more thing. Apple Bloom, it’s your choice.”

“Hmm… film-making?”

“Have you got a script written, then?” Gearhead asked.

“I’ve been working on something, but…”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s for three parts,”

“That’s okay: somepony has to be the camera crew.”

“Oh right. But I still have to finish the script.”

“Which means making an attempt as a writer as well,” Gearhead said.

“Nice catch,” Scootaloo said.

“But what should we try for right now?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Accounting?”

“What should we account for?” Gearhead asked.

“The wind!” Scootaloo said.

* * *

“Oh thank goodness you’re finally back,” Fluttershy said, hugging Gearhead in her relief. He gently eased out of her embrace (not that he actually minded it normally, but at the moment it was awkward), and assured the Pegasus that he was unharmed.

“You’re back later than you first expected,” Twilight said. “Did you have fun?”

“I admit there is some amusement to be had,” Gearhead said, “but pretending to be somepony you are not is tiring.” He had only gotten back to the library as the sun was setting, meaning that he had ended up spending a significant amount of time with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. “But rather than me making friends with them, the Crusaders made friends with me. I suppose I should have expected it.”

“Because they’re so open and friendly?”

“Perhaps, but I am also a Blank Flank in this form.”

“Oh, I see: They wanted to recruit you.”

“We shall see how long it lasts, together with this form. I should get my mark back when I revert to normal.”

“In the meantime, how about writing a letter to Princess Celestia?”

“Oh, but he should eat dinner first,” Fluttershy said.

“It is fine. I will write the letter first, and then eat,” Gearhead assured Fluttershy. “And then I will turn in, so you can return to your cottage for the night.”

“Oh, okay then.”

“After dinner,” Twilight said, and Gearhead nodded. Fluttershy might be worrying needlessly, but that was just the way she was, and he could accept that about her.

Despite starting to get used to moving normally, there was one very important aspect of being an Alicorn that Gearhead was not used to yet: sleeping. While trying to find a comfortable position in the smaller bed Twilight had provided for him on the far side of the loft, Gearhead discovered that if he slept on a wing, it was uncomfortable due to pinching, and also because cutting off the blood flow put him on pins and needles. He did not want to sleep on his stomach either, for fear of impaling his pillow or mattress with his short horn.

But he discovered that with a little tweaking, if he lay on his back with his wings folded tightly against his sides to start, when he relaxed his wings became rested on either side of him between his fore and rear legs. As long as he did not roll over, he would be able to sleep uninterrupted.

Or so he had thought, because his dreams became strange almost from the start: he would be in his normal form, armed with his daggers and core prototype and helping to fight the Diamond Dogs when he suddenly transformed into an Alicorn colt. The sudden transformation caused his friends to falter, and if not for Rarity’s skills at persuasion, they would have been captured.

Next he was trying to help the Buffalo and Appleusians solve their differences when he suddenly transformed again and got trampled for his troubles.

Then he was fighting Prince Blueblood for Rarity’s honour. He transformed into Stardust, and without his magic or superior strength Blueblood ran him through, and took Rarity for a maidservant.

And then he was battling the dark witch and her Dullihan. By now he was reluctant to take a central role, but recognized that he was the only one capable of incapacitating the Dullihan. Just as he was about to do exactly that, he transformed again. The Dullihan knocked him out of the fight, and a moment later the witch defeated Twilight, before defeating the others and capturing them.

Finally Gearhead was up against Discord, but he was alone, Ponyville and the surrounding areas having been ravaged by the witch and Gearhead’s corrupted friends. Discord turned Gearhead into his previous mare form, and mockingly gave him the Elements of Harmony. That was when he was also transformed into an Alicorn, but this time of the filly variation. Which made Discord laugh all the harder as he dumped Princess Celestia’s regalia on Gearhead’s head.

Gearhead had had enough of this foolishness by then. He knew this was all a dream, and dreams being different than reality, he also realized he could have abilities different than he had as he was lying in his bed. Like his true form’s abilities, or even better, ones about which he had only daydreamed.

Shining with his resolve and will, Gearhead transformed to normal. He was wielding his geargem dagger, and he even had a completed duel-core system. He turned up the power and unleashed his full strength on Discord.

And just as the Draconequus was being turned to stone, Gearhead awakened. Dawn (the time, not the pony) was approaching, and he remained ‘Stardust.’ He shook off the dreams, although he kept the feeling of returning to his full strength, determined to make it a reality.

Minutes later, still feeling restless, Gearhead decided to go out to the balcony. He sat down with his back solidly and comfortably against a wall and closed his eyes. He focused on his breath, and slowed it down. He focused on his heartbeat, and slowed that down too. He focused on his thoughts, and cleared his mind. He let his awareness expand, observing his own self, and the things that surrounded him, hoping to sense himself within the flow, just as he had taught Sweetie Belle to do. After a time he felt the  slightest tingling at the tips of his hooves, and he noted that it was not enough to do anything with it, so he just let it be, and existed within what he observed.

“Dusty, are you going to eat?” A voice asked. Gearhead pulled himself from the flow, opened his eyes the rest of the way, and turned around to face Twilight. Obviously she had used his cover nickname in case anypony might overhear.

“I could eat,” Gearhead said, walking back inside, having achieved a very limited success.

9. The Four Crusaders

Chapter 9: The Four Crusaders

“If you’ll recall,” Cheerilee said, “a cutie mark reflect the personalities and aspirations of the pony who gets it. This is true from the instant a pony gets her or his cutie mark. And the way this happens is,” she paused, “by magic. Nopony can be sure who or what governs how cutie marks are given out. Can anypony give me other examples of magic? Yes, Diamond Tiara?”

“Unicorns can do all kinds of magic, like summoning a light and moving objects mentally. They use their horns to do magic, which is often linked to their cutie marks.”

“Very good job, Diamond Tiara, also with linking it back to cutie marks. Who else? Silver Spoon?”

“Ooh! Pegasi use their hooves and wings to control the weather. Sometimes that’s related to their cutie marks too.”

“Very good. Anything else? Yes, Apple Bloom?”

“Earth Ponies are great at growing, caring for, and harvesting crops. We’re also very strong, ‘cause we have to be able to plough fields and move the crops we harvest.”

“Also very good. Can anypony tell us what’s still missing from those descriptions? How about you, Dusty?” Since the previous day, Gearhead’s desk had been moved to the center of the classroom. Now everypony swivelled around until they were looking at him.

Gearhead flicked his tail, curling the hairs to count off his points as he stated them. “While Unicorn magic is the most overt type out of the three pony tribes, it’s also the hardest to evoke. I’m told it has something to do with sensing the flow. Also, while most ponies can’t see it, every Unicorn has a different magical aura. Sometimes family members have similar colours. Most Unicorns can only perform a couple different types of spells, all related to her or his talent and cutie mark, however there are some notable exceptions. Ancient Unicorns, who lived before the founding of Equestria, could also raise and lower the sun and the moon, although doing so required the strength of a group working together. Unicorn magic can take years to learn, and decades to master. Most of it is established. The last great Unicorn mage to create original spells was Starswirl the Bearded. He has a wing named after him in the Canterlot Library.

“Pegasus magic includes not only weather control as Silver Spoon stated, but the ability to treat clouds as solid objects so as not to fall through them, and even the ability to fly – otherwise they’d have to have hollow bones and be extremely fragile to be light enough to fly. Pegasus flight magic also gives them additional protection against the elements, which helps when they fly fast, or through bad weather, whether or not they cause it. As with Unicorn magic, some aspects of Pegasus magic might also depends on the pony’s personality and inclinations. Nopony has ever studied the matter close enough to know for certain.

“Earth Pony magic is the only type of magic that’s always active. It’s probably not so much that Earth Ponies have an unlimited supply of magic power, but that as long as they’re connected to the earth, it keeps getting replenished. Their limits, therefore, rely more on their physical stamina than on their magical capacity. But that they use magic is the only reasonable explanation for why they’re so good at growing crops.

“Alicorn magic is the most mysterious of all, and for good reason: there’re so few of us that nopony, not even the Princesses, know our true limits – or if they do, they haven’t talked to anypony of note about it yet. What we do know is that Alicorns have casting abilities similar to that of Unicorns, and flight capabilities similar to that of Pegasi. I don’t know of any examples of Princess Celestia or Princess Luna using Earth Pony magic, but since Alicorns are crossbreeds it seems reasonable to assume that it’s possible. Since it only takes one of the princesses to move the sun and the moon, as opposed to the group, we can also assume that Alicorns are more powerful than Unicorns. Or, it could just be that the princesses’ longer experience makes them, individually, more powerful, making them unique among Alicorns.

“Other creatures also posses magic. Dragons have breath attacks that may originate in magic, and that certainly seems to bear out with Spike, Twilight Sparkle’s assistant: he can use his fire to send and receive messages between Princess Celestia and Miss Twilight. Another example? Phoenixes renew themselves by bursting into flame and then reviving from their own ashes, although any of us would be lucky to see it happen just once. The gaze of a Cockatrice turns whoever meets that gaze to stone. In most cases, that change is permanent. Timberwolves are sticks and underbrush animated by magic. There’re more, I’m sure, but I think I’ve had enough of a chance to talk. More than enough, most likely.”

“You sure know a lot about magic,” Cheerilee said, laughing nervously.

“I’ve had several great teachers, Miss Cheerilee. But I still can’t cast yet. Can’t fly either.”

“That’s a shame, what with Sports Day coming up. I was hoping that with you here, the class would have another flyer. But I guess you’ll have to participate in the ground-bound events instead. That’s fine too.” Cheerilee cleared her throat. “I’m passing out permission forms now. Please have your parents or guardians sign them for you, and let them know they’re welcome to come and watch.

“That’s all for today.”

* * *

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Gearhead said as he slid a bag full of silver ingots from his back, supported by his wings, on to the workbench. They were using the first workshop at Gearhead’s Gadgets, with permission from Twilight. Naturally, Gearhead was extremely skilled at working with any metal, including silver. But as Stardust his muscles were more uniform, not to mention that a pony with his background would not have any skills as a blacksmith or as a silversmith. So he would just have to play dumb.

They were using the workshop to minimize the chances of things going wrong. Just in case they did go wrong, Gearhead had made a show of looking for all the shop’s safety devices. He could easily extinguish a fire, and even treat moderate wounds with a nearby First Aid kit. Anything more severe would have to be taken care of at the Ponyville Hospital, but Gearhead hoped to prevent that from happening.

“We’ll see,” Scootaloo said as the forge heated up.

“That’s not very reassuring,” Gearhead said.

“It’s just too bad Gearhead’s not here to help us,” Sweetie Belle said. “He would know exactly what to do.”

That is because I am skilled at working metals, gems, and wood, Gearhead thought. Naturally, they would not know he was right there. He wrapped his tail around the longest set of tongs, then went to inspect a neat line of hammers. Hammers made out of different materials would have different effects when used on different substances. The hammer used for armour and metal weapons would hardly do for silversmithing. Fortunately Gearhead had thought ahead, and labelled all the hammers: even in the case of a robbery, a thief would not have to take all the hammers to get the one he wanted.

Apple Bloom, who had been watching Gearhead, found the correct hammer before he did, and hopped up to knock it from its peg and catch it in her mouth. Together, they brought the tools back to the workbench.

“Lets see,” Sweetie Belle said. “We have the working area, tongs, a hammer, anvil, chisels, and quenching water. It looks like we’re almost ready.”

“Almost,” Gearhead said, putting on an apron that was much too big for just him. Sweetie Belle squeezed in to lift the dragging parts so he could not trip. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo put on the spare apron: Gearhead had never anticipated working with more than one other pony. The stallion-turned-colt turned his full attention to minimizing the chances for damage.

When the forge was hot enough, he took an ingot in the tongs and turned toward the fire. Everypony watched as the silver turned red hot. Gearhead waited until the ingot glowed bright orange, then moved to the anvil, bumping Sweetie Belle, who seemed to have gotten lost in thought, as he did so. Gearhead gripped the tongs firmly in his mouth, positioning the ingot over the anvil’s center, and looked across it at Apple Bloom. She nodded, and then started to pound the rough shape they had agreed upon out of the silver, using the hammer.

Periodically, Apple Bloom had to stop and switch with Scootaloo because one of them would get tired. They also had to stop to reheat the silver occasionally. Once they had the general shape they wanted, a chain of four roughly circular buttons the size of the bottoms of their own hooves, the ponies switched to using the chisels to etch out the details. For this part, Apple Bloom started out holding and angling the chisel, while Scootaloo was the one striking with the hammer. Sweetie Belle and Gearhead held the tongs secure together.

Gearhead raised the shaped silver out of the cooling bucket for the last time and brought it back to the workbench to separate their work, as they had been joined two-by-two until Apple Bloom and Scootaloo chiselled them apart. The resulting broaches were somewhat rough but passable. They were shaped as the insignia for the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Hey, that’s not bad,” Scootaloo said.

“Not bad at all,” Apple Bloom said, equally satisfied.

“But that was really hot work,” Sweetie Belle said. “I’m pretty sure I’m not cut out to be a smith of any kind.”

“To be honest, I’d rather be on my scooter,” Scootaloo said.

“I think that’s not a bad idea at the moment,” Gearhead said. “Why don’t we go relax outside for a bit? And we should find something to drink before we all dehydrate.” The fillies nodded, and they took off their aprons and put everything away.

“Oh yeah,” Apple Bloom said, “anypony got a cutie mark from that?” They checked. “No luck, huh?”

“On with the search,” Scootaloo said, while Gearhead went to extinguish the forge’s fire.

“After we relax a bit,” he said. Their efforts had been more tiring than he had thought they would be, but then he had never worked with metal with this body. Still, it was an entirely different exercise doing this sort of thing with other ponies, compared to working alone. Gearhead had enjoyed it.

“You know, I wouldn’t mind trying for a cutie mark in pillow testing right about now,” Sweetie Belle said.

“There are one or two important things to do first,” Gearhead said. “After all, if we’re just testing pillows I don’t think we want to leave any sweat on them.”

“Silly colt, fillies don’t sweat!” Sweetie Belle said, teasingly bumping into his flank as the group went upstairs together.

“My experience says otherwise,” Gearhead gave, and bumped, back as good as he got.

After they had drank some water, washed, and eaten they did indeed lie down to rest. If nothing else, the attempt at pillow-testing cutie marks left them feeling recharged and ready for the next thing on their list.

Scootaloo suggested trying to be ninja, so they dressed all in black and snuck around town, trying to follow different ponies without getting noticed. They tried to get into locked rooms and leave little cards with funny pictures on them. They even tried to use shuriken and smoke bombs, but even Gearhead did not hit his target dead-on, and the smoke bombs they made only smoked themselves and made them cough as their eyes teared up. Also, Gearhead was certain that the ponies they were following knew the Crusaders were there. But he thought it was fun anyway.

Scootaloo also suggested parkour, while they were running and jumping around already. For this one, they did not need to be dressed as ninja. They just needed to try to travel in as straight a line as possible as quickly as possible, completely on hoof. Scootaloo could really move on her scooter, pulling tricks as she went. Transferring that to running was a little harder than she expected it to be. Plus as smaller ponies they could not exactly scale the buildings’ walls and run along the rooftops. At least not without a little help from Pinkie Pie, who joined in because she thought what they were doing looked like fun. It was, but it was also tiring and hard work. The four of them might even need another bath afterwards. Pinkie said she was only too glad to provide it if they wanted.

Since the last two attempts, both unsuccessful, had been physical in nature, Sweetie Belle suggested that they try something more artistic: being florists. They asked Roseluck if they could lend a hand, and made a fair attempt at selling different arrangements of flowers to customers. Each pony thought of something they thought looked good or cool, and which they thought smelled good, but these bouquets hardly sold. Gearhead almost felt like his sales were out of pity, or because the mare who came by thought the Crusaders and their efforts looked cute. Either way, it still did not produce a cutie mark – not that he wanted to override his telescope mark anyway.

Afternoon had turned into evening. “Isn’t it time to turn in?” Gearhead asked, looking at the sky. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom exchanged a glance.

“Oh, but we have plans,” the latter said.

“Why don’t I like the sound of that?”

“Maybe you’re chicken?” Scootaloo asked. Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

“Nonsense, I’m a colt,” Gearhead said. “What’s this plan that takes courage?”

“We’re gonna take a try at creature-catching!” Apple Bloom said.

“Wait, I heard Miss Fluttershy say that you already tried that,” Gearhead said. It happened the same night I came to Ponyville. “Does a Cockatrice ring a stoned bell?”

“How can it? It’s stoned.” Apple Bloom said.

“Yes, and we will be too if we encounter one without Miss Fluttershy coming with. There are even worse dangers around, inside the Everfree Forest, too. And not one of us has magic or can fly.”

“Who said we were going into the Everfree Forest?” Scootaloo said.

“You said you had a plan, and where else would you go to catch a creature?”

“He has a point,” Apple Bloom said, and Sweetie Belle giggled.

“Anyway, we’re gonna go, and it’ll double as a test of courage!” Scootaloo said.

“Going into the Forest at dusk without anypony who can fly or do magic is an all-around plan for a disaster,” Gearhead said. “I just thought you’d like to know.”

“You don’t have to go if you’re too scared,” Scootaloo said, “but we’re gonna do everything we can to get our cutie marks.”

“Won’t you need nets or something?”

“We’ve still got our ninja gear. That should be enough!”

“You mean the gear that just helped us prove that we don’t make good ninja?”

“Yeah, those. Um…”

“Again, he has a point,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Lets get us some nets,” Apple Bloom said.

* * *

In the time it took to gather their nets, Gearhead was able to inform Twilight of what the fillies were planning. He hoped she would get the others to provide back-up for the Crusaders if they really got into trouble. At the same time, he wanted them to avoid interfering if it meant scrapping the attempt, which might lead to a repeat later on.

Most crucially, Gearhead had to stay with the fillies to do all he could to keep them out of trouble: he may not be able to use Read, but his knowledge of the Everfree Forest was second only to that of the creatures who inhabited it, Zecora included. That meant he knew which areas were the most hazardous, and how to avoid them. One of those areas was the Dullihan’s territory, but he did not believe the fillies would go that far from Ponyville, least of all in the dark.

Where Gearhead’s plan started to go wrong was when the fillies insisted on turning the event into a true test of courage. They would not accept his objections into splitting off into pairs, so after the others would not budge an inch on the issue, he found himself watching Apple Bloom and Scootaloo walk away along the left fork of a path. He and Sweetie Belle were supposed to take the right path. The team who screamed first, even if it was only one member of the team, would lose. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Gearhead said. Sweetie Belle merely nudged him to get a move on. He really had no choice here. They took the right-side path.

The Everfree Forest was honeycombed in paths, some wide enough for Gearhead’s wagon and others narrow enough they would have to walk single-file. Then there were animal paths, criss-crossing each other throughout the interior of the forest. Gearhead kept them curving to the left slightly to try to track Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, just in case the mares lost them. They had not been an hour apart from each other when Gearhead started to figure it out. “But if they’ve gone that way,” he said aloud, “they’ll get to…” he didn’t want to continue the thought aloud, as though holding back could prevent it from happening. But following the path from where his and Sweetie Belle’s path intersected it without encountering the others only brought them to that place.

“Froggy Bottom Bog, home of the Hydra,” Gearhead said. “We must hurry, and hope they’re not in trouble yet. But let me explain my plan if they are.”

Sweetie Belle nodded, just as determined as Gearhead that if their friends were in trouble, she would not let them come to actual harm. Gearhead himself hoped they had not lost the mares, but if they had the only thing they had left was the rescue plan.

Gearhead and Sweetie Belle spotted the Hydra before they could see Apple Bloom or Scootaloo. Naturally this would be the case, as the four-headed beast was backing the two ponies into a corner, figuratively speaking. Gearhead assumed that the murky water into which they were being herded got deeper further out, and assuming that it did that meant the two fillies would have to swim to stay afloat, slowing their movements. That, in turn, meant the Hydra could take its time catching and eating Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. Gearhead had to assume there was nothing bigger and softer in the bog at the moment.

But that would contradict Gearhead’s plan. He nodded to Sweetie Belle to signal the start of Phase One. She silently began circling around, using the nearby brush and bushes as cover while she made her way toward the others. Once she had made enough progress that the Hydra would not immediately see her, Gearhead spread his wings to make himself a larger target, and charged straight in. To ensure he got the Hydra’s full attention, he began to taunt it.

“Hey! Meals-on-Hooves here. Somepony order the colt? He’s bigger than those others, and the wings mean extra meat!” That did have the desired effect, with the two heads on the outside turning to look in Gearhead’s direction. He kept coming, jumping around and flapping his wings, although he did not have enough power with them to actually lift off. And if he did, he would not make a very appetising lure.

“If you can catch me, you can eat me. Wanna try? I’m right here. Ooh, now I’m even closer. Hey! Ooga-booga! Your mother always said you couldn’t catch an Alicorn.” Now the other two heads swivelled in his direction. The Hydra turned to face him, and then it started to advance. Gearhead kept talking, hopping back and forth to entice the creature to continue following him while Sweetie Belle slipped in and told the others the plan.

Gearhead shifted his full focus back in time to leap out of the way of one diving head. Then there was another, and he had to do a high backflip to stay out of the jaws of the third head. He backpedalled again, jumping onto the fourth head when it came for him, and now he had to deal with the first head again. So he kept on running and leaping and flipping. “You wouldn’t catch me. You couldn’t catch me! Guess I’m not fast food after all, since I’m just fast!”

The fillies started shouting and running toward the Hydra, signalling the start of Phase Three. They spread out so that when Gearhead also stepped back slightly, they stood on the cardinal points relative to the Hydra. Then they started running around him, counter-clockwise. The Hydra looked at each pony in turn, confused, then each head locked onto a different pony.

Even during the Hydra’s confusion, Gearhead started accelerating, but slowly, to make sure the Hydra would not notice for awhile. All four Crusaders were running just outside of the long-necked Hydra’s range, which Gearhead had found in Phase One while evading getting eaten. Now, every time one head caused the Hydra to lurch after one pony in order to try to catch and eat it, it would steer the Hydra one step away from the other ponies. But instead of staying where they were relative to the Hydra, the ponies all ran to compensate and keep their distance almost the same.

On the first such instance, the Hydra seemed to decide thet Sweetie Belle, in the ‘north’ position, would be the easiest to catch. When it moved to make its attempt, Apple Bloom behind Belle, and Scootaloo behind Bloom, moved ‘north’ and curved ‘west.’ Only Gearhead, in the ‘west’ position himself, angled to cut more closely to the Hydra, recapturing his attention. The Hydra found itself once again in the middle, and when it lunged at Gearhead, he leaped out of the way and resumed his enticing distance from the Hydra.

During that time, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had started accelerating as well: If all went as planned, Gearhead would close forty-five degrees with Scootaloo’s original position, who would close twenty degrees with Apple Bloom’s position, who would close ten degrees with Sweetie Belle, who would advance one degree, thus closing the range between them without making it so any of the heads could scoop up more than one of them – and ideally without noticing the change. All of this was supposed to happen before the ponies completed one lap, and Gearhead thought they were coming pretty close.

The four Crusaders continued to accelerate toward a full gallop, each one closing the distance with the horse directly in front of her (or him). Every time the Hydra made a move, they countered it by moving too. Each time this happened, though, the ponies had to take more time, and this made them interrupt their planned acceleration. They went around four times before they were within the same ninety degree sweep – and then they all made their exit, with Sweetie Belle leading.

By the time Phase Three was done, they were gone and the Hydra was thoroughly confused and disoriented. And also hungry. Gearhead made a mental note to send Princess Celestia a letter asking for someone to go and feed the poor beast.

In the meantime, however, the Crusaders beat their hasty retreat from the Everfree Forest, not wanting to stay later in the night. Especially if Sports Day was the following morning. Gearhead was just glad they had managed to get away with their lives intact. He could not be sure the mares had been following them, so he did not know if they would have been able to provide a rescue if the rescuers had needed it.

And although they had managed to catch some chipmunks and rabbits, none of the four Crusaders had a cutie mark to show for their early night-time endeavours.

Although Gearhead had not been certain as to where the mares had been during the boggy crisis, the Crusaders found Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight all waiting outside the forest. The big sisters took their siblings home, while Dash escorted Scootaloo.

“Well, that was interesting,” Twilight said as she and Gearhead walked toward the library.

“How much did you see?”

“Just the last circling bit. If I’d thought of that when we followed Fluttershy there, we could have saved ourselves the whole jumping-the-chasm thing.”

“You had magic and Pinkie Pie. All we had was our speed and brains.”

“And you did admirably,” Twilight said, smiling. “But you stink to high heaven.”

“Being in a bog will do that,” Gearhead said. But he had to agree that another bath would do him good.

* * *

At first there was just three-year-old Gearhead, running along an empty landscape at top speed. Then eighteen-year-old Gearhead appeared in hat, goggles, vest, and shoes – just as he had been the day he left for Ponyville. Third, the core-altered Gearhead with slightly brighter green eyes and the turquoise highlights running down his mane and tail, equipped with the prototype core and his two dagger – the current Gearhead. They all ran together, although their paces differed because they were of different sizes.

Now Stardust appeared, running just a few feet beside three-year-old Gearhead. Both were smiling, where the older Earth Ponies had serious or neutral expressions. An adult Stardust appeared, running opposite not the pre-Ponyville Gearhead, but the sun-streaked one. Unlike his Earth Pony self, this Stardust was grinning. All five ponies kept pace with each other.

Then a Gearhead with the still-unfinished duel-core system appeared. His eyes were brighter, and a pair of metal wings flew in and attached to the core system, making it produce more intense particles. Instead of the interconnecting suit the single-core Gearhead wore, this one had more rigid armour, obviously designed to take even more punishment. It looked to the Gearhead observing everything like the armour was attached to the core, so it would drop down and fasten into place. It was a rather convenient design, since the armour would attach with the core. This Gearhead flew, but still did not smile.

An armoured Stardust appeared beside the duel-core Gearhead. His armour was lighter, but designed to provide sufficient coverage. Even his wings were covered, and while he flapped them occasionally, there were thrusters built in that he could use to fly and cruise. This Stardust was smiling too.

Seven ponies, plus the observing Gearhead – they were all, in truth, him:

The young Gearhead, full of optimism and hope for the future; the wanderer Gearhead, persistant in his quest for something only he could do; the pioneer Gearhead, with a vision to carry himself forward in a niche that he was only just then making for himself; the future Gearhead, who carried a vision and hope, and the strength to protect it.

The young Dusty, breaking away from expectations and learning to have fun; the mature Stardust, taking responsibility for his role; the armoured Stardust, because ‘will’ is useless without the ‘strength’ to carry it through.

The Alicorn’s identity might be a fiction so the ponies in the waking world did not ask questions, but they were all built with Gearhead’s personality, making them as real as the versions of himself he remembered, and the versions still waiting in the future.

Which made all the Stardusts and all the Gearheads the same as the observing Gearhead. One by one, the younger versions became absorbed by the older, more current versions. Soon only the two future versions of Gearhead and Stardust remained. Racing, they took to the sky, which was suddenly full of obstacles, around and through which they had to weave to remain in the air. But they spun and flipped, looped and spiralled, their speed never flagging. They traded first place many times, and both smiled as they flew spirals around each other, creating a helix that the magic energy they trailed helped to describe.

Gearhead and Stardust raced together into the unknown that lay waiting, because they were the same.

This time as Gearhead sat and drifted with the flow, he felt it with his hooves, and on his horn. It still was not enough, but by the time Twilight called him in for breakfast, he could tell: Close, and so much more so than yesterday. Was it because of the difference in his dreams, or was it because he had found a way to help his friends without having to rely on his magic?

At the moment, none of that really mattered. After breakfast was school, and the promised Sports Day. Gearhead did not know when he had started looking forward to it.

* * *

The main part of the Sports Day event was a three-part race, with the whole of Ponyville as the track. Cheerilee explained, “the race is broken into into three parts to allow you young ponies the opportunity to rest and recover between legs. But you will start the second and third legs in the same order in which you finish for the preceding leg. There will be one minute between each pony’s start time on the second and third legs. Only on the first leg will you start together, so finishing sooner on the first two legs will give you a bigger advantage. Each leg should take fifteen minutes to complete.

“As you all learned yesterday, each of the three pony tribes has its own specialty: strength and endurance for Earth Ponies, flight for Pegasi, and magic for Unicorns. You are permitted to use your tribe’s strength if you have it.” Many of the students would not, including all four of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, although maybe Gearhead could get into the flow during the race.

The competitors could be ranked both individually and as teams of four, but they would be racing individually unless they strategized together. As they lined up, Gearhead noted some of the other teams, other than the Crusaders: Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Erroria, and Tornado Bolt; Snips, Snails, Featherweight, and Pipsqueak; Aura, Very Berry, Cotton Cloudy, and Dinky Doo; and Liza Doolots, Pina Colada, Twist, and Noi. Scootaloo introduced the Crusaders to the strategy of drafting before the race got started.

Cheerilee shuffled the racers around so the team members would not all start right next to each other, then as the gathered townponies watched, she went through a short countdown and signalled the start of the race with a blow of her whistle. Everypony shot off, most of them going straight to top speed – except for Tiara and Spoon, who clearly wanted a more leisurely pace.

The Crusaders waited until the other ponies were out of the way so they could form up into a line. At first Scootaloo was in front, then she moved out of what little wind there was and fell back, letting Apple Bloom take the lead and the brunt of the wind. Scootaloo fell back to the rear of the formation, and then began to move up as Gearhead moved up. Apple Bloom fell back next, and Sweetie Belle had the lead. So the rotation continued, the Crusaders moving together at a moderate pace.

Soon they found a good cadence for both their cantering and their rotation, with Sweetie Belle singing a pace-holding ditty and the others using their hooves to stamp out a beat. Snips and Snails watched, somewhat dumbfounded it seemed, as the Crusaders passed them without seeming to be at all winded.

The Crusaders passed Pipsqueak and Featherweight on a turn, with Gearhead leading. He held the front until after the turn, when he rotated out to make way for Scootaloo. In the turn itself, he had to carefully measure his spread in relation to that of the others, but did not have to slow down all that much because he was already compensating for his own inertia before the turn. So far his efforts to feel the flow had not gotten any further than they had earlier that morning.

The racers entered main street Ponyville, where they would have to go past Sugar Cube Corner, down the lane, and around the Town Hall. The spectators were thickest here, but Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo seemed to soak in the attention. Apple Bloom was still smarting, emotionally, from her Pony Pox misadventure, and inadvertedly fell back a bit in embarrassment. Behind her, Sweetie Belle moved in close to get her friend moving more steadily again without missing a note in her songs. Gearhead kept his focus on his team despite his nervousness, and they recovered their pace. As they circled the Town Hall, the Crusaders passed Liza, Pina, Twist, and Noi.

Leg One ended just past the Golden Oak Library, where Twilight and Spike were cheering from the doorway, with Fluttershy hiding behind them even though her light yellow coat and pink hair gave her away. As they approached the checkpoint, the Crusaders all broke into their own all-out runs. Scootaloo broke away from the rest, and even passed Erroria and Tornado Bolt. Gearhead was a couple strides behind, and only managed to overtake Erroria. Apple Bloom came in behind Erroria, and Sweetie Belle came in moments later. The other racers came in one or two at a time, most appearing ragged and exhausted. Volunteers brought them water to get hydrated, bananas for energy and towels. When Leg Two began in five minutes, Aura, Dinky, Cloudy, and Berry would get to lead off but they would also have the least amount of rest. “That was a good run,” Cheerilee told them, “but don’t run too hard or you’ll exhaust yourself before you can cross the next checkpoint.”

Cheerilee came up to the Crusaders next. “I liked your rotations, nice and clean. Dusty, when you take the corners you can use your wings for balance and tighten up your turns. You’ll be able to keep your speed up that way. I know you probably don’t want to leave your team behind, but I’d like you to at least try. After that, they can try to chase you down. Got that, girls?”

“Yes, Miss Cheerilee!” They all watched their teacher go.

“She wants us to go faster?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I guess she wants to see us push harder,” Gearhead said.

“Then faster is what she’ll get, right team?” Scootaloo said.

“Right – go, Cutie Mark Crusader Racers!”

The starting order for the second leg was Aura, Dinky Doo, Cotton Cloudy, and Very Berry; Scootaloo, Tornado Bolt, Dusty, and Erroria; Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Liza Doolots, and Pina Colada; Twist, Featherweight, Pipsqueak, and Snips; Snails, Diamond Tiara, and finally Silver Spoon.

There would be eighteen minutes between Aura’s and Spoon’s starting times. If Leg Two really took fifteen minutes to run, Gearhead realized, Aura should finish when Snails started. Finishing ahead would indeed grant a large advantage. Gearhead himself would be starting six minutes after Aura, two minutes after Scootaloo, and two and three minutes ahead of Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle respectively. The Crusaders would have to choose between running individually, or waiting until they could reform as a group before running at their best. So far they had only placed so well because their drafting formation meant they were not exhausted as quickly as the other runners.

“Lets try to reform the team,” Apple Bloom said.

“After all, we are the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” Scootaloo said. The others nodded their agreement, and joined the others at the starting line. Cheerilee had everypony line up in the starting order five meters back from the start position in order to give the starting pony some room. On Cheerilee’s signal, the race started back up. Gearhead watched as, one after the other, the other fillies and colts took off at full speed, trying to open their leads up as much as possible. But they would also be tiring themselves out, running at full tilt. If they could not keep up the pace, it would take longer to run this leg than the first one.

“Very Berry, go!” Cheerilee shouted. “Scootaloo, on deck.”

Scootaloo winked to the others as she got into starting position. She waited for Cheerilee, and when the teacher said “Scootaloo, go!” Scootaloo took off at an easy canter instead of a full gallop.

Gearhead watched Bolt take off like her namesake. At her pace, she would overtake Scootaloo rather quickly, but if pressure from Scootaloo being back there caused her to try to maintain that fast pace, Bolt would get worn out and be forced to slow down. Gearhead took the starting position. Like Scootaloo, he used an easy canter. Apple Bloom would do the same, two minutes later, so that Sweetie Belle could catch up at full speed much more quickly, and the two of them could run together to catch Gearhead.

With each teammate they caught, the Crusaders’ running became easier, until they were running at a slow gallop as though it was a good canter. And Sweetie Belle was singing again. They passed Bolt, and caught up to Scootaloo less than a minute later, and then the four ponies started their full rotation, continuing to run at their slow gallop to catch up to the slower leaders, while also holding off anypony who was behind them.

On turns, Gearhead used his wings to balance, taking the lead out of his four friends anytime he did so, but he stayed with them, and in so doing, pulled them forward. It was during one such turn that Gearhead spotted Very Berry. The filly was holding a consistant pace, clearly running so she would not get tired as quickly as racers like Bolt. But her teammates were also running their own decent paces without slowing down. This left Berry on her own, whereas the Crusaders were boosting each other’s speed and shielding each other from the full strength of the moderate wind.

As the Crusaders began to pull even with Berry, the latter pushing her speed a bit to try to keep them from overtaking her. Apple Bloom kept their pace steady, and led her team on the outside of the road so they would not shield Berry from the wind. Even though Berry had the inside track on the next turn, Gearhead used his wing again, leaning in so it almost touched the ground. He slipped ahead of Apple Bloom, pulling her through the turn just as he had done on previous turns. Apple Bloom in turn pulled Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. The Crusaders remained even with Berry through the turn, and then pulled ahead as they pulled straight. One by one they passed Berry, leaving her in their dust.

As the Crusaders continued their rotation, an idea occurred to Gearhead. “Hey, since we start the last leg in the order in which we finish this one, wouldn’t it be easier to finish in the opposite order?”

“Meaning what?” Scootaloo asked.

“If we dash at the end just like last time, you’ll come in first, then me, then Bloom, then Belle. And just like this leg, we’ll have to start in that order. If we decide to run the last leg as a team, we’ll have to wait for Belle to catch Bloom, then for them to catch me, then for us to catch you.”

“Just like with this leg,” Apple Bloom said.

“But if we run so that, among our team, Belle finishes before Bloom who finishes before me who finishes before Scootaloo, then the faster among us only has to catch the slower among us before we’re running together again.”

“It won’t take as long,” Sweetie Belle said, interrupting her singing.

“And we can catch the rest of Berry’s team faster because of that,” Scootaloo said. “Alright, I think we should go with this plan.”

“Okay,”

“Then I agree too, on the condition that we dash on the final part of the final leg,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Agreed,” the other threee said together, and then Sweetie Belle continued her fast-paced song.

Minutes later they caught sight of Cotton Cloudy ahead of them. They were rapidly eating up the distance between her and the team, so obviously Cloudy has been running herself tired until now. If this pace was indicative of the other two ponies’ stamina at this point, they also had to be running more slowly, which meant that this leg would take each of them more than the estimated fifteen minutes.

“Set up for passing,” Scootaloo said, and Apple Bloom led the way to the outside of the track. Any professional racer would be using the outside of the track on the straightaways anyway, but all the racers here were fillies and colts. They had been instinctively staying on the inside to cut down on the distance they would be running, but if they took turns fast enough, their inertia would carry them to the outside. The Crusaders had found the opposite path, and yet by using their wings, Scootaloo and Gearhead could keep the rest of the team on the inside of the course on turns. They did that now, making it impossible for Cloudy to block them without inadvertedly falling behind them by moving to intercept them too late.

The same could not be said for the Crusaders’ attempt to overtake Dinky, who had been keeping an eye out for Cloudy as the former ran at a more moderate pace nearer to the middle of the track. As the Crusaders came up, Dinky moved to block their path. In order to pass, they would have to break formation, leaving the ponies in the back stuck behind Dinky. The only way they could pass her was by dashing, which would be counter to their agreed-upon strategy.

So instead of trying to pass Dinky, they merely set their rotation so that when they crossed the checkpoint, they passed it in the order they had set. That way, since only Aura and Dinky were ahead of them, Sweetie Belle had risen to third place.

“A Cutie Mark Crybaby in the Top Three?” Tiara, who had passed Snips and Snails together with Spoon, said. “How did that happen?”

“Teamwork,” Rainbow Dash said. “I saw the whole thing. Great job, Squirt. Now all you’ve gotta do is finish it!”

“Oh my gosh, it’s Rainbow Dash!”

“That’s right, kid, in all my awesomeness. Now get a move on: Cheerilee told us to get all you racers over to the finish to show you something.”

“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Join the club,” Apple Bloom said.

The end of the race was a twenty-step staircase near Gearhead’s Gadgets. Each step was as high as most of the foals were tall – which meant that Pip would have trouble climbing to get to the finish line at the top. It was a good thing for him that Featherweight was not only taller than normal, but also a team player. The same could be said, to some extent, for last-place Snips and Snails. Each box of a step. Gearhead noticed, was set in one of three depths. Some of them was set immediately above the level below it. Some were set in the middle, and some were set right under the box above it. That meant that it would take planning to make your way up the steps, or else you would find yourself literally boxed in, and having to make your way around to the next accessible step. It also meant that everypony could not rush up side-by-side.

“Take a good look,” Cheerilee said, “because it will be up to you to plan your way up to the only place you can find the finish line. Of course, once you’ve gotten across the finish line and it’s been confirmed you’ve finished the race, please use the ramps on the other side to come down immediately to make room for the other racers. Now, get some water and rest: the last leg starts in five minutes.” Of course, the way they could get from the finish line to the start line in under five minutes was by a direct path set up for that purpose, as well as so the organizers and volunteers could move from one point to the other as needed.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders, huddle up,” Scootaloo called in a loud whisper.

“Those stairs look plenty tough,” Apple Bloom said. “They could be their own race.”

“And I bet that was the idea,” Scootaloo said. “We have to pick our path up the stairs way before we get there, or we’ll be wasting time doubling back and finding our way through.”

“A climbing maze,” Gearhead said, “but fairly easy to plot our way through if they don’t change things around as we go. Maybe it’d be best to plan for that happening.”

“Can you do it?” Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah,” who was it who mucked up my genes in the first place? Discord loves mazes! “Leave the plotting to me, and focus on helping each other climb.”

“So you noticed it too?” Sweetie Belle asked. Gearhead and Apple Bloom nodded.

“Noticed what?” Scootaloo asked.

“With the height of each step, we’d all end up exhausted before we reached the top if we ran solo, especially after running the rest of the leg first,” Apple Bloom said.

“This leg is designed so that those who work in teams perform better,” Gearhead said.

“By helping each other get up each step,” Scootaloo said. “Naturally it’d be easier if we could fly, but then no team is made up of all flyers.”

“Which is why,” Gearhead said in low tones, “we can climb faster if we form chains to pull each other up each step.”

“Sounds great. Now lets get to the start before the race starts,” Apple Bloom said.

“I see you’re all still together,” Cheerilee said with a smile to the Crusaders. “If you want, you can even start together, but only by changing your start time to go after Berry and Liza.” The Crusaders exchanged a few words. Even though they would be starting later, they had done so before, and had confidence in each other and in their plan. They accepted the terms.

Cheerliee got the race started in the new order: Aura, Dinky Doo, Cotton Cloudy, Very Berry, and Liza Doolots with one minute between each as usual; Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Dusty, and Scootaloo together, one minute behind Liza; Tornado Bolt, Erriora, Twist, and Pina Colada; Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Featherweight, Pipsqueak, Snips, and Snails also one minute apart.

Once they were off the line, the Crusaders immediately got into formation. They took the course at an easy canter this time, saving their energy for the climb. Certainly this was smarter than running at a full gallop from the start, and fading mere minutes into the race. With their consistent pace, the Crusaders overtook Liza even though they were running more slowly than she was: not only was their pace consistent, but their formation also made it less work for them to go as fast as the other ponies, most of whom were running solo.

After Liza, the Crusaders did not see any of the other racers for a long time: nopony caught up to them, but they were not catching anypony either. Gearhead had to wonder whether the strategy of starting together had backfired. The other possibility was that the four fillies ahead of them were also working together now, and thus staying ahead. Certainly by now, most ponies, spectators included, would have noticed the effect of the Crusaders’ teamwork.

The Crusaders came flying around a bend many minutes later, and straight ahead lay the stairs. Gearhead began looking at the boxes to pick the most efficient path as soon as he could visually pick them out. This was not easy at a distance, when each box looked very similar. When he had the first heading picked out, Gearhead took the lead, keeping it long enough for the others to realize exactly where he was headed.

When the Crusaders reached their bottom step, Apple Bloom, who had been in the lead, stopped right in front of it and braced herself. Sweetie Belle led the way in jumping onto her friend’s back to make it more easily to the step above. She looked at Gearhead, and then turned around to look where he was looking, finding the next level in the path he had picked out. She waited until the others were up, and then led the way along the level to the next box, where she acted as a stepping stone.

This was the manner in which the Crusaders climbed the first five levels, and it was extremely efficient. From the sixth level, however, stepping on a single pony’s back became insufficient for climbing. Standing on Apple Bloom’s back, Gearhead reached up slightly before he could pull himself over the edge on the next level. He turned to help Sweetie Belle up, who did the same for Scootaloo. After they all helped Apple Bloom get up, they ran around again to find Gearhead’s path. From this close, if anything got changed in the maze, Gearhead would not be able to adjust their course by looking at the rest of the stairs.

By level fifteen the ponies were making a pyramid, with two on the bottom and one on the top, that the fouth member of the team used to jump to level sixteen. Apple Bloom then had to pull Sweetie Belle up, and then they formed a chain to pull the other two up after them. It seemed that from the perspective of the ground, they had misjudged the height of the higher boxes.

Until now, none of the Crusaders had really looked down to focus on their incoming competition. Gearhead took the chance to do so. It looked like most of the ponies were trying to get organized on the bottom level, while one or two other ponies stubbornly tried to mount the steps without the help of their teammates. Among these latter were Tiara and Spoon, who had stopped at level three. Tiara glared at Gearhead when she saw him looking her way. Gearhead did not see Aura’s team, so maybe they were still ahead of the Crusaders. He turned his attention back to the task of climbing the remaining four levels.

Now that the steps were nearly four ponies tall (or the height of an entire team), the Crusaders had to rely on their chaining method. Going was slow, and it strained their muscles to the limit. After they had climbed to level seventeen they decided to rest for a minute before continuing on. Below, the rest of the teams had managed to reorganize and were climbing the first five levels, but crowding the place so they could not easily get through. Only one other team was in the level-ten-and-up zone.

Gearhead lost track of time in his efforts, and the Crusaders were only attempting the next level when they felt rested enough. Other than that, they were panting pretty hard from their exertions. He reached up to grab onto Scootaloo, and felt Sweetie Belle take a solid hold onto his tail. He helped Scootaloo pull by using his rear hooves against the box once Scootaloo started pulling everypony up. Slowly they rose, and once Gearhead was over the top, he pulled as hard as he could. Finally, all four Crusaders lay in a heap, panting so hard each thought they had no more sweat to give. Thinking he had better get planning, Gearhead turned to look at the next level.

And there was the finish line. They had reached the top. Gearhead tapped Scootaloo, who was lying under him, and pointed. “Guys,” she rasped, “lets get up and end this.”

“Huh?” Sweetie Belle, splayed across Gearhead’s back, stopped treating his wings like a pillow (and Gearhead could not blame her if she felt so tired she wanted to fall asleep right then and there) and took a look.

“Lets do this,” Apple Bloom said, and got up onto shaky hooves. She moved two steps toward the finish line. Sweetie Belle groaned, and then grudgingly got up and off of Gearhead, who rolled slowly off of Scootaloo in order to get back on his own hooves. Once Scootaloo had struggled to stand, they all got in a line. Nodding, they took step after exhausted step. They were almost there when Gearhead’s vision teared up.

And then something had him by the socks, and he lost track of whether or not he’d crossed the line. Gearhead lost consciousness, with only the faintest sensation of movement.

10. Foal of Secrets

Chapter 10: Foal of Secrets

Gearhead supposed that the first bit of good news was that he was still alive to regain consciousness. He kept his eyes closed and his breathing as close to what it had been as possible while he took an inventory of everything else.

First, while he had light bruises and abrasions in all kinds of places, he no longer felt exhausted. He guessed that whatever had brought him here had not been all the careful. Perhaps it was even unable to be careful. Other than an assortment of light injuries, Gearhead was unharmed, and his hooves were not even tied. He was simply lying on his side on the grass and underbrush.

The place smelled of wet and old vegetation, but not much else. Even the usual variety of animal noises associated with forests seemed muted, and not in a way that his lying on his side could account for, what with one ear being in the air. Even without moving it, he could pick up various sounds, and he was able to twitch it occasionally as though dreaming.

“I see you’re awake, m’colt,” a voice like nails on a chalkboard said. Gearhead knew that voice. Well, there was no point pretending, so Gearhead slowly got to a sitting position. He saw that they were indeed in the middle of a forest, and there was only one nearby when they had been snatched: the Everfree Forest. This was a section that Gearhead did not recognize.

The foalnapper had taken the trouble to set each of her captives out in a diagonal line, each at least three meters apart. Gearhead thought that maybe this was to discourage them banding together to try to escape, not that running would be smart when they did not know in what direction to go. All three fillies had similar scratches and bruises. The journey here had not discriminated between male or female. Gearhead then turned his attention to their captor.

Gearhead knew the witch pony both by sight and sound, but this would be Dusty’s first encounter with the dark Unicorn. She must have escaped from prison, but coming back here instead of trying to find someplace new could be an indication of her intentions. “Indeed. Would you mind telling me who you are, and what you want with us?”

“Oh, I’m somepony who’s very unhappy with the way I’ve been treated as a… guest… in Canterlot. And it all started with some of your friends. And since ye’re friendly with the lot, I figured the best way to get ‘em off their game was through ye four.”

“So revenge is your game. I’m not sure it’ll work, unless you found a trail – which we four could backtrack, so I doubt it.”

“Ye’re awefully calm,”

“No use panicking about something I can’t help,” Gearhead shrugged.

“We’ll see how long ye can keep thinking like that,” the witch said. Apple Bloom groaned audibly, and soon the other two fillies were stirring as well.

“What’s your gameplan here?” Gearhead asked. “You can’t just move carelessly, or you’ll be caught again, and you obviously don’t intend to kill us, or you’d have been done with it before we could come to.”

“Well guess what, colt. No, don’t answer that. I’ve decided that I only need one of ye, and ye’ve mouthed off enough for me to believe that it’s not you I need. So…"

As the fillies were getting up and gaining their bearings, the witch’s eyes began to go completely black. Gearhead turned toward his friends, putting his back to the witch, just as they locked gazes with her. Startled expressions slackened, and their eyes became dilated and empty. Jaws slackened, and bodies held only enough tension to remain standing. Only dark magic could explain mind control of this level.

“Return them,” Gearhead said icily without looking back at the witch: for all he knew, he was as vulnerable to being controlled as the fillies were.

“Oh, but I’m just getting started. Tell me, my girls, whose is the voice that ye hear?”

“Master’s voice,” the three replied in a monotone.

“Whom do ye love?”

“Love master,”

“And who is your master?”

“No!” Gearhead knew where this was going, and did not like it. But there was nothing he could do, not without his own powers intact.

“You are, Master.”

“Well then, my daughters, listen for your first command.”

“We hear, Master.”

“Rip the colt to shreds.”

“Yes, Master.” The fillies’ eyes became red, and then they fanned out to advance on Gearhead. He realized that if he backed up he would just drive himself against the witch, so he stood his ground and tried to prepare to take advantage of any opening that might appear. Only none did, when the fillies spread out to encircle him. Now I know what the Hydra felt like, he thought. And again, he did not like it. He reached out, extending his thoughts and awareness, trying desperately for anything at all.

And then the fillies all pounced, striking together.

Or they would have, if a circle of high-force wind did not pop up around Gearhead. As the fillies got flung away, to bounce off of nearby trees or against the ground, Gearhead felt the flowing sensation around his horn and hooves: Magic.

“Oh, so ye’ve got some in ye after all, or did it just come about?” The witch asked, a sneer in her voice. “Is that how much ye care, and yet ye dashed ‘em all upon rocks and trees?”

“That won’t work,” Gearhead said, starting to realize how his magic was simply different from how he was used to it being. He shifted focus, so he could see magic auras, and turned to face his true opponent. It took only a moment to confirm that as long as he was in this state, her mind control would not work on him. “This is all on you.”

“Be that as it may, t’won’t save ye. Dool!” For a moment Gearhead thought the witch was calling him a fool, but then the Dullihan appeared, having answered his master’s call. “This is my most faithful servant, the Headless Horse, Dool, and unlike with your friends, a knock to the head won’t deter him in the slightest, seeing as he doesn't have one.”

“Dullihan,” Gearhead said. “That’s what they’re really called.”

“Oh good, ye’re familiar. So I won’t have to explain, except for one thing: Dool’s lost his head. He wants yours. Dool, do as ye please with the colt.” The Dullihan charged in, with a steady start that gradually accelerated. At the same time, knowing he would be attacked, Gearhead built up a charge of Light energy into his horn. When the Dullihan was half his own length away, Gearhead released the blast from low-down, lifting the horse off the ground and sending him flying, up and over a stand of nearby trees. Birds chattered, startled, and took off. “Yes, well, that won’t work a second time, now will it? And on top of that, ye’ve gone and made ‘im angry. And there’s no spell that’ll save ye now.”

But there is, Gearhead thought. After the encounter with the witch and her Dullihan, Gearhead had gone to the trouble of looking specifically for a spell that could remove curses, like the one that held the Dullihan in undead service to the witch.

“Zi̱tó̱ apó ta Tésseris Megáles Pnév̱mata:̱ Días, i̱ Dí̱mi̱tra, Poseidó̱na, kai ton Í̱faisto na paracho̱rí̱sei se af̱tó to chlo̱mó polemistí̱ tis ev̱logíes tous. Chori̱gí̱soun af̱tí̱ tími̱se polemistí̱ epáxia kai kairó anamenómeni̱ anápaf̱si̱s.” While Gearhead had been enacting his incantation, calling upon Zeus, Demeter, Neptune, and Hephaestus – the same four he had learned were responsible for the transformation spell he had been studying – the Dullihan came charging back. This time he was jinking and weaving so he could not be hit by another blast. Gearhead, by contrast, split his attention between his incantation and the incoming target and threat. When the Dullihan was within reach, Gearhead leaped for it, extending both hooves, which now glowed with the spell. “Katára Katárgi̱si̱!”

Suddenly both combatanats’ forward motion ceased, and two interweaving magic circles of brilliant white light materialized around the suspended Dullihan. As the two circles tilted and spun, the black mist ceased flowing from the horse’s neck, and its mane and coat gradually lightened. Its form changed from a horse to a coffin with a headstone floating appropriately above it. The three suspended parts of the spell floated down to the ground, and once the coffin had disappeared below, a globe of light took both the headstone and the coffin and flew off, most probably to the horse’s proper burial site.

“My!—But how could you have such a spell?!”

“Just because I couldn’t cast, doesn’t mean I don’t have a great teacher,” Gearhead said. He felt the flowing tingle on his horn lessen slightly, but he still had business with the witch. Although he had just casted a High Ancient spell in Greek, he still felt like he could do far more. “And now no one stands between you and me,” he said. The witch tried to pre-empt him by attacking first, but Gearhead raised the defensive shield all magic-users had, and her bolt did not do any damage. But when he returned fire, he fully intended for it to be a direct hit. It was not, as the witch took to fleeing.

Gearhead took off after her, his pace accelerated with Wind Magic. As the light Alicorn chased the dark Unicorn through the forest, weaving between the trees and jumping over rocks and roots, they traded magic bolts. The witch often snapped her shots off too quickly, and hit the ground or a tree. Gearhead came closer, but somehow the witch seemed to read when and where he would shoot, and dodge it. Maybe she had something similar to Read.

When it became obvious the witch could not shake Gearhead sometime later, she began to loop back and confront him more directly. Her shots came closer as they charged at each other, time and again, without seeming to tire. Gearhead could not tell how long it had been since the chase had begun, but some time ago he had felt the flow lessen again. Then the witch unleashed a massive blast which would take Gearhead and the rock behind him. He flipped clear over it, aided by his magic, and landed where the rock once had been.

Gearhead was about to charge for a returning blast when the feeling of flow simply vanished, and he could no longer even sense the witch’s magic aura. When he was unable to return her latest attack, the witch reared up in victory. “Ye may have powerful magic in ye, but even ye’ve got limits, and seems ye’ve hit ‘em rightly enough. Indeed, I should be thankful: I get to strike the death-blow meself. Say ‘hello’ to you’re gods when ye meet ‘em!”

Gearhead watched the massive bolt charge. He knew that his physical abilities were as far from being sufficient to evade the blast as could be, even from a distance. But he would not give up, not even by half. He dug deep, feeling within himself for the last resort that was said to exist within all ponies.

The witch fired.

Gearhead leaped, flapping his wings in desperation, willing himself to rise far above that gargantuan blast and to safety. And watched in awe as the witch’s magic attack struck a furrow in the ground underneath him. “What d’you know? Seems I can do it after all, when I try.” The explanation might be simpler, Gearhead realized, when he noticed that his wings were larger than normal. So this, too, seemed to be a sort of magical skill activation. Had it only happened because he was desperate enough to try now?

“D’ye think that’ll save ye?” The witch came soaring up, using her magic in lieu of wings.

“Yikes! Time to exit, stage right even!” Gearhead took off at top speed.

“That’s your left, ya bastard!” The witch proceded to try to shoot him down.

“Ah, but it’s stage right,” Gearhead said, easily evading with a series of spirals and flips. He knew the witch was probably thinking that a novice flyer should not be capable of such manouvers, and she would be right: Gearhead was, by no means, a novice flyer – although maneuvers were different with the core system, which allowed him to change direction at a thought, on a bit. With wings, Gearhead had to deal with inertia, and he had to keep flapping those wings.

Gearhead quickly realized that part of what he should be doing was getting his bearings, so when he evaded one salvo, instead of diving for the deck he climbed at a steep angle at full power. By the time the witch could have unleashed another blast on him, he was already weaving through the boughs forming the ceiling of the Everfree Forest. He burst through, and kept climbing for a bit longer before cruising on a forty-five degree angle from his ascending course, just to try to throw the witch off for a bit. Then he took a look around under the sun’s light. In doing so, he was able to ascertain that they actually were not too far from the witch’s tower: Gearhead recognized the mountain where he had met and freed Shadow Wright. Another quick turn confirmed the direction in which Ponyville lay.

Then the witch burst through the trees herself, and while she continued her climb even higher than Gearhead, she searched for, and found, him. As though sensing her eyes upon him, Gearhead dove, and this time he made for a powerdive straight toward the forest floor, dodging branches and birds as he went.

Gearhead pulled up just before he would have hit the ground, and with his wings spread wide, glided at high speed, using minimal banking to keep from hitting the trees and rocks and bears. The witch was somewhere behind him, but she was having trouble keeping up with his speed, he realized, seeing how her shots were almost always way off the mark. Is she overcompensating when she aims?

And then he felt the flow again. He knew it had not been that long since his magic cut out, but maybe with the way it, and his flight, activated, the cool-down time was just as long as the activation time. And Gearhead, marking his flight time more carefully, realized that it had been about 300 seconds since his magic cut out, and then he had activated his flight to cheat death. That was five minutes, and it meant he had seconds left in his flight time, if it also timed out.

Seconds? Gearhead pulled a tight vertical loop and then braked hard, flapping frantically. An instant later he was glad to have been able to see it coming, so that when he tumbled and fetched up against a rock, upside down no less, he did not end up hitting it very hard. Still, after what he had experienced, it felt like he had bruises on bruises.

The witch came screeching in, spell charged. “There’s nowhere left for ye to hide,” she said, and without further delay or signal, she fired.

Gearhead was ready with his standard shield, even without saying “Deflexio.” But the next step, he felt, would be appropriate with a little theatrics, if only to unnerve his opponent: I have five minutes, starting with that shield spell. This time I have a plan to make it count. “Cantus Bellax!” A column of turquoise energy climbed from Gearhead into the sky, before it swirled and contracted to glow tightly around him. Then, under his focused direction, a magic circle appeared behind him.

He shot a massive salvo of Magic Arrows at the witch, but like the one he had used in practice against Cadence, this was a mixed bag. First were 29 Light Arrows, which raced past the witch, only to quickly hook back and hit her shield from behind. Fully 23 further Lightning Arrows lanced in from the front, hitting the shield at the exact same moment. Nineteen more Light Arrows hit the shield like little sledges, striking between the Lightning Arrows. Cracks had already appeared in the shield, and now they were quickly spreading. A further five Wind Arrows hit the shield one after the other, and it shattered, without the benefit of being able to fall in a formation that would allow the shards to amplify a last, desperate salvo of shots. The last two Wind Arrows wound around the witch’s body, because they were Capturing Wind Arrows. If Gearhead had thought further, he could have reinforced the trap with more arrows, but he thought he would cut to the chase more easily by casting a different temporary spell, which would cause the witch’s thoughts to be scattered and random. Once her mind was in such a state, casting a spell would become impossible – for the few minutes of duration.

So while the witch was struggling futilely against her mental instability, Gearhead found a good patch of ground, and by using Read, found the materials he would need. Using his Geomancy, Gearhead created a small cart with a built-in restraining system for the witch. He then quickly levitated her onto it, and then secured her to it with the straps. There was also a snug hood that fit over, and pinched, her horn, continually preventing her from casting spells, even with Cloudy Thoughts worn off.

With the few minutes of magic he had left, Gearhead casted a spell to locate his friends. He did not need another spell to point him in the direction of Ponyville, since he still had his bearings. But he did need to get the cart underway, since he had some difficult climbing to do with it before he met up with the fillies again – and hoped they were okay.

And, because there did not seem to be a limit to the spells he could cast as long as his magic was active, Gearhead casted a simple healing spell on himself to treat his bruises and lacerations. Then he was on his way, pushing the cart ahead of him on the path.

Gearhead found Scootaloo and Apple Bloom standing in front of Sweetie Belle near the clearing where they had originally come to. He secured the cart so it could not roll away with the witch struggling against her bonds, and came over to investigate. The Earth Pony and Pegasus, he found, were doing everything they could to get the Unicorn to respond, but she just stood there, slack-jawed and empty-eyed, not responding at all to their antics. It was as though, to her, they did not exist.

“Let me try,” Gearhead said, picking his way over to his three friends. Immediately at the sound of his approach, Sweetie Belle turned her head. Gearhead saw her eyes go red again, and then she was charging at him!

“Oh,” Gearhead said, sidestepping the desperate rush. “I guess if the mind control stuck, so did the command.” He heard the witch laugh as Sweetie Belle came about for another attempt.

“Let her go!” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom shouted at the witch.

“I would, if ye untie me from this infernal thing,” the witch said.

“She’s lying,” Gearhead said, quick-stepping past brambles and into a root system that wound out from three different trees. “And you’ve got no protection against her mind control yourselves.”

“Then what do we do?” Scootaloo asked.

“The same thing that released you two,” Gearhead said, stepping higher onto the tangle from the trees.

“And that would be..?” Apple Bloom asked.

“You mean you don’t remember?”

“We remember everything from when we were being controlled,” Gearhead could hear the cringing in Apple Bloom’s voice: it was a very unpleasant memory, even for him, and he had not been one of the ones being controlled; he had been the attack target. As far as Sweetie Belle was concerned, he still was.

Gearhead tried holding back from evading as long as he could afford to, but when Sweetie Belle leaped in closer than he had thought she could, they both went down in a tangle of their own, and Gearhead twisted instinctively to cushion their fall better, only realizing as he did so that what had brought the others out of their trance states was a bump to the head. He was still cursing himself mentally as he watched Sweetie Belle’s face draw closer to his own.

And if he was surprised when their lips bumped, ever so briefly, he could only imagine how Sweetie Belle felt, her eyes shrinking in shock even as they returned to her normal green state. She immediately leaped off of him, apologizing profusely and blushing madly. “Nevermind,” Gearhead said, also getting up. “You weren’t in control of your actions. She was,” he said, nodding to the witch, who was still laughing.

“It’s great you’re so… entertained,” Apple Bloom said.

“Yeah!” Scootaloo chimed in. “You’re gonna go away for a long time.”

“Yet ye’ll never forget this day, nor what happened.” All mirth vanished from her voice and face in an instant. “And I’ll be remembering you,” the witch said, with all the threat she could muster.

“Aye?” Gearhead asked. “Much good it’ll do ‘ye,’ when I don’t have the same spells in mind for you next time, if there is one: Princess Celestia will be using different security measures this time around.”

“Much good that’ll do,” the witch spat.

“I’ve heard that before,” Gearhead said, silencing her barbs for the moment. He looked around. “Alright, before we make our way out of this place, let me heal your wounds.”

“You can do that?” Apple Bloom asked, while Sweetie Belle fidgeted behind her and Scootaloo. It’s past time for shyness, Gearhead thought. Get over it, otherwise others will pick up on our awkwardness. They’ll ask questions, and then what do you suppose will happen?

Rather than talk about it, Gearhead said “Cura,” and a healing wave ran over Apple Bloom’s body, causing all of her bruises and scrapes to vanish. Gearhead repeated the quick process with Scootaloo, and then finally Sweetie Belle stepped forward and he healed her as well.

“So how do we get outta here?” Scootaloo asked. “I wanted to climb the trees to get a better look, but neither of us could leave Sweetie Belle alone the way she was, in case there was some sort of attack.”

“Wise move, and I have our heading anyway,” Gearhead said. He would have to work on putting his activated powers on standby, so he wouldn’t waste his active time. He pointed toward Ponyville, then collected the cart and started pushing it down a path that ran in that direction. After a moment’s hesitation, the others joined him. They even switched places with him to help bring the witch in to Ponyville so she could be taken back to prison.

* * *

The foals quickly encountered a flight of Rainbow Dash’s Pegasi, patrolling the area after Gearhead’s rather showy magical battle with the witch, during which he happened to have triggered a number of beacon-like light geysers. It was because of this that the Crusaders were recovered more quickly from the Everfree Forest.

Princess Luna had come personally to see to the safety of her citizens, especially as the school-foals had vanished overnight, and she was the Guardian of the Realm during the night hours. She had her guards take the witch back into custody for immediate transfer to the prison in Canterlot, where every precaution would be taken to ensure she never escaped to trouble Ponyville again. Princess Luna had a short conversation with Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, meeting each privately, before approaching Gearhead.

“Is it not a good thing you’ve such good friends to motivate you?”

“Indeed it is, Princess Luna. This crisis pushed me beyond my limits, and there I have found new ones.”

“And new levels of friendship, I’d imagine. Would you have found your powers otherwise?”

“Perhaps eventually, but not as I have,” Gearhead realized the truth of it as he spoke. Unfortunately there was now no way to prove it: he had magic, and flight, although it worked differently from what he was used to.

In fact, he had decided that he had always possessed the potential for this power, but it had expressed itself differently before: he had always had some traits of the Pegasus and Unicorn tribes, as Discord had explained to him before. As the Earth Pony, Gearhead, his powers came through just as magic. As the Alicorn, Stardust, there were both magical and physical expressions, otherwise he would not be an Alicorn.

Gearhead’s most recent dream had helped to convince him that Stardust and Gearhead were, in fact, the same pony. My dreams? Gearhead looked more closely at the mare standing before him. She was the Guardian of the Night, after all. Gearhead did not know the full extent of her powers, but he did know that the greatest threat to Equestria while ponies slept was not of a physical nature. She guards ponies’ dreams!

Princess Luna smiled, and winked.

Of course! To walk ponies’ dreams, Princess Luna had to have considerable telepathic powers. That would allow her to find troubled sleepers and intervene, soothing their sleep – such as the sleep of a newly-turned Alicorn, troubled by visions of his own defeat and the fall of Equestria because he could not evoke his own powers. That meant that finding his powers now was not just the doing of the Cutie Mark Crusaders as his friends, but of Princess Luna as well!

<Also your friend,> Gearhead felt the comforting words as much as he heard them in his head, although he had not seen Princess Luna move her lips: she was giving him the slightest of demonstrations of her powers, confirming his thoughts even as he came to them. <That’s why you should call me ‘Luna.>’

Are you sure? You are one of the two most powerful royals in the world.

<I’m absolutely sure, Gearhead. Dusty.>

In this form, ‘Dusty’ is fine. We are, after all, the same.

<But do you truly believe that? If so, show it in the way you speak and act.>

I cannot, Gearhead gave Luna a wry mental grin. I am supposed to act like a foal in this form.

<So think that way, while you’re Dusty,> Luna advised. Gearhead decided to mull it over. While he could still sense Luna’s presence within his mind, she did not press him for a further response.

Luna returned to the other ponies, leaving Gearhead with his thoughts, and with the other members of the Crusaders who approached him now. “Everything okay?” Sweetie Belle asked. Gearhead noticed that all the awkwardness from before was gone, even though the four of them were essentially on their own.

“Yeah, everything’s okay,” Gearhead said. “There’s just one last thing bothering me.”

“What?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Who won the race?”

The fillies blinked at him, then burst out laughing: they had truly forgotten about the race, what with the witch appearing. It had turned into a very tense day, but now they were safe again. Any tension they might have been feeling flew away with their laughter.

Although, according to Cheerilee, the problem of the race had not completely gone away: after several hours of being unable to find the Crusaders’ team, she and the other volunteers had to to declare them ‘DNF,’ or ‘Did Not Finish,’ not having crossed the finish line under their own power. It was therefore determined that Aura’s team won, taking the top four spots. Liza’s team had come in fifth through eighth. The Crusaders’ social shame was compounded somewhat by the fact that in the intervening hours, the stairs had already been dismantled, so they could never truly finish the race. In order to salve their feelings, Cheerilee laid down a finish line ribbon on the ground approximately where the finish line had been, and allowed them to cross: they had been at the top, after all.

It turned out that there were others with a ‘DNF’ mark as a result of the race. Cheerilee would not tell the Crusaders who they were, but Gearhead could guess: they would mostly be those who were not working with a full team, so they could not help each other climb the taller levels. He could not easily imagine Tiara and Spoon working very well with others, considering their abrasive personalities. The only thing that could have made Tiara feel better was the Crusaders’ own DNF, which was now erased, replaced with the longest finish time possible. But they had finished, and this after an encounter with a witch.

None of them had gained a cutie mark either, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders had proven themselves to be an effective team when they wanted to be. They knew that, in part, because of their efforts against the Hydra, but the race had proven it again. What the witch had proven, Gearhead supposed, was that even the unlikeliest of the set could cover for the others’ weaknesses.

* * *

Perhaps Gearhead should have expected Fluttershy’s reaction to the danger to which he had been exposed as of late, despite her knowing his true identity. Neither he nor Twilight could convince the protective Pegasus to leave him alone, and so Gearhead decided a compromise was in order, and fell asleep in her embrace so she would stop fussing so excessively over him. The whole thing was embarrassing enough without Fluttershy continuing to pull him back into her lap. So he curled up and stopped protesting, and soon he was asleep.

He dreamed again of the two ponies, Gearhead and Stardust, flying and fighting together. As they wove in and out, it became harder to tell who was using what technique or equipment. He decided it did not matter, because they really were one and the same. After all, Luna had suggested that he start thinking that way. Maybe it was less stressful to truly believe it, just as he had concluded it would be better not to think of himself as just an Earth Pony.

* * *

When Stardust awoke, Fluttershy was still curled around him, unwilling to let go. He managed, by moving slowly and carefully, to extricate himself from the embrace of the mare’s wings and legs, and went behind the library. He needed someplace to practice which was out of the way. That it was barely dawn helped, since most ponies would still be asleep.

Stardust began by meditating into a state of flow. After the previous day’s battle, this was easy, and he felt the magic around and within him more fully. He chose a hardy target that could take his blasts, and began to unleash waves of Magic Arrows against it, increasing the count as he went until his magic timed out again, just as it had during the battle.

While he waited for his power to come back, Stardust meditated to try to find the flow again. It seemed that while his power was active, he could feel the flow with incredible completeness and clarity. That allowed him to use powerful spells that he couldn’t access as Gearhead. But once his magic timed out, he needed to wait five minutes before he could cast the simplest of cantrips again.

But the magic a Pegasus required to fly was not blocked during Stardust’s cooldown phase with his magic. This was something that seemed to act differently and separately, although experimentation revealed that Stardust could activate them together, and that when he did, a resonance between the tribe-based powers amplified both. It made sense, since the only examples of Alicorns he could think of were more powerful than the most powerful Unicorns, and better flyers than the best Pegasi.

Stardust also practiced trying to interrupt his activation time: if he could do that, and put his magic and flight on standby, he would not necessarily need to fret about running out of time so quickly: he would just put his power on standby whenever it was not needed, and allow his time to regenerate from there. But if he didn’t have any choice but to allow his time to exhaust itself every time, then he, and everyone he protected, would be vulnerable for the five minute cooldown period. It might not seem like a long time, but to Stardust it was an inexcusable weakness, and an exploitable opening.

Because the previous day had involved such an exhausting race, school was closed to allow the foals to recover. Stardust decided to use his time to research spells that could cover for his vulnerability. That meant focusing on spells that he could complete and connect with their targets in under five minutes, since if they took longer they would simply fizzle out and fail. He also wanted to find a spell that would make up for his form’s lack of size and strength. This one turned out to be easier, since he found a temporary aging spell so he could take the form he would have at Gearhead’s physical age. Stardust also decided to include other spells to change his appearance, so nopony could determine that it was Dusty participating in a battle or other heroic act.

After lunch, the Crusaders came to play. They had a ball to bounce between them, and some other simple games. Stardust knew that it would look strange if he didn’t play with his friends. He still sometimes did feel out of place playing with the fillies, however this was Dusty’s physical age. Remembering that helped him to have fun.

“So, no Crusader activities today?” He asked as they continued to pass the ball.

“We’ve decided to take it easy, after the race and the witch,” Apple Bloom said.

“B’sides, the Rainbow Dash Fan Club’s meeting tomorrow, and I’d like to be fresh and not covered in tree sap for that,” Scootaloo said. “You wanna join?”

“A club for Rainbow Dash fans? I know she’s the fastest Pegasus in Ponyville, but I don’t know if that warrants a fan club.”

“Who would you rather they have a fan club for? Fluttershy, maybe?”

“I know you can’t actually make fun of the Staremaster,” Stardust grinned. “And I can’t claim she and Miss Twilight haven’t been taking good care of me during my stay here. You ask me, each pony here has her or his own specialty, deserving of praise.”

“And that’s why we’re gonna get our cutie marks,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Not so we can know what our true talents are?”

“Well, that too, but who doesn’t want a little praise now and again?”

“I don’t know: if I was constantly after somepony’s approval I think it’d drive me nuts. And after what that witch did, I’d rather avoid nuts, at least for awhile.”

“Why, what did the witch do?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“You don’t remember?”

“Nuh-uh,” the others also shook their heads. If there was one pony who could do this, it was Luna. And if she thought it was important for the Crusaders to forget their ordeal with the witch, specifically that she had taken complete control of them, then who was Stardust to argue?

“It’s not important. How’s that script coming along, Sweetie Belle?”

“Slowly, but it’s coming,” she said. “Ooh, almost made me miss with that one.”

“Can’t get anything past you,” Stardust said, wondering if she remembered about their accidental bump. He wouldn’t count it as a kiss, since the intent had not been there, for either of them. Heck, she’d beein trying to kill him back then.

“Hey, you can use magic now, right?” Apple Bloom said, “how come you don’t use it more often?”

“Because I can’t use it all the time,” Stardust said. “Mine is even stranger than normal Unicorn magic, and not having matured yet, it has fine limits. Knowing that, I’m saving my magic for when I need it.”

“It’s just too bad we ended up losing the race,” Scootaloo said.

“We still finished it,” Stardust said. “Tied for thirteenth isn’t bad at all, considering it was several hours before we got back to cross the finish line.”

“I still wish I could remember what happened,”

“Don’t stress about it: if it’s important, you’ll remember it on your own.”

“I wanna be able to fly as soon as possible,”

“And use magic. What’s your trick?”

“It’s exactly like you said before, Sweetie Belle: you have to feel the flow.”

“Aww, that doesn’t help: I’ve been trying forever!”

“Would it make you feel better to stop trying?”

“No,”

“Then don’t,” Stardust bumped the ball with the side of his head, sending it to Scootaloo.

“So the club meeting, wanna come?”

“Maybe I’ll look into it, to see what’s what.”

* * *

The ponies took their places in the amphitheatre-style hall, the Speaker of the Herd seated on the lowest level, in the middle. Nearby, two Secretaries prepared to take notes. The Hall was located deep within a cave system, having been dug out with the help of the Conclave, and enchanted for security as well as for comfort. This was the place where Herd Council met to discuss business, both on a monthly or bi-monthly basis (depending on the pace of business), and for emergency sessions such as this one. The Hall was built to seat thousands, in anticipation of future growth within Herd Verdant. Today hundreds of Patriarchs and Matriarchs, representing branch- and side-herds, were all present.

All, it seemed, except for Verdant Redwood, the stallion who had actually called this meeting. The Patriarch of the main herd was late, and this alone was extraordinary. What happened next was more so, as Verdant Vines strode through the doorway and walked down to the middle of the room.

“Firstson Vines, what is the meaning of this breach of protocol?” The Speaker asked.

“My deepest apologies, Mr. Speaker,” Vines said. “It seems my honoured father, the Patriarch, is unable to make this meeting. It seems that a spot flood made a river on the route impassable before he could cross. It could take days to ford the river, so he decided to return to Verdant Fields rather than being late to an emergency session, which he himself called. But worry not, we do not have to waste our time and effort in coming here: I believe I know his intent here, today. That is, if the assembled Council would allow it?”

Glances were exchanged, along with words and short verbal signals. It was already past time, and nopony wanted their time wasted. “It is not unheard of for a Firstson to act in the Patriarch’s stead, especially as he is the Successor,” one of the older branch-herd Patriarchs said. He was also one of Vines’s staunchest supporters, being a traditionalist. There were many nods and murmurs. “I therefore move,” the old stallion said, “that Firstson Vines be permitted to stand in for Patriarch Redwood in this instance.”

“Is there a seconder?” Such a pony would show interest in the motion on the floor. If nopony seconded, the motion would be dropped right there.

“Seconded,” another traditionalist raised his right hoof.

“Would you like to speak to the motion?”

“Everything I would like to say has been said already. Lets stop lollygagging and get this business done, shall we?”

“Very well,” the Speaker had the First Secretary read the motion, and then called for a vote. It passed uninanimously, giving Vines the floor, since only he knew the business at hoof. The Sergeant-at-Arms on the inside of the chamber pulled a lever at a signal from the Speaker, and the massive double doors closed with an echoing boom. The meeting was now officially in session, meaning none could enter or leave until the session was closed.

“Firstson Vines, the Speaker recognizes you as capable of bringing the business of today’s meeting to the Council’s attention.”

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and how appropriate it is that you recognize me as the Patriarch’s Successor, because that is the matter the Patriarch wished to discuss with you today: he wishes to propose an alternative Successor.” The assembled ponies gasped, as Vines had predicted they would. “Now, I do not know exactly how the Patriarch intended to define his alternative, however we can infer what they might be and address each possibility as they currently stand.”

“Proceed, Firstone Vines, in the name of the Patriarch,” the Speaker intoned.

“First, I move that Thirdson Gearhead be considered as a Successor Candidate.” There were more gasps and murmurs, as it was known that Gearhead bore the mark of the Black Sheep, as recorded in the Codex itself.

“Seconded,” a Matriarch said. Vines knew that she did not like him: she thought he was too aggressive for his own good.

“Would you like to speak to the motion, Firstson Vines?”

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The main reason why I believe the Patriarch wishes to forward the Thirdson as a candidate is because he used moneys gained from the Thirdson’s business in order to begin an expansion of Verdant Fields. This expansion is of the East Field, in the eastern direction.” More murmurs.

“Yes, it is a direct expression of hope. The Patriarch then instructed me, his current successor, to deliver the fact of this action directly to the Thirdson at the Grand Galloping Gala, where he had reason to believe the Thirdson would appear, despite there already being a delegation from the Verdant. I discharged this duty to the full, however I am not aware of the Thirdson coming to speak to the Patriarch since.” Angry whispers. The ponies here now thought that Gearhead had been disrespectful to his father, when he could only be respectful.

“It is possible that the Patriarch feels that the Thirdson represents a new direction for the Verdant, however we are a Herd of tradition, and we have flourished in that tradition. It guides and protects us, and so there are many who will feel threatened by this new direction, and hesitate to follow it. And that hesitation could cost the Herd dearly. I intend to do only what is good for the Herd, and so I must ask whether the Thirdson being a leader would be good for the Herd.

“According to the records of activity since his birth, the Thirdson had been enthousiastic about taking on a farming task, but during his Naming, not only did he fail to carry any such acts out successfully, but he destroyed more than half a corn crop, and he damaged some others while the Patriarch carried him to the house. Since then, however, he has turned many aspects of his life around. The Thirdson repaired many pieces of equipment to better-than-new conditions. He invented and innovated new pieces of equipment, increasing the yield of our harvests many times over, and now he sends a great deal of money to be used for the benefit of the Verdant. He has therefore done a great deal to benefit the Herd. Despite this, he may not be suitable as a successor candidate, and all because of one fact, one mark against him.”

“The Black Sheep!” One pony shouted, and the call was echoed across the Hall.

“Indeed, the Thirdson is still a Black Sheep, not having earned the normal title. And why? Because he has never, in his entire life, farmed but a single stalk of a single crop. Being of the Verdant is to farm, and he has never farmed in his life!” Shouts and whispers flooded the hall. The Speaker had to pound his gavel to get the quiet necessary to proceed.

“Would anyone like to speak for or against the motion?”

“I speak against the motion: By what reason could we name a pony who has never farmed to the post of Successor, or even name him a candidate to the post? A Patriarch who cannot farm is an impossibility. Our next Patriarch must be able to lead the Verdant through his farming skills and knowledge. This Thirdson… does he believe he can get the title simply by throwing money at his family? We should not be duped by this sham.”

After that, nobody else wanted to speak for the motion, in favour of Gearhead. How could they, when they had heard all that mattered to most of the Verdant and to any traditionalist: Gearhead could not farm. The Speaker called for a vote, and the motion was defeated uninanimously. “Until the Thirdson can shed the title of Black Sheep, the Verdant cannot consider him as anything else,” the Speaker said, summing up everypony’s feelings on the issue. “Were there more possible candidates, Firstson Vines?”

“Yes, Mr. Speaker,”

“Proceed, then,”

“Very well. I move that Seconddaughter Ivy be considered as a Successor Candidate.” Despite the fact that Ivy was universally liked and well-respected, the angry murmurs came mostly from the camp that believed a Matriarch should never take charge of the entire Herd. Those who knew Ivy also knew that she lacked any sort of aggressive instinct. But the motion was seconded, just as the one for Gearhead had been, and Vines had the floor again.

“Seconddaughter Ivy is one of the most well-liked members of the main herd, and she is well-respected in her current supporting position. She has the natural poise and charisma necessary to lead others, and she has farmed all her life. She is intelligent, and beautiful, but she completely lacks ambition, and has shown overly too much kindness to those below her. Can she lead effectively, and mete our punishment when necessary, or will she bend on every issue? I love and respect the Seconddaughter as my younger sister, but I myself cannot say that she could be the leader we need in a Patriarch or Matriarch, should we open the candidacy to mares by giving her the title.”

This time there was loud discussion about opening up the successorship to mares. The traditionalists feared that doing so would open the leadership up to more mares like Ivy, who would be too soft to do what was necessary. The Matriarchs objected, saying there was nothing to substantiate that such things would happen, and they were correct: many farming families lived with matriarchies, and they were succeeding. But the Verdant had stood for many thousands of years as a Patriarchy, and that was unlikely to change now, even as the motion was defeated by the necessary two-thirds majority.

Vines’s final motion was to open up the candidacy to members of the side- and branch-herds, scouring their number for possible successors. But the fact that Vines did not know anypony who could possibly fill the Patriarch’s horseshoes better than he himself could put an immediate damper on the motion’s chances to succeed. In the eyes of the Council, too, Vines had done more right than wrong, including coming here today to cover for his missing father. “Those are all the possibilities,” Vines said, when the third motion was defeated, leaving him as the sole holder of the successorship.

“Are there any other possibilities?” The Speaker asked those assembled, and repeated the question twice more. When nopony spoke, he banged his gavel and pronounced the matter closed. “Is there any other business to discuss, while we are all present?” Naturally no one spoke, since this had been a hastily-assembed emergency session. No other business would have been added to the agenda, other than what the Patriarch had summoned the Council to address. And now it had been addressed, although the stallion in question had been absent. “In that case, this session is now closed,” and the Speaker banged his gavel a final time.

Before anypony could rise fully, the doors swung open to reveal a still-wet Patriarch Redwood, Ivy and the rest of his party in tow. “I am afraid you are too late, Patriarch, but worry not: the Firstson has presented each possible case, which we then handled fully,” the Speaker said.

Stunned, the Patriarch nevertheless strode up to the nearer of the two Secretary’s benches and read the meeting minutes. He reread them, and then again. “What have you done?” He asked Vines, his voice hoarse.

“I’ve secured the Herd’s future, my Patriarch, in your name.”

“If that’s the case, stagnation may be our future. Vines, Gearhead represents innovation, a new way for the Herd.”

“Yes, and I’ve represented that,”

“Truly, the Firstson spoke brilliantly,” the Speaker said, “but nopony can convince the Council to elect a Black Sheep. The Thirdson must be rid of that part of himself first.”

“And he may do that soon,” the Patriarch said, “but after that he’ll have to undo the precedent set here, before he can lead us forward. Vines, if you can do the same, and do it with the same level of compassion, then I will acknowledge you as truly, fully worthy and ready. For now I fear that you’re not,” and he glanced back at Ivy.

Ivy had tears streaming down her cheeks as she rushed forward to embrace her older brother. Stunned, he allowed her to hold him a moment longer than he would have otherwise, before pushing her back. “You can be so cruel,” Ivy said, fresh tears flowing.

“What is this about?” The Speaker asked.

“’This’ is a matter for the main herd to iron out,” the Patriarch said, “at home and in private.” To Vines he said, “come, you’ve done what you set out to do. Lets all go home.”

Indeed, Vines had done exactly what he had planned to do, and what was more, he had ensured his dear sister was not present to blunt his words or actions. Vines had never felt so free to do as he desired before, and he liked that feeling. He had enjoyed Ivy’s company before, but now he was starting to see her more fully as their father’s tool against him: blunting blades, banking fires, keeping him controllable. Not anymore. From here on out, Vines would do things his way, on his own if Ivy did not comply with his plans.

11. Hero's Glory

Chapter 11: Hero’s Glory

“It’s the same sort of feeling as when you shift from looking at your snout to something mid-range to something in the far distance,” Stardust said, trying to explain to Twilight, and also to Sweetie Belle who was also nearby, how he could see magic auras. “I call it ‘shifting focus,’ and the most I have to do to do it is blink.”

“It probably comes to you naturally, as part of your special skill, related to whatever your cutie mark will be,” Twilight said.

“That’s possible, but in order for this to work I need an outside observer to tell me what’s going on.” The point of this exercise was to find out what Stardust looked like when he lost some of the flow during his magic’s activation time. There was no such lessening with his wings, so he had to keep careful track of his time when he flew, otherwise he could kill himself by falling too far when his flight timed-out. But he wanted to know, even more, if there were any visual clues that could give the game away to an opponent when it came to his magic. That was why he was teaching Twilight how to see magic auras, since she could use all kinds of magic.

“Okay, I think I’ve got it,” Twilight said, finally. Sweetie Belle merely shook her head: her magic was still eluding her. Stardust lent her a smile, then shifted his own focus to the task at hand, activating his magic. He summoned a ball of light and set it high, in the middle of the library, and then kept it there. Past the light and directly across from him, he could see Twilight’s eyes shining amber.

“Is that what I look like when I shift focus? Yellow eyes?”

“Uh-huh,” Twilight said, partly distracted by watching the turquoise aura around Stardust’s horn. It was, she now knew, the same colour as he said his magic aura was as Gearhead, so that was one thing that didn’t change. “You just lost the top third of the aura glow.”

“That was the one hundred second mark,” Stardust said, nodding fractionally. At the two hundred second mark, he lost the middle third. At the five minute mark, the aura and Stardust’s light ball completely vanished, leaving not a trace behind. “So it is visible,” Stardust said.

“Only to those who can see magic auras, and most ponies can’t,” Twilight said.

“Still, it may be worth it to learn a spell that cloaks my aura, or a technique that allows me to suppress its visibility. As long as I have an activation limit, I don’t want my opponents to know what it is.”

“For now lets try to avoid you being on the first line of defence, alright?”

“Understood,”

“Now, don’t you have a meeting to attend?”

“Right,”

“I’ll take you,” Sweetie Belle said, getting up. She had been mostly bored this whole time, not having anything to do or see.

“You mean you’ll make sure I get there,”

“That too,” Sweetie Belle smiled. She hadn’t originally intended on going to the meeting, being more of a fan to her sister than to Rainbow Dash, but since Scootaloo had invited Dusty, she wanted to go too.

* * *

Stardust was moderately surprised at Scootaloo for opening up the Crusaders’ clubhouse to other foals, but naturally this would not be the case during regular Crusader activities. This was for the purposes of the Rainbow Dash Fan Club. Naturally Scootaloo was the president, and presided by standing at the lectern.

Stardust stood at the back of the room and watched as Scootaloo called the meeting to order. He smiled fractionally as Scootaloo ‘motioned’ for an adjective to describe Rainbow Dash’s awesomeness: since meeting with Father shortly after the Grand Galloping Gala, Gearhead had started looking into the method behind parliamentary procedure, knowing that this was the way that the Herd Council discussed and resolved matters that affected Herd welfare. In an awkward way, Scootaloo was correct, but you didn’t ‘motion,’ you ‘moved.’ But that was the sort of mistake a foal might make, and so Stardust allowed himself some private amusement – even as Snips and Snails started to suggest other adjectives as ‘motions’ instead of ‘amendments.’

Stardust’s amusement only hightened when he heard a new voice suggest a portmanteau combination of all the words being thrown around by the members of the fan club. He needed only to glance at the nearby window to see Rainbow Dash’s rainbow-coloured mane. Apparently the fan club’s very subject had come by to check in on the club’s activities. Conflict of interest, or just interest? Stardust wondered.

He also wondered how anypony was going to remember the word.

* * *

One thing nopony would have trouble remembering was how Rainbow Dash flew down a well to save Aura. “Odd place to dig a well, if it can be tripped into… but more importantly, what was she doing when she fell in?” Stardust wondered aloud.

“Somepony ought to fence off this hill,” Stardust said, later when Dash stopped a baby carriage from plunging off a cliff.

“Just one problem,” Applejack said, “what’ll we do when Rainbow Dash has noopony else to save ‘cause they can’t get to this hill?”

“I’d call that a desirable problem,” Stardust said, “because what’s the next incident going to be, at this rate of escalation?” It turned out to be a balcony full of elder-ponies breaking. Dash was all over that one, too, but Stardust continued to worry: eventually there would be something too heavy or too big for Dash to handle.

“Call me silly, but I’m more worried about this hero business going to Rainbow Dash’s head,” Twilight said.

“You may be right, Silly,” Pinkie Pie said.

“No, the showboating hasn’t reached a level where they get in the way of the save. Yet,” Stardust said. “But the way she waits for the cheering… it can’t be much longer. Miss Dash is gonna need some back-up.”

“Have somethin’ in mind?” Applejack said.

“Nothing in particular, not until I get past my own limits. But you five have always had her back.”

The five mares exchanged two-and-a-half significant and knowing glances, the half bouncing off Pinkie Pie before she got it.

The matter was clearly beginning to get out of hoof when somepony decided it would be good idea to hold a press junket at Sugar Cube Corner a couple days later. Dash might have invited the press up to her cloud castle if they could walk on cloud-matter. To an extent, Stardust believed that it was a good thing they could not do so.

Photographer ponies took pictures as Dash’s fans, both foals and horses, looked on. Spike had donned a reporter’s hat and trench coat, and was recording everything. “It’s a good thing he has practice writing so many letters,” Stardust said.

“Spike, are you actually taking notes?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah! I’ve been hoof-picked by Rainbow Dash herself to write her autobiography.”

“Autobiographies are supposed to be by the pony they’re about.”

“That may be true for ordinary, run of the mill, ponies, but I’m much too busy saving lives to stop and write,” Dash said.

“But not too busy to stop to be photographed and talk to fans or the press,” Stardust said.

“I gotta give the public what they want,” Dash said, “and what they want is more of my awesome heroism!”

“What I’d like is a little modesty,” Stardust said.

“Hey, what good is being a hero if you can’t live it up a little?”

“Gee, I wouldn’t know, not being a hero who’s saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon, Discord, dragons, and various other threats.”

“Jealous much, Dusty?”

“Me? When I don’t have the power to do anything without endangering myself and others in the process? Maybe when I grow up I can be a hero, but right now I can just be me.”

“Which is exactly what Princess Celestia wanted from you when she sent you here,” Twilight said. “But Dusty’s right, Rainbow Dash, you should take your pride in moderation. Before it gets in the way of everything else.”

“Oh blah-blah-blah, your boring lecture. I’m a hero, so I don’t need any of that. When was the last time you did something heroic?”

“You know when,” Twilight said with a straight, 'you-just-went-there,' face.

“Yeah, but I bet I was there, too!” Twilight rolled her eyes. “There, ya see? You can’t deny it.”

“Nopony’s trying to deny you the recognition you deserve, RD. Just try not to go overboard, okay? As your friends, which we all already are, we worry,” Applejack said.

“There’s nothing to worry about,” Dash said. “Anyway, with Spike as my ghost writer—“

“Aaah! Spike’s a ghost!” Pinkie took off, leaving dust clouds in her wake. Everypony blinked, then Dash continued.

“I can focus on those acts of bravery nopony else can do.” Now different foals were getting their pictures taken with Dash. “Yeah, it takes guts to be a hero. But it also takes brains, and sometimes a big lunch and a nap. Being a hero is surely not for everypony, but I’m up to the challenge.”

Stardust noticed the significant, and skeptical, glances Twilight and Applejack were making, but he doubted Dash was noting anything except the steady increase in her own notoriety. She certainly would not have concluded, as Stardust had, that Twilight had a plan. Unsurprising, given that all of the Element Holders had demonstrated ‘guts’ and ‘brains’ at one time or another.

Stardust decided to continue to keep tabs on Dash and her exploits, waiting to see if her glory-hounding would allow her to keep up with the various incidents that might occur. He knew that the likelihood of her successfully acting as a hero would sometimes depend on her willingness to take the situation seriously, which meant that her inflated ego could get in the way. What worried Stardust more were the possible cases when being Equestria’s best young flyer simply would not be enough.

It happened the next afternoon, when Dash was out signing autographs onto greyscale photographed headshots. Suddenly somepony shouted out for help, and everypony looked up. It was Cherry Berry, falling from a great height aboard the Sparkle Balloon, which had ruptured.

“Shouldn’t you go and help?” Snips asked.

“Yeah, yeah. I got a good ten seconds to spare,” Dash said, continuing to sign autographs while Cherry Berry continued to plummet toward the ground. When Dash finally took off, Stardust already knew she would miss. But he couldn’t do anything from where he was watching, with his magic still in cool-down from practicing with Sweetie Belle and Twilight.

Fortunately a mare in a full-body costume of various shades of purple leaped from roof to roof, pausing only to estimate her intercepting jump. She grabbed Cherry from the balloon and swept her free. Dash bungled into the limp balloon, although she could have corrected in the air, since she was a Pegasus. The newcomer, in her wide-brimmed hat and blue tinted goggles, couldn’t have corrected her course if she had missed, but she had been right on target.

And for that, Mayor Mare, who had appeared near Twilight, dubbed Ponyville’s newest hero ‘the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well.’ She’s in on it, Stardust thought as he returned his attention to Dash, stuck in a tangle with the balloon. She’d been lucky Mare-Do-Well had appeared, or Cherry would have gotten grievously injured. Stardust decided that he had to be on better guard, in case Dash’s supersized ego put anypony else at risk, and Mare-Do-Well was not around, or could not handle the crisis either.

This seemed entirely possible, as Stardust heard Dash proclaim that the only hero for which Ponyville had the room was herself. This smells of trouble, he thought.

* * *

Two black-clad figures crept up to Carousel Boutique’s front entrance in the post-midnight darkness. One had the build of a stallion who trained for strength and speed. The other was much more slight, but taller than an average mare. As they pressed up against the curving wall, the stallion turned to his companion and whispered in such a low voice even she could barely hear him. “Last chance to turn back.”

“I’m not changing my mind,” the mare said. “You read the same report I did, so you know how necessary this might become. Not only that, it gives us a chance to check in on ‘Twily.’ Besides, how many chances do we normally get to have a little fun?”

“Just making sure,” the stallion said, before moving around his companion to start picking the lock on the door. In this plan, she was the mastermind and he was the accomplice. The mare rolled her eyes, although the stallion could not have seen it, and moved to help him. They were inside the shop in seconds.

While the two intruders were not as concerned about waking Rarity as they would some of the other ponies who they felt would be involved in this whole operation, the two ponies still moved as silently as possible, so progress was slow if steady. They made their way to the master bedroom, keeping their eyes peeled and their ears open for anything that could change their plan.

The ponies soon came to a walk-in closet without having seen any sign of what they were looking for. The mare gingerly opened it, moving so as to make as little noise as possible. The hinges creaked slightly, but the stallion gave her the proper sequence of taps on her flank to indicate that Rarity had not reacted. The mare led the way into the closet.

Once inside, with the door closed, the ponies could shed a little directed light on the situation from their horns. Given Rarity’s occupation, it was not surprising that her walk-in closet would be quite large, and carry a variety of styles. The stallion started systematically checking each outfit starting from the immediately left of the door, while the mare went right for the back of the closet and started searching to either side of the center. It was tucked in a little further back, but she found it.

There were three different Mare-Do-Well costumes back there. One had a horn sewn in, while the second one had wings. The mare checked the fabric on both before turning her full attention to the third suit. This one must have been a prototype, with holes for both wings and horn, so the coverings had not yet been added. The mare carefully checked it to make sure everything else matched up with what she had heard about the suit Mare-Do-Well had worn earlier that day, and then she clicked her tongue softly once.

The stallion came over, and they worked together to lift the costume from the rack as soundlessly as possible. They folded it and placed it into the small saddlebag the stallion was carrying, then made their way back to the front door, making sure they had not disturbed anything else.

Once the two ponies were outside again, they made their way to the nearest bushes and removed their stealth suits before putting them away. They would look much less conspicuous moving about the town normally, if anypony at all was awake to spot them. They then made their way toward the northern edge, walking as though this was perfectly normal.

“Remember, we could get caught if we interfere near Twily,” the stallion said.

“That’s right, she knows how to shift focus now,” the mare said. “But I doubt Dust would do anything to hinder the plan.”

“He’s smart enough to know what’s up. I’m just worried what Twily might blurt out before she can think things through, if she was to see us.”

“She would be surprised,” the mare said, as they left Ponyville behind.

Mission accomplished.

* * *

Ponyville’s next crisis seemed to be a runaway bus, with five passengers, caroming down the same hill as the baby carriage from before. As Stardust watched from a distance, Dash came flying in. She settled for a moment beside the bus, and while Stardust couldn’t hear what she was saying, he could guess that she was announcing herself. After a moment she flew to the front of the bus and put her hooves down. But the bus spun her about, under it, and spat her out. Stardust’s concerns had come about: the Pegasus was not strong enough for this task.

But then there was Mare-Do-Well, standing near the end of the hill, where it became a sheer drop. She braced herself with her rear hooves ready to receive the bus. And on impact, slid only a few meters before stopping the bus. The five riders were saved, and the mare made her discrete exit once again, without having said a word. But she had proven herself to be stronger than Dash, as well as faster in certain circumstances.

Rainbow Dash had started to patrol Ponyville from the air in order to catch each crisis as they came about, and most probably to try to take the advantage in her imagined competition back from Mare-Do-Well. Dash was first to arrive at a construction site where wisps of smoke announced an out-of-control crane at work demolishing the framework for a multi-storey building Ponyville’s construction team were putting up. As Dash swooped in and tried to bring off her catchphrase, beams, girders, bricks, and tools started falling, threateneing the integrity of the building as well as threatening injury to ponies below.

Before Dash could get to anypony, Mare-Do-Well swooped in to scoop one pony on to her back to carry him to safety. Seeing this, Dash was both amazed and more than a little upset. She looked for somepony else to rescue.

In the same moment, something silvery-white streaked out of the sky. It bounced off joists and girders as it descended, and where it touched down the wood seemed to transform into metal, which spread somewhat. As the newcomer descended it scooped up two falling ponies and carried them to safety.

As the new flyer came around, Dash got a good look at it. The shaped, plate armour was the white that Dash had picked up as this pony had come in, and it was trimmed smartly in yellow. A T-shaped visor glowed blue from within the helmet that hid the wearer’s face. A long mane flowed out from the back for several meters, zigging and zagging as though made of lightning. The helmet sported a horn – or maybe that was the horn of a Unicorn? Like the rest of this stranger, its wings were armoured, and little jets of blue flame shot out from the nozzles at the back as it changed direction or charged. The whole thing had an off-white glow, making it hard to identify the pony’s mane and coat colour, and its cutie mark was covered by its armour. Even its gender was hard to tell, since it wasn’t built overly muscular, while the armour prevented Dash from seeing the curves of a mare.

The flyer accelerated back toward the failing tower, and bounced between the frameworks like a pinball, shouting “Fixit fixit fixit!” all the while. Again, Dash noted as she carried one pony free of the falling carnage, where the pony touched there was metal. At the top of the tower, the flyer half leaped and half flew across to the crane, and vanished inside the cabin. It took only a moment for the crane to return to a resting position, and then the smoke also stopped coming out of the cabin. As soon as that happened, the flyer leaped back out of the cabin, did a powerdive, and shot back off into the sky, in the direction of Canterlot.

“What just happened?” Dash asked, looking at the still-standing building frame. The construction ponies shrugged, while Mare-Do-Well made a discrete exit.

“That guy was fast, though,” one of the workers said.

“Was it a stallion?” Another said.

“No, it was a mare,” the silver-haired mare said. “Look at that hair!” Dash honestly didn’t know either.

Rainbow Dash had a fair chance when the Ponyville Hydromagical Dam broke two days later, but then again she wasn’t an expert on construction, and did not have anything on hoof with which to repair the leaking crack. The gushing water washed her away, until Mare-Do-Well lowered a log for her – and then used a spell to take the slabs from the dam and return them to their previous place. A second spell repaired the dam’s retaining walls as good as new.

Downstream, the flyer was back. It threw in a blue marble, and when that sank into the water, the water itself became instantly frozen, halting its advance on the town. As Dash pulled herself up and clear of the water, the ice spread past her, all the way to the dam, before starting to melt in a simple trickle.

Both Mare-Do-Well and the unknown flyer flew off without a word, Mare-Do-Well on real Pegasus wings. It seemed as though there was no way Dash could compete, or even keep up, at this rate. How could anypony be stronger and more agile than her, and be magic and fly?!

At Sugar Cube Corner, none of Dash’s friends were of any help to her bad mood. Twilight kept going on about how heroic and humble Mare-Do-Well was. Rarity, seeming slightly miffed at first, couldn’t stop admiring the difficult spell Mare-Do-Well had used to repair the dam. Fluttershy said that she thought Mare-Do-Well was a fashion hero, too.

Dusty wasn’t any help either. “C’mon, you’ve gotta know who this flyer is!”

“Because I’m an Alicorn and you think he or she’s an Alicorn too? You don’t know every Pegasus in Equestria, do you? Heck, I doubt Pinkie knows every Earth Pony in Equestria. And you know she’d like to,” Dusty said.

“There’s nopony else here, so you can drop the act, Gearhead,” Dash said, coming in closer so they could speak more conspiratorially. “Did you make that armour?”

“Oh, I wish I could lay claim to such a design, and the method – wow! But I’ve honestly got no idea how that flight system works. And come to think of it, are the wings fake? What about the horn? That’d completely blow the Alicorn theory out of the water!”

“I hadn’t thought of that, but if you didn’t make that stuff, who did?”

“It looks like I’ve got some competition,” Dusty said. “What a time not to be in a position to retort, eh? But you were around both times. Did you get a good look? What did the pony look like?”

“Eh. White and gold armour, which fit really well. Covered cutie mark. White. Really ridiculously long hair. The helmet covered everything. And glowy. Really glowy.”

“So we know about as much about this one as anypony else in this town,” Dusty said.

“The guy flew off toward Canterlot,” Dash said.

“Was it big enough to be Princess Celestia?”

“No, smaller.”

“Well, that’s it: I’m out of ideas,” Dusty said, and then he ate a cupcake.

“Out of ideas, eh? Well, here’s mine: I’m gonna prove I’m a better hero than Mare-Do-Well, and I’m gonna unmask the white one!” Dash made a hasty exit.

“On so few clues?” Dusty asked. The others were skeptical, but also concerned.

It didn’t take long before Mayor Mare organized a thank you parade for Mare-Do-Well and Fantastic Fix-It. That was the name most ponies seemed to like for the metal-clad hero, since they could not decide whether it was a mare or a stallion, or even an Earth Pony, Pegasus, or Unicorn. Some alternate names were Silver Streak, White Lightning, and Firewing. ‘Fix-It’ won out because that was the only thing anypony had heard the hero say.

Mare-Do-Well showed up for the parade, and so did Rainbow Dash, seeking to unmask her competion. Fix-It was the only no-show, so Dash decided to simply go after Mare-Do-Well – who evaded Dash’s first grab for the hat, and ran away. Dash gave chase. Stardust followed with Rarity and Fluttershy.

When the three ponies caught up, Dash had already unmasked Pinkie Pie, and Twilight and Applejack had voluntarily unmasked. Each of them listed off their planned contributions to Mare-Do-Well, although Rarity still seemed puzzled. “What is it?” Twilight asked.

“Well… it’s probably nothing, but I can’t seem to find one of the earlier iterations of the costume I was working on.”

“I guess we’ll just have to keep our eyes open for a fourth Mare-Do-Well. But that was really nice work at the dam. I almost made the huge mistake of jumping in on the action at the same time as you. I didn’t think you had that kind of magic in you, Rarity.”

“Me? I thought that was you.”

“Huh. I guess we already have been seeing some of the fourth Mare-Do-Well’s work. And she’s really good.”

“Agreed,” Rarity said.

“I didn’t even have to do a fly-by,” Fluttershy said.

“So that wasn’t you at the crane?” Pinkie Pie asked. “I decided not to jump in ‘cause it looked like you were having so much fun!”

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said demurely.

“Ooh, this Mare-Do-Well is good!”

“I’m just glad that nopony was hurt, so we didn’t end up having to step in as much as we thought we would,” Applejack said.

“So… is all this over?” Dash asked.

“Who knows? We could get the help of the fourth Mysterious Mare-Do-Well at any time,” Twilight said.

“Well, if I can do something to help I’m not about to wait around and do nothing. I know now that while there’re certain things I can’t do, the best I can do is what I can do.” Dash said.

“Good lesson,” Spike said, walking up. “It’s too bad I didn’t write that.”

“That’s okay, Spike. This probably should come from me anyway,” Dash said. “There’s just one other thing bothering me.”

“And what, pray tell, might that be?” Rarity asked.

“Who’s this ‘Fix-It’ character?”

“Beats me,” Applejack said, and the others either nodded or shrugged.

“Aren’t you gonna say something?” Dash asked Dusty.

“Oh, I suggested you might be able to use some back-up in the hero department, but I think the others came to that conclusion separate from me. I didn’t do anything else, other than watch events unfold.”

“So you’re not Fix-It?”

“I didn’t think I looked that tall,”

“No, you’re definitely smaller,”

“Smaller than Fix-It, who’s smaller than Princess Celestia. I still can’t figure out who could fit that pony’s profile.”

“Maybe it’s a mystery that should remain unsolved,” Twilight said.

“Oh, I agree,” Fluttershy said. “I’m sure she --”

“Or he,”

“-- will come to us when he or she is ready.”

* * *

Stardust looked at Apple Bloom’s blueprints and nodded. “A simple, but effective test,” he said. After Rainbow Dash, Pinkie-Do-Well, and Fix-It had collided for a haphazard team-up at that construction site, trying to get a cutie mark as architects had seemed like a natural leap for the Crusaders. Using supplies borrowed from the town’s construction company, the four foals worked together to design a simple building that they could construct. Most of the ideas had been Apple Bloom’s.

There was one wildcard element to the design: while Apple Bloom had come up with most of the ideas, the others just couldn’t help tossing in a few of their own. The resulting design was, in Stardust’s semi-professional opinion, three quarters sound and practical. He just hoped the remaining quarter didn’t end up compromising the building’s integrity, otherwise the result could be disasterous.

The blueprint was for an all-purpose testing facility, where the Crusaders could make further attempts at getting their cutie marks. It was, essentially, a large, open room with different compartments set into the floor. Each compartment could hold an artificial setting, within which the Crusaders could try numerous actitivities. And the ones at which they failed to get their cutie marks, they could easily dispose of, so they could make further attempts at other activities.

Unfortunely for their attempt, Scootaloo tried to work too quickly, and this often meant that she cut corners and the part she was working on fell apart almost as soon as she thought she’d hammered it together. Sweetie Belle wasn’t much better, since she could only handle bigger sections with help from at least one of the others. Apple Bloom was the only one who was getting it, and her progress always stalled out whenever she had to go help one of the others with their section, which was often. Stardust himself stuck to being halfway competent, even though he could have probably just used his magic to finish things off. The Crusaders decided to give up with only a fifth of the support structure up, and tore it down to avoid Applejack’s wrath. Architecture was out.

Next, they decided to try careers in comedy. This ended poorly, when their admittedly poorly-written jokes fell so flat even the crickets felt too embarrassed to chirp. “At least that was fairly quick and painless,” Scootaloo said as they left the stage.

“Speak for yourself,” Button Mash muttered. Stardust and Sweetie Belle made apologetic gestures. Stand-up comedy was out.

* * *

Stardust felt strange not working on his projects as Gearhead for so long, so he started sneaking off to collect resources or work on a gadget whenever he had the time. It seemed that when he accessed his magic, although he only had 300 seconds of it, there was little limit to what he could cast. Wanting to see how deeply his power ran, he called upon each Elemental Spirit in turn, pushing himself until he could not go any further.

Stardust found that when he called on a Spirit in this way, he could take on its properties. That meant that when he took on Lightning or Light he could travel, and think, at their speeds for as long as he was completely transformed. His five minute limit seemed much longer, experienced on the scale of a faster elemental, however the drawback was that he could not interact with anything material as long as he was transformed, otherwise he would set off a massive explosion.

As a result of this discovery, Stardust would set up his laboratory to receive the resource he was after before going off, transformed, to the area where he could find that given resource. He only prepared the lab when he was ready to bring the wood or gem or metal in, because he had to unearth and fly it back in realtime. Because he could range much further in lightningtime or at lightspeed than he could in realtime, Stardust set up a number of secret caches along the way, where he could stow his supplies for later pick-up. When he got close enough, he flew them the rest of the way, directly into the lab.

Naturally, Stardust always had to check to ensure he was never seen. Getting spotted close to Gearhead’s Gadgets could raise unwanted questions. Getting spotted going inside would be even worse. As long as he still had enough time, Stardust could bend the light around himself and his cargo to render them invisible to the eye, however he could not do any such thing about a pony’s sharper hearing or sense of smell. He always had to be careful.

That evening, Stardust had a nearby cache ready to be brought in. This one was located in the mountain where the red smokedrake had once nested. Stardust left the bins at the shop open, and after checking to ensure nopony was watching, transformed into light and flashed off, faster than most ponies could see, or even think to see.

Stardust arrived at the cache to find that Rarity was already there, collecting the jewels he had left behind. Of course Rarity’s Gem Finder spell could unearth Stardust’s caches, and she would just consider herself lucky. Stardust knew how the Unicorn was often under pressure to produce the next great work, so he barely slowed down before flashing off to another cache higher up the mountain – it made little difference when you were made of light.

Nopony was at the higher cache. Stardust came in for a landing, and reverted to his physical self before he could touch the ground. He lowered his head so his horn was near the ground, and called on the Alicorn version of his Geomancy to bring his supply of metals and gems to the surface. Knowing he would be pushing his luck, he enhanced himself to full stallion size, and slung on the saddlebags, double-checking to ensure the straps were secure. Then he took off.

The bags were heavily loaded, however Stardust used his magic to enhance his flight back to Ponyville. He flew as low and as fast as he dared, hiding from prying eyes as best he could. But the load was heavier than he’d calculated, and his magic timed-out. Stardust went into a power-dive, then called upon his flight. It was a short drop, but the speed boost helped. Now that he was relying on his flight, he could make it the rest of the way back – but he would not be able to cast anything until a couple seconds before his flight timed-out.

When he got back to Gearhead’s Gadgets, Stardust found Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle standing at the front door, and looking through the windows. He realized they would spot him if he landed nearby, and they would probably hear the saddlebags settling. He decided to turn around, and headed for the library instead. He would have to hide his saddlebags and wait for his next opportunity to take them in… and hope Rarity didn’t find them in the meantime.

“You’ve been gone awhile,” Twilight said when he came in.

“Sometimes it’s just a thrill to spread one’s wings,” Stardust said. “Spike already asleep?”

“Yep, and you should be too. But first…” Twilight levitated a letter in front of him so he could read it.

“’Consult?’” Stardust raised an eyebrow. “Then I can take it they haven’t made any worthwhile progress.” It was true: if Princess Celestia or any of her researchers had found a way to turn him back into Gearhead, Princess Celestia would have said so in the letter. Instead, she was requesting that he come to Canterlot for a consultation.

“Maybe they’ve got a lead,” Twilight said. “Princess Celestia is the most powerful caster in Equestria. If anypony can find a way to turn you back, it’s her.”

“Alternatively, it could be something I’ve got to muddle through on me own: new phenomena, new circumstances, new solutions. No precendent.”

“You never know,” Twilight said.

Stardust suddenly recalled that Rarity had been on the mountain, and she would now be on her way back. That meant only one thing if Sweetie Belle was still out when her older sister got back. “I forgot something,” he said, and went back outside.

When Stardust got back to Gearhead’s Gadgets, Scootaloo was trying to boost Sweetie Belle to see through the second storey windows. Naturally, they could not reach very high up compared to the first floor. Stardust made sure to stamp his hooves as he walked, so they would hear him coming. “See anything yet?” He asked.

“No,” Sweetie Belle said, then she turned her head. “Dusty? What are you doing here?”

“Lookin’ for you,” Stardust’s reply made Sweetie Belle blush a little. “I’ve heard that Miss Rarity’s on her way back, which means you’d better high-tail it home.”

“Thanks,” Sweetie Belle dropped down to the ground, and Scootaloo rubbed sore shoulder joints. “How did you know we were here?”

“Educated guess,” Stardust said, looking past the two fillies. Not much could be seen through the curtains, that way nopony would be tempted to break in and steal anything. Sweetie Belle blushed again. “Hey, you’re worried about your magic teacher, right?”

“Oh, right. Yeah. That,” Sweetie Belle pawed the ground awkwardly, then her expression returned to normal.

“We’d better get home,” Scootaloo said.

“Me too,” Stardust said. “I sorta skipped out on Miss Twilight to come warn you.”

“Oh yeah, you’d better get back. Thanks again,” Sweetie Belle said, and they all went off toward their respective homes. Stardust really did hope Sweetie Belle didn’t end up getting in trouble, especially on his account.

* * *

The Cutie Mark Crusaders weren’t Dusty’s only friends: he also had started to hang out with Featherweight, Pip, and Button Mash, making a second foursome – this one entirely male. Button was showing the others some moves at a new fighter game at the arcade, and he was obviously aware that Dusty was staring at his beanie.

“Got something to say?”

“It just keeps spinning,”

“And..?”

“It’s perpetual motion. That’s impossible,”

“’Per-petal?”

“Perpetual. It means it doesn’t stop, ever. But everything slows down and stops eventually, so it’s impossible.”

“Says the male Alicorn,”

“Touche,”

And of course, Button was correct: Gearhead had already done and seen a lot of ‘impossible’ things happen, and he was still very young, even more so as Dusty.

“You know what’s really impossible?”

“What?”

“You beating me at this game,”

“is that a challenge?”

“You bet it is!”

“You’re on,” Dusty said, taking his place at the neighbouring console. Of course Button did beat him, but Dusty gave him a good fight. Button was an expert gamer, able to beat almost any game he played. But he sometimes took his games a little too seriously. Pip and Feathwerweight also played, and got beaten.

“Ah-hah! The Stache remains undefeated,” Button crowed.

“The Stache would do well to avoid playing Aunt Luna, then,” Dusty said.

“What, because she’s really good at carnival games?”

“She’s exceptionally good at them, and able to quickly master any new game to boot.”

“This is different, though.”

“Not to her, it’s not,” Dusty said.

“We’ll see about that,”

“Maybe we will… not sure when, though. I’m not aware of any plans for anypony to come to Ponyville.”

“Not that they always tell you,” Featherweight said.

“True, they don’t.”

“Until then, at least, I’m undefeated,” Button said.

“Eiyup,”

“Got any more spare bits?”

“Nope,”

“Oh well. Lets go toss a ball,” Button said. His game had just gone ‘over.’ Dusty chuckled to himself: the Stache had been defeated by the game.

“Say,” Button said as they left the arcade, “why do you hang out with Sweetie Belle and her friends all the time?”

“It’s not 'all the time,' but they do tend to be a lot of fun. Except when they’re trying something really dangerous. Then I’m there to make sure they don’t get too hurt.”

“So which one d’you like best?”

“Relax, we’re just friends,”

“Why’re you telling me to relax?”

“I thought maybe you had a thing for Sweetie Belle,”

“What makes you think that?”

“You said ‘Sweetie Belle and,’ like in your mind she comes before the others.”

“So?”

“And you also hang around with Sweetie Belle more than with any other filly,”

“I do?”

“It may not be so noticeable, or maybe just coincidence. If I believed in coincidences.”

“You don’t?”

“This is a land full of magic, which means there isn’t a lot of room for coincidence. But we’re getting off topic.” They had a ball, and started to toss it between them.

“Which was?”

“Your crush on Sweetie Belle,” Dusty said, bouncing the ball to Button.”

“I do not!” The denial only made Dusty and Featherweight chuckle. “I really don’t,” Button said sulkily.

“Maybe it’s coincidence after all,”

“You’d better believe it is!”

“Hey, what d’you think of Fix-It?” Pip asked.

“What a lame name,” Button said. “Has anypony even seen him?”

A shrug went around the field: Nopony had seen Fix-It since the dam.

12. Meek But Fleet

Chapter 12: Meek but Fleet

The first part of Princess Celestia’s letter to Twilight was in response to her request, on Rarity’s behalf, for accommodation in Canterlot. Rarity had been planning to go to Twilight’s hometown to gather some materials that could not be found in Ponyville, or anywhere else in Equestria outside of highly-specialized cities like Manehatten. Princess Celestia’s response was that she could place a room at Canterlot Castle at Rarity’s disposal for the duration of her stay.

It was in the second part of the letter than Princess Celestia invited Dusty for a consultation regarding his transformation. The princess had arranged it so the colt could accompany Rarity, or perhaps, given his relative size and physical strength, it was the other way around.

While Dusty could have easily, and quickly, flown to Canterlot in elemental form, his arrival could have been more easily marked that way. Besides that, an Alicorn was an extremely rare sight, and a male Alicorn an entirely unique one. Dusty would make a tempting target if he traveled on his own, whether potential criminals knew that he was a capable caster or not. If he traveled with Rarity, who had the air of an accomplished businesspony, there was less chance of mischief.

Rarity had seen the letter and the entirety of its contents – and, in fact, she was carrying it in one of her saddlebags. Neither, therefore, was surprised to see the other. What surprised Dusty was the sheer volume of Rarity’s luggage, which consisted of dozens of parcels and bags. The Unicorn was also taking Opalescence along. In turn, what surprised Rarity was that Dusty carried only a pair of saddlebags, neither of which was completely full. He also had a lightness about him that had not been there before, but Rarity could not ask about it because she did not know who might overhear their conversation on the train, and she did not want to be indiscrete: no ordinary pony should know that it was Gearhead, posing as a distant relative to Equestria’s ruling family.

That said, it wasn’t as if they were silent during the ride into Canterlot. Rarity had questions about what the Crusaders were on about when nopony else was around, and Dusty, because he had become a Crusader, had answers. Naturally he had to try to answer in the way that a colt would, for the benefit of any listeners.

“Don’t tell me you’re starting to fall for my little sister,” Rarity said, after the fifth time Dusty had mentoned her without mentioning any of the other members by name.

He raised an eyebrow. “I’m not in any position to say,” he said, his voice free of sarcasm. “B’sides, I thought you’d be most interested in hearing what it was your little sister’s been up to. It’s not easy keeping them entirely unhurt, you know, being so impulsive together.”

“Like going into the Everfree Forest at night?”

Dusty nodded. “Well, you know them better than I do, in the sense that you’ve been around them longer. But their actions are less filtered around other ponies their own age.” He paused. “Actually, it could be worse, considering how much everypony wants to prove themselves to their peer group the most. And what marks that more than getting one’s cutie mark?”

“It’s hard not to feel that pressure,”

“I don’t mind, so long as it doesn’t have any of us headed down a waterfall or into similar danger… again,” Dusty thought of their encounter with the Hydra, which had been precipitated by Crusader activity.

Rarity might have been thinking of a similar instance. “Well, I’m thankful you’re there to keep them relatively safe, or at least to rescue them from danger.”

“I’ll continue to do my best on that account,” despite my many limits, Dusty didn’t have to add. There was a great need, despite his apparent flippancy, to find a work-around to his activation limit, as well as the sudden time-outs. If, for example, he could put his power activation on hold and have it recover some time while it was on hold, that could help a great deal. After all, if he allowed his power to exhaust itself over the full five minutes, he had to wait a full five minutes more before he could use it again. That was a long time in which to stand by and do nothing.

On the other side of the spectrum, he didn’t want to be standing around with his power active minutes after it was needed, waiting for it to time-out. That was why, despite their utility, Dusty tried to avoid using spot spells, since even the simplest of spells activated his power, and its countdown. This was most annoying when a friend wanted him to use magic.

Princess Celestia herself was waiting for them at the station when the train came in. She also had a small honour guard, which included Shining Armour, watching more discretely. “Oh, what an honour!” Rarity gushed.

“It’s not exactly going to go unnoticed,” Dusty muttered.

“So you’re not excited to see me, Nephew?”

“Of course I am, Aunt Celestia,” the younger Alicorn allowed for an awkward hug, then the princess turned and led the way up to the castle. “You know I don’t like to cause a fuss, though.”

“Hm? What happened to ‘Auntie?’”

“Just a sign I’m growing up, but if titles matter to you so much, Princess…”

“They don’t matter quite so much, with family,” Princess Celestia said. Dusty decided that it was a good thing Luna wasn’t there to pick his mind at that moment, because otherwise she’d have been able to report Dusty’s sarcastic thought to her sister. Then again, since Luna could get into dreams at long ranges, Dusty guessed that her not being in the immediate vicinity didn’t really matter.

“You’re the one who asked for me,” Dusty said, “so today I get to play guest.”

“Ah, but there’re the house rules to follow,”

“Ah,” but only once I partake of your hospitality, Dusty thought. He noticed that Princess Celestia was leading him and Rarity up an external staircase. It was still within the palace walls, however it meant that there were not any interior passages or guards to pass. It also meant that a guest in these rooms could be kept out of the way. They arrived at a double set of doors, which Princess Celestia opened to reveal a large suite bedroom, with an en suite bathroom.

“Oh my, do I really get to stay here?” Rarity asked.

“I was only too glad to provide you with these accommodations when I got Twilight Sparkle’s request.”

“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!” Rarity continued to gush. It was a rather opulent and well-appointed room. Dusty would have thought it would be right up Rarity’s alley. Or whatever the gregariously glamorous substituted for alleys. Promenades, maybe? Rarity was, surprisingly, kissing Princess Celestia’s hooves, which was making the princess look very uncomfortable. She tried to wave it all off as not such a big deal, but Rarity wouldn’t stop thanking her.

“Come, Nephew, we have much to discuss,” Princess Celestia said to Dusty, and led him away from the suite and the still overly-thankful Rarity. The two of them passed one of the castle staff on their way out. He was trying to carry all of Rarity’s luggae, and doing a valiant job.

Princess Celestia led Dusty to an inner room between the throne room and her own private quarters. Both Shining Armour and Princess Cadence were waiting for them there, a fact which made Dusty sigh in exascerbation. “How many more of the ponies I didn’t want to see me like this will?” He asked.

“Probably three or four more than you want,” Princess Celestia said.

“I’m afraid we’re already well over that limit,” Dusty said.

“We promise we won’t treat you with any less respect than you deserve, even if you do look adorable,” Cadence said.

“Just remember what I can do when I put my mind to it, right?”

“You know, I still find it hard to believe you took that witch down on your own,” Armour said.

“The facts change not,” Dusty said. “Anyway, why’d you summon me? I was getting a valuable lesson in play.”

“We’ve been helping Princess Celestia’s research teams in their efforts to find a way to reliably revert you to your normal form,” Princess Cadence said.

“Unfortunately, the closest thing we’ve found is the transformation spell you already started to learn, and this sort of transformation isn’t what it was supposed to do,” Armour said.

“It could be something entirely new, if the circumstances under which I completed the spell were different from any other time it was attempted, successful or otherwise,” Dusty said.

“If it’s new there won’t be a precedent set, which means no previously-recorded incident. No literature,” Princess Celestia said.

“That’d annoy Twilight to no end,” Dusty said, looking at Armour. “It would also mean I have to find my own way back, with my current abilities.”

“It’s a shame my Failsafe Spell doesn’t work on you,” Princess Celestia said.

“That just means there’s nothing to safeguard from failure,” Dusty said. “The transformation doesn’t seem to be the kind of thing that can simply be cast off. If it was, I’d have reverted to form when the spell expired. Instead, my change has already lasted over several days.”

“So we need to figure out what you can do before you can transform back,” Armour said.

“If there’s nothing promising in the research, then there’s no way I can find an argument against that logic,” Dusty said.

“Unfortunately we’ve already scoured the entire library,” Princess Celestia said. “Twilight Sparkle reports similar results from the Golden Oaks Library and the material recovered from the old castle.”

“Which leaves the good old trial-and-error method,” Dusty said, “but I do not enjoy leaving myself powerless after an attempt. Could I have some time to figure out a little trick before we get started?”

“Certainly, I wasn’t thinking of getting started immediately anyway,” Princess Celestia said. “Feel free to enjoy Canterlot as a colt for a few hours.”

“Shining Armour has guard duty to attend to, but I’d be happy to show you around,” Cadence said. They all knew that Gearhead was familiar with some of Canterlot, but this was little Stardust’s first actual appearance in the capital. It wouldn’t do to have him appear to know too much, to those ponies actually paying attention. And those were the ones they would most want to convince of Dusty’s identity.

“As you wish,” Dusty said, dipping his head. The others smirked, but Cadence led the way out anyway.

As Dusty toured the palace grounds and surrounding city with Cadence, he was aware of the stares they were collecting. He knew how they looked: a pair of Alicorns out for a stroll, and yet one was great-niece to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The other was a blank-flank from who-knew-where, and… a male? The speculation would soon be rampant, and propagate throughout the city.

Disregarding all that, Cadence showed Dusty to all the places nearby where a colt might entertain himself. This kind of tuning to another’s needs shouldn’t have surprised Dusty at all, considering he knew that Cadence had been Twilight’s foalsitter, and that the Unicorn had enjoyed their relationship. At the end of their outing, Cadence even brought Dusty to a sweet shop. He did not want to admit that he didn’t really have a sweet tooth, so he simply accepted what she bought for him, then they headed back to the palace.

There were still several minutes before Dusty would have to go to the training room to meet up with the others, so he asked Cadence to go ahead of him while he went to check up on Rarity. She seemed to be getting ready to go out. “Did you want to ask me something, Darling?” She asked, inviting him to sit beside her on the rather expansive bed.

“Oh, I was just wondering if there might be some way to put my magic on pause.”

“You’ve already tried not casting, right?

“Yes, but my time continues to run whether or not I cast anything at all. I could call on my power and wait. I would still time-out.”

“What if it wasn’t focus itself, but another spell?”

“Switch? Standby? No, that could work,” Dusty said aloud. “Thanks, Rarity.”

“Anytime, Darling.”

“I should get going,”

“I’d love to come watch, but I’d better be on my way as well.”

“I’m not sure you’d want to watch this, anyway.”

“Remember,” Princess Celestia said, “the exercise is to determine the limits of what you can do.”

“That way we can see if there’s a combination of your skills that we could use to turn you back,” Luna said.

“Yeah, so don’t throw everything you’ve got at us all at once,” Armour said.

“Oh, I think I’ve got the concept,” Dusty strapped his gemstone dagger to his leg on an adjusted belt. He had modified the dagger’s design, so the teeth on the half-gear were pointed, and longer, like the rays of the sun. The blade, regardless of its length, looked like an extended center ray. Like him, Armour had brought his buckler and dagger. The Unicorn would probably refrain from using his weapon until after the Alicorn drew his own.

But magic was not Dusty’s first play this time. He charged forward a few steps, then started to weave back and forth, as he had seen the Dullihan do. When Cadence started providing covering fire for Armour’s charge, Dusty leaped into the air, calling on his flight just as he reached the peak of his jump. The resulting energy release made him seem to jump a few feet higher into the air, but that was just the jump in his speed.

Dusty jinked, spiralled, and flipped through an evasive routine. Armour couldn’t get any closer to him than he already was, but Cadence could give chase while she continued to fire, so now it was Armour who was covering her. She got close, working with Armour to try to herd Dusty into a corner, but then he dove for the ground, making dust fly on impact.

A thick fog suddenly expanded from the area of impact. Armour and Cadence remained separated, with little idea of where the other was because the fog also dampened sound to a certain range. Neither could be certain that they would not fire and hit the other instead of Dusty.

Stardust had no such limitation, suddenly coming out of the fog at Armour’s left flank in full Agile Form, clad in white, unadorned armour and a helmet with a shallow V-visor. The stargem dagger was extended to its full length, and constantly absorbing magic power into its center even as Stardust swung it at Armour.

Armour himself expanded his shield, which he had on his left leg. It became a triangular tower-style shield, similar to the one on his cutie mark, and it easily deflected Stardust’s swing. But the speed of his delivery and his fast follow-through continually forced Armour back. Armour drew his sword with his tail and started to fight back with both forelegs. He fired a signal shot high into the ceiling, then started trying to hit Stardust with magic blasts as well as physically.

Armour was far from the only one with this idea. Stardust was enhancing his speed with his magic, and his swings were a blurring combination of diagonal slashes and wicked thrusts, each carrying a little magic to boost its impact. Stardust spun, flipping his sword over his left hand to cover himself more fully as he fended off Cadence’s magical attacks, and then he leaped back into the fog, vanishing.

Not this again, Armour groaned inwardly, sword and shield at the ready as he swung left and right. Something came slowly out of the fog ahead of him – an Alicorn in flight using the ground as a guide. He relaxed slightly when he saw it was Cadence, and they moved together so each was covering the other’s back. Cadence continued to fly, each wingbeat driving the fog further back.

The fog suddenly melted away, and Armour and Cadence cast about until they located Stardust – back in his colt form as Dusty – moving very slowly and cautiously from Armour’s two o’clock. Before anything else could happen, Armour started to unleash an unrelenting salvo of magical blasts. Dusty started to deflect them with the still-extended sword he was wielding in his mouth. Cadence took a turning jump, and unleashed a round of blasts from her own horn. Dusty leaped back into the air.

Suddenly he was balancing upside down from the middle of the ceiling, formations like an open flower behind him. He transformed from pony to human, but left off the armour this time in order to leap directly at his targets right away.

Armour and Cadence raised overlapping protective barriers, but Stardust swung his sword, which was suddenly glowing red, anyway. Armour thought it would simply glance off the shield, and the impact would cause Stardust to lose his balance, but instead it tore right through Armour’s purple shield, and bounced off of Cadence’s blue barrier. The blade bounced back, and Stardust looped back into the air.

As Stardust came down again, but in a slightly different position, his arcing sword changed from red to orange, and ripped through Cadence’s barrier instead. Before Armour could counter with some magic blasts, Stardust hit the ground and sprinted to the right, circling around at high speed, and never slowing, as he charged back in, covering his approach with some Magic Arrows, which the other two had to counter with magic blasts.

They were both unprepared, as Stardust charged directly between them, easily swinging his sword in a single continuous horizontal slash that switched from his right hand to his left. Lightning energy traveled along the blade and into Armour and Cadence, paralyzing them temporarily. Stardust took three steps past them, turned, and reverted to Dusty form, but came back into a range where he could tap either’s horn to neutralize them.

“What was that?” Cadence asked. “Last time you couldn’t keep up with the both of us.”

“I learn from my experiences, and besides, when I activate my powers together they get a big boost. So anything I can do now is probably more potent then its equivalent otherwise.”

“I would not say that,” Princess Celestia said. “Your Geomancy is noticeably more powerful as Gearhead. But otherwise, yes, you are more powerful as an Alicorn. Nor do you need vocal incantations, except for higher-level spells.”

“It’s a shame spell power isn’t the factor keeping you from reverting to form,” Luna said, “or you’d already be able to solve your issue.”

“Well then, I’ll just have to keep looking,” Dusty said, returning his dagger to its scabbard.

“In the meantime, you can partake of some of Canterlot society’s best until it’s time to return to Ponyville.”

“My thanks, ‘Auntie,’” Dusty said.

* * *

When Dusty went to check in on Rarity again, she was on a tear, quickly fleshing out a new design. “I’ll show them something worthy of Canterlot,” she was saying.

“’Them’ who?”

“Jet Set and Upper Crust!”

“And they’re the type of ponies to whom you want to prove your skills? Not Photo Finish or Hoity Toity?” These were fashion ponyalities to whom Rarity had already proven herself, thus why Dusty chosen to drop their names.

“Proving myself to Jet Set and Upper Crust could mean really big things for me here in Canterlot. Plus, they called Ponyville ‘a little bit country,’ and I won’t stand for that!”

“I don’t get it: Twilight’s from Canterlot, but does that make her some sort of debeutente?”

“She certainly doesn’t act like Upper Crust,” Rarity said.

“I wouldn’t like her if she did, by your account. You don’t need to prove yourself to ponies who stick their noses so high into the clouds they can’t catch the scent of potential.”

“Oh but it will be so easy to prove myself,” Rarity said. “I have the skills and knowledge, and it will set Jet Set and Upper Crust back, and seed my reputation here in Canterlot at the same time. You brought merchandise here to sell during your training sessions, so you can surely understand.”

“I understand. I’m just concerned you’ll end up getting carried away by it all,” Dusty said.

“Thank you for your concern, but I’m sure I can handle it. Besides, it gives me further motivation to create this dress for Twilight’s birthday.”

“When is that?”

“Don’t you know? You live with her,”

“She hasn’t spoken about it around me,”

“Ah, well it’s this weekend.”

“I’ll have to get her something. I suppose she’d enjoy a book, but what volume could one get that she doesn’t already own?”

“Why not simply make something for her?”

“Unless it’s something shaped, it’ll vanish when I time out. I’ll think on it.”

“In the meantime, I’ll need some supplies for this,” Rarity said.

“I’ll come with you. Maybe I’ll find some inspiration at one of the shops.”

“In that case, we’d better take Opal with us,” Rarity said. She gently took hold of the cat with her magic. It was more so the cat wouldn’t startle and try to scratch her later than because she was worried about hurting her: Opal was tougher than she looked.

Although Rarity was a Unicorn, and not an Alicorn like Cadence, the three of them still made quite the scene as they made their way around the shops. With her design in mind, Rarity knew exactly what supplies she needed, and she even adapted her ambitions to other materials that she spotted and thought could work.

Rarity carried most of her parcels using her magic, but Dusty had been smart enough to empty his saddlebags so he could help out without using magic: he knew that if he did use magic to carry anything, he would drop them if they didn’t get back to the castle within five minutes of him reaching out to pick up the parcels in the first place. And it took more than five minutes to get to the first shop. Dusty increased his carrying capacity by carrying another two parcels on his back, between his wings.

Rarity was leading the way back to the castle when she literally bumped into a couple who were most certainly high society types. The parcels Rarity had been carrying dropped, scattering their contents – except for the one the other mare had to pull off of the stallion’s head, causing Rraity to immediately identify him as ‘Fancypants.’ Dusty put his parcels down and started to gather the loose supplies before they could be taken by the wind.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry,” Rarity was saying to Fancypants. “I didn’t see you there. I’ve just got so many bags, and I was trying to get back to my suite at the castle, and—“

“You’re staying at the castle?”

“The Princess invited me to stay in one of her suits,”

“You know the Princess?” And her protégée, Dusty thought.

“A pony with expensive tastes, I see,” the glamorous-looking mare said, using her own magic to send a parcel back to Rarity. Since Dusty didn’t have his magic active, he couldn’t tell what colour her magic aura was. He was slightly surprised that, given her fleur de lis cutie mark, she did not speak with a French accent.

“Oh it’s for an ensemble I’m making for a friend. Her birthday’s in a few days.” Since all the bags were collected and under control again, Dusty picked up his own bags and started following Rarity past the elite pair. “Again, I’m so sorry for bumping into you like that.”

“I’m not,” Fancypants said. “You’re obviously somepony worth bumping into.” Dusty had to give the Unicorn stallion some credit for rolling with the entire incident without getting his metaphorical feathers ruffled. “Listen, I have a VIP box reserved for the Wonderbolts Derby this afternoon. Would you be so kind as to join me and a few of my companions there?”

“Me?”

“But of course, my dear.” The invitation clearly left Rarity somewhat flustered, but she agreed all the same. She doesn't have any reason to refuse just one invitation, Dusty thought. And if she was concerned for her reputation, the word of somepony so well known that Rarity knew him on sight would only do good things for it. So it was a good thing Rarity took the opportunity to introduce herself when Fancypants offered it, as he was leaving. His mare companion was a few steps behind, but she quickly caught up. Dusty wondered if she had actually gotten caught up in the act of her own preening, and that was shy she had fallen behind. Canterlot nobles, he caught himself thinking of them somewhat disdainfully. Fancypants and his immediate acceptance was somewhat to his credit, however he had only done so after Rarity said that she was connected to Canterlot royalty. Dusty didn’t know in which direction to weigh things. “You can bring your younger companion,” Fancypants said.

“Oh why, thank you!” While Rarity continued to gush, Dusty decided to ruffle as few feathers as was possible.

Back at Rarity’s suite, the Unicorn carefully proceeded to lay out the pros and cons of attending the Wonderbolts Derby. It was only by listening that Dusty learned that Rarity considered Fancypants the most important pony (or perhaps just Unicorn) in Canterlot. Rarity wasn’t feeling the crunch in regards to Twilight’s dress just yet. “I can lend a hoof with the dress if you really end up needing it,” Dusty said.

“Thank you for the kind and extraordinary offer, but I doubt it’ll be necessary.”

“You forget I’ve designed apparel of my own, so I can be quite effective.”

“I’ll keep your offer in mind, but in the meantime, lets go acquaint ourselves with Fancypants!” Rarity jumped out of her closet wearing an elaborate red hat, and proceded to squeal in delight. Dusty cringed slightly.

Rarity led the way to, and through, the stadium next to the castle, where the derby was taking place. Dusty saw that the vast majority of the crowd was composed of well-to-do ponies. He could not see under all of their hats, but he believed that the greatest majority of the attendees were Unicorns. He even spotted Lyra Heartstrings and Minuette in the crowd as he climbed the steps after Rarity.

Near the VIP box’s stairs, Dusty noticed Rarity glance quickly toward two ponies sitting nearby, and tentatively identified them as Jet Set and Upper Crust, the two to whom Rarity wanted to prove herself the most due to the earlier incident. As Rarity batted her eyes at the Royal Guard acting as a bouncer for the box, Dusty wondered if merely opening his wings would be enough to grant a pass. He was spared the consequences of doing so when Fancypants came down to get them. Or to get Rarity. Dusty was trying his best to remain as her shadow unless it became appropriate to do otherwise.

Rarity seemed startled to see the small group of Fancypants’s companions coming toward them as soon as they spotted their friend, and skittered to the side. Obviously these elite were excited to see Fancypants. “Everypony, this is Rarity.” The others didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, but as soon as Fancypants mentioned where she was staying, they got interested.

Fortunately they did not get much further than that, as the mare doing announcements for the derby got started, and everypony began to move to the window to watch. The other elite ponies followed Fancypants in his support of Rapid Fire. Dusty mentally rolled his eyes, knowing that –

“I doubt he stands a chance against Hasty Hoof,” Rarity said. Exactly, Dusty thought. Spitfire and Soarin’ were also lined up to compete, but neither could fly faster than Hasty Hoof. It was in her name. Rarity was spared having to explain until the race was over, when she explained that Rainbow Dash knew that Hasty Hoof may be small, but her speed was higher than that of the others.

“And who is this ‘Rainbow Dash?’” One of the mares asked.

She just said that Dash’s a friend, Dusty thought. He couldn’t imagine why Rarity seemed so stumped for an answer, but felt her reluctance to be ridiculed. “Rainbow Dash is the most recent winner of the Best Young Flyers Competition, and the only Pegasus alive to be able to perform the Sonic Rainboom. As an aspirant to the Wonderbolts, Miss Dash knows each member quite thoroughly.”

“And you are..?”

“Also a friend. They call me ‘Dusty.’”

“Oh, what an… unpleasant name.”

“My thanks for putting it so politely,” Dusty said without missing a beat.

“Well,” Fancypants said, “if a pony knows the Princess and the Best Young Flyer champion, she is obviously somepony worth knowing.” The others immediately murmered their assent.

Sheep, Dusty thought. Is this what Canterlot’s aristocracy is like? Following in the whims and wishes of the more important ponies? If so, I’ve no idea why ‘Lord’ Vines wants to be like them. Rarity, meanwhile, was practically overflowing with joy at Fancypants’s approval. Well, there were some aspects of this stallion that appealed to Dusty as well, like his openess and his willingness to step in and smooth any ripples in the water.

* * *

While Rarity began to attend different events put on by members of Canterlot’s high society, Dusty returned to the library to see if his fresh eyes could spot something the research teams had missed. Of course, Princess Celestia had told him to attend some of the events himself, however there were some to which Rarity was suited to attend and he was not. Those were the ones he skipped, while he watched Rarity’s performances on the other occasions.

On one of the former occasions, Dusty happened to find a short passage on the use of magical energy. It stated that it should be theoretically possible to direct all of one’s generated magical energies to be harnessed and used solely for the purpose of a particular spell. What this meant was that Light Magic should only generate light effects. The same would be true for other spells, especially the elemental ones, which were normally accompanied by big flashes and sounds.

This made sense to Dusty on some level, because a more seasoned Unicorn ought to be able to focus her or his energies into, say, a magic blast, in a way that would mximize its force while minimizing the leak into the light that made the blast visible, sound energy that made it audible, and any heat energy byproduct.

This also meant that every Unicorn and Alicorn of whom Dusty was aware did not use their power as efficiently or effectively as it was possible to do. They were all wasting some portion of their power in order to create what was effectively a light show. Naturally, Dusty was not innocent of this either.

Dusty imagined that if he could learn to use his energy more efficiently, he could also learn to make his magical aura invisible even to those who could sense it, like Twilight. This would mean that he could avoid tipping his hoof to potential opponents, but he guessed that by the time he mastered efficient energy use, he would be Gearhead again. Or at least, that was his hope. Still, they would be applicable lessons. Dusty continued to look for further notes on the subject, but this seemed to be the only one. He would have to resort to trying it out on his own.

Dusty continued to find volumes by Spring Onion, Starswirl the Bearded, and other Unicorns of varying degrees of fame. Many of the spells and potions they detailed had been beyond his power as Gearhead, but if Dusty wanted to truly test his limits, he would have to use these spells as the test – as long as he could understand the spells well enough to bring them off successfully, and as long as it was not a spell that asked for something like somepony’s soul in exchange.

As he had noted before, Spring Onion specialized in combat spells, almost all of them Elemental Magic. He was a master of the delayed and unincanted spell, but he also had other utility spells, like ones that could refresh his allies.

Starswirl specialized in transformations, but not in the type that Dusty wanted: this was taking one thing and changing its nature into something completely different: apples into oranges, leaves and rocks into clothes, but not Unicorns into Alicorns, or so it seemed.

Starswirl’s direct protégée, Clover the Clever, had studied a different area of magical expertise, but this one carried its own reasons for being interesting: enhancing one’s own mental abilities. The boost was, naturally, quite temporary, but it could be useful for situations where that boost was beneficial and required. It would be like the boost in clarity Gearhead seemed to get when Discord was present.

The more time Dusty spent with the Canterlot elite, the less they made him want to stick around, because they held themselves as being above others. By a ridiculously-large degree, if the angle of their upturned snouts was anything by which to judge. This behaviour reminded Dusty too much of Vines, who treated all other Verdants except for Father and Mother as lesser beings, and all non-Verdants as being lesser still – except for Gearhead, who was at the borrom of the pyramid because he could not farm at all.

Dusty enjoyed Ponyville far better than Canterlot, because recognition there seemed to be based in merit far more than in one’s social status – except if you were a school-aged foal, because then the ‘elite’ were typified in Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara.

Dusty did agree with Vines to some extent: a pony’s worth had to be defined by what he could do, the type of contribution just had to be widened. Still, monetary contribution simply was not a lot. That was why Father’s use of the East Field would grate on every traditionalist on the Council. Finally, there was the problem of placing merit on somepony because of who they were. Titles mattered little to Gearhead, and in personal interactions the same seemed to be true for Luna, Cadence, and Armour. If you were a friend, they didn’t care about being treated like a pair of princesses and the Captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard. Dusty enjoyed their company far more than those of a handful of wealthy, snooty Unicorns. Even Rarity was treading the line, without even knowing it.

After a time spent in the company of ponies he was rapidly coming to dislike in rather strong terms, Dusty would retreat to the library, wondering when he could go home. While his research was interesting, and often extremely insightful, it was also becoming repetitive. Maybe his childish body was beginning to affect his judgement?

Some time later, Dusty returned to Rarity’s suite, so see how she was getting along with the dress she was making for Twilight. He was starting to prepare to head back to Ponyville, and wanted to see if he could lend a hoof, so he was surprised to see her writing a letter to Twilight, while speaking aloud.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Dusty asked.

“Oh Darling, I’m sure she’ll understand. Besides, this could mean big things for me.”

“Well, I guess that’s up to you to decide. For me, Ponyville is a much more desirable destination, so I’m planning on leaving at the next convenient opportunity. Can I help you with anything?”

“No, that’s quite alright. I have everything under control.”

“If you say so,” Dusty said, and when Rarity didn’t have a rejoinder, he left to pack and meet the next train back to Ponyville.

Dusty had hoped that Rarity would return to her senses enough to be able to meet him at the station, however he scoured the entire platform and every car without spotting her. By the time he realized that she was not there, the train had already left for Ponyville. Of course, he could just fly back to find out what was going on, but what would be the point? Rarity was a mature adult, so surely she had made her decision with all the consequences in mind – after all, she was the type to weigh the pros and cons of all of her options against each other to decide on her most beneficial action. In this case, maintaining the reputation she had as an up-and-coming socialite in, admittedly, the center of Equestrian culture, seemed to be more important than a party to celebrate the anniversary of one of her newest friend’s birth – not that Twilight would not eventually come to understand the choice. Dusty sincerely hoped Rarity would get the chance to repair any damage done.

Dusty pondered what could be more important to him: Gearhead’s reputation as a gadgeteer of high quality, or his friendships, both as Gearhead and as Dusty. Before coming to Ponyville, his answer would have been his reputation, but that was because Gearhead had not had many friends of whom to speak. He saturated the market with his gadgets, did whatever research he could, and moved on. That had been the entirety of his life these past ten years, and Gearhead could not claim to be satisfied with that anymore.

Before he had come to Ponyville, Gearhead had had business acquaintances, ponies with whom he had agreements, but he could not call these ‘friends,’ not in the way he could call the Elemental Six or the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or his gaming buddies ‘friends.’ And what had he known about intimate relationships beforehand? Just the support he had gotten from his parents and from Big Sister Ivy, curiosity from the soon-to-be Prism Flight, and Dawn and Dusk's mutual support.

* * *

When Dusty got into Ponyville, he got another shocking lesson about friendship: upon receiving the letter from Rarity expressing her regret at being unable to make it back to Ponyville in time, Twilight herself decided to accommodate Rarity’s apparent needs: she asked Pinkie Pie if it would be okay to move the party to Canterlot, and she asked Princess Celestia for a place in which to hold the party. Pinkie immediately agreed, and Princess Celestia immediately granted permission to Twilight to use the Great Hall.

As everypony helped Pinkie pack her party favours, Dusty came up with a simple, and hopefully effective, plan. The reasoning behind it was simple: Without a warning, both parties (so to speak) would be in for a big surprise: Opalescence was not ill, and Twilight had decided to keep the relocation a surprise, and thus had not sent a reply to Rarity, even by normal mail.

As soon as he was able, Dusty quietly detached himself from Twilight and the others as they chatted and prepared in their car. Dusty moved forward, toward the engine, and when nopony was looking he moved to a window. As he opened it he whispered his incantation to transform into light, and took off. So as not to alarm the Royal Guards, he decided to fly along a high trajectory, which was not a big deal, time-wise, since he was traveling at the speed of light.

Dusty’s landing, however, would be a big deal. He pulled up just before he met with the ground, and flew toward the door to Rarity’s suite. As he did so, he began to decelerate and return to his solid form.

Which was why he made a loud ‘THUD!’ when he crashed, face-first, into the door. Dusty was still shaking it off and stumbling about when Rarity, curious and halfway into one of her fancy outfits, opened the door. “Did you miss your train, Darling?” She asked, blinking at him.

“Nah, I caught both of them,” Dusty said, finally stable again. Thank Celestia for that reflexive defensive magic, he thought.

“’Both?’”

“Good, you’re paying attention. Because I’ve limited time to tell you: Pinkie’s moving Twilight’s party.”

“To where, pray tell?” Rarity moved closer, which took her outside the doorway.

“To here,”

“To Canterlot?”

Dusty looked straight at Rarity and the door behind her. “Here,” he said.

“Here?” Dusty watched as comprehension dawned. “Oh my, here?”

“Eiyup. And now I’ve got to get back to the train before anypony misses me.”

“You cannot be serious,”

“How serious do I look?” Dusty transformed into his light form again and shot up into the sky, and then out toward the train, leaving Rarity wondering since when he could do such a thing. Which was funny, considering he’d been in Light Form before, when she had found one of his caches.

Dusty found the train a mere three minutes after he had left it, but somepony had already closed the window he had used earlier. Being as careful as possible to avoid being spotted, he rematerialized beside the train in flight and opened the window to get back inside. He then used his telekenesis to close the window again, and then put his powers back into standby, and hoped Twilight had not noticed anything, or if she had, that she would not bring it up. He then made his way back to the car where he found the friends still chatting amiably, as though nothing had happened.

Which was true, as far as they should be concerned. The rest was up to Rarity.

* * *

Dusty winced when he saw how Rarity had improvised with Opalescence, dumping her underneath a tap just to give her the appearance of illness. At least she had gotten out of her gala clothes and stepped into something more plain. Of course, ‘plain’ was relative, especially when one was speaking about Rarity the Unicorn. Fluttershy rushed in to tend to the sick cat, and then everypony headed downstairs.

“When I told Princess Celestia that we wanted to move the party here, she gave us free use of the Gala Hall right away,” Twilight said, beaming. “I wanted to do it outside, originally, but she said there’s another party going on there.”

“Oh my, the Garden Party,” Rarity muttered.

“Isn’t it just fancy-pants?” Pinkie Pie said.

“Where?!” Dusty winced, as clearly Rarity couldn’t hear the lack of capital letters. “I mean, how did you ever decorate so quickly?”

“Party canon!” Pinkie whipped a canon with a flower painted on each wheel out of nowhere, and fired, spreading confetti, streamers, and other party favours everywhere, including on Rarity’s somewhat modest dress. “I never leave home without it,” the Earth Pony continued, oblivious to Rarity’s nervous twitching. Dusty would have loved to know how Pinkie did that, as it might be a useful place to store his core system and all its paraphernalia, but then he remembered: this was Pinkie being Pinkie Pie, so nopony else could probably do it.

As the party continued, Rarity started to mix excuses to cross over to the Garden Party a few seconds at a time. Dusty decided to cover for her if it became necessary, but the wildness of the pony’s excuses soon made doing so impossible. It was a good thing Twilight was so understanding of Rarity’s business savvy, or perhaps that she was naïve enough to believe that Rarity would not ditch her friends without very good reason.

It was unfortunate that, while everypony else understood what Rarity was trying to do, they wanted to join in in their own way. Dusty had been to enough high society events in the past few days to know with absolute certainty that these friends from Ponyville would end up damaging Rarity’s reputation simply by association. “I don’t think this is that kind of party,” he said, standing between the others and the door, but Applejack and Rainbow Dash bulled their way through.

As expected, the disaster immediately began to unfold: Applejack started weeding; Fluttershy invited an assortment of animals to sing; Pinkie added her hyperactive flourishes to the party; Rainbow Dash started challenging ponies left and right; Twilight, herself from Canterlot, started dancing awkwardly to the music she’d brought out with her. Dusty himself had to duck or dive out of the way whenever Pinkie or Dash bounced or flew by him. He was near Twilight when it got very close to becoming Rarity’s nightmare scenario, with Upper Crust and Jet Set asking where Twilight had gotten her dress, which still had not reached its final stages when Twilight had spotted it.

Fortunately, Fancypants saved Rarity by calling it ‘charming,’ while Twilight had called it ‘functional.’ Unfortunately hearing that everypony who was crashing the party was from Ponyville was like hearing that they were from some hick-town to these elite, yet another reason why Dusty disliked them so. Fortunately, Rarity chose this moment to finally stick up for her friends, and Fancypants backed her up again. But Dusty still did not like Fancypants calling his friends ‘charmingly rustic.’ After all, when all was said and done, he had been born on a farm. But he was not Gearhead at the moment, so Dusty held his tongue. But he had much about which to vent to whoever might listen when they got back to Ponyville!

Before they left for Ponyville once more, Luna pulled Dusty aside. Besides being an available ear, she also had a couple questions for him. Dusty answered as honestly as he could, given the fact that he could not know how long he would remain in this form. Then, Luna sent him home with the others.

13. This Too Shall Come To Pass

Chapter 13: This Too Shall Come To Pass

Out of the three who lived above Golden Oak Library, Dusty was always the first to wake up – other than those times when Twilight pulled all-nighters in order to complete an assignment from Princess Celestia. Spike certainly didn’t like his mornings, however Dusty could seldom avoid rising with the sun. He supposed he had gained something of a connection, what with him working with the fire particles his core system generated. Whether that connection was enhanced through his being an Alicorn, even temporarily, Dusty did not know. Naturally, as somepony who had grown up on a farm, Gearhead was used to rising early. Even after so many years away, it just felt right.

Even on mornings without school, Dusty was rising early for his morning training, which he did behind the library to avoid disturbing anypony. He switched up the order of his routine every morning to practice magic, flight, and combat. If he included his use of Unicorn and Pegasus magic together, then he was doing five minutes of power practice, even though he made sure to cut out halfway through so he would have some active time left in case something happened. He used the time after putting his power on standby to practice his martial arts to allow his magic to recover. Combat training took the longest, since he was only limited by his physical ability. That gave his magic plenty of recovery time, so between combat routines he did magic again.

Dusty returned to the library to find that Twilight was levitating all of the books above the floor. “Reshelving day,” she explained, while Dusty quietly shut the door. He went over to stand by the display table in the middle of the library to watch and stay out of the way. Unfortunately some giggling from upstairs broke Twilight’s concentration instead, and she dropped everything. Dusty managed a few seconds of levitation, focusing on the book that would have impaled itself on Twilight’s horn. Instead, it shunted to her left and fell on the pile already on the floor by that time.

Both ponies looked at Spike, who was coming down the stairs, a heart-shaped ruby in his hands. “Nice ruby,” Dusty, who had seen plenty of gems, said.

“Thanks,” Spike said. “I’ve been aging it for months, and it’s almost ripe. It’ll be my birthday present to me next week. Hey, you took my advice and started using the floor as one big shelf!” Twilight glared at the dragon.

“Nope,” Dusty said, nodding to the two volumes that Twilight had managed to shelve before Spike distracted her.

“Oh, sorry.”

“I guess I need to work a little bit on my focus, too,” Twilight said. “Still, try to not get too carried away, Spike.”

“Got it!”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m not so sure,” Dusty said, turning toward a sound he heard coming from the door.

“Hello!” Rarity called from the other side. “Is anypony home?” Now she opened the door with her magic, and the first thing she really noticed when she poked her head in was Spike’s fire ruby. Of course, Rarity did have an eye for gemstones, and she proved it almost immediately by enumerating its perfections, even without the use of an ocular aid. Dusty could guess what was coming next, and knew that it wouldn’t exactly be pretty.

Even though Rarity had come for a book on fashion history, all of her attention was clearly on that fire ruby. Dusty knew that Spike’s crush on Rarity was bad enough that he would give it to her if she just… yes, there it was: she turned on the charm. Dusty was surprised to see Spike hesitate as long as a dozen seconds before handing it over with his compliments, literally. Really, he’d never had a chance. At least he got a kiss on the cheek out of the deal.

“Spike, that was the kindest, most generous thing I’ve ever seen you do. I’ve never seen Rarity so happy,” Twilight said.

“I’ve certainly never seen her do ‘Pinkie Hops’ before,” Dusty said.

“I will never wash this cheek again,” Spike said.

“Unfortunately for that,” Dusty said, “somepony else is in charge of your baths.”

* * *

For some of the past week, Dusty and the Crusaders had been sneaking into Gearhead’s Gadgets to work on a gift for Spike together, but the final touch was something that Dusty had to do on his own. When Rainbow Dash topped off a pile of wrapped presents that Spike was holding with a weight, Dusty was there to represent the rest of the Crusaders – not that the mares should know about the foals’ involvement.

“This is amazing,” Spike said, clearly pleased. “I usually only get the one present. From Twilight. A book.” The Unicorn sheepishly hid what was clearly another volume.

“Well, I may yet have the topper,” Dusty said, bringing out the gift from him and the fillies.

“Isn’t that the lance ‘Gearhead’ made for me when we went to rescue Rarity?”

“This one looks different,” Twilight said, “but I can’t quite put my tongue on why.”

“You’ve a keen eye, Miss Twilight. The reason is on the butt of the shaft.”

“An amethyst?” Spike said, turning the weapon in his hand to look.

“It’s a special variety of diamond called ‘cobalt.’ It doesn’t have any exchange value, however spells and elemental energies can be stored within it at high fidelity for long periods of time, according to the books that mention it. Charge it with one specific spell or one type of element, and you can use it at will – however periodic recharges will be required.”

“That’s amazing,” Rarity said. “It should be priceless for the utility value alone.”

“Cobalt is hard to find. I think only you or a Geomancer could do it at a rate that would make any sense, and between us we’d end up exhausting all the deposits in Central Equestria within a few hours.”

“So it’s a rare stone,” Dash said, “but doesn’t adding it throw the balance off?”

“So glad you asked, Miss Dash. I’ve gone ahead and lengthened the lance to maintain the perfect balance it already had – and joined the stone flawlessly with the material that was already there. It’s as perfect as it can possibly be.”

“Wow, this is great,” Spike said. He spun his wrist, twisting, and jabbing into open air to test the modified weapon. “It doesn’t feel any heavier than before, yet it’s just a little but longer. Nice work, Dusty.”

“You’re welcome, Spike. Use it well and wisely.”

“This getting gifts thing is great! I wish this day could go on forever.”

“Duh, it can’t go on forever,” Pinkie said, “because after the party you have to go to Sugar Cube Corner for a special surprise!”

“Oh wow, really?”

“Yeah! The Cakes made it specialy for you.” Pinkie and the others watched in amazement as Spike set his gifts aside to make a beeline for the door. “I know I said it had to end, but I didn’t mean right now!” Pinkie shouted after him.

“He’ll be back,” Twilight said.

Half an hour later, Spike had not returned. Button, Featherweight, and Pip came by to see if Dusty wanted to join them in a game, so he left with them. The last Dusty saw of the others as he left was Twilight leaving the library to try to find Spike.

The four colts started out with hoof-races and ball games, but inevitably found their way to Button’s house and his battery of electronic games. Button’s mother was clearly not keen on her son and his friends coming over just to play console games, but on balance she was happy to see him with friends. Besides, it was clear that they had been playing outside first. Button’s mother was a smart mare, and savvy to Button’s ways. She didn’t have to look at Dusty funny for him to get the feeling that her motherly instinct was telling her that there was something off about this colt.

And, of course, she was correct. His being an Alicorn should have been her first clue, but nopony dared press beyond that point, or even to approach Dusty about it, possibly for fear of getting into trouble with the Princesses, who were purportedly his many-times removed, many-times great-aunts. Even if Dusty was not who and what he presented himself as, he needed to be a pony with connections to pass that off as true.

It was not as though most ponies believed the Princesses would use intimidation tactics to buy their silence on controvercial issues, however Button’s family was already in something of a precarious position, with his father and older brother being out in the world. Button’s mother was a full-time caretaker, as her cutie mark, a large heart and a feeding bottle, indicated. She took care of her family, and then others’ foals at a daycare, which gave her a similar position to that of Cheerilee at the school. This meant that Button’s mother had some earning power of her own, and did not rely entirely upon her husband for funds.

Today, however, there was not any school or daycare, so Button’s mother had all the time in the world within which to very carefully probe into the matter of who and what Dusty really was. Naturally, having a mature mind despite his physical appearance, for every oblique question the mare posed, he had an oblique answer. The best he could do, under the circumstances, was to hint at her to trust the Elemental Six, who were acting as his caretakers.

When Dusty got back to the library for dinner with Twilight and her friends, Spike had still not returned. They gave him plenty of time before they started eating, but since he still did not show up, Dash grew impatient and they had to get started. As they left the library afterward, the five friends promised to keep an eye out for the baby dragon. They were all concerned as to why he might have vanished, but Twilight insisted on holding faith that he would return in due time, having found him earlier. She did not say what she found her assistant doing, but she was clearly treading a balance between concern and trust. Both ponies went to bed wondering what had happened.

* * *

Because Dusty was accustomed to awakening at dawn, he was also accustomed to it being very quiet, at least for the first few hours while he trained. On this particular morning, however, he heard a soft clatter. It was coming from Spike’s bed, or close to it – and that alone was odd, since Spike always slept in the same place, being comfortable with it out of habit. The only other circumstance under which he had fallen asleep elsewhere was when he was over-tired from a long day.

Dusty stared in Spike’s direction as he let his eyes adjust to the darkness. He picked out a large lump rising out of Spike’s bed, and when that did not satisfy Dusty’s curiosity, he focused enough to direct some light from his horn onto the pile.

And very nearly jumped. The lump was a large pile of objects, some of them toys but most of them not, and all of them without any connecting feature that Dusty could determine. Dusty had the impression that his dragon friend had just started grabbing things from all around Ponyville, regardless of whether or not they would actually be of use to him. As Dusty wondered what Spike had done after leaving the library, the dragon shifted, sending some of the objects sliding noisily down the pile. Spike flung a purple arm from within the pile, striking the floor before lying still and exposed. An arm that was longer than it should have been. And if that was the case for one arm, then the other should be the same, which meant that Spike had somehow grown significantly in only a few hours. Dusty had never heard of such a thing before.

Since Spike was not doing any harm, and Twilight was still fast asleep, Dusty decided to go ahead with a shortened version of his exercises, while keeping an ear to the ground. He knew he could have woken Twilight up then, but she might not like the twin threats of being woken early and the changes overtaking her Number One Assistant.

“Spike, would you keep it down?” Twilight sat up in her bed to try to glare down at the baby dragon, only to find a moving pile of… stuff. “Oh my,” she said.

“Ah, you’re awake,” Dusty said, absently flipping pages as he continued to read.

“Did you know about this?”

“I had a bit of a preview when I woke up. I don’t know the cause.”

“What ‘this?’” Spike asked, finally working free of the pile. Dusty judged that he was between two and three times his normal size, but taller rather than plump. And he was wearing a white, somewhat wrinkled wide-brim hat with a feather in it – not exactly the usual choice for sleepwear.

“Where did all this stuff come from? And what happened to returning that hat to Cheerilee?”

“I was gonna return it just like you said, but then I…”

“But then you what? Spike? Are you listening?” Twilight and Dusty both noticed that Spike was glancing around the room, as though seeing the objects within it for the first time.

“Oh, sorry Twilight. Zoned out there for a bit. Hey, can I have this globe? You’re not using it, right?” Spike started to pick up the object in question, but Twilight took it away telekinetically.

“Focus, Spike. What happened yesterday after I left you?”

“I dunno. Can I have this book?”

“No you cannot!” And Twilight had to rip the leather-bound volume from the dragon’s claws to get it away from him. “I don’t remember you ever being this grabby before,” she said.

“My arms weren’t this long either,” Spike said in a slightly deeper voice as he made a grab for whatever objects were in reach. Hearing his own voice, he covered his mouth with both hands. “What’s happening to me?!”

“Puberty?” Dusty guessed.

“But he’s a baby dragon!”

“Not to judge by the sudden growth spurt,” the stallion-turned-colt said wryly.

“Don’t you have something to do today?” Twilight glared at her houseguest.

“I was going to get together with the colts,” Dusty said, taking his cue and getting up. “I could certainly head out now.”

“You do that,” Twilight said, glancing back at Spike, who was walking about and grabbing more books off the shelves. “I’ll take Spike to see if we can find out what’s going on.”

“Good luck,” Dusty said, closing the door behind himself. He did not hear Twilight’s answer, but did not need to, knowing she was preoccupied with the problem at hoof anyway. Dusty had a problem of a different sort to figure out anyway, given that it was still extremely early. He decided that a stroll to the park might be a fortuitous choice: he never knew who, amongst Ponyville’s early-risers, he might encounter.

As it turned out, the answer was ‘Fluttershy and Winona.’ The Pegasus was out walking the farm-dog as a favour to Applejack. Dusty was aware that Fluttershy sometimes looked after her friends’ pets alongside her usual assortment of woodland critters, but he had not known that she was Winona’s regular walking companion. It made sense, though, given the types of preparations that farming families had to complete in the morning – and working animal that she was, the Apples might not always appreciate it if Winona was always underhoof.

When Fluttershy entered the park with Winona, she let the dog off her leash so she could run about and play, but she continued to walk at a slower pace across the park. She smiled when she saw Winona run full-tilt right up to Dusty only to roll energetically on the grass. The dog jumped up and licked Dusty’s face just as soon as she regained her paws, and the colt had to push her off bodily, because Winona was even a little larger than he was.

“Good morning, Dusty. You’re out early,” Fluttershy said once she was close enough.

“Miss Twilight asked for some space, so I gave it to her.”

“Is it about yesterday? Oh, I hope Spike got home okay!”

“He did, although neither I nor Miss Twilight know when.”

“Spike’s not in too much trouble, is he?”

“I honestly don’t know,”

“Huh,”

Dusty shook his head. “It’s a matter for the two of them to sort out,” he said, “and I’m sure they will.”

“I wish I had your confidence,”

“Don’t you? I mean, they were your friends before they were mine, so who knows them better?”

“I do,”

“And do you think Miss Twilight would stay mad at Spike for long even when he does get into real trouble with her?”

“No, of course not. They depend on each other.”

“Well then, there you go.”

“Hm. Okay. If you’re not busy, would you like to come with Winona and me?”

“I have some time to pass, so sure.” A couple minutes later, Fluttershy completed the crossing. On cue, Winona ran up and sat in place so she could hook her back up to the leash. The three of them left the park with Winona on Fluttershy’s right, and Dusty on the Pegasus’s left.

Dusty had barely left Fluttershy’s company fifteen minutes later when he encountered Pinkie Pie, hopping happily off to who-knew-where. Except that as soon as she saw him, she started telling him what business she had being awake and about at that moment: “Bon Bon is having a yard sale. Can you believe it? A whole yard! Nopony has more than one, right? So it’ll be sold fast.” Pinkie winked so Dusty would know that she knew what a yard sale really was. Or did she? This was, after all, Pinkie Pie.

The pink pony suddenly came to a complete stop. As Dusty watched, fascinated, her ears flopped, she rapidly blinked her eyes multiple times, and then her knees went all floppy for a few moments. “Uh-oh,” she said, looking around. Her gaze locked just over Dusty’s shoulders, and as Dusty saw her widen her eyes, he instinctively dove out toward the street. It was a good thing he had, because Rainbow Dash came flying out a nearby door, sending it swinging wide. If he hadn’t dove, he’d have been hit.

“Hey Dashie, you going to the yard sale too?”

“I wish! I’ve got a little catching up to do on my weather duties after Spike’s party yesterday. I didn’t want it to take all day, so I decided to get up early and get it all done quickly so I could enjoy the rest of the day. But I woke up drowsy so I stopped in for a quick bite first.” Dash turned to Dusty. “What’re you doing out and about so early? I mean, I know you get up at the crack of dawn, but you usually aren’t walking around Ponyville by now.”

“Twilight and Spike are sorting some stuff out, so I’m giving them some space. I was walking with Fluttershy and Winona earlier, and now I’ve bumped into you and Pinkie.”

“Actually, Rainbow Dash almost bumped into you.” Pinkie snorted.

“Well, I’d better get started. I’ve got some serious napping to do later. Have fun with your friends, Dusty!” And Dash shot off.

“Ooh, off to have some fun?”

“It’s just a day with Button Mash, Featherweight, and Pipsqeak. Anyway, don’t you have a yard to buy?”

“Oh yeah. See ya!” And Pinkie shot off too, although in her case she was landbound. Sort of.

A couple minutes later, Dusty was surprised to find Rarity taking advantage of the early-morning markets. If he expected anypony to take the concept of ‘beauty sleep’ seriously, it was her. “Oh, good morning,” the Unicorn said to Dusty as she paid a shopkeeper. “Are you getting an early start too?”

“Twilight is having it out with Spike, so I’m just passing time until I meet Button Mash and the others. I’ve already joined Fluttershy on her walk with Winona, met Pinkie on her way to Bon Bon’s yard sale, and thanks to Pinkie Sense, dodged Rainbow Dash dashing through a door to catch up on some weather.”

“So then all you’re missing is Applejack, but I expect you’ll miss her unless your morning stroll takes you to Sweet Apple Acres. Will it?”

“It might have, if I kept walking with Fluttershy, but then I’d have missed Pinkie and Dash.”

“Well, five out of six isn’t bad, if I must say.”

“Please forgive my asking, but Miss Rarity, what’re you doing out and about so early?”

“Of course you can ask,” the Unicorn said graciously. “I heard some limited-supply items would be sold this morning, and it would seem that that was exactly right. Why, if I hadn’t gotten up for this I’d be missing out on a great many design opportunities as a result of getting these supplies!”

“Where did you hear about these sales?”

“Why, from Pinkie Pie,”

“Are you sure she wasn’t talking about Bon Bon’s yard sale?”

Rarity thought for a moment. “She might have been, at that. So then would that make this a coincidence?”

“If so, then there are entirely too many to fit into one morning. I’m ready to chalk it up to ‘Pinkie Sense.’”

“’Pinkie Sense’ it is,” Rarity said, selecting some more supplies for purchase. “Oh, I hope I’m not keeping you?”

Dusty looked across several thatch roofs to find the sun, and shrugged. “I have time on my hooves.”

“Well then, I appreciate the company,” Rarity paid for her things, and floated her bags along beside her as they walked to the next open stall.

“Would you like me to carry a few of your things?”

“I wouldn’t want to impose,”

“Then you can consider it a ‘guy thing,’”

“Well, if you insist,” Rarity floated two full bags over to Dusty, and once he had hold of them she gingerly released them from her control. The colt easily took their weight, but then most art-type supplies were light enough when they didn’t come in rolls.

“What’s going on? Have a busy morning or something?” Button asked as Dusty approached. With Featherweight and Pip there, that made him the last to arrive.

“Yeah, something like that. Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Well, now that we’re all here we can get this thing going.” Button bounced the ball. “Two on two, I have first pick.”

“Sure, lets call it the ‘Tardiness Penalty,’” Dusty said.

“You spend entirely too much time with Twilight Sparkle,” Pip said.

“Occupational hazard. Shall we?”

“I’ll take Feather,” Button said.

“That means you’re with me today, Pip.”

“Ready,” the smallest of the four colts said, taking up position beside Dusty. Featherweight took the ball and used his head to toss it in. Button, his beanie removed for the game, got to it first and faked right before advancing left. Pip came at him from a low angle as though from out of nowhere, stealing the ball. Before Button could turn all the way around, Featherweight was on Pip. Dusty charged in right between Button and Pip, and fairly tackled Featherweight before rolling free and back to his hooves. Pip was already in his range for the hoop. He hit the ball downward as hard as he could so it would bounce higher, then hit it with his head to score the first basket. “Alright!” Pip and Dusty looped back around to trot to their side of the ‘court,’ and waited for Button and Featherweight to bring them the ball.

For much of the game, Pip acted as the vanguard while Dusty backed him up. The larger colt proved that he had the speed and mass to protect Pip from interference from both their opponents, and yet as per the rules he used neither his flight nor his magic. Button’s mother, watching from the house, would note that he didn’t seem to even be tempted to spread his wings, keeping them relaxed and furled at his sides – not even to manipulate the ball.

Button and Featherweight also fell into a rhythm, their teamwork coming together more solidly as they played. In their case, neither of them was automatically the vanguard or guard, instead switching roles as appropriate. Featherweight was adept at stealing the ball, and Button had the accuracy to make the shot from the trickier angles, even if he lacked the strength to do it from a distance.

The score was tied fifteen-all when the Cutie Mark Crusaders came screaming and running down the street. Button and Dusty both paused, more than a little curious. “What’s going on?” Button called.

“Spike tried to steal my scooter!” Scootaloo said, near to tears. Anypony who knew her also knew how much the little vehicle meant to the Pegasus.

“And he was huge,” Apple Bloom said.

“Like, four or five times larger than usual,” Sweetie Belle said.

“That doesn’t sound like Spke at all,” Pip said.

“It didn’t look much like him, either,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Yeah, what’s wrong with him?!” Scootaloo said.

“Miss Twilight said she was going to look into that, but… she did stop him, right?”

“Yeah, but it was weird,” Apple Bloom said.

“She used a regular old broom as bait,” Scootaloo said.

“Spike uses brooms and stuff all the time,” Featherweight said. “That can’t have worked.”

“Oh, it did,” Scootaloo said.

“Like a charm,” Sweetie Belle said.

“I’d like to claim the grabbiness wasn’t quite so bad when I left the library this morning, but I’m not sure I can,” Dusty said.

“I definitely don’t like Spike like this,” Apple Bloom said.

“Yeah, it’s not cool. Not at all,” Scootaloo said.

A high, clarion scream cut through the air. With that kind of practice at distress, it could only be one mare. He’s gotten worse, Dusty thought, especially if he’s bothering Rarity. “I’m for helping to put a stop to this,” he said, starting off at an easy canter. The others soon joined him.

“What can we do?” Pip asked.

“Crowd control, and maybe a little more from me,” Dusty said.

“You have a plan?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“It’s forming,” Dusty said. They were still a good distance from Carousel Boutique, and it was clear from the sounds of the screams and further commotion that things were moving further away. That gave Dusty a certain amount of time before the others would arrive, if he flew at full speed. “Remember, keep everypony else away from Spike. We don’t want to antagonize him any more than we have to.”

“What’re you gonna do?” Button asked, recognizing something in Dusty’s tone.

“I’m going on ahead,” the Alicorn said. He leaped into the air, spreading and flapping his wings at the apex of his jump, and shot off, the downdraft causing the others to stop a moment or risk falling over.

“I didn’t know he could do that,” Featherweight said.

“Eh, he’s still not as fast as Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo said. “Now come on, or we’ll miss everything!” As the six remaining foals continued onward, they lost sight of Dusty in a pale yellow blur over the rooftops.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle was left wondering once again how things had been allowed to get so bad. Spike had grown to gargantuan proportions while stealing everything in Ponyville that wasn’t nailed down, and a few things that were, like Fluttershy’s chicken coop and the Ponyville water tower. Now he was climbing up the mountain that the red smokedrake had once used, stolen horde held in the water tower under one arm, and his tail coiled around Rarity.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew up to head level to try to persuade Spike to put everything down, and when that only seemed to enrage Spike more, the Wonderbolts arrived. Unfortunately they chose to buzz Spike, which only made him angrier. He dumped his loot into a cave (a smaller one than the one the smoker had used), and used the water tower to pin the Wonderbolts against the mountain. Rainbow and Fluttershy tried to dissuade Spike again, and nearly got hit for their troubles. Only about a dozen lines of Wind Magic held back Spike’s tail as he attempted to use Rarity as a weapon against her friends.

“Lets try and calm down, friend,” the owner of the lines said, flying overhead on steel-wrapped wings. The voice coming from the helmet was distorted to sound like many different types of voices, both high- and low-pitched at the same time.

“Fix-It? Fantastic,” Rainbow said, but despite her sarcasm, Twilight had the feeling that the Pegasus really was thankful to see the mysterious hero in this case. It did a fair job restraining Spike’s swinging tail, which allowed Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to fly clear and retreat. The dragon roared, and pulled hard against the restraint. Fix-It strained against Spike’s strength, but the difference between them was too great, and the flyer decided to let go, the lines vanishing without an anchor at the smaller end. Spike roared again.

“I can do the ‘hard way’ too,” Fix-It said, snapping its tail to send the segmented lance slung between its wings flipping into the air. It caught the weapon in its mouth, and the sections began to spin, each counter to its neighbour. As it did, blue energy gathered into the second-widest section, the widest section already being fully charged – probably during the flight over. Fix-It assumed an aiming posture that reminded Twilight instantly of Gearhead’s position with his expanded Geargem Dagger, and his crazy Spiral Blast, which had broken the dark witch’s anti-dragon barrier. Twilight only hoped Spike wouldn’t be too hurt.

But the energy never left Fix-It’s lance. Twilight looked more closely, and saw Spike bringing his tail, and Rarity, in to shield him from any incipient attack. Fix-It tried to fly quickly into an open angle, but no matter where it flew, nor how quickly, Spike always managed to bring his tail around. The flyer flipped over the dragon’s head, and headed over to where Twilight and the others were waiting, trying to come up with an alternate plan. The armoured pony was barely away from the dragon before it returned its lance to its scabbard.

“Can’t get in a good hit?” Rainbow asked.

“His defensive instincts are too good,” Fix-It said. “I’m open to suggestions.”

“Oh, I hope we don’t have to hurt him,” Fluttershy said.

“He’s done lots of damage already,” Rainbow said.

“If I could just get close enough, I have a memory spell that might work,” Twilight said. “How many more of those restraining lines can you make?”

“Lots, and I can spread them out and strengthen them. And keep his attention on me. Plenty of cover, if we all move in when I launch the lines.”

“Okay, we have a plan. I hope this works,” Twilight said. The others nodded their agreement.

“We’ll have to move quickly,” Fix-It said, and then fell completely silent. It wasn’t until the first magic circle appreared underneath the pony that Twilight realized it was gathering a massive amount of energy for a spell. Another circle appeared behind the armoured pony, and another two to the left and right. “Capturing Fusilade,” Fix-It called aloud, pointing one hoof at the dragon, and then everything visible was engulfed in a wave of silvery-white streamers. Although partially stunned herself, Twilight remembered to begin the charge, and then the others were right there with her.

As the ponies flew and galloped across the rocky terrain, Twilight noticed that the four waves of lines were heading in slightly different directions. One of them rose to around chest-height on Spike, while two climbed steadily into the sky. The fourth and final wave flew in low to the ground. Twilight was amazed again, both because of the control Fix-It was clearly exerting over its shots, but also because the mass of them was so different from what it’d used at first: wheras the first wave could have been barely more than a dozen strong, this one clearly numbered in the hundreds, no thousands.

Spike stared straight ahead at the most visible wave of arrows flying at his chest, so he didn’t have time to react to the low wave, which wrapped around his legs above and below his knees while the mass aimed at his chest diverted and circled around him. Fix-It stopped its forward progress, and Twilight was surprised to see it using its own body as a winch, spinning at an accelerated rate by pointing its wingtip engines to one side. The tightening restraints pulled Spike off-balance, and to his knees, where he had to use his arms and claws to fight for balance. Fix-It contracted the lines right away, and then slammed its forehooves into the ground, triggering the lines sinking into them, before metal, stone, and earth crept up the lines to reinforce them. And then Fix-It got back in the air.

At another signal Twilight couldn’t hear or see, the lines circling overhead began to rain down on Spike on all sides. Each one seemed to attach to an arm or leg about mid-way, wrapping around three or four other lines until they were braided for extra strength. Some of them hit the cave holding Spike’s horde, sending pieces flying everywhere. One piece flashed as it spiralled through the air, landing near Spike. Fix-It slammed into the ground again, and this time Twilight heared it call out “Anchor,” and then “Reinforce,” and she understood. 'Anchor' set the Capturing Arrows deep in the ground. 'Reinforce' brought additional strength by mixing elements of the earth into the lines, as did braiding the lines. Spreading them out also made it so each set of braided and reinforced lines shared the stress of holding against Spike’s strength. It really was quite brilliant. Except that Spike’s tail still remained free somehow, and he was not yet prone enough for Twilight to use her spell, even as she was getting closer.

Twilight saw the problem as she approached: Spike was shielding his tail with his still-free arm, and Fix-It clearly didn’t want to use too many of its arrows restraining just the one limb: it wanted to take Spike’s tail. Twilight knew that to do that, it had to do something to make Spike place his arm out of line so he couldn’t protect his tail anymore. Fix-It flew in, charging Spike from his free side. The dragon instinctively swung at the incoming pony with his free arm, knocking the armoured hero far, away, and apparently out of control. But as he did, Fix-It touched both its forehooves together. And the arrows circling at chest-height all came in, attaching to that arm before pulling on it so Spike had no choice but to extend it out horizontally to his side. Fix-It called its commands again, and then lines braided, anchored, and reinforced. Then the remaining lines snagged Spike’s tail, and as they anchored they dragged the appendage (and Rarity) up close to the rest of his body. The whole sequence put Rarity, still in Spike’s coils, close to his face. It also happened very quickly.

As Fix-It crashed through the trees near Ponyville, Twilight focused more fully on Spike, knowing that if he somehow broke free, the entire plan would fall apart. The Unicorn climbed carefully up Spike’s head, hoping to get to his forehead before anything else happened. On the way, though, a light shone from the side and hit something Rarity was wearing. Twilight paused, and stepped closer for a better look. “That’ll work,” she said, suddenly all certainty and smiles.

“Whatever do you mean?” Rarity asked, but Twilight was already lifting the cloak from Rarity’s shoulders – to reveal the Heart of Fire Ruby that Rarity was wearing on a necklace underneath. “Oh no,” Rarity said, mistaking Twilight’s intention. “This is a very special gift given to me by a very precious friend. I am not giving it up just to placate this brute!”

“You won’t have to,” Twilight said, turning back to Spike. “Remember,” she whispered to him, approaching his forehead with her spell charging. Mere seconds later, two Unicorns and one baby dragon were falling the small distance to the ground while Fix-It’s restricting lines crumbled to pieces. Rarity, Spike, and Twilight tumbled, and aside from some slight abrasions from the rocks, recovered unharmed.

“Spike? You were the rampaging dragon? But how?”

“I guess I let my greed get away from me. Sorry,” Spike said sheepishly.

“Oh, but in the end you were the only one who could stop… yourself. So thank you, Spike. I’m so proud!”

Twilight turned away, curious about where the light had come from, and also to give Spike and Rarity room to reconcile. Among the displaced stones, Twilight was very surprised to find Spike’s gemstone lance, which Dusty had only finished modifying the day before. Was it just a matter of luck that it had ended up where it had? Twilight doubted that. As the others approached, she picked it up “Spike? Before we return everything to everypony, I have something here that belongs to you.”

“What happened to the giant dragon?” Apple Bloom asked as she and the other foals came running from the forest.

“Did we really miss everything?” Scootaloo asked.

“Eiyup,” Dusty said, standing at the foothills. “And me with not a thing to do with it. But, problem solved.”

I doubt that, Twilight thought. But she had once been one of three (no, it was four now) to wear a mask as Mare-Do-Well, so she would respect Dusty’s choice. Just as soon as she confirmed it.

14. A Hearth's Warmth

Chapter 14: A Heart’s Warmth

Dusty could not blame Twilight for her yes/no question session, so he had answered her as honestly as he could in the end. She knew what he had done, and he knew that she respected him enough not to say anything. And that was the end of that matter, as far as either of them was concerned.

Weeks later, the entire group was on the train to Canterlot, Princess Celestia having chosen them to play major roles in the Hearth’s Warming Eve pageant. Well, she had chosen the Elemental Six, anyway, and they had used their rehersal time wisely. What Dusty was doing riding with them, he did not have much of a clue.

What Dusty did know was that he had to ensure all his other affairs were taken care of before the train left Ponyville. To that end, he had continued to increase the stock of supplies over at Gearhead’s Gadgets whenever he got the chance. He had also started sneaking away to work on his Geomancy and skills in forging items for sale for the shop. He knew he could not let anyone see ‘Dusty’ doing any of this, thus the sneaking. Still, he relied on the others somewhat to help him gather supplies from the outlying regions, given the limits that he was supposed to have to his range. Only Rarity had a hint of how fast Dusty could fly, and then only when he used his Lightning or Light Forms.

It had already officially been winter for a couple days, but it had only started snowing that day. The result was that as the train chewed up the distance between Ponyville and Canterlot, there were many piles of snow, but none too deep, and even some visible grass. Some of the other foals had been wondering if it would even be a white Hearth’s Warming Eve this year. Not only did Dusty not know what to expect, but he was not worried because the Pegasus weather teams very rarely missed their mark – and when they did, they quickly worked to make up for it. This year might carry a late start, but it had started anyway.

Just as Dusty had come to expect, everypony expressed their excitement even as they approached Canterlot. Even Fluttershy was being enthousiastic, letting loose one of her quiet ‘woo-hoos.’ But Pinkie Pie was impossible to top, stuffing an entire gingerbread house into her mouth under a minute after they departed from the train. Dusty had almost forgotten that she had eaten an entire cake on her own at a party before, so he should not have been surprised.

At Canterlot Castle, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna welcomed the group themselves, and the latter took Dusty aside while Princess Celestia showed the others what space they had to work with. The rest of the pageant production team was taking in the last of the props they needed for the set-up. Most of the props and sets had been brought in earlier in the week, or constructed here in Canterlot.

Princess Luna smiled as Dusty kept taking a sharp look around. “My sister and I sent the captain and the princess out on a patrol loop. They will be returning after the performance gets started. They will be discrete.”

“Why go to such lengths?”

“They will meet again in due time, I promise. Just not yet. Anyway, we have a couple special roles for you to play tonight. Are you up for it?”

“I’m confident you’d never ask me to do something I couldn’t do. Very well,” Dusty gave a little salute. “What do you have for me?”

“Winter holds a very special place for me, and I’m sure that as a pony raised on a farm, you understand its necessity better than most of the ponies who will be in attendance. I would like you to explain it to them, in your own way. Also, the production crews could use a hoof shoring up some of the effects.”

“Will do,” Dusty said.

“In exchange, I will do you that favour later,” Luna said. “Alright. Off you go.”

* * *

As the curtain lifted and Spike guided the audience into the setting through his narration, in the catwalks above the stage, Dusty was left to ponder what he knew of Hearth’s Warming Eve and its origins. Naturally, having been sheltered until he gained better control over his powers, Gearhead had not taken part in the festivities. Regardless, as a son of the Verdant he knew the story that had been passed from generation to generation.

The story from long ago went beyond debates and arguments between the three pony tribes. At one point, there had been open war, ended by the necessity to focus on surviving as the elements grew ever harsher. The distrust between the pony tribes still existed in a far milder form, and thankfully it was all held together by the Two Sisters, but add the right ingredients at the right time and the situation could easily explode again. In a way, Gearhead was surprised that Discord had not gone for that angle when he had gotten loose, but then the colt decided that the Spirit of Chaos had probably wanted to warm up first.

Another salient point was that the Unicorn king had not, in fact, sent his daughter, Princess Platinum, to deal with Chancellor Puddinghead and General Hurricane. That bit was as much a casting choice as it was an historical error – and a belief that a mare could not be king, Dusty supposed. The history he knew had King Bulion dealing directly with his Earth Pony and Pegasus counterparts. While oversimplified, the pageant had it right that the discussions between the representatives of each tribe broke down due to the distrust that had festered between them over the months. And the freezing cold had not made anypony any happier, rather they were even less willing to deal with each other, and that seemed to have brought on a deeper cold.

Thankfully Platinum, Puddinghead, and Hurricane were not representative of their respective tribes. Even their right-hand ponies were far more willing to cooperate than their heads of state. Sadly, their voices were drowned by those of the rulers.

In those days, there was also an alliance between three of the ancient pony tribes’ houses. The first two houses were Herd Verdant of the Earth Pony tribe and the Third Conclave of Flowing Shadows, of the Unicorn tribe. The Alliance was considered young because the Azure Wing had only been founded three hundred years prevous, whereas the other two houses already had a thousand or more years of history – not that the Verdant or Shadows would hold that against the Azure.

Before they called a joint council, each of the three houses decided to focus most of their efforts on trying to end the deepening winter. The Verdant used their skills to search out soil that could still support crops. The Shadows tried to regain control over the weather and stop the snow and howling winds. The Azure sent their best flyers deep into the clouds. Ultimately, their efforts were largely fruitless, but in finding out how powerless they each were, they were more determined to cooperate to survive than ever.

The Alliance’s cooperative efforts helped them to blast right through the storm front, and into an area as yet unaffected by the strange weather. From the outside, they made efforts to probe back in to find who or what was creating the artificially-long winter. In the end, they did not find out anything useful, because the winter was suddenly driven away. The cause for this relief, the Shadow’s best spellcasters said, was due to the incredible spell that Clover the Clever discovered. Thus, there was also truth in the tale of Hearth’s Warming Eve that was used in the annual pageants. But without the Alliance funnelling food to the struggling tribesponies, they would have surely starved.

Dusty brought his thoughts back to the pageant, and focused on weaving his magic with those of the Unicorns whenever they reached a point in the story where Luna’s script noted they were a bit on the weaker side. These moments included some of the blizzards, as well as the appearances of the Windigos. Clover’s spell, on the other hoof, needed no embellishment, as Twilight, playing Clover seemed to get the necessary charge from her interactions with Applejack (playing Secretary Smart Cookie) and Fluttershy (playing Private Pansy). The three of them were the right-hoof ponies of whom the tale spoke.

Finally the curtain fell on the visual portions of the pageant, the main cast bowing, and then Dusty took the stage, standing slightly to the right under a spotlight. “While the tale of Hearth’s Warming Eve is one of friendship and of a shared heritage – the foundation of Equestria – the role of snow and winter itself remains an important one,” Dusty started. “In harsh conditions like those in the play, the cold makes the ground too hard, too hostile for the Earth Ponies to work, and then the tribes became hostile to each other. Only when winter comes on as it should can we truly appreciate the meaning behind winter, and behind every snowflake.

Dusty summoned a small swirl of snow to hover above his raised hoof. “The first snowfall signals to the earth that the time of rest has come. Under a blanket formed of millions of snowflakes, the earth recovers from being worked and walked upon all through the rest of the seasons.” He let the snow vanish, to be replaced by the image of a small plant sprouting. “Then, recovered, the earth springs forth a renewed wave of vegetation – some of which we eat, and some of which beautifies the world which we inhabit.”The flower vanished, and Dusty put his hoof down. “This is the potential that winter brings about, because all living things need rest and sleep. And it is our duty as the stewards of this world to watch over the process in its entirety. We watch in light and dark, in warmth and cold, and in all other conditions that bring about the good things of life.” Dusty bowed, saying “we of the Ponyville Company thank you for your attendance to our performance.” He strode off to stamping, thunderous applause.

“Well said,” Luna said, meeting the young Alicorn off-stage.

“Is that a tear, Auntie?”

“That is for me to know,” the younger of the two sisters said, winking. Dusty went off to rejoin the others.

“Wowie,” Pinkie said when she saw him. “I didn’t know you could speechify like that.”

“I just did what Princess Luna told me to,”

“You mean she came up with that?” Twilight asked.

“Why would she cry if she made it up?” Fluttershy asked.

“Like you wouldn’t cry if somepony else did a speech for you,” Dash said.

“Oh, I hope I don’t have to write a speech like that,”

Dusty waved off any other comments. “Luna just told me what to speak on. The words were mine.”

“Well, that was very well spoken,” Twilight said. “But when did you write it?”

“Oh, I was thinking about it all during the play,”

“While you were supporting the other spells? Are you sure you didn’t break all your limits?” Rarity asked.

“My magic’s all spent. Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Well, that was splendid,” Fluttershy said. “We’re all very proud of you.”

“Especially your casting,” Twilight said.

“Just who d’you think I am, anyway?” Dusty asked archly. The others blinked, and then broke out laughing.

* * *

Since Princess Celestia invited the group to stay the night and the following day as well, the group accepted the set of offered palace suites graciously. During previous visits, the Elemental Six had come in smaller groups. On top of that, there were many out-of-town visiters present for the pageant. While most of the more common folk would be staying in inns or with relatives, honoured guests and dignitaries were being given rooms in Canterot Castle. These guests included the entire cast and crew for the pageant.

Full accommodations inevitably meant that not everyone in the Ponyville contingent would be rooming close to each other. Princess Celestia’s usual brand of humour seemed to be in fine form, as she gave Rarity and Applejack the suit she had previously given to Rarity. Twilight and Dash got to stay in Twilight’s rooms from when she had been studying directly under the princess. Dusty and Spike bunked down in Gearhead’s usual rooms. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were sleeping in another room, somewhere between Rarity’s suit and Twilight’s room.

While strolling to his suite of rooms within the Palace, Prince Blueblood, the many-times great-nephew of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna encountered a wandering colt and a familiar purple-scaled baby dragon. Blueblood had noticed the dragon in the palace from time to time, but could not bother recalling the creature’s name. He only remembered the colt before at the pageant, but even that had been a curious show of support by Blueblood’s aunts. It was time to reconcile facts and speculation.

“Hold it, both of you,” Blueblood called. “You, colt. I don’t recall seeing you in the royal records, and I have studies my family extensively. Who are you to me?”

The pony in question turned to face Blueblood’s royal ponysonage rather more directly than he would have expected a cowed opponent to act. “A being of little importance, I would suppose,” he said, a disturbing amount of steel in his eyes for one so young. Blueblood decided then that he definitely disliked this one. Perhaps even ‘disliked strongly.’ The Unicorn prince inclined his head, presenting himself as too important to simply tell the other to go on. “My father’s cousin’s cousin’s wife’s aunt is your mother’s uncle’s cousin’s cousin’s husband’s uncle. My name’s Stardust, but I like to be called ‘Dusty.’ Nice to officially meet you, Prince Blueblood.”

As Dusty (and what an appropriate nomenclature that was!) rattled off distant relation after distant relation, Blueblood pictured the different branches of his family tree, which he had memorized from the genealogy volumes in the library. He quickly got lost trying to pick the right branch, and found that he couldn’t do it because Dusty had been just vague enough to be confusing. But Blueblood was also a student of ancient political intriques, so he did not let his confusion show on his face or in his stance. “I’ve studied the royal genealogies extensively, and can recall no ‘Stardust’ or ‘Dusty,’” he said instead. “You’re not really royalty, are you?”

“Very distantly, as I’ve indicated,” Dusty said without any hesitation. “Why concern yourself so?”

“Don’t think yourself special, foal. I take the measure of all those around me. If you’re posing as a royal and therefore false, I’ll have to report it to my aunt, the Princess Celestia. And then we’ll get to the heart of your matter.”

“Oh, the Princesses Celestia and Luna already know all about me,” Dusty said. “So you needn’t concern yourself with me. I’m just here the the pageant anyway, and will be returning to Ponyville shortly.”

“’Ponyville,’ you say? That’s extraordinary,”

“Why?”

“It seems like a whole set of ponies I don’t trust are gathering there.”

“It’s an interesting town full of interesting ponies. I’ve been attending school there.”

“Ha! You are an imposter! Worse yet, a commoner. No royal would go to any simple school.”

“He does if he’s sent there by an Alicorn Princess.” Dusty paused. “Perhaps you should visit there too sometime.”

“Never. I’d get dust all over my fabulous coat!”

“That’s odd, isn’t it, Spike?” Dusty said, turning to the dragon.

“Yeah! Princess Celestia and Luna seem to be perfectly fine whenever they visit.”

Blueblood felt his heartbeat rising, and sputtered despite himself. “What business have they there?!”

“I think they like to check in and see how everyony’s doing,” Spike said.

“Or they have some quest for us to complete,” Dusty added.

“That does happen pretty often,” Spike said. “Twilight is like Princess Celestia’s go-to mare or something!”

“Twilight Sparkle?” Blueblood felt his distaste for these two rise. Yes, that Unicorn mare had taken up much of his aunt’s time. Too much, and she was a commoner, too! Yes, Blueblood decided he hated her little dragon and her little foal friend.

“You look like you swallowed something sour. Perhaps you’d like some water?” The words jolted Blueblood out of his thoughts. He started walking stiffly toward his suite again, huffing in his mind while externally he projected as much calm as he could. He was almost out of earshot when he heard the dragon say, “I still can’t forgive him for humiliating Rarity the way he did.”

And in a flash, Blueblood remembered the pale, rude Unicorn and her very improper Earth Pony friend, the Black Sheep. Yes, he hated these ponies. But he was an expert in the political game. He had even made an appearance at an airship’s launching beside Rarity when she had become popular. He could destroy their reputations, and then they would be worthless to the Princesses. And Blueblood himself would be another step closer to the throne, should his aunts become ill-disposed. Temporarily, of course.

* * *

Inwardly, Dusty sighed, having expected something like this to happen. Ourtwardly, he kept his expression carefully neutral: an encounter with Blueblood first thing in the morning was not something that he would wish on anyone, yet here they both were – and this time Blueblood had brought back-up of a sort in Princess Celestia.

“Just as I expected,” Blueblood said. “This impertinent one is taking advantage of your royal hospitality, Dear Aunt.” Princess Celestia merely raised an eyebrow. “You are no prince of the House of the Sun and Stars,” Blueblood said. “You should not be staying here.”

“Canterlot Castle is housing many guests who have come to visit for the festivities. Why, then, do I threaten you so?” Dusty asked, careful to keep any biting or sarcastic tone from his voice, and using all his skills in sales to do so.

“You’re a male Alicorn,”

Dusty merely kept watching Blueblood, then tilted his head slightly to the side when no more was forthcoming.

“There are no male Alicorns! For that matter, there are only three, and all mares. You are a pretender, and therefore hiding something. And since you are pretending to be an Alicorn, that which you hide may be a threat to Canterlot as a whole, or even to their Royal Highnesses. I fully intend on exposing your lie. We can do it here before my aunt, or later in front of all.”

Blueblood was obviously itching for a fight, but a fight in the hallways seemed to be sheer foolishness to Dusty. Still, if there had to be a fight it was better to prevent others from seeing what happened. The last time Dusty had fought Blueblood, it had been at the Gala as Gearhead, before he had been able to use even a single spell. Maybe Blueblood had learned from that experience, but thought he could defeat Dusty because he looked inexperienced. “Are you issuing a challenge?” Dusty asked, looking past Blueblood at Princess Celestia. Still, she only nodded fractionally. Dusty sighed inwardly again.

“You want it all nice and formal, very well. I challenge you to a duel, ‘Dusty.’ Let our skills show our truths!”

“Are you sure you want to do this? I may be young, but Captain Shining Armour and Princess Cadence did give me some training. I’m unlikely to be an easy opponent.”

“I only see one foal here, and it’s you. I shan’t be shamed by some yearling just because he has wings and a horn. En garde!”

“You’re absolutely sure you want to do this? To fight in the castle halls?”

“Stop pretending you know best, colt! If you won’t take the first move, then I will!” Blueblood launched a regular magic blast directly at Dusty, who leaped into the air, flapping his wings frantically. He ended up going into a flip over the blast and hovering near the high, vaulted ceiling. “Ha! This means it’s your horn that’s false,” Blueblood crowed, and he unleashed three more blasts in rapid succession. Dusty spun left and then twisted right, still flapping his wings hard to keep airbourne. He evaded the first two blasts, but he couldn’t make the third without using his magic – and at that thought he realized he was flying normally.

But screw it: Blueblood clearly needs to be taught a lesson. Even Princess Celestia seems to think so, or she would have intervened by now. Dusty knew there were certain spells he couldn’t use, because they were ones he had used before as somepony else, or which only a certain pony would possess. But he should only need basic spells to knock Blueblood on his flank anyway. He put up a defensive barrier, and it easily absorbed the third blast. “Luck will not avail you,” Blueblood said, and he resumed shooting.

Rather than stay airbourne, Dusty quickly landed, making Blueblood waste his first four shots before the Unicorn had him in his sights again. Dusty, focusing on balancing offense and defense, was choosing not to fly at all. He enhanced his physical speed with Wind Magic, and then fired off fifteen Lightning Arrows in quick succession, rather than together. Blueblood jumped to try to evade, but each shot sizzled past a little closer, until they were scoring hits against Blueblood’s defensive barrier. The last two put cracks in the shield. Blueblood rolled up against one of the walls, and seemed to realize how fighting in a fairly narrow hallway put a stallion like him at a disadvantage.

Dusty did not ask whether Blueblood would yield, knowing that his pride would not allow such a thing. He went right to casting Lightning Axe, which he used so quickly that Blueblood did not have the time to evade. The mid-level energy blast smashed the prince’s barrier. Physically he was slammed into the wall at the intersection behind him, and the ‘lightning’ part of the spell paralyzed him temporarily.

Still keeping his Unicorn magic active, Dusty approached. He could see even from a few meters away that Blueblood remained conscious and aware, even if the shock from the attack was preventing him from moving. “You’re wrong about the number of Alicorns, by the way, including the male ones,” he said. “I’ve looked at records in the Hidden Library.” Blueblood could not help widening his eyes at the reference to the Archive that only members and students of the Flowing Shadow Conclave could access. Dusty was not a member of the Conclave, as clearly as his light-coloured coat, so he was obviously a student. “The Princesses had to come from somewhere, after all. Shall we see you at breakfast?”

“Dusty is also my student and guest,” Princess Celestia said. “I’ll leave you to collect yourself, Nephew.”

* * *

The Great Hall had been converted into one massive dining area. The palace staff had arranged the tables (and chairs) into neat columns throughout the room, with space between the occasional table for easy navigation. They had placed other tables along each wall, with servers ready to dispense food and drinks as necessary. The refreshments selection was a breakfast buffet, and indeed despite the full room, enough would seem to have been gathered and prepared so that everypony could have all they could eat – although whether that was true for Pinkie Pie was up for debate.

Since Rarity and Applejack had been in last night’s performance, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had come along, and were now sitting at one end of the Elemental Six’s table with Scootaloo. As soon as Dusty had his food, he joined the three fillies. This took awhile, given how other ponies kept approaching him to congratulate him on his very insightful epilogue to the pageant. Dusty graciously thanked them and politely excused himself. Given the full plate he was carrying on his head, the conversation-starting ponies usually allowed him to slip away.

Some minutes later, Blueblood burst into the room, eyes reddened and snorting mad. “I’ve figured it all out,” he said into the sudden silence. “That means it’s time to teach you a lesson.” Blueblood glared at Dusty where he sat. The colt was exasperated enough with Blueblood’s persecution complex that he would have slammed his head into the table if his plate wasn’t there. He settled for putting his head in his hooves for a moment.

“Are you really, truly certain that you really, truly want this?” Dusty said, looking directly back at Blueblood.

“Oh yes, and the ironic thing is that an Earth Pony gave me the key to victory. So I’ll win this challenge!”

Irony, thy name is 'Gearhead.' “This doesn’t have to come to a fight, Prince Blueblood.”

“Yes, I’m a prince. That’s why it does. That’s why I won’t let you get away from me again!” And Blueblood began to unleash a withering, continuous salvo of Wind Arrows at Dusty, who leaped into the air and flew in curving paths to evade the homing blasts.

“Shouldn’t we stop this, Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked.

“Lets let Dusty handle this,” Princess Celestia said. “He knows what he is doing.”

“Yeah he does,” Dash said, grinning as Dusty pulled a loop and then a barrel roll that put him behind one wave of Arrows. He then spread his wings to put on the airbrakes, climbing at a radical rate to evade two more waves, before flipping into a powerdive that jumped his speed back up and put him back at his old altitude.

As everypony watched, Dusty enhanced his speed with Wind Magic, and led Blueblood’s blasts in an ascending spiral so that he was flying just four meters below the high, vaulted ceiling. The way the blasts curved as they followed made them look like a cascading fountain – only if they hit their target, it would hurt very badly. This seemed increasingly unlikely, however, as Dusty kept dodging the Arrows that came too close. Still, it seemed that they were following him in from all sides, and slowly closing the space available to him. On the ground, Blueblood licked his lips in anticipation of his victory.

Then Dusty was completely surrounded, the Arrows closing in. Even an Alicorn’s defensive barrier should not have a chance against such a mass of energy. Dusty, though, had a plan. He suddenly flipped tail-over-head, reversing direction and charged into the leading line. Now when he spun it was in the opposite direction from before, so he went with the offensive front. He kept up the rotation through all of the arrows, gathering them all into a blinding ball of light off of his right forehoof, which he placed below him, and then he was suddenly falling.

A moment later, Dusty’s descent increased tremendously, so that he slammed into Blueblood in a brilliant near-white flash, sending up a great cloud of black and navy blue dust. When it dissipated, wind ribbons wound all around Blueblood, attached, by the most part, to his horn. “Is this what you were trying to do to me?” Dusty asked.

Blueblood growled slightly, and shook his head. He blinked, then seemed to calm. The fight was gone from him, and by the owlish way he was glancing around, he was not entirely certain of what had happened.

“Shall we end it here, or go one-buck for all the stakes? Whoever receives the most damage or cannot continue from his opponent’s one blow loses.”

Blueblood looked left and right, and found no support at all. “I concede,” he said, and Dusty released his restrictive spells.

“And with that, the whole matter is closed,” Princess Celestia said. “Clear?”

Blueblood cringed. “Yes, Your Highness.”

“You’ve much yet to learn, about being a leader, Nephew. I am assigning you to help the staff clean all this up.” The others looked around. There was dust on the food and the silverware, and the tables all around Dusty’s impact zone had been split apart. “You all may come with me,” the Princess of the Day continued, indicating the Elemental Six and their four young charges – five if you included Spike.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Dusty was looking outside through the window or a private multipurpose room, at Princess Celestia’s instructions. She had told the transformed Alicorn to teach the next pony to come through the doors everything he knew about leadership. Dusty did not have any intention of letting the princess down, no matter who his student was, although given what had happened mere hours earlier, he had some ideas as to who that would be.

When the door opened and the white Unicorn stallion sauntered in, the mature-in-heart colt was not surprised. He merely turned around and indicated a nearby pillow on which Prince Blueblood could sit. The stallion was telegraphing more curiosity than anger as he came further into the room, but stayed standing as a sign of defiance.

“The Princess?” Dusty asked, visibly casting a glance toward the sun.

“Correct,”

“For yourself to learn?”

“Correct,”

“And for myself to teach?”

“Correct,”

“Did she inform you of anything else?”

Blueblood’s answer was a sceptical look.

“Right, that’s not her style,” Dusty said, scratching the back of his head as though embarrassed.

“Correct,”

“We’re not on the most amicable terms, so lets get started, shall we? I’m to give you what knowledge I have regarding leadership. At the end our many-times great-aunts will put what you retain to the test using a method we’ve developed together.”

“Won’t your knowing the method put me at a disadvantage?”

“You will know it as well, and while you assumed it would be some type of competition, you are not incorrect in this case: we both know how much those two enjoy games. May I proceed?”

“Please do,”

“’Leadership’ is the ability to motivate others into action. With what research I have conducted so far on the subject, I recognize two types of leaders: those who use force and those who use an idea to get others to do what they want.

"If applied in an imbalanced way, it is easy to use a title and its privileges to coerce others to do what you want, therefore it is not surprising that history’s tyrants most often fall under the first category. Military leaders also use force to get their soldiers to follow them, however only those soldiers who are motivated to stay with the force will continue to follow such commanders. The rest may easily rebel or desert, and that is the worst thing that can happen in a conflict. Using a system of risks and rewards, including ideological factors, can play into whether one’s army stays or falls apart before they even meet the enemy for the first time.

"This is not to say there are not any good tyrants, nor commanders who do not inspire sufficient loyalty in their troops. There are always exceptions, and in the case of tyrants, it usually seems to be in situations where martial-level order is required for the sake of a society’s survival – dire situations like the one we just celebrated. When the Princesses took over leadership of the united Equestria, all ponies needed to know they could lead, and do so effectively. Back then, it could have easily been more expected for them to use more draconian measures to keep everypony in line, until a sort of order was established. After that, the laws they enforced could be relaxed, little by little. That is, until our time when the law inconveniences most citizens very rarely, if at all. This also allows the Princesses to be more ideological and charismatic leaders than they were at first, despite their titles and the amount of magical power they possess – unquestionably they are the most powerful beings in Equestria who are not banished or imprisoned elsewhere.”

“That’s ridiculous! Who would ever believe that anypony could be so powerful and still be banished or imprisoned?”

“What about Nightmare Moon or Discord?”

“Discord?”

“Well, he’s neither here nor there. And especially, thankfully, not ‘here.’ Lets just say that both he and Nightmare Moon tried to force their ideal worlds upon other ponies, and they got dealt with.

“Now, as to the charismatic, inspirational leaders, they do not always need to have format titles and their privileges, although they often do. What these leaders do differently from the tyrants is that they motivate their followers by inspiring them to take ownership over part of the action they will take, or the ideal they will follow. They offer minor guidance where needed in order to allow their followers to correct their mistakes, and they offer rewards to recognize those who succeed. With a large group of followers, the leaders also delegate to individuals who show promise by having the right skills and knowledge for a given job. These sub-leaders also gain a new sense of ownership in taking responsibility for a smaller section of the group. With guidance from higher up in the hierarchy, it is entirely likely the sub-leaders would duplicate some of the leader’s recognition and reward system to continue to motivate the rest of their teams. That means that another level of inspiration and motivation would then be added into the overall group.

“You can tell an inspirational leader by how seldom she or he needs to use her or his power, instead leaning away from controlling others, and instead allowing them some space to accomplish their common goal their own way. The Princesses now fall under this category, but so does another individual from the west.

“As you know, I have studied at the Hidden Library. The Conclave has a close relationship with both Azure Wing and Herd Verdant, and this has been the case since… well, since the original Hearth's Warming Eve, I guess. The Conclave even helped the Verdant build their Council Chambers, so it’s not surprising to learn they have some records pertaining to Herd Council business, which they do.

“The individual I would like to highlight is the current Patriarch of the Verdant, Redwood. All Herd Patriarchs have the ability to veto a motion to prevent it from becoming Herd Law if it seems too forceful or unfair. While this does not mean a Patriarch can force anything through, one could make the case for gaining just enough support within the Council to push a motion through as law, and this would be equal to using force to do so. While he is still young, comparatively speaking, Patriarch Redwood has not had to use his Right of Veto so far.

“Verdant Council has never been entirely cooperative according to the Conclave’s records, but neither have they been entirely discordant, since in the times when they might have been, they were small enough then that the Patriarch knew everypony, and everypony knew him. But Patriarch Redwood is the first never to have to use his veto for anything, perhaps due to the Herd’s stability. Or maybe he is the perfect leader for the Herd in these times of peace.

“That is the essence of my knowledge of leadership. Do you have any questions?”

“Yes, what is this test you’ve set up for me?”

“It’s a game of chess,” Dusty said. “Your opponent will be another leader, and you’ll have to demonstrate your leadership skills though your rapport with your ‘pieces.’ And it will be an exhibition match, so I hope you’re prepared for everything that will come with winning or losing.”

“I’m ready,” Blueblood said, “to win.”

“Lets go find out,” Dusty said.

* * *

The Great Hall had been reconfigured just for the challenge, with a regulation chess field sunken into the middle and spectating areas all around it. Ponies has been dressed up in livery to represent the pieces, except for the kings. As Dusty led Blueblood into the room, the latter could see that the ponies on the side of the field nearest to him were dressed in white, light blue, and gold – his own colours. “I hope you don’t expect me to hold back just because you were my teacher,” Blueblood said.

“I would not expect such a thing, and besides, this is a friendly competition. Also, I am not to be your opponent.” Dusty waved across the board, and Blueblood noticed Princess Luna taking up position as ‘king’ of the navy blue and black army. “She will not be holding back either,” Dusty said with a grin before turning serious. “Fortune won’t be a factor here, not against her.”

“No, not when she’s serious.” Blueblood smiled. “I’ll bring my A-game.” As Blueblood took up position, Dusty joined the rest of his friends in the stands. So I’m really going up against the Princess of Games, Blueblood thought.

“Welcome, Leaders,” Princess Celestia said. “This is a simple test of your skills. The better you can empathize with your army, the more they will be able to do, therefore if one leader opens a great enough gap in the synchronisity between king and army, he or she will become able to issue commands in real-time, rather than having to do so in turn with his or her opponent.

“All other rules are as per usual: Soldiers can only move forward one space, except on their first turn, and attack diagonally one space. Towers can move and attack straight. ‘Bolts move three spaces one direction and one space perpendicular, jumping over intervening pieces. Mages can move and attack diagonally. Queens can move and attack straight and diagonally. Kings can move and attack one space in any direction. ‘Castling,’ where the King and a Tower swap places and move together, is permitted if there are not any pieces between them, and neither have moved. Soldiers can be promoted to any piece except the King if they make it across the field to the opponent’s baseline. Promotion for the other pieces will be determined magically by how long they stay on the field, how many moves they make, and how many enemy pieces they capture. If there are no questions, let us begin. Prince Blueblood, as White you have the first move.”

“I understand, Your Highness,” Blueblood said. As he examined his field through magically-controlled monitor panels, he noticed Princess Luna talking across at the ponies playing her pieces. He did not hear what she was saying, and thought it was absurd to be talking to ponies who were playing as game pieces. Still, they seemed to be listening. Blueblood shrugged. “Lets all do our best,” he said. Then he ordered the Queen’s Soldier to advance two spaces, using his ability. The piece’s response was lacklustre, but he moved.

While Blueblood continued to move his Soldiers into a defensive chevron, Princess Luna took her Queen and Queen’s Mage out into the field as far as she could push them, supported by both of her Shadowbolts. It was only when his King’s Mage and Tower hesitated to attack that Blueblood realized the offense was also covered by some Soldiers. He wondered how they had been moved in until he realized that while his pieces were hesitating to respond to his commands, Princess Luna’s pieces were jumping into action with alacrity. They were acting in real-time!

Even as Blueblood came to this realization, the dark pieces began to capture his own, all with Princess Luna nodding and smiling as she continued to issue directions. It had to be Princess Luna’s speech at the beginning of the game that was allowing her to do this, while Blueblood’s efforts had been half-hearted at best. His own pieces must have heard the doubt in his voice, and that was a mistake! Especially considering what Dusty had said about inspirational leaders.

“White Forces, rally and repulse the enemy. Hold firm and we’ll stand beyond the shadow. Let us not go gently to defeat. Push together with all we’ve got, and we can be victorious today. I can see that desire in your eyes now, and I promise you I’ll not let you down – so fight together with me!”

The difference was startling. Suddenly Princess Luna’s forces were not moving two or three at a time. In fact, they were not moving at all. “It’s our move,” Blueblood said, loud enough for all to hear as he glanced across his screens. The blue forces had stopped moving in real-time so suddenly, more than a few of them had to be out of position. There! “King’s Wonderbolt, take Tower.”

Just like that, Princess Luna had to choose between pressing through and letting her forces get divided or losing her offensive momentum in order to save her stragglers. She raised her voice and promised her ‘pieces’ she would prevent as many of them as possible from getting captured, and Blueblood knew he had stopped her, at least until her next offensive.

Even caught off guard, Princess Luna only lost her King’s Shadowbolt and a Soldier to Blueblood’s sudden rise in charisma. He focused on that left flank and tried to force the rest of the way through. Unfortunately his early play with his Soldiers opened up a massive hole through the center and right sides of the field, and with his most powerful pieces engaged and covering each other mid-field on the left, he could not bring them back in time when Princess Luna sent her free long-ranged forces through the gaps. With only his King’s Tower able to cross the distance, he could not hold off three pieces, and he could not Castle because he had moved himself when Princess Luna put him into check earlier.

Just as Dusty and Blueblood had known, Princess Luna did not hold back at all, instead showing her full enthusiasm for the game and victory as she pushed her pieces forward, all while keeping Blueblood’s greatest strikers occupied. Checkmate was only a couple of moves away, and Blueblood worked hard just to keep his force’s morale high enough that Princess Luna could not command in real-time.

It was too little too late, Blueblood realized. If he had known how important it was to know his own force’s minds, he could have commanded them more effectively. But he did not grumble about it, since both Dusty and Princess Celestia had hinted at it. He just had not taken the hints seriously enough, and the result was that Princess Luna’s advantage snuck up on him, when it should not have been able to. It was completely Blueblood’s own fault that he had been unable to effectively command his forces, and so he took full responsibility for White’s loss. “This is on me,” Blueblood said. “But next time I promise you I’ll give you all that you deserve.”

And, despite just having lost, White cheered.

“Well done, Nephew,” Princess Luna said, embracing him. “You’ve learned well!”

“You see? I may have a rocky start, but this is not just a pretty face.”

“Indeed not,” Rarity said. “I might be able to appreciate you more if you keep learning at this rate.”

“I appreciate that, but I’ve also decided that it’s not your approval I want the most.” Blueblood turned to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. “I want to become a Commander.”

“Well done and decided,” Princess Celestia said. “You’ve begun on a long road.”

* * *

Winter Wrap-Up in Ponyville came with a tradition of ‘not using magic,’ since it was Earth Ponies who had founded the town. Dusty snorted at the absurdity of it: how did they not know that they were already using magic with the mere participation of the Pegasi? That Earth Ponies naturally did not have a choice but to use their magic since it was always ‘on?’ Dusty remembered mentioning all of that in Cheerilee’s class, yet all of Ponyville seemed willing to put on blinders and make things more difficult than it had to be, and all for the sake of a tradition that was a lie.

Dusty wondered how far the town’s pride would fall if somepony simply told the truth. Oh, there were plenty of other dastardly plans that could tip the world’s balance, like spreading eternal night, but telling the truth? Without firing a shot or swinging a sword, how much devestation would it wreak?

Heck, it would be impossible to clear the skies and melt the snow within two days if they did not have Pegasus magic at their disposal. Dusty had heard Mayor Mare refer to the first Winter Wrap-Up with Twilight in town with a great deal of pride, because they had finished it on time. Even without Twilight using her vastly more powerful magic on the wintry landscape, they had still used Pegasus and Earth Pony magic to bring back the plants and animals of spring.

So it was that despite the sheer absurdity of his situation and the tradition that was part of what put him there, Dusty sought out a task he could do without calling upon either of his sets of magic, especially since they would have only worked for so long anyway. Given his size, he would not be effective carving up the ice with Pinkie or helping to clear the snow. He absolutely could not fly off and find any migratory birds, because that would be using magic.

Dusty found Rarity heading up the nest-building crew, and decided to lend a hoof for awhile. His smaller size and ability to focus helped a great deal, together with his ease with his smaller hooves.

After less than an hour, Rarity tapped him on the shoulder. “We’re well ahead of Twilight’s schedule now,” she said. “If you want to take a break to look around or help another Animal Care Team, please do feel free, Dear.”

“Alright. Wouldn’t want to get too far ahead of schedule,” Dusty said, and he went off to look for another place he could help.

Dusty found Fluttershy looking into a network of warrens with concern written clearly on her face. There was a system of bells already strung up and waiting for the moment when Fluttershy could safely wake all the animals, but just the fact that Fluttershy was concerned over something could be cause for concern.

“May I be of assistance?” Dusty asked, being sure his hooves crunched the snow so Fluttershy would hear him coming.

“Oh dear, would you?”

“I would be happy to. What’s the problem?”

“It seems that over the winter deeper pockets got opened up by water and ice. Some of the animals can’t get out, and the shifting caves even cut some of the bell lines.”

“If there’s one thing I understand, it’s rock,” Dusty said, or at least my other self does. “Let me see what I can do.” Fluttershy gave him a small, portable lamp, and Dusty went into the cave.

“Please be careful,” Fluttershy said.

“Understood,” Dusty was quick to respond. Fluttershy might be a little too much on the clingy side while he was a colt, but he liked her too much to worry her more than she already was by the fact that he was going into a cave. As a result, he made sure to shout back what he found as he found it.

The journey into the cave was fairly straightforward. Part of the reason why that was was because some of the animals that were already awake came to show Dusty to the problem area. As the cave became smaller, Dusty started to have to crawl more, folding his wings and even his ears more tightly against his body.

Soon Dusty came across the newly-opened portions. He saw where a group of critters had fallen in, and he saw where the bell line had gotten severed. It occurred to Dusty that both problems could become each other’s solution, so he guided the animals through the process of retieing the lines. Once they were back up, he helped them to climb out into the main area of the cave, using the line as a rope. With the animals rescued, he asked the ones around him to show him any other trouble areas, so that when he returned to the surface, the warren was completely clear.

It seemed that Dusty had found something that only he could do. His chosen task for the remainder of that Winter Wrap-Up was to go into those spaces that were too tight for mares and stallions to reach, and too dark and dangerous for real foals to navigate, and troubleshoot whatever problem was happening there.

Despite some minor delays in getting started, thanks largely due to Twilight’s organizational skills, Winter Wrap-Up got wrapped up even more quickly than the previous year’s attempt, setting a new town record.

Dusty still thought it was an absurd point on which to be proud: you would never catch Hoofington or the Alliance refusing to use their magic, or turning a blind eye on using necessary and passive magic, to get the job done.

15. Family Jams

Chapter 15: Family Jams

“Apple Bloom, if you don’t stop jumping so much you can call me ‘Dizzy’ instead of ‘Dusty!’” The Cutie Mark Crusaders had gathered to discuss their next strategy at the clubhouse. From the looks of things, though, at least one of their members was getting too excited to focus on the task at hoof.

“C’mon, you can’t tell me you weren’t excited to have a part in the Hearth's Warming Eve Pageant!”

“Not to mention that business with Prince Blueblood afterwards,” Scootaloo said.

“That wasn’t on the schedule,” Dusty said dryly.

“But you handled it like a pro,” Scootaloo said. “Almost as cool as Rainbow Dash. Almost.”

“Alright, I won’t argue against everyone being entitled to getting excited about something. What is it in this case?”

“Zap Apple Harvest is coming!”

“What’s a… Zap Apple?”

“You’ve never heard?”

“As your brother’d put it, ‘nope!’”

“They’re just the most amazing, delicious apples in Equestria! They only appear for a couple of days, and only Granny Smith knows how to pick ‘em. This’ll be my first time helping with the harvesting, since I was too young to do it the last time.”

“Sounds magical,”

“Oh, it is!”

“No, I mean that it sounds like magic’s involved, if the apples can only be picked for a couple days.”

“There’s that too, so there’s definitely magic about the apples.”

“I’d be interested in seeing that,”

“I’ll have to ask Granny if it’s alright, but I don’t see why not as long as you don’t see any of her secrets.”

“Considering my lack of farming knowledge and experience, that shouldn’t be a problem. Now,” the colt held his head between his hooves to try to keep his eyes from screwing up, “are you gonna put a pause on the jumping, or do I have to land?” It was not a peculiarity of the situation with Apple Bloom jumping around, but Dusty was practicing how to fly without additional help from his Alicorn magic. He still had to flap his wings much faster than he should have to, but it was an improvement over Scootaloo’s ability to hover in place, if only barely.

* * *

A couple mornings later, Apple Bloom found Dusty during one of his early training sessions. He was controlling balls of earth, fire, water, and wind as they slowly orbited him. The sight stopped the filly in her tracks for a moment, clearly uncertain as to what might happen if she so much as spoke up. In answer to the unspoken question, Dusty raised both forehooves from his sides and drew the elemental orbs into his body, one at a time, until he had recovered all four, at which point he opened his eyes and looked at his unexpected visitor.

“Oh, um… the first sign was Timberwolves howling.”

“That could happen anytime,”

“Except that if it happens at this time, it means the Zap Apples’ll be ready for harvest in four days, as long as all the signs come, like Granny says. It’ll probably take awhile, but she says you’re welcome at the farm anytime.”

“Well, thank you for coming all this way to tell me so early, Apple Bloom.”

“’Welcome. Er… what exactly were you doing?”

“It’s an elemental spirit control exercise where I summon and focus elements, and then see how long I can stay in control.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“No more so than any of the attempts at gaining cutie marks, or so I’ve heard. Besides, I have defensive spells at the ready. And if I try to summon anything beyond a certain level, I’m sure it’ll end up waking Miss Twilight up.”

“Were you done?”

“Nope?”

“Can I watch you finish?”

“I suppose there’s no harm in it, as long as you’re not too close, in case I lose control. I do need the time to raise a shield to be safe.”

“Just tell me where to sit,”

Once Apple Bloom was seated a fair distance away, Dusty resumed his meditative posture, and hooves held out once more, started summoning the elements. The first ball to collesce was made of fire, and it compressed until it looked solid before Dusty moved it away enough to make room for his next summon. Orbs of earth, wind, and water soon followed, that last being the least well compressed of them all. Dusty reached out to all his summons, thinking to put them into formation around his position as before. An idea interrupted him, though, and he decided to make two more summons.

The first new summon started out looking like the wind orb, but as Dusty continued to compress more magic into it and make it more intense, it started to spark. Blue lightning overtook silver whisp, and then the ball was lightning. Dusty set it aside. Next he summoned a ball of fire and focused it until it became brilliant white light.

Now Dusty sent the six balls into formation and set them spinning, slowly at first and then increasing speed. He would have gone up to a trotting pace, but he felt a slight buzzing from his glasses. He had to focus on a different task then, once again dismissing the orbs of energy. He did not get to the wind orb, but that one practically tore itself apart escaping the bonds of control, and scattered itself in harmless ribbons. The earth orb, which Dusty also did not have the time to deal with, merely solidified. Dusty tossed it aside, where there was a small pile of similar balls.

“I thought anything you made with your magic disappeared when it ran out,” Apple Bloom said.

“So did I, but lately anything I make solidly enough seems to stick around. I’m still experimenting with the limits.”

“Well, okay then. Coming to the farm?”

“Very well, but I’d better tell Miss Twilight first,”

“Oh, I already know,” Twilight called from her window. “Go ahead, Dusty.”

“See you later, then,” Dusty said, and began following Apple Bloom.

* * *

Later, at school, Dusty thought that it was amazing how thoroughly farming families followed certain rituals and practices. It should not have surprised Gearhead, considering the fact he had grown up in such a family. He guessed that he had been away for so long that he had forgotten, especially given how little his work relied on a schedule: he could gather and refine his materials almost anytime he wanted, with the exception of during business hours. Farmers like the Apples and the Verdant were hide-bound to nature’s rhythm, only sowing and harvesting in the proper season – and woe indeed to the farmer who forgot or missed a season! From watching the Apples, Dusty knew that the signs for Zap Apple season were well-spaced, as each member of the family went about her or his business in preparation at a measured pace. None of them were overly-rushed, but they were not taking their time either.

Filthy Rich might have been taking his time explaining to the class how, under his management, Barnyard Bargains maintained the lion’s share of the market in Ponyville. It was not that hard, when your competitors could not provide the same services or products. Like how Barnyard Bargains could not approach Gearhead’s Gadgets for quality or innovation. If Rich’s profits were unusually high, it was because of Gearhead’s absence from the market. Which reminded a certain stallion-turned-colt that he would probably have to deal with not having any profits to send home for the past several moons. Well, there was nothing to do about it just then. Gearhead would do what he could when that happened. In the meantime, Dusty would enjoy his time at ‘play.’

Cheerilee thanked Rich for his time (and wasn’t the only one to call him ‘Filthy,’ she would be relieved to know), and then looked to her records to see who would have a family member present next. “We don’t have much time left in the day, so… Dusty?”

“That’s okay, Miss Cheerilee. She did say she could only pop in for a short while.”

“Okay, but how were you supposed to reach her to let her know?”

Dusty had already been reaching out to alert his contact with his mind, boosting his thought with a little magic. He glanced over to the door, which had closed behind Rich just moments before. The others followed his gaze, and were suitably startled at the loud thump that shook one of the windows. Dusty was just as surprised, and joined the others in looking the other way.

“Oh my,” Cheerliee said, and crossed the room to open the window in front of the newcomer. “Are you alright, Princess?”

“Yes,” Princess Luna said, dusting herself off after recovering her hooves. “I just missed by a tiny bit.”

<That’s no ‘tiny bit,’>

<They need not know that,> the Princess responded. “Lets try that again, shall we?”

“I’m not so sure—“ Princess Luna cut Cheerilee off, teleporting from outside and ending up at the front of the classroom. “Oh, okay then.”

“Shall I begin?”

“Please do, Princess Luna. And might I say it’s an honour to have you,”

“Thank you, Cheerilee. My sister and I both recognize how precious these foals are to the future of Equestria.” Princess Luna turned her full attention to the class. “Well then, who here knows what it is that I do? Yes, you.”

“You’re the Princess of the Night, so you guard against the dangers of the night,” Tiara said.

“A good start. What else?” Most of the class looked confused, as though to say ‘there’s more?!’ Silver Spoon hesitated, but raised a hoof anyway.

“You come scare us on Nightmare Night?”

“Indeed, and what a fun time that is,” Princess Luna said. “What you perhaps were not aware of is that one of the most important aspect to my duties is that I help ponies protect themselves in their dreams.”

“In our dreams?” Apple Bloom blurted.

“How d’you do that?” Scootaloo asked.

“That would be the question to ask, wouldn’t it? I enter ponies’ dreams. Once there I can change portions of the dream, providing the dreamer with hints, or even intervening more directly should the situation demand it of me. It all depends on the dreamer and the dream. I leave normal dreams alone, for example, but guide ponies through their nightmares. It is part of my job that is ongoing, for as long as there are nightmares to have and overcome.”

“What about daydreams?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I could intervene in those if they ever got that bad, but they don’t usually do that. On the other hoof, I can warn ponies away from harmful action if their inclination is strong enough, and the action bad enough.”

“Can anypony else dream-walk?” Dusty asked.

“So far, nopony else can do it, and that is because in order to ‘dream-walk,’ one would have to be a Night Mare.”

“So Princess Celestia can’t do it?” Tiara affected a shocked tone.

“My sister is a Day Mare, but on the other hoof she has guarded both night and day for a thousand years. It’s much more like it takes more effort for her to do it, than not being able to do it. Of course, now that I’m back, she doesn’t have to do it.”

“Could you dream-walk when you were Nightmare Moon?” Dusty asked.

“I was not myself at that time, and too self-absorbed to dream-walk properly. Not to mention not being close enough to do it. No, Nightmare Moon cannot dream-walk, not even as well as my sister. Is that all?”

“Thank you, Princess Luna. It was an honour.”

“The pleasure was all mine,” Princess Luna said, nodding to the others before teleporting away.

“Okay,” Cheerilee glanced out the window. “Before I send you all home, lets see who hasn’t had a family member visit us yet. Apple Bloom?”

“Sorry Miss Cheerilee, Big Mac and Applejack’ll be busy with the Zap Apple harvest, so they won’t be able to come.”

“But Granny Smith isn’t on harvest duty, right? She could come in,” Tiara said in a manner that reminded Dusty more of a vulture than a pony. That, and Apple Bloom’s grimace showed him well enough that the youngest Apple considered Granny Smith coming in to be a very bad idea. It was not that Dusty did not have some understanding of why, given that the elder pony was not always all there mentally, however she was an elder pony, and that gave her a certain amount of respect automatically. Moreover, she was the pony who had raised the Apple siblings ever since their parents’ untimely deaths. And any mare who pulled that off deserved a far greater amount of respect than Tiara’s sniping. But it was more likely than not that Tiara’s teasing would come back to bite her in the flank, and sooner rather than later if Apple Bloom agreed to get this over with.

“Then it’s settled,” Cheerilee said when Apple Bloom could not come up with a good reason to excuse Granny from coming in. “Granny Snmith will come in on Monday.” And again, Apple Bloom made that face, while Tiara and Spoon sniggered.

“Are you sure you can’t come in for Family Appreciation Day on Monday?”

“Nope,” Big McIntosh said to Apple Bloom.

“Sorry, A.B., but we’ll both be busy on Harvest Day. But you know, Granny’s got no shortage of entertaining stories to tell your class,” Applejack said.

“I know. That’s what I’m afraid of,” Apple Bloom said.

“Now don’t you fret. I’m sure everything’ll go just fine!” Despite Applejack’s reassurance, Apple Bloom was clearly still ‘fretting.’ The elder sister cast a questioning glance Dusty’s way, and he gestured with one hoof over his head, drawing points in the air. Applejack made a ‘get to it’ gesture with her own hoof, moving it toward her little sister. It seemed she was leaving this to Dusty to mediate, as somepony closer to Apple Bloom in physical age. Dusty was not certain there was anything he could do, considering how worried Apple Bloom was about Tiara’s verbal barb. Maybe if Apple Bloom could see Granny as something other than an ‘old coot,’ as Tiara might put it, she would not be anxious anymore.

Unfortunately, even as the crows circled and the leaves sprouted on the Zap Apple Trees, Apple Bloom’s anxiety seemed to grow. Rather than coming to terms with her situation, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle tried to help her get out of it. The latter, in particular, was on fire with her plans. Bad plans, Dusty might add.

Of particular note was the plan to feign illness by heating a thermometer and applying green goo to Apple Bloom’s face. Watching from the far side of the bed, Dusty rolled his eyes. “This’ll never work,” he said.

“Oh, don’t be such a pessimist, it’ll work!” Sweetie Belle said.

“I thought I told you to stop using words I didn’t know the meaning of,” Scootaloo said, which made the others roll their eyes.

“That’s not why it won’t work: Granny’s old-school, so the application of heat and some discolouration’s unlikely to fool her. I knew a colt once who tried to fake an illness to stay home from school. He ended up having to deal with his mother’s homemade remedy, so you’d best be prepared to weigh the pros and cons of succeeding against those of failing.”

“I’ll take Granny’s medicine over the embarrassment I’d suffer on Monday any day,” Apple Bloom said, just before Sweetie Belle thrust the heated thermometer into her mouth. “Ouch!”

“What’s goin’ on up there?” Granny called.

“You’d better come up here, Granny Smith,” Scootaloo called back. “Apple Bloom’s come down sick!”

As Granny Smith made her way up the stairs and to Apple Bloom’s room, Dusty got up to lean against the window. He had his Poker face on before Granny even came through the door, and watched her peer at the thermometer before touching Apple Bloom’s forehead. “Right as pear pudding,” Granny pronounced her verdict, and then she left.

“Don’t say it,” Sweetie Belle glared across the bed.

“Don’t have to,” Dusty said, coming back over to the bed. “Apple Bloom, wouldn’t it be easier to just roll with it?”

“No way am I letting this happen!”

Dusty rolled his eyes again. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. “So what’s next?”

“Don’t you have some spell that could help?”

“None of my spells or skills will help you fake ill, get Tiara out of the room during your presentation, or get Granny out of whatever portion of senility is affecting her. I’m sorry to say that you’ll have to play this one straight, especially if you don’t want your plans backfiring in front of the class.”

“Oh, Monday’s gonna come too soon,” Apple Bloom moved to the window and looked out at the trees. Sparks started to fly again, and soon there were grey, round apples hanging from the branches.

“We may not be able to move your presentation,” Sweetie Belle said, “but maybe we can move Harvest Day,” and she led the way out to the orchard.

“I don’t know about this,” Apple Bloom said. “They don’t look ripe yet.”

“Oh, early harvest never hurt an apple,” Scootaloo said. “How hard could it be?” She carried over a basket, and Sweetie Belle turned around to aim a kick at the trunk.

“Zap Apples aren’t normal apples, though. Granny says they got magic and magic rules.” But Sweetie Belle was already kicking.

The instant blue electricity started arcing up the trunk and into the branches, Dusty yelped and leaped ahead, activating both his magicks together and enacting a defensive barrier. “Fulgoriens Rubra,” he muttered as the blue lightning traveled back down, and directly at him since he had pushed between the tree and Sweetie Belle. Red lightning ripped forth from his horn and intercepted the stinging missile, but it only held it off for a moment. The lightning smashed into Dusty’s shield, and as it shattered, he sent out another red bolt at the same inverted frequency as the tree’s blue lightning, which finally dissipated on Dusty’s second-skin barrier, which he barely managed to erect.

“Definitely magic,” he said, shaking it off as best he could.

“Alright, smart guy, have you got a spell that’ll help here?”

“No I don’t, because as you’ve already seen, these trees have their own magic, including defenses.”

“Maybe we can pick the apples,” Scootaloo suggested. Dusty sighed, and since his magic was already active, he flew up, and grabbed an apple by the stem. He braced his hooves against the tree, and pulled with his full strength, including with wingpower.

“Did you enhance your strength with magic?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Won’t be able to fend off the lightning,” Dusty said before giving it one last shot. In the end, however, he had to concede that the apple was staying up in the tree until it was time for it to come down. “We’re not moving harvest,” he said when he was the one on the ground instead.

“I wish I could run away,” Apple Bloom said.

“You can’t, but maybe Granny Smith can,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Gonna try to stop this one too?” Scootaloo asked.

“Not if your plan is less harmful than dealing with lightning,” Dusty said, folding his wings, which had returned to normal size.

“I promise nopony’s going to be hurt by this one,” Sweetie Belle. “It’s foolproof!”

We’ll see, Dusty thought.

* * *

Sitting in class, Dusty thought about the viability of Sweetie Belle’s latest plan, and since it was the one they were rolling with on the day of the event, it was also her last plan, and Apple Bloom’s last hope that Granny Smith would not come and embarrass her. Conceptually, sending the trigger pony away was sensible enough, however Granny was not really the trigger for Apple Bloom’s embarrassment: Diamond Tiara was. And then there was the fact that the plan’s success depended upon all the parts moving below a certain rate.

As a gadgeteer, Gearhead knew that the more moving parts there were to a mechanism within a gadget, the more wear and tear it would suffer through its own use, and the more likely it was to break down, no matter the materials used. It also took time for moving parts to get up to speed or slow down, so any change or need to change would take time. And whatever one’s plans, they rarely survived from start to finish without changing at all.

In the case of Sweetie Belle’s plan, there were four or five moving parts that Dusty could see, depending on where he was looking. There was, of course, Granny Smith, whom Scootaloo's false telegram sent away by train to visit Uncle Strudel. The other two highly-visible factors were the train on which Granny would be riding, and Uncle Strudel, who at any point could try to contact Granny, generating confusion when he finally told her that he had not summoned her. The last moving piece was Tiara, who could easily initiate another embarassing offensive against Apple Bloom even with, or because of, Granny Smith’s absence. This would initiate a reaction by the class as a whole, and by Cheerilee in particular. Check that, Dusty thought, there’re six moving parts. That’s a lot of potential break-down points.

That was not to say that it was bad plan, overall. Dusty definitely liked it better than using Granny as a puppet while she was napping, a plan that depended upon Granny not waking up, and on Cheerilee not looking too closely. With the plan to play sick, Granny had been the one to look too closely. Finally, in trying to harvest the apples too early, the Crusaders had encountered a factor they could not have predicted: the trees’ magic. By comparison, sending Granny away on a wild goose chase was a stroke of genius, assuming she did not question the telegram or her ticket before she got on the train.

As it turned out, moments after Apple Bloom ‘apologized’ for Granny being called away ‘on a family emergency,’ the mare in question pushed open the classroom door, and came in to be followed by a stallion Dusty assumed was Uncle Strudel, which Granny confirmed. Yes, he’s a moving part too, Dusty thought. This plan was an ingenious failure, with Uncle Strudel being on the train to Ponyville! The two had clearly met somewhere along the way, and fairly close to Ponyville at that, for Granny to be able to make it basically on time. Dusty watched with some amusement as Strudel set a chair for Granny, only to have it get tossed out behind her as she sat down and started to tell her tale.

Glancing around out of the corners of his eyes at his classmates, Dusty marked their reactions as Granny regaled them with the tale of Ponyville’s foundation. It was definitely an interesting and entertaining story, not only on a general level, but also in seeing how the Apples had come to the area. Gearhead had not had any idea that the land had been bequeathed to them by Princess Celestia herself, and purposefully the land right next to the Everfree Forest.

It would be interesting to ask Princess Celestia why she had directed the settler ponies to such a dangerous area. Princess Celestia had only moved her seat of power to Canterlot after banishing Nightmare Moon, at which point she had abandoned the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest. In the first place, the Everfree Forest was an odd place to build a castle, especially when there were not any other habitations nearby.

While there was no question that the princesses had lived at that castle, the reason was not so clear. If the princesses had to be nearby to keep the creatures of the forest in check, surely they could have done so from Ponyville’s position on the outside, rather than inside. If it wasn’t just to guard Equestria from the things that go ‘bump’ in the forest, maybe it was to guard something in the forest. Dusty thought, in particular, about the dragonstone the Witch had been hoarding. If there were more precious resources, or items of power, they could just as easily be put to dark purpose as to good.

Guarding some super-precious, super-powerful resource would be reason enough to build a castle for just the two horses and a select staff, and to keep things secret, but of the magical items that Gearhead knew were connected to the princesses in the past, the foremost example that he could think of were the Elements of Harmony: The sisters had used them together to seal Discord into stone, and Princess Celestia had used them to banish Nightmare Moon. Beyond any other use by Princess Celestia that were not recorded in history, the Elements had spent the next thousand years hidden in the Castle of the Two Sisters, abandoned and known only to Princess Celestia herself, who probably had not wanted to use them again anyway – not after using them to send her own sister to the moon. Of course, Gearhead would not know for certain unless he asked, and he had no idea how to go about such a sensitive topic.

In any case, the Apple family building their homestead and farm on that specific plot of land, and their ‘luck’ in young Smith finding the Zap Apples when the family was so sorely in need of both food and income, attracted more ponies to the area. While the Smith family could be credited with being the driving force behind Ponyville’s foundation and the beginning of Rich’s Barnyard Bargains, Dusty wondered if Princess Celestia could not be credited with a certain hunch that that was exactly what would happen, placing a town of loyal ponies right on the entrance to the Everfree Forest, to guard whatever the princesses had previously guarded – whether they were simply guarding the Elements of Harmony without knowing it, or there was something more at the castle. Gearhead respected the princesses enough to give them time until they felt comfortable enough to tell anypony such information would affect. Admitedly, more fore-warning than with Nightmare Moon or Discord would be preferable.

Granny Smith came to the end of her tale, the school foals still completely rapt and following her every word. Dusty brought himself back to the present just as Silver Spoon began applauding. “This is outrageous,” Tiara wailed. “She’s just an old coot!”

“She’s not an ‘old coot,’” Apple Bloom said, coming to Granny’s defense. “She’s my Granny, and the most special pony I know!”

“But! But!—“

“I guess you’re lucky this isn’t a competition,” Dusty said softly enough so that only Tiara and those close enough to him could hear.

“What do you know?”

“I’m not sure,” Dusty said, “in fact I’ve no idea why you choose to be so confrontational with others. Given what we’ve just learned about what ponies can do when they pull together, it’d be an unfortunate choice to push them away. But you’re still so young, so you can learn and change. You don’t have to set yourself up for refusals for favours later on simply because somepony you want to help you holds a grudge for something you’ve done in school.”

“My daddy’s the wealthiest pony in Ponyville, so what do I have to worry about some grudge?”

“All due respect to Mister Rich, as he works hard to maintain your family’s wealth, what have you done, and what can you do? Not your father or mother. Not your butler or anypony else on your parents’ payroll. You.”

“I don’t need to do any of what you commoners do: I’m rich, and I’ll still be rich when I’m a mare.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I hear a certain gadgeteer’s putting a serious crimp in business, although not for the last few months. He’s bound to return, though. You may not always have your father’s resources upon which to call, but don’t worry: as I said before, you’re young yet. You can learn the skills you’d need to live without borrowing your father’s resources – if that’s something you’re interested in doing.”

“Why do you keep saying ‘you’re young?’ You’re just as young as I am, you know?”

“I’m older than you, actually. It was Princess Celestia’s idea to put me here while I visited in Ponyville, and I’m not sure why she wouldn’t put me in my proper grade. Maybe she wanted me to meet and interact with certain ponies. It’s really not for me to try to fathom the Princess’s mind, not when she’s lived so much longer, and is so much wiser, than me. Anyway,  I think it’d be wise to consider what I said about learning things to support yourself. You never know what you’ll need, nor when you’ll need it.” Dusty saw the others leaving, and moved to follow. “Caio.”

* * *

When the Zap Apples became ripe for picking, one became rainbow-coloured in stripes before becoming more square, like a red delicious, before a rainbow light shot out and jumped from apple to apple, colourizing the whole orchard. It was harvest time, and the Apple family leaped into action.

Applejack had agreed to let Dusty help gather the apples, so he leaped into the air, calling upon his Pegasus magic to enable faster and stronger flight. He ricocheted between the trees that already had baskets underneath them, sending apples cascading down as he flipped and spun and rolled with ease. When all the baskets were full, he landed, put his Pegasus magic on hold, and activated his Unicorn magic to carry the Zap Apples to a bigger collection hopper. He emptied the baskets he was lifting magically, and carried them back out to the trees to catch more harvested apples. The baskets in place, Dusty switched his magicks again, and went back to harvesting-by-flight.

Later, the Crusaders were together as they tasted some of the Zap Apple Jam. “This has got to be the best Zap Apple Jam I’ve ever tasted,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Must be because you had something to do with it, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said.

“That’s right,” Granny Smith said, coming up. “Apple Bloom there is one humdinger of a Zap Apple Jammer! Now, who wants to help me sing to the water?” Unsurprisingly, every foal jumped at the chance to help. It was unsurprising given Granny’s story earlier, as well as the great-tasting jam. Rich even brought Tiara to help, complete with a bunny ear headband, despute her obvious resistance. The stallion might be a wealthy business man, but he had not kept his business by being poor of mind. He was shrewd and tough but fair. He knew just as Dusty did that if Tiara did not learn some humility, she would get into worse trouble for it, and soon.

“You gonna join ‘em, son?” Rich asked.

“Oh, I’m no singer, sir. Besides, I’d rather not get in their way.”

“Got your eye on somepony special, do you?”

“Not at all sir. I’m a colt still, so I’m not interested in fillies yet.”

“But you will be,”

“I’ll be back home by then,” and still in no position to court anypony, Gearhead did not add. Being a Black Sheep came with protection, true, but it also put him lower on the social ladder than anypony else. He was not fit for marriage until he won free of the title, and being a false prince certainly did not count.

16. The Keys of Return

Chapter 16: The Keys of Return

The Apples managed to stretch their Zap Apple business over the next seven days, since the apples that were harvested did not disappear, only the ones that were still on the trees. With Dusty helping out, they only missed a few trees’ worth of apples, and business was incredibly good. This was helped along by the simple expedient of adding sturdy wheels to the bottoms of the baskets. According to Applejack, the profits from the Zap Apple harvest, combined with the expected profits from Cider Season should carry them through the next winter easily.

After every Zap Apple confectionery and bottle of jam was sold, it was back to business as usual for all of Ponyville, wheras the entire town seemed to focus on whatever the Apples were producing if it was a seasonal specialty. Everything else in town came to a complete stop, and since everything stopped, nopony got ahead or got left behind.

Except when foals were born, then certain ponies went to Ponyville General to have a look. The Elemental Six went when the Cake twins were born. They spoke of little other than the Pegasus Pound and the Unicorn Pumpkin for a whole week, so Dusty was relieved when the novelty died down three weeks after that.

Dusty was reading from a set of books that Princess Luna had sent over when somepony knocked on the library’s front door. Usually patrons just came on in, so this was obviously other business. Twilight left Spike balancing with cards and charts stuck all over himself to answer the door. There were Carrot and Cup Cake, their month-old foal twins, Pumpkin and Pound, in slings.

“Sorry to bother you, but could you look after the twins for the evening?” Carrot asked.

“Normally I’d be happy to,” Twilight said, “but I have to finish this report to the Princess summarizing all my other reports to the Princess.”

“Oh, that’s a shame, but we understand.” Carrot said.

“I can do it,” Dusty said, walking to the door.

“Aren’t you a little young to be foalsitting?” Cup Cake asked.

“Perhaps, but I’ve got younger siblings, and the older ones always look after the younger ones, right? So I’ve got some experience in that matter.”

“Still, to handle the twins on your own may be a little much..?” Cup Cake said, and Carrot nodded.

“In that case, at least let me help out whomever you choose. I’ve the flight and magic to keep up, after all.”

“A back-up sitter? That could be smart,” Carrot said. “But we still have to find a main sitter.”

“I can be the main sitter!” Pinkie Pie said, and Dusty realized she’d been behind the Cakes all along. Obviously they did not think she was up to the challenge of looking after Pumpkin and Pound even though she played with them all the time. Given what was involved in looking after a pair of new foals, one a Unicorn and the other a Pegasus, and both not yet having discovered the capabilities of their tribes, Dusty was inclined to agree.

Dusty followed Carrot and Cup Cake as they approached the rest of the Elemental Six to ask them if they were available. Even Fluttershy had to turn the offer down, and from Angel’s expression Dusty was afraid of what might happen if she kept him waiting for too long. Dusty did not believe Fluttershy deserved such abuse, nor Angel such an understanding owner. But there it was.

That also left the Cakes with just Pinkie as an option, which seemed to make them glad that they had not completely rejected Dusty’s idea. Pinkie would be the main pony responsible for looking after Pound and Pumpkin, while Dusty backed her up when things got difficult, and kept her on-track otherwise.

Back at Sugarcube Corner, the Cakes gave Pinkie and Dusty their list of responsibilities. Pinkie kept repeatedly assuring the worrying parents that everything would go just fine, while Dusty sat between the twins and watched, one eyebrow raised: it was not as though a foal stayed fed, cleaned, or in bed once one took care of that the first time. Their state changed all the time, and you had to keep up with the changes. Even then, it was impossible to keep them from crying or whining. That was the state of being a foal. Gearhead knew it well, from helping to take care of Rosie, Bean, and Cori. It had been much the same for Vines and Big Sister Ivy taking care of him.

Once Carrot and Cup Cake were out the door, Pinkie turned back to face her audience, who had seen the whole thing. Dusty thought it was a big mistake to let foals see their parents leave, because then they would wonder where 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' had gone, and why the foals themselves were being left behind. And then the reality that 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' were no longer present would hit the foals, and in that moment – right on cue, right in Pinkie's smiling face, Pound and Pumpkin started crying. Pinkie immediately started to try to distract them with toys, and then her go-to game for entertaining them. Unfortunately this game was 'Where's Pinkie,' the natural consequence of which would be to remind the foals that their parents were gone. Oops. The crying intensified.

Dusty walked around Pumpkin, to loop back around to circle Pound as well. Curious, the foals quieted a bit to watch the colt move about the room, and in doing so he made them move closer together. Dusty picked up his pace slowly, and started to move in figure eights with one loop circling the twins, while the other took him through empty space. The twins spun so they could continue to track him visually, but started to get confounded and frustrated when he reached a trotting pace. Dusty popped up from behind them, finally, and looked down at their faces from over their shoulders. From their perspective he was upside-down, and getting closer as he leaned in, a completely neutral expression on his face. The twins gave back stare for stare, silence for silence. When the ponies' snouts barely had any space between them, Dusty puffed out his cheeks, pointed his ears straight out, and stuck his tongue out between his cheeks, and then started to quickly shake his head as though he was wet and trying to dry off.

The foals burst out laughing at the upside-down, multi-eyed silly face, and since they were laughing they could not also be crying. Dusty kept it up as he backed toward the living space behind and above Sugarcube Corner, leading the twins to where Pinkie watched. Finally Dusty had to sit down to recover, because even that simple motion, repeated, had him disoriented and tired. "All yours," he said, panting.

Thanks in part to Dusty's foaling around, Pinkie was able to bring the twins into a game rather easily – until both the foals' stomachs growled. "Food time? Okay!" Pinkie lifted Pound, and then Pumpkin, into their highchairs before going to the preserver to see what Carrot and Cup Cake had left for the twins to eat. Wherever you go, though, baby food is almost always a variety on mush, and so it becomes very challenging to make it seem appetizing.

Pinkie brought half-full bowls and set them on the twins' trays. "Alright, dig in!" She said. "Like this: num-num-num-num-num!" And she mimed holding the bowl between her hooves and shook her head side to side. Dusty would have done a facehoof, but knew that would set an even worse example for the foals. Instead he stood in front of Pumpkin and used his tail to manipulate her spoon. In order to feed the Unicorn, Dusty found that he had to use a few minor tricks to distract her a little. The odder the action, the more her mouth hung open in awe or puzzlement, so into that literal and figurative opening, he would sneak the spoon.

Dusty heard something go 'bang!' and looked away from Pumpkin to see Pound's bowl go flying, dumping its contents everywhere. Dusty would have reached out with his telekinetic magic but he thought that Pound needed to learn that when you dumped your food on the floor, it was not that easy to recover. Then again, everypony there was a horse, so what difference was there really in eating from the floor? Dusty demonstrated himself, using Pumpkin's spoon, since he already had control of it – and a fascinated Pound stopped crying.

“You’re eating off the floor?!”

“Out of everything, this is strange? B’sides, we’re all horses here.”

“Oh yeah!” Pinkie snorted. “Let me grab a spoon and I’ll help Pound out.”

Once the twins refused to take in any more food, Pinkie and Dusty traded places a couple of times. One would do clean-up while the other played with the foals. Dusty was cleaning while Pinkie played quietly with the foals when he heard the mare say “some pony-wony needs me to change their daipy-wipey right now-wow-ow!” The baby talk alone made Dusty cringe, but he cantered into the room to see how Pinkie was handling things.

Getting the diapers off of Pound and Pumpkin seemed to be the easier part, and it stood to reason that that would be the case: the foals would be uncomfortable with the messed-up diapers, but once they were off and their bottoms were clean, they would be comfortable again – more comfortable bare-bottomed, one might suggest, than clad in fresh diapers. The twins racing off, in any direction that would get them away from Pinkie, only confirmed this guess, as well as Gearhead’s memories of trying to deal with his younger siblings without help from his elders. Was I this bad too?

Dusty grabbed a fresh diaper with his mouth, and as he passed the dresser where they were stacked, he thought to grab a back-up with his tail. His weapons secure, he looped around to head-off Pound, thinking of leaving Pumpkin to Pinkie. The twins were running together, and seemed to come up with the same evasion techniques, whereas Pinkie and Dusty were jumping in each other’s way and stepping all over each other. Dusty had the lesser mass, so he always tumbled backwards, and sometimes ended up under Pinkie.

After two such collisions, Dusty finally had had enough to apply some of his magic to the problem, although ideally he did not want to give Pound or Pumpkin an idea of what they could do that Pinkie could not. Ultimately, through, Dusty believed it was more practical to nip this short-term problem in the bud, and contain any fall-out as it came, before they had any other messy fall-out from the foals. He called upon his Pegasus magic to accelerate more swiftly as he and Pinkie tumbled.

Dusty swept out from under the mare, and although he was flying close enough to the ground to trot, he was still using his powers, closely emulating what he had done on his first attempt with his core prototype. While Pinkie was still recovering her feet, Dusty curved toward Pound. This time when he tried to quick-step out of the way, Dusty beat his wings and caught up to the smaller colt. With movements made expert by handling some very energetic younger siblings, he managed to get the diaper onto Pound so he could spin vertically, spring off the wall, and then land, placing the smaller colt on the floor in front of him. “Yay!” Pound said, waving his forehooves in the air.

Without her brother to act as her double, Pumpkin seemed slightly slower. Pinkie was wearing two products of previous failed attempts, one on her head, so she was already in a mood for success this time around. She pounced from closer, and Pumpkin’s hesitation finally gave Pinkie the victory. Soon both foals were ready for bed.

Or not.

Instead of being tired, the twins were too keyed-up for sleep. They wanted to stay up and play, but the Cakes had set a specific bed time. As a responsible pony, Pinkie was set on sticking to it. As mere month-olds, the Cake twins were up for whatever they considered fun in their limited experiences. While most of that was shared, Pumpkin did not share her brother’s proclivity toward hitting things, nor Pound his sister’s desire to chew on things.

Dusty watched from the doorway as Pinkie walked away from the occupied cribs. He stepped back as she came through, only to look back. Somepony giggled, startling them both just a bit. “Hey Dusty, I put Pound Cake in the crib just now. Right?”

“Right,” Dusty wondered what Pinkie was getting at.

“You didn’t see him get out, right?”

He’s out? But – “One: Foals can’t just get out of their cribs on their own. They’re designed that way.”

“Foals or cribs?”

“Both, but the cribs are designed to be too tall for foals to climb out.”

“Oh, okay. Did you have another point?”

“Two: You blocked my line of sight as you moved through the doorway. I lost sight on Pound and Pumpkin for four or so seconds.”

“But you just said foals can’t climb out of cribs, and at least Pumpkin’s still where I put her. So where’s Pound?” The giggling came from down the hall, toward one of the windows that looked out onto the street below. Both ponies reflexively looked in that direction. Then they heard something squeak from within the foals’ bedroom: Pumpkin was chewing on a rubber chicken, which Pinkie had put in a closet earlier, before closing the closet door.

“No, no, no,” Pinkie trotted over to Pumpkin and took the toy away again. Now is time for sleeping, not playing, so—“ The giggling came again. “Where is that coming from?!”

“I’m honestly surprised you’ve not looked up yet,” Dusty said. Now Pinkie did look up, and instantly regretted it, by the expression on her face.

“Pound Cake? I didn’t know you could fly. Why didn't you tell me this sooner?” She asked turning to Dusty.

“To be honest, the fact his wings are strong enough to pin him, upside down, to the ceiling, is news to me too. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t seeing things first.”

“Well, as a responsible pony it’s my job to assert my control here,” Pinkie said. She grabbed the rubber chicken and put it in a chest. Then she tried to bring Pound back down to earth by jumping up and grabbing him, but he remained out of reach.

“Which one do you want to handle?” Dusty nodded toward Pumpkin, who had used her magic to open the closet door, and was telekinetically moving her toys to her crib side, and from there to her mouth.

“Not you too, Pumpkin!”

“Didn’t Rainbow Dash and Miss Twilight warn the Cakes about the twins coming into their gifts in sudden spurts?”

“Yeah, but who could expect something like this?”

Dusty looked up at Pound, still flying pinned to the ceiling, and then at Pumpkin, replacing one toy with another as soon as Pinkie took it out of her mouth. “I’ve got to admit that this does not look like a ‘spurt’ or ‘fit:’ It’s a far more consistant effort.”

Pinkie zipped out of the room and came back with suction cups on her feet so she could walk along the ceiling. How she was doing this, Dusty could only guess, but then this was Pinkie Pie here: to her, the laws of gravity were more like... guidelines. “Stop talking about how incredible all this is and do something!” She lunged, grabbing a hold of Pound’s socks as he turned to fly away. “Gotcha!” But he just sped off, dragging her along.

“Let go!” Dusty yelled after her.

“I’m not gonna... let him get away from me now!”

Dusty would have done a facehoof then and there, regardless of Pumpkin’s presence, but that same presence represented a conundrum for him: how far could he go in his efforts to suppress her magic? If he casted one of his few magic negation spells, would he end up causing permanent psychological or physical damage to the young caster? Not to mention, since young Unicorns had soft horns that had not fully grown in, he could end up damaging that if he used the same methods he’d used to suppress Blueblood’s casting, or so much as flicked Pumpkin’s horn. Even a suppression/holding attack would be out of the question. Dusty needed an ‘attack’ that Pumpkin could not counter no matter her gifts with magic. One that was so oblique she would not consider it an attack in the first place. What was it Mother or Big Sister Ivy did in similar situations? Not that they’d ever had to deal directly with flying or magic-wielding foals before.

While Dusty had been trying to formulate a workable plan, Pound flew back into the room, Pinkie still hanging on like a pitbull. Dusty saw Pumpkin reach up at her brother and gurgle some noises, some of which sounded like ‘up.’ And then she was using her telekenisis on herself, to give herself the gift of flight. The sight shocked Pinkie enough that she let go of Pound and fell to the ground. Dusty saw her expression, but even knowing that she must be on the precipice of disastrous tears and frustration, he still did not have any ideas.

Suddenly Pinkie leaped into action, literally. She gathered up all of Pumpkin’s toys, tossed them into the chest, and wrapped the chest in chains that she secured with padlocks. The toys secured, she leaped into the air carrying a laundry basket and used it to bring both twins down within it. Pinkie taped the basket to the floor with multiple layers, and then sat on it for good measure, literally foalsitting. If the foals could get out of this, no sensible amount of force could stop them.

Pumpkin and Pound made sounds and faces at each other, and then Dusty saw part of the mesh on the hamper that caged them glow with Pumpkin’s aqua aura, and she simply walked on through. Advanced magic? Dusty felt his jaw drop even before Pound kicked and punched outward with all four legs at once, dumping Pinkie and the basket right off, freeing himself with tremendous strength, especially given his size.

Both twins were amazing in their gifts, but Pumpkin concerned Dusty more: she was casting spells without any formal training. She did not know any magic theory, and yet she could levitate object and herself. She could phase through mesh, if not completely solid objects. Not even the Princesses could do that, that Dusty was aware, and it was not a spell in Twilight’s repertoire either. Princess Celestia and Luna had millennia of study, while Twilight and Gearhead both had only a decade of magic theory under them. None of them could do what Pumpkin, a month-old foal, had figured out how to do mere moments ago.

How? She wanted her toys, that much was clear. She wanted to be with her brother, even when he was flying, which was not considered a gift of any tribe but the Pegasi. So she merely reached out with the force of her will and made it happen through her magic, instinctively and out of desire? In other words, she did it just because she wanted to. She made it happen because she wanted it to happen badly enough, and had no idea that it should normally be beyond her abilities as a foal.

Neither Pumpkin nor Pound had any self-imposed limits, because they had not learned them. That was how they did it all. Perhaps without thinking of these limits, any Unicorn could cast beyond his or her ‘natural’ abilities, or more accurately find what their true natural abilities were for the first time. Taken to the extreme, this was a dangerous line of thought, since there were limits to what one could do – for example, the amount of mana a pony possessed was fixed, however that could be increased through something as simple as practice. That was how Unicorns became stronger casters.

And so there was no reason to believe that Dusty could not turn himself back into Gearhead. He possessed powerful magic even as an immature Alicorn. He only needed to want to change back badly enough. This indicated that he had not wanted to before, but he had learned plenty and taken many opportunities he had not had before. There was nothing left to regret, and after many months, much responsibility to which to return.

But first, Dusty would have to deal with two rambunctious foals who were just discovering their gifts, and he would do so in a way that would not impinge on their respective drives to continue exploring their gifts later, if they so chose. He started humming, softly, as though to himself, and very gradually, picked up the volume. Having a higher, immature voice helped.

Just as had happened before with the patterned walking, the foals took notice that something outside of the usual pattern of action was taking place. Even Pinkie, on the verge of tears, stared at Dusty when the humming changed to singing. The foals landed, focusing nearly all of their attention on listening, and Dusty sang louder, so they could enjoy the soft tune and words. It was an old lullaby passed down through his mother’s family. One that both Mother and Big Sister Ivy had sung to Gearhead many times. One that he had helped to sing to Rosie and Bean and Cori many times.

As Dusty continued to sing, the twins started to nod off. Even Pinkie seemed like she would fall asleep for an instant, and then she carried Pumpkin to her crib, after seeing Dusty lift Pound into his using his magic. Just to be sure the twins really were asleep, Dusty continued to sing through the song one more time, before he followed Pinkie out the door. There had been about a 50% chance he would send himself to sleep with the lullaby, given how many times he had heard it, even though he was the one to sing it. Dusty was very glad that this had failed to happen, so he was left feeling somewhat drowsy, but still awake. He let Pinkie lead the way downstairs.

“I didn’t know you could sing like that,” Pinkie said, stifling a yawn.

“It’s only because I’m not full-grown. But don’t go spreading it around all the same.”

“Okay then. We have some clean-up to do,” Pinkie said. Indeed, Pound had left quite he mess during his flight through the shop. The Earth Pony and the Alicorn got to work. When the Cakes returned from their successful venture, Pinkie and Dusty had a surprise waiting for them: the twins were in bed and the place was spic-and-span. The Cakes were happy to offer to make Pinkie their go-to foalsitter. With some reservations, she accepted. She had learned a lot about what it took to look after a pair of foals, as opposed to simply playing with them.

* * *

Dusty spent the following morning in full Research and Development Mode at Gearhead’s Gadgets. He wanted his transformation serum to be as perfect as it could be, so he could avoid any mistakes, and make no mistake, he wanted to turn back to normal very badly.

That was not to say that he had not enjoyed his time, nearly six months, playing with friends in what he had to admit was his first real extended childhood, but he had responsibilities to which to return, and about 177 days was a long time in which to be essentially out of action. It was so long that Dusty had decided that the best way to avoid having too much suspicion cast on him from Vines’s direction was to send the occasional clutch of gems in lieu of the money he usually sent. But he had only decided to start doing that after missing the first few months. On top of that, Verdant Fields would not have had any news regarding new developments at Gearhead’s Gadgets. If his family was not suspicicious, they should be concerned by now – perhaps sufficiently so to send somepony to investigate matters.

In anticipation of his return to what passed for normalcy, Dusty asked Spike to send a letter to Princess Celestia to make the necessary official arrangements to account for ‘Dusty’ leaving Ponyville Elementary. He also made up flyers for the grand reopening of Gearhead’s Gadgets, to take place the day after Gearhead ‘returned’ to Ponyville, so he could believably create enough gadgets to sell. The truth was that in the many times Dusty had snuck off, he had also been quietly building up stock so he would be ready for his return. This included some of the special orders from outside of Ponyville that had been piling up over the past few moons. Now, assuming success with the potion, Gearhead would be back to sell them – and he did not have any reason to assume anything but success.

After quadruple checking his calculations and making certain that the preparations he could make ahead of time were complete, Dusty cast one last look toward the orb containing the dragon egg. It was impossible to see the actual egg anymore, with snowflakes swirling madly within the enclosure, and frost spreading all along the inner walls. If Dusty had to hazard a guess, the egg would be hatching very soon. If he was going to be away at all, he would need Fluttershy to keep a very careful eye on it. And, once the dragon hatched, it would need Gearhead’s help above all else in order to adjust to living with ponies – at least until he could find a way to bring it to its ancestral home in the north.

There was one other order of business of which to take care of, and Dusty trotted off to school to do just that. He would have to bid goodbye and good fortunes to Cheerilee and his school-foal friends, and that was best done with as much advance warning as possible, in the flesh. As it happened, Cheerilee received the paperwork from Princess Celestia mere moments later, sent via Pony Express.

Very few of the foals reacted to the news with anything other than disbelief that Dusty was leaving so soon after he had transferred schools. Fortunately only Sweetie Belle was visibly tearing up. The Crusaders decided to make their last full day together a fun play-day. Dusty had no choice but to go along with it. And once Pinkie heard the ‘news,’ she threw a going away party at Sugarcube Corner. It lasted until the evening hours, when the foals started to show their fatigue and had to be taken home.

With all of Dusty’s affairs squared away, the Alicorn gathered with the Elemental Six back in the living quarters section of Gearhead’s Gadgets. The Princesses, Celestia and Luna, arrived discretely to help out if their magic was needed, but Dusty wanted to involve as little new magic as possible. Besides that, it had to be up to him to return to his true form. Dusty dropped two draconic snowflakes into the open vial containing his enchanted serum, stoppered the vial, and switched on the tumbler to give the contents a good shake and ensure the perfect mix. It took mere seconds for the liquid to change from blue to a water-like transparency. Dusty turned the tumbler off and stared at the vial.

“Are you sure about this?” Princess Celestia asked.

“It’s been fun, and the time to return to myself has come. Yes, I’m sure.”

“I meant, are you sure that this potion will turn you back, instead of making you into something else?”

“We searched through everything we could find at the libraries here, in Canterlot, and at the old castle and couldn’t find anything,” Twilight said. “How can you be sure this will work?”

“Because I want it badly enough,” Dusty said. “This is how Unicorn foals can cast incredible magic, even though they don’t have any knowledge of magic theory. It’s all because they lack any sense of even a single self-imposed limit. And the irony is that I may only have enough magic in me to pull this off as an Alicorn. But I’m 100% certain that I can make the transformation I want to happen happen.”

“Very good,” Princess Celestia said.

“What do you need us to do?” Twilight asked.

“As everything will go according to plan, the only thing left for you to do is to watch the light show,” Dusty said. He did not say that in the event things got out of control, he would need the others to backstop him. That was because he had his mind set on complete success: he needed to want it badly enough to overcome his preconceived limits, and they were many, formed over ten years of studying magic theory, and eighteen years of living as an Earth Pony who misunderstood the very nature of his own magic.

Dusty took a deep breath, uncorked the vial, and called upon his full Alicorn magic. He gripped the vial in his lips and upended the whole container in order to drink all of the potion. Then he set the vial back down and made his way to the center of the room. Blinding light emanated from his body, causing everypony to shut their eyes and look away. There was a loud POP! and smoke filled the room. When it cleared, the pony looked at his reflection in the mirror, and then jumped into his nearby, waiting horseshoes.

After trying unsuccessfully to summon a globe of light the Alicorn way, the pony drew his Geargem Dagger and invoked it by saying, “Quattuor Magnae Spiritus invoco, lux!” The globe of light appeared. “I am back, and back in business,” Gearhead said.

“You really are, aren’t you?” Luna said.

“Welcome back,” Fluttershy said, and the others chimed in.

“You know,” Rainbow Dash said, “I think I’m gonna miss having such an agile flying buddy around. Just a bit.”

17. A Homecoming

Chapter 17: A Homecoming

Over the next week, ponies came into Ponyville to confirm the rumours of Gearhead’s return to business. These were ponies who had been waiting for Gearhead’s Gadgets to open back up. Some of them had submitted at least one special order, and were highly frustrated about the delay, which amounted to nearly six months of lost business and opportunities, after all. But nowhere else could they get Gearhead’s unique machines. More than that, there were ponies who came to town on the word of Gearhead’s reputation alone, after seeing or hearing about what he could build from one of the towns or cities in which he had previously operated. Praise from a city like Canterlot could go an extremely far way, and Gearhead learned that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna swore by the very quality of his work.

As word of Gearhead’s return radiated out toward the further reaches of Equestria, he expected some kind of word from home about his absence. What he had not expected, however, was the chest full of gemstones that the mailpony delivered with the letter in the middle of the following week:

Thirdson Gearhead, Black Sheep of the Verdant:

We are thankful to learn of your return to business, and wonder what caused your disappearance. Indeed, for an unlikely number of moons all activity and word from you appears to have ceased altogether. When we received the attached monies, purportedly from yourself, we could not help but be suspicious of the source, because it seemed to have come from you, and yet this is a form of fund you have never sent us before. We decided to send it to you in the hopes that you could untangle this mystery.

We also write to inform you that during your absence, Herd Council voted to reassess the positions of possible candidates for the title of Successor. Council determined that it would be impossible to install you as Successor until you rid yourself of your title as Black Sheep. This left our austere governing body with no choice other than reaffirming me as Successor.

Unfortunately, your recent absence puts those concerned in a highly precarious position. I therefore request your presence to tender an explanation in full. You may arrive to do so at Verdant Fields on this day of next week, or before the Council in a fortnight.

Your brother,

Verdant Vines, Firstson and Successor to the Verdant

“I was told to return with your reply,” the postpony said.

“Then I shall get right on that,” Gearhead said. He went to the shop counter and took out paper and pen to draft his response. “I know this puts you in a bit of a difficult position, but please wait a few moments.”

“Of course,” the other Earth Pony responded.

Gearhead thought about what he was reading as he went over the short missive again. Vines was obviously attacking not only his position, but that of their father, in an attempt to gain greater credibility than either stallion. The older brother could do whatever he wanted with Gearhead’s name, since in the estimation of Verdant law and custom, one could not get lower than ‘Black Sheep,’ but their father was an entirely different matter: He was Patriarch, and the only one to never have to use his Veto in Council. If Vines was able to do as he pleased, Father’s reputation would sink quickly, and he could end up deposed with a Vote of Non-Confidence. As Successor, Vines would then be the most likely candidate to take over as Patriarch, giving him access to the original manuscript of the Codex. Father had warned Gearhead against exactly this, when they met secretly.

Gearhead’s only response could be to go to defend Father’s position by explaining his own absence, as well as coming up with some funds in order to make up for the bits he would have raised and sent over the last five months – the Verdant had gotten entirely too used to having the money Gearhead sent each month. Not having it seemed to set off quite the set of alarms back home. Gearhead would clearly have to do something about that, and come up with a reason for his recent vacation. Well, that would be it right there: My first vacation in ten years, and I think most ponies will agree that it is long-overdue.

Gearhead would also have to travel back to Verdant Fields, or meet the Council itself in its Chambers. Since he was the Black Sheep, such an event would put him on thin ice right away. It seemed as though that would be ideal for Vines, so maybe he was counting on Gearhead being unable to reach Verdant Fields in a week. If he had to guess, it had taken as long for the mailpony to travel that distance, but he did not have to simply guess: he asked the mailpony directly, and confirmed the travel time, which meant that if he left back when the mailpony had arrived, he might be able to make it. If he pushed, he would make it but still arrive exhausted, and in no condition for a big meeting.

Of course, all of this assumed that Gearhead travelled on hoof and by train. He had a far more direct, and faster, method of travel. Because of his recent time as Dusty, Gearhead had even replaced the old condenser with optimized gemstone rings, greatly increasing the prototype core’s yield, even as it was the single-core version. But Gearhead would not want to arrive ahead of his own responding letter, which be immediately wrote for the waiting stallion. He then wrote another letter, this one addressed to Princess Celestia, and, securing the shop, went to find Spike to send it right away.

* * *

When Gearhead had originally made the journey, he had made it from Verdant Fields in Western Equestria to Ponyville in Central Equestria over a period of ten years. This was because he stopped in every town and city to sell his wares and to conduct research. Even over those ten year, the cyclic wagon he had innovated already made his travel more efficient than any normal horse with a wagon full of supplies and equipment. A more direct journey would take far less time, in any case: about seven days travelling by train, and by hoof when necessary, including time spent resting for the day. That was the method by which postal employees travelled between the different region of Equestria.

Most of the post ponies who delivered packages long distances were Earth Ponies because they usually had a higher level of strength and endurance than members of the other two tribes. Likewise, the shorter distances were covered by the faster Pegasi, mostly those who were not on local weather management teams, although some like Derpy Hooves, were able to do both. The stallion who had delivered Vines’s letter, and who would now deliver Gearhead’s response, would be using the train as far as he could, but he would also travel on hoof when he could traverse a distance more easily that way.

Gearhead would have an easier time of getting to Verdant Fields because he did not have to walk on his own hooves, nor fly using his own biological wings: his core system, or Alicorn Engine, would never tire because it generated its own energy beyond the initialization threshold, and it would never overload so long as he did not push it beyond its limits, as he had against Discord. Besides the fact that Gearhead only intended use the Engine for flight this time, what it could do back then was nothing on what it could do now.

Gearhead’s letter to Princess Celestia let her know that he intended to fly to Verdant Fields outside of Hoofington, when he intended on leaving, his flight path, and cruising speed. This information in hoof, the Princess could advise all the other Pegasi along Gearhead’s route regarding what was soon to come their way. This would not only ensure they were not in the way, but it would also prevent them being caught off-guard and panicking. Whereas it would take about a week for the mailpony to get to Verdant Fields, it should only take Gearhead thirty-six hours, or perhaps even a single day if he also flew by night. He spent the rest of that time racking up sales while Princess Celestia spread the news of his flight. Late in the afternoon of the day before Gearhead was to depart, he made sure to process a money order in the amount he wanted to carry home to his family with him, rather than having to accommodate the weight of all those golden bits. Since Gearhead wanted to leave before the sun rose the next morning, Pinkie threw him a ‘Bon Voyage’ party that evening so everypony could see him off.

Since it had been some time since Gearhead had used his Alicorn Engine, he relished the weight and feel of it for a moment before starting it up. The whine as the rings spun up to full speed was like an old friend to the young Earth Pony, and although he had only recently invented the system, he realized just how much he depended on it, and how much he liked to use it.

Gearhead checked his saddlebags and pouches. He had his two daggers, a change of clothes for when he arrived, and some provisions for an in-flight meal, so he would not have to stop. The mapping system was programmed and up to date, using reports courtesy of the princesses. Gearhead took one last look around the Laboratory before heading outside and securing the shop. If everything went well, he should be back in a couple of days. In a way, it was a shame to put his business on hold after such a long break, however family business was his business too. Besides, more than the Eternal Bit rested on what happened at Verdant Fields. Gearhead pushed his hood securely into place, and, thinking flying thoughts, leaped into the air.

Gearhead relished how quickly and how fully the Engine responded to his thoughts. He felt oddly free, since he did not have to concern himself with flapping his wings or time-outs, yet he depended on the mechanical rig strapped to his back. It was, after all, one of his own making, and he knew it through-and-through. With the recent repairs, Gearhead made his ascent steeper and quicker than originally planned. He made one tight circuit over Ponyville, and then headed west, quickly accelerating to cruising speed.

Flight powered by the Alicorn Engine was a very different experience from doing so with Pegasus wings and magic, or transformed into a fast-moving element. Gearhead barely had to think about maintaining his speed, heading, or altitude. He just sort of did it naturally. This was the way he was: it was in his nature. Maybe that was all the confirmation he needed regarding what Pegasus magic he had inherited, even though he was no longer an Alicorn.

When Gearhead could be sure nopony of interest was watching him or his blue-green particle trail, he accelerated to flank speed. Part of the reason was to test the Engine’s new limits so he could use the data with the dual core version, but the other side of the argument was ‘because I want to.’ He probably would not have risked it before his time as a colt, but now he sometimes wanted to ‘play.’ The flight to Verdant Fields was affording him some of those opportunities, since he flew higher than most birds and Pegasi. Gearhead reviewed the auto-pilot program in flight one more time, and then he relaxed to take in the sights as he flew.

* * *

An alarm buzzed softly at Gearhead from within his hood. The towns and cities over which he had passed might have been more relaxed about their airspace, and there were some places where word from Princess Celestia had yet to reach, but the ancient Wings were less relaxed about security. The Azure Wing was one of the most stringent organizations in all of Equestria regarding airspace security, surpassing even the Royal Canterlot Guard in some respects.

And it was into their airspace that Gearhead had just passed. He acknowledged the alarm to silence it, and did not have to wait long for Azure’s response to his presence: three blips on his sensors indicated that he had incoming. Gearhead descended to a more standard cruising altitude and speed, and maintained his heading along his established flight path. He could probably have outrun the patrol, but it would never have been worth the trouble.

The three Pegasi vectored in on a course to intercept Gearhead. From a distance, Gearhead was able to see that while two of them were outfitted for speed in weather-resistant suits similar to what the Wonderbolts wore, the third was in armour. Clearly that was the flyer who was supposed to act as a shield if the situation ever called for battle. Dogfights had to be almost unheard of these days, and perhaps even since shortly after the unification of Equestria. But the Azure was one of those houses that kept up good practice, just in case.

Gearhead continued to hold his course, while the patrol’s leading Pegasus swept in close enough to get a good look at him. Another of the rules of engagement that these Pegasi used was for at least one member of the group to stay back and provide cover if necessary. With this flight of three, that seemed to mean that two flyers covered the first, who swept past Gearhead, and then over top of him as she swung back and into a position on his wing.

“Is that really Lil’ Gear?” The Pegasus asked. “I mean, the Princess’s message said you’d be flying in, but none of us thought it was more than one of her legendary pranks! Who’d have thought an Earth Pony’d figure out how to fly, and yet here you really are. Wouldn’t have recognized you, what with the armour and the streak, if not for that letter.”

“Guess I was smarter than I thought asking her to send it, then. But one thing I do not understand, Prism: if you did not believe the contents of the letter what are you doing out here?” During the time that Gearhead had been granted permission to conduct research at Azure Wing’s library, Prism Azure had been one of the young Pegasi to try to socialize with him. While Gearhead had believed she was just trying to slow down his progress and generally get in his way, as school-foals often seemed to do around the funny-looking Earth Pony, he later realized that she had just been trying to be a good friend. And indeed, as indicated by the nickname, she had gotten closer than anypony else in the Azure. Maybe it was because she was of the main bloodline the way he was, but Gearhead had enjoyed their friendship. Now that he had more friends in Ponyville, he could appreciate her actions more, too. To him it did not matter whether Prism had started their friendship out of some political need or out of curiosity: Whether to continue the close ties between Azure and Verdant, it did not matter to the stallion.

“Why do you think? I requested the duty just in case it was true!”

“Are you glad that you did?”

“Yeah I am!” Prism laughed. “You’ve changed. And grown some.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“Definitely. Especially the laughter,” the mare said.

“You are the one who laughed,”

“I can see it in you, that you’re not nearly so serious as you used to be.”

“It took some time, but I learned to play.”

“I like it,” Prism signalled ‘all clear’ to her flight-mates, and they descended into escort positions.

“We can fly with you for awhile longer, but then we’ll have to turn back to stay on station,” Contrail, the other racer, said.

“Thank you, I appreciate the company.”

“A flying Earth Pony,” Rook, the shield, said. “Who’d have thought it?”

“Me, obviously,” Gearhead said.

“Ha! Wait ‘till we report back to the Commander,” Contrail said.

“He’ll absolutely flip,” Prism said “He still remembers you from the old days.”

“A lot of ponies do,” Rook said. “Not many ponies studied like you did.”

“Yes, I remember how many of them made fun of my... bookishness. But I cannot hold that against them, given I probably read more than I should have. And still do.”

“Maybe, but from the money you send home you must really be rolling in it, huh?” Contrail said.

“I actually send most of my earnings back home,” Gearhead said.

“It’s nice that you want to help out the old homestead as much as you can, but don’t push yourself too far, alright?” Prism said.

“Have you not heard? I just got off from a six moon vacation,”

“Yeah, the first one mentioned in ten years or more,” Rook said.

“If they try to push more work on you, just point to all the bits you’ve set home and refuse,” Contrail said. “It’s not healthy.”

“Not my place to say.”

“That ‘Black Sheep’ business should be rewritten,” Rook said. “I understand the protection part, but after that it doesn’t seem to do any more than limit your options.”

“I was always more concerned with gaining control over my own power than my status within the Herd,” Gearhead said.

“And still they call you back,” Contrail said.

“That they do,”

“We have to turn back here,” Rook said.

“Good luck,” Contrail said.

“We’ll finish catching up later,” Prism said.

“Aye to that,” Gearhead said, then he watched as the Pegasi peeled away and headed back on their patrol course. He, meanwhile, continued on toward where Azure airspace overlapped with Verdant land. He picked his altitude and speed back up, and aimed to finish the flight just after breakfast.

Speaking of breakfast, he got out one of the dried food bars he had saved as part of his in-flight rations. Since the flight was not taking quite as long as he had expected, he had an extra one. Gearhead decided to use it now, after burning as much energy as he had conducting a conversation at high speed and altitude.

As the sun rose, and morning lengthened, Gearhead caught his first sight of Verdant Fields. As far as most of his family was concerned, it had been over ten years now since he had left it as a foal. Only Father knew of Gearhead’s previous visit, and both of them planned to keep it that way. The gate was a welcoming sight, and Gearhead began his first of three flying descending circuits about the estate, both to get a good look at the crops, and to let his family know that he had arrived.

Verdant Fields, belonging to the main branch of one of the oldest farming families on the continent, boasted one of the largest acreages and one of the most diverse set of crops. They had grains and cereals like wheat, hay, and barley; fruit like apples, strawberries, and oranges; spices like sage, thyme, and mint. The fields and orchards were like a quiltwork of square and circle plots, all with two-cart paths between them for ease of access. And it may have taken nearly a decade, but the land that Gearhead had destroyed when his Geomancy first activated had finally been restored.

After his final circuit, Gearhead touched down outside the gates and proceeded to change out of his leggings and hood. He put on a plain version of his black longcoat over top of his usual green vest, and belted on his daggers. With a clever inversion of the Engine’s harness system, he turned it into a saddlebag, with the core on one side and the chest unit on the other. He decided to keep his goggles hanging from his neck, and then he took those symbolic steps through the gate, officially returning to the place he had called ‘home’ for eight years.

Five ponies, three stallions and two mares, were cantering out to meet him at the gates. One of them, Gearhead saw, was the postal pony from before. “That was fast,” he said.

“We only just received your letter,” Father said. Big Sister Ivy and Mother were the first to embrace him, then Father and finally Bean.

“You really flew in, huh? Imagine if more ponies could travel like that!” Bean said. His coat was the light yellow of a wax bean, while his mane was dark green. He had always had one strand of hair that curled away from the rest, like a bean’s string. Bean’s cutie mark was a clutch of green beans. At sixteen years of age he was coming into adulthood nicely, big and strong as one would expect from a stallion who grew up on a farm.

“I could not imagine making enough cores for even the population of Ponyville, given the resources and focus that go into making a single one. Besides, the one I have is just a prototype. And quite frankly, if more Earth Ponies and Unicorns had such power I think it would be a frightening prospect. So the Alicorn Engine will not be something that I will be selling.” At this point, Father motioned for Gearhead and the others to follow him back to the house. The mailpony took his leave.

“Speaking of selling,” Father said, “I’m afraid your brother’s gone and gotten both of you into some hot water. I asked him to send the letter summoning you, but I’m not sure he explained everything.”

“I’m sorry,” Big Sister Ivy, her mane in a functional ponytail, said. “He keeps on getting away from me. I don’t think he thinks of me as protecting him anymore.”

“The impression that I got of Vines at the Gala was of somepony who likes to be in control, not only of himself, but of those around him. And he likes others to recognize his importance.”

Mother nodded. “I’m afraid we may have stuck Ivy to him a bit too often. He’s started to see her calming influence as a sort of leash, and so he’s gone out of his way to make sure she’s not where he is when he makes moves like these.”

“I don’t know how he did it, but he made sure the river flooded when we were on our way to the Council, so he could lock me out of the proceedings and take control. That’s when he presented the case for you as Successor, but to his own perspective. With the precedent he’s set, Vines has locked you out of any early advancement.”

“And he has put your reputation and the Herd’s stability on the line,” Gearhead said.

“He’s definitely become more aggressive, but I can see his strategies: he’s trying to get to me through you. Knowing that, there are some ways we can deflect his efforts, like now. But there’re also times when we won’t be able to stop him.”

“We can only do what we can,” Gearhead said.

“You’re quite calm,” Big Sister Ivy said.

“I have gained many experiences since the Gala,” Gearhead said. “I have learned that there are some things I cannot control, and that stressing over those things is a useless exercise that makes one waste energy and effort better used on things one can control. In as much as controlling them would be a good thing.”

“Speaking of controlling and not controlling, did you come in here with a plan?” Mother asked.

“My plan was to explain the truth of my absence as well as I could, and also to present the profits I have made since my return.”

“Funny,” Bean said, “I don’t hear any bits jingling, and you didn’t bring that weird chest back with you.”

“Flying with either would have been awkward, at best,” Gearhead said. “I processed them as a money order.”

“Ah, paper money. That makes loads more sense.”

“Was returning the chest Vines’s idea?”

“Unfortunately yes. He can be very persuasive when he wants to be,” Mother said.

“Well, that was as much my fault as anything, using a method I had not used before. That was my mistake, but I will rectify it today.”

“Tomorrow, if you please,” Vines said, coming in from the fields. “I didn’t expect you to get here so quickly, and so not everypony who should hear what you have to say is here yet.”

“I can visit for a day, Big Brother.”

“That’s excellent news, Little Bro. Ivy and I haven’t seen you since the Gala, and everypony else even longer. I worried you would never visit, ‘though I never could figure out why.”

“I am here now,”

“Yes, and as soon as the Speaker and Proctor both arrive to oversee the procedings, we can get started.” Clearly Vines meant to make this visit official Herd business. Well, Gearhead was not going to let him do it on his ideal terms. Still, everything would have to wait for the officials from the Council. At least there would only be two of them. Three, including Father, who was still Patriarch, after all.

The next day, all of the necessary players were gathered at the long, rectangular table in the house’s dining room. Father sat at the head of the table, with the Speaker at his right hoof, and Vines on his left. Mother was seated beside Vines, and Bean, the next-oldest male son with a chance at the Successor title, sat across from Vines. Roselle, with her earthy-red coat and long mane, bright red with green highlights, sat next to Bean, who was only one year older than her. Coriander, brown coat and rust-red mane was next to Mother. The Proctor, who was also acting as Secretary and referee, sat across from the youngest Verdant daughter. Gearhead sat next to him, with Ivy directly on his other side, instead of across from the Thirdson.

Of course, Vines could not have everything his own way: the Speaker had to be the Patriarch’s right-hoof authority, otherwise Vines would have arranged to be sitting in that seat. But he could arrange for Gearhead to be ‘stuck’ with the ‘suppressive’ effect from Big Sister Ivy’s magic. If Vines was really under the impression that his own sister was holding him back in any way that was anything other than protective, Gearhead intended on showing him otherwise, simply by accepting the seating arrangement.

On top of the entire main family, the Secretary, and the Proctor being present, Mother and Roselle had also served tea and snacks to keep everypony refreshed and sharp-minded. Again, Vines had insisted that Big Sister Ivy not be involved in the preparation of the refreshments, and again the Speaker had agreed. That meant that the role of helping Mother fell to Roselle, the next-oldest daughter.

“I now call these procedings to order,” the Speaker said, banging his gavel. “The purpose of this meeting is to investigate the sudden and unannounced absence of the Thirdson, and all related contributions to the Verdant. The facts as recorded are as follows: These contributions, in the past, have been restricted to financial aid and modification, repair, and replacement of Herd equipment. The Thirdson’s absence-without-leave is recorded as standing for 178 days, or approximately six months without communication or accomodation. Thirdson, are there any errors or omission to the record?”

“Yes, Mister Speaker. I was absent for 177 days. I also sent a quantity of gemstones during my third month of absence to try to cover for the time I had already been missing, as well as those following. These jewels were recently returned to the address of my current dwelling and shop, due to being an unusual method of funding for me, and therefore suspect of being fraudulent according to the letter of official notice the Firstson sent to me.”

“For the record, where is your dwelling, Thirdson?”

“The shop is called ‘Gearhead’s Gadgets.’ It is located in Ponyville in Central Equestria, just south of Canterlot.”

“Are there any other errors or omissions? No? Thank you, Thirdson. Patriarch Redwood, do you have anything to add? No? Firstson? Anypony else? In that case, I adopt the records as corrected.” The Speaker banged his gavel, and the Proctor nodded while he checked the appropriate box.

“Now we can get to the question at hoof. Thirdson, could you please stand and explain why you were absent, and what you were doing for nearly six months?”

“Thank you, Mister Speaker, I shall stand and explain. The reason why I went absent-without-leave and was unable to send the usual monthly stipend to support Verdant operations is because I went on an unplanned sabbatical.”

“Oh, call it what it is, Thirdson: you went on vacation!” Vines said.

“I did, and would you not have done the same in my position?”

“Oh, pardon me?”

“Firstson, please calm down. Thirdson, please explain yourself.”

“Indeed. After ten years of selling my own inventions and innovations, while continuing my research and studies and living on my own resources, in cities and towns across Western Equestria, I broke down. I realized I needed a break in order to refresh myself and continue business afresh.”

“So you realized you needed a vacation fom your daily grind and you... just took it, without sending notice? Was your breakdown mental? Physical?”

“An excellent question, Mister Speaker. In truth it was a bit of both, rendering me both mentally and physically unable to conduct business for a time. I clearly needed to recover my faculties.”

Truly, as Dusty Gearhead could never have been taken seriously in sales, and Princess Celestia insisted that his Geomancy was compromised. On top of that, only hyper-condenced spells stayed around once Dusty’s magic timed out. If Dusty had tried to conduct business as usual, quite a bit of his work would have disappeared, causing a great deal of complaints from customers. Since he could not guarantee the usual quality in his work, Dusty had resolved only to collect resources for when Gearhead returned.

“If you’re saying that you couldn’t handle your work after a mere ten years away from home, how can any of us trust you to continue your work without further breaks and instabilities now, or later?” Vines asked.

Whether or not he meant it a a barb, Gearhead knew that Vines had valid reasons for asking that question. Chiefly, he wanted to know whether the Herd could rely on Gearhead. Determining how reliable Gearhead was had to be the purpose of this entire meeting. Aggressive and even slightly paranoid or not, Vines’s main concern remained the good of the Herd.

“I might at that, especially without a stabalizing factor nearby, but please do know that I will do my hardest to bounce back afterward, rested, refreshed, and ready to get back to work. That is what a periodic break, or vacation, might be for, after all. Weary is the one who does not take one, I have discovered.”

The Speaker and the Proctor were nodding their agreement. “Where were you when you came to the realization that you needed a vacation, Thirdson?”

“I was visiting Canterlot for research and training purposes.”

“Can anypony corraborate?”

“Yes they can,”

“Any non-Royal, or pony directly loyal to the Princesses?”

“The Unicorns Fancypants and Fleur de Lis noticed me in Canterlot. The Earth Pony Pinkie Pie saw me leaving Ponyville, as did some of the forest creatures, but you would need the Pegasus Fluttershy to translate for them. On second thought, Pinkie is most loyal to the Princesses as well. Best stick to Fancypants.”

“As he is one of Canterlot’s elite socialities, he can also be said to be loyal to the Princesses, who allowed his social elevation to take place.”

“With all due respect, Mister Speaker, Canterlot is the seat of Equestria’s power, and Ponyville is in close proximity. You would be hard-pressed to find a pony who is neither royalty nor loyal to royalty. If, however, you would like to ask for character witness testimony from somepony whose favour I do not have, perhaps you ought to seek out Prince Blueblood.”

Vines’s eyes shone. His expression said, 'oh yes, do seek him out.' Gearhead remembered that Vines had seen at least the tail end of the duel over Rarity at the Gala. Knowing how Blueblood throught royalty was the be-all and end-all, and that he likely still held a grudge against Gearhead for humiliating him, Vines likely believed that Blueblood’s testimony would harm Gearhead’s reputation a great deal. Perhaps he could even accuse Gearhead of being hotheaded and easily provoked. All this flickered over Vines’s face in seconds, and then his expression was neutral again.

“Possibly even Captain Shining Armour of the Canterlot Royal Guards,” Gearhead decided to continue. “We were training in front of his lady, and I... well, I defeated him.” Gearhead paused. “Twice.”

“Anypony else?” The Speaker asked, arching an eyebrow.

“No, not really,”

“’Not really?’ Please clarify.”

“I know you do not want to ask royalty to serve in these proceedings, however would it hurt to ask the Princesses, Celestia and Luna? I have been training under them, so they know my limits best. Also, it was Princess Celestia who suggested I take a vacation in the first place.”

Everypony looked on, disbelieving, except for Rosie, Bean, and Cori. “The Princess suggested it?”

“Yes?”

“But why so sudden? Why no word for months?”

“Well, I say she suggested it, but it was more like... this is embarassing. I am training under the Princesses, after all, and they...”

“They what? Pony up and say it!”

“They teleported me. To an oasis. I could not stop the spell, which is why it was so embarassing, given my training.”

“They just placed a spell on you that took you to an oasis somewhere?”

“I do not know if you have been teleported before, but it is like ‘poof!’ and you are somewhere else. That would be Forced Teleportation, Mister Speaker.”

“I have been,” the Speaker said, “a long time ago. But why did you not take efforts to return right away?”

“I did, but I did not even know where I was, and I also lack any knack for magical transportation. I also did not have my Engine at the time, so I had to be able to plot my own way back. On top of that, the atmosphere at that oasis was just so... relaxing.  I could not leave right away. So I decided not to stress myself out about it and relax, just until I was refreshed. Then I started to figure out where I was so I could get back. By the time I did, months had already passed. It turns out the oasis was deep in the Badlands. Even after I had my position it took time to get back. In the meantime, I knew I was behind on my stipends, so I sent what was available to tide everything over. I could not predict they would be returned to me. When I finally got home to Ponyville, I felt rested by virtue of being unable to stress myself out over my gadgets or sales. I was only doing what I could at that time, after all.”

“I find it difficult to believe that the Princesses would be so irresponsible as to just dump you in the middle of the Badlands without any way out,” Vines said.

“So they were a little forceful about the vacation. They were probably scrying to ensure no harm would come to me anyway. Also, Princess Celestia and Luna can both be pranksters when they want to be. This was not out of the realm of possibility for them.”

“Agreed,” the aged and experienced Speaker said. The Proctor, middle-aged as he was, merely chuckled. “Well, I believe we have answered all the relevant questions. If no one else has anything more to add, we will make inquiries of Canterlot’s elite to complete the investigation, and send you notice of our verdict in three to four weeks. Let’s do this simply, so none of us need make this journey again so soon. Good day, and good fortune.” The Herd officials collected their documents and took their leave.

Vacation? Vines mouthed at Gearhead. He shrugged: it was the only thing that could even remotely cover his long absence without saying ‘I turned myself into an Alicorn colt and could not figure out how to turn myself back until I watched a Unicorn foal casting spells.’ And boy, would that have been an unbelievable explanation, even though it was the truth!

Later, Vines stood with the Speaker and Proctor, both of whom had doubled back on his recommendation. “You see my dilemma?” Vines asked. The Speaker only arched an eyebrow, however that was indication enough for the young stallion to continue his relentless charge. “Herd Verdant has flourished for millennia by being, and staying, separate from the Crown. Our separation and independence is part of how we have also fed other ponies in times of crisis. But Gearhead has relocated his entire operation to Ponyville, just south of Canterlot, which is the seat of power for Equestria. He studies under the Princesses and meets with members of the Canterlot elite. I fear he can no longer separate himself from the Crown, nor tell why this must be so. At the very least, until he can demonstrate that he has not lost his way, we must be separate from him.”

“Perhaps,” the Speaker said, “perhaps not. What we can say is true is that the Thirdson continues to be the most innovative and creative of us all. Were it not for his station as the Black Sheep, I would agree with your father, the Patriarch. However, the Thirdson himself cannot farm. As you yourself have set precedent, he cannot be considered as a successor candidate until he surpasses his mark.”

Vines nodded.

“We will investigate the Canterlot angle, as we have stated, and get back to you once the report is completed. Patriarch Redwood would not be pleased to have the Thirdson cut off, however you are correct that we must act in the best way possible for the sake of the Herd.”

“For the sake of the Herd,” Vines agreed. The Proctor repeated the line. As the two elders left, Vines nodded to himself. He could count on support from all the traditionalists within the Herd as a whole, and at Council in particular. He had to helm their efforts to keep Herd Verdant strong and independent: even at less than a thousand strong, they were more widely spread than the citizens of Equestria, and more influential. They were not a fiefdom within the kingdom; Equestria was the kingdom within the Verdant’s kingdom.

With the hearing completed and everything in good order, most of the family returned to their places in the fields to continue with their efforts. This left Gearhead in the company of Mother and Coriander.

“I don’t get what all the fuss is about,” Cori said. “It's not as if you're a farmer, and you haven’t had even one break in ten years, right?”

“Maybe if I had managed to shorten my vacation as much as possible, Vines would not be able to kick up such a fuss, but that is in the past. The ‘big fuss,’ as you put it, is due, no doubt, to how steeped in tradition this family is. I, meanwhile, have broken with a great many of our traditions. Father and Vines are at loggerheads trying to reconcile the two.”

“Yeah, but you made so many great tools, so why not leave you alone?”

“Because I am the Black Sheep, and I am supposed to better myself through one simple task: farming. The problem is that there is one thing we have found I cannot do no matter how I try.”

“Farming,” Cori said. “Even now, with all your magic?”

“It does not seem to work that way,”

“Well, at least you can fly. What other Earth Pony, Verdant or otherwise, can say that?”

“None,”

“Wings would be cool, though.”

“Funny: I was thinking of a winged attachment to bring out still more power. I might build one when I get back to my workshop, when I have the time.”

“In the meantime,” Mother said, “why not relax while you’re home?”

“Would I be a Verdant if I could relax?”

“Well, what else are you going to do?”

“I shall see where my skills and knowledge might be useful.”

“That seems like it’d be a worthwhile project,” Mother said.

18. The Prodigal Son

Chapter 18: The Prodigal Son

Gearhead spent the rest of the day providing repairs and touch-ups to equipment and buildings around the farm, working quickly with a practised hoof and just a little Geomancy. As long as he wore his shoes zipped down, Gearhead did not have to be concerned about doing damage to the fields, as he had as a foal.

He would prefer not to take the chance.

In the evening, Father asked Gearhead to accompany Roselle on a supply run to Hoofington. The siblings grabbed a spare wagon and headed out. Gearhead’s modifications, and the small distance to the city, made the trip an easy one: just as Sweet Apple Acres was just outside of Ponyville proper, so was the case with Verdant Fields and the more heavily-populated town of Hoofington.

Going about the ordinary activity of making purchases quickly became more complicated through a notoriety Gearhead had not realized he possessed. On reflection, he should have realized he had some fame, although not this much: Hoofington was the place where he had started selling his wares. It was the town where Gearhead’s Gadgets had first built the foundation for his reputation as a skilled work- and saleshorse. For him to return to the place where he started turned out to have inspired a large gathering of old customers and those who had since heard about him.

Gearhead thought ruefully about the lost opportunity that came from having flown straight to Verdant Fields without much of a chance to bring any of the gadgets with which he had become so famous, however Rose quickly reminded him that he was not in town to make sales: he was in town to make purchases. So with a few quick words about his new location, and some additional words of acknowledgement and praise, Gearhead pressed forward to complete the task that Father had sent him and Rose to do in the first place.

It was while the siblings were packing the last of their purchases onto the wagon that some old not-quite-admirers of Gearhead’s caught up with him. “Hey, not-so-long-time no see, Gear,” Dusk Shadow said.

“You’ve seen each other recently?” Rose asked.

“At the Gala,” Dawn said.

“Of course you two got to go,” Glimmer, the Conclave’s own third-born progeny said. She had a slate-grey coat and a dark blue mane of straight hair cut short. “But how did he end up there?”

“I was there as part of the Ponyville contingent,” Gearhead said.

“Speaking of, how’d it work out with that white-coated Unicorn? Rarity, was it?” Dawn’s comment sparked looks of intrigue from Rose on one hoof and Glimmer on the other.

“Miss Rarity are friends, and occasionally—“

“Yes?” The two busybodies chimed.

“Business partners,”

“Aww,” the younger mares deflated visibly.

“Wait, how do you two contribute to each other’s businesses?” Dusk asked.

“Sometimes I make wearable gadgets, and I need pointers on how to make them look appealing, to potential consumers. Sometimes Miss Rarity needs the convenience of a gadget, or transportation, and I can help there.”

“So sometimes you two work closely on designs?” Dawn asked.

“She is a friend,” Gearhead said. “As are you, Glimmer, and Prism, Autumn, and Winter.”

“We just happen to also be mares,”

“Exactly. Wait, what? Listen, you know what my position is, and why I cannot afford romantic involvement of any kind.”

“Until you get rid of your unwanted title, yes we know. Besides, I’ve heard rumours of you being close to a Pegasus mare in Ponyville. Truth or just rumour?”

“I cannot do such a thing, not really,”

“Ah, but you like her,” Dawn half-turned away. “That makes it more difficult to steal you away,” she said as though to herself.

“And again, not something I can really do,” Gearhead said, deadpan. “You know all this, so why all the teasing?”

“Because it’s fun,” Glimmer said, equally deadpan. “Don’t you know anything?”

“I know plenty, but dealing with a filly is obviously not one of them,”

“Obviously,” the others said in unison.

“Anyway, we have to get these back to the farm,” Gearhead said, nodding to the full cart.

“Aww, leaving so soon?” Dawn said.

“It was just getting fun, too,” Glimmer said.

“It was,” Rose said, “but my brother’s right. We’ve gotta get back for dinner.”

“Alright then, safe journey,” Dusk stifled his sisters’ objections and steered them away.

“You too,” Gearhead said, and then he and Rose mounted up and drove back to Verdant Fields, although not without some more obligatory ribbing.

* * *

The next day brought a flood of ponies who wanted Gearhead to take a look at this or that piece of equipment, gadget, or toy. Since he did not have any real reason to refuse, he set up shop in one of the lesser-used barns and started his inspections with a set of hastily called-up tools.

Toward lunchtime, Hoofington’s mayor came in curiously empty-hooved and without any saddlebags. Clearly he was not there to have something repaired, but on some other business. Gearhead gave him a steady look to let him know he had the younger stallion’s full attention.

“Gearhead, how’d you like to be in a race tomorrow morning?”

“What kind of race are we talking about, Mayor? You know that I will be needed in Ponyville soon. I am aiming for two days from now, and have already filed my flight plan through the Azure.”

“That’s just it, son: a flying race. It’d do the town proud to have somepony as distinguished as you demonstrate that Pegasi aren’t the only ones with speed on their side, and I’ve heard you’re quite something with your whatchacallit on.”

“It is just a race, from Point A to Point B? Not some sort of demonstration?”

“More like Point A to Point D, but yes. No demonstration, I promise.”

“What are Points C and D, if I may ask?”

“Just a set of magical obstacles. All you have to do is get through them, and you’re done. Simple, right?”

“I find it depends upon the obstacle. Also, I do not see how exerting myself in a race will benefit me the day before I am due on a long flight.”

“Hoofington is offering a small monetary prize to the top two winners, plus a trophy, of course. That, and if you won your reputation would be greatly strengthened.”

“How long is the course, and who would be my opponents?”

“We haven’t completed the course yet, but I’ll have my office contact you with the specifics later today. As to your competition, we’ll have Pegasi from the area enter, along with some Unicorns to set up the obstacles for you.”

“I still do not understand why I should enter.”

“Because, dear boy, this is an event to celebrate you, and it wouldn’t be much without its star. If you participate and win, other ponies’ll say great things about you, but refuse and the best they might think of you is that you’re a poor sport.”

“That could be putting it mildly,” Gearhead said, realizing that the mayor was more correct on that point at least. “Very well,”

“You’re in?”

“I am in,”

“I’ll go inform the planning committee to get into high gear immediately!” The mayor cantered off, leaving Gearhead to wonder what, exactly, was going on.

* * *

The next morning’s race was set up with all the fanfare Hoofington could muster, or so it seemed to Gearhead, as well as anypony who came out that day, whether they were participants or spectators: flags and pennants waved everywhere, with pylons, ribbons, and coloured clouds marking out the start of the course.

The Start Line, or Point A, was situated on Main Street in the middle of town, so everypony could see the start. From there, the contestants would have to fly in widening circles until they were at the town limits. They would then climb to cruising altitude and turn toward Verdant Fields, which they would overfly. Coming about, they would dive and enter a tall maze that they would have to navigate at ground level, and this was where the magic obstacles were supposed to come into play. Once outside the maze, the contestants were to climb into a long cloud bank and make their way over, until they were right over  Hoofington again. Then they would have to dive straight to whatever point was below them, and then make their way to the Start, which would, at that point, have become the Finish.

The race seemed simple, on paper, but Gearhead knew from his experience running as a Crusader that even simple things could quickly become complicated. And here he would be running solo, with nopony to draft behind, or to draft him. Not that any of the Pegasi would be so open about wanting to cooperate with the Earth Pony who was coming right into their territory.

When Gearhead saw some of his competition, he knew he was in for a rough time: included among them were Prism, Contrail, and Rook with Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring rounding out the Azure siblings, complete with their own sets of wingponies. It became obvious then that somepony had intended this to be a bit of a less friendly competition than Gearhead had originally been told: Pegasus honour was on the line.

The mayor explained that there were over a hundred checkpoints interspersed throughout the course. The checkpoints were offset from each other so no racer could skip to specific points on the course and be assured of going through to the next point. Any of the sixty racers to cross the finish line without going through all of the checkpoints would be automatically disqualified, no matter how well they performed.

As soon as he saw Prism and the others, Gearhead knew that this race would be intrinsically different from the one in which he had participated in Ponyville: not only were these participants more mature, and thus capable of bringing off far more complex racing strategies, but they were far more disciplined than the foals. This would be especially true for the Azure’s representatives, each of whom would be driving as hard as Rainbow Dash to be admitted to the Wonderbolts. In fact, there was a blue mare with an orange and gold who reminded Gearhead very strongly of the headstrong athlete. Gearhead was beginning to regret placing a 65% power limiter on the Alicorn Engine to prevent over-strain before his return flight to Ponyville. Still, 65% of the Engine’s current total power might be enough… to place in the top ten.

The starting order was chosen by lots, and placed Gearhead in the last ten competitors, so he would start in fiftieth place, and have to move forward as best as he could. With the racers quickly organized, the mayor took his place to signal the start of the race.

On ‘set’ the Pegasi lowered their goggles and started to flap their wings in preparation for takeoff. Gearhead pulled his hood and goggles into place, and on his thought his Engine spooled up with a comforting whine, dispersing a thin spray of light turquoise particle energy around him. While those arrayed around Gearhead stared, the major called ‘go’ and a town functionary blew a horn. The races all took off, climbing at various degrees while they struggled to overtake each other within the confines of the buildings surrounding the streets. Gearhead kept up a rapid gallop, propelled along with his Engine’s power, much as he had on his way to Canterlot to help deal with Discord.

The announcers and spectators might have some disparaging words for Gearhead’s strategy of staying low to the ground, however the other racers were all so blind to the possibility that somepony might stay low to the deck as a strategy, that they were all too busy contending with each other to notice he was passing them by running under them, free and clear. In addition, he had an easier time springing off the road or buildings on the turns, a factor which helped him greatly when it was time to switch to one of the city’s wider rings.

Once the Pegasi flying the race got through the last checkpoint within the city limits, many of them resorted to a hard climb to achieve cruising altitude as quickly as possible, a feat that was not easy for those already fatigued by their many circuits of Hoofington prior to the climb. But there were other Pegasi on-station to provide hydration and a quick, energy-boosting snack, and so the race continued. Some of the more daring Pegasi, like the blue mare, Prism, and Contrail ascended quickly just after passing under the checkpoint’s top bar. Gearhead slowly increased his climbing glide as he approached it, and then rotated so his legs would come close to brushing the bar. He kept increasing his grade to forty-five degrees, spun right-side-up, and then hit maximum power.

The climb reminded Gearhead somewhat of the one he had made at the beginning of his trip out of Ponyville. Then, too, he had been pressed for time. This time was different because he had an audience, and also because of the limiter he had placed on himself. Still, once he started catching the more fatigued flyers just ahead of him, Gearhead transitioned quickly to a full takeoff grade and kept his thrust up, rocketing up to cruising altitude.

While in his climb, Gearhead spotted something glinting in the sunlight, and used his goggles to magnify his view to see what it was as best he could. It was a large ring, being held to a cluster of small clouds – Pegasus magic. It seemed that somepony had decided to place a checkpoint high up as a gag, or perhaps to catch the unwary who might have fallen into a rhythm. Gearhead changed his angle of ascent, and when he got high enough, made sure to flip himself through the checkpoint even as he oriented on Verdant Fields from memory. Climb completed, he could devote all his power to forward thrust.

Gearhead was far from the only pony to spot the half-hidden loop: those around and behind him quickly realized what the floating object was and also went for it. Those who missed it the first time looped back to avoid disqualification, aware that the mayor could have the checkpoints placed where he could not get to himself.

The leg to overfly Verdant Fields was peaceful, at least at first. Nearly all the way there, Gearhead felt the flow of his particles, as well as that of the wind, shift before his goggles flashed a warning. He diverted some power from thrust to his protective field, and dropped back enough that when the blue mare charged at him, she only brushed him slightly. Ironically, she went more out of control than he did, although she quickly regained control and continued onward, as wary of Gearhead as he was of her. Of course, he could have taken her out with a spell, but he did not want to play her game, or at least not her way.

The racers overflew Verdant Fields still heading roughly westward, then came about to spot the maze, which had been camouflaged with the ground from the other direction. Most of the Pegasi went into power-dives as soon as they saw their next target, but then they had to climb back up to hit the checkpoint which, like the one at the end of the climb out of Hoofington, was suspended from clouds. The leading Pegasi flipped or rolled into their dives, but those who had to climb back up merely transitioned in right away out of frustration. Gearhead flew through the checkpoint inverted again, released his power so he would fall, and then poured the power back on once he was oriented toward the maze’s entrance. Everypony else was more direct in their approach.

Gearhead braked as he approached the maze’s entrance so he would be able to notice anything out of the ordinary. A sign beside the first arch read ‘obstacles ahead,’ and the glint on the entrance revealed another checkpoint hidden within: if anypony did not go in through the arch, she or he would be disqualified. That would prevent any serious racer from diving in beforehoof, despite the maze being open to the sky.

Gearhead had captured a map of the maze during his descent, both in his own memory and on his HUD. This meant that when he spotted a three-way crossroad just inside of the entrance, he knew that the right fork was the correct one, just as he knew it would lead to a passage with a leafy wall. He focused on defence again and leaped right on through. The path curved slightly to the left, and then there was a brick wall directly ahead. No, not a brick wall, but a pile of bricks without any mortar to cement them in place. To pass through, a Pegasus would have to have high durability and speed. This was not the type of obstacle that Fluttershy could easily get through, although sometimes Gearhead had to wonder at her strength, never having seen her throw a kick of her own accord.

Even as Gearhead approached the pile, he drew his dagger and called upon Spirits of Light to come forth and aid him. He blew the pile apart with a single blast focused on the pile’s center, and flew between the falling bricks. Ahead was a straightaway, so Gearhead glanced back to see the bricks being telepathically replaced. The mayor definitely had some Unicorns on-call.

Two left turns and a slight climb later, Gearhead came upon a stretch defended by a pair of armoured Unicorns. They fired shot after shot of magic blasts at him, but after dodging just a few from each, Gearhead had their measure. He had his defensive barrier up, and these Unicorns lacked the power to knock him for a loop with their normal blasts. A focused blast might do it, however, so Gearhead remained on guard, and even expected it. But as soon as he was past the Unicorns, he dropped his shields in favour of thrust. He powered around the next right-angle corner so quickly the guards did not have time to properly target him.

Gearhead came to a two-way split, and paused because he did not remember it being there. He rechecked his memory and his HUD display, and realized that while he was in the part of the maze he thought he was, this fork-in-the-road had originally been elsewhere. Magic, he thought, and remembered the way Discord had changed the Garden Maze on the Elemental Six. Apparently somepony was pulling something similar here, making any memorized maps from the descent into the maze nearly useless. And the only marker to help the racers figure out the correct way was another hidden checkpoint within the arch at the beginning of the fork – in other words, before it even split. Gearhead muttered a spell and marked the path behind himself and the left fork with small inscriptions of his cutie mark before proceeding. If this was a dead-end, at least he would know where he had been.

Crossing pitfalls and avoiding missiles were things most practised flyers would barely notice, being able to deal with such things instinctively while they continued to scan the ground and sky for other obstacles and events of interest. The illusion wall, however, would have thrown most Pegasi for a loop, which was how Gearhead caught up to Prism’s flight as they were heading up the passage he was taking. They were flying at a pace Dash would have probably called ‘lazy.’

“There’s no point going that way,” Prism said. “Wall’s too thick to press through. But you came down this way, so how many branches are there up ahead?”

“You came from another path just ahead, then?”

“Yeah,” Prism said, realizing she had just given her game away.

“There is one other path beside this one. The one across from them is the one I used – however are you certain you explored this wall of your fully?”

“As much as I thought I could. Why?”

“I have encountered some magic here already, so why not some compulsion magic as well?”

“You think the mayor would do that?”

“I do not know, and that is why I would like to take a look.”

“Alright, we’re with you,” Prism said, and despite some eye-rolling from Contrail, they led the way back to the wall.

The wall certainly did look impassable, as thick as it was with thorny vines and underbrush. Gearhead was uncertain that he wanted to even get close to the plants, but then he shifted focus, and saw the magic aura, which let him get a read on the type of magic that really was being used. He grinned as he casted one of the spells he had learned studying with the Conclave, dispelling this one.

Gearhead led the way quickly through the revealed passage. No sooner was the group through than the illusion was back in place, together with the feeling that what he really wanted to do was get out of there. Gearhead made a mark beside the wall, and together the four friends continued to walk along the path.

Between Rook’s deliberation, Contrail’s daring, Prism’s leadership, and Gearhead’s knowledge of magic, the friends navigated the ups, downs, twists, and turns that remained in the maze. Gearhead even provided the magic cover to get past Dawn and Glimmer when they showed up as guards.

Gearhead was just as surprised as the others when they strode through another checkpoint only to have the tall hedges give way to the normal fields and orchards of his family’s farm. Everypony sighed with relief, then Gearhead turned to Prism.

“Race you to the clouds!”

“You are on,”

“Three. Two…” Contrail started counting down.

“One!” They called together, and leaped into the air, ascending not directly upward, but on increasing angles. Contrail took the lead in his group, with Rook directly behind him. Prism flew in Rook’s shadow, conserving her strength while Gearhead flew solo.

At the top of the climb, Rook launched Prism into Contrail’s contrail, which catapulted her forward, giving her the lead. Contrail then fell back to draft behind Rook, who was no slouch himself when it came to speed. Gearhead saw them look over at him as they slowly ate up the distance between them and Prism. Gearhead himself was at full power, and likewise catching up, but he knew that if Prism’s flight kept using their manoeuvre, he would fall behind. All he could do, though, was to keep the pressure on, just like he was already doing.

They hit the cloud bank. Gearhead’s plan was to head directly toward Hoofington only after he confirmed there was not a checkpoint hidden up here. That trick had been used so many times already, he had his doubts it would be used here. Simply planting the thought that a checkpoint might be here would be enough to have many racers searching the skies for at least an hour. Gearhead zipped up two of his shoes so he could use Read through the clouds. As he did so, he again spotted the sun glinting off of several somethings high in the clouds. His scan came back positive: there were three checkpoints, hidden in the top of the clouds, so that anypony who tried to go directly to Hoofington would get themselves caught. Gearhead continued to ascend, and noted how the last ring was high enough to push most Pegasi to exhaustion. Upon closer examination of the area, he saw a group of relief Pegasi on stand-by, and decided to go on with the race.

Flying in the clouds was equivalent to flying blind to anypony who could not get a good, instinctive feeling for her or his surroundings. Gearhead not only had his HUD and a memorized map, but he could also call upon his Geomancy and read the minerals and elements in the air and clouds around him and get a complete picture of what was out there. As long as he could shift focus and detect any meddling by nearby Unicorns, it was full-speed ahead for the Earth Pony.

Despite this, there was one thing Gearhead could not tell with absolute precision: when he came out of the cloud bank, he would already be in his dive and unable to tell where, exactly, over Hoofington he would be. If he miscalculated, the worst he could do was end up outside the town or on the outer ring. But hesitation would cost him valuable time – an advantage which Prism would not hesitate to take, despite, or perhaps, because of their old friendship. It was time for Gearhead to put his bit where his mouth was, and take his dive.

Through and out of the clouds he came, full visibility coming slowly. Ahead and below, Gearhead saw he had erred on the side of caution with his calculations, but he had still erred: he was going to come in mid-ring, and still have to gallop in the rest of the way. At least he was not near the edge, there was that. He looked around, and still did not spot any of the other racers. He was about to start pulling up when Prism passed by flying under his hooves. The other two passed him on his left and right. Gearhead had to focus to keep from crashing, but he recovered. How did they get behind me?

Soon Gearhead was struggling to keep from losing the three flyers from the Azure. Somehow they knew when he was trying to sneak past them to the inside or outside of the road, and juked to block his attempts. Gearhead grit his teeth and focused on trying his hardest to regain the lead over Prism’s flight, but they knew his strategies and themselves too well. With Rook blocking and Contrail using his ability to boost the others’ speed, Gearhead did not have any choice left but to come in over the line fourth.

That turned out to be fourth place overall, as they were the first racers to even pass through the maze. It took two more hours for more frustrated racers to beat the maze, and even then more than a dozen of them remained stymied by the maze’s riddles. At mid-afternoon, the mayor declared the race to be over, with those still out on the field placed as ‘DNF.’ He sent crews out to bring the lost ponies back in to Hoofington for the awards ceremony.

Although Gearhead had placed fourth, he did not receive any money or a trophy, however his reputation still rose because he had proven his capabilities. He assured the ponies in attendance that he would make some form of the Alicorn Engine to benefit everypony, but he would not release any one-horse versions to the public due to safety concerns – all of which were true.

That night, the mayor held a great feast, the first in quite some time to have members of Herd Verdant, the Third Conclave of Flowing Shadows, and Azure Wing all in attendance.

Later that night, as they rode together back to Verdant Fields, Vines sidled up next to Gearhead. “You know, you could have left those others behind in the maze and won that way. I mean, if you’re going to compete in some inane contest, at least win, right?”

So he was watching. I had a feeling my family had their hooves in that maze as well. “And by ‘those others,’ you mean members of the Azure, themselves member of the Alliance? The one that dates back to the days described in the Hearth's Warming Eve celebration, right? I would think that doing what you suggest would go against both the spirit of that celebration and the spirit of the alliance.”

“I’m telling you for your own good, little brother, that you should try not to associate too closely with the Crown, or those tied to it. If some disaster happens, every link in the chain will drag the next pony in after them. It won’t be good for you, and what isn’t good for you, isn’t good for the rest of the family, or the Herd.”

“I know how important ‘the good of the Herd’ is to you, Vines, but do you not think your current train of thought is a little over the top?”

“Not at all. As Successor, I’ve studied the history of many a kingdom and empire. When one goes down, they take everything that’s still linked to them down too. The ones who survive are those who separate themselves from the power of Church and State. And as you said, I’m doing my best to look out for us. Our family. Our Herd.”

“I understand your concern, and it is fine: the Conclave and the Azure are not the Canterlot elitists, and there are very few of those with whom I associate.”

“But you do associate with that Fancypants, the princesses, and even Princess Celestia’s prize student and her friends. And listen there: that Celestia lies to her subjects even in her title, not having the fortitude even to use the title of ‘Queen,’ which is what she is. But then, our top title is ‘Patriarch’ and not ‘King.’ In all but name, our own monarchy. If only we had the courage to recognize what we are.”

“Mister Fancypants is the most reasonable of Canterlot’s Unicorns. That said, he does have his prejudices against others as ‘quaint.’ As for Princess Celestia and her sister, Luna, they are doing their best first to avoid dire circumstances, and second to resolve them when they cannot be avoided. Twilight Sparkle and the rest of our friends play an important role in that. In fact, they have saved Equestria from various threats already.”

“Spare me. I’m sure they’re threats which Celestia provoked herself. And having others clean up your messes for you is simply despicable.”

“Some of the threats were leftovers from thousands of years ago, but if the Princesses lacked the power to ensure they were forever resolved, at least now there is more ability gathered to take care of it. Do you not want the peace of Equestria to continue?”

“Of course, but we have to be realistic. After all these threats, somepony is sure to ask questions about how they were allowed to happen – no, how the Princesses allowed them to happen. It always starts as whispers, but soon enough more and more ponies shout for open rebellion. That’s when the Crown falls, usually together with the head upon which it sat. Very dangerous times. I suggest you distance yourself from the Princesses while you can.”

“I still have much to learn about my powers, despite the headway I have already made. Maybe once I have learned all I can I will take your advice, but not until then, if that is okay with you.”

“That’s up to you. I have once again fulfilled my duty as demanded by blood and delivered my warning to you. Herd Verdant supports the ponies, not the Princesses or the land of Equestria itself. The ponies are more important than either.”

“That is funny, considering it is the land from which Herd Verdant grows the same products that we feed the ponies.”

“You know what I mean,”

“You mean to say that if it comes down to a crisis, you intend to recommend to the Council that the Herd separate officially from the Crown. But the Council rarely moves quickly, or quickly enough.”

“They did on the Black Sheep Clause,”

“That was, indeed, an emergency, although the Herd was already separated from Discord’s rule. But it shall never come to a situation where Council will have to vote on a motion to abandon the Princesses and Equestria, because we will resolve the crises as they come.”

“For all our sakes, I hope you’re right.”

19. A Second Homecoming

Chapter 19: A Second Homecoming

Gearhead was not surprised when Prism’s flight found him as he was on his way out the next morning. He was, after all, following the flight plan he had asked Uncle Windwalker to forward to Princess Celestia. Gearhead was even flying at part-power even though he had removed the limiter prior to takeoff. What did surprise Gearhead was that many of yesterday’s racers had turned out, with a few exceptions, like Winter’s and Spring’s flights.

“Are you surprised?” Prism asked, flying in close. “You’re surprised, aren’t you?”

“I was not expecting this sort of turn-out, true.”

“It’d be poor form of us not to provide a proper honour guard,” Windwalker said.

“And to such a good friend, too,” Rook said.

“Ah, you are making me blush,”

“Not that we can tell very well from that suit of yours,” Prism said. “But in any case, we wanted to thank you for the competition yesterday. You did awesome.”

“Thank you,”

“Still, I coulda sworn you had better in you,” Contrail said.

“Radar had you flying much faster and higher before we caught up to you,” Rook said. Radar was one of Contrail’s cousins, and she seemed to have the ability to sense other ponies long before she saw them. Gearhead supposed that was part of her personal magic, the way Fluttershy had higher empathy with animals, or Big Sister Ivy had her calming effect. She flew with Spring, which explained her absence here.

“I did have full power unlocked for that trip, but because of that I felt safer locking it up a bit once I landed, so I would not overload the core. I did not know I would be participating in a race, though.”

“What in the..? You were racing on part-power and you still came in right behind us?” Contrail asked.

“Exactly how much faster could you have gone?” Prism asked.

“About a third,”

The others were stunned into silence. “Bwa-ha-ha! You’d have beaten them sorely,” Windwalker laughed uproariously.

“You’d best be careful to bring your full A-game next time, Gear, or you aren’t going to get away with it so easily, you hear?”

“And just who do you think I am? My little gadgets never stay the same for long,”

“True, you were always tinkering with something,” Prism said. “So be sure to bring whatever you have, so you stand a chance.”

“You can be sure that I shall do just that,”

“Speaking of ‘that,’ do you want to give it a shot?” Prism asked Contrail.

“You kidding? ‘Course I do!”

“Then give it a go,” Windwalker said. “The rest of us will clear your path.” And the rest of the Pegasi moved off to ensure nothing was flying up ahead. They effectively created a tunnel of completely clear airspace that pointed toward Ponyville.

“What are we giving a go?” Gearhead asked.

“We’re going to see if you can use Contrail’s Contrail Booster,” Rook said.

“That is mighty generous of you,”

“It’s thanks for the race,” Contrail said. “Now get yourself behind Rook!” Contrail came in to fly in the lead, with Rook a couple meters behind him. Gearhead fell in on Rook’s tail, and felt Prism float into position behind him. Although Gearhead picked up his speed to try to avoid Prism bumping him along, she still came up and pushed him. He realized that Rook was likewise accelerating, as they did not even bump. Prism came up, her forelegs coiled and her hooves resting against his rear hooves.

“Fly straight,” Prism said, the traditional farewell of the Azure Wing.

“Until landing,” Gearhead said, and then Prism kicked firmly with both legs. Rook peeled away just before Gearhead had to decelerate to avoid colliding with the larger Pegasus, and then he felt the flow of Contrail’s tail pulling him along, still increasing his speed. Somehow the other Pegasus bobbed down slightly, allowing Gearhead to pass over him, and as he did so Contrail’s acceleration strip extended ten meters ahead and launched Gearhead as though from a canon. Gearhead had to put up a thin particle field to shield himself from the wind and small debris. He put his hooves up in front of his head, and felt them press up against a wave of pressure – and then he broke through with a blast.

Gearhead looked back to see the parting Pegasi behind the expanding shockwave of his particle sonic boom. And then, looking forward, he accelerated to full power, and broke the barrier again.

* * *

Using his original speeds, it should have taken until the following morning to get to Ponyville, but with the speed boosts from the Azure’s Pegasi, and with favourable winds the entire way, Gearhead easily stretched the Alicorn Engine’s capacity without putting a high amount of strain on it. He carried Contrail’s original boost with him for two hours, cutting four hours from his journey right there. Then, continuing at full power for the rest of the way, he cut another hour and forty minutes. The winds made up the other twenty minutes, which meant that it was evening when Gearhead returned to Ponyville, and he was tired so he went to bed as soon as he had put his traveling gear away.

The next morning, Gearhead went through his usual training routine before opening up shop for business, and was surprised to find that nopony was coming to the door after days of his absence. In fact, looking around he did not see anypony in sight! Hoping nothing was wrong, he strapped on his Alicorn Engine and daggers and went out to investigate.

Gearhead was surprised not to find more than the usual assortment of animal friends at Fluttershy’s cottage, and when he went into town even Town Square was empty. Neither Twilight nor Spike was at the Golden Oak Library, and even Carousel Boutique and Sugar Cube Corner were closed. Gearhead started to wonder whether there was some event elsewhere about which he had forgotten.

Event? On a hunch, Gearhead made his way to Sweet Apple Acres. The closer he drew, the more certain he was that his memory was on-track: at the same time Gearhead had been preparing for his flight to Verdant Fields, Applejack had been training for the Equestria Rodeo Competition in Canterlot. The Rodeo had many events, each with a number of brackets, so it was to take place over much of a week. That was time in which everypony else in Ponyville would be conducting their business as usual, so they had most probably simply sent Applejack off with some good vibes and wishes, but now was the time when she was expected to return.

Even though Gearhead had gone to Verdant Fields to take care of some Herd business, he felt foolish for accepting the mayor’s taunts and participating in a race of his own, and then not winning. He had renewed his friendships with the Azure and the Conclave, and had nothing material to show to Ponyville to explain his lack of support for Applejack. With how many ribbons was she going to return?

Gearhead approached a barn, where his HUD was showing many warm bodies. When nopony responded to his knocking, he opened the door and let himself in.

“Surprise!” Everypony jumped out and shouted, with Pinkie joining in a couple of seconds too late. Despite knowing there were ponies in the barn, Gearhead did jump a little in surprise, not having expected such a thing.

But it did make sense as something Pinkie and the others might set up to welcome Applejack back to Ponyville. “This is for Applejack, is it not? Then we had better reset.” Gearhead closed the barn door and moved forward to lend the others a helping hoof.

“He’s right,” Twilight said. “Lets reset.”

“I’ll get the confetti!” Pinkie got her Party Canon out and turned the barrel up, toward the roof. Then she started inhaling into the air around her, and the confetti around her started swirling in like she was some sort of cleaner. Pinkie turned to the canon, and blew the confetti into its barrel.

“Aww, all that effort?” Dash turned back to Gearhead. “No offense, of course.”

“None taken. To tell the truth, I lost track of what day it was.”

“Welcome back, by the way,” Rarity said.

“Yes,” Fluttershy said. “So, how did it go?”

“I think I presented my case well enough, however the Council representatives are not yet done. It will be weeks yet before they inform me of anything.”

“Weren’t you just going to talk to your family?” Pinkie asked.

“The Council is family. Besides, if I am going to support Father’s bid in support of me, the toughest opponent to convince of my worth will be Big Brother Vines.”

“What’ll that take?” Dash asked. “A miracle?”

“It seems likely,” Rarity said. “From the impression he gave me at the Gala, he doesn’t seem to like you at all.”

“Regardless of whether or not he ‘likes’ me, Vines understands how important we family are to each other. He would never do anything that would endanger any of us, assuming he has control over the consequences. But to him, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. If a single member of the Herd was to endanger the rest, Vines would cut him loose.”

“That sounds horrible,” Fluttershy said.

“It depends,” Gearhead said. “If I had not gained as much control over my knack as I have now, I do not doubt Vines would see me as a burden on the family, being completely unable to contribute. But I do have better control now, and I am contributing to the Herd as a whole through my profits and my innovations. This is exactly what the Council is trying to prove. They should find me worthy to remain a Verdant, at least, however I doubt it will be enough to remove the Black Sheep title from my name.”

“They wouldn’t really kick you out of the Herd, would they?” Twilight asked.

“I doubt they would, seeing as how profitable my business is. Not that my father, the Patriarch, would allow it to happen. No, such a motion would never go through the Council. But I still need to prove myself enough to rise beyond my station.”

“Hey, somepony’s coming,” Dash hissed.

“To your positions!” Twilight called, and everypony dove for cover, Gearhead falling into place beside Pinkie, who muttered “this time for sure.”

This time when the door opened, Pinkie was only one second late, and it may have been just as well, since this time the newcomer was a postal pony. He optimistically thought his birthday was somehow being celebrated. Twilight apologized and closed the door on him, obviously miffed that they had failed twice. Pinkie went back to the door with a plate with a slice of cake on it, and gave it to the stallion, smoothing over some hurt feelings all in one move.

“My nerves can’t take much more of this,” Fluttershy said.

“Don’t worry: third time’s the charm,” Twilight said, opening the letter. She started to read it as she walked back toward her hiding spot, but whatever it said, that letter stopped her cold in her tracks.

“What is it?” Rarity asked.

“It’s a letter from Applejack. It says she’s sorry for not coming back right away, and not to come looking for her.”

Pinkie gasped. “She’s not coming back?!”

“Why?” Dash asked.

“The letter doesn’t say,” Twilight said.

“Oh no!”

“Does she really expect us not to come looking for her, this most honest and dependable of ponies?” Gearhead said.

“Yeah, who does she think we are?!” Dash said. “We gotta go and track her down,”

“I just hope it doesn’t upset her too much, going against her request,” Fluttershy said.

“At the very least, we have to find out what happened and why she’s decided not to come back,” Rarity said.

“She could be in trouble,” Pinkie said.

“What if she’s hurt?” Fluttershy said.

“That settles it: we’re going to go find Applejack, find out what happened, and bring her back safely to Ponyville!”Twilight exclaimed. The other partygoers cheered.

* * *

The plan was simple, at least in everypony’s heads and on paper: they would go to the rodeo venue in Canterlot and canvas the place, asking if anypony remembered seeing a mare of Applejack’s description, and move out from there. Most of them hoped it would be as straightforward as spotting AJ at the venue, but Twilight doubted it would be that simple: Applejack should have known her frends would come looking for her, or at least send a letter to Princess Celestia asking about her whereabouts, so the first place they would look was the arena.

Even as the Friendship Express pulled in at Canterlot Station, the six friends knew that Applejack had at least a full day’s march on them, and they did not know in which direction to look. Only asking around at the arena, Applejack’s starting point, would help them to narrow down the possibilities, because as fast as Dash, Fluttershy, or Gearhead could fly, they could not possibly cover all of the territory AJ could have traveled in a day! The one thing they had determined beforehand was that they would at least remain within sight of each other throughout their search. Gearhead thought he saw ponies looking at him strangely, and heard them whispering, but then he was wearing a large cone on his back, and even without his full suit on and active, he did not look normal. He ignored them.

It was already afternoon when the friends arrived at the arena and started canvassing the ponies working to clean up, while others practiced their stunts. The friends were each armed either with a drawing or a photograph of Applejack. Frustratingly, every answer for hours came up negative. It was only much later when a mare pointed them in the direction of a canyon in the desert: Dodge Junction.

Fortunately for Twilight and the others, there was a sleeper train traveling to Dodge Junction that was scheduled to depart from Canterlot in only an hour and a half. The friends bought their tickets and waited, nervous but glad to finally have a lead.

Nervous as they were, the ponies recognized the need to get some sleep so they could keep an alert eye out for their errant friend when they arrived in the morning. While the five mares shared a cabin between themselves, Gearhead fell in with three roommates of his own. Again, he heard he muttering, this time distinguishing the phrase ‘Mister Forth’ Again, he ignored the stallions’ comments as being unrelated to him, his group, or their search for Applejack.

In the morning, Gearhead double-checked the safeguards on his Alicorn Engine to ensure that nopony had tried to tamper with it, or steal it. The device had remained untouched beside his bunk. In fact, he got the sense that none of his roommates had even stepped near the thing, keeping a distance that could practically be called ‘reverential.’ That would only make any sense if they had some idea of what it could do, but Gearhead had not used it since he had flown back to his house after the failed ‘welcome back’ party.

Gearhead strapped his gear on and joined the mares for a light breakfast. He noticed Pinkie drinking more juice than anypony else, but did not think much of it: knowing her, she could pack away more food or drink than anypony else, with the other ways in which she defied all logic. After breakfast the ponies sat in a normal car to wait for the train to pull into the station. Soon Pinkie began to defy his earlier expectations. Gearhead guessed that even she had her limits.

No sooner had the train stopped and the doors opened did Pinkie zip out, making a beeline for a nearby lavatory. Gearhead left the train with the others in a more stately manner. Twilight was just starting to outline how the group should break down the search through the city when Pinkie zipped back into view. “I found her!”

Twilight and the others immediately followed Pinkie, who pointed to Applejack still standing near an outhouse. “I told you I found… hold on a sec,” and Pinkie zipped off again, for the outhouse, shutting Applejack out of it.

“What’re y’all doin’ out here?”

“We were just about to ask you the same thing, AJ,” Dash said.

“That’s none of your concern,”

“But Applejack, everypony’s worried,” Twilight said.

“Yes,” Fluttershy said, “we were so worried you had gotten into trouble or hurt.”

“Well, as you can clearly see I’m perfectly fine,”

“Then why not come back to Ponyville?” Rarity asked.

“I just wanted a change of scenery,”

“’Change of scenery?’ Sorry, AJ, but I don’t buy it!” Dash said.

“That’s right: you love Sweet Apple Acres and Ponyville,” Fluttershy said.

“And your family,” Gearhead said.

“So what would make you want to leave it all behind for even this long?” Twilight asked.

“Sorry to disappoint, but I just wanted a change. Now if’n you’ll excuse me…”

“Oh my, are these your friends?” It was a white-coated Earth Pony mare with a bright red mane and a cherry cutie mark. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

“They were just leaving,” AJ said, hurrying off.

“Oh my, that’s a shame,”

“I don’t understand,” Twilight said. “Didn’t she do well at the rodeo?”

“Oh my, yes. Why, I’ve never seen anypony win so many ribbons in my life! I couldn’t just pass up such a great opportunity to have such a hard worker on the ranch either.”

“Ranch?” The mares all said together.

“Yes, I’m Cherry Jubilee, boss of Cherry Hill Ranch. Miss Applejack agreed to work with me, and I couldn’t say no.”

The friends exchanged several significant glances. “Miss Jubilee, do you mind if we come to help out as well?” Twilight asked, after everypony had introduced themselves.

“Of course not! Why, the more the merrier, and I’m sure Applejack’s mood will lighten once she has her friends around to help.”

* * *

There it is again, Gearhead thought as the group headed to Cherry Hill Ranch together: ponies were whispering, murmuring, and muttering something about ‘Mister Fourth.’ Gearhead thought it could not be coincidental that it was happening now, but then again he could not accurately gauge whether or not this was a normal subject of gossip in the region, especially when he was not around. He was about to ask Miss Jubilee about it when he spotted the poster, and stopped dead in his tracks.

‘First Hoofington F1,’ the poster proclaimed. It featured a wave of Pegasi flying toward the viewer’s vantage point from slightly above. Gearhead recognized three Pegasi who were residents of Hoofington featured front-and-center, with other influential Pegasi like Prism and Radar scattered about behind them. And below and slightly to the right of the central racer was the unmistakable form of a wingless pony in dark flying gear. Gearhead could well imagine what the unit strapped to his back to enable to him to fly looked like, because that was Gearhead. ‘Recording on sale,’ the poster said along the bottom.

That sly mayor, Gearhead thought. Creating a record of the race for sale across the other parts of Equestria would lead to a greater spotlight on Hoofington, not to mention the increase in tourism. So this was his angle when he invited me to participate in the race. If that was true, it had not been about an Earth Pony flying against Pegasi. Gearhead decided to take some comfort in that.

If it was the case that ponies would be talking about the race, and that they inevitably recognized Gearhead while he was wearing the Alicorn Engine, it being the only device of its kind, then the ponies were talking about ‘Mister Fourth,’ not ‘Mister Forth.’ It was about Gearhead coming in at fourth place in the race itself!

Which begged the question of how such news could travel so far so quickly. An Earth Pony courier would barely have had the time to get to Canterlot with a fairly light load. To have carried enough copies of the recording to sell them would take either a number of such couriers, or the speed and endurance of Pegasi. Or maybe some coordinated teleportion, since a number of Unicorns had to have been involved in the recording process. To think I never saw a single one, unless they were blending in with the Conclave members helping to run the show. I doubt the Conclave itself would participate directly in the recording, as secretive as they are.

“Gearhead?” At Fluttershy’s soft voice, Gearhead got moving again, but Dash and Rarity came back far enough to look at the object that had captured his attention.

“You interested in a race?” Dash asked.

“Or maybe it’s these records,” Rarity said, “since they’re likely magic.”

“Oh, I think they are,” Gearhead said, “but we have other business to which to attend.”

“Right!” Dash said, “lets go find out what AJ’s up to.” She withered a bit under Miss Jubilee’s curious stare. “And sort some cherries.” The glare vanished.

* * *

“What’re y’all doin’ here?” Applejack asked when she walked into the Sorting Room to see the rest of her friends gathered there. Gearhead had stashed his Engine safely away, and like the mares he was wearing a clean coat and little booties to cover his horsehoes.

“We’re your cherry sorters,” Twilight said.

“Yes, you made it sound like so much fun we thought we’d give it a try,” Rarity said.

“Well then, as long as you’re all here, we might as well get this done. But no questions about Ponyville!”

“Fine,” Dash said. “Time to stop with the squaking and get with the walking.”

“I’ll let you get to it, then,” Miss Jubilee left the room, and Applejack started walking on the wooden wheel to get the conveyer belt moving. The others lined up along the conveyer belt and started pushing the red and yellow cherries into their respective bins.

After a couple of moments of sorting in silence, a nodding signal passed between the six sorters. Twilight and Rarity left their posts to go talk to Applejack. With a slight adjustment to their speed, the rest kept up with the cherries just fine. Six ponies was... excessive.

From beside the conveyer belt, it was difficult for Gearhead to hear what Applejack, Twilight, or Rarity were saying, but according to the plan all they would be trying to do was to get some sort of reaction from Applejack. It quickly became apparent that they were having some effect: the distracted Applejack kept slowly speeding up – especially when Dash joined in the questioning.

Applejack sped up so much that Gearhead stopped being able to divide his attention between the cherries and the questioners. The rumbling from the wheel and the belt became a full roar, and Fluttershy was becoming visibly distressed as she, Pinkie, and Gearhead started to fall behind. The stallion might have gotten onto the table to sort with all four hooves, but not without a place to step where he would not squash cherries!

“Please stop!” Fluttershy cried in distress. Pinkie started gathering up legfulls of cherries and depositing them on top of the others’ hats, then she went to the end of the belt and started to catch them in her mouth!

“Quattuor Magnae Spiritus invoco. Ventus transmutare alas.” The Geargem Gagger shuddered in its scabbard as Gearhead became desperate enough to resort to using his magic. He summoned two small whorls or wind and moved them into place above the conveyer belt so they would strike the cherries just so and knock them into their bins. Unfortunately the focus required to keep the whirlwinds in place was enough that Gearhead could not do anything else while he continued to also use his hooves to sort through the mass of cherries that were still coming. Fluttershy and Pinkie still lacked any method for sorting any of the cherries Pinkie had already shunted away.

“Stop!” Fluttershy called out more urgently, and somehow hearing her, Applejack stopped immediately. Unfortunately the belt was spinning so quickly by then that the momentum it imparted onto the cherries was sufficient to propel them through the air. And Applejack’s wheel was directly in the path of the cherries. Gearhead moved his whirlwinds as fast as he could, but he only managed to deflect some of the splattering cherries that pelted the poor Earth Pony mare. He could only imagine the bruising.

“I’m sorry, Applejack,” Rarity said as they cleaned up. “Are you sure it wouldn’t be better to simply tell us why you don’t want to come back?”

“Absolutely sure,” Applejack said. “There ain’t no way I can do that, so leave it alone already!” She stormed from the room.

“We’re so close to getting her to crack and talk,” Twilight said.

“Yeah,” Dash said. “I think it’s time we used our secret weapon.”

“Do you mean that that was not it?” Gearhead asked.

Dash and Twlight nodded in Pinkie’s direction, and Gearhead understood: if anypony could break through, it was the logic-breaking Earth Pony. “You may not want to be around for this,” Dash said.

“I cringe in anticipation of what that could mean.” Regardless of his deadpan delivery, Gearhead would not neglect to take advice from one of his friends, as they would never give it needlessly.

It was fortunate, in Gearhead’s case, that there was much to do in the wake of the cherry sorting debacle. First, he and Fluttershy finished cleaning the Sorting Room, then when Fluttershy left to back-up the others, leaving Gearhead alone in the room, he inspected the sorting apparatus.

“Oh my,” Cherry Jubilee said, coming in. “Your mare friends haven’t left you all on your lonesome, have they?”

“I doubt they would have much interest in this,” Gearhead said.

“What is it you’re doing to my machine anway?”

“Oh, I thought there might be a few ways for me to tune it and make it more efficient.”

“That sounds fantastic, but I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“I believe that shoe is on my hoof, Miss Jubilee.”

“Just ‘Cherry’ is fine,”

“Very well, Miss Cherry...”

The mare gave the stallion a curious expression.

“That is as far as I go. In any case, I wanted to ask your permission.”

“Yes?”

Gearhead took a small wrench out of one of his pockets with his tail, and tapped the wheel next to where he was standing.

“Oh, that. Yes, of course. I mean, you can. Tune it.”

Ignoring Miss Jubilee’s poise in this stuation, Gearhead flipped the wrench into the air and got to work. Compacting the mechanism and adding gearbox mechanisms would help control the belt’s speed more accurately with less effort. A spongelike barrier with a basket below it would also prevent a repeat of what had happened earlier, especially as whoever was running the wheel worked to find her or his speed under the different gears. There was also a trick for ponies not on the wheel to switch to lower gears so the runner could cut loose and not have the belt move quickly.

“Smart. Very smart,” Miss Jubilee said.

“This is why I am called ‘Gearhead.’”

“I can appreciate that. Now, would you mind doing me another small favour?”

“Okay?”

“The materials you used... do you think you could go into town and get some replacements?”

“Oh, of course.”

While the others activated Pinkie as their secret weapon against Applejack’s refusal to sink the ship, Cherry Jubilee lent one of her wagons to Gearhead. He went into Dodge Canyon to make the purchases on Miss Jubilee’s list, using money she had lent him for this purpose.

Gearhead could not have afforded it on his own, given the fact he had just given most of his profits over to Father. On top of that, he had not expected this trip to be quite so expensive, so he had not brought a lot of money along with him – not that he could not find what he needed, if he could have afforded to leave the wagon alone for long enough to go looking for gemstones. But Miss Jubilee had refused to let Gearhead go without paying for his favour right away. He guessed that was just the sort of thing Cherry Hill Ranch’s boss did.

On top of materials like the lumber and nails, cogs and sprockets that Gearhead had used to upgrade the cherry sorting machine, the list included a number of essentials and foodstuff that Miss Jubilee had taken the opportunity to add, since Gearhead was going into town anyway. This meant that he took longer to hunt down the best prices and make his purchases than he would have if he had just been looking for building supplies. That, on its own, was not a problem for the young pony.

It was the curious stares that his presence seemed to bring, wherever we went, that bothered Gearhead, combined with the shopkeepers' jittery variations on “yes, sir. Right away, sir!” as they served him. And it was not as though coming in fourth place in an impromptu race was that big a deal. It did not come with a trophy or a prize of any sort. It was mere fact that it had happened.

Gearhead was regretting ever participating in that fool race for every moment another pair of eyes burned into the back or side of his head. Although he was not wearing his core for this shopping trip, ponies were probably recognizing him by his build, colouring, and perhaps most telling, that streak of greenish hair that stuck out so much in his rust-cloured mane. It was not as though Gearhead could cut or colour it out, since it was an expression of the particle energy he had absorbed when his core overloaded during his fight against Discord. It was a badge of honour, although he and the Elemental Six were the only ones who knew the story behind it. Only now was it attracting attention.

Having finally purchased the last of the produce on the list, Gearhead trotted to the wagon and quickly secured the load before securing himself in the harness. With one last look at his own onlookers, he beat a hasty retreat back to Cherry Hill Ranch, feeling apprehensive until he was out of sight of the last townspony.

Gearhead was begininng to appreciate Fluttershy’s discomfort at having all eyes on her. Hopefully he would leave Dodge Canyon quickly enough that it would not become a phobia. It would be difficult to sell his wares if he suddenly became more socially-awkward than he already was. But first, they had to find out what was going on with Applejack.

While Gearhead was unloading the wagon, Fluttershy and Dash came into the barn. Dash started helping with the heavier stuff, while Fluttershy lent a hoof with the food and cookwear that was to go into the kitchen and pantry. “Looks like you got more than enough stuff here,” Dash said. “Which begs the question: how long does Cherry Jubilee think we’re staying?”

“I confess I do not know what she is thinking,” Gearhead said.

“She probably just wants to be prepared,” Fluttershy said. “After all, six new ponies means six more mouths to feed, even if we are working for her at the same time.”

“Trust the pony who always has more mouths to feed to come up with that one,” Dash said. “But we can’t stay.”

“Speaking of which, how did it go with Applejack?”

“She is one stubborn farmpony,” Dash said, “but we have Pinkie Pie.”

“She said she’ll tell us everything at breakfast tomorrow morning.”

“I know Applejack represents the Element of Honesty, but are you all certain we can let her be until then?” Gearhead asked.

“She made a Pinkie Promise,” Dash said. “Nopony would cut and run after that.”

“I do not understand. How is such a promise supposed to keep a strong pony like Applejack in one place?”

“Because Pinkie Pie’s scarier than a dragon when she’s angry,” Fluttershy trembled visibly. Evidentally just the thought scared her.

“Yeah. AJ knows there isn’t a faster way to get Pinkie angry than to break a Pinkie Promise. She won’t dare not to be there.”

* * *

After a hard day’s work, everypony was predictably tired and hungry. The seven friends joined the ranch’s other workers in the mess hall, and could barely stuff the food down fast enough, it was so good. Apparently, although she had hired an entire cooking team, Cherry Jubilee took an interest in preparing a part of each meal herself. Looking around, Gearhead had the sense that this motivated the stallions and the younger staff more than anypony else. For the friends and other new arrivals, it was a novel sense of accomplishment about what they had done over the course of the day that propelled them forward. Miss Jubilee understood how to motivate her ponies.

Applejack looked moody, but resigned as she ate. She cleared her plate, and then stood up. “If’n you’ll excuse me, I’ve had a long day. I’m gonna hit the hay now so I can be fresh tomorrow.”

“Great idea, AJ,” Pinkie said. “See ya bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow!”

“Yeah, Pinkie. See ya,” Applejack nodded and walked away, headed toward the staff dormitories.

“Oh my. She doesn’t look very happy,” Fluttershy said.

“It’s probably just nerves, dear,” Rarity said. “She’ll feel better once she’s had the truth out.”

“I hope so,” Twilight said. “Ponyville isn’t the same without her.”

“Don’t worry! Nopony breaks a Pinkie Promise,” Pinkie said.

* * *

“NOPONY BREAKS A PINKIE PROMISE!” Pinkie’s rage was so shocking that Gearhead instinctively took a couple steps back. Apprehension was a more natural response, in his opinion, given Applejack’s empty bed and the complete lack of saddlebags in her room the following morning. Now, as the friends found that Applejack had absconded, Dash’s and Fluttershy’s comments the previous day were starting to make sense.

When Pinkie Pie was angry, she was like a force of nature. The best thing to do was to get under cover, and hope you were not the target of her ire. That sunny morning, it was Applejack who was filling that role. Everypony else followed Pinkie as she steamed ahead (literally, with steam coming from her ears) hunting for the one who dared to break one of her promises. Gearhead doubled back to grab his Alicorn Engine, but did not have the time to put it on if he hoped to catch up to the others. He slung it across his back and hoped he did not jostle enough as he ran to have it fall off his back.

Gearhead left the dormitory only to slam right into a group of ponies that had not been there before – or if they had been there, they had hung back enough that he had failed to notice them until now. The harness with the Engine went flying off his back and got lost in the crowd, even as they latched onto him from every angle and bore him to the ground.

“I would really appreciate it if you would let me up?” Gearhead said. The only reply was a squeal of delight, and the other ponies bunching in still closer. They started shouting “Mr. Fourth” and “Gearhead” practically in his ears. It only took a few moments before they started to paw at him and to start looking into his pockets. “That is not for touching,” Gearhead said, and tried to muscle his way free without hurting anyone. Unfortunately, regardless of how he struggled, he could not break free from the horde even after he managed somehow to regain his hooves.

Completely surrounded, Gearhead lost track of himself and who was in his face, or behind him, or even in some cases underneath him. Time and again he recovered enough of his strength that he thought he might have a chance of breaking free, and time and again he was unable to do so. He knew that if nopony had doubled back for him, he was on his own. But at least, regardless of all the poking, the horde had not become too personal.

Suddenly Gearhead could swear that somepony in there was licking him, and then another pulled at the hair of his tail. He let out an indignant whinny. “Enough – Great Wind!” The ponies behind him held their breath, but that was not what they should have been wary of. Just as it had done when the Witch had gained control over the Cutie Mark Crusaders, a cyclical wind system rose up around Gearhead, throwing the ponies off of him.

Even with a few tail hairs pulled, Gearhead dove for the Engine once he spotted it. He wiggled into the harness as quickly as he could. He did not have the time to mess with the leggings, if he was going to get away from the horde of rabid race fans. “Emergency start-up. Now.”

“[Emergency start-up command confirmed. Powering up. Exiting Standby Mode].” The computer’s voice eminating from a speaker in the hood was a comforting sign. Gearhead had enough time to double-check the harness to make sure he was secure, and then he leaped into the air. The core kicked in just as he was coming back down, and he soared upward, to safety.

Having gained some space, Gearhead pulled the hood and goggles on, and then started searching for Applejack and the others. With help from his magnifying lenses, he found them. They were in a wagon chase, and heading toward a set of train tracks, the train itself bearing down on their running course. Gearhead put power to the thrust, and headed in the same direction.

Gearhead saw Applejack’s wagon cross the train tracks just ahead of the train itself. The stallions who had been pulling Applejack took off as soon as she dropped out of the stage coach she had been using. Gearhead, who had passed over the train while the stallions started to pull away, came about and took up a position where he could intercept Applejack regardless of which direction she chose to run – not that she could outrun the Alicorn Engine anyway.

Dash and Fluttershy flew their wagon over the train even as Applejack continued to gloat in her victory. Applejack’s grin quickly turned to a frown, and she turned to run. “This ends,” Gearhead said, hovering in front of her to make her break her own momentum. “What is the big deal?”

“I ain’t tellin!’”

“You’d better,” Dash got out of her harness and tackled Applejack, bearing her down and making her lose her hold on her bags. Ribbons of all colours spilled out. Seeing this, Applejack deflated.

“So now you know,”

“Know what?” Twilight asked.

“I got ribbons for everything from second place to fourth place, and even fifth place... but nothing for first place, and I got none of the prize money I promised I’d get.”

“Is that why you didn’t come back?” Dash asked.

“Uh-huh. I was too ashamed to show my face in Ponyville again after being so cocksure I’d win. I couldn’t come back without the money either, and that’s why I took the job with Miss Jubilee. If I couldn’t win the money, I’d earn it.”

“You didn’t have to do all that, Applejack. Everypony in Ponyville loves you the way you are, and we all know we can depend on you,” Twilight said.

“Besides,” Gearhead said, “winning ribbons for honours from second to fifth is a great feat,”

“Miss Jubilee was right: I’ve never seen so many ribbons!” Twilight said.

“Recently I participated in a race myself, and I did not medal, so I did not collect even one ribbon. But I did my best under the circumstances, and I know that. If I can be proud of my performance, despite being apprehensive about the motives behind the race, you can be proud of your accomplishments at the Rodeo.” Gearhead wiggled his left ear. “Just a little bit proud, right?”

“Right,” Applejack said. “Okay, I’ll come back. With some of the money I promised thanks to this job. I just hope the others’re as understanding as y’all.”

“Speaking of the others, where are Pinkie and Miss Rarity?” Gearhead asked.

“Oh, that. Pinkie sorta jumped and knocked Rarity off the wagon during the chase.”

“Do you not think we should go back and get them?”

“They’ll be fine,” Dash said. “Now lets get a move on so we don’t miss the next... hey, wait a minute, you were in a race? And you didn’t tell me?!”

“Yes, although it was not my first choice of activities. You could say I was given an invitation I could not easily refuse.”

“This race of yours,” Dash said with a sly expression, “it wouldn’t happen to be a certain ‘Hoofington F1’ we’ve seen advertised everywhere, would it?”

“It is,”

“That’s why you were so interested in those posters,” Dash said.

“Oh!” Twilight exclaimed so suddenly the others turned toward her and stared. “It’s not ‘F-O-R-T-H,’ it’s ‘fourth’ like ‘fourth place.’ This whole time everypony we pass has been talking about you, Gearhead. You’re Mr. Fourth because you won fourth place!”

“That is most probably it. I was uncomfortable about the race to begin with, knowing that the mayor was probably holding it to get more publicity for Hoofington by leveraging my image as some local hero flying against the odds despite being an Earth Pony. Now I know he was setting up a recording.”

“I’m sure you’ll see some royalties for it,” Twilight said.

“I was an amateur competitor, and I did not sign a contract because I did not think I needed to for such a short event. I got completely taken in, and now I do not have to see a single bit for my efforts. I wonder if the other competitors got tricked the same way?”

“Probably,” Dash said. “Most athletes only profit from sponsorships and winnings. Now, when’re you gonna race me?”

“Who can say? Perhaps when we both have some free time back in Ponyville.”

“You know I’m up for the challenge any place and any time,” Dash said.

“But first,” Twilight said, “lets get back to Ponyville.”

“Should we wait for Pinkie and Rarity?” Fluttershy asked.

“Nah, they’ll be fine,” Dash said.

“Oh, okay. If you’re sure.”

“Maybe we’d better get back to Ponyville as fast as we can anyway. I’m sure everypony’s wondering if we’re doing okay. Especially you, Applejack.”

“Well then lets get on back home so they can stop worrying!”

* * *

Before the friends could leave Dodge Junction, they decided to go back to Cherry Hill Ranch to explain themselves in full to Cherry Jubilee. At first she was put off by the fact that they had not been honest with her, and that the end result of their stay was that they would be taking Applejack, one of Miss Jubilee’s hardest workers, away. But knowing that Applejack would be returning to her hometown and her family seemed to sooth whatever thoughts of betrayal Miss Jubilee had. She paid their wages, and even gave them a boxed lunch they could eat on the train home.

While Applejack, Pinkie, and Dash took turns explaining everything to Miss Jubilee, Gearhead saw Twilight sneak off for a short bit. She returned empty-hooved, but then Gearhead had a feeling that they would only see the fruits of her actions in Ponyville.

Hours later, when the Friendship Express pulled into Ponyville Station, Applejack exited to the cheers of what seemed to be all of Ponyville. Apple Bloom cantered up and hugged her, saying “my Big Sis is back!” to which Big Mac added a characteristic, but tear-filled “Eiyup!”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t bring back all the blue ribbons I promised I would,” Applejack said.

“Why, that’s okay,” Granny Smith said. “We’re just glad to have you back safe and sound.”

“I should apologize to you,” Mayor Mare said. “I feel terrible about putting all that pressure on you to bring back more money and accolades for the town, when the only good reason to compete is to see how well you measure against other competitors, and to have fun. I’m sorry, Applejack.” The others added their agreement and apologies, which Applejack accepted.

“Now that we’re back, we can have a party for real!” Pinkie said.

“Oh yeah,” Twilight said. “Almost everything should still be set up.”

“We’ll rush home and get a fresh cake,” Carrot Cake said.

“Sounds delicious,” Pinkie said. “I’ll help.”

“Say, how did they know we were coming back?” Applejack asked, as the group made their way (slowly so the Cakes and Pinkie could get ahead of them) to Sweet Apple Acres.

“I sent a telegram ahead of us by Pony Air Mail,” Twilight said.

“I knew it,” Gearhead said.

“It’s hard to get anything past you,” Twilight said.

“Speaking of,” Dash said, “about this race..?” To Gearhead’s horror, she was holding a record crystal between the feathers of her left wing.

“When did you get that?”

“Oh, this? I nabbed it on our way out of Dodge. They’re really popular, but I’m fast enough that it wasn’t hard.”

“Do you happen to have a player for it?” Gearhead asked.

“Oh. Knew I forgot something.” She looked around, grabbed Fluttershy, and made her stare Gearhead down until he agreed to make a player for her – after which Fluttershy apologized.

“I had a feeling I was going to end up making it anyway, so please do not worry,” Gearhead said.

“Oh, okay then,” Fluttershy looked relieved.

“Great, then we can watch the race together!” Dash said.

“Do you really want to do that? I mean, it is not as though you can change anything watching it.”

“Yeah, I wanna see how you did,” Dash said.

“I’m also curious about it,” Twilight said.

“If you dont mind...” Fluttershy added.

“Then I guess we have our next social event,” Gearhead sighed. “I’m just glad Ponyville is not all ‘Mister Fourth’ crazy, the way Dodge Junction is.”

“Was it bad?” Fluttershy asked.

“You do not want to know,” Gearhead said.

“Yeah, race fans can get pretty rabid. That’s what these babies are for,” Dash flapped her wings.

“Ah, too bad I do not have ‘these babies,’ then,” Gearhead said.

“I could give you wings, but it takes awhile to cast, and I don’t know how much good they’d be in getting you away from a mob,” Twilight said.

“I guess I shall have to work on it with my own magic,” Gearhead said.

“Sounds like you’ve already got your next project,” Dash said.

“Actually, one of my little brothers mentioned something related to something I am already working on for my Engine prototype. It still has some work, of course, but I will be able to start trials on it fairly soon.”

“Maybe once it’s done we should do that race. What d’ya say?”

“That may be doable,” Gearhead said.

“Awesome!”

21. Industrial Evolution

Chapter 21: Industrial Evolution

“Alright,” Gearhead said into his communicator as he rapidly decelerated from full throttle to one-third speed, and then came about. “Control test complete. Are you ready to send the stabilizer?”

<Ready,> Snowbelle’s response came promptly, but to Gearhead’s mind instead of through his hood. It seemed that even after a couple of weeks together, she was still uncomfortable speaking aloud when others could hear her. Gearhead did not mind, since he felt she should come out of her shell on her own time. <Stabilizer unit reads as being at 100% readiness, and I can see the control fins responding to the guidance system on the monitor.>

“Remember, you are to take control only if the automatic system cannot handle it. Your primary purpose here will be to monitor everything and report any errors immediately, and to force an emergency abort if necessary.”

<Understood, Papa.>

Well, that was the way things stood. Gearhead was flying the single-core Alicorn Engine above the shop while Snowbelle observed from atop the roof. She had already mastered gliding, and could fly perfectly well over short distance. She had also grown to the point where she was better off leaning against the back of Gearhead’s head then lying on top of it when they travelled together – sort of like Gummy with Pinkie. Although Snowbelle loved to tease Spike about being too hot, she had grown more resistant to his heat, so they could stand together, but he still could not hold her without burning her.

A couple seconds passed, and then the stabilizer launched from the Laboratory’s launch tube in flight mode. It looked like a Pegasus that had been squashed flat, but bristling with swords and spears. The stabilizer circled as it climbed, only breaking out of its first flight pattern once the sensors locked onto Gearhead and the Alicorn Engine he was wearing. “[Unit lock acquired. Closing to docking distance.]” The system reported.

As part of the test, Gearhead continued to twist and turn in flight, but he held his speed steady. The stabilizer did as it was programmed, and kept aiming slightly ahead of Gearhead’s own nose to keep closing the distance until it was behind him by seven meters, and above him at an angle that was less than forty-five degrees. “[Docking distance achieved. Activating Docking Mode. Starting docking operation.]”

Now the stabilizer transformed in flight to Docking Mode, with the ring in the middle and the wings spread out on all sides. Light sensors sought out the receivers designated to them on the ring that surrounded the Engine’s core, and once they found them they stayed that way, even to the point of rotating the stabilizer when Gearhead rotated his own orientation. “[Guidance system locked on. Docking...]”

As the stabilizer came on, the panels around the core retracted away, opening up enough space for the ring on the stabilizer unit. Gearhead breathed in deeply as he watched the independent unit close, and thought it was coming in a bit fast.

<Should I abort?>

<Let us wait and see how it turns out,>

<Okay,>

The exchange passed before the stabilizer even closed a quarter of a meter. It connected with the Engine with a loud clang, and began to close up the connections to finish the link. “That was a little rough. Lets test the locks to make sure it did not get jammed.”

<Opening locks,> There was a slight whine, and Gearhead rotated back and forth five degrees.

“Release functional,” he reported.

<Closing locks,> Snowbelle said, and the whine came on again. This time the sound of metal on metal was much quieter. This time Gearhead let the collar close around the core. “[Docking operation complete. Stabilizer connected to Unit.]”

“Please run system scan and diagnosis,”

“[Running...]”

As the programs ran to check that everything was connected and working properly, Gearhead continued to turn and fly without pushing the unit. It was running well, however since the two parts had only recently connected the Engine was not showing any improvements in performance.

“[Operation complete. No errors detected. All boards: blue.]”

<I confirm readings,> Snowbelle said, looking at the display in front of her.

“Report stabilizer system status,” Gearhead said.

“[System standing by, all-blue.]”

“Activate system,”

“[Command confirmed. Stabilizer system activating... online.]”

The Engine’s whine suddenly intensified, and for an instant, light seemed to run along the lines of the seams in the stabilizer’s form, from the core to the wings. And then Gearhead felt everything lurch forward as he accelerated. His throttle still showed one-third, and he felt a confirming nudge from Snowbelle: his speed had indeed increased.

As Gearhead continued to test the Engine’s flight capabilities, he twisted, flipped, and turned. Even as he pushed the throttle slightly higher to see when and if he would start to black out from excessive G-forces, the system compensated by enveloping him and his whole unit in a particle field.

<Amazing,> Snowbelle said. <If you had had this, Auntie Pri would not have had a chance.>

<It is too showy,> Gearhead responded. <But I cannot argue against the speed. Now let us test for weaponization.> Ideally it would not work easily, so nopony could take and adapt it to their own use, regardless of the safeguards Gearhead used. He took the Engine down, heading for a big pile of rocks that was sheltered and out of general view.

Gearhead hovered in front of the rocks and switched the ‘wings’ on the stabilizer from Thruster Mode to Blaster Mode. The wings bent, curving around so the ends faced forward, reshaping into barrels. He locked the targeting reticles for each wing onto one rock each, and fired. Bright green bolts bored into the rocks, scoring direct hits and creating damage equal to a Magic Arrow of Light.

“Targeting calibration and blast damage within expected parameters,” Gearhead said. “Switching to Railgun Mode.” Now the top two and bottom two wings changed their angles so their barrels were completely straight as they aimed directly ahead. The second-highest set of wings docked with the top rails, and the second-lowest set docked with the bottom rails. Gearhead targeted the rock directly ahead of him, and triggered the firing mechanism using the command linked into his HUD.

Massive blasts arced from each of the four barrels, their recoil pushing Gearhead back two meters before he managed to increase forward thrust enough to counteract it. His jaw dropped when he saw his blasts chew right through the remaining rock, leaving a deep furrow in the ground for several meters from the lower pair of barrels.

<Uh... is that bad?>

“Apply Emergency Lock to Railgun Mode,” Gearhead said, still shaking.

“[Confirm lock,]”

“Confirm application of Emergency Lock to Railgun Mode,”

“[Order confirmed. Railgun Mode is now in Emergency Lock. Vocal confirmation will be required to release lock. Code is 0-3-0. Confirm receipt.]”

“I confirm receipt of code oh-three-oh.” The wings returned to their default firing positions.

<Now what?>

“I need to shake off that feeling, and that is perfect for the last flight test: Let us see just how much faster this stabilizer makes the single-core. Thruster Mode!” The wings clicked back to their original position. “Time to take this to the maximum,” Gearhead said, and then he launched into a vertical climb.

The preliminary test had been about the connection between the stabilizer and the Engine, so Gearhead had not pushed the throttle far beyond the one-third mark, instead turning tightly enough to feel the G-forces at that much slower speed. Now he pushed the throttle forward as high as it could go. Again, the particle field kept him from losing consciousness, but this time he was turning at a much faster speed, which meant a far wider turning circle. Considering the state of the stabilizer’s weapon systems, Gearhead hoped not many ponies noticed him.

That thought in mind, Gearhead turned so he could scan the nearer streets and houses, and was stunned to find them empty. He scanned farther afield, and caught sight of the tail-end of a line at the other end of town, in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. “What is going on?”

<It is cider season, remember?>

“I suppose given the turn-out for Zap Apple Jam, I should not be so surprised that all of Ponyville drops everything they are doing for cider. Want to investigate, Snowbelle?”

<Is that alright?>

“Let us just stow the stabilizer first,” Gearhead said. He triggered the unlock and release cycles, and then waited while Snowbelle monitored the stabilizer’s progress back to the shop. She dropped down to the ground to stow the controller between some rocks against the nearest wall, and then started to fly back up to the roof. Even on a lower power setting, Gearhead swooped quickly down and scooped her up.

As Gearhead ascended again, Snowbelle crawled around so she was sitting just in front of the core. <Go!> She chirped, pointing ahead with her head and her right claw. The Engine leaped forward, as Gearhead took the throttle up to two-thirds power. They made quick work of the distance to Sweet Apple Acres.

When Gearhead touched down beside the cart-table set up outside the gate to Sweet Apple Acres, there was still a large crowd, although some of the ponies were already returning to Ponyville. Granny Smith, Big McIntosh, Applejack, and Apple Bloom were all standing around the table with Twilight, Dash, and Fluttershy.

“Don’t worry, Applejack, I’m sure Flim and Flam weren’t serious,” Twilight was saying.

“They sure sounded serious, talkin’ about running us out of business.”

“This is a foul mess, but now we got no choice but to see it through,” Big Mac said.

“Coulda left well enough alone, if ya asked me,” Applejack said, agreeing.

“Not after all that,” Granny said.

“Granny’s right: we gotta do this!” Apple Bloom said.

“What did we miss?” Gearhead asked, pushing his hood and goggles off of his head.

“Oh, just these two running their mouths and accepting a bet with a couple of no-good Unicorn stallions over the farm,” Applejack said.

“I am afraid we will need more context than that,” Gearhead said.

“Why’s that?” Granny asked.

“I mean, if you want some help..?”

“If we’re gonna take this seriously, I don’t know if you can help,” Applejack said.

“That depends on what you need to do to win this bet you mentioned.”

“We bet we could make more cider than they could,” Apple Bloom said.

“I don’t care about more cider,” Dash said, close to tears despite herself, “I just want to drink some cider!”

“It is that good, huh?”

“Not that I’d know, since I didn’t get any. Why not ask Pinkie Pie and her gajillion cups?”

“How much is she exaggerating?” Gearhead asked Twilight quietly.

“Not as much as I’d like,” the Unicorn admitted.

“Okay. If these Bamboozle Brothers –“

“Flim and Flam,” Applejack said.

“Well,” Gearhead and Snowbelle exchanged a quick glance. “That is what 'flimflam' means.”

“A bit on the nose,” Big Mac said.

“It must’ve been a disappointment to their parents the day they started livin’ up to their names,” Granny said. “That or they could have been named something else. Anything else.”

“Anyway, if they were making cider they must have brought equipment. What was it all like?”

“It was all on a wagon that they moved with their magic,” Granny said. “Cider-making machine was mostly wood. Also runs on their magic.”

“They had a big funnel on a long hose that went to a tree to suck up all the apples,” Applejack said.

“And some barrels on a spinner for the mixing,” Apple Bloom said.

“And a long conveyor with a window in front to show it only letting the good apples past,” Applejack said.

“The barrels came out the back all full,” Big Mac said.

“Did they do anything while the machine was working?”

“Not really,” Twilight said. “They just put some of their magic into it to turn it on, and...” Here Twilight stopped, and looked down at the ground.

“And... what?” But none of the Apples would answer, and neither would Dash.

“They sang,” Fluttershy said, into the silence.

“They got everypony singing,” Pinkie said, popping up out of nowhere. “It was great!”

“With a window in the machine where none was necessary and a song-and-dance routine, these two definitely sound like they have a good sense for showponyship. Whether or not it is as a distraction from something else, I will have to see for myself. But if the bet is to make a quantity of cider between a family and a machine, then how about I throw in my wrench to better optimize the family’s production?” Gearhead delved into one of the pockets he always had with his tail, and took out a mini-wrench, looking sly.

“I’m sure you could out-gadget these two,” Applejack said, “but if we don’t stick close enough to our methods for making cider, we’re as good as admitting that the Flim Flam Brother’s are right, and the way to go is their Cider Squeezy deal on wheels.”

“Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000,”

“Thanks, Twilight,” Applejack said, deadpan.

“No problem,”

“Well, at least they are acknowledging the number of tries it took them to get where they are, unless it is just for the naming’s sake. But I think I can give you the help you will want me to give you in the one attempt,” Gearhead said. “If you want me to.”

“Why take a chance on losing, simply because we have more patience than they do?” Big Mac said.

“I ain’t gonna take no chances to lose,” Granny said. “If’n you can do it without changin’ our methods too much, I say ‘do it!’”

“Here, here,” Apple Bloom said.

“Okay, do it. But make sure us Apples are what makes your machines go.”

“Understood,” and it will be your mechanisms, not mine."

* * *

Gearhead worked on the Apples’ cider-making equipment for most of the rest of the day, with a little help from Snowbelle for precision, and Applejack and Big Mac for muscle when needed. The stallion did his best to give the Apples a better edge against Flim and Flam’s all-in-one machine, based on the descriptions the others gave him. Spike and Twilight were even able to furnish those descriptions with some drawings, which let Gearhead guess what happened where.

Gearhead figured that Applejack and Apple Bloom would be involved in harvesting the apples. He considered making a conveyor belt system, but quickly realized that the amount of material that would be required to make it long enough to make any sense was stupidly ridiculous – not to mention that once it became long enough, the trees would get in the way of the turning mechanism at Big Mac’s end, limiting the belt’s range to one direction. If Gearhead made the belt out of smaller parts that could be lined up together, the Apples would have to be able to factor in the time to set it up, break it down and then set it up again in a different direction. And then there was the complexity involved in connecting the belt to Big Mac’s treadmill to power it, on top of the cider mill. Talk about being needlessly complicated!

Gearhead went with a simpler method, which he thought the Apples would appreciate: he built four simple rigs consisting of large apple baskets on wheels. The baskets were large enough that Applejack and Apple Bloom could empty several of their normal-sized baskets into it, but not so large they could not be pushed or pulled between the trees. A system of rods and wires allowed a pony to steer the wagons easily, and locks on two of the wheels would keep them stationary during collection or transfer of the apples to the central collection hamper near Big Mac’s rig. The wagons were well-oiled, so moving them would be effortless.

For Granny Smith, who would be inspecting each apple to ensure none of the bad ones were used, Gearhead created goggles with special lenses that would make imperfections on the apples’ skins easily-visible. She could also click lenses with higher magnification into place, and avoid overstraining her eyes looking for bruises and such. Additionally, the goggle’s seal against her coat would keep the sweat out of her eyes. A variant on this goggle would let Apple Bloom and Applejack spot trees with more ripe apples, so they could set up under them before using the apples that were not so good.

Gearhead took the millstone and shaved it down so its weight would still work effectively on the apples, while being easier for Big McIntosh to turn. He also used the ‘topological defect’ idea from his Alicorn Engine to tweak the surface area until he got closer to an ideal pattern for processing the apples more efficiently. He put an eighteen-speed gear system on Big Mac’s treadmill (plus a back-up set just in case), and added a large tank with a heating system to mull the cider as it sat, ready to be poured into barrels. A slight change to the tap system would allow a pony to shut it effectively between barrels without losing much more than a drop or two.

When Flim and Flam rolled up, Gearhead was placing a case next to the Apples’ booth (also for ‘just in case).’ The Apples themselves were practising and getting pumped up for the contest. This was Gearhead’s first chance to get a good look at the Cider Squeezy for real, and he did not waste it. Instead, he approached it immediately, Snowbelle gliding over to land on his head and do likewise.

“Seems we’ve attracted some extra attention, oh brother of mine,” Flam said.

“Right you are, brother of mine,” Flim said. “How may we help you, sir?”

“Would you like a mug of cider?”

“That would depend on whose apples you used,” Gearhead said. “But for now, if you do not mind, I would like to acquaint myself with your machine.”

“Ah yes, the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. A most marvellous machine!”

“And also mode of transport,”

“If I may ask, why six thousand?”

“Trial and error,”

“Error and trial,”

“It takes awhile to get to such pure perfection.”

“Is the number rounded up somewhat?”

“It might be,”

“And it might not be,”

“I see it is powered by your Unicorn magic, by the collection devices up there, but I do not see any controls for the cider mechanisms other than the switch buttons for the quality control section. What if you wanted to make it go slower?”

“Slower?”

“Why, whatever would we want to do that for?”

“Indeed, the whole idea is to make more cider more quickly. Slow down?”

Gearhead tilted his head in acknowledgement. On his head, Snowbelle sat up straight and nodded to the hose-mounted funnel. “I think so too,” Gearhead said aloud, loudly enough for Flim and Flam to hear. “Say, how often must the extending intake line be repaired or replaced?”

“Every so often, as can be expected,” Flim said.

“But what is that?”

“My daughter is a ‘who,’ not a ‘what,’ gentle-stallions.”

“’Daughter?’” Flam said, aghast.

“Adopted, obviously,”Flim said, recovering a little more quickly. “I do remember noticing another, larger, dragon somewhere around here.”

“That would be Spike. He is a Firedrake. This is Snowbelle, an Arctic Dragon.” The silvery serpent blew out a puff of frost vapours, and then extended her wings slightly and puffed out her chest. “She is asking you if you think she looks pretty.”

“Iridescent,”

“Dazzling,”

“Shiny!” Snowbelle sat back down on all fours and folded her wings back.

“That will do, thank you,” Gearhead said. He then turned around and walked back toward the others.

“Wait a moment: who are you?”

“My name is Gearhead. I am the proprietor of one of Ponyville’s shops, and as such, a friend and ally to the Apple family.”

“We have to watch out for that one, brother of mine,” Gearhead heard Flam say. “He’s the same one who made a flying machine and strapped it to his back!”

“That’s okay, brother of mine,” Flim said. “There’ll be no flying from him today.”

I do not have to be the one flying, Gearhead thought. That Cider Squeezy has a couple choice flaws built right into the design. If these brothers get to feel the pressure instead of putting the squeeze on their competition, they might even trigger it themselves.

<Do we need to take action?>

<That will most likely become unnecessary. Also, the Apples would frown on our cheating on their behalf. Let our current contribution stand, unless further requested.>

<Okay,> Snowbelle had gotten a slightly closer look at the funnel-and-hose assembly. It was pretty solid, but if she wanted to she could have frozen it. But of course, that would have been cheating, and she knew how everypony felt about that.

“Ladies and gentlecolts,” Mayor Mare began, “thank you for joining us for this contest.” As Gearhead looked around, he spotted a good number of the same faces from the previous day. He wondered if they had turned out for more cider, or for the competition. And if it was the latter, who were they supporting? “In this contest, the Flim Flam Brothers and the Apple Family will be competing to see who can produce the most cider in one hour. The prize is exclusive rights to sell apple cider in and around Ponyville.”

“Madame Mayor, if I may suggest a slight change to the rules..?” Gearhead said, raising a hoof.

“What might that be?”

“I believe the contest should be to determine who can produce the most drinkable cider. After all, there is little point in making a product that others are not willing to consume.”

“Yes, I believe you are right, Gearhead. Are the contestants agreed?”

“Absolutely,” Applejack said.

“You betcha,” Flam said.

“We’ve got no worries on quality,” Flim added.

“Well then, if everypony is ready,” Mayor Mare looked between the two contesting teams, and received their nods. “Let us begin!” As soon as she finished speaking, Time Turner flipped a large hourglass. The Apples lowered their goggles and launched into action, while Flim and Flam zapped some magic into the Cider Squeezy to power it up. The hose stretched out toward the South Field as previously designated by Granny Smith, and started to suck up apples. The Unicorn stallions themselves simply sat back on their steering couch with mugs of cider and relaxed.

While everypony watched, Applejack chose a tree and started bucking. Apple Bloom sped around it, catching apples in the bucket she balanced on her back, and picking up the ones that missed. As soon as she and Applejack filled the first cart enough, Apple Bloom pulled it over to the big hamper and emptied its contents for inspection. Granny started saying “good ‘un” and “Bad ‘un,” tossing the apples that passed the mark onto a tough that led to the milling stone, which Big Mac had started driving. Apple Bloom ran the emptied cart back out to Applejack, and since the elder sister had already filled the second card, Apple Bloom simply switched carts, and ran the second full one to the hamper. Big Mac flicked the tap open, and quickly filled the family’s first barrel.

“Alright, one down!” Apple Bloom cheered, and turned to check the brothers’ progress. Her jaw dropped when she saw that they had three barrels already full. “Oh no!”

“Focus, Apple Bloom. We need ta keep all our attention on what we’re doin’ if we’re gonna keep up.”

“Sorry, Applejack!” Apple Bloom shot back into action, but Gearhead saw that she was clearly worried. Glancing over the Apples’ progress, he saw that she was right to be concerned: even as the hamper-and-tank system’s flow came up to the optimal levels, the Apples continued to lag behind the Cider Squeezy by a barrel, and with each round of barrels that gap would open up, giving Flim and Flam an exponentially larger lead.

“Let's put on the pressure, Big Mac!” Applejack called. The big stallion grunted in acknowledgement, and then clicked some levers to drive his treadmill up a gear. For a moment he was running against a higher resistance, but once he had it going at the same rate Big Mac was running fine. More to the point, he could still go up several gears, and he did.

“Madame Mare,” Twilight said, “would it be alright if honourary family members helped?”

“I don’t know. Flim? Flam? Would that be alright with you?”

“We don’t care if all of Canterlot helped out,”

“It’s a lost cause,” Flim added to his brother’s scathing remark.

If they are referring to Canterlot’s elite, they might not be too far off, but then that also includes three princesses and the Royal Guard, unless they forgot. And that insult will not stand, Gearhead thought. Besides, we are in Ponyville, not Canterlot. “So they say,” Gearhead grinned, taking the case beside the booth where he had placed it earlier, and opening it up to reveal extra goggles for himself, the rest of the Elemental Six, and even smaller sets for Spike and Snowbelle.

“Now you’re talkin!’” Dash said, putting hers on.

“Okay,” Twilight said, as her friends formed up in front of her. “We’re not going to let anypony take our friends' farm away from us, are we?”

“No!”

“And that means we’re going to do what with this bet?”

“Win!”

“That’s right. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, could you two help AJ and Apple Bloom collect the apples?”

“We’re on it,” Pinkie said.

“Rarity, you’ve got a discerning eye. Please help Granny Smith with the quality control.”

“Consider it done,”

“Rainbow, with your speed added, Big Mac should be able to process those apples in no time.”

“Right!”

“Gearhead, you take Spike and Snowbelle and shore things up anywhere you see the rest of us falling short.”

“Aye, sir.”

“I’ll coordinate our efforts from here. Everypony, move out!”

First Gearhead connected the spare treadmill to the mill assembly. No sooner did he signal that it was ready did Dash jump on and start running. Pinkie was jumping back and forth with a basket, while Fluttershy zipped from tree to tree. Gearhead did not have any idea what she was doing hidden from view within the leaves, but she was making the apples fall from the tree.

There were already more apples to sort than there were sorters, but Gearhead could see two places at which to plug holes where efficiency was concerned. “Spike, please go make sure at least one cart is moving at all times.”

“Roger!” The purple dragon shot off, pushing an empty cart out to where the apples were being harvested, and pushing a full cart back to the hamper. As soon as he had emptied that cart, he pushed it back up to the trees.

“Snowbelle, how do you feel about a little QC?”

The younger Dragon trilled. <I can do that,> she said. Snowbelle flew into the hamper to do her bit. Soon she was flicking apples into the trough with a wing or a tail. Gearhead went to stand by the spout, ready to flick the tap off, move the barrel out, and put a new one in place before opening the tap again. Twilight used her magic to stack each full barrel. “At this rate we’ll have six barrels for the brother’s every three,” she announced. Gearhead felt that would more than make up for the Apples’ earlier shortfall.

By Flam’s spit-take, they agreed. “We’ve got to do something fast, brother of mine!”

“Just add more power, brother of mine,” Flim said.

“Right!” They shot the magic collectors with more of their magic, and the Cider Squeezy went into overdrive, even to the extent of ripping apple trees out of the field by the roots.

“You will pay back the Apples for every tree you destroy, will you not?” Gearhead called.

“We won’t have to, because the farm’ll be ours!”

“May I remind you that the bet is over cider selling rights, and not the farm itself? Even if you do win, the Apples will still own it until the winter. So about those trees..?" Twilight asked.

“Oh, fine!” That was quickly settled, but the higher power setting brought its own issues, as Gearhead had foreseen: the Cider Squeezy was sucking the apples up with such force that they were mush by the time they got to the windowed conveyor belt, where everypony could see them getting dropped into the garbage hamper – not to mention the roots and rocks that were also going through the machine.

“More trouble, brother.”

“I’ve got it, brother.” And Flim switched the quality control function off. The mushed apples, roots, and rocks passed through and were barrelled faster than ever before.

“Why those..!” Dash nearly launched herself from her conveyor belt.

“Stop it, RD! It’s not worth it.”

“Yeah! One bad apple spoils the bunch!” Granny said.

“Besides, they just costed themselves the whole thing,” Gearhead said quietly.

“Oh, the rules,” Twilight said. “Clever change.”

“I just had to look at their design. The brothers will do the rest for their part themselves.”

“So lets do the rest of our part,” Applejack said, and the others cheered and resumed their efforts.

Everypony ran as hard as they could until the last grain of sand dropped from the hourglass, and Time Turner announced “time!” Everypony who had been moving at any pace immediately collapsed. Granny and Rarity wiped the sweat from their brows, and gratefully removed their goggles.

“Great job everypony,” Applejack panted. “We did the best we could.”

“And effort like that will always be rewarded,” Twilight said.

Over by the hourglass, the Mayor thanked Time Turner. “Always glad to help,” he said, “as long as there are no pears.” He immediately started looking around.

“What are you looking for already?”

“Oh, I’m going to need Rose’s assistance to move this out,” Turner said. “Ah, there she is.”

Mayor Mare rolled her eyes, then she turned to started counting the barrels in the very impressive stacks. “Hm. As far as quantity goes, Flim and Flam win,” she said.

“What?!”

“Yes! The farm is all but ours now,” Flam said.

“But I can clearly see some trees and stones in some of those barrels. We’ll have to discount all of the ones that have anything like that. We’ll have to go through them all!” Mayor Mare groaned. “Who is going to help?”

Fortunately, getting volunteers was not a problem. They quickly sorted out the barrels that had wood or non-apple sediment floating near the top and dumped them out on the ground. Another group similarly went through the Apples’ barrels, but thanks to Applejack’s strict policy on quality control, none of them were dumped.

“But! They’re still drinkable,” Flim wailed.

“Yes? Then why not try them yourselves?” Gearhead asked.

“Uh, no thanks,”

“Why not? You were quite content to sip away during the contest,”

“That’s right: we’re all full on cider!”

“Too much cider? Are you crazy?” Pinkie said. She went bobbing for apples into one of the opened barrels, which had first seemed to pass muster. And came out only to spit a rock nearly the size of her head onto the ground. “Wow, even a sip of this would be ‘too much!’”

“This from the pony who was drinking mugs by the leg-full,” Dash said. “Wow, you know it’s gotta be bad when she won’t have even a cup.”

“I’ve seen enough,” Mayor Mare said. “After discounting the spoiled barrels, the Apple Family wins the wager!”

“That means we get to keep the farm!” Apple Bloom said, hugging Spike. Snowbelle trilled.

“Time to exit, brother of mine.”

“Indeed. Another town, brother of mine?”

“Another town,”

“Hold it, you two!” Gearhead called as they jumped up into the Cider Squeezy. As they tried to pull away, though, Snowbelle breathed a sheet of ice down around their wheels, bringing their retreat to a halt before they could build up any momentum. Seeing their quandary, the brothers attempted to abandon their gadget by jumping down so they could cut and run. Unfortunately for them, Dash tackled Flim and Pinkie tripped up Flam.

“We agreed to let ya use the apples in our south field for the bet,” Granny Smith said, walking up. “We never agreed to let ya destroy our trees. Now, pay.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

* * *

The amount Flim and Flam had to pay to reimburse the Apples for their trees would have been negligible if the Cider Squeezy had not been so thorough in chewing them up, too. Replanting them then would have been comparatively simple as well. Unfortunately, the trees the brothers had uprooted were now so much spilled cider, and needed to be replaced. That would cost them money.

To make things easier on them, Applejack agreed not to lay any further charges against the brothers. What made things more difficult for them again was when Gearhead told them of the damage that processing the wood and rocks had done to the Cider Squeezy. “I am quite surprised the intake hose has not already started leaking, and the inner workings have not started to fall apart. This gadget of yours deserves better.”

Flim and Flam insisted on taking the Cider Squeezy to try to repair it themselves, and they left Ponyville poorer than when they had arrived. “Like I didn’t already know that hard, honest effort was better than cheatin’ in the first place,” Applejack said.

“Oh, let it go already,” Dash said. “How ‘bout that cider?”

“Thanks to this contest, we’ve got enough made for everypony!” Apple Bloom said.

“Now that’s what I wanted to hear,” Dash said, and soon she got to enjoy her cup of cider with everypony else. After a sip, even Gearhead had to admit that it was well worth the wait and effort. He shared a cup with Snowbelle, who purred happily afterwards.

* * *

Despite having tasted it many times just during the first few days, Ponyville kept turning out at Sweet Apple Acres for ‘another taste of cider.’ Gearhead could not readily blame them, seeing as how the apples changed and the brew seemed to mature, gaining a heavier and more saturated sensation, both as it hit the tongue, and as it went down.

Ponies from out of town also came to get a taste of Sweet Apple Acres. None of these visitors was more surprising, or more welcome, than the princesses, Celestia and Luna.

“We have heard much of your cider, have we not, sister of mine?” Princess Celestia said.

“Indeed we have, sister of mine. In particular, there have been boasts that what we will find here is the best apple cider in all of Equestria,” Luna said.

“Made with the best apples in Equestria, sister of mine,” Princess Celestia finished.

“Forgive me, Princess, but Flim and Flam..?” Applejack asked.

“They have been dealt with fairly, fair Applejack,” Luna said. “We even issued them a small grant to start a new business. Hopefully they shall take it in a better direction.”

“It is a shame,” Gearhead said. “Their Cider Squeezy worked.”

“But not by the time we saw it,” Princess Celestia said. “Truly, it could not hold a candle to your inventions.”

“I thank you for your high praise,” Gearhead said, bowing.

“And now, let us drink to the Apple Family’s success!” Luna announced. “You fellows too,” she said, gesturing to the Royal Guards who had accompanied the royal sisters.

“But Your Highness, we’re on duty!”

“Your Princess of the Night bids you to drink,”

“I would do it if I was you,” Princess Celestia said. Standing on her other side, Gearhead and the others could see her wink.

With a poorly-hidden sigh, the guards joined in, and within moments of tasting their first cup of cider, they fell right into the revelry.

Note to self, Gearhead thought, when attending a peace summit, bring Apple Family cider.

22. A Well-Read Life

Chapter 22: A Well-Read Life

<That looks promising,> Gearhead said as he watched Snowbelle turn a gentle glide into a pinwheel beside him.

<Not that you can tell me much more than ‘looks,>’ Snowbelle said.

<True, I am not a natural flyer like you or a Pegasus, but I can do what I can do.> Indeed, when he practised flying with Snowbelle, Gearhead only wore the Alicorn Engine as back-up insurance. He used his Wind Magic to form wings that allowed him to fly, and the different sort of effort that took kept him from getting too far ahead of the young dragon.

<Even flight as a Pegasus, or more accurately as an Alicorn, is different from flight as a dragon, or so your thoughts tell me,> Snowbelle said without missing a beat.

<You can say that because you scanned some of my memories from when I was Dusty. I concluded then, that because I connected to Unicorn and Alicorn magic differently,the same could be said for Pegasus and Alicorn flight magic. And if that could be said about members of the same species who are of different tribes, then what of different species?>

<Like Ponies and Dragons, but then you do not even have to think in such extreme terms, because while you are an Earth Pony, you have Pegasus and Unicorn magic instead. The entirety of what you do is different, and unlike anything you are supposed to be able to do. So who could possibly follow your example?>

<Perhaps only those as strange as myself, including Dragons who live with Ponies.>

<Spike does have a talent that is unusual for a Dragon,> Snowbelle allowed: who would ever have heard of a Dragon igniting paper on fire without burning it, let alone sending it to a waiting recipient? Sending was clearly not the type of magic a Fire Dragon would naturally use or learn. It had to be something that Princess Celestia had taught Spike, or that she had had Twilight teach him. That meant that it might be Pony magic, and it also meant that Dragons and other such intelligent creatures could learn Pony magic, so maybe the inverse was also true. That might explain why the telepathic link between stallion and Dragon worked. But then, given the apparent randomness of anything even remotely linked to Discord, maybe it did not.

These thoughts passed between Gearhead and Snowbelle between eye-blinks. It was one of the unique games they could play, trying to see how many thoughts they could communicate fully to each other in a given moment. They had to be careful with these instant conversations, however, because they happened too quickly to loop others in on them, if anypony else was about. Getting them caught up then became a ridiculous endeavour, since the conversation kept moving at the speed of thought, but Gearhead could only verbalize it at the speed of words.

Thinking thoughts and thinking actions were completely different matters: you could think thoughts very quickly, as long as you did not focus on them long enough to translate them into words like you were narrating your life. Actions could only be done at one’s body’s physical speed. When Gearhead strained his leg muscles thinking about three different actions at the speed of thought without preventing his body from doing them, he and Snowbelle had both discovered the dangers of trying to act at thought-speed without somehow enhancing their physical speed to match. They no longer did that, or more accurately, they no longer thought about doing it.

Another game that Snowbelle liked to play was continuing to pretend that she could not speak Common. She especially liked to use it to tease Spike, pretending to misunderstand him and then pulling a prank on him. Because Snowbelle only spoke to Gearhead, and they normally did not call attention to this fact, other ponies constantly underestimated Snowbelle and what she thought of ponies and gossip. What she could bring home to Gearhead after a girls’ night out was especially juicy.

Snowbelle went from her pinwheel to a flip, and then she beat her wings rapidly to climb before rolling into a powerdive. The whole point of these exercises was to increase her strength and endurance so she could fly for much longer than she could currently. It was her idea that she had to be able to move completely independently of Gearhead, just in case a situation demanded it of her – such as fleeing from a dangerous situation that was too tough for her, or delivering a message when Spike was unavailable. Snowbelle simply had to be able to fly well. She pulled out of her dive and turned sharply to her left.

And nearly collided with an even faster Rainbow Dash. The Pegasus was flying too quickly while trying to execute one of her many tricks. She went spinning end-over-end, completely out of control. Now both of the other airbourne individuals could hear Pinkie Pie calling out in astonishment. Everypony grimaced when Dash hit the ground.

“Oh, not so amazing,” Twilight said.

“Are you alright, Darling?”

“Lemme see,” Dash got up and flexed her wings. “Ow!”

“Time to take you to the hospital,” Twilight said.

“Wait! Couldn’t one of you just heal me up?”

“We would need to know what to heal first,” Twilight said.

“Besides, magic is not always as effective as the non-magical equivalent,” Gearhead said. “You are better off healing naturally. The doctor will take excellent care of you, so do not worry.”

“But what if I have to stay off my wing? What if I can’t fly?”

“Then you will listen, so you can fly sooner.” Gearhead led the way to Ponyville General Care, while Snowbelle flitted above his head.

“Now that’s not fair at all,” Dash said.

* * *

“You’re lucky, it’s a clean break,” the doctor said.

“That means I’m fine, right?” Dash had hope in her eyes as she lay in the hospital bed, surrounded by her friends.

“It means you need to rest your wing, Rainbow Dash. It will only heal if you give it the chance it needs to mend properly.”

“What about magic?”

“Shortcuts like that aren’t always worth it, especially if you want to push your limits like we all knew you usually do. That means taking the proper amount of time, during which you should be completely off your wing.”

“How much time?”

“One week,”

“A whole week?! That may as well be a whole month, or years, for a flyer like me!”

“Well, you can be a ‘flyer like you’ once your wing has healed, properly. Until then, take it easy and stay off that wing, otherwise it’ll just take even longer to heal. We would like to keep you overnight for observation, too.”

“Ugh! First you tell me I can’t fly, and then you tell me I have to stay here? I’ll die of boredom.”

The doctor rolled his eyes. “I can assure you that being bored is better for you than aggravating an injury, or an actual illness. And in no way is it terminal. Just try to relax and let your wing heal up, and you’ll be right as rain in no time.”

“Rain! What about the weather?”

“The rest of your team will handle it, I’m sure. The only thing you need to do is rest.” The doctor left the room.

“How can I rest when there’s nothing to do?”

“Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash, we’ll come and visit you,” Rarity said.

“That’s right, and make your hospital stay into a party!” Pinkie made it rain confetti, Nurse Redheart came out of nowhere to collect all the falling paper and shush her.

“What do I do until then?”

Twilight, who had been looking around, gasped with a bright idea. Gearhead watched her go outside the room to where an orderly was pushing a book cart. The Unicorn did not even have to search to find the book she wanted, instantly lifting it from the cart and bringing it in with her. Dash had turned onto her side, wrapping herself in the bedding, so Twilight tapped her with the book. “I think you’ll appreciate this series, Rainbow Dash. It’s full of adventure and excitement. This is the first book, chronologically. I own all of them.” She smiled.

“Reading? Really, Twilight? Only an egghead like you would do that,” Dash said. Everything from chuckles to chortles to giggles went around the room.

“Oh, I like reading,” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, who doesn’t like a bang-up tale every now-and-again?” Applejack asked.

“Books are a great source of inspiration,” Rarity said.

“And you never know what you’re gonna find until you find it,” Pinkie piped up.

“Thanks for trying to cheer me up, but no thanks,” Dash said.

“Alright, visiting hours are up. Time to let Rainbow Dash get some rest,” Nurse Redheart said, ushering everypony else out of the room. They shrugged, and went along.

“You may want to give that book a try,” Twilight said as she got to the door. “Daring Do is a lot like you, and undeniably, unquestionably unstoppable.” Twilight and Gearhead caught Dash’s skeptical expression, but then the door closed. There was nothing else they could do for her until tomorrow.

* * *

Gearhead was in full agreement with Rarity about books being a great source of inspiration, in his case for gadgets that he could make: he could look at a situation that the author wrote about and ask ‘what if this character had an item that could help her or him here?’ He could then imagine what such a device would look like, and exactly what it would do.

Gearhead also agreed with Applejack, that it was nice to simply enjoy a piece of writing for its entertainment value. Provided a work was written well enough, with an interesting plot and the characters to support it (or vice versa), he could usually become immersed in that world and its denizens for the duration of the book or series. And that was why series like Daring Do were so good: you could enjoy the same characters across several books, and get to know them and their world on a deeper level than with a single novel.

Reading was a nice way to spend what downtime he got, and even though Gearhead kept himself very busy with just his training and keeping the shop stocked and running, he still found the time in which to enjoy a good book. Once he had read a book, he could usually recall its details fairly well, and given the mental link, he could share whatever details he wanted to share with Snowbelle.

Of course, there were some things he read that would be inappropriate for a reader of her age, so he put those in the part of his mind that Luna was teaching him to secure against any intrusion. Other than that one mental level, Snowbelle could access any information or memory from him practically whenever she wanted.

After seeing Dash crash, neither Snowbelle nor Gearhead wanted to finish the practice flight session. Uncle Windwalker might not approve, but it just did not seem appropriate for them to return to that activity when Dash could not do so, even when they had already made a decent amount of progress. Gearhead decided to open the shop for business.

While there was a steady stream of customers, Gearhead could serve most of them with very little conscious effort. Thinking again of memories, he wondered if Snowbelle had any deep cultural memories from her people buried somewhere, like an instinct or collective conscious of what Arctic Dragons were supposed to do, and how they were supposed to behave. He asked.

<Does it really matter, since you cannot take me there anyway?> Snowbelle was thinking about her ancestral arctic home, to which she had never been.

<We will go there eventually, and the more we know about its denizens, your birth people, the more likely it will be that we can convince them to give you a chance, especially if they prove to be proud and isolationist.>

<I suppose that is true. Okay, but do not be surprised if most of what I know, I know from you.>

<’Most?’ Oh yes, there are times when you go exploring on your own. In any case, the most important thing is to try.>

Still continuing to tend to the customers before him, while also keeping part of his mind open for situations requiring his full attention, Gearhead dove into Snowbelle’s consciousness. This was the first time he had done such a thing, partly because he was still exploring what their link could do, and partly because Luna was teaching him a number of techniques related to using the link and protecting both his mind and Snowbelle’s.

Gearhead encountered Snowbelle’s surface thoughts first. They were what were happening now, as well as the past as far as a dozen seconds ago. She was concerned about what they might find in her mind. He would have to go much deeper if he was going to find some connection to the Arctic Dragons’ culture and mythos.

Gearhead dove. He went through memories and information. It was true that most of the information was things he already knew, and some of it was even unchanged within Snowbelle’s mind, however other bits had already been altered to fit Snowbelle’s perspective, or things she had heard or seen in private moments with Ponyville’s other residents. The stallion went blind to these minor, changed details in respect to both his daughter and the ponies they concerned.

Memories closer to the surface continued to prove to be more recent ones, and they mingled with dreams, the mind’s method of organizing and processing memories, according to Luna – and who would know better than the dreamwalking Night Mare?

Gearhead crossed a silvery membrane that was the border for his daughter’s public self, Snowbelle, and entered the deeper core of her being, Fleury. He knew he was able to enter this part of her mind because they were linked as parent and child, but also because she was letting him in. Since he would not ask Luna to teach him the more invasive diving techniques, Gearhead could not so much as stay in this part of the Dragon’s mind if she did not want him there.

Fleury was steeped in her furthest memories, and in deep emotions. Here there were less words and information, and more impressions, like the ones she had first used to communicate with Gearhead. The most prevalent of emotions and impressions was loneliness.

While it was true that Fleury had Gearhead to act as her father and raise her, and that she was surrounded by pony friends, including Spike, as much as they might like to, none of them could truly treat her as one of them. Most of them were herbivorous ponies, whose cultures and magicks were different from hers on a very basic level. And Fleury would grow into a much larger creature, capable of so much destruction. If she so much as threw a tantrum, as foals often did, neither she nor Gearhead could predict the damage she might do.

While it was true that Fleury was different from Ponies, she was still a resident of Ponyville. As she lived with everypony, they would get to know each other more intimately. Do you think Miss Twilight or I fit in when we first arrived, each in our own time? You know that this was not the case, and only our places of origin and personalities were different from everypony else, just like everypony else here in Ponyville. It is a town of differences. Still, it would not hurt to make all the effort he could to help Fleury feel more like a part of the town and its culture, regardless of how temporary her stay would prove to be.

The loneliness went deeper, as Fleury recalled her mother through the various references to her in conversations between different ponies. She had given Fleury to Gearhead as an egg not because she did not want her, but because she wanted her to be able to live, survive, and be happy. Gearhead did not know how much longer the older dragoness would survive in those caves, but she had told him that she did not want her sole surviving daughter to see her diminished, ill, and dying, or worse, dead. She loved Fleury so deeply, even though she had not yet hatched, that she had expended a great deal of energy to preserve her in the hopes of finding a way to release her into the world. Fleury’s mother had not known whether Fleury would be able to survive in the warm world, but there was no doubt at all in Gearhead’s mind that she wanted to give her the opportunity to try.

And while Fleury had convinced herself that she did not know her own mother, Gearhead told her otherwise: there was the incubation period during which her mother had carried and surrounded her, and there was the time, after being layed, when her mother had protected her until Gearhead could come and take her from the caverns. She might have been an egg, with a long time to go until she hatched due to recovering from all that heat, but her mother had still been with her, imprinting her indelible presence onto Fleury’s being. This meant that while Fleury had this mental connection with Gearhead, she was still connected to her kind, and to her mother.

Soothed somewhat, Fleury guided Gearhead deeper into her sub-conscious. Here he found primal emotions and impressions: hunger and anger, desire and greed, pride and honour, duty and family. There were other, deeper things he could not identify, but when he hit a wall and could not push forward Gearhead realized that he could not easily go any deeper than this. It was possible he might be able to push into the collective consciousness and memory with an invasive technique, but he had no wish to do that. Gearhead turned around, and slowly resurfaced.

When Gearhead resurfaced completely, he felt like he had spent hours inside Fleury’s mind, but by the customer browsing his shop, he knew he had only been away for a matter of minutes. Moving at the speed of thought, and with few barriers between him and his accessible goals, Gearhead had been very efficient. Such dives would not, however, be an effective way to pass time. If that was how Snowbelle learned from Gearhead, then it was no wonder she had become as smart as she was so quickly.

Gearhead quickly reviewed what he had learned: Arctic Dragons were proud and honourable, and they placed high value on family and duty. They also had the usual greed and desire often attributed to Dragons, but Gearhead had high hopes that when he did bring Snowbelle to the mountains, her family there would accept her readily, and teach her what she needed to know. Snowbelle was also lonely, so it was in her best interests to do his best to dispel that, with the help of his friends.

After lunch, Gearhead took Snowbelle to the Golden Oak Library. “This is an unexpected but welcome surprise,” Twilight said when she saw the two of them come through the door. Snowbelle was flying to get in some extra practice. Gearhead had left the Alicorn Engine back at the shop, figuring he would not need it for a little reading. As always, though, he did carry his daggers.

“Your earlier actions inspired me,” Gearhead said. “I think this is an excellent opportunity to introduce Snowbelle to the wonderful world of reading.”

“Can’t she just get some of it from you?”

“She can, and has,” Gearhead said, while Snowbelle bobbed her head and chirped. “But she should be allowed to establish her own tastes, independent of mine – even though I have probably already influenced her choices somewhat.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Twilight said. Since she was a librarian it was perfectly understandable that she would be enthusiastic about others getting into reading.

“So you do not have any objections to letting her loose in the stacks?”

“Not that I can think of, but first maybe I should give her a little tour, so she knows where to find material of specific genres, subjects, and levels.”

“A fantastic idea,” Gearhead said. He made eye contact with Snowbelle, and then nodded Twilight’s way. The little Dragon winged over and gently landed on Twilight’s head.

“Oh, I keep forgetting how cool your scales and feet are,” Twilight said. Snowbelle gave a startled chirp, and made as though to take off again. “No, it’s not uncomfortable. I was just startled, but I’m fine. Lets start the tour.”

As Twilight walked around the library, constantly talking to Snowbelle about what was where, Gearhead wandered behind them, occasionally going into the shelves to investigate something that peaked his interest. Sometimes he came back carrying a volume on his head, which Spike gamely carried to the central table for him.

It took a full fifteen minutes for Twilight to explain where things were to Snowbelle, a process complicated by the apparent need for Twilight to be able to interpret the tones Snowbelle used to indicate interest and curiosity, confusion, or surprise. After awhile they did get used to communicating with each other this way.

Once Twilight had covered the entire layout, Snowbelle took off again, gravitating toward the shelves that had material dealing with the things she was most interested in, like magic, flight, and Dragon lore. Unfortunately, Gearhead already knew that the library did not contain more than a paragraph or two across all its volumes, and that almost entirely on Fire and Smoke Dragons. Fortunately, Snowbelle’s interest in magic and flight theory would carry her through many hours, and she even found some fictional titles that seemed of interest, and what was more, they ranged in difficulty from the sorts of books foals might read, to those of young mares and stallions. Understanding her father’s intentions on the matter, Snowbelle steered clear of all adult material.

Soon father and daughter sat at (or on) the central table, reading contentedly away. While Snowbelle had some stories about knights, witches, and Dragons, Gearhead had chosen two novels that belonged in a genre called ‘magi-science fiction,’ or ‘massy-fi.’ It was these kinds of novels that had the most imaginative gadgetry, although a common thread seemed to be ponies battling and exploring as they sailed among the stars. If such a thing was possible, Gearhead thought that it must be the ultimate adventure.

Twilight sidled up beside Gearhead and waited until he looked up at her so she was able to avoid interrupting his reading. “I haven’t been able to understand why there are ponies who like this genre. Could you explain its appeal to me?”

“I cannot speak for anyone else, but the appeal to me is the variety of possibilities expressed, not only through the different technologies, but also through the variety of worlds one may be able to reach out there, in the wider universe. Not all authors express it well, but that is true of works in any genre. What complicates the depiction further is that none of the authors know for certain what it is like to travel among the stars.”

“I suppose we could ask Princess Luna,”

“Yes, we could,” Gearhead chuckled.

“So how does what you’ve read relate to what you’ve made?”

Gearhead thought about that for a few moments. Twilight watched, but did not interrupt him. “Being able to connect with various authors through their imaginations as they write has probably let me streamline and refine some of my designs further than I would have gone naturally. They would not have been quite as bad as the Cider Squeezy, but they would not have been as compact or straightforward as they are.

“It is also possible that I would have taken much longer to think of energy generation as possible. I doubt a wooden ship could actually fly between the stars, but doing so will probably require enormous refining and reinforcement, and who in Equestria could do that? These novels are definitely partially responsible for my coming up with plasma and particle engines.”

“Plasma,” Twilight said. As there was only one time period during which Gearhead had been able to use them, she could only be thinking of one thing.

“I do not have the power to do it myself, but then I do not need to, when the Alicorn Engine is at my disposal and so much more efficient.”

“Speaking of, how are you coming on that second prototype – the one you needed my help with all those months ago?”

“I have almost all the material I need, and then I can put it into trials.”

“Even after all this time, and after you repaired the first prototype?”

“The various goings-on have delayed me somewhat, but I am still on track for trials. I want it to be as perfect as it can be before I actually use it.”

“So it won’t overload on you?”

Gearhead chuckled again. “Given the circumstances and the choices around them, maybe that overload was more fortunate than not.”

“It turned you back into a stallion and revealed more of those particles’ properties.”

“Yes, it provided insight I would not have gained otherwise, or at least not that quickly. Possibility, that is what I believe it all comes down to. Possibility and how one is able to use it.”

“Is that why you seem so chipper, even when you’re thinking about something that should probably sadden you?”

“If you mean my not being able to farm, and my earlier social isolation, there are reasons behind them and knowing them does make it easier for me to move on. I have been given so much, by my family and by you, my friends.” Snowbelle cooed, and Gearhead stroked her mane with a free hoof. “In my opinion it would be awfully ungrateful of me to hold the ‘bad’ things against all the ‘good’ things in my life. I do not believe that there is any being out there who does not want the best for those they support, and I am going about that in my own way.”

“So you’re not letting the little bad things get you down. What about the big bad things?”

“I will address those when I come to them, probably with you and Snowbelle and all of our Ponyville friends beside us.”

“Speaking of friends, you have some back in Hoofington, right? Why did you seem so lonely when you got here?”

“I did?”

“Uh-huh,”

Gearhead pondered that. “I suppose it is because I had been on my own for so long. Yes, I have friends from the Hoofington area, but they could not come with me when I left to pursue sales and knowledge elsewhere. I never connected with anypony else in the other towns and cities where I set up shop and researched, because within a week or two I knew that that place did not have the answers I was looking for, and I would be moving on. It does not make sense to make friends in places you are about to leave, does it?”

“I think Pinkie would do it anyway,”

“Yes, but that is Pinkie, and most of the time it is extraordinarily easy for her to make friends. For me that is another matter. After I left Verdant Fields the next time I saw any of my Hoofington friends was briefly at the Grand Galloping Gala, and then only a few of them showed up.”

“Tell me about them?”

“Okay. My first friend is Prism, whom you saw me racing with for a time on that crystal. She was the one who approached and spoke to me back when I first started studying at the Azure Library, so I suppose she is the curious type, on top of being quite adventurous. I think she gets all that from her father. I do not need to tell you how great a flyer she is. Rook is the solid supporter-type, who always stands up for his friends. Contrail is even more daring than Prism. He tries to be the first one in, but Prism has always been the faster flyer, from what I saw. They make up Prism Flight.”

“They’re very impressive,”

“From what I saw during the crystal recording, they may be the best their generation of Azure Wing has to offer. It would be a shame if they could not train with the Wonderbolts, however the Azure has its own version. I do not see them ever holding back.”

“Sounds like Rainbow Dash has some competition.”

“Yes, and if she does not let her wing heal fully, she will have to struggle to keep up.”

“Who else can you tell me about?”

“Maybe the Unicorns, the siblings Dusk and Dawn Shadow.”

“’Dusk’ and ‘Dawn?’”

“Hey Twilight, you could be related!”

“Too bad it doesn’t work that way, Spike. Please continue, Gearhead.”

“Dusk is a big Unicorn, but still much smaller than Big McIntosh. He is a nice fellow, and from his physique he must have gotten more serious about his training regimen. I have not gotten much of a chance to see what his magic is like now, but when I left he was learning Shadow and Ice Magic, two of the Conclave’s specialties. Dawn is the unusual one, although one might more accurately call her a ‘white sheep’ instead of my own title: her coat and mane are so bright that in the right light she will seem to glow, Likewise, she was having trouble with the Conclave’s usual magic when I left.”

“Maybe she relates to you because you also have had trouble with your magic.”

“Maybe, but I did not read any awkwardness or nerves when I was talking to her and her big brother.”

“So is Dusk heir to the Conclave?”

“I do not know. That was one of the things they would not tell me, not that I would have understood a matter of succession at that age.”

“What about in the Azure?”

“Prism is the oldest, and since succession is based more on merit than on bloodlines, she should get the chance to prove herself, provided she is interested. From what I know of the way foals in the Azure are raised, the majority have the most amount of interest in sticking with their flight-mates. Romantic couples even form within them.”

“Oh? Do you have any opinions on who might be better suited for Prism?”

“Sorry, but after all these years I do not know them as well as I used to. Contrail might push her past her limits, and he has a very useful magic. On the other hoof, Rook is very stable and will never let any being harm anypony within his range, especially Prism and Contrail. They both seem like great stallions, but if you ask me who the ideal match would be for the mare who was my first friend, I do not know.”

“And I guess any stallion interested in Dawn has to get past Big Brother.”

“Just like with you,”

“You’ve met Shining Armour? Eh, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised with the number of times you’ve been to Canterlot. Isn’t he great?”

“Yes, and he makes a great instructor.”

“Oh, wow! I thought Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were teaching you magic, but this makes a lot more sense, what with their royal duties.”

“Well, sometimes. It depends on who is available.”

“Would you look at the time? Fluttershy and I are going to go pay Rainbow a visit. Want to come along?”

Gearhead looked at Snowbelle, and then shook his head: she had her beak deep in a book, and did not seem likely to want to remove it. “Sorry,”

“No need to apologize. Okay, just ask Spike if you want to check out any books before I get back.” Twilight used her magic to grab a nearby board game. “Spike, are you okay looking after the library?”

“Of course you can count on me!”

“Okay. I’ll see all of you later,” Twilight said, and then left. Gearhead turned back to his book to continue reading, thinking they would keep going for another hour at most. Snowbelle’s face right in his nearly spooked him: he had not realized she had moved, so apparently she was learning how to shield her thought from him too. Gearhead raised an eyebrow.

<And who is going to make an ideal match for Twilight Sparkle?>

<I have no idea,>

<You think it is you,>

<Even if I did, the Black Sheep Clause also prevents me from actually courting any mare. And that means Twilight is safe from marrying me, even if she saw me that way, or I her.>

<But you have thought about it.>

<I am alive, so of course I have, if only fleetingly.>

<And?>

<I respect her.>

<You like her, at least as a friend. That could complicate things.>

<I am fairly certain my life is fairly complex already. If I could date, what would that extra complication amount to, in your mind?>

<I do not know yet.>

<Relax, please. I am not ever going to try to find a replacement for your mother.>

<I will believe it when I see it,>

<How? You cannot see what is not there.>

<When I continue to see that you are not getting romantic with Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, or Fluttershy.>

<Is that how you see them?>

<I see them as friends, just as you do. But it is not how we see them that concerns me. It is how they may soon come to see you, Father.>

<I doubt these mares will ever put me in a position where I have to hold them off,>

<And what about Prism and Dawn? You obviously think of them as more than friends.>

<It has been a long time, and things have changed. They have changed.>

<Yes, they have.>

<Pardon?> But Snowbelle turned back to her book, and Gearhead could not get anything more from her.

* * *

While Snowbelle napped on his bed, Gearhead went down to to the laboratory to look things over.

Thanks to periodic support from Ponyville, together with his own trips to mine resources, his stores were in good shape to support the shop’s continuing operations for the foreseeable future. He was only short a bin or two of the gemstones he would need to complete the twin-core prototype.

With the level of insight and technique he had, the single-core prototype was unlikely to become any more powerful or versatile than it already was. The leggings and hood also matched well with the level, and although Gearhead had thought about adding armour for tougher opponents, he did not like the idea of having to haul it around everywhere he went – especially since he could not tell when he would not need it.

The stabilizer would be able to cover some of that concern over a limited range, if he enlarged the engine assembly and added a condenser or two, along with the armour. That would complicate things.

He could try adding a cockpit so Snowbelle could fly the stabilizer to him, but that came with its own issues, not only about where to put the cockpit, but mainly about taking a child into what would most likely be a combat situation. Even once Snowbelle was old, wise, and mature enough to decide for herself whether she wanted to fight beside him, it would go against his private oath not to allow her to come to harm. But would even that do her any good in the long run? Gearhead had promised her mother that he would take Snowbelle to her ancestral home. If she decided to stay, he could no longer take care of her. But that was in the future. An awkward redesign of the stabilizer was more immediate.

Gearhead turned toward the duel-core prototype, almost ready for the complete assembly stage. Once it was complete he could build its stabilizer unit to fit it perfectly. Whether or not he added an armour module was a matter to consider seriously, and at length.

If Snowbelle stayed with Gearhead, and if he decided to take her into battle after all, fitting a cockpit to a unit whose design was not yet complete would be much simpler. The duel-core’s stabilizer already abandoned the ring-shaped docking system for pylons that would plug directly into both cores. This made a central cockpit much easier to add. As Gearhead reexamined the current design, he could see the possibility already there. He could also see where he could add folded armour panels, and how he might increase its power to compensate, but each compensation brought on another, until the unit was two and a half times its original size. Maybe adding armour was not worth it --

unless the armour and stabilizer started out two or three times Gearhead’s own original size! When docked with the Alicorn Engine, that would make the entire unit far less of a suit and more of a mechanized armour unit. Assuming he ever needed that much power, even the image of an oversized warrior might be just what he would need to tip the scales of battle.

Snowbelle’s involvement in future battles would be a subject they would have to discuss. While she was a child under his protection, that was something he could not condone, even with her permission. But when she got older, perhaps Gearhead would allow the situation to be a factor in the decision. In the meantime, he stood in front of the design console and made his modifications.

* * *

Hours later, loud barking tore Gearhead and Snowbelle from sleep’s comfort. Gearhead quickly grabbed his dagger and donned the Alicorn Engine, and flew outside together with Snowbelle, always one thought away from flying between her and any threat.

The barking seemed to be travelling through Ponyville. Ponies, similarly awakened from their sleep, quickly flicked their lights on and went to windows or doors to investigate.

Finally the commotion stopped in front of the library, where Twilight and Spike came out to investigate. Gearhead and Snowbelle saw Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity all converge on a point before the door.

Which was when Gearhead noticed Rainbow Dash crouched on the ground in a black catsuit. Now knowing that there was not a threat to life and limb, he landed nearby. Snowbelle perched on his head.

“I’m sorry,” Dash was saying, “I just really needed to find out how the story ended!” The hospital staff, which had chased Dash all over Ponyville, left to return to the hospital, pursuing a barking Pony Gearhead did not recognize. He did recognize that bark, though.

“You mean this is all about Daring Do and the Sapphire Statue? Wow! I knew the book was good, but I didn’t know it could drive ponies to petty theft!”

“That is bad,” Gearhead said.

“You were right, Twilight,” Dash said, pointedly ignoring Gearhead. “Daring Do is absolutely unstoppable and un-put-down-able. But I couldn’t let anypony know that I was... an egghead.”

“Rainbow, reading isn’t just for studious ponies like me and Gearhead. Anypony can do it, and nopony can say you’re any less of an athlete for enjoying the occasional read.”

“Yeah, RD. It’s no cause to be causing a ruckas,” Applejack said.

“Frakkas!” Pinkie said. “Also what she said.”

“Indeed,” Rarity said.

“If you wanted to finish the book, you didn’t have to steal it,” Twilight said, leading the others inside the library. “Like I said before, I own all of the volumes that A.K. Yearling published so far. You can borrow them anytime you like.”

“Good, because I really need to find out how it ends,” Dash said.

“And I need my beauty sleep,” Rarity said, leaving.

Twilight rolled her eyes, and then gave the book to Dash. “Um... do you mind if I borrow all of them?” The Pegasus asked.

“Alright,” Twilight giggled. “Just don’t stay up too late reading them, okay? I know you still can’t fly on that wing for awhile, but surely you don’t want to miss being able to supervise your team tomorrow morning.”

“Good point. Yeah, I definitely want to see for myself that they don’t mess up. Thanks, Twilight.”

“I need to get myself and this one back to bed,” Gearhead said, nodding up at the dragon who was still there, “but first I want to thank you for your inspiration.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“It is in part because we spoke earlier that I was thinking of possible improvements to the system, and that put me on a real roll. So thank you, Twilight.”

“You’re welcome.”

Snowbelle flopped down fully into a lying position on Gearhead’s head and neck. “Okay, we are gone,” he said. “Good night, Twilight.”

“Good night, Gearhead. Snowbelle.”

The dragon blew out a low note, startling Twilight. Spike laughed. “What?”

“It’s a dragon joke. You wouldn’t get it,” Spike said.

“What I get is that it’s bedtime, Spike.”

“Alright, I’m going.”

As Gearhead went out the door, that was the last he heard of Twilight and Spike for the night. Fluttershy, who had been waiting patiently outside the door, softly patted Snowbelle on the head, whispered ‘good night’ so softly Gearhead could hardly hear her, and then took off. After adjusting Snowbelle so she would not fall, Gearhead also lifted off, for home again.

23. Visible Hearts

Chapter 23: Visible Hearts

Fortunately, her new hobby helped Dash keep off her wings and they healed fully in short order – although it did take longer than if she had not flown while she had been trying to steal that Daring Do book. Gearhead and Snowbelle were out to return some of the volumes they had borrowed when Scootaloo ran into them as she and the other Crusaders were zipping along to school.

It would have hurt considerably more if Gearhead had not put up a Wind Barrier to break the Crusaders’ momentum first: the young Pegasus was a speeder on her scooter, even while towing her friends. As it was, the odd package Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle carried between them went flying.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Scootaloo said. “We’re sort of running late.”

“It is alright, since no one got hurt, however you really should be more careful: not everypony can evade you or shield themselves quickly enough – and with those who do have shields, you could have hurt yourself bouncing off of some of them.”

“Then we’re glad it was you,” Apple Bloom said. “Hey, got any plans for Hearts and Hooves Day?”

“What-and-what Day?”

“You’re kidding, right? This’s the day you’re supposed to take your Very Special Somepony out and show her how special she is to you. So who’re you taking. Is it Twilight?”

“Or maybe it’s my big sis,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Or don’t tell me... Fluttershy?” Scootaloo asked.

<Is this really how ponies see me?>

<Yes it is,>

Gearhead mentally rolled his eyes: he knew he could not actually date anypony as long as he was the Black Sheep, and most of the others, including members of the Elemental Six, did as well. But as far as ponies outside of their little circle were concerned, he was a completely eligible bachelor, and the fact that he was already looking out for a child just sweetened the deal. On top of that, there was the cover story for Fluttershy’s frequent presence at the shop, on the Crusaders’ behalf, to consider.

“Why do you feel the need to ask when you already know the answer?” Gearhead asked, hardly missing a beat.

“’Cause it’s fun,” Apple Bloom said. “So, where’re ya gonna take her?”

“Are you going to get a present for her? Might be a little hard, this late in the game,” Sweetie Belle said. “Chocolates and flowers might be a little cliche.”

“Are you fillies not late for something?”

“Oh, right. Everypony back on!” Scootaloo called. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle collected the package and jumped back into the wagon.

“What is that, anyway?” Gearhead asked.

“Oh, this? It’s our Hearts and Hooves Day card for Miss Cheerilee.” Apple Bloom said.

“It’s to show her how we think she’s the best teacher ever,” Sweetie Belle said.

Gearhead did some calculations in his head, based on the packages size. “It is a big card,” he said.

“Yeah, we couldn’t fit it into our original envelope,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Anyway, we’re off!” Scootaloo beat her wings, and they were gone.

After realizing that the Crusaders were correct, at least partly, Gearhead came up with a plan. He also started to notice all the couples enjoying their day together. Stallions were giving their mare-friends bouquets, chocolates and other sweets, and items like jewellery.

Sweets were not Gearhead’s style, and he believed that Fluttershy would appreciate living flowers much more than ones that had been picked. As for jewellery, he did not want to give her anything that would make others jump to the wrong conclusion, and what was more, such things were not Fluttershy’s style.

After they had returned the books to the library as planned, Gearhead and Snowbelle stopped for a quick breakfast, and then returned to the shop to get the Alicorn Engine and Gearhead’s other kit. When Gearhead put the harness on, he left the leggings in a saddlebag. Once they had all that, they flew to Fluttershy’s cottage, Snowbelle riding on Gearhead just in front of the Engine again.

The top portion of Fluttershy’s door was open, signifying that she was, indeed, home. Gearhead raised a hoof and knocked.

“Oh, good morning, Gearhead,” the Pegasus said. She was finishing up tending to an injured bird’s wing.

“Good morning. Fluttershy, would you like to spend some time with Snowbelle and me this Hearts and Hooves Day?”

“Oh my, that’s today?”

“So the Crusaders tell me,” Gearhead said.

“Ah,” Fluttershy’s wan smile was enough of an acknowledgement that she understood. Gearhead was certain she had misgivings about appearing in public, so he planned to set her at ease in a very ironic manner.

“There is a place I would like to show you, if you would be willing to accompany me. I found it while gathering resources for the shop.”

“Please don’t tell me it’s in..?” Fluttershy shrank back, and Snowbelle wrapped her wings around her head. Only Gearhead could tell that she was stiffling her laughter.

“Yes, but it will be worth it, and besides that is why I am bringing the Alicorn Engine.”

“What about Snowbelle?”

“Of the Forest’s denizens, even most of those larger than her would not dare to tangle even with a young dragon, I think. None of the airbourne ones, anyway: Snowbelle will provide overflight support for the journey. It will be good practice for her.” The young one in question chirruped in happy acknowledgement.

“How long do we need to be in the forest?”

“That depends on how long you want to stay there, once we get to our destination. It should only take about twenty minutes to get there.”

“That’s not as far as the Castle,”

“We will be flying,”

“Oh?”

“Are you willing to come along?”

“Well, if you think it’ll be safe,”

“I do,”

“Okay then. I’ll try not to get too scared.”

“Not to worry: Snowbelle and I will be right there with you.”

“Should I pack anything?”

“Snowbelle and I have that covered,” Gearhead grinned.

* * *

Once it was clear that they would be flying above the Everfree Forest most of the way to their destination, Fluttershy surprised Gearhead and Snowbelle by gliding gracefully and powerfully right alongside them, even as they dared to push their speed to greater heights, albeit only increasing it very slowly. Fluttershy was more than happy to see the Forest from the trees’ tallest heights.

Gearhead decided to make the flight more exciting by performing a little aerial acrobatics for his two companions. He looped and spiralled, flipped and spun, often passing within wing’s reach, the particles from the Engine surrounding them all. Snowbelle pretended to eat the turquoise points of light, which made Fluttershy giggle.

Finally Gearhead pulled up beside Fluttershy, the show finished for now. “We can go down here, and it is only a little further on.”

“Okay,” Fluttershy said, still giddy.

Gearhead led the way, still not at full-throttle so he would not lose anyone. He banked slightly left as he descended, and Fluttershy followed on his wing. Snowbelle flew in more sharply so she passed both ponies and disappeared through the foliage first. In only a few more of Fluttershy’s wingbeats, she and Gearhead were also heading through.

Before Gearhead led Fluttershy out from the cover the trees offered, he heard Snowbelle call out in a clear, bird-like voice. That was the all-clear signal. Just like that he knew there were not any threatening predators nearby. They emerged and descended several meters before continuing on a northeastern course.

“Oh, there she is,” Fluttershy said, pointing out Snowbelle as she flew near the leafy ceiling provided by the trees.

“Overflight, as I said. And she can easily land on one of the branches if she needs to rest.”

“From how far away can she call if she needs help?”

“Further than we have ever gone from each other,” Gearhead said. “Come on, Fluttershy. This would be most impressive at sunrise or sunset, but during the day is still the safest.”

“Oh, right.”

Fluttershy continued to follow Gearhead through and above the trees and brush. Looking nervously around, she spotted some of the landbound creatures that called this place home, and was glad to be out of their reach.

After a couple more minutes, Gearhead called out “eye forward.” Fluttershy barely managed to focus ahead before they went into a thick treeline. She manoeuvred frantically to avoid crashing, instinctively following the points of light she still saw from the Engine. Gearhead made sure to go slow enough not to lose the mare in the trees.

Suddenly the green and brown tones gave way to vibrant blues, purples, reds, golds, and pinks. The flying trio emerged from the thick stand of trees to find a small meadow filled with flowers, from small buds to great orchids. Fluttershy was shocked at the profusion of colourful plant life, and showed it on her face and because she was barely remembering to flap her wings to remain airbourne. There were so many flowers, there could barely be any room in which to set down!

“This way,” Gearhead said, touching one of her forelegs with his own hoof and breaking the spell. He led the way to the middle of the clearing, where there was one flower that was larger than the others, resulting in the largest patch of bare, bright green grass.

There was so little grass that, standing side-by-side, Gearhead and Fluttershy had barely any space at all between them and the big flower. When Fluttershy looked up at it, she saw bright pink wings shot through with blue and green streaks. The flower’s petals, she realized, resembled a butterfly’s wings!

Fluttershy was not normally outspoken, Gearhead knew. He also knew that this clearing would impress her, assuming he ever found a reason to bring her through the Everfree Forest to see it. Now, of course, he had found a reason, or rather the Crusaders had given it to him. Nonetheless, Fluttershy’s silent awe was more than enough reward for the stallion as he watched her look all around, watching the flowers bloom toward the sun that filtered between the branches high above them.

Fluttershy sighed and sat down, her body right up against Gearhead’s, so suddenly that he nearly startled. “It’s amazing,” she said softly, looking up at him. “Now I know why you thought I might want to stay.”

“I did not think it would impress you this much, though.”

“But I am, really. I wonder how all this grew here, though?”

“This is the Everfree Forest. Who can say what kinds of wonders grow here, or why? All I know is that this place seems to cultivate different sorts of magic.”

“It really is magical. Thank you for bringing me here.”

Gearhead thought of all sorts of things he could say to try to sound cool or impressive. Not my style, he decided. “You are most welcome,” he said instead.

Fluttershy smiled, and sighed in satisfaction. Gearhead also sat down, and they watched the flowers together. When they left the glade later, he knew what he wanted to make for her.

* * *

Now that Fluttershy had been to the glade, she was far more comfortable and relaxed flying back to Ponyville. The result was that she was willing to try to fly some of Gearhead’s tricks with him once they were above the trees again. When Snowbelle joined in, their ballet became a fluid three-piece melody.

One of their loops near the edge of the forest gave Gearhead a good look at Ponyville, although it was a fair distance away. When he thought he saw something strange reflected in the image he saw in his goggles, he zoomed in and refocused. Trying to get a better look in real-time, he climbed for a better vantage point even as he and the others continued to close on Ponyville. Fluttershy and Snowbelle had to struggle to keep up.

“What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked.

<Father, I am getting tired.>

“There is something kicking up dust in Ponyville proper. It could be troublesome, especially if nopony has addressed it yet. Snowbelle, land on me. I am going to push the Engine to get over there quickly.”

“What should I do?” Fluttershy asked.

“We have already been flying for some time, so do not push yourself. I will take care of damage control for whatever is going on, and then we will see if you should go get help. Since we are past the border with the forest, we should all now be safe from its threats. Is that alright?”

“You’re not going to tell me to land and rest?”

“You know your limits best, Fluttershy. Trust yourself.”

“Okay,”

“Hang on tight, Snowbelle. I am going straight to full throttle.”

Snowbelle trilled in acknowledgement. Gearhead aimed upwards as he poured on the speed, so he would not catch Fluttershy in his wake and drag her along. He looped around, at altitude, and headed for whatever was producing the dust plume. It only took a few seconds, and then he had to decelerate.

If he had not seen it for himself, Gearhead would not have believed what was happening: all this trouble was being created by a single stallion, who was somehow managing to drag Berry Punch’s house after him on a rope as he hopped down the street. Apple Bloom had thrown herself around the big stallion’s neck, but none of this was slowing Big McIntosh down at all. Gearhead went in for a landing.

“What is going on?” Gearhead asked Big Mac, even as he kept pace. The other stallion did not answer.

“I’ll explain later,” Apple Bloom said. “You gotta help me stop my big brother from looking into Miss Cheerilee’s eyes for a couple more minutes. Please!”

“That sounds like...” Gearhead shifted focus. Indeed, there was a heavy pink and purple aura obscuring Big Mac’s usual earthy aura.

<Magic,> Snowbelle confirmed.

<Losing his traction should stop this madness,>

Snowbelle howled, leaping into the air. She flew around so that she was a few meters directly in front of the oncoming stallion, and unleashed an icy blast at the ground at his hooves. The Dragon continued her blast in a tight spiral, and the icy quickly spread. Big Mac fell on his flank, and since the house he was dragging was still on regular ground he did not have the traction to keep pulling it when he got back up.

Big Mac did not need the traction, though, as the rope snapped, the energy sending him forward again. “Apple Bloom, get clear!” Gearhead shouted.

“Huh?” The filly noticed Gearhead crouched in casting position, dagger held in his tail. While Snowbelle had been trying to slow Big Mac down by putting ice on the road, Gearhead had gone ahead with his own tactic just in case. Apple Bloom jumped free of her brother, executing a nice flip as she did so.

Let us see if you can pull free of this, Gearhead thought as he finished his incantation. “Magica Sagitta centem et unus Aer Capis!” Gearhead’s silvery Wind Arrows blossomed forth from their magic circle and climbed, so he could make them rain down on Big Mac from above, gaining equal anchoring strength from points all around him. Big Mac struggled against the binding chains that held him back, all the while calling out pet names that made Gearhead cringe at the top of his considerable voice.

And somepony answered back. Cheerilee came charging out of Carousel Boutique wearing a wedding veil. In her distress and distraction, she did not notice the pit that Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had dug, but which Gearhead had picked up with an unshod hoof as soon as it touched the ground. “Oh,” he said.

And then Big Mac broke free of the magical restraints all around him. Reflexively, Gearhead reached out with his Geomancy and wrapped him in stone and earth before sinking him into the street up to his barrel. “I have never seen such pure physical strength,” he said.

“Well, you know, love poisons make ya do crazy things,” Apple Bloom said, laughing sheepishly.

“Love poison? That is a big miss to make,” Gearhead said. Big Mac finally stopped struggling.

“Huh?” He blinked. “Apple Bloom, what the hay is goin’ on here?”

“You don’t feel like marryin’ Miss Cheerilee anymore, Big Bro?”

“Marry?” The land-sunk stallion snorted. “I ain’t ready for that.”

“He is back to normal,” Gearhead confirmed before returning him to the street’s surface, and the street back to its normal condition. Fluttershy arrived in time to help Cheerilee get out of the pit.

“So,” Gearhead said, “what was all this about?”

“When we heard Miss Cheerilee didn’t have a special somepony to spend Hearts and Hooves Day with, we decide that pony should be you, Big Mac,” Apple Bloom said.

“Only instead of a love potion, we slipped up and gave you a love poison.” Sweetie Belle said.

“We’re really sorry,” Scootaloo said. “Our hearts and hooves were in the right place, but we should never have meddled.”

“That’s fine, isn’t it?” Fluttershy asked.

“No, I think the punishment should be more fitting,” Cheerilee said. “Mac, what would you say to letting these fillies do your chores for a week?”

“Sounds like a good lesson, Eri.”

“Wait, what’s with that naming?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“If you’d paid closer attention, you’d have noticed that Mac and I are old friends. If we saw each other as romantic possibilities, we would already be together, although we both have jobs with big responsibilities, too. All the same, Mac, if the girls will be doing your work, that means you’ll have some more free time for awhile. What do you think of getting tea or something for old time’s sake?”

“Sounds good to me,” Big Mac chuckled as he and Cheerilee started to walk away from the baffled fillies.

“What just happened?” Scootaloo asked.

“You just reunited a pair of old friends,” Fluttershy said.

“Hey! There you are, Gear. Been looking everywhere for you!” Gearhead knew that voice, and somepony had called him by that nickname just recently. The Pegasus mare confirmed Gearhead’s suspicion by landing where Big Mac had been standing earlier. She was wearing her navy blue flight suit, which meant she was on-duty.

“What are you doing in Ponyville, Prism?”

“Cele, and here I thought you’d be happy to see me. But nevermind that: come back to the shop and see!” Prism took off again. “Well? Hurry it up!” She said as she circled once. Gearhead shrugged to Fluttershy, lowered his goggles over his eyes, and lifted off too, gesturing for Fluttershy to follow.

“I’ve flown more and faster today than the past three months!” She stage-gasped to the Crusaders before she followed suit.

* * *

Gearhead wondered where they were heading as they flew above the town toward the Everfree Forest, but only until they came within sight of the shop. As they came in to land, he noticed the chariot parked near the front door. Rook and Contrail stood on either side of the stallion waiting with a patient expression, standing between the chariot and the door.

“Father!” Gearhead landed and quickly hugged the older stallion.

“I see I’ve managed to surprise you after all,” Father chuckled as he returned Gearhead’s embrace. “I rarely get to do that.”

“I was expecting notice from the Council, not a personal visit. But still, it is great to see you.”

“I wish I had gotten such a warm reception,” Prism said, slipping her hood from her head and shaking her mane out.

“I am not generally a hugger, but I make exceptions for close family,” Gearhead said as Snowbelle landed. She put more of her weight on his left shoulder, and coiled her tail around his leg. Gearhead reached up with the same leg and patted her on the head, centering both their weight perfectly.

“And who is this cutie?” Father asked.

“She is my daughter, Snowbelle.”

“Daughter?!” Father’s jaw dropped.

“When did this happen, you sneaky little so-and-so?” Prism asked, pushing her nose right into Gearhead’s face. He heard Snowbelle laughing at him mentally.

“He obviously adopted her,” Rook said. “It’s not as though such a thing could really happen with a Dragon, but still, right?”

“Yeah,” Contrail said. “Nice going, Gearhead. Takes real stones to be raising a Dragon.”

“She is a good girl, though,” Gearhead said, and Snowbelle chirped.

“Doesn’t talk much, huh?” Prism asked, examining Snowbelle more closely. The Dragon preened.

“She talks plenty, at least to me. We are linked.”

“Ah, so it’s like imprinting,” Father said. “Okay then, I guess we don’t have to worry so much if you bring her back to the farm?”

“Most probably not, although I do not know whether maturing Arctic Dragons can also affect the weather. Moreover I promised her mother to take her to her ancestral home when I can. In the meantime, I am raising her.”

“That, at least, is a more straightforward matter,” Father said.

“In other words, you have something more complex that brought you here,” Gearhead said as Fluttershy landed.

“I do. And who is this cutie?”

“She was with him when I spotted them in town,” Prism said. “On Hearts and Hooves Day, no less.” Fluttershy blushed and pawed nervously at the ground.

“Father, this is Fluttershy. She is my closest neighbour, and a dear friend. Today she is my Special Somepony.”

“Aww, I missed my chance,” Prism said.

“Fluttershy, this is my father, Verdant Redwood. You have already met Prism Azure, the first friend I have. These are her Flight-mates, Rook Sapphire and Contrail Blue.”

“Umm... pleased to meet you...”

“Aww, she’s so shy and cute,” Contrail said. “Sorta like somepony else we know.”

“Con, behave yourself!” Prism said. “Sorry about all that stuff earlier, Fluttershy. We all just like to tease Gear over there. I promise me and my stallions’ll be on our best behaviour from now on.”

“So the teasing’s over?” Contrail asked, while Rook chuckled.

“Yes. Time to get down to business,” Father said. “Can we take this discussion inside, son?”

“Oh, yes of course.” Gearhead unlocked the door and led the way up to his living quarters. Father gave him the opportunity to remove his gear, and everyone got as comfortable as they could around the little table that Gearhead used for meals.

“Before we get to official business, what part will your friend here play?” Father asked, looking at Fluttershy.

Gearhead exchanged a glance with the pink-maned Pegasus. “What I do affects Ponyville’s interests, so maybe she could represent the town. Unless you want me to try calling Twilight Sparkle in to represent Princess Celestia as her protegee?”

Father chuckled. “Your brother would not react well to that, but then again he might use it to disqualify these proceedings. A friend who is less directly associated with the Crown’s powers will do.”

“I had not thought of that,” Gearhead said. “So we want these proceedings to work?”

“I do think they are to your advantage, yes. So lets get to it. The official reason why I’m here is as a prospective employee.”

“Hah,” Gearhead blinked “You are not joking. Why are you not joking?”

“Basically, the Herd has grown too used to your financial support. Council decided to create an infrastructure of accountability surrounding your current role. If you accept the Contract of Employment, that infrastructure will be in place to support you, and you will be working directly for me, the Patriarch.”

“But why the officialese? Why not leave things as they are?”

“Because Council does not like the instability that would come from long, unexplained absences on your part, but also because your brother’s behaviour is growing more aggressive toward you.”

“He just tried to caution me against close ties to the Princesses,” Gearhead said. “Before I came back here, I mean.”

“A large portion of Council are traditionalists who agree with him. This means you need to be careful, and it also means that the Black Sheep Clause no longer provides you with the protection you will need.”

“You think this contract will do that,”

“Yes, and unfortunately if I try to give you protection through the Council’s legislative processes, it’ll look like I’m favouring you more than it has already. Vines put me in a precarious position when he hijacked Council before, so I don’t have any leeway left. I have to move through the official channels that already exist, otherwise it’s up to you to position yourself.”

“Okay. What are the Conditions of Contract I should know?”

“You’re in the unique position of paying your own way, even though you’re about to go from ‘self-employed’ to ‘full-time employee.’ Like I said, I will be Herd Verdant’s representative as your employer. What I didn’t mention is that your wages will come directly from your earnings at Gearhead’s Gadgets, just as they did before. You will still be providing everything, and you will still be sending a large portion of your earnings to the Herd. But the amount and method will be different. You will also be gaining a contractual benefit, which means that you must make use of it. And speaking of amounts, could I get a look at your books before we continue?”

“Certainly,” Gearhead said. He got up and retrieved his financial records from a locked cabinet. They were contained in three-ring binders, each representing one year of business. He set three of them down in front of Father, then turned to get more.

“This will more than suffice,” Father said. He opened the binder containing the records from the current year and flipped rapidly through the pages. Next he quickly perused the previous year’s binder before going back to the first binder, scanning the figures more thoroughly. “These match up with our own accounting of your finances, including the gems Vines convinced Council to return. This won’t give him any ammunition, which is definitely in your favour.

“To get directly to the central parts of the contract, the amount of profits that you would be sending to the Herd would be lowered from ninety percent to seventy-five percent. We will also change the method from courier-delivered gold to money orders processed through the Bank of Equestria.”

“I thought Council wanted to reduce ties with the Crown, but they want to go through the Bank? Not to mention, why are they cutting my contribution back?”

“The Herd’s gotten too reliant on your finances. Also, we want to prove that you and I together aren’t trying to manipulate the system to make you my successor.”

“Are we not?”

“Maybe, but if we are we’ll do it all nice and legal, that way not even your brother can complain. You’ll need Council’s full support, so we need to convince them there’s no favouritism going on.

“As to why we’ll be using the Bank, it’s simpler, more streamlined, and safer. If the rumours of an increase in banditry is true, the Crown may change the laws to limit the amount of gold its couriers can carry, which means you’d have to hire multiple couriers, and send them out with your gold separately. And since bandits could ambush the couriers anywhere on the long road between Ponyville and Verdant Fields, using three or four couriers is not a guarantee of safe delivery at all. Provided bandits are lying in wait, of course.

“With the money order method, all you have to do is go to the Bank of Equestria branch in Canterlot and have one of the tellers process 75% of your monthly earnings as a money order, taking the fee out of that amount. The Bank will send the money order, which is only a piece of paper without the right signage, to the branch in Hoofington. The Hoofington branch will add its stamp, and your mother or I will come personally to get and process the money order. This is where the Bank will turn it back into gold, which your mother or I will then deposit into the Herd’s account. Speaking of accounts, we will also ask you to open up one of your own, where we will place any overage that might occur, accidentally or otherwise.

“The Herd knows that since you operate Gearhead’s Gadgets, and retrieve your resources yourself, you practically do not have any overhead at all. Using little money, you have been living modestly to this point, which is admirable. However, Council is uncomfortable with the possibility you’re pushing yourself too far, as evidenced by the Princesses pushing you to go on vacation. Whatever Council is uncomfortable with is ammunition for Vines to shoot down any possibility of you ever earning your way out of being the Black Sheep. Naturally you can use your quarter of your profits the way you want, however Council wants it known that they suggest you use some of it to at least hire on a shopkeeper to help you out.”

“I just remembered that Fluttershy and Twilight have helped me on occasion,” Gearhead said.

“Well then, you have great friends. The contract will allow you to pay them for their help from now on, too.”

“That’s not necessary,” Fluttershy said, quietly waving the suggestion off. “I can’t speak for Twilight, but I’m always glad to be helpful.”

“I’m happy to hear it, because that’s the core of what the entire Verdant believes as well. My son here has been trying his hardest to be helpful ever since he got his name, so I’d like to ask for your help, as well as the help of your other friends, to reign him in when he goes overboard again.”

“’When?’ What faith you have in me, Father.” This brought some laughter to the table, and Fluttershy blushed.

“Getting back to business, unfortunately,” Father said, “Council is giving you two and a half week’s worth of vacation per solar year. Any unused hours get carried over to the following year, and must be completely used on every fourth year.”

“That is a lot of time away from the shop,” Gearhead said.

“I think it’s a nice compromise between two weeks and a full moon,” Father said. “Anyway, Council wants to make it clear that you have to use all your vacation hours every three years. They’d probably prefer it if you used them all up every year.”

“What about the 177 days I used this year?”

“Wiped clean, in exchange for no additional vacation over a trial period of the next year. The Speaker basically decided to excuse your unexpected vacation based on your ten years of very solid service and the fortune you’ve already contributed to the Herd, but Council also insisted that the conditions in the contract be negotiated to limit such things happening in the future. And I agree: ten or more years of service is more than anypony should be able to ask of anypony else.”

“You do not take breaks on the farm,”

“Yes we do: we can’t farm anything through the snow, at least not if they’re not minerals from the caverns. But those can’t be taken to market as long as there’s snow and ice either. The only difference between you and those who farm is that our vacations get defined by the weather. Heck, ours are longer than yours.”

“I withdraw my objection,”

“Good. Talking about farming rocks reminded me that maybe we can contribute some of those to your resources as well. Verdant minerals going into your gadgets could be good marketing, on top of just making good sense. I’ll look into that, and maybe if it works out you won’t have to go mining so often.”

Gearhead almost did a double-take when he noticed the relief on Fluttershy’s face. He had not realized she was still so concerned about him going into the Everfree Forest, despite being so well armed. He would have to ask her about that.

“That sounds favourable,”

“Good, because that’s it. That’s the contract.”

“Really? Where is the Vines touch?”

“Every limit is one of his suggestions,” Father said. “It speaks to his growing influence in the Council. Hopefully, though, we can turn this to our advantage and put him off his game.”

“If you are comfortable with giving Vines so much, then I will agree with the terms.”

“In that case, all you have to do is sign and you can consider yourself working for me. Just like you would be if you were on the farm.”

Gearhead smiled. “I like that,” he said, signing the contract.

“In that case, welcome to the employ of Verdant Redwood, Thirdson Gearhead.”

“Thank you, Father.”

After giving Father and the others a tour of the shop, Gearhead had the bright idea of introducing them to Ponyville as well. First, though, he drew Father aside where the others could not hear. “I really do thank you for coming out here and giving me the opportunity to provide some input on the contract, but there is something I must confess to you,” Gearhead said.

“You’re in love with Fluttershy?” Father said with a wry grin.

“I am being serious,” Gearhead said, deadpan.

“So am I, and quite honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if my guess is true, even though we both know you can’t make if official until you find a way to farm.”

“Father, I cannot help feeling as though the contract is more a reward than a punishment, and I feel guilty because I lied to the Speaker and to everypony else to protect what I have of a reputation.”

“What do you mean, son?”

“I did not actually go on vacation,” Gearhead said, and then he told Father about his accidental transformation into Dusty. Father kept his expression neutral as he listened, asking questions to clarify points that Gearhead would have preferred were left vague. There were certain aspects of the tale that Gearhead left out entirely, but they were not relevant to his experiences or efforts from that time.

When Gearhead was done, Father was silent and pensive for a few minutes, having exhausted all of his questions. “Well, one thing’s for sure: turning yourself into an Alicorn is definitely a heck of a trip,” Father finally said, grinning. “I almost wish I could do it myself.”

“It is not as though I could control it happening. If I could have stopped it, I would have.”

“Even knowing the lessons you drew from the experiences?”

That gave Gearhead cause to pause and think. “Well, no.”

“Well then, that was all for the good since it helped you. And I would call it a vacation.” Father turned serious. “Thank you for having the courage to tell me. You do realize that your mother and sister can never find out about this, right?”

“I would not dream of telling them,”

“I mean, you turned huggable and they weren’t around to take advantage!”

“Please do not remind me,” Gearhead groaned.

“Anyway, is that all you felt guilty about?”

“Yes,”

“And now? How do you feel?”

“Much better, thank you.”

“By the way, about Fluttershy: you may want to consider her more seriously, unless you have another candidate for a potential wife.”

“Father!”

“I’m serious, Gearhead. Once you get rid of the Black Sheep title, you’ll be more likely to succeed me as Patriarch than Vines. On top of that, you’re already fairly well off and will become even wealthier as you continue to invent and sell gadgets. You, my son, are about to become the most eligible bachelor from Western Equestria. The fact you’re already caring for a child just makes you more attractive.”

“Taking care of Snowbelle is different from raising a foal,”

“The mares won’t know that. You’ll need to be prepared for them to come running, because believe me when I say that they know no bounds when it comes to getting their stallion. The best way to handle it is to choose for yourself.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“Oh, I wish I could claim that. It was your mother who forced her way through all the other mares. She is unstoppable when she wants something, or someone.”

“Oh,”

“Not ‘oh.’ This is serious. If I’d wanted to marry somepony like Fluttershy and somepony like Prism came charging in the way your mother did, I’d have been unable to stop her. Now, I did fall in love with your mother, but if I had already been in love with another mare, that would have hurt everypony involved. Making a clear choice in front of your prospective suitors may be the nicest thing you can do, even though it will hurt some ponies’ feelings. Make your choice, before somepony else makes it for you.”

“I am not saying I am in love, but I think I understand what you are saying.”

“Then lets get back to the others. I’m looking forward to meeting all your friends.”

As it turned out, the others were ecstatic to meet Gearhead’s father, especially Pinkie Pie. Dash was almost as pumped to meet Prism Flight and be able to talk shop with fellow-flyers. Soon they were talking about racing, and Gearhead heard Prism mention Gearhead’s proposed add-on to the Alicorn Engine. Which of course, led to Dash and Prism both insisting that the three of them race.

As the sun set, Princess Celestia and Luna appeared. “We will take charge of this race,” Luna said.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Gearhead said, but now the excitement Prism and Dash felt had become unstoppable.

* * *

Princess Celestia and Luna chose a familiar venue for the race: the stadium where the Wonderbolts held their derbies. The sight of it made Gearhead groan, because he doubted there was enough track for him to reach the Engine’s full speed even without the stabilizer. All the same, the princesses had insisted that he bring it along for use during the race. They were allowing it to happen that same night by bringing all the pieces together through teleportation magic.

Gearhead got set on the outside track. He was wearing his leggings and hood together with the unlocked Alicorn Engine. Snowbelle sat up in the stands between the princesses, the stabilizer ready in flight mode in front of her. Prism was in the middle track, and Dash had the inside track.

Besides their Ponyville friends, the princess, and Snowbelle there were very few spectators. Father, Rook, and Contrail were there, but so were Spitfire and Soarin’ of the Wonderbolts. Princess Celestia nodded to Spitfire when everything was finally ready.

“Alright, you scrubs,” Spitfire shouted, “listen closely ‘cause I’m going over the rules of the race! You will be flying one hundred laps of the track, switching tracks halfway through to equalize the distance. This will be a perfectly clean race, so no hitting or cutting off. You’ll gain honour according to your performance. Questions?”

“Are special moves and tricks allowed?” Dash asked.

“As long as they don’t interfere with the race, yes, you can use all the tricks at your disposal, Miss Dash.”

“Alright!”

“Since everypony’s ready, lets get to it. Over to you, Princess.”

“I will give the start signal,” Luna said.

“On your mark,” Princess Celestia said, and she started to count down from ten. On the track beside him, Prism and Dash started to stretch and flex, warming up for launch. Gearhead spun up his turbine, spinning his turquoise particles out behind him while he kept a firm grip on his place. When Princess Celestia reached ‘one,’ Luna unleashed a single magic blast that exploded into a shower of fireworks over the middle of the stadium. Prism was first off the starting line, with Dash nanoseconds behind. As the boom from Luna’s signal started to fade, Gearhead launched too.

The Alicorn Engine allowed Gearhead to accelerate faster than the Pegasi, but even as he started to close the distance he found out that the race would not be as simple as he had first thought, with both Prism and Dash flying faster than he had previously seen them go. Well, they were not going to let their abilities stand still, being serious athletes. Gearhead continued to push his speed up.

“It’s something else,” Gearhead heard Dash say to Prism as he got closer, “racing against you for real.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve seen that recording too,”

“Oh yeah!” Dash crowed. “Now let me show you something: why they call me ‘Rainbow Dash.” The two mares came out of the turn ahead of Gearhead. He saw Dash pushing forward, and into the envelope created by the magi-sound barrier. Mere beats later, she blasted forward on an explosion of light and sound. Prism and Gearhead held steady against the shockwave as Dash pulled away.

“Not bad, Dash. Lets see how long you can keep it up,” Prism said, also accelerating. She did not achieve Sonic Rainboom speeds, but Gearhead bet she was trading a higher, temporary speed for a middle speed she could endure longer. Gearhead would have liked to use Prism’s slipstream to keep up, but she was in a different track. Still, he accelerated.

<The princesses are sending the stabilizer now,> Snowbelle said.

<I wish they would not, but then they are sponsoring this,> Gearhead said. <Alright, I am ready.> The distance the stabilizer had to travel was a short one. It came in from above, lining up with Gearhead’s track, and fell in behind him. As soon as the guidance lasers aligned, the stabilizer went into Docking Mode, and Gearhead had to hold steady. That changed as soon as the stabilizer was locked in.

Particles streaming thickly from the stabilizer’s wings to make them seem larger, Gearhead leaped forward orders faster than his previous speed. He had to focus very tightly on maintaining control, and even found that he had to decelerate through the turns to avoid crashing into a barrier. Then he accelerated as sharply as he could down the straightaway before he had to brake again. He really could not reach his stop speed on the track!

Gearhead quickly found a pace that suited the race better than going all-out, so he would not have to accelerate or brake so roughly. Dash’s Rainboom had worn off long ago, so that even though she had nearly gained a full lap’s worth of lead on Gearhead, he and Prism were rapidly eating away at that distance. All three racers were completing laps in under fifteen seconds.

Gearhead saw Prism and Dash directly ahead of him. The mares grew larger in his view as he got closer, and then in a moment worthy of the archives, all three were perfectly even. That moment seemed to last longer as they looked into each other’s eyes. It ended when Prism passed Dash, and Gearhead passed Prism.

“Oh no you don’t!” Dash called, and even though it had not been that long since she had first done it, she pushed against the sonic barrier again.

As Gearhead pulled further and further ahead of Prism, he could feel her focus on him. Her competitive spirit was unyielding as she refused to slow down. According to Gearhead’s HUD, she even sped up a bit, pushing herself past her previous limits. Dash did similarly, initiating a second Sonic Rainboom.

When matched against the stabilized Alicorn Engine, the Sonic Rainboom was only slightly faster, however Dash had unreal cornering ability, so she could fly at her full speed without worrying about crashing. Gearhead realized that she could outperform him as long as she had the boost from the Rainboom. Fortunately for him it did not last for long. Just as unfortunately, Prism could maintain her speed for the rest of the race.

As Luna touched off the signal for the halfway point, the racers were once again nearly even. Dash and Gearhead quickly swapped tracks, and Gearhead grimaced as he went through the first turn, nearly blacking out. There are more G-forces on the inside track! He realized that he needed to slow down, or the collisions he went through if he ignored this warning and blacked out on every turn would cost him more than he would gain. This gave Prism and Dash the opportunity either would need to win.

As the number of laps remaining shrank, Gearhead realized he had little choice but to choose when he would push himself beyond his own limits. The turns were no good, of course, since they would put him through too many G’s. That left the straightaways. Although Gearhead could only accelerate and brake a limited number of times before the race ended, he would still have to choose when he made his move, and when he held back due to the forces that each speed change would put on himself and his rig.

Gearhead decided to start with a little experiment, and accelerate in bursts once a lap. Fortunately he was able to withstand the forces, and none of the Engine’s alarms went off. He moved it up to accelerating after every other turn. Gearhead heard another boom, and realized Dash was using another Rainboom, and shrinking his lead again.

With Prism, Gearhead, and Dash all pushing themselves and breaking their limits over and over again, the remaining laps shrunk more quickly than ever before. They came even one more time, after which Prism pulled ahead of Dash. Gearhead struggled to keep up, and then they were in the last straightaway. They all sprinted.

Prism never achieved Sonic Rainboom speeds, but she came very close, leaving her neck-in-neck with Dash for awhile.

Dash herself rode her last Rainboom most of the way to the finish line, but the frequency with which she had used her favourite technique meant that this one did not last as long as the others. Where she had been pulling slowly ahead of Prism, the other Pegasus was suddenly pulling ahead much quicker. Despite knowing that second place was the best she could do, Dash still pushed herself as hard as she could.

Since he did not have to worry about crashing into a wall, Gearhead could finally let loose with 300% power, thanks to the stabilizer. He made one last check of the systems to ensure they could withstand the full force themselves, and then he deployed a particle field around himself so he would be able to survive. Once all that was done, he used his burst acceleration technique again, and focused entirely ahead of himself.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The acceleration was so fierce that Gearhead felt it when he punched through the barriers. His vision blurred at the edges despite his goggles, and then his HUD was blaring warnings about the wall with which he was rapidly closing. Gearhead pulled up and decelerated as quickly as he could.

As Gearhead rejoined Dash and Prism in the winner’s circle, Dash rushed up. “That was awesome!” She said, and then she collapsed to the ground. “I’m exhausted,” she said.

“Are you kidding me?” Prism asked, flopping down beside her new friend. “You ran me ragged the whole race. And you,” she said, looking at Gearhead, “I’ve gotta admit that when it comes to power you and your gizmos’ve definitely got me beat.”

“Eh?” Gearhead collapsed as well, the stress of all those Gs finally catching up.

“You mean you don’t know?” Dash asked.

“You won!” Prism said.

“Congratulations, all of you,” Princess Celestia said.

“That was a fantastic performance,” Luna added. “One that my sister and I believe has made everyone here stronger.”

“You three!” Spitfire marched up. Her manner inspired the others to struggle to attention.

“Uh-oh, she looks steamed,” Dash said.

“Nice work,”

“Huh?”

“I’m extending an invitation to all three of you: I’d be happy to have you join me and the others for a session at Wonderbolts Academy.”

“Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!”

“I’ll accept on one condition, Captain,”

“What’s that, Flight Lead?”

“Oh, so you know,”

“Of course. The rest of your Flight is also invited.”

“Awesome! I mean, I accept your invitation.”

“And you?” Spitfire asked, turning to Gearhead.

“I am not a Pegasus,”

“Lets call it ‘special dispensation,’”

“I am honoured.”

“Alright!” Dash said.

“You know what this means,” Pinkie said. “It’s party time!”

As the party wound down, Gearhead asked Princess Celestia to lend him one of Canterlot Castle’s forges. Luna even gave him some gemstones that fit the requirements for what he wanted to create. Before everypony went to bed as guests in the palace, he was able to give Fluttershy a little present: a hairclip in the likeness of a certain pink flower. He did it discretely, but Gearhead was certain that there were ponies who were watching.

24. For My Friends

Chapter 24: For My Friends

He called it ‘the Hangar.’ A massive room as deep underground as Gearhead could excavate using his Geomancy, it had all the room he would need, and more, to construct any large vehicles he believed he could design. In order to accommodate all those possibilities, its ceiling stood ten storeys high, and the room itself had the size of an official gaming arena. At the depth where it stood, mostly beneath the Laboratory, it was easier to supply geothermal power than wind and water power through the shop’s windmill and waterwheel.

Gearhead sat back from inspecting the parts that his automated assembly system was putting together. With the blueprints, schematics, and statistics uploaded to the central computing unit, he should not have to worry about putting this mechanical monstrosity together himself. Of course, he would still use Read to ensure the quality of each piece and fit. It would be devastating if it all fell apart or exploded. Fortunately it all seemed to be functioning as planned. That meant that Gearhead could focus on raising Snowbelle, operating the shop, and tending to his friends.

If everything came together at the end of all this, he would have the method by which he could deliver Snowbelle to the Crystal Mountains and her birth family. He was sad that they might have to part, but this was part of the promise he had made. He would continue to treasure his bond with Snowbelle, even if she decided to stay with the other Arctic Dragons. And he would still have much to do with his friends here, and his family at Verdant Fields.

Thinking of his family, Gearhead considered his new contract again. The terms clearly favoured him more than his employer, Father. Yet if Father became unable to fulfill his duties for whatever reason, Vines would have to step in as Successor. That meant that even though the contract did not name the Patriarch specifically as Gearhead’s employer, if Father was unable to do his duty as that employer, the role would default to Vines. From there, Vines could propose whatever changes he wanted to the Council, and from what Father had told Gearhead, Vines had the traditionalists’ backing.

If Vines changed the terms so they were severely unfair to Gearhead, the Council might not act to block him based on the terms of the Black Sheep Clause. That same piece of legislation could be Gearhead’s lifeline, but he would have to be careful: if Gearhead protested the unfair terms, the protest would go to the Council, and any further changes would still be under their control. And if Vines forced Gearhead to quit the Contract, the Council could expel him from the Herd, preventing him from earning his way out of the Black Sheep title – the Clause was both shield and sword here.

Quitting would be preferable over existing under terms that would cause him suffering for the rest of his days. Gearhead would not be a Verdant, but he could still send financial support to those who had supported him. That was if the Council forgot that the Clause prevented them from forcefully exiling him.

Of course, all of this was moot as long as Father was in good health. Family was as important to Vines as it was to Gearhead, so the younger brother knew that the eldest Verdant sibling would not do anything to harm Father, or at least not on purpose, and not of his own free will. The Contract merely gave Gearhead some vacation time, as well as 150% more money per month than he’d had previously.

Gearhead had a pretty good idea of how to use all that extra gold: he was going to bid for defence contracts with the Principality of Equestria: they would send him materials, and those materials would go into all of the devices that he would eventually deploy to defend all the land and the ponies who lived there. The resources would go into every new innovation on the Alicorn Engine and its stabilizer units, into the multi-purpose vessel he was building now, and into the defensive version of the Alicorn Engine he was still developing. And of course, the ideas would not stop coming. There would be more ways in which Gearhead could help protect everyone, and it would all start here.

Fortunately for all the progress Gearhead was already making, he did not have to wait until he had even drawn up the contract he was going to present to Princess Celestia and Luna: while safely excavating the earth to make enough room for the Hangar, Gearhead had found large deposits of metals, gemstones, and other resources he could use. He had even found fossilized plant and animal materials. Coal was something he could sell to the railway company. As for the sticky, gooey black stuff, there were experiments he could perform on it to discover its properties. There were so many possibilities.

Suddenly Gearhead got the feeling that he should go into town. He cleaned up and made his way back to the shop. Snowbelle was looking eerily prepared to jump right out the window, even as she waited for him. They quickly made their way into town.

The sight that greeted them was stunning, literally, because the whole town seemed to have broken out into song. And not any little ditty, it was a full-production show tune! The spirit of the song was infectious, and Gearhead and Snowbelle found themselves quickly caught up in it, smiling and singing along as soon as they caught the chorus.

If the singing and dancing in the streets had been impressive before, the feeling intensified when confetti and ticker tape started to fall all around the ponies as they continued to sing and advance. This was no longer a town-wide break-out singing session, but a parade.

At the center of all this action was the only pony, possibly in all Equestria, who could make all this happen: the infectiously optimistic and happy Party Pony, Pinkie Pie – who was soon nose to nose with what appeared to be the least optimistic and happy donkey.

Oddly enough, as soon as the song ended the ponies seemed to melt right back into Ponyville to return to whatever they had been doing before Pinkie had started singing. As the others trotted up, Dash noticed Gearhead looking at Pinkie. “Oh, don’t worry about her. She’ll do her thing all on her own.”

“So Pinkie can bring out a parade, and right after the song ends everypony just goes home?”

“Pretty much. This sort of thing never happened in any of the other towns you came through?”

“No, but then none of them had a Pinkie Pie.”

“Too true,” Dash said. “Hey, you gonna go with Fluttershy back up to her cottage or what?”

“If it’s not too much of an imposition...” Fluttershy said. Gearhead noticed she was wearing the hairclip he had made for her.

“Not at all,” Gearhead said, smiling.

“Wouldn’t you have to get your Alicorn Engine?” Twilight asked. “At that rate, you may as well just go to the shop.”

“Oh, I have my ways, Twilight.” Gearhead drew his dagger. “Quattuor Magnae Spiritus invoco. Ventus transmutare alas.” A silvery wind sprang up around Gearhead, splitting and attaching to both sides of him. With focus and control, he turned the wind into swirling wings.

“Your new activation key is much faster than the old one,” Twilight said.

“It is also much easier to use,” Gearhead said. “Are you ready, Fluttershy?”

In answer, Fluttershy rapidly flapped her wings. Snowbelle cooed, and then sprang into the air. “Wait up!” Fluttershy called, taking off after the Dragon. Gearhead chuckled, then followed suit.

When the three of them were flying in formation together, Fluttershy nudged closer to Gearhead. The sunlight touched off the highlights of blue and green that radiated and chased each other around the butterfly wings. It made her eyes seem to glitter more than usual.

“If you don’t mind, I wanted to ask you about Prism,” Fluttershy said.

“Oh? You were talking with her while I was talking with Father, right?”

“Um... yes,” Fluttershy reached up reflexively to brush a lose strand of hair out of her eyes, only it was not there, thanks to the hairclip. Her goof made her blush, but Gearhead kept his smile the same as before.

“What did you want to ask?”

“What do you think of her? I mean, do you...”

“Prism is my first friend, but I had not seen her for years before we met again at the Gala, and again over Hoofington. Ponies change over time, so to say that I did not really know the pony she had become would be accurate. She seems to be as curious as ever, and she is still daring and kind in her own way. And she takes her duties with the Azure seriously. She told me she wants to fly with the Wonderbolts.”

Fluttershy giggled. “I hope she and Dashie become great friends.”

“I believe they will,” Gearhead said. They were approaching the cottage.

“Um... there’s somewhere I’d like to go, if you wouldn’t mind coming with me?”

“Where to?” Gearhead asked, interested that Fluttershy would make any request of him.

“The Butterfly Glade,” Fluttershy said, blushing.

“Oh,” Gearhead thought it through. It seemed this little flight with his Very Special Somepony was not quite over yet. “Okay. Do you want to lead this time?”

“Shouldn’t we go back and get your Engine?”

“My wings are stable. I just need to hold them with focus, and I can cast the spell again when we want to fly again.”

“Okay!” The way the mare beamed at the fact that they did not have to delay their arrival at the glade could probably have melted Nightmare Moon’s heart. She banked toward the Everfree Forest, and then accelerated with Snowbelle and Gearhead right on her tail.

* * *

Over the following weeks, Fluttershy often asked Gearhead to come with her to the Butterfly Glade. Although she could probably fly there safely on her own, she seemed hesitant to go without him. It could have been the fear of that slight chance that something dangerous would catch her, or it could be something else. Either way, Gearhead was not about to turn her down.

The more time Gearhead spent with Fluttershy, the more his enjoyment of her company grew. He already knew her as a kind and gentle mare who cared for the plants and animals around her, regardless of how frightening many of them were to other ponies. There was not much worse you could do around her than harming a plant, an animal, or one of her friends. Gearhead had already known about her outer beauty, and some of her inner beauty too, but the longer he was around her the more deeply he found her compassion and patience ran. Her presence was a calming one, similar to, but also distinct from, the aura that Big Sister Ivy carried. Yes, Fluttershy was lovely on the inside.

At the Butterfly Glade, which they had named for the large flower that was its centerpiece, the Everfree Forest seemed to reward that same patience and compassion: as time passed the flowers seemed to become more vibrant, growing tall and strong. Bees, hummingbirds, and other animals came, attracted by the scent and splashing colour. In the midst of the wild woodlands, the only thing that seemed to be on any creature’s mind was to relax and enjoy the ambience.

Gearhead had trouble distinguishing between the different flowers’ scents unless he got close enough that, if she had been there, Dash would have pushed his nose right into the flower. Fluttershy, on the other hoof, easily distinguished between the different scents as she flitted among the flowers, picking them out one by one and telling Gearhead and Snowbelle all about their properties. Many of these flowers and herbs could be used as medicines, however Gearhead would be surprised if Zecora did not already know about them. If she came to the Glade to pick any of these flowers, Gearhead could not find any evidence. Most probably, she just harvested some of their seeds.

It was an interesting idea, or so Gearhead thought. With Fluttershy watching, he gathered some seeds from each plant to bring back to a small garden he was trying to grow between the shop and the riverbank. If he could get the flowers to grow, maybe he could transfer that skill over to crops, and then he could be free of the Black Sheep Clause. So far, even with Fluttershy’s supervision, not much had sprouted, but there was still time. Gearhead just hoped his excavations had not leeched too many nutrients from the ground for anything to grow.

With all the time Gearhead and Fluttershy were spending together, many of Ponyville’s other citizens had started to whisper. Even the rest of their friends were not immune from the gossip that was spreading, and despite knowing that it had begun for the sake of the Crusaders, they were clearly wondering if it was real: were Fluttershy and Gearhead in love? Gearhead thought of himself as a poor judge on whether or not it was true.

He tried not to act in a way as to lead Fluttershy on when they were alone – or as alone as they ever got – and as close as they sometimes sat with each other, Gearhead used all his restraint, for her sake, and she was too timid to try anything. Snowbelle sometimes joked with Gearhead that he should kiss Fluttershy already, but Snowbelle knew as well as he did that he could not court Fluttershy properly as long as he was still the Black Sheep.

Snowbelle got more comfortable and affectionate with Fluttershy as well. Fluttershy showed the Dragon all the flowers, and how to care for one’s critter friends. Some mornings Fluttershy came over to brush Snowbelle’s mane so it ended up all silky smooth. When the mare did not come over, her cottage was the first place Snowbelle wanted to visit. She perched on Fluttershy’s head as often as on Gearhead’s, and sometimes napped curled up with Fluttershy. But Snowbelle did not talk to the mare.

Snowbelle was also more distant with the other Ponies, although she was friendly with most of them. She did not share the same proximity with anypony else that she did with Fluttershy, or with Gearhead, who let her stay out and play with other ponies so she could be better friends with them. Snowbelle was especially fond of reading with Twilight and playing with Spike and the Crusaders. She enjoyed playing pranks with Pinkie and Dash, and Applejack showed her around all the crops on Sweet Apple Acres. Rarity showed her all the clothes and gems that sparkled, and Snowbelle certainly enjoyed going gem-finding with her and Spike, but she and Opal had an antagonistic relationship, each hissing and scratching at the other. Some creatures simply were not meant to be friends.

Since receiving them from Shadow Wright, Gearhead had inspected the rainbow gemstones many times. It seemed to him as though they were capable of storing and channelling great magicks, however that capacity was not compatible with the many spells he tried to imbue into them.

In many ways, these gems were a complete set, therefore he had to find spells that could compliment each other as part of their own set. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet stones sat in a row in a box, and until he found some use for them, there they would stay.

Of course Gearhead had realized that he could approach the question from another angle: he could try to create items based on the Elements of Harmony. Based on them, that is, but usable even when all of them were not present, unlike the true Elements. He had all the data he had collected when Princess Celestia had allowed him to research each Element directly.

He also had the primary-sourced data still recorded within Ring-5 of the original core prototype – the one that had stayed scarred during the battle against Discord. Even applying all of this knowledge, and all of his skills, however, Gearhead was unable to create new magical items using the rainbow gems. He was obviously missing something, and despite all the additional research he had done since his first attempt, he had not gotten any further.

Reviewing the data reminded Gearhead that the very fact that Ring-5 had been able to record the Elements’ magical signatures. This had several implications. One of those implications was that a core’s rings and the particles it produced could record data. If it could record information, then Gearhead did not see why it could not record memories, which were data of a different sort. Still, in order for this information to be useful, he would have to be able to play the recording back in a way that ordinary ponies could see, without the Conclave’s ‘focus shifting’ technique.

Such thoughts led Gearhead to the crystal records on which Hoofington was selling the recordings of that twice-cursed race. The playback system for those crystals had several basic parts: information storage, a reading device, and a display device. Based on this, Gearhead created a reading and display device that could do the same for Ring-5. The result was that he was able to review incredibly-accurate information from each Element in turn, from the time of the battle against Discord. Still, this did not help figure out how to turn the rainbow gems into imitation Elements.

Sighing, Gearhead had to admit that he had reached an impasse on the subject once again. Sure, he could incorporate a mission recorder into the twin-core system, but that would not come into play for some time, since he was still tuning the prototype. And it still did not help with the rainbow gems. Fortunately, Gearhead was still having success with the shop, with the twin-core and its stabilizer, and with the ongoing construction of the multipurpose vessel. All the same, some fresh air would do him good. If Fluttershy was available, he would be happy if she would go with him to their usual spot. Catching his thoughts as he moved for the door, Snowbelle glided onto his back without a word.

Gearhead and Snowbelle were both shocked when they saw Pinkie Pie and Rarity, of all ponies, dashing away from Fluttershy’s cottage in tears. They were so devastated that neither noticed the father and daughter as they were walking up the road. Although shocked, such a sight could only mean that something major had happened, so Snowbelle took wing, and Gearhead gave himself a Wind Magic boost in increase his speed as they made their own dash for the cottage. They spotted Fluttershy shuffling toward her home, but there were not any threats around.

“Fluttershy, do you have any idea why Pinkie and Rarity were running away and crying just now?” Gearhead asked, still closing the distance.

“What, are you mocking me?” Fluttershy rounded on Gearhead, anger exploding on her face despite the tears that were still there.

“I what? Huh?”

“Don’t ‘huh’ me, Buster. You think it’s my fault too, don’t you? It’s all mean New Fluttershy’s fault, because New Fluttershy’s a monster!”

“’New Fluttershy?’ Clearly I have missed something.” And it must have been a big ‘something,’ because now that he was getting a better look, Gearhead saw that Fluttershy’s mane and tail looked rougher than usual, and she was not wearing her hairclip, despite having worn it every day since he had given it to her. Also, she was being mean, but mostly to herself. “Would you like to talk about it, perhaps over some tea?”

“Talking is for pansies! Or so Iron Will says. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

“We do not have to talk, then. We could go to the Glade. You might feel more relaxed, then.”

“Flowers? You think that flowers will fix everything, don’t you? You just think of me as some delicate flower, is that it? Is that why you like being around me so much?!” As Fluttershy got angrier, she kept pressing herself right into Gearhead’s face, and he could not back up fast enough.

“Whoa whoa whoa! I like you because you are kind,” Gearhead said. He would have put up a placating hoof, but if he did he would be unable to step quickly enough. “Or do you not remember your own compassionate self?”

“That was Old Fluttershy. New Fluttershy is assertive and doesn’t take any guff from anypony!”

“Shouting is not being assertive, Fluttershy, it is bullying.”

“But I don’t know how to do anything else without being a doormat, but... I also don’t want to be a monster.”

“I am sure if we all just calm down and give it some time, it will all come back to you. And then you can apologize to—“

“Apologies are for babies! Oh, I did it again. You see? I’m not fit to be out and about. I should just lock myself in my cottage.”

“Is that your solution? Is that how the Fluttershy the rest of us know handles a conflict? Running away and hiding?”

“Sounds about right,” Fluttershy turned around and resumed her retreat.

“Now you listen here—“

“Don’t you tell New Fluttershy what to do! Oh my,” Fluttershy wheeled about again, and started trotting toward her door. Gearhead knew that if he let her get away now, he would not get through to her at all.

“Quattuor Magnae Spiritus invoco. Evoco Spiritus Ventus et alligans catenam esto. Captis Tempestas!” Gearhead shot a salvo of binding wind, which tied around Fluttershy’s legs and barrel.

“How dare you!”

“It seems you will not listen to reason in your current state. If force is the only thing you understand –“ Gearhead did not get to finish, though, because Fluttershy leaped into action, covering the distance between them so quickly that he did not know how to react. Fluttershy put her head down so she flew in just below his chin, and while knocking him off his hooves and into the air, she also knocked the wind out of him. And disrupted the spell, freeing her.

“You want ‘force,’ you got force!” Fluttershy snorted as she came around.

<Oh boy,> Snowbelle said. <Do you want help?>

<Not that kind, at least not yet. But it does look like a fight. We need to find something that can calm her down and bring her back to herself.>

<Agreed, but what?>

Gearhead started to think of the possibilities, and two images flashed prominently through his mind.

<Got it,> Snowbelle turned in the air and headed for Fluttershy’s open door.

Gearhead returned his full attention to the present, and managed to dive and roll so only Fluttershy’s wing grazed him. He had to buy time, but she was even more aggressive than before. “Quattuor Magnae Spiritus invoco—“

“I won’t let you!” Fluttershy power-dove, and this time she hit him solidly in the ribs and sent him flying again.

If she will not give me normal casting time, I will have to cast faster. “Cantus Bellax!” Gearhead shone as his battle magic aura came up, but even turning his sword to catch Fluttershy’s strikes with the blade’s flat did not give her enough time for much else. “Cantus Bellax Duis.”

“What’s that supposed to be? Am I overwhelming you ‘cause you don’t want to hurt fragile little me? Don’t make me laugh!”

“Please, Fluttershy, remember your true self.”

“And now you’re pleading? Well go ahead, beg on your knees!” Fluttershy delivered a wicked headbutt, and thankfully Gearhead’s magic took the brunt of the attack, but the amount of cruelty Fluttershy was showing was more stunning than the physical blow itself. “What’s wrong? Gonna cry?!”

“Yes, I might. Because you are even more cruel now than when you were under Discord’s control. More so because you are being cruel of your own free will. If this is you now, if all you know is brute force... no, I do not believe that. And neither should you, Fluttershy.”

“What pretty words. Pretty and meaningless.” Fluttershy charged again, but Gearhead was already in the middle of an incantation.

“Quattuor Magnae Spiritus, da me Forma Agilis!” Just as Fluttershy was about to land a wicked double-hit, four massive petals sprouted from the ground, one on each side of Gearhead. They closed around him, and took the hits. The apparent bronze flower skipped three meters before coming apart. When it did, Gearhead was wearing a black longcoat and pants. He only had running shoes on his two feet, and zippered gloves on his hands, the left of which now held his geargem dagger, still in sword form: Gearhead’s Agile Form was the transformation he had been attempting when he transformed into Dusty by accident. Now, after using it in a bout with Armour and Cadence, it was much easier to use.

“What’s that? You think you can beat me with that form?”

“I do not have to beat you, I just have to let you see the truth.” Snowbelle swooped down and pinned Fluttershy’s hairclip, but to Gearhead’s bangs. She dropped Fluttershy’s gemstone wand into his free hand, too. “Not where I wanted it originally,” Gearhead said, thinking of the hairclip. But it is more visible there.

“An accessory and a wand? New Fluttershy thinks you might be mistaking New Fluttershy for Rarity!” Fluttershy came on again.

“Then I will show you how Old Fluttershy might do it,” Gearhead said as he sheathed his dagger. He focused on the wand, and it responded by growing into its staff form. Gearhead held it in his right hand, loosely at his side without letting the end touch the ground. When Fluttershy was mere steps away from him, Gearhead sidestepped and turned, rotating to match her speed. Out came the staff, striking across Fluttershy’s flank and sending her stumbling a couple steps in surprise.

Fluttershy growled, turned, and charged at him again, this time flying. She was much stronger and faster than she looked. Gearhead had to remind himself of that first strike she had delivered. This time he bent backward, and the staff came up to send the mare flipping end-over-end. Gearhead used his hands to spring back to his feet, then he turned to face Fluttershy and spun the staff back into position.

“You’re making me... angry.”

“And what do you think of yourself when you are angry?”

“You’re not literally laughing at New Fluttershy, but she knows when ponies are laughing at her on the inside.”

“You may not have quite noticed this: at the moment my form is not that of a pony.”

“You laugh at me, I wrath at you!”

“’Wrath’ is not a verb,”

Fluttershy growled.

“But neither is Lux,” Gearhead said as he sidestepped again, but this time as Fluttershy passed him he stayed in close, staff pressed against her as it discharged Light Magic between them. The light glinted and reflected off of the clip in Gearhead’s hair, and off of the two combatants’ eyes. Gearhead latched onto Fluttershy with his other hand, and kept turning, kept close, dragging with his trailing foot to slow her down. Then he leaped onto her back.

This did nothing to dispel Fluttershy’s anger at Gearhead, and she began to buck and try to throw him from her back so she could stamp him out. Worse, she still had to be partly dazzled by the light, and afterimages of a butterfly kept her from seeing right: they danced in front of her eyes, pink with blue, pink with green, and suddenly all sorts of other colours too. Gearhead wondered if they reminded her of that first time she had come down to the ground.

“Do you remember the first time we went to the Glade?” Gearhead suddenly leaned over and whispered into her ear. “And the animals you are teaching me to care for?” Fluttershy became stock-still. “What about the different plants, and how you taught me to care for them all?” Her head sagged down a bit. “I have heard about how you cared for the baby Manticore, and how you care for animals everyday, even bears. And I have seen you with Snowbelle many times. Do you think you could care for even one of them the way you are now?”

“I... don’t want to be a doormat,”

“Then you do not need to be a doormat. There are other ways, I promise you that. No, you already knew some. I am sorry that I tried to control you, and that I tried to use force against you. Neither was right.”

“But...”

“You do not have to be a doormat or a monster. You are the only one who gets to choose, Fluttershy.”

“Right now?”

“Every day, because every day starts anew.” Gearhead patted her gently. “I am going to get off of you now,” he said, just before dismounting. Gearhead walked around so he was in front of Fluttershy, and then he undid his transformation and his Song of Battle too. He put Fluttershy’s staff back into wand mode, and placed it on the ground between them.

“I’m not sure I can stop the monster from coming out if I try to be assertive again.”

“Then your friends will be here to help you,”

“I might revert to being a pushover, though.”

“We shall help you find a balance, although I have a hunch you might already have the start of an idea as to where that is. Because you are you, and no one else can know you better.”

“I think that maybe you’re right,” Fluttershy said, picking the wand up and turning it over to look at it in the sun. Then she looked Gearhead directly in the eye, startling him. “There’s just one more thing,”

“What is that?”

Fluttershy leaned forward, her face sliding over to his own. Gearhead did not know what she was doing, but decided he had better not move. Then she sat down, the hairclip between her teeth, a questioning look in her eyes.

“Oh, right,” Gearhead said, and he slowly leaned forward to get it from her so he could put it in her hair where it belonged.

“It looked silly on you anyway,”

Snowbelle laughed.

“I think you are right,” Gearhead said, chuckling.

The apologies were not exactly easy to make, but they were easier because everypony Fluttershy had wronged knew the true her. This was especially true of Rarity and Pinkie, who were just happy to have the kind Fluttershy back. “There’s just one thing,” Fluttershy said.

“Yes?”

“Gearhead promised me you would help keep me balanced, so I wouldn’t be a doormat or a monster.”

“He did, did he?” Rarity asked. “Just kidding. Of course we’ll keep that promise.”

“Cross our hearts, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in our eyes!” Pinkie said.

“Thank you,” Fluttershy said.

Iron Will came to collect payment from Fluttershy at the end of that week. When the Minotaur knocked on her cottage’s door Pinkie, Rarity, and Gearhead all filed out after her, to speak to Iron Will outside the cottage.

“Going to gang up on Iron Will, are you? Well, lemme tell ya something: I pity the foal who thinks he can intimidate Iron Will!”

“You mistake our purpose, Mister Will,” Gearhead said.

“That’s right, Darling. We’re just here for moral support,” Rarity said.

“It’s Fluttershy who’ll have words with you,” Pinkie piped.

“What’s to say? You’re overdue, Fluttershy, and Iron Will’s come to collect what Iron Will’s owed.”

“No,”

“’No?’ What do you mean, ‘no?’”

“I’m not paying you one bit,”

“Oh, you’re in for a world of pain if—“

“I believe there’s more,” Rarity said.

“That’s right,” Fluttershy said. “At your seminar you said that we wouldn’t have to pay if we weren’t completely satisfied, right?”

“Right,”

“Well, I’m not completely satisfied,”

“What?! I mean, did you follow all the steps and mottoes?”

“You mistake what I’m dissatisfied with, Iron Will. I simply don’t like the pony I became, so I won’t be using your mottoes anymore.”

“Well, that’s your choice, but I still gave you the tools, so you still gotta pay.”

“No, I will not pay. Not for a service I won’t be using.”

“Surely we can work out a deal, like fifty percent, maybe?”

“’No’ means ‘no.’”

“No means no, huh? That’s a good motto. I could use that for my seminar!” Iron Will said, as he turned to walk away.

“Great job, Fluttershy,” Rarity said.

“Yeah! You were super-assertive,” Pinkie said.

“Indeed. Every time he shouted or threatened you evaded and deflected. More importantly, you stuck to your convictions,” Gearhead said.

“Thank you,” Fluttershy said, “for all your support.”

“Now you don’t have to worry about that nosy Minotaur,” Pinkie said.

“And you can still be assertive and sweet,” Rarity said.

“Thank you both,” Fluttershy hugged her friends. “Could I have a moment with Gearhead, please?”

“Oh, certainly!” Rarity said, and she took Pinkie with her down the path back to Ponyville. Fluttershy did not say anything until she was certain nopony else was within earshot, at the very least.

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said, looking down and pawing at the ground.

“Why?”

“I think I hurt you because we got so close to each other. I think...” Gearhead waited, putting his patience to good use so that Fluttershy could say what she needed to without needing any prompting. Suddenly she looked up, and Gearhead was staring right into her eyes, a fatal mistake for most creatures. “I think we need some space away from each other. For a little while. We need to be sure we can’t hurt each other.”

“I... are you sure? We would be unable to support each other.” I will not say she is running away.

Fluttershy nodded. “I don’t want to hurt you again, and I’m afraid that I will.”

“For how long?”

“I don’t know, but... I think this is best. Probably.”

“So... then what are we to each other?”

“Friends, maybe. But more than that is...”

“Dangerous?”

“I think so,”

Gearhead thought it over. He could not see anything that could bring Fluttershy to this conclusion, but then the fact that he could not see this from her perspective disturbed and shook him. We were not so close that I could tell that she was troubled, nor can I tell what she is thinking. It seems I was deluding myself, that this could work. Maybe part of that is Father’s fault for what he said, however it is also my fault for forgetting my place.

“You may be correct,” Gearhead said. “We both need space and time to get into our own headspace. Or out of it. The fact I do not know how it is supposed to work would seem to show that you are right. Okay then, Fluttershy, you will have your space. Simply tell me if I start to get too close again. I will try to wait.”

“Um... yeah,” Fluttershy looked down again. Gearhead turned and walked quickly away before either of them could say or do anything else. It was over, but their family of three had not been anything more than illusion anyway. I was a fool to let myself get sucked into it, and worse I hurt Fluttershy, and probably Snowbelle too. Snowbelle... she will know what happened by my thoughts, but I can try not to let her be affected. I will put Luna’s lessons to use, as I probably should have done a long time ago: who would want their child poking around in their head?

Gearhead returned to his work. He needed to gather more materials, so he and Snowbelle went into the Everfree Forest. Since they were pushing into its deeper regions with the wagon, they took the rest of the day and did not return until after sundown. Most of the creatures and monsters that made the Everfree their home knew to give Gearhead a wide berth by now. They recognized the Engine on his back and the daggers strapped to his foreleg. And they knew he would not harm them if they did not threaten him.

Snowbelle was another matter, since she seemed to be in a particularly foul mood, and despite Gearhead’s warnings she kept chasing after predators, whose only interest in the pair was curiosity, and threatening them with her Ice Breath.

Although Snowbelle had retaliated to him shutting her out of his mind by closing her own, Gearhead could guess at what had her in such a mood. He tried to lighten the mood by being the cheerful one, but the Dragon was not of a mind to speak to him at that moment. Nor for the rest of their excursion. But she did do her bit in collecting metals, as Dragons had keen senses for treasures. It could not be helped.

Dinner was similarly silent. Gearhead could not think of anything to say to calm Snowbelle down, so he kept his mouth shut. When the Dragon’s continuous glare did not glean any responses, she slunk off to bed without any other indication of what she was feeling or thinking, other than her current sulky behaviour. Gearhead decided to leave her alone: she might be happier in the morning.

25. The Meaning of Time

Chapter 25: The Meaning of Time

“I cannot imagine Vines being happy with this,” With one hoof, Gearhead tapped the stack of papers representing the contract he was drafting. He expected Snowbelle to look his way in curiosity, then remembered that she was feigning disinterest in everything that had anything to do with him. Of course, that tended to fall apart whenever she needed or wanted something. Gearhead felt he did not have any choices, except to roll with whatever came.

The defence contract Gearhead was drafting would enter him into an agreement with the Principality of Equestria. The Crown would supply most, if not all, of the material he needed to build and install the protective turbines, and Gearhead would build and install them. Because most of the material would be coming from the Crown, the Crown would legally own the protective turbines, and have near-complete control over them.

This made sense since the Crown would be purchasing the turbines in the first place, however what Gearhead expected would get Vines riled up was that Gearhead was about to sell Engine technology to the Crown when he had refused to do so for his own Herd. There were some key differences, which Gearhead had to be certain Vines and his supporters saw, which was why he planned on sending a draft of the contract home for approval.

Scale was the biggest difference: whereas Vines wanted to be able to equip individual ponies with mass production-type Alicorn Engines, Gearhead was opting instead to build city-scale defensive arrays. He would trade the massive quantity of materials required to supply ponies with their own Engines for what he hoped to be a lesser, and more reasonable amount of materials, and for turbines that would be completely stationary.

While the single-core Alicorn Engine Gearhead used had a series of safeguards to prevent theft, tampering, and industrial espionage the standing turbines would need additional layers of security because they would be stationary and highly visible targets for all of these and more. Gearhead had to be sure they could not be used against either the Crown or the Herd, and to do that he had to ensure he put in remote and manual overrides and shut-down procedures that he could use if things went wrong.

And if the turbines having more security did not mollify Vines, perhaps the fact that they would be too large and heavy to reasonably move around would. Or at least, Gearhead hoped that would be the case. Thinking of this led Gearhead back to the turbines’ design, and how they could be deployed within a given city to form an effective defensive array.

Gearhead believed that the best deployment pattern for the array involved anywhere between four and eight turbines, stationed on the town or city’s perimeter. The number of turbines needed would depend upon the settlement’s size: Ponyville was fairly small, so it might do with five or six. Appleloosia, unless it had grown, was a four-turbine town. Canterlot, Manehatten, and other major cities, including Hoofington, would need the full eight measure. The encircling turbines, built to roughly the same size as Ponyville’s water tower, would be able to deploy a spherical shield around the settlement whenever it was threatened.

Of course, until Gearhead tested the twin-core Engine prototype he had, he did not know how having more than one turbine active within proximity of another would come out. He hoped they would resonate with each other and strengthen their particle output. That was what the calculations he had made, and asked Twilight to check, said would happen. But all of that was theoretical. In practice, who knew what could happen?

“Nothing for it but to jump in,” Gearhead said. In his opinion this applied to both of his current concerns. So he finished up the draft of the contract and prepared it for the courier. He would know soon enough what Father and Vines thought of this. As to the twin-core prototype and the later array, he would only know when it came time for testing.

The door’s bell was so sudden within the context of the shop’s silence that Gearhead was startled enough to jump a bit. Wondering what was going on, he went down to answer the caller since he was available. He was certainly surprised to see Twilight Sparkle there, as it was unusual for her to come by so early. “Good mor—“

“No time for pleasantries,” Twilight gasped. Clearly she had been galloping around the town for a significant amount of time. That was not like her. “We have to disaster-proof Ponyville, and we have to do it now!”

“Are these Princess Celestia’s orders?”

“No, but it’s got to be something even she doesn’t know about: I was visited by a me from one week from now, and she looked like she’d been through a terrible war!”

“The future-you, you mean?”

“Yes!”

“What did future-you say, exactly?”

“Not much, actually. She didn’t have enough time to explain what was going on before she vanished. I have to assume she was returned to her own time. I don’t know what changes in one week, but she looked awful!”

“It is unfortunate future-you was only in the present for a few seconds, then. I assume you have a plan, so how can I help?”

“Could you go around Ponyville and do some repairs on the buildings and infrastructure?”

“Certainly. Geomantic repair is foal’s play for me now. I will just get my Alicorn Engine, and then...” But when Gearhead turned back to the doorway, Twilight was already cantering away. “Wow, but she is in a panic. Snowbelle, we could really use some oversight about now.”

The Dragoness sighed and seemed to have to drag herself up onto her hind legs, but once she was airbourne she took to her task happily enough. Gearhead locked the shop door and then went down to the laboratory to don the Alicorn Engine and its stabilizer. He did not know how much power he would need, but he wanted to have it all available at a moment’s notice: while Twilight’s assumption of a war was just that, he would not take any chances if it was to bear out as true.

<All clear so far,> Snowbelle said as Gearhead headed out.

<Thank you. Let me, or somepony nearby, know the moment you spot anything suspicious.>

<Understood,> If Snowbelle was not speaking to Gearhead on personal matters, at least she was willing to communicate on crucial matters.

First Gearhead flew to the Ponyville Hydromagical Dam. Since it had burst the last time, the town’s workers had gone over it once before, looking for similar faults. Of course, Gearhead had not been around at that time, even as Dusty, so he did not know what had happened then – other than the fact that Dash, Mare-Do-Well, and Fixit had all been on the scene.

As the Earth Pony neared, he saw that they had missed a few weak spots, but Applejack and Rarity were already there working to repair it the hard way. Still flying in, Gearhead zipped the shoes on his forehooves up, clapped them together, and then tapped them to the dam even as he slowed to a stop. A magical circle bloomed, radiating outward to a radius of seven meters before it sent out a turquoise energy wave that repaired every crack. With a little extra focus, Gearhead reinforced the structure so it would hold better than the last time.

“I wish it was always so easy,” Applejack said.

“I’ll just go over it once to be sure, but I think it’s safe to say that Ponyville is safe from a repeat flooding threat,” Rarity said.

With the repair job completed at the dam, Gearhead moved on to the nearest bridge. He made his way systematically through all of the roadways, and even slowed down to inspect buildings as he passed them.

When Gearhead completed his town-wide tour, he returned to the town square where everypony was meeting up. “Good work, everypony,” Twilight said as reports of large and small disasters averted came in.

“Will you need anything further?” Gearhead asked.

“Hm. Maybe you could do a similar check on Canterlot? I know it’s a lot to ask, but if something’s going to spring up, it might spring up there.”

“What about the Everfree?”

“Already got it covered and cleared,” Dash said.

“Good, then we’re on-track to prevent whatever it will be that makes future-me look the way she will.”

“Except if we manage to prevent whatever it ‘will be,’ will that not erase that future, and that future version of yourself?”

“Oh, you’re right: it won’t be,”

“Please tell me I’m not the only one not getting this,” Dash said.

“Time travel is a headache,” Gearhead said. “If I am going to go do a sweep of Canterlot, I had better leave now.” No sooner had he said that did a large three-headed bulldog jump out from between the trees and houses.

“What is that?” Dash asked as she stared at the roaring dog.

“That’s Cerberus, but he’s supposed to be guarding the Gates of Tartarus!” Twilight said. “But the good news is that this is on the scale of the disaster future-me was warning me about. If we handle this...”

“Gimme a break,” Dash groaned. That was because Fluttershy already had Cerberus at her mercy with a little sweet talk and a belly rub.

“Pinkie Pie, do you have any balls around here?”

“Of course,” Pinkie rummaged in the bole of a tree. “I have them stashed all around town in case of ball-related emergencies,” she said, passing the toy to Twilight.

“What do you not have stashed around town?”

“I dunno. What?”

“Oh. It was not a riddle, I was honestly asking.”

“That’s disappointing,” Pinkie said. “I wanted a riddle.”

“If you guys keep an eye out for anything else, I’ll take Cerberus here back to the Gates. Hopefully none of the evil monsters will have noticed that he left his post.”

“In that case, you’d better get going, Twilight,” Dash said.

“Right!” And Twilight led the giant dog off, moving as fast as it could.

“Do we really have to keep all this up?” Dash asked.

“I do believe Twilight expects us to,” Gearhead said.

“Yay!” Pinkie cheered.

“Oh, but she also expects you to go to Canterlot,” Dash said.

“Oh, that is correct. I had best be off,” and Gearhead lifted off. Snowbelle agreed with his plan for her to stay behind so she could relay information to him, and he to her if something did happen.

* * *

While the stabilizer allowed Gearhead to fly to Canterlot faster than he would have with just the Alicorn Engine, it was naturally slower than when he transformed himself into light or lightning as Dusty. Although Gearhead was more than happy to have put those days behind him, he could not help making the comparison.

Gearhead’s first step once he got to Equestria’s capital was to check in with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

“If I understand you correctly,” Princess Celestia said, “Twilight believes something terrible will happen between now and next Tuesday because she was visited by herself from that time, even though that future self did not give any specific details.”

“That is correct,”

“It would not hurt to take preventative measures,” Luna said.

“All the same, I was certain that she didn’t have access to time-based spells, so I wonder when she might have learned them.”

“I do not know either,” Gearhead said.

“Regardless, this ‘disaster-proofing’ is a good idea. I will dispatch the Guard to assist you. This letter I’m penning now will give you unrestricted access to matters of infrastructure throughout Equestria, so that no matter where you end up going for the remainder of the week, you shouldn’t have any trouble with the officials.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

“I’m only hoping this turns out not to be anything at all,” the older Alicorn said.

“Indeed, that would be the most favourable result.”

“Well then, I will get started, just in case that is not the case,” Gearhead said, and he left the chamber. Soon he was flying around Canterlot with a small Pegasus escort from the Royal Guard. Periodically they found a part of the city that was in a state of disrepair, and fixed it. More often than not, however, affluent Canterlot was in good shape.

It occurred to Gearhead that this would be a good time to check the mountain as well. If we went and checked in with the Jackrabbit Colony and the Goblin Kingdom, maybe he could join their patrols for a short time. He could also check up on Snowbelle’s mother without her being there to witness her weakened state.

* * *

The situation in Ponyville seemed to be under control, so Fluttershy decided to retire to her cottage. If anypony needed her, they could send Pinkie to get her. This was where she was when Snowbelle winged in through the open top portion of her door. “Well hello. I haven’t seen you in awhile.”

“Do you not you think it is time you cut all the nonsense and became honest about yourself and Father?” Snowbelle said, turning to hang from the ceiling like a bat. Her voice was light and tinkled like a bell, but the words were harsh.

“What... pardon? You can talk?!”

“Of course I can talk,” Snowbelle snapped. “I just did not have anything to say until now!”

“Well, I appreciate your coming to me, but I don’t know if there’s anything I should or can do.”

Snowbelle flew down to land right in front of Fluttershy and look her straight in the eye. “Except you are the only one who can do it.”

“I don’t want to hurt you or Gearhead,”

“You are just afraid, but that fear is more hurtful than anything else could ever be. I know you are both depressed to have to avoid each other, and you are awkward when you have to be in each other’s company. It is too much for me to stand and watch, so I refuse to do so any longer!”

“You saw what I was like. I just don’t want to hurt—“

“Or be hurt? I call ‘bull!’ Because what do you suppose you are doing now? Despite your element being Kindness, you can be exceptionally cruel, especially to those you love the most: yourself and Father.”

“That... that hurts,” Fluttershy was beyond the point of tears welling up: Snowbelle’s tirade against her cut her to the core.

“Good, because this is the pain that Father and you and I all feel, all because you are both inept at expressing your true feelings. If you love each other, you ought to be together.”

“We... I can’t,”

“Really?” Snowbelle took several steps back. “If your answer will be ‘no,’ then you must make it clear. Let Father go, so you can both move on.”

“But--!”

“And if you cannot make your feelings clear, then I do not want you near him again. Yes, do so much as speak to him too affectionately, or get too close to him physically, and I will give you a new coat made of frost.”

“Ah.. oh... ooh,” Fluttershy mewled as she shivered, making herself very small despite the one confronting her being much smaller than her.

“Maybe now you will appreciate the damage you have done. Oh, and speak a word of this to Father, and I will cover you in snow.” With that, Snowbelle turned and left the cottage and a terrified Fluttershy behind.

Fluttershy didn’t know what to do. She did like Gearhead and Snowbelle, and the last thing she wanted to do was to hurt them, or any of her friends, but Snowbelle was an Ice Dragon, and the look in her eyes showed that she was serious about her threats. How close is too close? Fluttershy wondered.

Oh no! She won’t let me get close to him ever again!

* * *

Snowbelle paused in her flight as a sour sensation welled up inside her. She looked all around to make sure nopony was around who would see, and then started crying even as she continued to fly, albeit with less of a goal in mind.

Young as she was, Snowbelle knew how cruel of a thing she had just done. She had done it in the belief that all the drama would have ended if Fluttershy had only been brave enough to call Snowbelle’s bluff, or even brave enough to tell the Dragon how she felt about Father. But she had not been brave at all.

Snowbelle supposed that it could have been the shock that she was suddenly talking to Fluttershy, combined with the atmosphere of confrontation, and that a little girl like her was doing the confronting in the first place. And threatening Fluttershy could not have helped any, but Snowbelle wanted it to be clear, what Father meant to her, and that if Fluttershy wanted to have a close relationship with him, she would have to be proactive and fight for it.

Whether shocked or genuinely frightened, Fluttershy had not shown any courage at all, allowing Snowbelle to control the entire conversation. Conversation? I did all the talking! And she just learned how to balance patience and compassion with assertiveness.

But Snowbelle could not suppress her disappointment and sadness: Father would not take the initiative and speak with Fluttershy because he was waiting for her to come to terms with what she wanted first, not to mention his belief that he should not court any mare seriously before he got rid of his title of Black Sheep. Before Snowbelle confronted Fluttershy, she had not looked anywhere near ready enough to talk to Father, so their relationship had practically been reset. And Snowbelle had felt that they had been very close to forming a new family, thus her disappointment. Her sadness came from the sentiment that if Father could not have the affection he needed in his life, Snowbelle herself should not have it either.

So she cried as she flew, until she did not have any tears left, and the snowflakes she left behind melted before they hit the ground. Eyes dry once more, Snowbelle turned around and headed for home. She was exhausted, and needed to rest.

* * *

Tired, Gearhead returned to Ponyville satisfied that he and the Royal Guard had secured Canterlot and the caves behind it. First he checked in with Twilight at the library. She looked likewise worn out from escorting Cerberus back to his post, along with whatever else had happened along the way.

Most of Ponyville’s other residents also seemed to have become exhausted from a full day of disaster proofing. Gearhead wondered if Twilight would have had the Everfree encased in bubble wrap if she could, but then he discarded the idea as going too far, even for her. It was full evening by the time he got home.

Snowbelle was already asleep, so Gearhead put his gear away, washed, and ate a quick dinner before going to bed himself. Hopefully whatever catastrophe future-Twilight had come to the past to warn Twilight about had been averted.

Gearhead divided his time over the following week between follow-up patrols, solidifying his plans, mining resources, and running the shop. Snowbelle did the latter with him, but otherwise she was taciturn and moody, not even speaking mind-to-mind unless she needed to. He could not guess what was wrong, but he was not the type to ask for information not freely given anyway.

Pony and Dragon saw little of their friends, being busy, and the least of Fluttershy out of all of them. When Gearhead spotted the mare in town, she often crossed the street or pretended not to see him even though he knew she had spotted him too. When they were with their friends, Fluttershy stood as far away from Gearhead as possible, and she refused to speak to him unless he asked her a question.

He had promised to wait until she was comfortable, so he could not ask her what was going on. He did have a clue, though, given Snowbelle’s mood: she had done something, and whatever that was had made Fluttershy want to avoid both of them. With how close the three of them had been until recently, that had to hurt the mare.

It was not long before the Crusaders came to the shop to get some equipment for their latest attempt. As Gearhead loaded them up and instructed them on how to safely use everything, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked around.

“Where’s Fluttershy?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I do not know, but I do not think you will be seeing her around here often, if at all.”

“Don’t tell us you broke up,” Scootaloo said.

“We did,”

“But you were so good together!” Sweetie Belle said. “Who did the breaking up?”

“It was a mutual agreement,”

“The ‘we need space’ thing?” Sweetie Belle looked like she did not believe in that excuse, scrunching up her face in the biggest expression of skepticism Gearhead had ever seen.

“Aren’t you gonna go and talk to her?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Yeah, you gotta get her back,” Scootaloo said. “Unless you think she’s too good for you?”

“That is possible,” Gearhead said, scratching his chin with a hoof. He had not quite thought about it that way, but that was exactly what he was doing when he felt that he should not court any mare as long as he was a Black Sheep.

“So,” Sweetie Belle said, “who’s going to be Snowbelle’s mom now?”

Gearhead turned and stared at the Unicorn filly. Snowbelle sat bolt-upright, and then with a ‘scree!’ she flew upstairs at top speed. “Whoa,” Scootaloo said, “she can really move!”

“I think I should go up and apologize,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Do so if you can catch her,” Gearhead said. “If she thinks she needs a breather you will not get there in time.”

“Oh no!” Sweetie Belle went up the stairs as quickly as she could. She came back down a few moments later, downcast and near tears herself. “I’m sorry. She’s gone.”

Gearhead gave over the last of the equipment, and then walked back around the corner. “I am going to go after her, so I need to close up shop.”

“Okay,” Apple Bloom said as she, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle collected everything.

“Again, I’m so sorry,” Sweetie Belle said.

“I will bring her back, so you can apologize to her face-to-face,” Gearhead said, showing them out the door. He locked up and then retrieved the Alicorn Engine as quickly as he could. The stabilizer was still equipped to it from last night, and Gearhead decided that it was better off that way. He launched.

Although Gearhead could not read Snowbelle’s mind when she closed it off from him, the connection still allowed them to feel each other’s presence. The closer Gearhead got to Snowbelle, the stronger he felt her. He could also feel strong emotions, such as the sadness, grief, and frustration she currently felt. Anxious, Gearhead took an intercept course and closed at full speed: even at her best, Snowbelle could not hope to outrun or outperform him when he flew using the stabilized Engine – Gearhead would really have to think of a better term for that!

When Gearhead caught up to Snowbelle, she was perched at the very tip of the tallest branch in the tallest tree in the Ponyville area. She had quite obviously given up running, and she was waiting for him instead. Although she was not crying, Gearhead was able to sense through the link that she had been. He came to a hovering stop beside her, and rested as much weight on the next branch as he dared.

“Please talk to me,” Gearhead said.

The dragon turned away.

<Would you prefer speaking this way?>

<Maybe,>

<I am sorry. I am not strong enough to talk to her either. And I do not know if I am ready for a relationship anyway.>

<It is not your fault, Father.>

<I am also sorry I did not realize you were thinking of her that way.>

Snowbelle turned and looked at him. <I am not strong enough, am I?>

<You are a child; who says you need to be strong already?>

She flew over and nestled under his chin, crying openly. <This really is my fault, though.>

<You can tell me,>

<It is okay if you get mad. Actually, I think you should: after you closed your mind to me I figured out that you had decided not to see Miss Fluttershy anymore. I got angry with you, and with her, because I knew it would not happen unless she agreed to it. So while you were out fixing things, I confronted her and told her to choose between being together with us and not being near us at all.>

<You spoke to her?>

<That is not all: I... threatened her.>

<I know you would never carry through with that: You love her too deeply.>

<I know that, and you know that, but she was... scared. Of me. I terrified her. And then I got angry and frustrated that she would not fight to stay together, that she would not be brave for us.>

<You demanded that she show a different kind of courage from the types she has known before, and she did not know where to find it, I think.>

<I acted out of anger, and now she does not want to be near us. She is too afraid.>

<I would be terrified if a dragon threatened me, too. There is quite literally Dragonfear, and I think you learned how to use yours.>

<Oh,>

<The solution is the same as before: we must wait for Fluttershy to find the kind of courage to push through the terror and tell us what is on her mind despite that. In the meantime, I need to find a balance between the Black Sheep’s humility and providing you with the care and love you need to grow.>

<You do not need to rush to find a mother for me, you know.>

<I know, but I love you so. I would want you to receive the love that all children are supposed to have, from a whole family.>

<We are a whole family,>

<Thank you for saying so,> Gearhead held Snowbelle a little tighter. <Now, should we go find Sweetie Belle so she can apologize to you?>

<She does not have to do that!>

<It will make her feel better,>

<Oh, alright,>

<Is it alright with you if I keep some parts of my mind closed to you?>

<I think there are some things I am not meant to know yet, so yes.>

<Will you open back up to me?>

<As long as you likewise do not mind not knowing my every thought,>

<Very well,>

Barely thirty seconds after Gearhead arrived at the tree, he took off with Snowbelle riding happily on his back.

* * *

“What do you think?” Patriarch Redwood asked, glancing at Vines, who sat at the table beside him. They had both spent considerable time poring over Gearhead’s contract draft, looking for flaws to fix.

“It’s fairly good for a first draft, if it is indeed the first attempt. But the flaws he’s managed to fix are all the easiest ones to see, like supply, price, and safeguards. I still don’t really understand how he plans to keep others from copying the designs when the projectors will all be standing out in the open. And what happens if one of them stops working, or gets destroyed? Does the whole array go down?”

“I have to agree,” Father said. “It’s almost as if he believes that those are impossible events.”

“Gearhead’s Gadgets has an impeccable reputation as far as quality is concerned, but these arrays are meant for defence. Of course they’ll come under attack once the invader or invaders realize what they are. Gearhead will be responsible for repairs as well as maintenance. And because you’re his employer now, any mistake on his part marks you as well.”

“That’s why he sent a draft of the contract to us first, before bringing it to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.”

“So lets keep plugging at those holes. I suppose the part he felt I’d object to was the array’s ownership. But it makes sense for the principality to get that since they’d be buying the devices and using them to protect the citizens where they live. Still, supply is a problem: Gearhead said he needed a large amount of gemstones to build his one Engine, so how would the principality support up to eight units for just Canterlot or Manehattan?”

“And the treasury can’t use its gold, just gemstones. Fortunately we can supplement the supply with our own.”

“In that case, would Herd Verdant gain partial ownership over the arrays that we helped build?”

“We already would, because Gearhead has a hoof on the switch at all times, in case a safeguard gets triggered. If he can shut down an array at any time, then as far as defence goes he stands above any mayor, or even the princesses. At the same time, we know he’d never endanger anyone. But we should still ask him for a clarification.”

“So we supply materials of our own from our mining operations, but where should we send them?”

“Gearhead already planned for the crown to supply most of the materials, so maybe to the city or town where he’d be building the array.”

“And where until then?”

“Our mines are all over Equestria, and even over the borders. It would be best to have protected depots throughout, but that takes a lot of ponypower. And if we build a centralized depot, it would have to be somewhere central, so materials can get anywhere equally quickly.”

“Like Canterlot? As the capital, wouldn’t it face the most heat in an attack?”

“Ponyville, then?”

“Maybe making it a target, and it’s not so far from Canterlot that a large or fast enough force couldn’t hit both at once.”

“Unfortunate but true. Lets look into the decentralized model and see how many depots we can afford to guard.”

“With what? We’re farmers, miners, and craftsponies. Do you want us to rely on the crown, or on our neighbours in the Alliance?”

“Maybe this is something we should bring before the Alliance,” Father said.

“Not before we talk to the Council, I think.”

“That goes without saying, since we’d be using the Herd’s resources. It’s clear, though, that this is no longer just a matter for me as an employer.”

“If they work, these arrays will change the way Equestria is protected, and that changes how closely we should tie ourselves to the Crown.”

“I hate to do it again so soon, but we need to call Gearhead back here to speak with him.”

“It’s the fastest way to finalize the contract. If this is going to work, he’ll need to get on construction as soon as he’s able. Before something happens, hopefully. And again, assuming any of this works.”

“Hopefully it will,” Father said, pulling a blank scroll and a pen closer to him to start writing the letter of summons. “I wish there was a faster way to do this,” he said.

“Then why not ask the Conclave, whom you and Gearhead are so proud are our allies?”

“An excellent suggestion.”

“So glad I thought of it,” Vines rolled his eyes. It seemed they were stuck for this, but he could only imagine Gearhead’s expression when he found out Vines, of all ponies, was going to support even the spirit of the contract. Essentially, though, he was only opposed to close ties to the Crown assuming it fell, and took everypony else with it. If Gearhead was involved in the principality’s defense, the only way the Crown could fall was if Princess Celestia or Princess Luna did something politically foolish. And how many centuries had they ruled? That seemed unlikely.

But not impossible. Ponies did foolish things all the time, when they were stressed, afraid, or angry. Or when things were going well and they got complacent.

* * *

When Gearhead and Snowbelle decided to go check in on Twilight, they were both shocked to see the library festooned in scientific and mathematical equations and equipment. “Miss Twilight,” Gearhead said, “are you okay?”

The Unicorn seemed not to hear, muttering something to herself and galloping from one side of the library to another, while Spike wore a worried expression.

“Twilight?” Nothing. “Twilight Sparkle?” Still nothing. “Twi?” No response.

Pinkie made a circular motion with one hoof beside her head. She’s gone loco in the coco, the other Earth Pony seemed to be saying.

“Pinkie, did you adjust the aperture in the...”

Gearhead did not pay attention to the rest of the question: ‘aperture’ most likely referred to the telescope toward which Twilight was already moving. Gearhead imagined a cold wind to put condensation on the lenses, and one developed out of nowhere while Snowbelle flew over and breathed on the lens on the telescopes’s thicker end.

“What the..? I thought I cleaned the –“

“Twily!”

“What are you..? You’re not my brother,”

“You have a brother?” Pinkie asked. “Why haven’t we met?”

“Pay attention, Pinkie: we’re trying to avert a potential disaster here, and we’ve only got four more days!”

“Actually, it’s Monday, silly.”

“That can’t be right,” Twilight checked the calendar, then looked through the defrosting telescope again.

“It is true,” Gearhead said.

“She thinks she’s only been awake for three days,” Pinkie said.

“Twilight, go to sleep. Now!”

“I told Pinkie already, I can sleep when all this is over. I only have a matter of hours before morning, and whatever happened to future-me to make her look like that will have happened.”

“But we already disaster-proofed most of Equestria,” Gearhead said.

“Don’t you see? The signs are still happening: the hair and bandana, the paper cut on my cheek, everything!”

“You need to rest, or you will be unable to think crooked, let alone straight,” Gearhead said.

“Why don’t you understand? I don’t have time for rest anymore... that’s it, there’s only one thing left to do: I must stop time!”

Gearhead was overcome by the sudden urge to slap Twilight across the face. Not hard, but hopefully enough to force her to her senses. Snowbelle looped around from where she had been hopping on the telescope to force it away from pointing at the sun, and slapped Twilight with her left wing as she flew past.

“What was that for?”

“That depends: are you done sleep-talking yet?” Gearhead asked deadpan. “If you are not, Snowbelle would be happy to give you another if it will bring you back to your senses.”

“I’m being serious! Future-me said the spell was in the Starswirl Wing of the Canterlot Library. All I have to do is go over there and learn it.”

“Twilight, you said the scar on your cheek was from a paper cut.”

“Princess Celestia sent me a notice about Cerberus being missing, and it cut me when Spike spat it up.”

“What about the bandana?”

“A pot fell on my head. It was Pinkie Sense-related.”

“And... your mane?”

“I tried doing nothing, and Spike and Rainbow started horsing around. Spike got some fire on me by accident.”

“And these small incidents are signs of disaster, how?”

“Because future-me looked like she’d been through a war, that’s how!”

“Between now and tomorrow morning, how many of these ‘signs’ are left?”

“Well, I’m not missing an eye and I’m not wearing a ripped-up black ops suit.”

“I have one of those,” Pinkie said. “And also an eye-patch,” she added, rummaging in the chimney and bringing one out.

“Gah! Another sign,” Twilight said, pointing at the patch.

“You would be wearing it if you had looked through the telescope as you had it set,”

“Pinkie, I asked you to adjust it!”

“And you actually thought I knew what you were talking about?” Pinkie snorted. “You really are feeling loopy, Twilight!”

“Well, I’ve adjust it now,” Twilight said. “Just in time for the lenses to defrost, apparently.”

Gearhead sighed. “It seems we are not getting anywhere here,” he said while Snowbelle looped around to land on his shoulders.

“Right! Pinkie. Spike. We’re going to Canterlot, tonight.” Twilight glared at Gearhead. “Soon we’ll find out that I’m right!”

Gearhead sighed again. “Yes, I believe we shall leave you to it,” he said, and he left the library. He had other things to which to attend in the meantime.

Nopony in Ponyville saw Twilight and the others for awhile after that, but the next day sunrise came, and the world continued to turn.

<So she is wrong,> Snowbelle said.

<Yes, but we shall not hold it against her.>

<Understood, Father.>

26. The Meaning of Family

Chapter 26: The Meaning of Family

Snowbelle only had two reasons, one decent and one poor, not to watch the Dragon migration, and both of them were outweighed just by her curiosity, nevermind her father’s preparations. One of her reasons was that after what she had said to Fluttershy, Snowbelle was starting to feel awkward around her. The other reason was that the Dragons who were migrating near Ponyville would most likely be fire-breathers.

Even Snowbelle realized that she would have to see Fluttershy again, since they were part of the same social circle. Although it had not been all that long since Snowbelle had lectured the Pegasus to tears, the young Dragon was already starting to miss being treated so affectionately and kindly. It was not as if Father did not have affection or kindness for her: Fluttershy’s version was just... different.

As to the fear of being burned out, not only was Father helping to dig and reinforce the trench the ponies would be using to observe the migration, but he and Rarity had designed a small satchel for Snowbelle, which would hold several ice crystals at once. If Snowbelle felt like the protection she got from Father was not enough, she could pop a crystal into her mouth and get a nice Ice Magic boost.

Father was naturally also concerned for the others’ safety, so when Snowbelle flew in with Rainbow Dash and Twilight, who had come to pick her up after their attempt to persuade Fluttershy to join them, Father had already erected anti-fire and anti-smoke barriers. Snowbelle caught him remembering the force he had put into the Spiral Lance he had used against the witch’s barrier and wondering how that might compare to a Dragon’s flame. Snowbelle sent him a reassuring wisp of a thought in response: he was far stronger than he had been back then, so defending the others from any Dragons that chose to attack rather than continue their migration should be fairly easy. Of course, Father had never actually fought a Dragon, and he intended on keeping that way.

“What happened to Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked.

“We... couldn’t persuade her to come,” Twilight said lamely.

“Well, you can’t force somepony to do something they don’t wanna do,” Spike said. Here was another example of a Dragon, just as unusual in his own way as Snowbelle was.

“Yeah, not my proudest moment,” Rainbow Dash said. “Still, I bet she’ll be embarrassed about missing this later.”

“Maybe, but only if Rarity doesn’t attract so much attention we end up being barbecued,” Twilight said. Snowbelle had to agree: if the bright and colourful outfit was not enough, the red carpet that let right to the trench’s entrance would lead the Dragons right to the Ponies. And unlike Spike and Snowbelle, these Dragons would not shy away from a meal with meat!

“Since when did camouflage have to be so... bland?” Rarity asked.

“Since the idea was to blend in with one’s surroundings,” Father said.

“Oh yes, and you’d know everything about blending, wouldn’t you, Mister Alicorn Engine.”

“Which, you will notice, I did not bring with me. Shields are set, by the way.”

“Well, good for you.”

“Are you, by any chance, upset with me because of what happened with Fluttershy?”

“She’s one of my precious friends, so you won’t find me denying it.”

“Hey Rarity,” Applejack said, “would ya mind simmering down before a Dragon hears and burns us all to a crisp?”

Rarity turned with a “hmph!” but she also became quiet.

“It’s not his fault Fluttershy’s scared of Dragons,” Rainbow hissed. “Note the plural.”

“And the bruise on Dashie’s stomach. That looks like it hurts,” Pinkie said.

“Shh!”

“She caught me off guard, is all.”

“Me too,” Father said quietly, but Snowbelle’s sensitive ears picked that up, along with an image from his fight with Fluttershy. Yes, he had been genuinely surprised then.

“Shh! Here they come,” Applejack said. Until then she had had her eyes glued to a set of binoculars.

The Dragons came in a thick flurry, all winged and all of different colours. As soon as they started to pull flips and loops, Snowbelle was convinced that not only had the Dragons noticed that they were being watched, but they were performing for their audience. One Dragon pretty well confirmed that for her when he came swooping in low and still managed to only get his jet of flame over the watching Ponies, instead of hitting them directly – or Father’s shield. The others ‘ooh’ed appropriately.

“How majestic,” Rarity said, still in awe.

“Yeah, we Dragons are pretty fierce,” Spike said.

“Fierce with cookies, tea, and an apron maybe,” Rainbow said.

“I’d much prefer to call you ‘cute,’ Spikey-Wikey.”

“’Cute?’” Now Spike looked worried. He gathered his apron in his claws and looked down at it. Snowbelle sent a spike of concern at Father.

“Actually,” Father said, “I am glad you are on our side, Spike. We do not have any other Dragons around here, other than you and my daughter, and most ponies are too affected by the Dragonfear to ever approach an adult Dragon for anything. Everything we know about Dragons is thanks to you.”

“But I don’t make you afraid,” Spike said. “Now that I think about it, when we first came to Ponyville Fluttershy only talked to us because she saw me talking to Twilight. She thought I was ‘cute’ too!”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Rarity said.

“None of you think I’m scary at all, do you?”

“Your cooking skills are frighteningly good,” Twilight said.

“You do bake an awesome cookie,” Pinkie said, eating one. “I think the Cakes would enjoy your help at the shop anytime!”

“I think the most important point is we can always depend on you, Spike,” Applejack said.

“I couldn’t ask for a more faithful Number One Assistant,” Twilight added.

“But... if I’m not fierce or frightening, then am I still a Dragon?”

“Your scales and fire say ‘yes,’” Father said.

“A fire that sends and receives letters between Twilight and Princess Celestia,” Spike said morosely.

“What are you saying, Spike? Where would you be if you hadn’t been given to me as an egg?”

“I don’t know... and maybe that’s what I should be trying to find out!” Since the migration had long since moved ahead, Spike simply stomped off, away from the trench.

“Ooh,” Rarity said, “he’s so cute when he waddles!”

“Waddle?!” Snowbelle understood: Spike was trying to storm off, and with a comment like that from Rarity, he was getting even more steamed about being called ‘cute’ all the time. As a fellow-Dragon, she could not exactly blame him.

* * *

Snowbelle lay curled up in her bed, but she was not asleep. Two floors below, Father was busy preparing some bags. It had been one of Snowbelle’s mental suggestions that had prompted him to do so, so that Snowbelle could be prepared if her hunch about Spike was correct.

When they got back from watching the migration, Father and Snowbelle looked through Father’s encyclopedias and bestiaries. Despite Father’s obvious hope that there would be something of similar detail to the one for Philomena, no such thing existed for Dragons. Obviously not only was surviving an encounter (itself a rare occurrence) with them rare, but nopony kept a Dragon as a pet or family member other than Twilight and Father. This was reflected in the fact that not every Unicorn who went through Princess Celestia’s program ended up with an assistant like Spike.

<How high do you believe the chances of your hunch bearing out really are?> Father asked.

<Eighty percent sure,> Snowbelle responded, <and I am being conservative. I wanted at least 75% certainty before I even asked you to do this for me.>

Although Snowbelle could not see it, she felt Father nodding at that. It was a mental nod, she realized, and a strong image, not just an impression like the two of them used to send to each other. Snowbelle knew about Princess Luna’s psychic lessons, and she even got some of her own. These lessons had to be why Father was becoming much more proficient with mental images.

<I appreciate your discretion and honesty. But does this mean that you would also have these questions, and need to answer them?>

<We both know where I came from, Father, and that getting there will be much more difficult than any journey Spike could complete. That said, I would also like some answers, so it is a shame I cannot get them at the same time. This time, things will be all about Spike.>

<I do not look forward to being separated from you, nevermind to do it twice, but I do agree this should be the better way.>

<I do not like it either,>

<You can always reach out to me through the link if you see more trouble coming than you can handle.>

<I know. In fact, I will keep the link more open during the journey, so you can feel the impressions as they occur to me.>

<And if I sense danger, I can fly right over, even if I then wait to see whether you and Spike can handle it.>

<I appreciate it,>

<Now please get some sleep. I shall have your bags ready for you. And there are not any chances Spike will leave first.>

<Thank you, Father.>

* * *

Even as Father and Snowbelle approached the library, they heard someone crash into something. Father sprinted the last few steps to the open doorway, while Snowbelle flew at his side, only to find Twilight contemplating something, with a small bindle stick held in her telekinetic grip. Rarity and Rainbow Dash both were watching with nervous expressions. Their distress only increased when Twilight decided to give the bindle to Spike, which meant she was letting him go.

“You can’t be serious!” Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight glared at her friend. “Of course I am, because I care about Spike, but I also recognize how important finding these answers is.”

“Well then,” Rainbow sighed, “I hope this journey of yours helps you find some answers to your pesky ‘who am I‘ questions, Spike.”

“Yes, good luck, Spike,” Rarity said.

“Thanks, and it’s not a journey: it’s a quest!”

“’Oh, you need not be overly concerned,”’ Father said with a little extra flourish. “’I am going with him,”’ he finished, and as he bowed, Snowbelle herself flew to perch lightly on Spike’s head before performing an aerial flip, to land beside him instead.

“Hey, two Dragons instead of one,” Spike said. “You even have your own bags!” Father had created a simple rigging for her, so she could bear a significant weight easily. The rig consisted of a single pack that sat between her wings, and another pair that sat on each side like saddlebags, and a small pouch-like bag that fixed to her chest. They all contained Ice Crystals, to keep her cold or strengthen her in case of trouble.

Snowbelle trilled, and raised a foreleg to show she was ready.

“Are you serious?” Rainbow asked Father.

“Of course,” Father said. Snowbelle knew that he would remind the others about their mental link as soon as she and Spike were out of earshot. He might even convince the others not to tail the two Dragons.

* * *

Thus began the long trek across a widely-varying land. For the first little while, Snowbelle hardly flew at all, simply trying to learn Spike’s pace as she kept up with him. While Snowbelle did not know where they were going, and doubted Spike knew either, they visually tracked their progress against that of the flying Dragons, stopping to rest only when they were certain they could do so without losing sight of the whole horde.

“You sure you wouldn’t rather fly up there with them?” Spike asked.

Snowbelle hopped right up to him and nuzzled a cheek against his, purring, in answer. As she was now, her heat-resistance was high enough that Spike did not scald her, however the older Dragons and their more developed fire might be a different story. Spike accepted this answer, even as he looked up at his fire-belching cousins and decided that a tea set was not appropriate for a fierce Dragon.

The lush green woods and meadows soon gave way to shorter, hardier shrubbery and other plant life, as Spike and Snowbelle entered into the foothills and started to climb. Snowbelle could use her wings to stabilize herself and glide between difficult spots. She bounced with her forelegs, visually suggesting to Spike that he make use of his foreclaws as well as those on his hindquarters. Not only would he be better balanced with a lower center of gravity, he would automatically have better traction and be able to distribute his weight along more points of contact. But Spike had trouble letting go of his bipedal habits.

Snow and ice soon covered the mountains, and while Snowbelle was in her element, even using magic to absorb some of the surrounding cold to recharge some of her Ice Crystals, Spike’s cold reptilian blood sent him into shivers. Snowbelle started to focus her cold siphoning around Spike, and when she had to rest from doing that, she casted a spell of cold-resistance on him. Snowbelle knew that if she was with Father, just their presence together would do the job. But Father had entrusted Spike’s safety to her, and she would not disappoint.

Rather, Spike was being impressively persistent and resourceful: he found food where no one else would seem to think to look, made use of the most minimal shelter against the weather, and even managed to get a ride up the mountain on one of the goats already climbing upward.

After Spike and Snowbelle crested several peaks, it was her turn to be the one struggling, this time against a desert’s heat. When they had looked down on the desert from the snow-covered peaks, Snowbelle had eaten all the snow and ice she could in order store up the cold for later. Unfortunately, the bright silvery glow of her freezing boost quickly faded. Fortunately, her heat-resistance was high enough that as long as it did not get much hotter, she would even continue to walk beside Spike without overheating. Snowbelle mentally berated herself by remembering that her own mother had resisted the heat from a magma chamber for over a millennium, waiting for someone who could take her egg from that place.

As Spike led the way up an incline that ended sharply, and which a bunch of adult Dragons were using to rest, Snowbelle felt her heat rising beyond her comfort level. As they went over the rise, she flipped an Ice Crystal into the air so she could suck on the cold magic within. The Dragons nearest their entry point gazed down at the two young Dragons with interest. A fireball splashed across a nearby wall, and Snowbelle’s heat-resistant shield shimmered before becoming invisible again.

“Yikes!” Spike yelped, and slipped down into the crater. Snowbelle followed on her wings, silently agreeing that it might be a little too dangerous hanging out with the adults.

“Teenaged Dragons,” Spike said, “that’s more my speed!”

I do not know about that, Snowbelle thought, but she followed after him anyway.

“Hey, what’s this?” One Dragon said.

“Looks like someone fell out of the nest a little early. Anyone looking for a baby?”  Another said.

“Hey! I am a Dragon. Just let me prove it.”

“You want to prove it, eh?”

“Of course he wants to prove he’s worthy to hang with the cool group,” a Red Dragon said. “So lets go easy on the little guy... and give him a Test of Dragon-tude!” The other dragons roared their approval.

“What about this one?” A chubby Dragon pointed at Snowbelle, hovering nearby, but not so close they would automatically connect her with Spike

“A girl dragon?” The Red twisted his face in disgust and made a gesture of dismissal. “Beat it, girly. Guys only!”

“Yeah, beat it!” The chunky one took a clumsy swing at her, but Snowbelle easily evaded him by drifting over just a bit. Noticing that he had not contacted anything except air, Chunky turned and made another attempt, this time with more focus and accuracy. Snowbelle pumped her wings once extra-hard so she was flying right above his fist, and gripped it tightly with her hind claws for half a second. “Agh!” Chunky quickly withdrew his arm, gripping the partly-frozen claw with his other. “I ain’t touchin’ that,” he said.

“Yeah, whatever,” the Red said. “Let her do what she wants, then.” Snowbelle winged over lightly and blew an icy raspberry right in the Red’s face. She knew it was not the mature thing to do, but then these teenagers could not be considered mature in the least. The Red shook his head, and just laughed louder than the others. “You got a lot of spunk for a girl, so we’ll let ya hang with us if ya want. For now.”

“What about me?” Spike asked. He had looked like he wanted to stand up for Snowbelle earlier, but he had obviously decided that she was doing fine on her own.

“That one just froze a Firedrake’s fist. You still gotta prove yourself, so we’ll do some tests to see how much of a Dragon you really are. What’s your name?”

“It’s ‘Spike,’”

“’Spike,’ huh? You sure it’s not 'Peewee?'”

“Yup, it’s Spike,” he said, while Snowbelle swooped down in front of him.

“We haven’t seen ya around before, Peewee. Where ya from?”

Spike swallowed. “Ponyville,” he said, deciding to tell the truth.

“Ha! Ponyville? That explains it. Why, your fangs probably aren’t completely grown in yet. Or even your spines!”

“Yeah, they are!” Snowbelle let out a high-pitched keen, interrupting them. She landed just long enough to hop impatiently on the hot ground while glaring up at the Red.

“Who’s this one? She also from Ponyville?”

“That’s my friend, Snowbelle. And of course she’s from Ponyville!”

“The first bit’s about right, but the rest is too... dainty. How ‘bout we just call her ‘Blizzard?’ Alright, Blizzy, we’ll get to the tests, and the first one is... fire-belching!”

Snowbelle growled softly: she did not care what these punks called her as long as they did not accidentally discover her True Name, but the Red must have chosen the challenge knowing what dragonfire could do to an Arctic Dragon like her. She stayed alert, ready to avoid even a direct blast as each of the drakes demonstrated his flame by letting an obnoxious noise come out of their mouths at the same time.

One small part of Snowbelle was fascinated to note that some of the more different types had flames of different colours, or even textures: most were more standard orange-red, but some were darker red or lighter orange. There was one whose flame was blue, and still another that had magnesium-white flame. One drake even had bright green flames, but none of them produced a letter.

“What’s this?” The Red opened it up and started reading the letter aloud. “Hey, get this guys: Spike here’s pen pals with a namby-pamby princess!”

You mean the same princess who has raised and lowered the sun and the moon for the past thousand years? Snowbelle thought. You call that ‘namby-pamby?’

“Whatever,” the Red threw the scroll over his shoulder toward a firepit, but Snowbelle swooped in to rescue it. Since the letter was addressed to Spike, she decided to stash it in one of her saddlebags for safekeeping. Then she followed as the Dragons led Spike to another area for the next test.

“Tail wrestling?” Spike raised an eyebrow.

“Tail wrestling!” The Red waved a claw, and two other drakes stepped forward to demonstrate. Spike winced when he saw the way the loser’s tail was bent and crumpled. How could he possibly defeat any of the older, larger Dragons here?

“Well? You’re up. Unless you’re too much of a Pony?”

Spike visibly picked himself up. “Bring it on!” At a signal, Spike’s challenger stepped up. He appeared to be one of the smallest of the teenaged Dragons, with a small head and body. It made Snowbelle wonder what the catch was, until this drake stepped further forward, revealing massive hindquarters and a tail. How in the world do you end up like that?! Snowbelle thought.

<Unreal,> Father concurred. <But if you take this one on, even your size-changing magic might not help. And then who will Spike get as his opponent?>

<However, he is bound to have a smaller tail!> While Spike swallowed visibly, Snowbelle landed with a louder thump than she would have gotten normally: she had released the spell that kept her small enough to ride on Father’s head, bringing her to half the size of a mare’s barrel. By using another spell, she doubled her size, making her larger than a whole mare. Although she still was not as big as any of the teenaged drakes, she was still larger than Spike.

“You wanna take him on?” The Red asked. “Well, since we did almost get the joke all the way through, why not? Teach her a lesson!”

The crowd cheered as the two opponents approached each other, turned around, and linked tails. The other dragon was so much larger in the rear than Snowbelle was, even at her increased size, that her own hindquarters could not get a proper purchase on the ground. And the heat was starting to get to her.

At the Red’s countdown, both Dragons started to pull, but the drake was much stronger than Snowbelle: she got pulled from the ground, swung around three times, and released into the air, spinning like a throwing disk. She spread her wings to regain control, and looped back down, at the same time restoring herself to her usual size.

“Gotta give ya a little respect for sticking it through, but ya still lost,” the Red said. “What about you, Twerp? Ya got more or less Dragon in ya than your little girlfriend?”

Spike huffed. “I’m not gonna let you treat Snowbelle that way even though she’s not my girlfriend.” Spike linked tails with another Dragon, and while this one’s rear end was smaller than Snowbelle’s opponent, he was still large enough that Spike hung entirely off the ground. “Uh-oh,” he said just before he got launched. Snowbelle was there to catch him and bring him back around, although since she was small again she had to struggle a bit with his weight. Once she had Spike on the ground again, Snowbelle had to take another Ice Crystal to cool back down.

“Too bad, Peewee. But don’t worry: we’ve still got a couple more tests. If you pass them, maybe we’ll let you in.”

The Red, who finally introduced himself as ‘Garble,’ did not give a verbal explanation for the third challenge, which was called ‘King of the Horde.’ He did not really need to: Dragons climbed a large pile of gemstones, while knocking each other back down. Whoever reached the top had to fend off all comers, and only if he stayed up could he declare himself ‘King of the Horde.’ Garble brought Spike up the pile only to drop him back down, painfully, as the signal for the start of the challenge.

Snowbelle noticed that there were many winged Dragons participating, including Garble himself. None of them, out of whatever warped sense of honour they had, used their wings to get to the top of the pile. Snowbelle folded her wings and snaked her way up the pile, dodging incoming bodies as Garble continued to knock his mates back down. She saw Spike’s determination as he crawled his way up by tooth and claw, and then he pushed Garble off balance and down the pile, by accident. Even as Spike started to declare himself, the jewels shifted underneath him, and he lost his balance, only to go caroming down.

“Oh, too bad,” Garble said. “Looks like another fail. Lets see how you do in the final test!”

The final test was a lava dive. Snowbelle judged that if she used three Ice Crystals at once she might survive, but with four she would have a cryogenic effect on the lava pool that none of the Dragons here would appreciate. This time she could only support Spike from the air, and preferably not from above the pool and its heat.

The adolescent Dragons continued to make their catcalls at Spike as he hesitated, and then suddenly he belly flopped into the lava. Fortunately that did not hurt him, and the Dragons seemed satisfied.

Only they were not satisfied at all. They threw a party with the excuse that Spike had proven his 'Dragon-tude,' however Snowbelle believed that they would party at any old opportunity. They were like Pinkie Pie in that, but the resemblance did not go any further. Any feeling of camaraderie Spike felt was because of the gemstones on which he gorged himself, and not from a genuine friendship the drakes were sharing: they continued to tease the smaller Dragon, although they were less obvious about it. Snowbelle whimpered when he said he might stay with the Dragons forever, based solely on how full he felt at that moment.

She need not have worried, though, because soon Garble called a dragon raid. Spike roused from his state of satisfaction and directly into one of trepidation. As the other drakes flew off, Snowbelle had to latch onto the Land Dragon’s shoulders so she could fly him after them.

Soon the five Dragons, three teenagers and two mere children, were hiding together in a bush. “There!” Garble said in hushed tones. We’ll raid that nest.”

“A Phoenix nest? We’re gonna raid a Phoenix nest?”

“If you’re Dragon enough, yeah. Don’t worry: we do this all the time,” one of the others said.

“Now all we need’s a distraction, so go distract the parents, Spike.” Garble kicked Spike out of their hiding spot, and Snowbelle had to go flying out after him. For a few moments, Spike stood there not knowing what to do, then he picked up a rock to throw at the nest, and started to taunt the mother and father Phoenixes.

They did not like that, and gave chase. Screaming, Spike and Snowbelle both fled into the bushes, pursued by the angry, fiery Phoenixes. One thing Snowbelle knew in absolute certainty: she did not want them to catch her!

Fortunately it was not long before the parents abandoned the chase to return to their nest. Snowbelle and Spike ran after them to see what was going on, and saw that there were a number of hatchlings pushing back against the drakes as they tried to attack. And one unhatched egg, which had fallen from the nest to land by the tree. Spike quickly picked it up to keep it safe.

Snowbelle and Spike watched, fascinated, as the Phoenix parents and chicks counterattacked and played pranks to slip between the Dragons, before slipping away altogether. This left just the one egg, and a trio of angry teenage Dragons.

“Hey Spike, what’cha got there?”

“No way, you got an egg?!”

“Yeah, I guess I did.”

“I guess you’re not a total loser after all, Spike.”

“So what’re you waiting for? Smash it!”

“Smash a poor, defenseless egg?”

“Yeah!”

Spike gripped the egg more tightly, protectively. “No.”

“What?”

“I said ‘no!’” Spike said more loudly.

“No one tells me no,” Garble growled, advancing menacingly.

“Wrong move,” two voices from two places seemed to say in the same moment. The ground exploded in an expanding cloud of dust, and when that cleared, there was Father, a trio of amethysts rolling out from where he had set them. “Now,” he said, and there was only his voice.

Now there was the familiar flash of Twilight’s teleportation spell. She, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash appeared to join Snowbelle, Spike, and Father in facing down the teenaged Dragons.”

“Ponies? Ha! What’re you gonna do? Kick me in the scales?” Garble asked, advancing while the other two laughed. It was true that Dragons had tough scales. A normal attack probably would not work on them.

“I’m not normally one for violence: fashion is more my thing,” Rarity said, “but I’ll rip you to pieces if you touch one scale on Spike's cute little head!”

“Ooh, scary, I’m shaking in my claws. Not!”

All at once, Snowbelle used her size-changing spells and flipped three Ice Crystals into her mouth. This time, instead of sucking on them she bit into them. With an audible CRUNCH! the magic spread throughout her body, limning it all in light blue ice. And now she was almost as big as the drakes. Snowbelle inhaled, and the air around her mouth turned freezing cold.

Father drew the Geargem Dagger and quickly used its magic to stir up a cold wind around the drakes. Twilight and Rarity used their telekinetic magic to keep them pinned down under a salvo of mud and earth from which the drakes had to protect their eyes. Rainbow was in the air, prepared to rush the Dragons the instant an opening appeared. Spike held the egg he had found protectively, even as the others took up position between him and their targets.

Snowbelle exhaled, and her breath quickly overran the drakes, coating them in snow and ice. Within seconds they were frozen, but since their bodies held living fire, they would not be held there for long.

“Run!” Spike said. The others, seeing that Snowbelle’s spells were not going to hold for long, did as he suggested, and ran off into the woods. Twilight waited until they had a safe lead, and Snowbelle had shed her ice shell and returned to normal, before teleporting them all back to Ponyville.

“I’m sorry, Spike,” Twilight said. “Did you find any of the answers you wanted?”

“I think I would rather be with my Pony family than with obnoxious Dragon jerks and bullies like that,” the young Dragon said. “I don’t know what a Dragon is supposed to be like, but I think I’d rather be my own kind, instead of one that bullies others just because I’m big.”

<I agree with that,> Snowbelle told Father. <Those Dragons seemed not to have any self-control or honour. We are supposed to have the wisdom, discipline, and diligence to use magic, and I did not see any of that at all.>

<Well, my daughter, even among the Firedrakes we know of one or two Dragons who are nothing like the ones you met on the Great Dragon Migration.>

<That is true. I only hope my own kind has a similar moral scale.>

<They might. We shall find for certain when we go to meet them.>

* * *

“When I get my claws on those Ponies, I’ll make them suffer for everything they’ve put us through, ten, no twenty times!”

The earth shook, and thunder roared. “You shall do nothing of the sort, young fools.” Red eyes peered down from amidst black scales.

“But--!”

“’Nothing,’ I said. I observed to see what wisdom you possess, but it seems obvious to me that you have none. You must learn again, in what foolishness you engage daily, and in what harm you nearly did today.”

“But...”

“You will never touch a Dragonfriend, nor his friends. It is our Law for a reason. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Master of Shadows,” Gargle said grudgingly.

The black Firedrake’s glare penetrated what dust remained in the air.

“I mean, ‘Yes, Master of Shadows!”

“See that you follow it through, or you will never be welcome in any Firehome. I will send you to the Learning before I exile you, but you have only the one chance remaining. Now, begone!” The teenaged Dragons fled, the elder watching their every move. “The folly of adolescents,” Shadow Wright shook his head. “Do not follow into their same trap, Little One, for you are better than all of us. Someday, although few see it, you will come to recognize it yourself. Yes, even you, Spike of Ponyville, the Ponyfriend.”

27. Like A Tree In A Storm

Chapter 27: Like a Tree In a Storm

“I’m surprised you found the time to look in on us,” Dash said to Gearhead as they stood together on the oval running track where she was training Ponyville’s entire Pegasus population. Twilight and Spike were there to help monitor and record the Pegasi’s wing power using an anemometer.

Dash’s comment was not entirely without merit, given how Gearhead and Fluttershy had been avoiding each other recently, apart from situations requiring that both be present – and even then they kept their distance from each other. Watching the Pegasi train did not count as one of these necessary situations, so when Dash noted how rare it was for Gearhead to be out and about, she was correct. To her, how busy he was with his gadgets was clearly just a convenient excuse to avoid Fluttershy.

“In just a few days, you are going to be leading Ponyville’s Pegasi in lifting a column of water to Cloudsdale for all Equestria to use. It is not just because I was raised on a farm that I am interested in the process, but also the fact that I carry some Pegasus magic myself. Also, it would be good for Snowbelle to watch other flyers.”

“If you’re so interested, why not participate yourself?”

“I am not certain that is such a good idea, and neither is Snowbelle: she might end up freezing the water, even if she can lift it without Pegasus magic. As for me, if I use the Alicorn Engine I do not know what effect the particles might have, and I would be committing to spreading them throughout Equestria without that knowledge.”

“You’ve had the Alicorn Engine for a long time already. How do you not know of all of its side effects?” Twilight asked.

“Because we have yet to perform experiments testing every possible situation. Widespread propagation could have a different effect on every other living thing from what happens when I fly over anyone or anything. And it would be in the water, something every living creature uses.”

“That’s a shame: it would probably be useful to have you on the team.”

“Except you notice the Engine does not have any wings, so how much ‘wing power’ could I possibly possess, right?”

“What about your Wind Wings?” Dash asked.

“What happens if they interfere with the tornado itself? What if the tornado cancels them out, and you have to send one or two of your Pegasi to rescue me? I would end up being more of a detriment than a help if I cannot predict precisely whether or not I can contribute to the effort. Better to stand off, at least until I have a solution.”

“Fine, so you can’t participate,”

“Not for now,”

“What’s that mean?”

“If Spike sends a letter asking Princess Celestia whether there are any ill effects from adding my Engine’s power to rainwater, maybe she will know whether I can use the Engine to increase the tornado’s overall rotation speed. Even just a little would help. But that is only if you end up being close to the minimum requirement.”

“Then you’ve got nothing to worry about, because we’re gonna bust right through the eight hundred wind power minimum and make a new record at a thousand!”

“YEAH!” Snowflake snorted.

Gearhead chuckled. “He is nothing if not enthusiastic,” he said ruefully.

“I don’t think anyone could argue against that,” Twilight said.

“Alright, who’s up next?” Dash asked.

“Fluttershy,” Spike said. “I don’t even know what to expect.”

“Why?” Gearhead asked. “Just before that thing with Iron Will, she was flying with me and Snowbelle over the Everfree Forest almost daily, and carrying out the same tricks I did.”

“She’s also awesome at pulling off sweeping dives to save her critter friends,” Dash gushed. “She’ll do great!”

“I am glad you convinced her to do this, Dash,” Gearhead said.

“It took a lot of convincing, but it’ll be worth it if it helps her get more confidence.” Snowbelle chirped in agreement from atop Gearhead’s head.

“Here she goes,” Dash said. As they watched, Fluttershy looked around nervously. When the yellow Pegasus’s eyes fell on him, Gearhead felt Snowbelle rear up and flap her wings enthusiastically. From the feel of the wind, she was spinning all the way around. It really was a shame Snowbelle could not help with the tornado, with all that energy.

And then Fluttershy seemed to swallow her doubts, just before she took off. She was not exactly going fast, but she was not going all that slow either – until Flitter and Cloudchaser giggled while they were looking across her. Fluttershy definitely noticed, and she slowed to half her previous speed just before crossing the line. Gearhead looked at the anemometer reading.

“I’m not telling her, you tell her,” Spike said to Twilight.

“It was her first practice run,” Gearhead said, “and we can double the reading to get the speed she was going before those two laughed across her nose.” Gearhead practically glared at the two mares, who jumped back a bit. But not fast enough, because Snowbelle winged over and honked in their faces before looping back. She landed beside the anemometer and tapped the glass lightly with a claw, as though making sure it was not broken. But because Twilight had thoroughly tested it beforehoof, they all knew it was working.

“We're sorry, Fluttershy,” Cloudchaser said.

“We didn’t know what we were doing was so hurtful to you,” Flitter said.

“You can run it again if you want,”

“Yeah!” Dash said. “Like Gearhead said, it was your first practice run. We can see your best once you’ve warmed up.”

“I don’t think I have it in me,” Fluttershy said, tears already in her eyes.

“Of course you do,” Twilight said. “We’ve all seen how incredibly strong you are at one time or another,”

“Yeah, strong,” Dash said, rubbing unconsciously at her ribs, still remembering how Fluttershy had stomped her to the floor.

“But one WP?” Spike scratched his head. “How? Ow!”

Twilight tried to shush Spike, but Fluttershy could not help but hear that.

“Fluttershy, wait! Are you going to let one little thing get in the way of your doing this?” Dash asked.

“Yes,” Fluttershy sobbed, and ran – not flew – from the track.

Dash sighed. “I was hoping this wouldn’t happen.” He turned to Gearhead. “Well? You’re gonna go after her, aren’t you?”

“You are the coach, Dash. Besides, you know that I am not any good with her right now.”

“I know the two of you are awkward, and that’s why it’s the perfect opportunity to work out whatever happened.”

“It is a little more complicated, when the fear is related to something that has not happened yet, or may never will. As Twilight can attest, the future is a nebulous, ever-changing entity. And I like to think that I am smart enough not to put myself into a position where I will get knocked down, thus triggering the very thing of which she is afraid.”

“So then it’s fine if it’s me because it already happened to me once?”

“It happened to you because Fluttershy is more afraid of Dragons than she is of hurting a resilient friend she knows will heal.”

“And you’re different how?”

“You are right: I am not that different in that case. I will go talk to her, as a friend.”

“Wait! You’re right: I’m the coach and her best friend. I should be the one who brings her spirit back up.” Dash flew off after Fluttershy, leaving the field in Twilight’s and Gearhead’s custody.

“You know, you’re pretty manipulative,” Twilight said.

“I know not to what you are referring,” Gearhead said. Snowbelle whistled innocently.

“Okay, just who came up with that?”

In the same instant, Gearhead shrugged his shoulders and Snowbelle shrugged her wings.

“Okay, that’s creepy,” Spike said. “Just a little bit.”

“So about that letter..?”

“Right away, sir!”

* * *

With the Pegasi out training for tornado duty, business was much slower than it would have been otherwise. The Pegasi themselves made up about one third of Ponyville’s total population, and not counting Twilight, Spike, Gearhead, and Snowbelle some of the other residents came out to watch. Some of them even made wagers about who was faster or slower, and how they might compare to one of the Wonderbolts. Naturally, with her fifteen wing power at the start of training, Rainbow Dash ranked the highest out of her whole team.

Gearhead realized that when there was something new or interesting going on, Ponyville had a tendency to flock to it. If it happened for long enough, they stayed until it became routine or uninteresting, and then they wandered off to the next novelty.

That feeling of novelty might have been a good part of what kept them coming back to Gearhead’s Gadgets more often than the citizens of any other town or city that Gearhead had ever visited. This was good for business, and good for Gearhead’s sense of stability, however he had to wonder if he could keep his business going if he suddenly became uninteresting. If he ran out of ideas and sold his gadgets to everypony who would buy them in Ponyville and Canterlot, would he have to leave?

Gearhead discovered that he did not want to leave his friends, and he did not want to revert to being a wanderer. Yes, he had stayed in Ponyville for many moons, but it was the fact that he had made friends here that would make it so difficult to leave, if he ever needed to do so. Not only that, but he had to consider what was best for Snowbelle as well. Foals needed routine and stability in their lives, and baby Dragons did not seem to be all that different in that regard. Gearhead was not the only one who had friends here, either. But if Gearhead was unable to sell his gadgets here for whatever reason, he would have to come up with a different way to make money.

That was when Gearhead recalled Rarity’s suggestion to advertise his services to other cities and towns, so new prospective customers would come to him, instead of the other way around, which was what he had been doing all along. If he could make ponies from all over Equestria want to come to Ponyville or nearby Canterlot to buy his wares, then he would not have to move – but doing so would require showing those customers why his gadgets were worth all the time, effort, and money they would spend just to reach his shop.

If it meant staying with his friends, and providing Snowbelle a stable home – at least until he took her to the Mountains to decide where her home was – then that was exactly what he would do. Thinking of friends and stability, Gearhead determined that he would speak with Fluttershy sometime soon, when the situation did not depend so highly on her often-fragile emotional state. For now, it was more important that she find the confidence to participate in tornado duty and help carry water to the rest of Equestria than it was to repair their relationship.

Gearhead returned his attention to his experiments: he wanted to be able to answer Dash’s concerns as quickly as possible, so he had transplanted a row of simple plants to be exposed directly to the Engine’s particles. At the same time, beside that set-up, he was running full-spectrum synchronization tests on the twin-core Engine. Once that was ready to go, he could test how multiple turbines interacted with each other, so he could determine whether the Alicorn Array defence project was even viable.

Gearhead was still working on these experiments when the door chime sounded, so he quickly cleaned himself up before he took the one-way dumbwaiter to the Workshop. When he answered the door, he was surprised to find a Pegasus standing there when all of the available Ponyville Pegasi were training. But then it was obvious that this was a courier from out of town. Gearhead took the proffered envelope and tipped the mare, who immediately left.

Gearhead closed the door, and then opened the letter to read it. Snowbelle hopped over to read over his shoulder. It was from Father and Vines, jointly asking that he report to Verdant Fields to clarify some issues enumerated in the contract he had drafted and sent them. They had even included a list of their questions so Gearhead could prepare. This was one of the ways in which Gearhead recognized that Vines was not a truly antagonistic presence in his life: his eldest sibling merely wanted what was best for his family, and this time he saw that with some changes, what was best was to support the Alicorn Array initiative, which would give Gearhead, and thus Herd Verdant, a lucrative contract with the Crown.

That Vines and Father had not instructed the courier to wait for a written response meant that they expected Gearhead to arrive at Verdant Fields before the mail Pegasus could. This would have been an impossible expectation before his previous flight, when he had proven he could do it. Gearhead realized he could easily make the flight now, thanks to the stabilizer system. But he wanted to make a little adjustment so Snowbelle could sit inside it comfortably. He went back down to the Laboratory to work through this new issue.

* * *

By the middle of the week, Gearhead could no longer deny the urge to check in on Fluttershy, but he did not want her to see him doing it, so he used his magic to get around quickly and quietly, leaving his Engine behind.

And was both shocked and pleased to see her training, with help from her critter friends. From the exercises she was doing, she was increasing her strength as well as her resistance to her performance anxiety (to judge by the pony masks the critters had crafted). To avoid having her anxiety levels rise instinctively from having another pair of eyes on her, Gearhead excused himself to go to the training field.

When Fluttershy did make her grand entry onto the scene, Gearhead was glad he had left when he did, otherwise he would have been unable to change and see her get to the starting line like an athlete in final prep. This time there was no hesitation when she launched off the line, and Fluttershy ignored everypony’s gazes on her. Gearhead, Twilight, and Dash checked the anemometer.

“Five wing power?” Fluttershy said, wide-eyed. “There must be some mistake: I trained so hard!”

“But Fluttershy, this is an amazing improvement over your last time,” Twilight said.

“Five times as fast? Definitely impressive,” Dash said.

“Oh yeah?” Fluttershy asked, steaming. “How would you feel if everypony else was flying at ten-point-oh wing power, and you were only doing five?”

“Well, I...”

“Exactly! You would be embarrassed,” Fluttershy started crying, and turned to flee again.

“Wait, Fluttershy!” Gearhead flew around to head her off before she could get away. “Who are you racing against?”

“Racing? There wasn’t anyone...”

“That is not true, because whatever we do when we perform, we cannot help comparing ourselves to at least one other. I cannot help it either: every time I fly I compare myself to Prism Flight – Rook’s stability, Contrail’s team booster, and Prism’s leadership and pure speed. My magic? I compare it to Twilight’s, Dawn’s, or Dusk’s.”

“Yes, but they’re the best. I’m... not.”

“You, Fluttershy, can be the best version of yourself every day. Two days ago, what was your speed?”

“One wing power?”

“And today, after only days of serious training?”

“Five wing power.”

“A five hundred percent improvement in under a week. Do you know how much more athletic Pegasi would do for such a leap in performance?”

“Pretty much anything,” Dash said. “Except to cheat, at least, that’s true of most of us.”

“There may not be much time left, but you’ve already gotten halfway to the goal,” Twilight said.

“And you have just the right pony to take you as close to the rest of the way as you yourself can dare to get,” Gearhead said.

“I do?”

“Your best friend,”

Dash and Fluttershy blinked at each other. Then they broke out laughing at how obvious it was. “So, up for a dash?”

“If you’ll have me,”

“There’s nopony I’d rather have,” Dash said.

* * *

It was tornado day. Gearhead stood with Twilight beside a giant anemometer, helping her with the final tune up. With his Alicorn Engine and healing magic, he was also with the Emergency First Aid Team, able to temporarily heal a broken wing and put Pegasi back into the operation if need be. He hoped it would not come to that, though.

With the tuning complete, Gearhead went to the first aid tent to help Nurse Redheart with the check-in. He had to double-check the list against the Pegasi he could see lining up for the initial formation to be sure of what he was seeing, and then he went to Spike and Twilight.

“Do you really think you can break the record?” Spike was asking Dash.

“Absolutely! You saw those numbers too: we had lots of tens and even a couple of elevens.”

"And Fluttershy improved a lot too,” Twilight said.

“About that record, Dash,”

“Oh, Gearhead! So how ‘bout it? How high do your numbers say we can go?”

“If we push it...”

“Yeah?” Dash was beaming with expectation.

“Seven fifty,”

“Wait, what?” Dash had been leaning forward, and now she lost her balance and fell on her face. “You did that on purpose,” she grumbled from the ground.

“It is a rude, but necessary, awakening.”

“So who’s the lazy-bones who’s dragging us down?” Dash got back up, and Gearhead had to turn the clipboard so she could read it.”

“Thunderlane! I knew that cough would be trouble.”

“Actually, Rumble and Nurse Redheart say he and all of the other no-shows are down with the Feather Flu. Being part-Pegasus, I wonder if I could get it despite not having feathers.”

“It doesn’t literally happen to your feathers,” Dash said as she checked the list. “Eighteen down? That many?”

“Let me crunch the numbers,” Twilight said, taking the list over to an abacus she had brought for just such an occasion. After a couple of minutes where she checked and rechecked to make absolutely certain of her math, Twilight turned to Dash, who was still wearing a hopeful smile. “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash, but we just don’t have the numbers.”

“For the record?”

“Forget the record: you may not have enough Pegasi left to lift the water up to Cloudsdale! You might be able to get 785 out of everypony, Fluttershy included, but if you push your team beyond that, they’re liable to get hurt.”

“Everypony’s waiting. Captain Spitfire is waiting. We can’t just quit without trying.” Dash turned to the other waiting Pegasi. “Can we?”

“No!”

“So we’re not gonna give up, are we?”

“No!”

“Nevermind smashing the record: we’re gonna lift that water up to Clousdale with everything we’ve got!”

“YEAH!”

“Okay, I have a new appreciation for Snowflake,” Gearhead admitted. “But you may still need to take some drastic measures to make this whole thing fly.”

“Did you get a reply from the princess yet?”

“Unfortunately not. But you could ask the Wonderbolts for help. I am sure just Spitfire would have more than five wing power in her.”

“I don’t wanna do that if I can help it,” Dash said, “after all this is a Ponyville effort. But thanks for the suggestion. Alright ponies, get ready: we fly on the horn!”

“YEAH!”

Under Dash’s direction, the Pegasi formed four curving lines around Ponyville Highland Reservoir, which would be supplying Cloudsdale with Equestria’s rainwater for the year. Just then Fluttershy cantered up. “I’m so sorry I’m late!” She said, and started to run past the others to take her place in formation.

“Hold it,” Gearhead said.

Fluttershy winced visibly, freezing in place. “Is something the matter?”

“Did you do all of your stretches and warm-up on your way here?”

“Well... no. But I want to contribute!”

“And you will, but only after you have completed the full routine. Otherwise I am not clearing you for tornado duty, and I suspect neither would Dash. After all, the less often I have to give you a particle bath or heal you by magic, the better. But especially the first, due to the effect of temporary immunity from magic.”

“Oh, okay,” Fluttershy lowered her head and started trudging toward the warm-up area.

“Also, Snowbelle and I do not want to see you hurt, if possible.”

“And neither do the rest of us,” Spike said.

“So get those warm-ups done, and we’ll all see you soon in that tornado,” Twilight said.

“Okay!” Fluttershy cheered up marginally almost immediately. Gearhead watched her go until she started her stretches.

<Keep an eye on her,> Gearhead said to Snowbelle, returning his attention to the others.

<I will make sure she finishes the whole set, Father,> Snowbelle said.

Gearhead nodded to Twilight, who nodded to Spike, who blew the large horn sitting nearby. On that signal, the Pegasi who were in formation took off, and started flying in a multi-layered circular formation around the reservoir. Their passage through the air quickly whipped up a tornado centered on the small lake, but its winds also blew outward, pushing anypony who might be unwary back.

As the Pegasi increased the tornado’s ferocity, Twilight read out the wing power readings. They were increasing steadily by the hundreds, to the point where Gearhead needed to use his goggles for a reason other than to get readings from his own HUD. In addition to shielding his eyes, he used the zoom and filter functions to see past the blurry wind, as well as the dust that the tornado was kicking up from the ground around the reservoir. So far, so good.

None of them could hear what was going on inside the twister, however Gearhead occasionally caught sight of Dash as she moved from flyer to flyer, encouraging them to fly their hardest, or to stay in formation, perhaps. With her attention focused on each Pegasus in turn, Dash had her team responding well.

<She is done,>

<Thank you,>

“How are they doing in there? Can I go in now?” Fluttershy approached, fighting against the winds the whole way. She had to shout to be heard.

“They’re stuck at 791 – faster than I thought they’d be able to go, but still not enough,” Twilight said.

“Numbers do not tell the whole story here,” Gearhead said as the water started to funnel up through the center. But then one of the stallions lost his focus and started to careen out of control. He grazed a mare as he tried to regain control, and sent her off course as well. Oh no, Gearhead thought, and instead of simply worrying or saying any more, he launched into his spellcasting.

“Quattuor Magnae Spiritus invoco. Lux transmutare alas!” Even as he finished, two more accidents happened inside the tornado, and more ponies lost control. Some of them got jettisoned through the windwalls in the side, while others were ejected right out of the top. Still others fell out even as the tornado fell apart, suddenly having to deal with little wind and different pressure. As they fell, still trying to regain control, Gearhead took off using his Alicorn Engine. He expanded a pair of Light Wings, making them large enough to catch whole groups of falling Pegasi at a time. Once he was certain he would not catch any more, he lowered them to the ground and dismissed the spell.

“Anypony who is in need of healing, please raise a hoof or groan in my direction!”

Several ponies responded with some variation of “ugh.”

“That is more of a moan, but I shall take it.”

“Now several other ponies did moan, but others at least chuckled. Gearhead went to work, healing the ones who had twisted a limb or broken a bone on landing. He returned to the others to find Dash arguing with Twilight.

“Even with Fluttershy you simply don’t have the numbers,” Twilight said.

“This is about more than numbers, Twilight. It’s about heart!”

“I know that, but Rainbow Dash, if you continue to push your team much harder, they’ll really get hurt.”

“I won’t just let this go without knowing we tried our absolute best,” Dash said.

“YEAH!”

“I appreciate that, really I do, but even with Nurse Redheart and Gearhead’s healing, if your team gets too hurt, they won’t be able to perform their normal duties tomorrow.”

“This is for Equestria’s water supply and Ponyville’s pride. But I’m nothing without my team, so...” Dash turned to the others, who were waiting and listening. “Do you want to stop here?”

“Boo!”

“Do you want to give it all you’ve got?”

“YEAH!”

“Seems they’re with me, Twilight.”

“I’ll fly too, Dashie.”

“I really appreciate it, Fluttershy: I need every flyer I can get. All of them.” This last, Dash said to Gearhead, who could only give her a consolation smile.

“They’re all good to go?” Twilight asked Gearhead.

“I can clear the ones I healed, however there may be some who are putting on a brave face.”

“Everypony, wing check!” Dash said. As one, the Pegasi started to go through the stages of opening, spreading, flapping, and closing their wings. They moved slowly, and paused between stages. Walking or flying among them, Dash, Gearhead, Redheart, and Twilight picked out the ones who were favouring their wings. Redheart could only do first aid, however Gearhead could use Cura and heal them, at least temporarily, and Twilight had picked up the spell and started to use it herself. Soon everypony was cleared for take-off.

With Twilight and Gearhead once again beside the anemometer, Spike blew the horn a second time, and for the second time, the Pegasi took off and flew into formation, each finding his or her own place. Gearhead saw Dash flitting from flyer to flyer, encouraging them on and making them focus on stable, steady flying. The needle rose.

Suddenly Spike made a strangled sound, and as Twilight and Gearhead turned to look at him, he spat out a letter. At first it seemed like the wind would simply blow it away, but then it started to get sucked toward the tornado, the winds ripping the seal off the scroll. Gearhead immediately launched after it, catching it and used his forehooves to turn it over.

“Gearhead, look out!”

Gearhead looked up from the paper at Twilight’s scream to see that he was quickly approaching the windwall. He probably could have peeled away in time, but saw that there was no point in doing so. Even as the paper was ripped from his grip and torn to shreds in the fierce winds, the words written on it were burned in his mind:

Dear Gearhead,

Do it.

- Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Canterlot

Gearhead plunged through the windwall with a grin on his face. It took a moment for him to find his orientation, so he would not be working against the tornado, but then he started to fly with everypony else. He adjusted the stabilizer’s wings so he could channel the Engine’s particles along them, shooting most of them out of the tornado just in case. He did have one other trick to play concerning those wings, but it would only come into play once he started passing other flyers. To do so, Gearhead opened the throttle slowly up, in order to avoid creating any sonic booms.

Gearhead was soon flying just below barrier-breaking speed. He had to jink, spiraling and spinning, around the slower Pegasi, but every time he came near one he twitched a wing, spraying that pony with a dose of particles. The treatment eased tense muscles, fatigue, and even cramps, restoring them, however briefly, to full flying capability. At first the Pegasi yelled at Gearhead for cutting them off, but they soon got the idea.

Unfortunately, Gearhead’s reading showed that the team’s wing speed had not increased nearly as much as it should have: they were still only at 798, and he was flying as fast as he dared to go! It would be a shame to go out when they were so close, and Gearhead could see that Dash refused to let it go at the point when the water was already coming through. She also refused to make it her victory by focusing solely on her own speed: she supported her teammates all the way.

Gearhead thought about the problem, and figured that it was just as he had hypothesized earlier: there was little draft at all from the Alicorn Engine because it simply did not work the same way winged flight did, or at least not Pegasus winged flight. And that was probably the key to it all, especially as that was the reason Snowbelle could not help.

Fortunately again, Gearhead knew what it was like to activate his Pegasus magic from back when he had been Dusty. The only issue was finding that little twist that still existed thanks to Discord, and pulling it straight enough for him to use that magic. While he continued to fly around the other Pegasi, providing them with some relief along the way, Gearhead explored the depths of what he guessed was his soul, where his magic resided. As Discord had said, all of the ‘slots’ were occupied by Pegasus and Unicorn magic. Twisted and inverted, but still it was magic, and it was his so he could use it. Just like he used the part that resembled Unicorn magic, he could use Pegasus flight and weather manipulation. Gearhead simply had to give it his own little twist.

And, like he told Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, he had to believe that he could do it.

All of a sudden Gearhead felt a tingling at his sides. He latched onto the sensation, and kept pulling at it. The tingling spread outward, opening and fanning out. He thought of flapping the energies, of sweeping them back, and then pulling them forward and flapping again.

Something clicked.

Turquoise light lit the Engine up from its sides, right down through the stabilizer’s wingtips. Gearhead could feel the winds of his downdraft against his sides and belly as it left him. He almost leaped forward, almost broke the magi-sound barrier, but he remembered what that would likely do, and settled down to simply fly with the other Pegasi. The needle jumped.

And so did the water, shooting in an incredible arc straight to the collector in Cloudsale. Dash’s team kept going until the reservoir was completely dry, and then when Spike blew the horn, they simply left the tornado to dissipate on its own and landed, cheering.

All except for Fluttershy, who was racing round and around at a speed that Gearhead had never seen her reach before – with her eyes closed. Gearhead and Dash had the same thought, moving light, fluffy clouds into her path to stop and catch their friend.

“Whoa there!” Dash said. “You can stop now, Fluttershy.”

“Indeed, we did it,” Gearhead said. “All of the water made it to Cloudsale,”

“Really?”

Dash extended a wing out to her friend. “Up top,” she said. Fluttershy slapped her wing against Dash’s, albeit gently, as was her style.

“What is that?” Fluttershy asked, gaping at Gearhead.

“Oh come on, it’s gotta just be some new level of activation or something,” Dash said.

“You are not wrong,” Gearhead said, “however it has little to do with the Engine: I finally found a way to use my Pegasus magic.”

“Oh, no wonder you could move a cloud,” Dash said. “Makes perfect sense.”

“It’s so beautiful,” Fluttershy said.

“Hey, no stallion likes to be called that,”

“Sorry!”

“No, it is alright.”

“I hate to interrupt, especially as you two’re starting to act more like normal, but Spitfire’s waiting on us.”

“Sorry,” Fluttershy and Gearhead both blushed.

“Yeah, right,” Dash waved it all off dismissively. They all went down to the ground with her. As soon as his hooves made contact with the ground, the light faded from Gearhead’s wings.

“Very impressive work up there, Rainbow Dash,” Spitfire said. “Even though the odds were against you, you showed a lot of guts, as well as great leadership skills. Combined with your having saved us at the Best Young Flyers Competition, I’m sure we could use your skills.”

“Thanks, but you’ve really gotta give it to my number one flyer today: Fluttershy!”

“That’s true, isn’t it? Great going, Fluttershy.”

“Um... thank you,” Fluttershy squeaked. Her attempts to make herself very small like usual failed, when the other Pegasi lifted her up onto their shoulders and tossed her up in celebration, chanting: “Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can really fly!”

“She really can,” Gearhead said.

“Hey, you did good up there too, even if you did come in late and nearly crashed the whole thing.”

“I nearly did not get it at all, Captain.”

“Well, I am glad you did. If you didn’t already have an open invite from your performance in the closed race, you would have one now: You had ingenuity and teamwork before, but until now you really couldn’t fly like a Pegasus with other Pegasi, could you?”

“No, I had my own way.”

“And as fast as it is, you never would have been able to mesh completely with the rest of your team. But now it’s a different story, so keep an eye on your mailbox.”

“In that case, what about Fluttershy and Dash?”

“Rainbow Dash has it, of course, but Fluttershy’s tendency to freeze up – her performance anxiety – is a big barrier. We all have it to some extent, but hers is pretty extreme. But since you and Dash are her team, I’m sure you’ll help her get past it.”

“We shall do our best,” Gearhead said, following the others.

“By the way, you want to hear what your wind speed was?”

“Not particularly,” Gearhead said. “Records matter much more to Dash than they do to me. I just care that we got Fluttershy to fly, and that the water is where it is supposed to be.”

“Understood,” Spitfire said.

28. Hoofington Confidential

Chapter 28: Hoofington Confidential

After taking part in hurricane duty, Gearhead did not have time to celebrate with the others. He informed them of his father’s summons, then left Snowbelle with them and returned to the Laboratory to finish the modified stabilizer. Together with Snowbelle, Gearhead took off for Verdant Fields at sunrise the next day. It might have looked curious to those who were awake and aware, with a turquoise streak arcing skyward just before the sun peeked over the horizon behind it.

The way Gearhead made the new stabilizer, it was slightly bigger, giving Snowbelle enough room in the cockpit built just ahead of the Engine’s cone for her to sit at her smallest size. Since the whole unit was larger, the wings were more pronounced. The overall effect was even more illuminating when Gearhead tapped into his Pegasus magic again.

The previous day’s efforts had put a major strain on Gearhead’s manapool, but he had recovered most of it overnight. Since he was running late to start, he decided to pour on all the power he could, breaking several magi-sound barriers in the process. The whole way, Snowbelle gazed cheerfully at the sky and the ground beneath them, since everything was new to her, and she was, after all, a child. That irreplaceable awe reminded Gearhead of how he should have always been looking at the world, because nothing would ever be boring that way.

Gearhead guessed that if they could have, Prism Flight would have intercepted him on the way in, however his speed was much higher than it had been on any of his previous flights, including during the restricted race in Canterlot. By the time the suit’s sensors detected the three expected blips, Gearhead was already beyond them. He would, however, have to slow down soon so he would not risk hitting Verdant Fields with his sonic boom.

Snowbelle chirped in surprise and glee, sending a mental image of a firework going off in the Pegasus Flight’s direction. A signal?

<Can we check it out?>

<I guess we had better,> Gearhead said. He slowed down so the G-forces from their turn could not make him or Snowbelle black out, then he decided to slow the rest of the way down to a more standard speed for Pegasi, as well as descending to a more normal altitude.

“Finally! We thought we’d completely miss you,” Contrail said.

“You are not so lucky as that,” Gearhead said. “But why the signal? You could have just caught up to us at Verdant Fields after we landed.”

“’We?’ You have your dragon-daughter with you?” Rook asked.

“I could not very well leave her behind.” Snowbelle, meanwhile, popped her canopy open and chirruped.

“Why does it sound like she’s laughing at me?” Rook asked.

“Because she is,”

“Ha! I like her more all the time,” Contrail said.

“Sorry to spoil all the fun, but there’s a reason we had to flag you down,” Prism said.

“Trouble at the farm?”

“Thankfully not. Your father wanted to move the meeting place to the Council Caverns. If you stop in at their place in Hoofington, the Shadows can teleport you there directly.”

“I guess this could not have been a last-minute change, given the location.”

“Right, but your father didn’t have a good way to contact you, especially not knowing when you’d be flying through. Or that you’d be so fast.”

“Then you are lucky you caught us,”

“’Lucky’ nothing!” Contrail said. “We’ve been either on patrol or standby almost exclusively for the past three days, just waiting for you.”

“It’s true,” Rook said. “We were off-duty, too. If Radar hadn’t detected you and told us when she did, you’d have bypassed us completely.”

“I could have asked Mother about the meeting,”

“You could have, but I don’t think your father told her about the shortcut,” Prism said.

“And now that we’ve told you, you’d better get going,” Contrail said.

“We’d escort you, but it’s not even really our rotation. Our job’s done, so we have to get back ASAP.”

“Thank you,” Gearhead said as Snowbelle curled back down, closing the canopy with one claw.

“Hey, it’s our pleasure,” Prism said.

“Right,” Gearhead and Contrail both said. The former was just saying something for the sake of acknowledgement, but the latter was skeptical. Obviously Contrail had not had such a pleasant experience coming out here. Maybe Gearhead would have a chance to ask him about it later. Just at that moment, however, he had to get to Hoofington.

Shadow Estates was located in the second-most inner ring of the trade city, Hoofington. It was large not because the Conclave was wealthy enough to afford the land and buildings built on it, but in order to accommodate all of the various facilities that were there. Of course there was the manor, which could accommodate most of the Conclave’s family members at once. There were also whole buildings dedicated to the research and development of various magicks and their spells, the academy, and the Hidden Library.

To avoid spooking anypony, Gearhead flew in along the routes that Pegasi normally used, although he flew marginally faster than they would. When he arrived at the manor, it was obvious that somepony had already sent word of his arrival, because Dawn was waiting for him just outside the main door.

“It has been awhile,” Gearhead said, landing.

“Yes, and while I would love to catch up, I have to get you and all your precious cargo to the Caverns right away!”

“Just make sure we do not leave my daughter behind,”

“Daughter?!”

Snowbelle popped her hatch again, and made a trill. “’Snowbelle, pleased to meet you,’ she says.”

“She’s a Dragon,”

“I guess I forgot to mention she is adopted,”

“Yes, you left that part out. Oh, but we need to catch up later! Now that I know you have someone with you, I can include her in the teleportation. Now, this may be slightly disorienting.”

“We have actually teleported with Twilight Sparkle before.”

“Oh, so this must be old hat by now.”

“No, not quite.” But Gearhead did not get to say any more, because all three of them were surrounded by a flash.

* * *

When the flash cleared, they were standing in a large chamber that was magically lit. As the walls and ceiling were carved out of stone, it was fairly obvious that they were inside a mountain. By the runes set into the floor, it was just as obvious to those who studied magic that this room was specially designed to receive those who teleported into the area. At the same time, the receiver had a specific key that was included in the casting, so one could not get here by accident, or by teleporting in its general direction.

“So, are you feeling okay?” Dawn asked.

“Yes,” Gearhead said, and Snowbelle chirped as she moved from her cockpit to Gearhead’s shoulders, finally releasing her shrinking spell to return to her normal size. "She says it is nice to be able to stretch.”

“That’s good. Follow me,” Dawn said, leading the way out of the room and into the cavern system. As they left, Gearhead noticed more dignitaries ‘porting in, even though he was late.

Gearhead had never been to the Council Caverns before, so without Dawn’s guidance he would have been completely lost. The maze was set up so that any intruders that came through would do exactly that. The passages were enchanted, so that no being who did not mean to harm the Herd would get trapped. Marauders, on the other hoof, would be lost long enough to be weakened during their struggle to escape the maze, and then apprehended.

“So, this little cutie’s name is ‘Snowbelle?”

“That is correct,”

“And you adopted her,” Dawn sidled up closer to Gearhead as they walked, letting them speak more softly. Dawn either did not like her voice echoing around, or she was flirting with him. Or both. “I’m sure you had a very good reason for feeling like you had to adopt a Dragon.”

“Because her mother asked me to, and because I could.”

“And because you feel responsible for her,” Dawn said. “So far she seems to be flourishing. Actually, far more than that: she has a strong magical aura.”

Gearhead turned toward Dawn, and noticed that her eyes were swirling with glowing amber, emerald, and sapphire lights. Was this how he looked when he used Shift Focus? Probably. “What do you feed her?”

In answer, Snowbelle flipped one of her Ice Crystals into the air. Turning her head, she lef Dawn see that she was sucking the magic out of the gemstone. “I’ll leave the wisdom of teaching a Dragon how to eat magic to you.”

“Better than what Dragons normally eat,”

“Agreed. Moreover, I’m impressed with both your use of magic and your flight.”

“Nice of you to be so straightforward,”

“Don’t forget that the last time I saw you, your hair was entirely red and you didn’t have a clue about your greater magical potential. Now you glow brightly with it.”

“I did not realize I glowed, or that you knew I had such potential,”

“Because it’s hardest to look at yourself and see the truth. But I also didn’t want to spoil that modesty that you have.”

“I like to think that that does not have anything to do with the power I have, and everything to do with the power I lack.”

“Perhaps, although if you know where and how to look...”

“I have already been looking at myself differently from how I used to,”

“So then, perhaps not differently enough. You are, after all, a Verdant.”

“I am,” Gearhead gave Dawn a look that said ‘so what?’

“And Verdants value farming ability above all else. Even the miners, teachers, and craftsponies can farm to some extent. The Azure prize flight speed, agility, and prowess, while the Shadows seek innovation, invention, and creative casting. If you could leave the Verdant, if you were that kind of pony, you would not have to struggle so by joining either Prism or myself.”

“If I was that kind,” Gearhead said. He sighed. “I am glad you understand me so well.”

“I don’t mean to insult you or your Herd: they’re your family, the only one you have.”

“Which is why I would never leave them, so long as I have the choice.”

“What choice? I didn’t think that was a factor here.”

“My brother has a method by which he could force me out, but I think he is too cunning to use it, and not ruthless enough to do it, besides.”

“If a pony is greedy enough, you never know what she or he might do.”

“And how greedy are you, Dawn of the Shadows.”

She bumped up against him. “Very,” she said. “And you?”

“I do not know,” Gearhead admitted.

“I think you have an intermediate amount of greed, but not for yourself. For your family.”

* * *

Dawn had given Gearhead much about which to think, however he soon had other matters in his head. Like why he was standing in the Council Chambers when only representatives of each family were usually present. Not to mention the representatives from the Azure and the Shadows filling out the seats intended for future generations of the Verdant. Dawn herself strode up the amphitheatre-style rows to sit with her father and Dusk.

Now Gearhead noticed that there was a higher number of Unicorns coming in and going back out. It seemed the Conclave had taken up the responsibility for teleporting everypony here. It was a good thing their teleportation spell was such a utility spell, otherwise there might have been a lesser amount of ponies able to use it.

Father greeted Gearhead, and had him take a seat between himself and the Speaker. It still took a half an hour longer before all of the attendants were seated, and the Speaker signaled the start of the meeting with his gavel.

“I call this Council of the Alliance to order,” he said. “It has been nearly a year since our last meeting. This time we call those assembled together in order to discuss an enterprise that may prove both profitable and beneficial in terms of defending the realm against threats of darkness. I assume you have all read the proposed contract?”

Gearhead raised an eyebrow: Father had shown his drafted contract to members of the Alliance, the most powerful organization in Western Equestria? The Patriarch could only grin wryly, even as pony after pony indicated that they had indeed read the draft.

“In that case, on to questioning and clarification. Patriarch Redwood, if you would be so kind?”

“Gladly, Mister Speaker. Mares and gentle-stallions, I am not only Patriarch of the Verdant, I am also employer to the young stallion who developed the program and proposal that will, with our support and ratification, hopefully become central to the defence of many a town and city in Equestria. I would therefore move to ask for clarification on some issues within the contract, on behalf of the Alliance.”

“Seconded,” Midnight, Matriarch of the Shadows, said.

“On behalf of the Azure, I wholly support this motion,” Wing Commander Windwalker said.

“Please proceed, Patriarch.”

“Thank you, Mister Speaker. Thirdson Gearhead,”

“Yes, Patriarch,”

“My first question is, how do you intend on preventing industrial espionage from taking place once the turbines are deployed, out in the open?”

“Naturally I cannot prevent anyone from making the attempt, however the systems have anti-tampering measures in place to prevent success, and the safeguards for each turbine include having critical information completely hidden from prying eyes, as well as from other senses. I cannot for certain say it is impossible to copy my designs, however it would be incredibly difficult without using somepony who thinks very similarly to the way I do.”

“What if somepony decides to try to steal a whole unit?”

“Then the culprits will find themselves with their movement restricted until the authorities arrive.”

“What happens if a turbine stops working or is destroyed?”

“I will perform regular maintenance on each unit to ensure their continuing functionality. The turbines themselves will be made from extremely robust material, namely dragonfired adamantine and gemstone alloys, as well as being able to deploy particle fields to protect themselves from attacks. I will not claim that they are indestructible, merely highly resistant to it. If one unit does go down, the others can take over for a time, at least until I can get a replacement unit in. The only difference is that deploying the defensive shield will take longer.”

“Next question: how do you expect the Crown to be able to keep up with the expenses of building an array, knowing the amount of material that can go into deploying a single one?”

“I will leave it to the Principality and its cities and towns to determine how much they can contribute to each build, however I do believe that defence will be an extremely high priority. Naturally, what the Crown contributes it will always own.”

“And if the Verdant contributes material, does the Herd also gain partial ownership?”

“That is a complicated issue, or at least it would seem that way – however the Herd, as well as the other two constituents to the Alliance, are a part of Equestria. For the sake of mutual defence, I hope that all the beings of the land can band together to make our security possible.”

“I am glad that you said as much, because now everyone assembled can see how important this endeavour is to the entire Alliance. Are there any other questions for the Thirdson?”

“I have a question,” Dusk said.

“Go ahead, Dusk Shadow.”

“The array system seems to defend most effectively against Dark Users. What does this mean for those of our allies who use Dark and Shadow Magic already?”

“I can and will enter exceptions into the system, to allow allies and friends unfettered access. I will, of course, have already done so for known allies, such as yourself and Princess Luna.”

“Any other questions?”

There was silence as Father looked around. “I have a question for you, Patriarch,”

“Go ahead, Thirdson,”

“You mentioned a large quantity of resources in the Verdant’s possession. When and how did the Herd obtain them?”

“Through the ages, the many millennia, we have been mining and processing precious gemstones, metals, and other valuables. We do not always sell or spend it all, and so we have a significant stockpile ready for use.”

“Might I be able to look at some of the stockpiles, to judge their usability?”

“Yes,”

“Since there do not appear to be any further questions for the Thirdson, I close the matter of the contract. The Secretaries are to make a record and create a new draft for the Patriarch and the Thirdson to approve. Is there any other new business to discuss?”

“Mister Speaker, I move that we alter the Alliance to include provisions for the defence contract,” Windwalker said.

“Seconded,” Midnight said.

“And supported,” Father said, while Gearhead wondered what this was about.

“Wing Commander Windwalker, would you like to speak to your motion?”

“Indeed I would, Mister Speaker. The Alliance was originally formed to assist ponies in times of need, and to help to defend them against threats. Thirdson Gearhead’s contract changes the way Equestria is defended on a fundamental level, which also will change how the Alliance works.

“I believe it is time for the Alliance to evolve with the changing times. We were formed mostly to help in defence, so including the contract only makes sense. At the same time, I believe we should include Thirdson Gearhead as an employee under the protection of our overall organization. If we are all going to contribute resources that will set up defensive arrays all over Equestria, it only makes sense that we give him equal access to those resources from the start. That way, with our approval, he can set how and where they get deployed.”

“Well, if we are going to go so far, we may as well change the name while we are at it,” Midnight said.

“It was on the bland side anyway,” Dusk said.

“Suggestions?”

“The Equestrian Defense Alliance?”

“Pony Protection League?”

“We don’t want to sound like a racket, or exclude friendly non-ponies.”

“Everything-Under-the-Sun-and-Moon Defense Association?”

“Umbrella Defence?”

“Now you’re getting ridiculous,”

“Sentient Defense Force?”

“Too broad, and forceful.”

“Triad?”

“What are we, mobsters?”

“Kind of, yeah,”

“But we wouldn’t want the Princesses to think so,”

“You know, the current name doesn’t sound so bad now.”

“It’s certainly not on any high horse,”

“Defence Alliance?”

“Simple, straightforward, and far from almighty. All in favour?”

“AYE!”

“All opposed?”

“... nay...”

“Well, the Secretaries will have to draw up the contract to reflect the new reality of the Defence Alliance. Thirdson Gearhead, welcome to our employ.”

“Thank you, sirs. I shall do my best not to disappoint.”

“Considering how much we are about to give you, I am certain you will do your absolute best, young stallion. Now, go and invent us a new way to fulfill our millennia-long purpose.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * *

After the Defence Alliance Council meeting concluded, Dawn was more than happy to teleport Gearhead and Snowbelle to Verdant Field to visit with his family while he was in town. Dawn stayed to catch up with Gearhead, and while they talked about events that had transpired since the Gala, she played with Snowbelle, quickly learning the small Dragon’s likes and dislikes.

After the initial surprise at how Snowbelle liked to be doted upon, Dawn started to treat her very closely to how she might treat a Pony foal, even though Snowbelle could very easily cover her in ice or bite her. By the way the Dragon giggled and rolled playfully, however, it seemed obvious that the Dragon did not hold any intention of threatening the light-coloured Unicorn mare.

Mother also took to Snowbelle immediately. “I miss being able to do this sort of thing,” she said, holding the Dragon close as she cuddled with her. “None of my own children will let me do so anymore!”

“We are your children, but grown all the same,” Big Sister Ivy said.

“And family all the same,” Gearhead said. “Hey, that tickles!”

“I didn’t do anything,” Dawn, who was sitting beside him, said.

“Snowbelle is something of a prankster. Sometimes she sends me an unexpected thought or sensation through our psychic link. Still getting back at me, eh?”

Snowbelle chirped in a way that could only mean ‘yes!’

Mother laughed. “That means I still get to cuddle with at least one of my sons after all,” she said happily.

“Please do not be silly, Mother. You only have to ask,”

“But won’t that embarrass you?”

“I already do a good job of that on my own, thank you. Besides, how often am I here?”

“True,”

After the mares got all of the cuddling out of their systems, they let Snowbelle play some games with Roselle, Bean, and Cori while Big Sister Ivy and Mother talked with Gearhead and Dawn.

“No doubt since you’re now part of an organization that numbers in the thousands, Father and the rest of the leaders will want you to take on some employees, at least part time,” Big Sister Ivy said.

“I know that a hoof every now and again can be very helpful, but I can still do everything myself, Big Sister – at least if and until I win a contract with the Princesses. At that point, I believe I really would need the D.A.’s help and resources.”

“In that case, why not send some representatives from each of the great houses?” Dawn asked. “Dusk is deep in research at the moment, so he cannot go, but I can.”

“Are you not Dusk’s second? What would he do without you?” Gearhead asked.

“He’ll manage, of course, but if he asks I will probably stay.”

“It’s hard to tell what he would do,” Big Sister Ivy said. “He’s very protective and loving of you, but he’s also under a lot of pressure to succeed your mother.”

“I call it being ‘overprotective,’ but looking back I don’t think I ever minded all the attention. But I’m older now, and would like to be able to do some things for myself, at least for a little while.”

“Then how about a temporary, part-time position?” Mother suggested. “Gearhead could offer you something for a fixed term, like six months, and then you could return home afterwards. That is, unless you got good enough with your magic to move between the Manor and Ponyville quickly enough.”

“I’m not that good yet,” Dawn said, blushing.

“That’s fine,” Mother said. “You can work your way up to it.”

“And you don’t need to accept if you don’t want to,” Big Sister Ivy added.

“Hold on, did I put an offer on the table yet?” Gearhead asked. “I am confused.”

“Of course you’ll offer her a position,” Mother said.

Gearhead chuckled helplessly. “You are correct as usual, Mother.”

“That’s funny: your father says that I’m always right. Is he lying?” Mother asked coquettishly.

“No one’s right all of the time,” Vines said, coming into the room. “Good work in the Chamber, little brother.”

“Thank you, Big Brother.”

“That’s the first time you’ve called me that in a long time,”

“Right back at you,”

“It’s also the first time I’ve thrown my support all the way behind you since we were little. But I honestly believe in your program this time. Keep it up.”

“Thank you,”

“And do try to keep your little dragon away from the crops,”

Ah, there it is. “Do not worry, Big Brother: Snowbelle is a good girl.”

“Oh, so she always listens to you?”

“Well, not always,”

“Ah,”

“But when it matters she does,”

“Oh,” Vines paused. “You know, you’re a lot more fun to be around than you used to be. It must be the influence from those Ponyville friends of yours.” From Vines’s expression, he expected some sort of outburst from Dawn. She did not give him the satisfaction, merely smiling for all to see.

“I admit I did not make any new friends for awhile, but I am glad that I did. I am also glad for my old, childhood friends, and that they remembered me after all this time.”

“Well, I hope nopony gets hurt fighting for your favour. After all, you are the Black Sheep, and when your powers first came out they had the worst fallout recorded. In all seriousness, we don’t know what that could mean for any future foals you might have.”

“In that case, I had better put in some more effort in learning about my powers, and then I can teach what I learn to my foals.”

“Even though the power has always come out different?”

“Everypony is a little different, so there is nothing unusual there, Big Brother.”

Vines nodded. “Good. Like I said, keep it up.”

Father came in at that point, also leading Midnight and Windwalker – the Three Family Heads, all in one place. “Congratulations, Gearhead,” Father said, “you now officially represent the Defence Alliance’s interests to the Principality of Equestria.”

“Thank you, Father. Wing Commander Windwalker. Midnight.”

“’Uncle Windwalker,’ please. We’re not at the Chambers anymore.”

“Of course, Uncle.”

“Then feel free to call me ‘Auntie Midnight’ from now on, after all you studied from us too.”

“That has an awkward feel to it, Aunt Midnight,” Gearhead said, wincing.

“Well, whatever. We’ll be discussing who we should sent to represent the different houses within the D.A. to help you out at your shop. We hope you don’t mind,” Windwalker said.

“If they will be staying in Ponyville, you may not want to send too many, otherwise we will have to expand for their sake.”

“What’s wrong with a little remodeling? Or if not, we can make a small house for them all. But yes, a small group makes sense, until you expand your operations.” Midnight said.

“Oh, can I continue to ask my Ponyville friends to keep helping out?”

“That’s great: a local contingency that contributes to the D.A.’s efforts. And it’s not like we had to set it up, since it’s already in place,” Windwalker said.

“In that case, lets set the finer details so we can add them to the contract. We want it to be ready for the next time Gearhead gets to see the Princesses,” Father said.

“There is one thing,” Gearhead said. The others turned back to face him. “The Array itself is still in the pre-testing phase. Without knowing that it works the way it is supposed to, there is practically no point at all in presenting the contract to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.”

“In that case, why not take a little more time fine-tuning the contract draft?” Mother asked.

“Yes, take your time to polish it,” Big Sister Ivy said.

“Good idea,” Midnight said, “after all Gearhead will be presenting it to the Princesses as a representation of our own intention. It may as well be as clear and strong as it can be, rather than rushing it.”

“Agreed,” Father said, and Windwalker nodded. They all went into the next room to continued their discussion in a less formal setting.

* * *

When Father had told Gearhead that he wanted to show him something, all Gearhead could think was, I wonder what it is this time. This time it was Midnight who teleported them into a cavern in a location at which Gearhead could not begin to guess. In the first place, the only thing he could focus on were the pallets of refined gemstones, gold, silver, and rarer precious metals stacked several stories high on pallets. There were rows of them, like a warehouse, and looking down the aisles, they seemed unending.

“How... when..?”

“You know how old our Herd is,” Father said, and although what he was talking about at that moment was common knowledge, even he was using hushed tones.

“For millennia we mine, refine, and store what we find,” Vines said, equally awed. Gearhead realized that this was his first time seeing it too, although Father had probably told him about this storehouse before, perhaps even when they discussed the initial contract’s draft. “We are simple farmers and craftsponies, so we do not spend most of what we mine.”

“Which means that most of this wealth is sitting in storehouses just like this one, throughout Equestria,” Midnight said. “Vast, unused...”

“And meaningless,” Gearhead said. The others turned to stare at him. “What use is all this wealth if it does not get used? Think of all the infrastructure we could have improved across Equestria by this time? And on what fraction of what is sitting here?”

“Part of this is here in case we need to bail Equestria out of bankruptcy,” Father said, “and now another portion is here to subsidize the materiel you’ll need to build your defensive arrays. To deploy them to every town and city that agrees to sign on to your program.”

“The Array is unfinished. Untested. Meanwhile, this is still sitting here, and I doubt we would use it all even then.”

“You’re that kind, after all,” Vines said. “You can’t stand idle wealth, probably because you’re so used to sending most of your earnings to us. I wonder how you’ll feel after a couple more months, when you go from barely sustaining your own means of living to be able to afford the greatest amount of luxury in Ponyville.”

“Why? I know what to do with excess wealth.”

“Unless you intend on sending it to us on the sly,”

“Enough,” Father said. “You’ve seen the stockpile, so now you know what you’ll be working with. That was the purpose of coming here, not for you two to bicker over how to use all this.”

“My apologies, Father,”

“Whatever,” Vines snorted.

“Midnight, take us out of here.”

“Good idea,” the mare said, rolling her eyes as though to say ‘children.’ Then they were gone from the cavern.

* * *

With all the games and introductions Snowbelle went through that day, it was not surprising when she fell asleep as soon as her cool scales touched the pillow Mother had set out for her. Since it was late, and so much had happened, the family had agreed to let Gearhead and Snowbelle stay the night, and Gearhead could not disagree with this plan, although he wanted to get back to the shop as soon as possible.

In his own exhaustion, he barely registered Luna’s presence as she brushed up against his mind. She recognized that he was not in any shape mentally for a lesson, and only stayed long enough to see that he would be sleeping deeply and dreamlessly. Then she left, perhaps to visit the dreams or nightmares of somepony who was much more restless.

As for other presences that night, Windwalker went back to Las Pegasus under ‘escort’ by Prism Flight, while Midnight and Dusk took Dawn home with them. The day’s excitement made it harder for Roselle, Bean, and Cori to get to sleep, however Big Sister Ivy worked her magic, and they were soon deeply asleep in their own beds. Tomorrow would be another day, and Gearhead would be back in Ponyville.

* * *

Upon their return, Gearhead and Snowbelle were genuinely surprised to see that the whole town had apparently decided to turn against the Crusaders. “What in the name of the pursuit of your cutie marks could you have done to upset so many ponies?” Gearhead asked, landing. “It is not a loathe poison this time, is it?”

“Nothing like that!” Apple Bloom said, sobbing.

“We started the gossip column to try to get our cutie marks in journalism,” Scootaloo said.

“But now if we stop the worst possible thing will happen!” Sweetie Belle said.

“Even though we wanna stop because everypony’s so mad at us,” Apple Bloom said.

“We pushed all our friends away,” Scootaloo said. “There’s no way we can be happy like this!”

“It sounds like somepony has something terribly powerful on you to hold all three of you in check, but would it be so horrible if you outed yourselves and pre-empted the blackmail?”

“That might be better,” Apple Bloom said.

“We can’t possibly get anypony any madder at us than they already are,” Sweetie Belle said. “I was already starting to lean in that direction, but I didn’t want to say anything if anypony else had a better idea.”

“No, I think it’s our best plan too,” Apple Bloom said.

“Lets finish what we started,” Scootaloo said.

“And we’ll do it like we started,” Apple Bloom said.

“Just... one more time,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders, Journalists – go!”

Even as the Crusaders headed off toward the school, Gearhead took off. He did not have to wait for very long before copies of the Foal Free Press started to print carrying the Crusaders’ open letter of apology to the residents of Ponyville that they had wronged. Obviously the chief editor who had been taking advantage of them had not taken the time to look over their column before printing it. Gearhead would not blame Cheerilee for removing the offender from her position of power. Maybe then the bully of a filly would learn something and begin to change.

The biggest change, however, was something Gearhead and Snowbelle quickly felt as they walked around the town: once the Crusaders had been somewhere to apologize, the oppressive atmosphere was lifted. The heaviness and distrust that had settled in around town became less so, although things were not immediately back to normal: the Crusaders would have to earn back the trust they had lost, and they would have to do it the hard way. But it would be worth it to have all their friends and family back on their side again. Gearhead felt like he knew something about that, thanks to the support his family was starting to give him in his endeavours over the past year or so.

It was, he had to admit to no one but himself, Snowbelle, and Luna, a good feeling

29. An Invitation

Chapter 29: An Invitation

To celebrate Gearhead’s recent success, and a nice day in general, the others decided to invite him and Snowbelle on a picnic. It was a very pleasant day, and apart from the distance that remained between Fluttershy and Gearhead and the unexplained orb surrounding Canterlot in the distance, everything seemed to be perfect.

“So explain to me again what’s this new D.A. thing you’re suddenly working for,” Applejack said.

“The Defence Alliance? It is not, in itself, new, however because of the way the arrays I have designed would be deployed, the way the Alliance would defend Equestria would be fundamentally changed.

“The Alliance itself was founded in the days we know of through the Hearths Warming Eve story. Using the Verdant’s farming abilities they would keep the ponies fed well enough to survive the long winter. The Azure provided what weather control they could, although the snowstorms remained outside their control. Fortunately, security was easier for them, and they founded the elite unit that would become the Bolts From the Blue.”

“Never heard of them,” Dash said.

“What about ‘Skybolts?’”

“They’re only the Wonderbolts of Western Equestria!” Dash paused in her gushing. “Oh, you’re saying they’re the same.”

“True. ‘Bolts From the Blue’ is fairly unwieldy to say, and not really conducive to be shortened or being made into an acronym. It remains the unit’s official name, but in the sky and on the ground they earned their other name through the main feats of valour recorded in the Azure Library.”

“That’s pretty awesome, but they’re no Wonderbolts.”

“Naturally since the Azure’s Skybolts are the most active in serving Equestria as a military unit, they also train with Princess Celestia’s own units as well, in case a situation arises where they have to coordinate their efforts. This means training with City Guards, Royal Guards, and yes, even the Wonderbolts.”

“No way,”

“Yes way. Wing Commander Windwalker and Aunt Aerial were officers, and then instructors, with the Wonderbolts.”

“’Aunt?’” Rarity asked.

“That is what she asked me to call her, while I was studying the Azure’s magic.”

“You mean Pegasus magic?” Dash asked.

“Exactly. Anyway, both served with distinction, and then Uncle Windwalker returned to Las Pegasus to begin his first tour with the Skybolts. Aunt Aerial injured her right wing extremely badly. After she was brought to Hoofington to try to recover, the two of them married. They still sometimes serve as instructors, but Aunt Aerial cannot fly.”

“That’s awful!” Fluttershy said.

“Not being able to fly would drive me crazy,” Dash said.

“Couldn’t you heal her wing with your Alicorn Engine?” Twilight asked. “You did say that it healed a really bad injury for you.”

“I do not know for certain yet whether or not it would work, or be worth the risk. I hope it is, because I want to help her fly again. The Azure family was not able to help me gain much better control of my magic, but they did make me feel welcome. Prism and her Flight were my first friends, so I owe them a great deal.”

“Do I detect a hint of something more toward Prism?” Rarity asked. “The last time they were here, she was all over you, was she not?”

“Prism first approached me out of curiosity, and I cannot say for certain whether she ever had the time to get over that. I do not doubt, however, that I would not be any good for her, and not as a Black Sheep. I fear that my being around her would drive her to acts of daring more foolish than she would around even Contrail. If she ended up like her mother because of me, I would never be able to forgive myself, and neither would she.”

“Why would you think that?” Dash asked. “She’s plenty daring on her own.”

“Because she might believe that with my magic, I can grant her any sort of flying ability, and that I could heal any wound. Magic has very well-defined limits, if you, as a mage, are sticking to the rules. To Prism, limits are there to be broken.”

“You mean they’re not?” Pinkie asked.

“Not for a normal mage, or as normal a mage as I am,” Gearhead said. “But we have gone far off-topic.

“The Third Conclave of Flowing Shadows is the third and final House in the Alliance, and its successor, the Defence Alliance. With the specialties of Shadow and Ice Magic, skilled mages have been researching deeply into what they can and cannot permissibly do. The Conclave provides the princesses with key information and new spells, which they can then decide whether or not they should use.

“Until now the Alliance has been mostly responsible for keeping Western Equestria secure and peaceful, but now the D.A. will have a hoof in the deployment of entire batteries that will defend cities and towns entirely from dark threats. The particles may affect crops and water even with a focused shield, affecting the way the Verdant does things. With cities being defended, the Skybolts will be able to focus on other efforts. And since the arrays are primarily anti-Dark, the way the Conclave operates will likely change.”

“’Anti-Dark?’ Won’t that keep the Conclave and Luna out?” Twilight asked.

“There are exceptions to the rule, but I want to make it so the arrays could even tell the difference between Luna and Nightmare Moon.”

“Isn’t that gonna complicate things?” Dash asked. “I mean, you haven’t even met Nightmare Moon. How’re you gonna make your machines recognize her?”

“For now, extrapolation and other guesswork, because I know what Luna’s signature looks like, and I know what Dark Magic looks like. And if we ever see Nightmare Moon again, I can record her signature specifically.”

“It’s amazing that you’re in the middle of all of this,” Twilight said, “but when are you going to be able to present all of this to Princess Celestia?”

“The contract is nearly ready, but the array still needs work before it will be completed. And to do that, I have to finish testing my new prototype.”

“You’ve been working on that for ages,” Twilight said.

“Yeah,” Pinkie said, “except for when you turned into Dusty.”

“Except for when you snuck off to go work on it anyway,” Dash added.

“Really?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“It was hilarious: He thought I didn’t see him!”

“Well, you need not worry because I was more limited in what I could do. But now I am –“

Right then, Spike took on an expression of trying to swallow too much air. He belched out a letter, and Snowbelle jumped to catch it in her talons. She took off, flying it to Twilight’s waiting magical grip.

“What does it say?” Rarity asked while Twilight read through the letter once, and again.

“It seems there’s going to be a wedding in Canterlot, and we’re all invited.”

“A Canterlot wedding?” That news alone seemed to make Rarity stagger. Very discretely, Spike spat out another letter, and started looking it over.

“Princess Celestia wants Applejack to handle the catering,”

“It’d be an honour,”

“Fluttershy’s songbirds can provide a chorus during the ceremony,”

“Oh my,”

“Pinkie Pie would be in charge of the reception,”

“Yip, yip, yip, yippy!” Pinkie did a cartwheel, knocking one of the tea kettles over. Twilight used her magic to clean it up.

“Rainbow Dash, she’s asking you to perform a Sonic Rainboom as the bride and groom conclude their vows.”

Dash did a spit-take, which was fun to see. “Oh wow,” she said.

“Rarity, the Princess wants to ask you to design all the gowns for the bride and her bridesmaids?”

“Oh my...” Rarity swayed this way and that before swooning on the picnic blanket.

“Gearhead, she’s asking that you showcase your latest innovation,”

“Someday I will discover how she knows these things,”

“And I will be in charge of the planning, and making sure everything goes off smoothly.”

“It sounds like Princess Celestia has chosen the perfect honours for all of us,” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, but what I don’t understand is whose wedding all this is for,” Twilight said, turning the paper over and over. Gearhead could only think of one couple that could be heading toward matrimonial bliss, but felt this was a bit too soon for them. Twilight was right: what was going on?

“Here you go,” Spike said, offering up the second letter. “I guess Princess Celestia sent the first one second by mistake.”

“That’s unusual,” Twilight said, and then she started to read. “’We cordially invite you to Canterlot Castle for the wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and...’ my brother?!”

“There’s another Princess?” Applejack asked.

“You have a brother?” Rarity asked.

“Well yes, but neither ever came up in conversation before. I’m sorry if it seemed like I was hiding him from you. But who is this ‘Princess Mi Amore?’ And why would Shining Armour be marrying so suddenly, and to somepony I don’t even know?”

Gearhead was having trouble holding his laughter back. Most of his difficulty did not come from his considerable ability to keep a secret, but from the positive feedback loop he had with Snowbelle also trying to keep herself from laughing. Their psychic link was making it harder to hold back by the second, until Snowbelle fell to the ground from her perch beside Twilight, and started rolling even while she let loose her silvery laughter. The dam also broke for Gearhead, and before he could cover his mouth with both hooves, he was laughing from the belly.

The others stared at them both until they calmed down and recovered enough to explain. “You do not see it?” Gearhead asked, wiping away a tear.

Twilight shook her head, and returned to an impatient glare.

“’Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’ is not at all a familiar name?”

“I think I said as much before,”

“Not even ‘Cadenza?”

Twilight merely continued to stare at him.

“C-eh-dense-a?”

For a moment, Gearhead was afraid that Twilight would take his spoken emphasis as calling her ‘dense,’ but then she slapped a hoof to her face. “Cadence!”

“I beg your pardon, but who?” Rarity asked.

“Cadence was my old foalsitter, when I was growing up in Canterlot.”

“You had a princess for a foalsitter?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.

“When you put it that way...”

“Who in Princess Celestia’s name are you, Twilight Sparkle?” Dash asked.

“What do you mean? I’m me.”

“Now that I think about it, there’s a whole bunch of amazing stuff that happened to you even just until the time we met you,” Applejack said.

“What do you mean, apart from Cadence being my foalsitter? And yes, I already knew how amazing that was when it was happening.”

“There’s that, but also the fact that Princess Celestia chose you as her protégée,” Dash said.

“I wouldn’t have been chosen, without your help, Rainbow Dash. Even though you didn’t know you were helping me... and everypony else, for that matter.”

“And while all our Elements are necklaces, yours is a tiara,” Rarity said.

“Okay, I don’t know why my Element came out as a tiara.”

“Maybe Princess Celestia knows,” Gearhead said.

“And then again, maybe not,” Twilight said. “I mean, I may have had a royal foalsitter, gotten chosen as a princess’s protégée, and have a crown-shaped Element, but Princess Celestia also obviously sees my brother as being special, and he doesn’t have any of that!”

“Because he’s marrying your old foalsitter, the princess?” Pinkie asked.

“That, and because they don’t just let anypony become the captain of the Royal Guards.”

“Princess... Royal Guards... Captain...” Clearly overwhelmed, Rarity went directly to swooning this time. Twilight was practically ready, dragging a pillow over with her telekinesis to catch her falling friend. Snowbelle giggled at her idyllic expression.

“I gotta grant Rarity this much,” Applejack said, “this is a bigger honour than we’d originally thought.”

“Yeah well, apparently my Big Brother Best Friend Forever doesn’t feel I should be honoured enough to hear about this straight from the horse’s mouth, since I had to learn about it from an invitation!”

“I think that perhaps the good Captain had a lot on his mind?” Gearhead said.

“And you! You’re not getting off easy either, Mister. You knew about this?”

“Please calm down, Twilight. I met Cadence and Armour when I went to Canterlot to train with Princess Celestia and Luna. I even ended up training with them. In the time we spent together, I learned that they were courting, but I am as surprised by this as you are: it is very fast pacing. I thought they would wait longer, and that Armour would tell you first. I did not have any idea that this would happen now.”

“That does make sense,”

“Good,”

“But that doesn’t mean I’m not still furious at my brother for not telling me!”

“You are not about to keep this grudge going during the whole train ride into Canterlot, are you?”

“’The whole ride?’ Gearhead, you’ve got a lot to learn about mares, and especially mares who are angry with their siblings: we can hold grudges for years if we have to.”

“Oh brother,” Gearhead said under his breath. You are in for it now, S.A.

* * *

Gearhead guessed he really should not have been surprised that between Princess Celestia and Luna, the royal sisters already knew that the twin-core prototype was ready. One way they could have known was because the energy it generated was based on their own magical signatures. If they could detect signatures that were similar to their own in any way, they would have sensed the new prototype as he put it through its paces, even in the Laboratory. The other method was through Luna’s dreamwalking.

Gearhead had created a testing rig that allowed him a full range of motion while still keeping him and the prototype stable and static. It was basically a flexible adamantine web. During the test, Gearhead had discovered that the way the new Engine could deploy its particles was far more efficient and precise than what he had been able to do with the single-core, even with the stabilizer. This led him to redesign the harness apparatus completely.

Since the twin-core could deploy the particles to his whole body quickly, he no longer needed the hood and leggings to ensure he was properly protected from most impacts, as long as the Engine was running properly – and when it was not, he could turn to his magic for further protection, something about which he had not had any idea about back when he designed the first prototype.

With the harness itself, Gearhead kept the webbing flexible and durable as it ran throughout the vest, but he also made small scales out of the same gemstones as his condensers, for added storage. Even the condenser for the chest could be smaller, and woven underneath the surface fabric. Adding pockets made it harder to distinguish between the vest Gearhead normally wore and the harness. He reinforced the whole thing by lacing it with dragonfired adamantine lines to ensure the harness would not break apart under the stress from his manoeuvres.

The twin cores were half the size of the original single-core, but still made with seven rings of pure gemstones, each etched with just the right topological defects as to maximize particle production. Each cone sat on an actuator arm, so they could be turned, together or independently, to deploy particles to all sides of Gearhead, even up and down, past his body. When at rest, he could fold the cores to his back or sides, like a backpack or saddlebags.

Gearhead replaced his original goggles with a pair of tinted glasses. They had thick, dark blue frames that stuck close to his face, and a single, large lens shaped like two triangles facing outward that were joined by a rectangle. Much of the same filters and HUD technology was in this piece as Gearhead had put into his goggles. They had a strap that attached to the temples so he could hang them from his neck, but he could also prop them on his head when he was not using them.

The other new addition was also the first actual weapons to be included in the Alicorn Engine’s design: twin bladecasters that were also attached to a system of actuators so he could wield them at the same time in pony form, or rest them against his back or rear legs when he was not using them. He would not deny, however, that they would best be used while in Agile Form. The blades were flat, dull, and truncated so that without particles they could only be used as bludgeoning weapons at best. Emitters opened up near the guard on the flats of both sides. Based on a Unicorn’s horn, these would unleash compressed blasts of particle energy at an enemy. Naturally, Gearhead would also be carrying his daggers, but he no longer had to worry about transferring them over to another set of scabbards since he would not be wearing his old leggings with this Engine.

For the journey to Canterlot, Gearhead would only need to bring the Twin Engine and his formal longcoat. Jet black like the one he wore in Agile Form, this one had a lapel and a much more refined cut to it. The only marking was the Verdant crest, two trees rising in a ‘V’ from a field – in his case, rendered in a silver outline. This, too, was a mark of his being a Black Sheep, and he was to wear it to all formal occasions. The upside was that he never had to worry about what to wear the way the Elemental Six did. The downside was that everypony who was familiar with Herd history would know that he was the Black Sheep, and therefore the lowest of the low among the gentry. That alone did not bother Gearhead, but he would not want his stigma reflected onto others.

Mind you, that was the main reason he believed it would be a bad idea to date or marry, and therefore a big reason why he had agreed to let Fluttershy take her time evaluating whether she wanted to be in a relationship with him that ran deeper than friendship. That had been in consideration only of her and himself.

Now Gearhead had come to recognize that he should take Snowbelle’s needs into account as well. Seeing his younger siblings play with her, and seeing the love Mother, Big Sister Ivy, and Dawn showered onto her, Gearhead knew that Snowbelle needed that kind of affection from a female figure. On a consistent basis. Meaning he could not just fly her back to Verdant Fields every time she started to sulk. And besides, if he did that she would learn the wrong message. Father and Mother had never spoiled any of his siblings, and he was not about to start doing so with Snowbelle. It should be easier for him not to mess up with her, considering their psychic link. Despite that, he had messed up really badly when it came to Fluttershy, as far as Snowbelle was concerned. Gearhead still hoped that with time, Fluttershy would be able to approach them again, without fear of reprisal from Snowbelle.

Gearhead strapped the Twin Engine on, and packed his formal longcoat into one of his saddlebags. He made sure to take plenty of Ice Crystals for Snowbelle before he put a sign up informing customers of where he would be for a few days before locking up. Snowbelle hopped onto his shoulders to rest between the cores, and Gearhead went into an easy canter to meet up with the others at the station. Today they would be leaving all his other gadgets behind, because a wedding was surely about the bride, and not about sales!

* * *

While the others were very obviously focused on the joyous occasion ahead, from Twilight’s scowl it was clear to Gearhead that she had other things on her mind, all the way to Canterlot. While Gearhead was most interested in the distinctive purple shield that surrounded the city, he still kept half an eye on the others.

As the train approached the shield, the sensors embedded in Gearhead’s glasses beeped softly, so he tossed his head to knock them onto his snout. Normally it would take nearly a minute’s worth of contact to get a full sensory reading from a spell like this, but with the train passing directly through the shield, the sensors got everything right away – not to mention the fact that Gearhead had previously loaded all of the magical signatures he had encountered into the Engine system’s library for instant recognition.

“Well, this is interesting,” he murmured as he felt the tingle from the shield.

“Whoa, what’s with all the extra guards?” Dash asked. Gearhead looked out on the platform and realized she was right: there were guards with the City and Royal Garrisons stationed everywhere. The train pulled to a stop, and as soon as the doors opened, the friends made their way off.

“Royal weddings do bring out the strangest ponies,” Rarity said.

“Achoo!” Pinkie’s sneeze stopped her in mid-stride, but she immediately got moving again, as though confetti coming from her nose was normal.

Maybe for her it is, Gearhead thought. “How many royal weddings have you attended?” He asked instead.

“Well, there haven’t exactly been any for awhile.”

“It is perfectly fine to speak from the common experience rather than your own,” Gearhead said.

“Even if we did bring the ‘strangest’ pony with us,” Dash added. Pinkie snorted in laughter.

“In any case, I can’t wait to congratulate the lucky bride and groom,” Rarity said.

“Yeah, congratulate,” Twilight said, marching off. “I’m going to find my brother and give him a piece of my mind!” The guards recognized Twilight and let her pass, but their expressions at that last comment made it obvious they had some questions, or maybe they pitied their captain for what was coming.

“Lets... give them some space,” Applejack said.

“Agreed,” Rarity said. “Lets let the siblings work things out.”

Another guard approached. “If you would follow me, I will help you to get settled in,” he said.

“Thank you, kind sir,” Rarity said.

* * *

Since most of Twilight’s party had been to Canterlot at one time or another, Princess Celestia seemed to have arranged to put them up in rooms that they had used in the past. Gearhead and Twilight both got their old rooms back, and in Rarity’s case, her royal suite doubled as her workshop.

Once he was certain everypony was settled, Gearhead went to find Princess Celestia. With a little help from Kibitz, her personal secretary, Gearhead found her in the Sky Terrace.

“Greetings, Gearhead,”

“I have some questions, if you do not mind answering them, Princess Celestia.”

“Go ahead,”

“All of the guards and the shield – is this wedding that important?”

“I am afraid the additional security has very little to do with the wedding,” Princess Celestia said. “A threat had been made against Canterlot, and as vague as it is, my sister and I have decided that it would be best to stay at high alert until we can be certain the danger has passed.”

“Are you not concerned that remaining so for a long period may leave the Guard with its nerves frayed?”

“I have complete trust in the Canterlot Royal Guard,”

“Still, the load for maintaining the shield rests on one stallion.”

“Fortunately his wife-to-be can heal him of his fatigue, although I do hope the threat passes quickly.”

“What about the Caverns?” Canterlot in particular had an alliance with the Jackrabbits, Moles, and Goblin Ponies that resided in Canterlot Mountain. They traded, and on top of that the Jackrabbits, Moles, Goblins, and even a certain Arctic Dragon kept the caves clear of threats. Canterlot, in exchange, also kept threats from coming at these three tribes from the surface world. The alliance was something that Gearhead, Shining Armour, Cadence, and Spike had helped to broker, although Gearhead suspected that Princess Celestia had suspected someone was down there when she sent just the four of them to investigate the mountain.

“Princess Mi Amore Cadenza assures me that Shining Armour’s unit is keeping them secure. Nopony shall attack us from there.”

Attack us? This is not right, not at all. The more Princess Celestia said, the greater Gearhead’s feeling that something was ‘off’ became, not least of all because she was being far more aggressive yet formal than he remembered her ever being, even with Discord. “Thank you, Your Highness, for answering my rude inquiries. Pray, excuse me.” Gearhead bowed, and backed away toward the tower entrance. He kept backing up until he was completely out of the princess’s sight. Then he turned and beat a hasty retreat from the immediate vicinity.

Gearhead sent Snowbelle to look into things around the castle while he did a little reconnaissance of his own. Accordingly, he found the others already deep in preparation for the reception. Most of the others moving about the castle were palace staff or hired hooves here specifically for the wedding. Princess Celestia had cut down on those significantly, though, by having Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie handle the catering, garments, and reception respectively.

Gearhead was not quite so surprised not to spot any stallions fitting Gizmo, 8-bit, or Gaffer's descriptions at the palace yet, considering the wedding was still in its preparations phases. According to what Shining Armour had told Gearhead about his best friends, as well as about Buck Withers, they would probably want to stay out of the way, and arrive just before the rehearsal.

More surprising to Gearhead was the absence from his and Snowbelle’s sight of mares matching Lemony Gem’s and Diamond Rose’s descriptions: Gearhead figured they had to be at least Cadence’s bridesmaids – although he could not begin to guess who the Maid of Honour would be. If they were as close friends as Cadence and Armour had told Gearhead they were, how come they were not here, helping her with the preparations?

After a thorough look around, only using the Twin Engine when no pony else was paying him any attention, Gearhead decided he and Snowbelle had done enough independent investigation without telling anypony else what was up. He went to the cafe where the others were eating to report in.

“To be fair, he was singing off-key,” Fluttershy was saying as Gearhead approached the table, Snowbelle winging her way gently over. The cardinal in question squawked, making everypony grimace.

“What is going on?”

“Oh, Twi’s just complainin’ about how Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’s been behavin’ even though she’s probably been busy with all the wedding prep before we got here,” Applejack said.

“Well there’s ‘stressed out,’ and then there’s ‘just plain rude,’ and throwing out AJ’s hors d’oeuvres and then insulting Pinkie is just being rude, if you ask me.”

“Maybe Lemony Gem or Diamond Rose could shed some light on Cadence’s current emotional situation?” Gearhead suggested.

“Wait, don’t tell me you’ve actually met them?” Twilight asked.

“Met who, Darling?” Rarity asked.

“Lemony Gem and Diamond Rose are Cadence’s best friends from Canterlot Academy, back when she was foalsitting for me. They helped her and my brother start dating – although if I’m remembering right, their plan wasn’t so hair-brained as the ones 8-bit and Gaffer came up with.”

“That sounds like an interesting story,” Rarity said.

“Yeah, maybe I’ll tell it to you another time, because I just had a thought: why did ‘Cadence’ choose Minuette, Lyra, and Twinkleshine as her bridesmaids instead of Lemony and Diamond?”

"Yeah," Spike said, taking a break from playing with the wedding cake figurines, "they're your old Canterlot friends."

"Really?" Rarity and Twilight said together.

"Guess I forgot," Twilight said.

“Anyway, you said it yourself,” Dash said, “it’s been a long time since you even saw Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. They could have just gone separate ways in the meantime.”

“In that case, I hope they’re alright with this,” Fluttershy said.

“I’m sure the Princess wouldn’t do anything to upset them, at least not on purpose,” Applejack said.

“I’m not so sure,” Twilight said.

“You sure you’re not just bein’ jealous, sugar cube?”

“Jealous? Me?! I’m just trying to make sure my brother doesn’t end up in an unhappy marriage – because I don’t know when she changed, but Cadence has changed in a big way!”

“Whether it is this threat or the marriage, I wonder if things will return to normal afterwards,” Gearhead said. “I spoke with Princess Celestia earlier and... she would not normally be worried about the Cavern’s colonies attacking Canterlot, would she?”

“You mean those guys you made the trade agreement with?” Applejack asked.

“Unlikely,” Dash said.

“I have a hard time believing Princess Celestia would do anything deceptive,” Twilight said.

Pinkie Pie, Dash, and Applejack each raised an eyebrow at her: they all knew about the princess’s hoofs-off teaching style, and how much she kept risking on the chance that Twilight and the others would find a solution. The princess often remained silent while they worked things out, rather than telling them how to resolve the issue of the day, which would have been simpler and safer.

“Well, when she’s not teaching,” Twilight allowed. “Anyway, there’s no way she’d be contemplating any sort of war with an ally, and that treaty Gearhead helped work out covers mutual defence as well. I’d like to know why we have two princesses who aren’t acting like their usual selves.”

“If you want, Snowbelle and I can look into it further,” Gearhead said. “I want to check the Caverns anyway.” Gearhead exchanged a glance and a few thoughts with his Dragon. “Snowbelle will discretely continue to look around the castle grounds. If anyone finds anything while I am gone, please try to find her and she can pass word to me.”

“What about Luna?” Pinkie asked.

“She is much too close to Princess Celestia to see if she is acting strangely,” Gearhead said, “otherwise she might have asked already.”

“Shining a light on it might not be a good idea anyway,” Twilight said. “I know he’s close to things, but I want to ask Shining Armour if he’s noticed anything.”

“Could you ask him about his last Cavern patrol as well?” Gearhead asked.

“Will do,”

“Hey guys, don’t ya think you’re maybe being just a teeny tiny bit paranoid?” Pinkie asked.

Spike raised an eyebrow. You could not magi-graph, says the mare who thought her friends didn’t want to be friends anymore, even when they were planning a surprise birthday party for her, any louder without saying it.

“This is a royal wedding in Canterlot we’re talking about,” Twilight said. “’Too careful’ doesn’t exist.” She got up and started to walk toward the palace.

“Alright, I’ll come with,” Spike said, leaving the figures from the top of the wedding cake beside Pinkie.

“Aww, I was having fun,” Pinkie said. Applejack rolled her eyes.

“I shall go too,” Gearhead said.

“Shouldn’t you wait for morning to get started?” Fluttershy asked.

“Underground, it is always dark,” Gearhead said, as Snowbelle used her magic to take on the aspect of a small bird before taking wing. Gearhead set his Engine to eject the minimum amount of particles necessary for flight, and closed the verniers’ shutters as much as they would go for Stealth Mode. When he leaped into lift off, there was barely a turquoise sparkle visible from just three meters away. It should be fairly difficult for unwanted ponies to spot him from a distance.

The one trouble point was Armour’s shield, and Gearhead was confident that even if it did not open to let him through like it did for Luna, he could simply pass through it, since he had done so wearing exactly the same equipment earlier.

As Gearhead flew toward the same entrance that he, Cadence, Armour, and Spike had used the first time they explored the caverns, he was startled when his glasses’ zoom function showed him that there was not even one creature around the cave. Forget the Mountain Lions from before, even his Gargoyle Golem was gone!

No, not gone, he realized as he came in for a close landing: there were stone fragments scattered all over the place matching the material he had used, and which Cadence had animated. With the use of a small magical gem as an amulet, the two of them had decided to leave the golem outside the cave to guard the cavern system. The way the fragments were scattered did not leave any doubt: whoever had destroyed it had used a magical blast to do so.

I have a really bad feeling about this, Gearhead thought as he entered the cave. Since he no longer needed to hide himself from pony eyes – indeed trying to be stealthy in an ally’s territory could be a hazardous mistake—Gearhead restored the Engine to its default setting before forging ahead.

Gearhead flew steadily along the passageways, the light from his particles illuminating his surroundings. Not that he particularly needed light, thanks to his glasses and their low-light filter. For that matter, none of the cave-dwelling tribes required light, having lived for some time in total, or near-total darkness. It was mostly a convenience they kept for their cities and towns, but the caverns themselves were completely dark.

Gearhead decided to check on the Jackrabbits of the Upper Corridors first, and was surprised when he did not hear anyone challenge his approach on the colony. Once again with that bad feeling in his gut, he wrapped his tail around his dagger and freed up the control for his bladecasters in case he needed them. Just in case, he closed that part of his mind responsible for preliminary reaction so Snowbelle would not be able to sense his reactions on reflex.

Gearhead was prepared for a fight, but when he rounded a corner inside the colony he was completely unprepared for the Jackrabbit corpse he found. Fetched solidly up against a wall, this once-living being had taken a solid hit with a magical blast to his chest. Gearhead checked to make sure, but did not find a pulse or breath.

Feeling queasy, he flew further into the colony, heading toward the Chief’s hall. It was a grand, sloping structure with the windows set high into the walls for defense, and like many of the other structures along the route between the wall and the center of the colony, it was littered with bodies – no, not littered: they had all been pulled to the side, if the killing blow had not landed them there already. Each of them had either been killed by a magic blast or by being impaled on a curved horn. Gearhead did not know of any creature that possessed such an implement.

Just as he had feared, Gearhead found the Chief and his entire household, including the visitors who happened to be there, just as dead as the Jackrabbits outside. Every single being of this colony seemed to have been killed, he saw, regardless of age or even if they had been trained to fight. Gearhead could not recall hearing any sign of a struggle back in the main corridors, and since the bodies were cold it must have happened some time ago. How far did they get? He asked himself, turning around and racing toward the Moles’ trap-chute.

There might have been faster ways to get around, but neither the Jackrabbits nor the Goblin Ponies had ever spoken of them to Gearhead. The Moles themselves did not speak to any of the Equestrians who came into the tunnels at all – and thinking of them, Gearhead could only hope they were safe. He triggered the trap himself, and flew down the long chimney at full speed, only pulling up once he had the next corridor’s entrance in sight. He had only to follow the same path as before to come to the Great Hall.

The doors had been blown off, and unlike in the Jackrabbit colony, Goblin corpses were everywhere. The only similarity in how they had been treated by their unknown enemy was that they were just as dead here in the Lower Corridors as the Jackrabbits in the Upper Corridors.

No, he soon saw: the attackers had been more savage here, tearing with fangs and stomping with hooves. There was nothing neat or systematic about this slaughter, not that the atrocity of the one higher up the mountain was any less of a tragedy. The difference was that whereas above, the attackers’ actions had seemed to be rigidly disciplined, here they had been allowed to go wild.

The sight and smell was overwhelming. Gearhead staggered a few steps, found a corner, and vomited.

“Who is that?” The voice boomed, just before being cut off in a fit of coughing. Gearhead looked around, trying to locate the source. After seeing all this carnage, he had not expected to find a survivor. “I said ‘who’s there?!”

“It is Gearhead,” he said, flying over to where the Goblin Pony King lay in a pile of rubble. Half of his greatsword was sticking up from the ground to his left, while he still held the half with the hilt tightly in one hand. He held his other hand over a deep wound in his chest, stubbornly trying to staunch it.

“Reinforcements?” The King coughed, then groaned. “Too late,” he spat angrily.

Gearhead flew up to the King, drawing his dagger. “Quattuor Magnae Spiritus invoco. Concede tuis benedictionibus super hoc militis pallidus. Cura.”

The King chuckled softly as the warm glow of Gearhead’s magic infused him, and his wound healed over. “To think I would live to see the ancient ways,” he said.

“You know of this casting method?”

“Ah, but it has been a long time.”

“Nevermind about that now. Who did this? From where did they come?”

“What does it matter? My kingdom is done, and I am alone.”

“What if I told you you could have a chance at vengeance?”

“Truly?”

“Word has it that someone has made a threat against Canterlot. You could help to protect her.”

“After the ‘help’ your kind sent?”

“I am sorry. We did not know about any of this,” Gearhead said.

After a moment, the King said quietly, “yes, I heard your reaction over there.” He paused, gathered his strength. “They were all black, except for their eyes. Horned. Winged like insects, yet they treated my people as though they were the insects!” The King’s anger was building. “They had total surprise, and came from all directions – north, south, east, west, above, and below – all at once, a coordinated assault. And although they slaughtered all my people, warriors, women, children, the tall one hardly moved. Except to leave me with a gaping hole in my chest.”

“Did you say ‘down?’”

“I did,” the King said, curious, as Gearhead ceased his healing spell. Enough was done so that his life was not in danger. Even more, he was recovering further with every second.

“The Dragon,” Gearhead breathed, then he turned and raced from the hall.

“Concern for that poor creature?” Gearhead hear the King ask as he left.

* * *

Gearhead felt as though somepony had dropped his gut from the heights of Las Pegasus: the great Ice Dragoness was pinned to the wall midway between the passages. The leather of her wings had been completely burned away, and her scales were a scorched blue, bruised purple in some places. A long, jagged hole punctured her chest, nearly straight through to the wall.

“Dragonfriend,” her whisper was so light, even Gearhead barely heard it. He flew up before her and started his incantation. “Please, do not strain yourself,” the dragoness breathed.

“But—“

“I was already ill, as you know. I wouldn’t survive, and if they found me again, not only would they simply kill me again, they would look for whoever healed me as well. They would know. So listen well, my friend.”

“I am listening,”

“Our enemy is the soldier caste of a Changeling hive,”

“Changelings?”

“They replace a loved one, to get strong on your love for them. Beware their queen the most.”

“How do we stop them?”

“Please, I haven’t the time! Let me... speak mind to mind with my Daughter.”

“Yes. Of course.” Gearhead opened the psychic link to Snowbelle, and reached out to the Dragoness the way Luna had taught him to do.

Knowledge and wisdom, regret and love. Gearhead felt much pass between the two Dragons. He felt his daughter’s sorrow, her anguish, and her anger and hate rise. Believing that she should not hold the last two so young, he used her True Name to take them into his own psyche.

“Thank you,” the Dragoness said, “choose well how you strike, Friend.” Her body took on an icy white glow, and began to flow away. When Gearhead’s tears cleared, all he saw where Snowbelle’s mother had once been was a set of three ice-clear crystals. If there was a way to strike back using these, he would take it!

30A. Not In Hatred, But In Anger, Forged

Chapter 30A: Not In Hatred, But In Anger, Forged

The howling, roaring keen echoed throughout Canterlot, and even travelled beyond Shining Armour’s protective shield. So deep was the sense of grief within the sound that everypony stopped what they were doing, stood to attention, and listened in full respect.

Everypony save one, who raced along the corridors and streets, flying unerringly toward the source of the cry, with only one thought in her mind. It only took her a minute and forty-three second, but Fluttershy felt like that was more than a minute too long. She found Snowbelle lying on the ground, her wings limp at her sides, and most strikingly, surrounded by a pile of her crystalline tears.

Fluttershy immediately scooped the Dragon up in her forehooves and wrapped her own wings all around her. The Dragon was not even bothering with her size-changing or illusion magic, instead lying there at her natural size, which was close to a third Fluttershy’s own size.“It’s okay,” Fluttershy said soothingly, “let it all out. I’ll be here to listen once you’re ready to talk.”

Snowbelle let loose with another round of tears, but now she was completely unrestrained, and the howling quality faded. Like most of the other ponies around Gearhead and Snowbelle, Fluttershy often forgot that Snowbelle was just a baby because she could act based on mature knowledge, but then this was knowledge taken from Gearhead through their unique link. Snowbelle ought to be allowed to act like a child, and not have adult concerns, like whether or not her own father had healthy relationships.

The revelation made Fluttershy feel ashamed of her fears and selfishness, and she felt a knot rise in her own throat. Soon she, too, was crying. She felt Snowbelle startle, and then the little Dragon was wrapping her own wings around Fluttershy. I’m doing it again, Fluttershy thought, but she melted into the ring of mutual comfort.

Once Dragon and Pegasus did not have any tears left to shed, Snowbelle drew back a bit, and Fluttershy looked at her sitting in her lap not even a wing’s span away. “I’m sorry it took so long, and so much sadness for me to come back,” Fluttershy said, wiping Snowbelle’s face with a gentle hoof.

“It is okay,” Snowbelle said, her first words to anyone since that confrontation. “We cannot all be super-smart all of the time.”

“What happened? Why were you crying so deeply?”

“Mommy... she is dead.”

Fluttershy was stunned. Of course a child would feel so much grief at the passing of a parent. Even never having met her, except as an egg, Snowbelle would be sad!

“Ah, but Daddy is... that is, Father is alive.”

“You can call him ‘Daddy’ if you want,” Fluttershy said, smiling reassuringly. She berated herself for being so slow in responding that Snowbelle would mistake it as concern for Gearhead. Not that Fluttershy wasn’t concerned for him. In fact, she was starting to get anxious for him, wondering what kind of threat could kill a Dragon.

“Mommy passed a whole bunch of stuff to me,” Snowbelle said, bringing Fluttershy back to the present. “Even her sadness that she won’t be able to take care of me anymore. But Daddy took away all of the anger, into himself.”

“What does that mean?”

“I was starting to feel angry at the ones who killed Mommy, but now I can only feel sad that she’s gone. I don’t have any anger, because Daddy took it. Now he has it all.”

“Then we’ll have to help him, so he doesn’t end up hurting himself,” Fluttershy said, softly patting Snowbelle.

“Okay,” the little Dragon said.

“By the way, what are these?” Fluttershy lifted up a whole hoof of the crystal tears for Snowbelle to see.

“Uh... eh-heh. It might be a really good idea to hide those away,” Snowbelle said.

“Why?”

“Because they are really valuable,” Snowbelle said, “Dragon’s Tears,” she said softly. “I messed up.”

Fluttershy blinked, then they started to gather up all the tiny crystals with their wings and hooves. There were so many, Snowbelle could not fit them all into her bags!

* * *

Gearhead flew quickly back to the Great Hall, where the King was stretching and twisting, testing to see how he had healed up. “Oh, so you’re back.” The Goblin registered the Earth Pony’s expression, and sat down heavily. “More bad news, huh?” He took the two halves of his sword and lay them across his lap. “So what now?”

“We cannot ever recover the dead,” Gearhead said softly, “but we can do our utmost to prevent more deaths.” He stared across, intensely, at the Goblin. “If you are in, Your Majesty, then I might have the beginnings of a plan.”

“I,” the Goblin said, “am a king without a kingdom, my people all gone and my stores and weapons destroyed. But if you wish you may simply call me ‘King,’ for I have long since forgotten my original name.”

When King said ‘weapons,’ Gearhead grasped the two parts of the greatsword in his Wind Magic, and sent one of the Ice Gems into the middle. He then touched his unshod forehooves together, and worked his Geomancy over the halves to make them into a single sword again. But thinner, with a purer, more intense light this time. “Let us try to arrange it so you have the time to tell me about that time later. For now, I do not know how much time we have. Will you hear me out?”

“For a chance at that big bug’s neck? Undoubtedly,” King said, standing straight.

“Then let us go over this: we must be swift, but careful. No more mistakes,”

“And no more unnecessary deaths,” King nodded.

* * *

On his return flight, Gearhead did not make any attempt at all at subtlety or stealth. Twin, overlapping rings of compressed particles highlighted his energy tail as he flew toward Canterlot Castle at full throttle, determined to make it back before any other misfortunes struck. It was bright, so he knew he had spent the entire night and then some investigating the caverns. He knew he would have to go back, to perform proper burials, when the time allowed for it.

Gearhead was concerned about what would happen with the shield as he approached it. He was prepared to slow down, but apparently it recognized him this time, and opened up a port hole so his quick passage would not affect its stability. Gearhead checked the sun again. At this time, everypony should be in the Throne Room for the rehearsal. Gearhead adjusted course, and picked up his pace.

Not yet in normal visual range, Gearhead lined himself up so he could see through the open columns and grand windows. Using the zoom function on his glasses again, he was able to see far enough to pick out individual forms, and wondered who might have been replaced by Changelings. Regardless of who it was, he would need solid evidence.

What greeted Gearhead was the curious sight of Twilight lying on the steps to the raised dais, clearly in distress. She had created a simple light construct of herself, and was playing with it, her purple magic aura clearly visible – the Engine’s system was able to identify her instantly from the library of signatures that Gearhead had loaded into it.

When the goggles showed an arrow to the left, Gearhead knew that his sensors were picking up another magical signature nearby, and zoomed out so he could spot the source. It was Cadence, but why was she approaching from the direction of the throne, and why was she so calm when Twilight was unhappy? Gearhead used Shift Focus, feeding the read-out through the onboard computer.

She is limned in green, so is this my proof? “Memory – Record!” Gearhead said over the wind, calling on the recording magic he had discovered in the prototype’s Ring-5. The Engines immediately responded by positioning themselves sideways, facing out. This meant Gearhead was flying far more slowly, but hopefully this ‘Cadenza’ would not try anything big yet.

Gearhead watched as ‘Cadenza’ approached Twilight, stepping on the construct Twilight and smashing it to pieces before it faded out. Twilight looked up at Cadenza, and said something. At this distance and speed, Gearhead could not hear what they were saying. An instant later, he realized he did not have to have heard anything: A brilliant green aura erupted around the Deceptive Cadence, and a matching green fire erupted from the stairs, but it only encircled Twilight without burning anything. The fire formed a ceiling above the younger mare, and then it seemed to smother her into the stairs before beginning to vanish. No sooner was that done did Cadenza walk off, her expression satisfied, and that green aura of hers quelled somewhat.

Gearhead continued to record as he flew in and landed on the steps near the spot where Cadenza had trapped Twilight to scan it. Fortunately the magic residue was still fresh. While the computer had started to identify Cadence based on visual evidence, it had been unable to do so based on her magical signature, and so it had discarded that possibility.

The library was organized in relation to Gearhead himself. The more distantly Gearhead knew a pony, the further down the entry was. To cut down on time, the system also started a cross-check based on more recent additions. So when it started to pull up readings from the signatures that the Changelings had left behind on their victims in the tunnels, the computer came up with six direct matches. One of them was King’s chest wound.

The more damning one was the Ice Dragoness’s fatal wound, and the matching rate was 100%, a complete match: the same Changeling who had killed Snowbelle’s mother was the one who had taken Cadence’s place and her life. Intellectually, Gearhead could understand clearing away enemies who sat on one of your flanks, but many among those the Changelings had killed would never have harmed them. For being responsible for so many deaths, regardless of how needless, Gearhead felt his fury burn steadily colder – he would never forgive her!

And he had the perfect plan for bringing the Changelings’ deception down around their ears... assuming that was a part of their anatomy.

* * *

At the wedding ceremony, Gearhead discovered that the Deceptive Cadence had decided to replace her replacement bridesmaids with the Elemental Six – minus Twilight, since the Changeling had sent her who-knew-where. He also discovered that nopony was asking where she was because, after Twilight had confronted Cadenza about her strange behaviour around her friends and Shining Armour, Cadenza had fled crying, and everypony went to console her after Armour had angrily told Twilight not come to the wedding.

That would have upset most ponies too much to attend, however Twilight could get obsessive about matters that bothered her. Gearhead felt she would have shown up anyway, just to see if her hunch could be confirmed. It surprised him that none of the others seemed to have concluded similarly.

While most of the others seemed to be entranced by the proceedings, and the Deceptive Cadence’s appearance, Gearhead noticed that Fluttershy kept glancing in his direction. Gearhead had taken up a position on the outside third row on the groom’s side of the pews, which also meant that Fluttershy did not have to turn her head much to be looking directly at him. He was wearing his formal blacks, but he also had his glasses down over his eyes, as though he needed them. The Engines were hidden underneath his longcoat, ready to go at a moment’s notice.

But Gearhead was certain that Fluttershy was still wondering what was going on with Snowbelle. Gearhead had keenly felt her grief, taken her anger so she would not have to deal with it, and after his return investigation, he had spoken to her about her heart-to-heart session with Fluttershy. And as part of Gearhead’s plans, already in motion, she was getting into position, rather than staying with Gearhead as part of the assembled congregation.

Gearhead suddenly had to turn his full attention to Princess Celestia, presiding over the ceremony, as he nearly missed his mark. “Excuse me, Your Highness,” Gearhead rose. “It is my understanding to be given that there may be something of some importance that you may have, in your eagerness, overlooked, which is relevant to this ceremony.”

“And what is that?” Princess Celestia asked, seeming perturbed at being interrupted, but clearly leaning on her patience.

“That we would join two individual and very different beings in the holy institute and societal contract of matrimony would require the deepest, most profound, and most basic of understandings between both beings involved,” Gearhead began. This was phase two of his plan, to stall for as long as possible, in the most verbose way, while Twilight was hopefully finding her way back, from wherever she had been sent.

As Gearhead continued to try to say nothing at all in as many words as possible, he scanned the room. Mentally he nodded whenever he found an ally on whom he knew he could count: Uncle Windwalker and Aunt Aerial together with Prism, Contrail, and Rook. Midnight and Nightstar Shadow, with Dusk and Dawn. Curiously, he did not see any representatives from his own family. Maybe they were dealing with an emergency on the farm.

Dash yawned.

“Can we get on with it?” Cadenza asked, irritation in her voice.

“I hold full faith in my students,” Princess Celestia said, “however in this case I may have to agree with you, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.”

The younger Alicorn nodded.

“Would you please get to your point?” Princess Celestia asked.

“If he has one,” Dash muttered.

“Rainbow!” Applejack elbowed her friend, but gently.

“Very well,” Gearhead said, striding up the side aisle and mounting the stairs. He moved so he was more in the center of the room. “But why should I tell you when I can show you?”

“Ooh, a wedding and a show!” Pinkie said.

“What do you mean?” Princess Celestia ignored Pinkie’s comment, and not for the first, or probably, the last time.

“A small technique, and nothing more,” Gearhead shook off his longcoat, and called on his Engines so the cones were pointed toward the ceiling. He then put his coat back on. “Memory – Playback!” He called, and then cones began to spin.

Turquoise particles flowed to coalesce above Gearhead. When they were focused enough, they resolved in a three dimensional picture that everypony could see, regardless of their viewing angle. At first only the particles’ colour was present, but then, as Gearhead continued to compress more into the picture, it gained colour, but always maintained a slight tint.

The picture showed the Throne Room from the outside, through the secondary tint of Gearhead’s glasses. In a moment the picture began to move, and played out the sequence that Gearhead had witnessed earlier, including the system’s tentative, and ultimately failed, identification of ‘Cadenza.’

“Is this what happened after we left?” Rarity asked in hushed tones.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy said, “now I feel bad about leaving her all alone.”

Then everypony in the room gasped, when Cadenza’s green aura flared, and she called up her magical fire to suppress Twilight, apparently into the same steps that the former was standing near at that very moment.

“Not as bad as I do now,” Dash said, while Princess Celestia expression suddenly became dazed.

“Just what in the hay happened?” Applejack demanded.

“That is what I would like to know,” Princess Celestia said, as the recording continued with Gearhead’s scan of the stairs.

“What happened,” Gearhead said, “is that this individual standing before us all succeeded in isolating Twilight Sparkle from her friends and loved ones. She was completely discredited because that being there decided that Twilight was the only threat against her plan.

“But that is not the worst of her crimes on the road to this particular action: she also had her forces completely slaughter two of Equestria’s allies right in Canterlot’s own backyard, and just to be certain the rear flank was clear, she even killed an ailing, friendly Dragon.”

“’Ailing?’ As in she was going to die anyway?” Cadenza sneered.

“Perhaps, eventually, but not yet. But your biggest mistake was in not seeing all of the connections. Certainly, you removed Princess Cadence’s and Shining Armour’s best friends from the occasion, because they would have known that you are not behaving as she would. And you removed Twilight Sparkle successfully. But you caused great grief to a Dragon’s daughter.”

Taking her cue, Snowbelle unleashed a sharp blast of snow and ice from her spot on the ceiling, aimed at the Deceptive Cadence. Cadenza had to raise a defensive shield and angle it above herself to protect herself from freezing.

“Big mistake,” Gearhead said quietly, and his cores snapped into the forward position, unleashing twin spirals of twisting turquoise.

“Is that so?” Cadenza grinned, still holding up her shield, as Shining Armour leaped to her defence. He put an arc of his shield up, and it successfully fended off Gearhead’s spirals.

But he was ready for that too, charging in with his Engines at full throttle. “I will forgive you for forgetting that I know how to defeat your shields,” Gearhead said, the Geargem Dagger glowing orange as he flicked his tail to swing it, “since you are not yet yourself.” Since he was already past Armour, and his cores were already facing back at him, Gearhead simply repeated the spiral technique. The particles overran and flowed through the Unicorn stallion, pushing out something that was shaped like him, glowing green, and shattered it. Shining Armour stumbled, and turned, breathing hard.

It would take a little longer before Gearhead could use his Purifying Spirals again, so he signalled for Snowbelle to fly a short distance to safety.

“I have to thank you,” Cadenza said, “for putting an end to this ruse. It was tiring, being so very sweet all the time, so I guess I started to slip. Even so, Twilight Sparkle was the only one who suspected, and so, it’s a case of ‘too little too late.’” Green flames erupted from all around the false Alicorn, making her black and green, with strange holes in her legs, a twisted horn, glowing green eyes, and insectile wings. Dazed amazement turned to panic, and ponies began to run from the room. Prism Flight took off to try to coral them.

“I am Queen Chrysalis, and it is my duty to ensure my children are all sufficiently fed. Unfortunately for all of you, there isn’t a place in the world more filled with the love we consume than Equestria. Now that I’ve absorbed so much of Shining Armour’s love for Cadence, he no longer possesses the strength to reinforce that vaunted shield of his.”

While Gearhead kept his eyes on Chrysalis, he saw Princess Celestia look to her captain. “It’s true,” Armour gasped. “I don’t have the power anymore.”

“My Changelings are chipping away at it, even now. And when they break through, nothing will stop them from feeding to their contentment.”

“I have my doubts,” Gearhead said. “After all, I have more than a few allies of my own. One of them has arrived to chip away at your ‘children’ chipping away at Armour’s shield.”

“You’re bluffing,”

“But I am not,” Princess Celestia said, stepping forward. “Now that you have foolishly revealed your true self and your intentions, I can protect my ponies from you myself!” Princess Celestia launched into the air, and launched a blast from a forty-five degree angle at Chrysalis. Gearhead thought this was an odd angle to pick, as the Changeling Queen launched her own direct counter-blast.

Yes, very odd, he thought as he flew to intercept the blast before it could collide with the Princess. Gearhead spun laterally, his cores once again in their forward position, but this time deploying swirling particle shields. They delayed Chrysalis’s blast long enough for Gearhead to knock Princess Celestia out of the way. He looked at the pockmark that the blast made, still smoking, in the ceiling. “That would have hurt,” he said softly.

Dash and the others ran to Princess Celestia’s side. “What should we do?” The speedster asked, clearly looking for an order.

“You must get the Elements of Harmony and use them to defeat Queen Chrysalis,” Princess Celestia said as Applejack and Pinkie helped her back up to her hooves.

“In Canterlot Tower?” Gearhead asked. “Past the lock only you or Discord can open?”

“And without Twilight?” Pinkie added.

“My mistake,” Princess Celestia said. “It seems I haven’t been thinking clearly for quite some time.”

“I suspected you were being influenced as well,” Gearhead said, “but I did not have any proof at the time.”

“And now?”

“The proof is before us,”

“I am sorry, my little ponies. She had us all fooled.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

“You must find the other citizens of Canterlot and keep them safe from the Changeling army,” Princess Celestia said to Dash and the others.

“What about you?” Dash asked.

“I will try again. Surely Chrysalis cannot be so strong a second time.”

“I’m ready whenever you are, Princess.”

“You know,” Gearhead said, “I have quite the substantial amount of anger built up. This seems to be the perfect opportunity to expend it. If the two of you do not mind, I would like to take care of this battle.”

“Wait, Gearhead! You must be careful when using such an emotion.”

“I know, and that is why it is ‘anger’ and not ‘hate.’ Furthermore, I control it, and not the other way around.”

“You think that’ll help you to defeat me when I’m more powerful than Princess Celestia herself?” Chrysalis laughed.

“Maybe my Twin Engine will give me the edge I need, but then I do not need to defeat you myself.”

“What’s that?”

“I shall let you figure it out, if you can.”

“You impudent--!”

“Be careful, Gearhead!”

“’Careful’ is not the word – Cantus Bellax, plenum potestatem!” Gearhead’s magic aura blossomed to a degree that nopony else had ever seen before, even covering three meters all around him, before he focused it, wrapping it tightly around himself like a second skin. He transferred his Geargem Dagger to his mouth, and then launched a flying charge at Chrysalis, weaving so he would not get caught by her blasts. Sword clashed against horn, and the combatants pushed each other away to try again.

* * *

Clad in blue and gold heavy plate armour, King spun and jumped among the Changelings who were using short charges to put stress on Shining Armour’s shield. He had gotten to the top of the dome using a large, folding glider that Gearhead had made for him using his Geomancy and the contents of a couple Goblin houses. Now that he was able to smash the Changelings to pieces with his sword or gauntlets or boots, King was more than happy to have paid the cost of a few houses – especially since nobody was around to use that material but him anymore.

King liked this part of Gearhead’s plan, since it was so simple and its effectiveness depended mostly on his rage against the Changelings. And whether he used the leading or trailing edges, the flat of the blade, the guard, or the pommel to deliver a blow, a Changeling usually went flying at least a little, diverted from its appointed task of breaking the barrier. And when a Changeling noticed King in time to fight, the latter enjoyed overpowering the soldier with sheer force and a one-two-three right past its defences.

The feel of battle, the sensations of the sun and the wind of the surface world – they brought back memories long buried, from a time before King could call himself a ruler. There was a time when he had lived under the sun and the moon and the sky, serving as a warrior, blooded in an old battle, an honoured and honourable veteran. The memories mixed with his current feelings of failure as the Goblin King, and his rage against the enemies who had slaughtered his people.

King brought his greatsword back, around his body, and roared as he swung it in a great horizontal arc. Besides the Changelings that were caught directly in the slash and thrown from their place, knocking other Changelings away in the process, the sword unleashed a great red swath of energy that marked even more enemies.

The surviving Changelings took notice, and decided that this interloper was a threat to their queen’s plan. “Today is a good day,” King growled, shifting to a two-handed grip. “Bring it on!”

From all around him, the Changelings charged, but King answered with his own charge, at the Changelings directly ahead of him. He slashed once, to the side, with his full strength, and then released his grip on his weapon with his left hand. With his right hand, he followed through with the swing into a full arc, slow at first, but then gathering speed as he pivoted and put his hips into the move. He spun, catching the soldiers in a twister of steel teeth.

* * *

Dash looked down, away from the sky and the roar that had distracted her. Princess Celestia had personally tasked her and her friends with finding everypony gathered in Canterlot for the wedding, and keeping them safe, and Dash was not going to fail her. Of course, she didn’t like leaving Gearhead and the Princess to deal with Chrysalis on their own – not any more than she liked not knowing where Twilight was – but what could Dash do when they didn’t have a clue about where that imposter had sent their friend?

They crossed the open atrium, and Rarity used her magic to throw the next pair of great doors wide open. Dash had to put on the airbrakes hard, because there, also skidding to a stop, were Twilight and somepony who looked like a very dishevelled and tired Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

“Are you real, or a --?” Twilight cut off Pinkie’s question, tackling the nearest of them, Applejack, in a hug.

“Thank Celestia! I was beginning to think we’d never find you,”

“She’s real,” Rarity and Dash said.

“Oh my,” Cadenza and Fluttershy both said.

“By the way, we’ve met your doppelganger in the Throne Room,” Dash said.

“Changelings and Doppelgangers are completely different things,”

“Wait, are you an egghead just like Twilight?”

“You have that backwards, Rainbow,” Twilight said, “I’m an ‘egghead’ just like her. But how are things in there? Where’s Princess Celestia?”

“And Shining Armour?!”

“The Princess asked us to go find everypony who came for the wedding to keep them safe,” Dash said.

“We left Gearhead fighting Chrysalis, the Changelings’ leader. Princess Celestia and Shining Armour were still in the room, but Gearhead did something to Shining that seems to of snapped him out of Chrysalis’ control,” Applejack said, while Twilight helped her back up.

“Changelings feed off of one’s love for another,” the pink princess said. “Shining probably doesn’t have the strength to cast many spells at this point. I’m Cadence, by the way. Twilight’s old foalsitter.”

“And a Princess,” Rarity added.

“Yes, that too.”

“No, my brother will have even less strength because he’s been putting so much into the shield surrounding the city. Now, when it actually needs to keep something out, it’ll be low on power and brittle.”

“We have to get everypony to safety before it breaks!” Fluttershy said softly.

“But we also have to get back to the Princess and Shining Armour and Gearhead,” Pinkie said.

“First thing’s first,” Cadence said. “Lets head into the city and gather up the citizens. We can tell them to head for one of the palace’s inner chambers, where we can set up a secure zone. Once everypony’s there, we won’t have to worry about them getting caught by the Changeling soldiers, and being used as fast food.”

“That sounds like a plan,” Applejack said.

“So lets get a move on,” Dash said, taking the lead.

* * *

To say that Chrysalis was able to keep up with Gearhead’s speed and power would not be an accurate analysis of their strengths. True, the Queen of the Changelings still possessed a significant power boost from Shining Armour’s and Princess Celestia’s love for Cadence, but Gearhead had the Twin Engines and boosts courtesy of Cantus Bellax, his Wind Magic, and the high state of his emotions.

What gave Chrysalis her advantage in this battle was that regardless of where in the Throne Room Gearhead managed to shift the battle, she always managed a counter-shift to reverse whatever advantage he might have gained. Worse, she only needed to threaten Princess Celestia, whom she could completely overwhelm, or Shining Armour, who was still trying to recover enough magic to reinforce his shield. When Chrysalis threatened either of Gearhead’s friends, he immediately had to move into a blocking position or force Chrysalis into an angle where her line of sight on them was completely blocked. And that brought him well within her firing range.

Gearhead skidded to a stop in mid-air, and deployed particles into a double-braided field around him. Then he put the cores into their forward position, and deployed the swirling Particle Wall. He intertwined both fields with his normal magical defensive shield, and finished off by bracing himself with his sword just an instant before Chrysalis’s blast hit.

Any one of Gearhead’s defensive measures would have been easily swept aside and shattered. Even paired, they would have likely offered little resistance. Winds and magic energy rippled throughout the room, and the ponies, including Chrysalis, shielded their faces, but Gearhead, able to look through his glasses, simply kept his eyes on Chrysalis and his instrumentation. I cannot let her keep, or regain, the initiative.

“Quattuor Magnae Spiritus. Evoco ex vacuo et percutiam me inimucus. Fulgor Securis!” Gearhead had discovered that because his Activation Key called on the Four Spirits, he did not have to call on another elemental spirit separately in the incantation phase of his spell. Still, even with a short incantation like this one, there was plenty of opportunity for Chrysalis to dodge. That was why, as he unleashed Lightning Axe, he thought to follow it up with another spell even as he charged at her directly.

“Quattuor Magnae Spiritus. Consinnant sagittas meas complebo. Percusserit me inimicus. Magica Sagitta centum nonaginta novem Lucis!” Gearhead followed the Light Arrows, and launched into yet another incantation as soon as he finished the previous one: “Quattuor Magnae Spiritus. Maturarent procella Ventis Austrinos. Torquent Aquae Aquilonis gelida. Congregate, et efficiamini mea ensis. Iovem Tempestas!”

Each spell forced Chrysalis to back off a bit more in order to avoid taking the brunt of the attack. She avoided Lightning Axe completely, however she could not avoid all one hundred and ninety-nine Light Arrows. Nor did she have to, considering she also possessed her own defensive shield, just as most mages did. She looked like she might have shrugged off the small stings from the Arrows if not for the immediate follow-up with Jove’s Tempest, a high-level, mid-tier Lightning Spell. Gearhead noticed Chrysalis register that he was not stopping when he started his third incantation, and she started charging a spell of her own.

The massive, whirling magical blast that was Jove’s Tempest should have stopped Chrysalis’s casting, even if she had been able to avoid its full effects, which she was not able to do: Gearhead had managed to place her squarely in the center of the spell’s target zone with his Light Arrows, and even as she tried to escape the forward edge of the blast, its winds simply sucked her back in. Even when her shield shattered and the blast dissipated, however, she still managed to keep her charge going.

Gearhead continued to press his attack, starting with a charge directly at Chrysalis. He even had chosen his spell before he realized that she was launching her spell first. Even as he stopped his casting and pulled back, he realized that the resulting blast would overwhelm his shields this time. He landed on the floor, all four hooves solidly planted, as he realized that he only had one technique that could possibly take this sort of punishment.

And he had not wanted to use it, if he could avoid it. But then again, he had designed the Twin Engine to provide enough power to challenge Discord. Who would have guessed that as things stood, it would be insufficient against somepony like Chrysalis? When you have no choice, Gearhead thought, watching as the massive green blast closed the distance between him and Chrysalis. No, this is something I must choose!

“Quattuor Magnae Spiritus, da me Forma Agilis” The four petals rose around Geahead, enveloping him just before the blast could reach him. Any vibrations from the impact faded from his consciousness as bones and muscles reformed, his coat vanished and his tail and mane became one piece on his head. His ears shrank to nubs and moved lower down, and the temples on his glasses changed to accommodate them. Durable shoes, black pants, a black undershirt. His black formals changed a little, and the horseshoes that used to be on his forehooves became a pair of gloves for his pentadigital hands, the fingers of which he curled around the now-cylindrical handle of his sword.

The tops of the flowered shell seemed to wilt down and part slightly, showing Gearhead bright green energy still flowing over his head. He waited a little longer, and then launched himself at top speed from the cocoon. As he cleared its protection, the cocoon lost its strength and got blown away.

“So much for your champion,” Chrysalis said.

“Shall I show you,” Gearhead said, flying near the ceiling, “what these are for?” He took up his bladecasters in both hands, switching the Geargem Dagger onto one of the actuator arms so he could still make use of it, if the opportunity presented itself.

“What... are you?”

“Who knows?” Gearhead launched himself at Chrysalis at full speed, wrapping his arms around the front of his body so his blades came up just behind his cores. Chrysalis read the move well enough that she got her horn, and a trident she had been hiding, into line to accept the double-cross slash, however the high output of particles pushed her back a meter and a half.

Gearhead spun to face her as he came about, but instead of making another charging attack, he opened fire with his bladecasters’ gun mode. As Gearhead had found out through use of his Magic Arrows, a straight energy beam was too straightforward, and easily blocked. The casters’ second shooting mode, however, fired from above and below the blade at the same time, creating crescents of energy that could be enlarged if Gearhead put more particles into each shot. No doubt seeing these rain down on oneself as rapid fire could be confusing.

While Chrysalis was shielding herself from the 'deadly' rain, Gearhead decided to combine this tactic with another one. “Quattuor Magnae Spiritus. Veni Spiritus Fulgoratio centum nonaginta novum. Stagnet et integrare in mea ensis.” He had the actuator move the Geargem Dagger close to the swirling Light energy so it could be absorbed while he continued to fire on Chrysalis. Then he charged at her, still firing.

Just three meters away from Chrysalis, Gearhead went from shooting mode to sword mode, and used a double-thrust with both blades past his left shoulder so the points would impact Chrysalis’s shield close to each other. The cracks that had been appearing in the new shield spread, and then it shattered as Gearhead continued to move closer. Gearhead let go with his right hand and reached back to take hold of the Geargem Dagger, all the while pulling the other bladecaster back as though for another swing. His right arm came over and down, and he shouted “Emissa!” as his swing connected. And then he was flying past Chrysalis.

Gearhead kept low to the floor, and when the sensors detected his discarded bladecaster nearby, it sent the free actuator to recover it. As he skidded to a halt, he looked over his shoulder to see how effective his attack had been.

Chrysalis stood, still facing the other direction, seized in a series of small spasms that shot throughout her body. She tossed the remaining half of her trident to the floor, disgusted, and turned, pure hatred in her eyes. “Did you really just zap me? Me, the Queen of the Changelings?”

“That was not quite so effective as I thought it would be,” Gearhead said.

“You thought you could defeat me with a glorified bug zapper? You seem to have misunderstood the nature of my kind, and that will cost you. Unless you have more surprises in store for me. Oh, but I don’t think you’ll have much more time for those: it shouldn’t be long now before that shield shatters, and my children begin to feed. I wonder how your dear friends will fare against those numbers?”

Gearhead muttered a curse under his breath: he knew Chrysalis was right: Canterlot was not ready to deal with the Changeling soldiers. At the same time, he could not leave Princess Celestia and Shining Armour at her not-so-tender mercy. Fortunately, that was not a choice he had to make. “King, switch!” He called to a hole that had been blasted into the ceiling during the battle.

As the others looked on curiously, the call came back almost instantly: “Okay. Aim me!”

Gearhead returned his bladecasters to his back, and sheathed the Geargem Dagger as he launched toward the hole. King leaped right in, but the place he would land was completely empty, so his entry would not have much impact – until King and Gearhead clasped hands, and Gearhead spun the other before releasing him between Chrysalis and Princess Celestia, so the former had to skip back out of range.

King landed with a resounding THUMP! and drew the greatsword from his back in an exaggerated, slow gesture. Turquoise light reflected off the blade as the twin spiral snakes reached past King and enveloped Chrysalis for a few moments, and then Gearhead was gone.

Chrysalis grunted slightly as she straightened back up. “I was expecting more,” she muttered. She looked at her opponent. “You’re not as strong as he is, so what challenge are you?”

“I’m angrier than he is, so that ought to make up some of the difference. Also, I can’t fail to note that you’ll now be fighting with a handicap as well.”

“What?”

“No more little magic boosts for you, Queenie. That’s what old Gearhead up there told me was the side-effect of that there spiralling technique you just took. ‘Temporary immunity from all magic,’ was the way he put it. But I like my way better.”

“You look a little different, but I know you. You’re one of those creatures from the mountain. Yes, the one with the big sword. I remember.”

“It’s good to be remembered,”

“I remember leaving you to bleed out.”

“Unfortunately, I got found, and healed.”

“How considerate of you to come down from the mountain so I could finish the job,” Chrysalis sneered.

“I came down to take revenge for the kingdom you took from me,” King said.

“You’re not strong enough,”

“Yes, well, I started with your smaller bugs up on the shield.”

“What?!”

“Didn’t get them all, mind you, but I’m glad: now I get the chance Gearhead promised at you.”

“It didn’t look like he was trying to save me for you, though,” Chrysalis said.

“Then I guess I should thank you for forcing his hand. But only for that. For everything else you’ve done to me and mine, well, if I still had a kingdom I’d put you to death.” Princess Celestia looked panicked at the prospect, after all King was a large, well-muscled creature. “But I’m a visitor in another’s land. I will defer to the Princess as to what ‘justice’ is for her.”

“My thanks,” Princess Celestia said, bowing.

“Enough talk,” Chrysalis said. “Lets see how quickly I can kill you this time.”

“I was the Goblin Pony King of Canterlot Mountain’s Lower Chambers. You can call me ‘King.’ Ready,” he said, bringing his greatsword into a two-handed hold over his right shoulder, blade tilted slightly toward Chrysalis.

“Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, soon-to-be Queen of Equestria.” Chrysalis crouched into a battle stance, and charged her horn. “I hope you’re ready for me.”

“Here I come!” And they charged at each other.

30B. Assault on Canterlot

Chapter 30B: Assault on Canterlot

Gearhead dropped the amethyst disk into one of his vest pouches as he climbed. By enchanting it prior to his return, he had given King a way to get through Shining Armour’s shield without putting too much stress on it, however now the shield was too weak to allow even one more passage without shattering.

Gearhead could see them all around the shield that surrounded Canterlot: thousands upon thousands of soldier-caste Changelings. They kept ramming the shield, each impact lowering its integrity a little bit more. While Gearhead appreciated King’s efforts in disposing hundreds of the creatures, thus slowing their progress, he could see that with their numbers there was no way that just the one Goblin Pony was going to prevent the total invasion of Canterlot.

As the Engine’s computer attempted to calculate the enemy’s numbers, Gearhead thought to ask it to determine exactly how long it would be before they destroyed the shield. Meanwhile, he felt he had to do something to help the others evacuate the city’s population to some part of the palace that was still secure. He called up a schematic of Canterlot Castle and chose the largest room that stood at its heart – no windows, thick walls, and massive doors on each wall that could be secured. If Cadence or Luna was to guide the citizenry to one room, this would be the one.

Gearhead quickly casted a spell to amplify his voice so it would reach all of the ponies in the city. “Attention, citizens of Canterlot and wider Equestria,” he began. “This is Gearhead of Gearhead’s Gadgets speaking. In order to effectively counter the Changeling attack on Canterlot that is about to start, Princess Celestia has ordered that everyone is to be gathered and escorted to a secure location at the castle’s core. Please make your way there now. Security teams will be sweeping around for stragglers, however the more progress you make toward the castle the less time this will take, and the sooner we can begin the counterattack.

“To reiterate, to counter the Changeling attack on Canterlot we are all making our way to the center of the castle. Princess Celestia’s security teams will be sweeping through Canterlot to bring in the stragglers. Meet us in the castle as soon as possible, so we can start the counterattack. Good luck.”

Gearhead cancelled the spell, and looked around. Now then, what should I do about all of this? Some of the ponies below him, who had been running aimlessly around or staring up at the creatures attacking the shield, were already starting to make their way to safety. There might be some citizens closer to the barrier’s edge, and some who were unable to hear the announcement. Gearhead would have to help collect them, but first he had to help to protect them from being attacked.

The computer estimated the Changelings’ number as being at or near 100,000 even with those King had knocked out. Provided he had the time to complete the incantations, Gearhead might be able to knock out a whole swath of them with a big spell like Jove’s Tempest, but that was only likely to work once. He could also take out up to 199 (or 211 if he pushed himself) at a time with his Magic Arrows, although it was probably too much to hope for ‘one hit, one kill.’ This meant that he lacked the ability to cut down their numbers significantly enough that they might consider surrender as an option.

With one hundred twenty seconds on the clock before the shield fell, Gearhead had to think of something that would help to tip the scales in Canterlot’s favour. He thought back on every technique and spell of which he had the knowledge to use, and every trick he had built into the Twin Core that would help him fight harder and faster. He had to think of something before that shield failed!

Gearhead looked right up at the shield, and as he watched cracks form and begin to spiderweb toward each other, he remembered another time a shield had failed, and the accidental trick that had nearly rendered him a paraplegic. Well, would this not constitute poetic justice, using something I learned from the authentic Princess Cadence to defeat the deceptive Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’s army?

But he did not have a lot of time, and he could not make any mistakes. He started his first incantation, knowing perfectly well that the shield would fall in a specific way, and he knew exactly when it would. From a certain point of view, all he had to do was to be in the right place when it happened, and unleash his every salvo on time.

Gearhead ascended to the exact spot that he and his computer agreed would be ideal. He set the Geargem Dagger floating just in front of himself, and drew his bladecasters into firing position, each ready for a different target. As the clock counted down, Gearhead was so focused on his magic that he just barely felt, rather than saw, the cracks expanding to their maximum. As the cracks completed their formation, the computer predicted how each shard would fall.

There would, of course, still be corrections to be made in the actual moment, since there was no way all of the predictions could be correct – but Gearhead would still have an excellent idea of where and when to shoot in order to maximize the carnage on the enemy army. To that end, targeting reticules began to fill his HUD.

The countdown entered the last ten seconds, and then Gearhead, still in Agile Form, began to flex his fingers in final preparation. He swept his sensors for final changes and ran through the final words in the last incantation he could pull off before he really had to get started. And then—

Now!

“Discernere Ardendu!”

* * *

Twilight and Cadence hadn’t met many other ponies in the caverns below Canterlot, where Chrysalis had sent them. But they had found Lemony Gems and Diamond Rose, freeing the original bridesmaids from Chrysalis’s control as well as from their prison cells. Unfortunately, Cadence and Twilight had been in a hurry, so they had left the two other mares to find their own way out.

Twilight and Cadence had also discovered that Chrysalis had set Lyra, Minuette, and Twinklshine as guards, to try to prevent them from escaping from the tunnels. But Cadence had discovered the bridesmaids’ weakness (for the throwing of the traditional bouquet), and the two had made their way toward freedom – only to discover that Canterlot was running around in a general panic under the very prospect of being attacked.

All of that meant that carrying out Princess Celestia’s order to help the citizenry remain safe would be one of the greatest challenges the Elemental Six had ever faced. Yes, Prism Flight and some of the more disciplined Royal Guards were trying to help out, but general sentiment seemed to be ‘panic!’

Gearhead’s announcement helped, at least somewhat. Twilight wondered what had happened in his duel with Chrysalis, but since the large Goblin was no longer knocking Changelings off of her brother’s shield, Twilight guessed that the two of them had effectively changed places. Now that the citizens knew there was a plan in place, many of them had started making their way to the palace on their own, which meant that Twilight and her friends did not have to run quite so far for most of them.

Still, it was obvious that Shining’s shield was coming down, and once it did, they would have to deal with the massive army that had previously been on the other side. The friends were halfway to the city limits when the ground shook, and everypony looked up to see the shield falling in from the center, falling apart into smaller and smaller shards.

And, curiously, there were long strands of light energy bouncing between the shards. No, not ‘bouncing.’ They’re being reflected and refracted. They’re splitting and fusing multiple times, and being spread all along the edge where the energy shards are falling!

“Sweet Celestia!” Rarity said. “Have you ever seen anything like that before?”

“My Sonic Rainboom?”

“Okay, that’s close,” Pinkie allowed. “Is it just me, or is there a second round going off lower down?”

“Not just you, Pinkie,” Applejack said. “I see it too.”

“I see Gearhead,” Fluttershy said.

“Oh, I see him too,” Cadence said. “Oh, so that’s what it is!”

“What is it?” Twilight asked.

“Well, we were training and he threw everything at me and pretty much broke my shield. So I threw everything at him – and the shards ended up focusing everything! But what he’s doing isn’t focusing the energy of his magic, at least not all the time: he’s dispersing it along the outer line, for maximum proliferation.”

“You really are as much of an egghead as she is,” Dash said to Twilight.

“And proud of it,” Twilight said.

“Me too,” Cadence said. “I’m also proud that something I did by accident is helping us so much now.”

“I hate to break up the warm-fuzzies,” Applejack said, “but if we don’t get these folks into the castle soon we’ll have to deal with whatever Changelings get past Gearhead!”

“Looks like it’s time to see how much hard interference we can put up,” Dash said, slamming one hoof into the other.

“Oh, do be careful, Dashie!”

“Not this time, Fluttershy. ‘Cause now’s time for Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash!”

A streak blasted right past Dash, resolving into Rook as he slammed into three Changelings.

“Hope you don’t mind if we help,” Prism said, also charging in.

“You kidding? It’s appreciated!” Dash said.

“So lets show these guys how Pegasi fight,” Contrail said. “Sling up!”

“Oh, I’m gonna enjoy this,” Dash said, getting in behind Contrail. They sped up, and then a ribbon expanded over the stallion. Prism pushed her along it, until she got launched by it. There was a big BOOM! as Dash broke the first magi-sound barrier, creating a rainbow shockwave, but then, just as it seemed like the move might be done, it was followed by another – a Double Rainboom that knocked even more Changelings out of the sky!

Cadence, Twilight, Dusk, and Dawn added their magic to the effort, one of them always ready with a shield in case of incoming fire, or as they found out, the Changelings’ charging landing technique.

Soon there were so many Changelings on the ground or in the air that the friends did not have much of a choice except to fall back to the palace. None of them liked it, but they had to trust that most of the citizens had made it out okay. The ones that had not were hopefully holed up in buildings, and would be okay until they could retake Canterlot’s streets from the Changelings.

* * *

Again and again Chrysalis and King clashed, greatsword grinding against crooked horn before the weapons’ wielders forced each other apart. King was resorting to his strength and speed, holding back from using the energy wave attack he had discovered was useful against masses of enemies, like the soldiers attacking the shield. Chrysalis, on the other hand, had discovered that King could deflect her blasts with the flat of his blade, or cut them neatly in half. If he swung his sword quickly when he did so, the blast seemed to pop, not leaving any energy behind. If he swung slowly, however, he could dissect the blast and send the halves to either side of behind him. This was not a good idea whenever he was between Chrysalis and Princess Celestia or Shining Armour.

Many times since the battle with Chrysalis had begun, even when it had been Gearhead who had been fighting her, Princess Celestia and Shining had tried to make their way to the doors and escape from the Throne Room. Unfortunately, Chrysalis kept leaping out in front of them and forcing them back. Worse, she came very close to hitting them with powerful blasts several times, which would have injured them gravely.

Shining Armour was still not in any condition to fight, his magic at minimal levels and still recovering very slowly. He had come prepared for a wedding, not a war, and so he was dressed in his formal wear, without even the ceremonial sword the Captain of the Guard sometimes carried.

Princess Celestia was only a little better off, since her earlier attempts to sneak past Chrysalis’s defences had failed utterly. If not for a few desperate blocks by King, she would have been completely at Chrysalis’s mercy by now. It was far better for her that she simply support King with her magic, bolstering his abilities and healing him when necessary.

Suddenly the whole palace shook, putting a temporary halt to the fight. Once the tremors faded, everypony rushed to a window – they were too high up to simply jump to safety – and looked out. Shining Armour’s shield was in the final stages of falling apart, but there were black forms falling as well. Masses of them. The last traces of golden and white energy lanced about above the edges of the city, and a profusion of turquoise light marked where Gearhead was frantically moving to stay ahead of the enemy that remained. And elsewhere, the ponies in Canterlot rallied to fight a retreating battle.

“Bwa-ha-ha!” King laughed from his belly. “That has got to sting, but you’ve really got to hand it to that one for coming up with something like that!”

“What I’ll give him,” Chrysalis growled, “is the slowest, most painful death I can devise for what he’s done to my children!”

“This is why you should not have attacked Equestria,” Princess Celestia said.

“You think you have any say in the matter? First I’ll defeat this tub of lard –“

“That’s 'formerly-royal tub-of-lard' to you,”

“Then I’m going to stick you into a cocoon and save your torture for later,” Chrysalis sneered at Princess Celestia. “Then I’ll go and kill that Earth Pony personally, and make all his little friends watch while I do it. Or maybe, just maybe, I’ll let my husband do it.”

“I’m not marrying you,”

“You don’t have a choice,” Chrysalis had to leap away, because at that moment King came in with a charging thrust.

“You don’t have time for any of that right now,” he said.

“Yes, first I deal with you,” Chrysalis said, and the fight was back on.

* * *

Eighty thousand. That was how many soldiers the computer calculated were left after Gearhead’s brilliant plan. He could not even claim to have taken out the full 20,000 himself, not when many of them were the result of unplanned collisions between fellow-soldiers. Still, that was not something about which he felt ready to complain: He did not have to fight all 80,000 never mind doing so at once, when they were spreading out through all of Canterlot. Also, the idea had never been to kill, or otherwise dispose of, all of Chrysalis’s forces: Canterlot’s forces were engaged in a retreating action in order to put themselves into a situation that would be more ideal for defensive actions.

Gearhead did not have the time or space in which to complain, not when he had Changelings behind him in the air, and some already in the streets below him. They were still so thick around him that he merely had to fire or swing a bladecaster to hit a target. Unfortunately, some of them were tougher than the ones he had already knocked out. Fortunately, he could fire more than one shot very quickly. The availability of so many targets simply made Gearhead wish that he could call upon his old stabilizer’s Railgun Mode.

Gearhead went into a mid-air flip, performing a double-cross slash to take out four close-flying Changelings at once. He switched to gun mode, and lay down suppressive fire all around himself while he continued to fly in a backward, counter-clockwise arc. Near the end of that movement, he leaned forward and shot straight ahead, again switching to sword mode so he could slash the enemies he passed in rapid succession, spinning to enhance the power of each swing.

Eighty thousand had been the count just after his 'Discriminate Firing' tactic, but nothing said that Gearhead had to retreat with the full measure of soldiers still out there. He soon noticed that the Elemental Six (plus Cadence), Prism Flight, Dusk and Dawn, and many of the guards and regular citizens who had joined them were having similar thoughts. He was grateful for the support, but knew they had to pull back all the same.

When the last of the defending guards finally pulled the great doors to the palace closed and jammed it to stay that way unless broken down, there were far more Changelings lying, twitching or otherwise, in the streets of Canterlot. Nopony was interested in making this an easy conquest. One might even say they wanted their city back!

* * *

As large as the Great Central Hall was, there was hardly any space by which the ponies moved between groups to attend to those who needed help. Wing Commander Windwalker had taken it upon himself to divide the refugees into smaller groups, and then arrange them into clusters of defensible circular formations. He had also placed those who needed medical or other care in the center of the room.

During the retreat, Windwalker had commanded the City and Royal Guards to grab as much usable food and water as they could. These provisions were stacked in each corner of the room. Kibitz and Twilight Sparkle went through everything to catalogue what they had, so they could ration everything and still manage to keep as many ponies as possible happy – an endeavour made somewhat easier when Pinkie Pie did her best to entertain them. She even had Octavia Melody’s band, and Vinyl Scratch, pitching in.

Occasionally, of course, there were still cries from the younger foals, however that could not be avoided when dealing with cranky ponies whose day had been thrown wildly off course. Despite the provisions, everypony was upset, hungry, and under a considerable amount of stress thanks to the invasion, and not knowing who had not made it out safely.

Windwalker sent out small teams of three or four to bring back some information about the situation outside. He made sure the teams knew never to lose sight of any of their members, to avoid the possibility that a Changeling could sneak an agent in by replacing one of them. Just in case, each reconnaissance shift, consisting of four teams, included one mage with the Shift Focus ability, with which they could easily spot a Changelings’s aura.

It was quickly obvious to the teams on recon that the Changelings operated under a strict military model, with regular patrols and patrol routes as they looked for citizens who had been left behind. There were also guard teams posted at intervals down the halls to try to keep the refugees contained, however Windwalker’s scouts were fast and quiet, moving mostly undetected.

Snowbelle was especially effective, as long as she was not too tired to go out. She took on the aspect of a small dirty-brown bird and infiltrated right to the Throne Room to watch the continuing fight between Chrysalis and King. When the Dragon got too tired to keep going, Luna relieved her using her powers as the Dreamwalker to get past the Changelings without raising an alarm.

The pace of the fight between Chrysalis and King had slowed significantly, with the combatants taking longer breaks where they just sat or lay glaring at each other across the room. King always stuck his greatsword in the ground between them like a flag, and he was especially wary when Changeling soldiers started to come into the Throne Room as well. Fortunately, Chrysalis made it clear that they were not to touch King, Princess Celestia, or Shining Armour until Chrysalis was done with King: this was a duel, and subversive as the Changeling methods were, the Queen was not about to leave her enemies any room for complaint when she had them all captured.

Gearhead took the opportunity to catch up on some of the sleep he had lost exploring the Caverns. At first he was reluctant to do so, thinking that what he had seen would haunt his dreams, but he was so exhausted that he slept deeply the instant he lay down. He knew it was more important that he recover some of his lost energy and wits, so he did not mess up at a crucial moment during the next action. He also knew that he did not know when he would get the opportunity to sleep again, so he took it while he could.

Gearhead was not the only one to rest: most of the others did as well, although there were always enough guards awake to defend everypony else if necessary. There was also always one mage awake, in case the Changelings tried to sneak an agent in when everypony else was sleeping.

* * *

In the Throne Room, Princess Celestia discretely marked the hours, and then when it was time, Luna lowered the moon, and Princess Celestia raised the sun. The night had passed, and as Chrysalis blinked her eyes clear, she realized that her people held Canterlot, despite there being a cell of resistance somewhere in the castle.

She also realized that it was true that Celestia raised the sun, and wondered if it was possible for her to do it. “Shall we continue where we left off?” Chrysalis got up.

“If you want,” King said, likewise standing and drawing his sword out of the ground. Neither had truly slept, weary of attack.

Chrysalis sucked in a long breath. “Yes,” she said in a low voice, “lets finish this. And no more handicaps.”

“No, not my power,” Shining Armour said, as he felt his strength being sapped: Chrysalis’s ability to feed on Love was back, and just being in the same room was enough for her to feed on Armour’s and Princess Celestia’s love for Cadence, even when she was not present.

“You got it,” King flipped his sword over his hand, then under his wrist. He extended all the way to the left, then to the right as he stretched before bringing his weapon back into a ready position past his right shoulder.

“Bring it, then,”

“Take this!” King charged, starting with a stab that was aimed at a diagonal toward Chrysalis’s left forehoof. Although she was surprised by his speed, Chrysalis still leaped into a loop and evaded the blow. King reversed his grip and swung upward, falling into a fast rhythm as he continued to fight. He stepped, pivoting, and swung one-handed before spinning while he retracted to follow up with a series of tight diagonal swings and parallel stabs.

* * *

“Chrysalis has her power back,” Gearhead said, rising.

“What do we do?” Fluttershy asked from his side.

<Do you want me to go relieve Princess Luna?>

<Not yet,>

“We need to either split our forces so we can defend these folks from a counterattack, or put all of our kick into a single offensive,” Windwalker said.

“So then you have a plan?” Spitfire asked.

“We can either hit all the halls at once, or concentrate everything on just one and make a dash for the Throne Room. But then we’ll have to watch our flanks for counters.”

“I’m not about to leave all these citizens undefended,” Spitfire said.

“Agreed. So we split our forces, and use a single thrust to quickly achieve the Throne Room so we can relieve King.”

“But do we have enough to get through?”

“We do if we can avoid getting bogged down,” Nightstar said. “But we’ll need a strategy to sting the enemy so they can’t unify properly.”

“Won’t that be tricky?” Twilight asked.

“Of course, but then ‘tricky’ is what we do. Dusk. Dawn. How are you on portals?”

“Ready to go, Father,” Dusk said.

“Same here,” Dawn said.

“Here’s an idea,” Windwalker said. “We’ll do this in three different phases. Phase-1 is to advance and harry the enemy. You two,” Windwalker looked at Dusk and Dawn, “and anypony who can support you will sting the patrols the recon teams found earlier. Just for a couple seconds each time before you pull back, if you can manage that.”

“We can,” Dusk said, looking at his sister with a grin.

“Good. Hit as many targets as you can without exhausting yourselves while the Advance Team presses through to the Throne Room, because I want you in there to cause as much havoc as you can. Hit every soldier you can, then fade to pop-up elsewhere.”

“Those are some fine guerrilla tactics,” Midnight said.

“Not to mention them being fairly simple,”

“Then lets ‘complicate’ them a bit,” Twilight said. “We need to get Princess Cadence to my brother so she can heal him: he should be able to put up a shield that will force the Changelings away.”

“And if not, we fight until the last Changeling, or until they retreat or surrender, whichever comes first,” Windwalker said.

“How should we know what stage we’re in?” Hasty Hoof asked.

“Princess Luna, can you pull off a Battle Link between all of us?” Gearhead asked the air.

<You seek to give me a challenge? Who do you think I am?>

“The Dreamwalker, of course,” Gearhead said. “So this is how we will communicate. And if I could make some suggestions about the teams..?”

“Go ahead,”

“I think we should go small but powerful. The Advance Team will consist of Prism Flight and Rainbow Dash. The Harriers will be Dusk and Dawn with emergency support from Midnight and Nightstar who will remain here. The Main Team will be myself and the Elemental Six.”

“Why leave the Wonderbolts out of this?” Spitfire asked, suspicious.

“Yeah, we want in too,” Soarin’ said.

“It will be your duty, of everyone who is able, to protect the citizens we have gathered here, just as we promised we would protect them.”

“I think you’re cutting your strength too much. If we can tip the balance for a win, I think we should go,” Hasty Hoof said.

“No. Luna left Prince Blueblood in charge of the defences here, and he is going to need back-up with experience. That is you, and the Wing Commander. I would also have Snowbelle relieve Luna partway through the mission, so she can return here.”

“You’re going to remove one of our most powerful pieces from the board?” Windwalker said.

“Yes, because the shift will be completely unexpected. Besides, our highest priority should be recovering those caught in the Throne Room, even if we cannot defeat Chrysalis in a single attempt. We can still gather our strength.”

“But they’ll be on their guard for any subsequent attack.”

“Yes, so I hope this works.”

“What will you be doing?” Windwalker asked.

“It will be my job to coordinate our efforts in the field, especially once Luna is able to return here.”

“So you mean you won’t be fighting?” Twilight asked.

“I still have not recovered fully from my efforts last night. I am also hoping that if we are able to coordinate our actions tightly enough it will throw the Changelings off their own rhythm. But if not, I am not afraid to get my hooves, or hands, dirty.”

“Alright,” Windwalker said, “change of plans: Harriers as before, Advance and Main right behind them. Defenders, keep your eyes out for anything, and I mean anything. Just one change, though: Wonderbolts, you’ll strike at the signal. There won’t be a better symbol of our victory than the show you’ll be able to put on, after all.”

“That’s more like it,”

“And Harriers, the more you can distract each guard station with their own distress, the better.”

“The acoustics in the halls should help,” Dusk said.

“No objections? Are we agreed? Then lets get our preparations underway. We’ll get the mission started in... fifteen minutes?”

“Twenty,” Dusk said.

“Then I hope your friend King can hold out that long,” Windwalker said to Gearhead.

“He will hold,”

<So far so good,> Luna said, <as long as he keeps his guard up!>

The Changeling wished he was with one of the units searching the city for ponies on whom to feed, but then they all did. Patrolling the castle was boring, especially since none of the fighting ponies had come out since their retreat into the castle.

All of the Soldiers were bred for battle, eager for war. They were spoiling for a fight because they had not gotten a real one for a long time. Even in the mountain on which the city was built, none of the residents there had put up much of a fight against the Soldiers. It went against the Soldiers’ instincts that the only one to challenge their warrior instinct had been taken on and defeated by their Queen instead.

And now the Soldier was part of a five-stallion patrol unit tracing prescribed routes throughout the castle, over and over again. Boring, was the thought on the mind of at least one of the five at any given moment: where was the fun battle after breaking through the shield? Where was the thrilling chase and the sensation of hard-won love, sucked fresh from a victim? Not here, that’s for sure!

Not that any of them would begrudge their Queen any of her pleasures, but she had the only fight that was going on right now. At least if they were walking the streets the patrol might have some hope of seeing action!

Suddenly there was an odd noise, like air being pounded out of a semi-hard cushion, and then another like a muffled thump. The Soldier stopped and turned toward the sound, curious, but there was no one there. Wishful thinking, maybe? He turned back and quick-stepped to catch up to his unit.

Someone shouted, and he stopped, looked at his companions. Only one was shaking his head, so they all continued on their way.

Seconds later, a faint sound like something ripping in the air made the soldier stop and turn toward the source. Suddenly the Soldier could not focus for the stars exploding behind his eyes, and he fell to the ground, barely registering the two other Soldiers who went down.

The last two members of the squad galloped to check what was going on, but whatever had happened, whoever it was, was already gone.

And then someone in the halls to the left screamed as his squad was hit.

Dusk prepared the first portal, making sure it opened in a clear space, so as to avoid anything messy from occurring. A small portal, one could use to see through. It was when the portal became full-sized that one could step through to the new location. They always hit a squad after its members had passed the portal, or before a turn in the hallway to maximize the shock value.

Dusk and Dawn stepped into the portal together, and opened fire as soon as they spotted the Changelings who were confirmed as their targets. They were always in teams of five, so after a few quick shots there were only one or two of them left. The siblings could have easily stayed long enough to finish them, but then they would be seen, and Windwalker did not want to leave any traceable sign.

While Dusk kept up the covering fire, Dawn moved the old mouth of the portal to the next location, so that when they stepped backwards through the portal they had been using, they got instantly transported to the next spot. Then the two switched roles, with Dawn keeping up her fire and Dusk moving the portal.

They never hit a squad that was right beside one they had just finished hitting when they could help it. There was one near the beginning, but it was part of the psychological aspect of this war to make the enemy wait for the attack. That was why, after that first one, they asked Midnight to find them some targets outside the palace. And there were plenty of patrols looking around for somepony to eat. Their mother and the Matron of the Conclave passed them a set of mental coordinates, and one of the siblings would move the portal so they could jump on time.

So far their luck was holding: none of the Changelings had seen them. But soon they would probably jump into someone’s line of sight while they were attacking another team, and then the cat would be out of the bag. Before that happened, Dawn and Dusk wanted to make sure they had done as good a job as they could

Gearhead waited for Nightstar to nod to Windwalker, who signalled a ‘go!’ to him that the Harriers had hit their third target. “Mission start,” he whispered. “Advanced, go forth!”

“Aye-yo,” Prism said softly, launching out the open western doors at the head of her four-Pegasus formation. Contrail fell in beside her, with Rook and Dash directly behind them. The four of them winged quickly down the corridor, flipping as they turned a corner.

Contrail pumped his wings to take the lead position when they spotted the patrol at the end of the hall. The ribbon of his booster zone started to extend, longer back the way they had come than it was ahead of him. “Five,” he said softly, counting the enemy’s numbers. The words drifted back and reached Prism’s ears. She nodded to Rook, who flew up behind Contrail where the boost ribbon could grab him.

And launched himself directly through three of the Changelings in their formation. Dash was right behind him, knocking into the fourth member with her forehooves. Prism took the last one, and then they flew on ahead to scout out the next stretch.

Prism Flight only looped back once they were certain the hall was clear for a good distance. There was no point underestimating the distance between the Pegasus flight and the group that was coming on hoof: get too far ahead, and an enemy patrol could insert itself between them, possibly forcing them into a battle that could consume too much time before it was done, or end up getting somepony injured. As Flight Lead, Prism refused to let any such thing happen. She would follow the plan, and so would the ponies acting under her command.

The Main Team was hoofing it as quickly as their slowest member would allow, all of them (except for Pinkie) with a determined look on her or his face. Prism would have expected dainty Fluttershy or the prissy Princess to be the slowest member of the group, but that dubious honour belonged to Twilight, who must have spent much longer with her muzzle in books than sniffing the air outside. Still, they were all pumping their legs to go as fast as they could, so Prism could not really complain. She used the tall corridor to loop lazily back around, and led the others in gliding forward again. They would lose a lot of time just going back and forward like this, but there was no helping that they had to always be ready for action.

* * *

<Your Majesty, Castle Patrols 2, 5-8, and 11 and City Patrols 1, 3, 5, and 20 have ceased reporting in.> The Soldier immediately slowed his running pace and carefully closed the doors to the Throne Room, but he could not take back his telepathic message.

“What’s the matter: you look distracted,” King smashed his greatsword into Chrysalis’s shield, sending her back nearly five meters.

“Shut it!” Chrysalis spat, and charged up her horn as she continued to back away to try to preserve some of her distance. So many patrols have gone silent? There’s almost no pattern, but it has to be—Chrysalis had to focus to block the incoming swing, because suddenly King was there. No, not suddenly: it’s like he said: I’m allowing myself to be distracted. But I must do my best to feed my children... which starts by defeating this one. Chrysalis roared as she swung her head, trying to slash into King’s belly. Instead he neatly flipped his grip and deflected her with his guard.

Chrysalis growled as she regained her composure. <Do what you must, but contain the enemy fighters. And let me fight!>

<Yes, Your Majesty.> The other Changeling departed.

Chrysalis returned her full attention to King. Their battle had taken far too long to unfold, with them taking frequent, long breaks. There were only a couple things that Chrysalis knew could be considered weaknesses on King’s part: he could not make use of projectile attacks, and he could only block projectile attacks that came within a certain range of his arm. It should be easy to make him overextend himself, but only from a certain range: close quarters combat was King’s strength.

Chrysalis flew to a height of seven meters above the ground, firing small blasts almost constantly. King grunted, but he lifted his sword to block. It easily took the blasts, so Chrysalis began to slowly increase the amount of charge she put into each subsequent blast. Soon she was raining a withering fire, and because she was flying out of reach, King could not break from defence to offence very easily.

King’s grunts grew louder as he struggled against the strain he took each time he intercepted one of the blasts. In addition, he had to be putting himself under a considerable amount of physical stress to swing and spin that large blade of his. It was almost all he could do to fall into a pattern of more easily-made blocks, hiding behind the flat of his blade the rest of the time.

Which meant that King was not ready when Chrysalis pulled off a crash landing and unleashed a concentrated blast right under his raised sword and into his center mass. Knocking her opponent off his feet was not enough for Chrysalis. She continued to unleash blast after blast on him, throwing him around the room, until he fetched up, barely conscious, at Celestia’s and Shining Armour’s hooves.

Celestia also fell, knocked unconscious by a pair of Soldiers while she was distracted watching Chrysalis unleash her rage. Shining Armour, though, swayed slowly as Chrysalis focused her mental abilities on him. His head fell forward, bangs hiding his eyes.

“Now then,” Chrysalis said, smoothing her mane with a hoof, “I believe it’s time to get ourselves back on track.” She turned, found King’s greatsword, and used her telekinesis to pick it up and bring it over to herself. She turned it over, inspecting its every line, and even caressed it.

King, groggy from the series of strikes he had received, pushed himself up onto his elbows, grunting, and looked around the room to regain his bearings. He spotted Chrysalis, and what she was doing with his sword.

“A fine blade. I believe it’s time to put it to fine purpose. Shining Armour,”

“Yes,” the stallion looked up, his eyes glazed over and green.

“Kill that creature for me, won’t you, husband?” Chrysalis floated the sword over.

“Yes,” Shining Armour took the sword in his telekinetic grip and walked until he was standing over King. “You will die now,” Armour said, raising the sword.

The great doors to the Throne Room exploded off of their hinges, taking several Changelings to the ground, and pinning them there in the process. Two Pegasi seemed to bounce around the room, kicking or punching any dark form with which they came into contact, with two other Pegasi following closely.

Even the rainbow-maned Pegasus did not concern Chrysalis quite so much as the purple Unicorn and the pink Alicorn who accompanied her, both firing their magic blasts in series to keep charging Changelings off of each other: Twilight Sparkle and Cadence were back. And they had brought friends.

Silvery lines wrapped, not around the raised greatsword or the prone target, but the wielder himself. They pulled the mind-controlled Captain from his hooves and whipped him through a high arc in the air. At the end of the arc, the lines brought Armour down near the doors, where Gearhead was waiting with those unmistakable cones pointing right at the Unicorn’s wide-eyed face. There was a flash of turquoise light, and Chrysalis felt her control over Shining Armour vanish once again.

She began to search for other pawns, wondering if a few of them might lie hidden from sight.

* * *

“Reconfig to Setting Four,” Gearhead said toward his glasses, while Cadence saw to Shining Armour.

[Warning: Engine functions now running on Condensers.]

“Acknowledged,” Gearhead said as the light faded from both cores, which returned to their default positions against his back. He looked around the Throne Room as he leaped from his hooves to hover in the air for a better view of the area. <Pinkie, Applejack, King is to your right. Please get him out of there.>

<On it,>

<Okey dokey, Loki!> The two Earth Ponies came cantering around, and swept across to grab King and drag him toward the door, right out from under Chrysalis’s nose.

<Con, Prism, three on your tails.>

<Got it,> Prism said, and while she held steady, Contrail pulled a vertical loop to end up behind the three flying Changelings. Rook dropped from the ceiling and smashed the leftmost flyer, while Dash swept in and took the center one. Contrail pumped his wings, but the last Changeling peeled off, and tried to go head to head with him. That was a big mistake, since Contrail curled up and grabbed his tail, bowling right through his opponent. The Flight split off into pairs again, and flew off after independent targets.

Gearhead kept sweeping the room to make sure he kept up with the changing situation. He kept one eye on Chrysalis, wondering why she had not made a move yet. Suddenly there was a sensation like fuzz rubbing up against the back of his head, and Luna tumbled from her hiding spot to fetch up on the floor nearby.

In same instant she choked out the word, “help,” Gearhead figured out what was wrong. Unfortunately his cores were still reconfiguring, so he used Binding Wind Arrows to make sure Luna could not go anywhere.

<Snowbelle, purge and secure, please: Luna has been compromised.>

<Understood, Father,> As they cut away Luna’s portion of the psychic connection, Gearhead suddenly felt much more sluggish. <We cannot hold this many connections,> Snowbelle whined.

<Team leaders only, then. Keep everyone advised.>

<Right,> The fuzziness and the sluggishness faded: Snowbelle and Gearhead were now only connected to Windwalker, Prism, Twilight, and Dusk. But they still had to worry about Luna, and how Chrysalis had found her in order to take control of her – especially if the original plan was for Snowbelle to take over her post. The Ice Dragon would have to find another place from which she could watch the battlefield.

As Gearhead watched and waited, Applejack and Pinkie brought King in by dragging his massive bulk. “Thanks, girls,” the exhausted warrior said. Applejack offered a salute with her hat, and then the two were back in the battle, Applejack kicking out with her front or rear legs, and Pinkie pulling out her party canon or throwing pies.

Further into the room, Rarity and Fluttershy were providing mutual cover. Changelings would chase after Fluttershy, assuming she could not handle herself, only to find that she was luring them into Rarity’s traps – and they would be out a dropped tapestry or a punch later. Fluttershy herself did not throw any blows, but she took out more soldiers by out-flying them, and leading them into pillars or walls.

Dash and Rook, and Prism and Contrail kept flitting between the other groups, striking at the Changelings that approached them while providing overlapping support to Rarity’s or Twilight’s groups. Twilight was covering Cadence while she healed King and Armour. She was also covering Gearhead while he and Snowbelle coordinated the battle.

While none of them had received any critical wounds, it seemed as though they were not making any progress against the Changelings’ larger force, with more of them coming through the windows by the moment. Canterlot’s defenders would need a new development to turn things around, now that they had lost the element of surprise, and were essentially stalled by having to coordinate so many moving pieces. Gearhead was debating whether he should ask Windwalker to send in more of their fighting force, but if he did that less combat-ready ponies would be left to protect the normal citizens they had gathered.

Just as another fresh wave of soldiers made the Throne Room’s windows, an explosion from behind threw some of them forward. A Shadow Portal opened near the middle of the room, and Dusk and Dawn came sliding through, the former closing the gate once they were both clear. The siblings both used Wind Magic to move more swiftly as they came about, still firing, and moved toward Twilight’s group.

“Thank you for the assist,” Twilight said.

“It’s fine,” Dusk said.

“But what happened? It’s hard to believe Chrysalis managed to get to Princess Luna like that,” Dawn said.

“Changelings use a pony’s love for another pony to infiltrate the larger group, so it must’ve been through Luna’s and Princess Celestia’s love for Cadence, their niece. Anypony with a connection could have been compromised,” Twilight said. “How can we know where this will end at this rate?”

“Just keep your guard up,” Prism said as she and Contrail swung past on their way to take on a group of twelve Changelings. Dusk and Twilight both sighted past the Pegasi, and provided cover fire, taking some down on their own.

“That’ll be easier for those of us with Shift Focus than for you,” Dawn said.

“Then we’ll rely on you!” Contrail said.

“Like you have a choice,” Dawn muttered, blushing slightly.

“Hey Field Commander,” Applejack called, “what now?”

<Keep moving and striking,> Gearhead said, still thinking about what Prism and Dusk had said. Maybe there was something he could do to take away one of the Changelings’ biggest advantages, but as long as Chrysalis was around to command them, they would always have their numbers.

[Reconfiguration complete. Condensers using 95% Particle-G. Purging.] Because higher-order particles overwhelmed lower-order ones in testing, the turquoise energy that the Twin Engine produced by default would be forcibly ejected from Gearhead’s condensers before being replaced by the particles the cores would produce at their new configuration.

Part of the trade-off for more potent particles was the additional stress they would place on Gearhead, as well on the Engine’s rig, so he could not use it for as long as he could use the default first configuration. But it still was not bad, considering that all that had changed was where each section of each ring was now, compared to earlier.

Also, Config-4 required a synchronization rate of 80% or higher between the two cores and Gearhead for it to work. If the rate ever slid to 79% or below, the cores would force-reset to Config-1, which would also mean that Gearhead would not be getting any power from the Engine for the minute or so that would take. This made using Config-4 incredibly risky if he was holding on to any doubts whatsoever about what he was doing.

Since the system was purging all of his stored particles, Gearhead decided he may as well put it to good use. He had his actuators position his bladecasters in front of the chest unit, and aimed them at Luna. The blue-green Purifying Spiral only lasted for two seconds, during which Luna screamed as though in pain. “Ha!” She said, panting. “You won’t get rid of me that easily.”

“I know,” Gearhead said as he watched his condensers fill with the new particles. Once they were all above 75%, the same particles began to flow more thickly from both of his cores. The golden and silvery-blue light began to illuminate the room as he drew more fully on them – golden to the right, and blue to the left. Several of the others in the room turned to stare, including Princess Celestia, who had regained consciousness, and Luna, who was still under Chrysalis’s direct control.

<Now,> Gearhead said to Applejack, Dash, and Rook, <retrieve the Princess while they are distracted!>

<Right!> Applejack lassoed three of the Changelings guarding Princess Celestia, then Dash knocked two more away. Rook slid himself under the still-groggy Alicorn, and, carrying her on his back, began to gallop to Gearhead and the others. The others, meanwhile, either provided further cover or distracted the Changelings by intensifying their fighting in their parts of the room. Despite the focus required for this tactic to work, they still occasionally glanced in Gearhead’s direction.

“That... that’s my magic, and... and my sister’s,” Luna gasped. “How?”

“I shall explain later, perhaps,”

“’Perhaps?’” Luna widened her eyes in surprise at the doubled size of the twin lances that formed from the cores. They slammed into her, and into Celestia as Rook brought her over, without any physical force. That was because they were designed to blow away other things, like the green Changeling magic that clung to both Alicorns.

“Thank you,” Luna said.

“Be careful,” Twilight said to both princesses. “You’re both now immune to all magic, so we can’t heal you so easily.”

“Do not worry about that, Twilight Sparkle,” Princess Celestia said. “Worry, instead, for what we will do to those who have done this to us.”

“Hey, it sounds like falling back is being removed as an option for us,” Dusk said. “Is that okay?”

“I’m okay with that,” Prism said.

“I’m with Princess Celestia on this,” Twilight said.

“Me too,” Cadence said.

“There is little point in wasting this opportunity, is there?” Gearhead asked.

<An all-out battle, eh?> Windwalker asked. <Go for it!>

“So that means –“ Prism started,

“No restraint?” Dusk finished.

“Eh? What’s going on?” Luna asked.

“What’s going on is that Wing Commander Windwalker just greenlit us putting an end to this,” Dash said.

“This being out of the loop is annoying, but I’ll get behind that!”

“Or rather, Sister, would you like to double-team their queen?” Princess Celestia asked.

“Forgive me, Your Highnesses, but neither of you are up to your usual best. Please provide support from our lines here,” Twilight said. “I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re right,” Princess Celestia said. “Besides, we can send in a stand-in.”

“What about field command?” Gearhead asked.

“Leave that to us,” Cadence said. She was finished tending to King, and motioned for him to stay resting for awhile. Next, she moved to Shining Armour. “Just promise me that you won’t hold back.”

“I think I can handle that,” Gearhead said.

<Go, Father!>

“Okay. Be prepared for a big finish at any moment, then.”

“Yessir!”

“All units, continue your attacks.”

“Yessir!”

Prism, Dusk, and Applejack redeployed along a center-line. Rook and Dawn, and Fluttershy took the leftmost flank, while Dash, Rarity, Pinkie, and Contrail took the right. Twilight and Princess Celestia provided covering fire while Luna and Cadence continued to provide recovery magic to King and Shining Armour respectively.

Flying in a corkscrew path above and past the rest, Gearhead headed directly for Chrysalis, gold and silver particles weaving together in his wake. He drew the Geargem Dagger, expanding it to its full length, even as he charged.

“Not going to use that weird transformation?” Chrysalis asked as she gamely met the charge, borrowing one of her soldier’s pikes.

“I am not going to give you the time to press me to use it,” Gearhead said, pressing the Engine for more power. He followed a cross-down slash to the left with a cross-cut, also to the left, then used his Engine to give his horizontal spin a speed boost, forcing Chrysalis back.

“Ah, I know this game,” Chrysalis charged her horn, and unleashed a salvo of blasts, one after the other. Gearhead deflected the first two with his sword, then pumped his mana into his defensive shield as he focused more on charging, aiming a thrust directly at Chrysalis’s center mass. She side-stepped that, and he turned his head to slash right out to the side. Chrysalis evaded directly into the air.

This would have opened Gearhead’s back to a direct attack from blast or pike, and indeed, Chrysalis thrust the latter, aiming to strike his spine. Gearhead deployed his particle field just a little late, catching the pike-head within the swirling energy, and then kicked himself into a spin to wrench it from Chrysalis’s grip. Unfortunately, this was a magical grip, and she quickly recovered her weapon, although not before Gearhead managed to regain even ground in the air.

Gearhead flipped in from the side, leading with a pair of underhead slashes, followed by a trio of thrusts. Chryaslis took the first set with her pike, but each hit sent her guard a little more off to the side. The thrusts set her back, and then there was only the faint click to alert her that Gearhead’s metal arms, and the swords they carried, were in play. She went into an evasive spiral, Gearhead right on her heels.

Near the ceiling, Chrysalis barely turned in time to take a triple-slash with her pike – a triple slash she quickly realized was coming from three different weapons! Next Gearhead led with the Geargem Dagger from the left instead of from the right, but instead of two more slashes he loosed two rapid-fire shots from his bladecasters, and the pike’s haft spun away to the ground. The Earth Pony did not give Chrysalis any time to complain, nor the room to get away. He charged at her from just one and a half meters away, those three blades thrusting in quick succession to force her further back.

Gearhead heard the fanfare from Soarin's horn as he and the Wonderbolts arrived to rip through the Changelings' ranks in formation. He trusted them enough to keep his focus on his own battle.

Chrysalis tried to counter with her magic blast, but Gearhead used a burst of speed from his Engine to get above her and tweak her horn with the flat of his third-length caster’s blade. It took until that moment, apparently, for Chrysalis to realize that Gearhead was faster than she was at the moment. Or at least, that was what Gearhead gathered from her shocked expression.

Chrysalis backpedalled as fast she could, and this time Gearhead allowed her to open up some distance. He held the bladecasters over his chest condenser, as he had just before the system purged the Particle-Gs from his consensers. This time, however, he allowed a charge to build between the blades, compressing the particles his Engine was sending there. The gold and silver blast was similar in power to Jove’s Tempest, when he released it two seconds later. It sent Chrysalis and a number of other Changelings grazed by it spinning to the ground.

“What is that unfair power?” Chrysalis gasped, recovering.

“I am certain you already know,” Gearhead said, landing lightly. He took up his dagger in a traditional grip, the bladecasters returned to his back, and charged with the Engine providing full thrust. The two circles of thrust that formed behind him might have resembled the sun and the moon, but he did not know if one was eclipsing the other. He only knew that his swing knocked Chrysalis off of her hooves and sent her flying to the wall.

“I see,” she said, picking herself up again. “It’s like them, but not the same. Fine, there’s no sense in holding anything back, when you have me literally up against the wall.” She began to charge her horn again, and Gearhead did not have the distance to stop her this time. Instead, he looked right down his blade at her, and allowed it to split like it did when he charged it for Spiral Javelin.

Both fortunately and unfortunately, Gearhead never got to unleash his blast, because there was a magical resonance building somewhere behind him. The magic power building up in his hilt got swept into the purple, pink, and white mass, along with the green from Chrysalis’s horn. Both turned, and could not do anything else but watch.

The magic had Cadence and Shining Armour floating above the ground. The waves that Gearhead had begun to feel earlier were coming off of their horns, expanding outward from where they touched to fill every portion of the Throne Room. Before that power, all fighting stopped. The very air vibrated with the resonance. A feeling of deep awe and inspiration filled Gearhead’s heart and mind. “Memory – Record,” he whispered.

White energy pulsed three times, each time stopping from a little further out before returning to the focal point between Cadence’s and Armour’s horns. With the first two waves, they appeared more energized, and with the third Gearhead realized that they were completely healed, and their clothes were even fully repaired. He started to feel sheepish for leaving his formal blacks behind, where they would not end up shredded, instead of just torn in places from the previous battles: he would now have to mend them himself.

Cadence and Shining Armour suddenly rose so their full forms could be seen from outside through the windows, and all the swirling magic around them expanded in a single massive energy wave. Gearhead saw Dash and Applejack do double-takes as their opponents were swept away on the wave, like all the other Changelings in the room.

“Nooo!” Chrysalis shouted, grasping for a nearby lintel. She found her grip, but Contrail put himself into a leaping spin, stomping on her hoof. Rarity also jumped in, bumping the other’s horn to cancel her spell and sending her flying who-knew-where with all of her soldiers.

Gearhead landed between the two on the ledge to survey the rest of the opposition, only there was not any to be had: the energy wave had grabbed every single Changeling within its range and flung them from Canterlot.

Or at least, it seemed that way.

[Recording complete.]

“Save record...” Gearhead had to think for a moment of what would be a good name. “Repel the Darkness,” he decided.

[Record saved. Reconfigure to Setting #1?]

“Yes, do it.” Now that the threat was over, Gearhead preferred not to stay in Config-4 a moment longer than he had to: he had already experienced one core overload, and did not want a repeat of what had happened with the prototype during the fight against Discord.

30C. Mourning, and Celebration

Chapter 30C: Mourning, and Celebration

Gearhead awoke two days later to discover that other than those others who had been exhausted in battle, there was not a single idle hoof in Canterlot: Everypony was making ready for the real wedding, having decided that it was not in itself part of Chrysalis’s plot.

On the first day, Princess Celestia had ordered all of the City Guard and Royal Guard to perform a thorough search of the city, the cavern system below it, and the caves of Canterlot Mountain for any Changelings that might have escaped their ejection from the city. Midnight called in reinforcements from the Conclave to ensure each patrol group had at least one member who could detect a Changeling’s green magic.

The search of the caves revealed, once again, the brutality with which the Jackrabbits and Goblins had been killed. Once the search of the city was completed, Princess Celestia had the Guard clean the bodies, preparing them for burial under Luna’s supervision.

Shining Armour, Cadence, and the Elemental Six, meanwhile, worked on helping to clean and repair the city, which had suffered some damage during the Changeling invasion. Once the harder stuff was done, however, the ponies on the construction teams banned the heroes from even walking onto, or flying too closely over, the construction sites, insisting that they leave the work to the professionals. They joined Lemony Gems, Diamond Rose, 8-bit, Gaffer, and Gizmo in pulling the wedding decorations back together instead.

Gearhead found Princess Celestia in the halls outside the Throne Room, which was still under repairs. She was wearing a simple black dress, as was appropriate for a funeral. “Ah, good timing. I was just about to send somepony to get you. I was wondering if you might want to help... with the send-off.”

“I shall do what I can,” Gearhead said.

The first funeral site was the main square in the Jackrabbit town. The Guards had set the bodies in plain wooden boxes, ready to be lowered into their waiting graves. They had even carved some tombstones to mark the graves, out of stones that used to be part of the houses. The gathering was small, since only traders, merchants, and politicians had known about the colonies’ existence from the start. The sisters, the Elemental Six, King, and Gearhead were all present, but that was it.

Nopony knew what the Jackrabbit funeral rites or rituals were, so the princesses decided to keep it simple. “We commend these souls to the Afterlife,” they said in unison, and then the coffins were lowered into their graves. Everypony went from grave to grave to shovel in some of the dirt, until the coffins were all completely covered. From there, a team of Earth Ponies and Pegasi took over, moving in large stone slabs to put into place, making the graves flush.

The small procession took their leave then, and walked slowly and somberly down to what had once been the Great Hall of the Goblin Pony Kingdom. Besides cleaning the bodies and setting the coffins in which they lay in rows, the Guards had also set about cleaning the structures of the town up a bit. They had done a good job, whitewashing over many of the signs of struggle the Changelings had left due to their wild fighting. The others were waiting for the first group to get there: Midnight and Nightstar, Aerial and Prism, and even Father and Big Sister Ivy had arrived. Snowbelle was with Dawn back at the castle. Even Cadence and Shining Armour were present.

Here, King wanted Gearhead to perform the burial, but other than that he wanted to observe his own rites, or at least that had been King’s intention. The moments passed as King stared at the rows of his dead. He fell to his knees, and his voice rising to the cavern ceiling in lament, started to sing. He was horribly off-key, but then the Goblins had not struck Gearhead as being particularly spiritual before now.

“Here I am, Father and Mother of all that is under the sky.” Here Father and Big Sister Ivy, Midnight and Nightstar, Aerial, Prism, and Gearhead himself answered with the phrase “blessed are Your names.” King paused to recollect himself, evidently not having expected anypony to answer according to the ancient customs. “Although I am unworthy, I petition You on behalf of my people: I have, in great hubris and greed, sinned against You, against Your children, and against my people. I have turned my back on all that is good, and at my own will, done great evil. Although I have sinned, I ask that You, in your great compassion, loving kindness, and mercy, do not measure the deeds of my people using me as the yardstick, for my sins are not the sins of my people.

“O Father and Mother of all that is under the sky,”

“Blessed are Your names,”

“In Your loving kindness, great wisdom, and mercy I humbly petition you to ease the heavy decree upon my people, who have passed before their rightful times. I beg that You speed their souls’ passage to Your side, that they should know peace according to their measure. I request that should they be worthy of passing along the Wheel of Reincarnation that they be given the measure of their full lives, wherein to seek fulfillment as they have been unable to do in this life. All this I humbly request, although I am not worthy.”

“Ah-mein,”

“O Father and Mother of Heaven and Earth,”

“Blessed are Your names,”

“I ask that you look upon those assembled today with loving kindness, for although they are not of my people, they have stood beside me during this time of great tragedy, and are my people. I humbly ask that You, in Your great wisdom, grant them Your blessing of peace for their full measure, all the days and all the nights of their lives. This I ask, although I am not worthy.”

“Ah-mein,”

“O Father and Mother Above and Below,”

“Blessed are Your names,”

“Although I have sinned in hubris and greed, although I have turned my back on my people, I humbly ask You for guidance in a time of great need, for I am lost, and adrift without purpose. Although I am unworthy, I ask You for the strength to forgive all those who have transgressed against me and my people, yea even those who have done us grievous harm.”

This request startled Gearhead, since if anyone had a reason to want to seek revenge against Chrysalis and her Changelings, it was King, the sole survivor of an unprovoked massacre. After all, he had come out of the caverns seeking revenge. Maybe, in the intervening days, he had found something more important than evening the score. The Earth Pony glanced at Princess Celestia, and at Cadence and Shining Armour, and saw similar shock reflected on the latter two’s faces. But like Princess Celestia and Luna, they soon showed understanding.

“This I ask, although I am unworthy,”

“Ah-mein,”

“Blessed are You, O Father and Mother, who made the World and all the plants and minerals and peoples, great and small, who call it Home. Blessed are You in Your great mercy, loving kindness, and compassion, for You have given us our strength, our intelligence, our curiosity, and the opportunity to use all these things. All of Your creations sing Your praises in their lives, and indeed in life supported by all those who came before. Praised are you, Father and Mother.”

“Ah-ah-ah, Ah-mein!”

After a moment of silence, King nodded to Gearhead. With a little focus, Gearhead spread the warm turquoise light of his magic over the ground between the mourners and the caskets, and slowly lowered them into the earth. The glow did not fade until all of them were justly buried, and headstones were raised for each of the graves. “Thank you,” King said to each of the others in turn.

During the walk back to Canterlot Castle, Gearhead sidled up to King. “Why did you ask for the power to forgive?”

“It seemed right. I mean, I still would not be happy to see a Changeling again, but at least I think it would be a good thing to end the current cycle of violence. Even if Chrysalis doesn’t appreciate what I did out there.”

“I do not see her congratulating you on it, no.”

“I don’t know whether we would resume fighting on-sight, but I do know two things: that I don’t feel any better regardless of having taken down hundreds of soldiers on that shield, and that regardless of how many I fought, it would never bring back the dead, nor satisfy them or make them happy.”

“True,”

“In fact, I felt more satisfied after that first response. I didn’t know there were still ponies who use that form of prayer.”

“Herd Verdant, the Third Conclave of Flowing Shadows, and the Azure Wing are all ancient Houses, thousands of years old. I would say the surprise is just as much on the other horseshoe.”

Before Gearhead could ask where King had learned the prayer, Princess Celestia drew up on King’s other side. “Since it seems my current Captain will soon be married, I could certainly use somepony of your stature and experience to fill his large horseshoes. What do you say, King?”

“It is an honour, but...”

“Remember: it was you who asked for guidance. Remember, too, that you are worthy.”

King glanced at Shining Armour, who smiled and nodded.

“My armour is in a most unusual size,” King said.

“I imagine we will manage. Right, Gearhead.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Speaking of highnesses, I feel awkward keeping my title as my name. If only I could remember what I was called before, but that was so long ago!”

“Stalwart Shield,” Princess Celestia said.

Shield stared. “How did you..?”

“I have a long memory,” the elder Alicorn smiled.

“I shall try to remember that.”

* * *

Princess Celestia gave the construction crews three days to complete repairs, and for Twilight to complete the wedding preparations. There was little for Gearhead to do while he waited for Rarity to mend his formal blacks and, he designed armour for Stalwart Shield, but he could not avoid certain conversations for very long.

It was not long after all the funeral rights before Princess Celestia called Gearhead to the training room. Luna, Twilight, and Shining Armour were all waiting with Princess Celestia when he got there.

“Thank you for responding to my request so quickly,” Princess Celestia said. “Twilight and Shining Armour are here to hear your response on behalf of the rest of your friends.” She paused. “Where is Snowbelle?”

“I know she is not comfortable being left on her own,” Luna explained.

“It is fine: I left her with Fluttershy.”

“So you’re no longer avoiding each other?” Twilight asked, pleased.

“No, I still have not spoken to Fluttershy yet. But when Snowbelle’s mother died, Fluttershy was the one to come to her side.”

“And that’s when the barriers fell?” Princess Celestia asked.

“Yes. Snowbelle’s mother asked to use our link, so she knew the instant she passed, and why she passed then. I was not with Snowbelle, so the only thing I could do was to take on her anger, but I left her with all the sorrow. I am grateful that Fluttershy was able to be there for her, but I wish I had been there myself.”

“Do you think it was a mistake to be with Snowbelle’s mother when she died?” Luna asked.

“I do not know,”

“I don’t think it was,” Armour said. “Just like I don’t think it was a mistake to grant the mother’s request, to take all the anger, or to let Snowbelle feel the grief. They were all natural choices, and I doubt anyone could have chosen better in those moments.”

“Especially since Snowbelle’s mother made it clear that she did not want Snowbelle to see her in her weakened state,” Princess Celestia said. “Dragons have always been a proud race, so I am sure she was thankful for your willingness to fulfill all of her wishes on Snowbelle’s behalf. Including, I am sure, the future time when you take her to see her home.”

“Thank you,”

“As glad as I am to hear that your relationships are going to be on the mend, I asked you here for the explanation you promised about your Alicorn Engine’s second mode.”

“The explanation is simple: the core system is able to reconfigure the rings to produce energy that is closer in nature to that of its inspiration, and therefore, its source. The closer to the source, the more pure and concentrated the particles become. But at that higher potency, the whole rig has a lower operational limit. That is one reason none of these other configurations are used as the default.”

“’Configurations?’ Plural?” Twilight asked.

“Yes. Config-2 produces the blue-silver particles from both cores. Config-3 produces gold particles, also from both. Config-4 is the one I used against Chrysalis, because it is the most powerful setting I can use without the stabilizer.”

“There’s more?” Armour asked.

“White particles,” Gearhead said. He could not keep the sliver of a grin from his face.

Looks of fascination, and then horror passed over the others’ faces. “So what you’re telling us is that you didn’t just invent a way to create Alicorn magic, but Discord’s as well?” Princess Celestia said. “How? Why?”

“At first it was just to see if I could do it, but then, when Discord reappeared, I saw that there could be a need to apply such power. And when the single-core prototype proved to be insufficient, I had to do what I could to create a more powerful core system, in case Equestria ever faced a similar threat.”

“There are no similar threats to Discord,” Luna said. “When did this all start? How did you duplicate our magical signatures as completely as you did?”

“First, it is impossible to recreate anyone’s magical signature with full fidelity.”

“You got pretty close,” Princess Celestia said, “even if it is less powerful. But go on.”

Gearhead nodded. “It all began with your visit to Ponyville, when you inspected my daggers and the Fireheart Gemstone.”

“Eh?” Twilight asked.

“It was also when Philomena played those pranks on you and Fluttershy.”

“Ah,” Twilight nodded. “Wait, all the way back then?”

“Why are you so surprised? It took time to complete it. I barely had it ready in time to use it against Discord at all. And from there, it took until about a week ago to complete the Twin Engine.”

“You’re persistent, alright,” Armour said. “When did you get Discord’s signature?”

“What are you talking about? It was all over the place when he got loose.”

“You said that it was as thick as milk in places,” Twilight said, remembering. “You even tried to absorb it into the Geargem Dagger, but there was too much. And then the clean-up afterwards... you had more than enough samples.”

“It is not as though the settings based on Discord’s magic will do what his magic does, nor do the gold or blue particles do what you do: it is more about the power level, because it seems to me that Discord is more powerful than both princesses combined.”

“How did you arrive at that conclusion?” Luna asked.

“Because you had to use the Elements of Harmony to defeat him, which means you could not do it on your own power.”

“In retrospect, it is pretty obvious,” Princess Celestia said. “So, the question is ‘what are you going to do with all this power?’”

“I will, of course, continue to use it to protect the beings of this land, whenever the situation calls for it.”

“’The beings of this land?’ Not ‘Equestria?’”

“Princess Celestia, although I am the Black Sheep, I am still a Verdant. We serve the beings within our reach, above all. And thanks to my Engine, my reach goes further than normal. The same goes for the rest of the Defence Alliance, of which I am now a representative and employee.”

“So it’s not just the Alliance anymore?” Luna asked.

“You know about it?” Twilight asked, surprised.

“We do,” Luna nodded to her sister. “I am more surprised that he told you about it, considering the Alliance always operated behind the shield of anonymity before.”

“The Alliance’s old anonymity is about to become a whole lot thinner,” Gearhead said.

“Your defensive array.” Princess Celestia said.

“The Alliance Council realized that even if it was distantly, the first Array’s activation might be seen as a declaration of sorts by any who would attack Equestria’s cities: we will do our utmost to defend, and we can no longer be content with being in the shadows. That is one of the reasons for the change in policy, as I understand it.”

“The Skybolts aren’t exactly ‘low-profile,’” Armour said.

“But nopony, except perhaps the princesses, probably linked them to the Shadows or the Verdant. This changes everything, so the Alliance changed its stance first. It is incredibly forward-thinking of them, considering the Array is not even in final testing yet. I even have new data to incorporate thanks to the battles with the Changelings.”

“Won’t this also change your standing with the Verdant?” Princess Celestia asked.

“Other than being an employee connected to all three Houses, no.”

“How can you still be a Black Sheep after helping to save Canterlot the way you did?” Twilight asked.

“Do you want me to speak on your behalf?” Princess Celestia asked.

“Please, I beg you, do not do that,” Gearhead said, looking pained. “I have already been accused of being too closely tied to the Crown.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Luna asked.

“One of the reasons the Verdant serves the beings within a land instead of the ruling body is in case that ruling body falls. The traditionalists believe that if the Crown should fall, the Verdant should be able to adapt quickly to fulfill ponies’ needs on the ground until a new government can be established.”

“That’s saying the princesses will fail!” Twilight said.

“Even the Alliance is thousands of years old,” Princess Celestia said. “As an entity, they have seen the fall of empires and kingdoms. Although I wish they could be persuaded to commit more fully, I understand their stance.”

“Then will they not be afraid that supporting your array program will paint a target on them?” Luna asked.

“What would the Defence Alliance need to fear, being protected by the Arrays themselves?”

“And if it doesn’t work?” Armour asked.

“Then nopony need attack, and there is nothing to fear anyway.”

“Well, given your close duplication of so many powerful magicks, it is no wonder you have chosen to layer so many safeguards into the system. No one can steal or copy it?” Luna said.

“Even if someone knew exactly what she or he was doing, any copy would likely be incomplete, and even after getting it to run, it is impossible to bypass all the safeguards. I would never let it be used against us.”

“Thank you, Gearhead. That is all.”

* * *

Gearhead found Fluttershy playing with Snowbelle in the former’s rooms, just as he had expected: while there were preparations going on, Fluttershy still was not completely comfortable being around others, especially ponies she did not know well, and she probably did not want to be concerned about how she was acting while she played with the baby Dragoness.

Gearhead could feel Snowbelle’s happiness as he approached the door, so he knew that she and Fluttershy knew he had arrived even before he actually had. He was not surprised, therefore, when he stepped in front of the door only to have it open up for him. Snowbelle pounced on him to give him a hug, managing her size just enough to knock him off balance. “It is good to see you too,” he said, laughing.

“Um... if it’s alright with you, could I tag along for a little longer?” Fluttershy asked, as Snowbelle shrunk herself so she could perch on Gearhead’s back.

“Actually, I wanted to talk with you for a bit. It would probably be better if we spoke inside?”

“Oh, okay. Please do come in.” Fluttershy stood aside, inside the doorway, to make room while the stallion came in. The room was, with the exception of the things with which the mare and the Dragon had been playing, quite neat. Even though it was in the palace interior, unlike Rarity’s suite, there were still some birds and other small animals perched on lintels and sills. Gearhead nodded to Fluttershy, and she closed the door.

Once they were lying on the room’s long couch, Snowbelle stretched out between them, Gearhead began. “I want to thank you for being there for Snowbelle. For helping her through her grief when I was unable to be here.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” Fluttershy said, blushing and waving the gratitude off. “I only did what I could, and I wanted to do it. So rewarding me for that seems unfair. If anypony should be thankful, it’s me: you dealt with the harder emotion. And... I can’t help but feel that part of it might be my fault.” She became downcast.

“Why would that be?”

“Because you were so angry when you fought Chrysalis. I thought that maybe part of that was from me being unable to muster the courage to talk to you and Snowbelle.”

“In that case, I am sorry too: I thought I could muster the patience to wait until you felt comfortable. I did not realize I was feeling frustrated until just then.”

“No, you don’t need to apologize to me, since I was taking so long... no, I mean...” Fluttershy swallowed, breathed deeply. “Thank you,” she said, looking past her bangs and blushing.

“You are welcome,” Gearhead gave her his best reassuring smile, even though the look on her face made his heart skip a beat. Sometimes the way Fluttershy acted made him think that she might not be good for his health, but then he liked her too well to avoid her entirely, and so did Snowbelle.

“Do you want to continue to help looking after Snowbelle?” Gearhead asked.

Fluttershy perked right up. “Can I?!”

“I do not want to make you feel like you have to. I do think we both know how much she would like it if you did.” Snowbelle purred.

“I want to, really!” Fluttershy said, hugging the Dragon, who wrapped her wings around the mare in turn.

“To be clear, I am not asking you to try to replace her mother. Just to do what you can and want to do. That is all.”

“Why would that be all?” Fluttershy said, peeking out from behind a near-white wing. “I love her so!”

“And she you, it looks like.” Snowbelle trilled. That made Fluttershy try to hide her blush back behind the wing.

“Wait,” Fluttershy peeked back out. “You’re not reading her mind?”

“Why would I? She can tell me whatever she wants to tell me, so I do not intrude. And neither does she.”

“Oh, so you don’t always use the link,”

“Out of respect,”

“Well then...” Fluttershy turned the little Dragon around so she was looking her right in her blue and green eyes. “If you will have me, I will help take care of you.”

“Of course!” Snowbelle chirped. She wiggled out of Fluttershy’s gentle grasp to wrap her in a full embrace, which involved wings, legs, and even her tail.

Minutes later, Gearhead was finally able to help untangle Snowbelle from Fluttershy, the Dragon having fallen asleep. “By the way, what is this about something you found?”

“Oh, that’s right,” Fluttershy said quietly. She helped to shift Snowbelle so she was lying on Gearhead’s belly as he lay on the couch. Then she went to the chest at the end of her bed and brought back a nondescript sack. Gearhead looked inside. “What are they, exactly?” Fluttershy asked.

“Only the rarest, most valuable gems in Equestria. After all, it would be incredibly difficult to get a baby Dragon to cry and leave these under normal circumstances. These are from back then?”

“Yes,”

“We have to be incredibly careful with these: not only do they have a high price, but magic loaded into them can become incredibly potent, at least according to what I read in the Hidden Library. We absolutely cannot let any of them be stolen.”

“Then it’s a good thing we kept them hidden from the Changelings?”

“An incredibly good thing,” Gearhead said. He did not like to think that, provided Chrysalis knew how to use them, she could have completed her invasion. “Fortunately there are secure places we can keep them. And they shall be a secret between the three of us.”

Fluttershy nodded, and Gearhead watched as she put the sack away. He had thought about giving one to Cadence and Armour as a wedding gift, but not giving a set of two would seem strange, and he was not certain he liked the idea of having two Baby Dragon Tears on the loose, even if they were in the possession of two very good friends. Also, unless Gearhead did not explain their true nature, who knew if they would be kept as secure as they should be, and if he did that it would no longer be a secret of three.

* * *

“You did good out there,”

Prism stopped and turned at the voice from down the hallway. “Captain Spitfire, it’s an honour.” She, Rook, and Contrail saluted, and Spitfire saluted back.

“The honour’s mine. After all, you saw lots more action than we did.”

“You’re being too kind,”

“Wait and see how kind I’m really being, Prism: I’m inviting the three of you to train at Wonderbolts Academy, effective in the start of the new season. Interested?”

Prism, Rook, and Contrail exchanged glances and grins. “This is great!” Contrail said.

“What about Gearhead?” Rook asked Prism. “Didn’t you want to be on the team sent to Ponyville?”

“Well, of course, but we could start training with the ‘Bolts already!”

“I’m surprised you want to keep that old promise and train, rather than actually being with him, but hey, I’m all for it,” Contrail said.

“Hm, I guess that’s true,”

“Why not accept?”

“Wing Commander!” Even Spitfire was saluting, but then Windwalker and Aerial had trained her and the rest of her squad. “It’s truly an honour, sir. Ma’am.”

“At ease,” Aerial said.

“What do you mean, ‘why not accept?’” Prism asked.

“Your mother and I were thinking about when it’d be a good time to get your training with the Wonderbolts started, since you’re old enough and ready. We know you want to help Gearhead at his shop, but that’s more about your feelings than your reason, isn’t it? Your training is about using emotion and reason together, after all.”

“That’s why we figured it would be better to send Spring Flight to help Gearhead, while your Flight goes to train with the Wonderbolts and you fulfill your promise to Gearhead. You won’t have to worry about anything, with Spring, Radar, and Torrent at Gearhead’s back. They’re younger, and versatile. Anything they pick up could be useful to the Wing,” Aerial said.

“I suppose that’s true, but... can I think about it for awhile?” Prism asked Spitfire.

“Fair enough,” she said. “I’ll give you two months, and then send somepony with the official documents. Just remember that if you don’t accept this time around, you’ll need to wait until next season just to apply, and no guarantees next time.”

“Understood, Captain,” Prism said, and she and Contrail and Rook saluted her. They watched Spitfire walk away. “I’m sorry, but I want to think about this.”

“No, we’re very proud of you,” Aerial said, hugging her eldest daughter.

“You’re not normally so careful. I’d take this as a good sign,” Windwalker said, smiling as he, too, embraced his eldest – and then drew the others in for a group hug. “C’mere, you!”

* * *

“We are gathered here today to witness the marriage between Shining Armour and the real Princess Cadence,” Princess Celestia began. This time definitely felt different from the first attempt. For one thing, Gearhead was not poised to stall while Twilight made her way out of the underground labyrinth with Cadence – although he still wore his Twin Engine underneath his formal blacks, just in case there were any interruptions.

Gearhead was not the only one who was prepared to protect the congregants this time either: the Wonderbolts, Prism Flight, the Elemental Six, and Midnight’s party were all prepared, with their formalwear modified as tear-aways in case a battle erupted. The City Guard and the Royal Guard were also prepared for the worst, although everypony expected the best. Stalwart Shield had not officially taken command of the Royal Guard, but he, too, was highly visible, with his new custom armour and the greatsword strapped to his back.

Gearhead had wanted to be seated near the back of the Throne Room, so he could be invisible but do crowd control if necessary. None of the princesses would hear of it, however, pulling him into the wedding party along with the Elemental Six. At least they allowed him to sit in the pews with his friends from Ponyville. Snowbelle was balanced between him and Fluttershy, attentively watching the ceremony with her head nestled between theirs. The crowd did not seem the least bit put-off by the sight of the Dragon perched on the ponies’ backs, slowly swishing her tail from side to side.

Part of the reason for the others’ ease might be Spike’s presence on the dais. Come to think of it, while he was the only other Dragon Gearhead remembered as part of Equestrian society, Canterlot’s residents were used to seeing him here from the years Twilight studied under Princess Celestia. After that, Ponyville’s residents had quickly become accustomed to the young Dragon’s presence, not to mention his usefulness. Today Spike was the Ringbearer, holding two bejeweled rings. One was sized for Cadence’s horn, and the other for Shining Armour’s.

While Twilight retained her original role as her brother’s ‘Best Mare,’ Armour’s best friends – Gaffer, 8-bit, and Gizmo – had also joined them on the dais. Each wore a tuxedo that sufficiently expressed his own personality, from quirky to geeky. Lemony Gems and Diamond Rose had also rejoined the wedding party as the bridesmaids, both sharing the post of Maid of Honour. Despite no longer being bridesmaids, Cadence had agreed to let the Elemental Six use the dresses that Rarity had made for them: it would have been a waste otherwise.

Gearhead tried to look around the congregation as discretely as possible. There were Twilight’s and Armour’s parents, Twilight Velvet and Nite Light, looking proud and pleased, and not the least bit surprised. They would have known about the budding relationship between their son and Cadence from the beginning. Further down his row, Father winked across at Gearhead, and Big Sister Ivy smiled.

Luna sent a warning buzz to Gearhead, to look behind him and to the right side of the room. There, he found Prism giving him a joking warning glare to turn his attention back to the ceremony. Across the room, Dusk merely winked, having watched it all. Gearhead might have imagined it, but did Dawn have a little tear in her eye? Well, she could be a delicate lady when she wanted to, even though she had stomped more than her fair share of Changelings during the invasion.

Gearhead turned fully back to the ceremony. Princess Celestia was taking the rings from Spike, and when she held them in front of the bride and the groom, they both took control of one ring, and slipped it onto the other’s horn, until it sat snugly. The couple did not need any prompting to kiss, after what their love had brought them through. Dash, on the other hoof, needed a small reminder from Princess Celestia, before she launched into her Sonic Rainboom, as promised. It was especially impressive since she did it ascending instead of descending or level.

Soon the celebration moved outside, where the newlyweds got the dancing starting, with a little help from Pinkie Pie and Vinyl Scratch. Other couples quickly joined in the fun, including Midnight and Nightstar and Windwalker and Aerial. Father mixed it up a bit, dancing with Big Sister Ivy, but no one went quite so far as Spike, who danced with Sweetie Belle. As long as they are having fun, Gearhead thought. And wondered if he would have had such a thought before his time as Dusty. A grin snuck its way onto his face.

Gearhead turned to Fluttershy, and bowed, holding out one hoof to her. “Would you do me the honour?” He asked.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy gushed. “I don’t really know how to...”

“Then I shall lead, I suppose,” Gearhead said.

“Do you really know how to dance?”

“Well, Big Sister Ivy taught me a little when we were younger.”

Fluttershy giggled, despite being embarrassed.

“If you won’t take him, then I will,” Prism said, coming up behind the two of them.

“Oh, well I –“

“Go on already,” Prism said, bumping Fluttershy closer to Gearhead. “It’s just a dance.”

“True,” Contrail said, “so come on.”

“Alright already, Con,” Prism said, following the others onto the dance floor.

“They are right, you know,” Snowbelle said, quietly enough so that only Gearhead and Fluttershy could hear her.

“Ah, okay,” Fluttershy said. As it turned out, she was more than fine with the simple dance steps that Gearhead had in his repertoire. It also turned out that she had a few more complex ones of her own to add.

After a couple of songs, Prism decided to switch partners, so everyone else did too. Rook asked Fluttershy to dance, and she accepted. While Prism danced with Gearhead, she leaned in close. “Hey, what would you say if I told you I was going to go train with the Wonderbolts?”

“Is that not what you always said you would do?”

“Yeah, but I also wanted to be the Wing’s representative to your shop.”

“Please tell me, Prism, what is more important to you: the shop or the Wonderbolts?”

“I don’t know,”

“If you came to my shop you would probably be in sales and gathering resources for more gadgets, and since you are of the Azure, Contrail and Rook would also be along. Do you want to know my opinion?”

“Yes please!”

“I think it would be waste of your skills: You, one of the fastest of your generation, and your entire combat-proven Flight, in sales? I do not believe that is the limit of what you can do.”

“But you leave the shop for things like this wedding,”

“I came here as a friend to the bride and groom, and also as a friend to the Best Mare. These things do not have anything to do with the shop. And while I do see some occasional action, it is not usually anything like what the Azure handles. Not to mention, Prism Flight being on my staff may mean I might leave you in charge of the shop while I go elsewhere.”

“I see where you’re going: it would defeat the purpose of all our training. Unless we went as your escort.”

“Which in turn defeats the purpose of having you on staff. I believe this is a Catch-22 situation.”

“But if I go to Wonderbolt Academy, that means I won’t be able to see you for my whole terms of service.”

“You forget that Dash and I both have standing invitations to train at the Academy.”

“I see: you might come to train during the same term, even though yours might be shorter.”

“Yes. However, if you still feel uncomfortable with your options, give it a serious think-through, and do not forget that you have others with whom to consult.”

“Oh right, this involves Rook and Contrail too. Thank you, Gear. I know what to do now.”

“Good,” Gearhead said, and the song switched again, so Prism went to find Rook.

Gearhead found Dawn standing in front of him next, so he bowed and extended a hoof. She curtsied in reply, and they started to dance. The music this time was slower and more sedate, which suited the smaller Unicorn perfectly – except, Gearhead reminded himself, in battle. Dawn smiled, seeming perfectly content not to lean in close the way Prism had, but watching her expressions as she blushed or looked self-consciously around reminded Gearhead of the way she had been when they first met: full of energy and cute enough to induce heart attacks, but with a side-helping of unexpected seriousness. There was almost no way at all to connect the filly with the mare, but they were indeed the same pony.

Gearhead got to dance with a number of other mares, including Cadence and Luna, but Dusk also made the crowd laugh when he cut in for a dance with the younger stallion. It was fortunate that the song had a faster pace, otherwise Gearhead might have been forced to take it seriously, like the warning Dusk had for him. Despite trusting his sister in battle, he still had something of an overprotective streak: “If you break my sister’s heart, you’ll regret it,” Dusk said.

“Right back at you,” Gearhead said.

“Eh?”

“I have seen the way you look at Big Sister Ivy, you know.”

“Ah. Ha-ha. Then I guess it’s a race, because we both can’t marry into the same family.”

“In that case, I would have to move quite quickly, to get rid of my title first.”

“Seriously, that’s just plain wrong. But... tradition, right?”

“Eiyup,”

“Good luck, then,” Dusk said, and stepped back to allow Big Sister Ivy to step in.

“Father and I am very proud of you,” Big Sister Ivy said, holding Gearhead close.

“Thank you,” Gearhead said, and he let the feeling of well-being that flowed from his sister suffuse his whole being.

After that, Gearhead danced with Fluttershy and Snowbelle. Dusk danced with Big Sister Ivy again, and Prism with Rook. Contrail and Dawn made a slightly out of step couple, but at least they were laughing about their missteps. Somepony like Rarity would have taken such a thing all too seriously.

Everypony gathered in front of the palace as Shining Armour escorted Cadence to their carriage. “We couldn’t have done it without you,” Gearhead heard him tell his little sister as they embraced.

“I’m very proud of you, BBBFF,” Twilight said, then she stepped back to let Cadence get up into the carriage. The Alicorn suddenly stopped in the doorway, and knelt just enough to give herself some room over one shoulder, and out came the bouquet.

Immediately the mares who had been paying attention burst into a flurry of motion as they tried to capture the flowers, only to collide with each other. Gearhead watched in utter fascination as the target bounced off of hooves or muzzles, and even got flicked by tails on reflex.

Just as the Earth Pony started to feel sorry for the bouquet because of the beating it was taking, it landed softly in the embrace of one mare who was not embroiled in the rolling quagmire. She had, in fact, been turned halfway away from where everything was happening, and the bouquet happened to come to rest cradled inside of one upraised leg and her chin. The flowers immediately seemed to perk back up, as a result of her magic touch.

“It seems you may win that race,” Gearhead said to Dusk.

“Oh, I don’t believe in such omens,”

“Says the fancy-shmancy Unicorn,”

“What’s that about fancy Unicorns?” Twilight asked from Gearhead’s left.

“Oh yes, I’d like to hear all about this,” Rarity, looking disheveled from her struggles, said.

“Dusk here does not believe in omens,”

“Neither do I,” Twilight said.

“But you believe in Pinkie Sense,” Spike said.

“Everypony believes in Pinkie Sense,”

“Indeed,” Princess Celestia said. “But which omen are we talking about?”

“The bouquet,” Rarity said, pointing to where Big Sister Ivy was still cradling the flowers.

“I see. And what do you think of the match between your sister and the scion of the Shadows?”

“Big Sister Ivy has many admirers, but only one who does not hold her on so high a pedestal that he would approach her. Also, they look good together.”

“Ah, but if they get married, one of us would have to leave our family to get married,” Dawn said, not winking.

“I know how much leaving the Shadows would hurt you,” Gearhead said. “In that eventuality, I believe it would be me.”

“But leaving the Herd would hurt you, too.”

“Excuse me,” Fluttershy said. Rarity backed off, letting the Pegasus in. Snowbelle was sleeping with her head resting on the top of Fluttershy’s mane, her wings limp on both sides, but acting to balance her nicely.

“Thank you,” Gearhead said, whispering an incantation so he could gently take his daughter and transfer her to his own back.

“Are you still going to fulfill that promise?” Princess Celestia asked.

“Of course,”

“And you have a plan to do it without freezing to death,”

“I am me, after all, and I still owe Snowbelle the chance to choose for herself.”

“You really love her,” Dawn said.

“Of course: she is my daughter.”

* * *

In a small tavern, Vines slapped the newspaper he was reading down on his table. “He’s done it again,” the eldest Verdant sibling grumbled. The article in question was about the Changeling invasion of Canterlot, and while Gearhead was not specifically mentioned, there was an accompanying photograph.

Somepony had managed to snap a shot of the barrier around the city failing, while bolts of energy flying at odd angles knocked Changelings out of the sky. Near the center of the shot, but distant enough to that his features were not easily seen, was an airborne pony. If he had had wings it would not have been a big deal, but he did not.

The pony in question was surrounded by a cascade of distinctive bright spots, which almost looked like a pair of wings the way they were falling when the picture had been taken. Unfortunately, anypony who had seen a certain race, or watched the recording of it, would know where these particles came from, even if the Engine had changed.

“Is it that bad?” The other pony, one of Vines’s oldest supporters on the Council, asked. It was not that he doubted or opposed Vines, it was that he played the opposite advocate, helping Vines to prepare for opposing arguments.

“The Hoofington F1. The ‘secret’ derby. Now this. Knowing that he’s developed what is undoubtedly a military asset, Gearhead’s making the Herd into a target for reprisals. If he can’t be convinced to stop, we should probably withdraw our support so we don’t get attacked.”

“For millennia we have fed more than Equestria, even in the most dire of situations. That doesn’t make us a target?”

“We did so in the shadows. This is in the open.”

“Isn’t he going to set up those defensive arrays?”

“Which may not work,”

“But if they do, what have we to fear?”

“It would be nice to know in this early stage, wouldn’t it?”

“So what do you want to do, rip up the revised contract? Revert to the old Alliance before the Defence Alliance can really get started?”

“We can’t see the future. For now, maybe it would be prudent to wait and see, while we hold onto the option to withdraw support, if the worst should come to pass. Hopefully, before our depots or farms get attacked.”

“Agreed. We will be patient, as we always have.”

“We must be willing to do what we must, even if that is casting aside one of our single greatest earners. It’s not as if we’re exactly hard-up for funds anyway. For the sake of the Herd.”

“For the sake of the Herd,” the other stallion raised his flagon, and Vines answered in kind. It was not so much a case of ‘if’ Gearhead would make a mistake, as a case of ‘when’ he would make a mistake, especially if he was preoccupied with other things – the daily running of his shop, raising his pet Dragon, even filly troubles, but especially some crisis that demanded he swoop into action.

“We’re farmers, craftsponies, and miners,” Vines said, “not adventurers and heroes.”

“Of course, your brother never set out to be a hero.”

“What, then, is he, if he allows himself to be swept away by the tide, along with the rest of the kingdom?”

“A fool, and a danger to the Herd.”

“And that’s why we must be careful to watch him, always.”

5. Friendly Bouts and Read-Abouts

Chapter 5: Friendly Bouts and Read-Abouts

“Darling, you look positively wiped!” Rarity gasped when she saw Gearhead come in for dinner. “Whatever could you have been doing to exhaust yourself so?”

“I am engaged in training exercises with the princesses and a member of the guard,” Gearhead said, which was true enough.

“That’s awesome!” Rainbow Dash said. “Of course, it would be at least twenty percent more awesome to train with the Wonderbolts.”

“I am not certain my core system could keep up with the Wonderbolts at its reduced capacity. Besides, I am almost certain they would frown upon it as being assisted flight.”

“Well, it’s not as if a pony can just go and sprout wings, now can she?”

“In my experience,” Gearhead said, “thinking of oneself as one thing when you are another can be the true limit.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that because I thought of myself as an Earth Pony I could not access some of my abilities. A shift in my perspective seems to have been all it took to open up a path that had been available to me for years.”

“This is over my head,” Sweetie Belle.

“That’s okay. I’m not sure what he’s talking about either,” Rarity said.

“Gearhead has been studying magic theory for at least ten years,” Princess Celestia said. “Until recently, though, all he could do was study the theory. He couldn’t actually use any of the spells, as an Earth Pony. But unravelling one of the mysteries of his own heritage lets him use a different version of that ability, as a Unicorn.”

“You’re a Unicorn?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I have, in part, some of each of the three pony tribes. In the future I may be able to ‘sprout wings,’ but for now I shall leave it to my gadgets to do that for me. Princess Celestia called me here to Canterlot because she knows the importance of refining one’s skills. With the level of power at my disposal on any given day, it would be unfortunate if I was ever to lose control over it. That is part of what my training will address, I believe.”

“Ooh, ooh! What about me?”

“You have a very special way about you, Pinkie Pie. One nopony else does, which escapes definition. It’s unique, and entirely yours,” Princess Celestia said.

“Yay for being me!”

“Does studying for years mean you could be as powerful as Twilight?” Rarity asked.

“It means I have the knowledge to cast an advanced set of spells, most of which have to do with manipulating energy. Many of my most powerful spells are combat-related as well. But I do not have the ease that a normal Unicorn has with magic, because I only inherited a part of a Unicorn’s abilities, and it was twisted. It was intended to be an impediment in my life as a farm pony, so it is as though it got twisted enough to actually work.”

“So you can use Unicorn magic?” Sweetie Belle, who could not despite being a Unicorn herself, asked.

“I cannot use the version of magic that most Unicorns can, where they mentally focus their power around the proper incantation, ingredients, and movements in order to cast a spell. I require an activation key to ‘open’ my magic power, and a full incantation, spoken for the moment, although I have read about delayed and unincanted spells in this style as well. The older the language used in the spell, the more powerful the spell. The oldest by far is thought pictures, though, which makes me wonder if that is how modern Unicorn magic works.”

“Think it, huh?” Sweetie Belle closed her eyes in focus, but nothing happened. “Maybe I need an activation key,” she said.

“You could certainly try, later, however it will take time to get your tongue around the words. You would have to practice it for some time before you could get that right, and then you could move on to the spell’s incantation. From personal experience I can tell you that it takes a long time to memorize the incantations.”

“I won’t mind, if it would help me use magic,” Sweetie Belle said.

“I bet the princesses are impressed with what you can already do,” Rarity said. Along with the others in the Elemental Six, she had seen Gearhead use Magic Arrows against Discord, although from a distance.

“Indeed, very impressed,” Princess Celestia said. “Enough so to say that while he might use a different version of magic and cast in a different way, he could become as powerful in magic as Twilight. That assumes the continuing opportunity to grow as a mage, of course.”

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash said, “that is pretty awesome.”

“Twilight Sparkle is very special as a Unicorn, being able to use multiple kinds of magic in turn. It almost seems as though she can use any spell she sees being done, so she doesn’t have the limit that most Unicorns do of having a few types of magic relating to her special skill and cutie mark – unless you count ‘magic’ as being both of those at once,” Princess Celestia said.

“Gearhead is also unique, since, as he said, he has some of a Pegasus and a Unicorn in him, and he was born as an Earth Pony. Gearhead’s family has a long tradition of being extremely potent farmers, which means strong Earth Pony growth magic. If, as he has theorized, a pony only has a limited amount of his genes committed to the magic of his tribe, Gearhead potentially has a high amount of magic at his disposal, but instead of Earth Pony magic, he has Pegasus and Unicorn magic – but different.”

“Wait a minute, Pegasus magic too?” Rainbow Dash said.

“I have not checked it yet, but perhaps I can do some weather manipulation,” Gearhead said. “Also, that I can fly with the help of a gadget of mine may indicate that I am unconsciously helping to manage my weight and aerodynamics with Pegasus magic. I would have to focus more on it the next time I put my core on to fly, to verify it.”

“Can you build something to help me cast spells?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“First we should do some research, to see how my gadgets might help, because if they would not help, or if they did harm instead, it would not be worth it.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Sweetie Belle said.

“The biggest problem with my style of spells is the time it takes to incant them,” Gearhead said. “Modern Unicorn magic can already be disrupted by anypony alert and close enough to the caster to do it.”

“Yup,” Sweetie Belle said. “It’s as simple as flicking your sister’s horn.”

“Sweetie Belle,” Rarity admonished her, blushing. She did not want the other ponies, especially the princess, thinking that the sisters had such a rough relationship, but then it was hardly a secret. But the ease by which one could negate a Unicorn’s abilities might be secret to some.

“That’s alright,” Princess Celestia said. To Gearhead she said, “Say on.”

“If an alert pony can disrupt a Unicorn’s spellcasting even when it cannot be heard to be going on, what about incanted magic? Without the ability to shield myself, a smart opponent could defeat me as easily as if they had flicked my horn. And most of the more powerful spells have longer incantations, meaning longer vulnerability. That is why incantation time is such a big problem.”

“You could always try adapting the incantations, to make them shorter,” the princess suggested.

“I have looked at different resources, and the spells I have seem to be as short as they come. Cut anything out, and I may risk losing some of their potency, which would not be desirable against a powerful opponent. But it may be worth a try anyway, considering my opponents may not always wait for me to complete an incantation, so it is better to complete a less powerful spell than to not complete one at all.”

Princess Celestia nodded her approval of Gearhead’s analysis. “In any case, please enjoy the meal. Tomorrow you continue your training.”

“Can we watch?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I’m sorry,” Princess Celestia said, “not at this stage.”

“Aww,”

* * *

The following morning, Gearhead rejoined Princess Cadence and Shining Armour in the practice room, rested and ready to begin anew. The couple had apparently spent a very productive night and morning coming up with a plan that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna could approve for Gearhead’s continuing education.

“Today we’ll have a match,” Armour said. “We’ll aim spells at each other to see what we can all take, and what we can do when the situation is closer to combat conditions. This means that interrupting and disrupting spells are permitted. The match ends when one side is unable to continue for any reason, including voluntary surrender. The match is restricted to this room, and it will be Princess Cadence and myself against you.”

“I feel overwhelmed and honoured,” Gearhead said. “I can only hope to survive the first bout.”

“We’ll see,” Armour said. “Take up a position three meters from the wall opposite us.” When Gearhead had done so, Armour spoke again. “We’ll begin as soon as you start any initial incantation, so whenever you’re ready.”

If Gearhead was to hold his own, he would have to choose his first incantation wisely, or it would leave him dreadfully exposed to his opponents’ preliminary countermeasures.

There were plenty of good reasons why Shining Armour was Captain of the Canterlot Royal Guards, and thus primarily responsible for the princesses’ safety. If he was not quite as versatile as his little sister, as a mage, he was almost certainly higher-ranked as far as pure power was concerned. Armour was trained to be fast and strong, and he was a skilled strategist and leader, otherwise he would not have earned his position. Since getting split up in the caves above Canterlot, the Unicorn had been in charge of every expeditionary and diplomatic group to venture back in. Underestimating him would cost Gearhead the match.

Gearhead could not underestimate Princess Cadence either: while she was not born into the royal family like Prince Blueblood, Cadence was far more competent than her cousin, and not just because she could fly. She had shown her skills in healing, protection, and attack magic in the caves. Her special ability could be describes as ‘spreading light and love,’ and as such it fit that she would be able to empathize with others, making her a born leader as well. As far as skill went, she was closer to Armour’s level than that of Blueblood, whom Gearhead had defeated at the Gala, and back then he had only been able to use his geomancy to do it.

Fighting off both Cadence and Armour would require a great deal of agility, as well as some proper defensive measures. Gearhead had to buy himself the time to put those into place, or he would be immediately and definitively sunk: it did not matter that he had powerful spells at his disposal if he did not have the time to deploy them, or if they missed their targets, or if he got taken out before he could strike. Gearhead had precisely the weaknesses he had pointed out to Princess Celestia and the others at last night’s supper.

Armour and Cadence, meanwhile, could cast their spells the modern Unicorn way, by willing them to happen. They may not need incantations, but they still needed the time to charge up their spells, plus line-of-sight to make them hit their target. Provided he could buy enough time, Gearhead knew how to turn the situation entirely to his advantage.

Gearhead drew his dagger, and in the same instant, began. “Cantus de Proelio,” he chanted, and his magic aura burst forth around him, reinforcing his physical abilities. “Deflexio,” he continued as he leaped to avoid the converging blasts from both his opponents, and his shield was in place around him, to take a subsequent hit. Still, he kept moving, zigging and zagging and doubling back on his path when he found that a blast was not on its way to where he had been, but rather to where he might be going next if he should continue.

“Aperite portas quoniam tempor elit. Inveniet tua potentia.” Cadence and Armour oriented on the direction of his voice as soon as they heard Gearhead using his temporary activation key, because now it meant he intended on using a higher-level combat spell. He kept up his random movement so they could not cut him off. “Veni Spiritus Aqua, Spiritus Ignis, et Spiritus Vento. Misce et coalescunt et inimici mei impediant. Ventus Draco Scriptor!” A vapour ball coalesced at the end of Gearhead’s expanded sword, and then it expanded in all directions, its fog filling the room and temporarily blinding his opponents. But the Dragon’s Wind spell was Gearhead’s, so his vision was still clear. Even without it, he could get a read on Cadence’s and Armour’s positions every time his hooves touched the floor. Even so, Gearhead could not predict how long it would be until someone blew the fog apart.

“Aperite portas quoniam tempor elit. Inveniet tua potential,” Gearhead whispered. “Spiritus Fulgor, evoco ex vacuo et percutiam me inimucus. Fulgor Securis.” Wanting the attack to be a surprise, Gearhead even spoke its name quietly. The single lightning strike lanced out from his upraised sword and smashed into Armour’s raised barrier, pushing him back a few paces. Cadence, seeing the lightning flash through the fog, threw a trio of magic blasts in the direction of their origin, causing temporary rifts to open up in the fog as she did so. But Gearhead had already moved on in anticipation of the counterattack.

“Aperite portas quoniam tempor elit. Inveniet tua potential,” Gearhead spoke while moving into position at Cadence’s outside flank. “Veni Spiritus Fulgor septuaginta unum. Consinnant sagittas meas complebo. Percusserit me inimicus. Magica Sagitta 71 Fulgor.” Each Lightning Arrow would not be terribly powerful, but the higher number would be harder to dodge, deflect, or otherwise ward off. That was the advantage to choosing Magic Arrows over the more condensed version of the same level of offensive spell, Magic Javelin. Being made of lightning meant they would also carry a stunning side-effect if they did hit.

The Lightning Arrows streaked toward Cadence’s open flank, and then Armour was there, facing the barrage head-on – and Gearhead had not even seen him coming! Armour released an answering magic blast from his horn, and it was powerful enough to deflect the arrows that glanced off of it, and destroy the one that hit it directly. Without enough time to fully evade the counterattack, Gearhead diverted as much magic energy as he could into his own magic barrier. Just before it hit, though, he got an idea. He jumped at the moment of impact, and got shot back into the fog. He did not see whether his own attack broke through Armour’s barrier.

Gearhead fetched up against a far wall and slid down a few feet to the ground. He took a moment to recover and reorient. He could still see his targets through the fog: Armour was acting as a guard between him and Cadence, although he had begun to roam in anticipation of any movement Gearhead might make. Cadence was spreading her wings, in preparation to take off.

If Cadence was about to use her weather manipulation magic to clear the fog, Gearhead only had a couple of minutes to set up his end-game manoeuvres. He had to move before Cadence and Armour could remove the advantage represented by Dragon’s Wind.

The way Gearhead saw it, he could go for a big-blast finish, or he could try out something he had never tried before, a series of delayed spells that might not work at all. His opponents had already seen, and been suitably impressed by, the most powerful spells in Gearhead’s spellbook. They would expect him to use Jove’s Tempest or Earth Gale. That left the delayed spells.

The way delayed magic worked was that during the incantation the caster set the limits for the spell’s activation, so it would not launch immediately after the chant was completed. Most commonly this was done by placing a time limit on the activation, so that as long as the spell got launched in time, it would be successful. Unfortunately, the maximum amount of time anypony had ever been recorded as using was a mere thirty seconds – not a lot of time if one fouled up. The other way to use delayed magic was to set it up to respond to a key phrase. This was harder, because the caster had to hold focus over the spell until it was cast. Falling asleep with a spell forgotten and stored was hazardous, at best. The safest starting point was easily the time-delay, but the circumstances would probably not allow Gearhead to do everything he wanted to set up for a thirty second cast.

Already, Cadence was airborne and pushing the sticky fog back from the center of the room. That meant it was time to get to work.

Shining Armour kept his guard up as he scanned the area all about him. Part of his attention followed Cadence as she started to push the fog away from the center, where Armour planned to force Gearhead to make his move. If he did not attack before the fog was gone, he would be revealed, and his advantage completely gone for the few seconds it would require to finish this fight: after the show Gearhead had just put on, Armour had absolutely no intention of allowing the former to complete even one more incantation.

As Armour kept turning and scanning, he thought he heard the clop of a hoof or a whispered word, but he could not be sure. He could not even tell the source’s direction, the fog was doing such a good job of muffling sound and confusing the senses. He hated to admit it, but Armour and Cadence were both stuck waiting until the fog was peeled back, revealing Gearhead’s hiding place… and whatever surprise he surely had in store for them.

Finally Armour spotted a growing blue-green aura at ground level to the left of where he had last seen Gearhead vanish into the fog. And another to the right and behind him. And a third seemingly between those points. Three simultaneous moves? Armour whistled to Cadence, and she flew in closer.

Three different volleys of Lightning Arrows arced toward the two ponies. They were barely able to erect overlapping protective barriers, which immediately became stressed at the three points of sustained impact. Armour tried to focus on all three points, but he also knew that if he let his attention flag for a moment, one part of his shield would become weaker, and an attack might break through it. He could not allow it!

Gearhead came flying at the barrier from the left, and connected with one hoof, supercharged with another round of lightning magic. The barrier bent, began to crack, and then shattered. The Earth Pony continued spinning, bringing his sword to bear. Armour was still trying to deal with the sudden sting from the loss of the shield, and he suddenly hoped that Gearhead did not have another round of the same magic stored within that sword of his.

“Venti Corbe,” Gearhead said as he swung the sword around, gently grazing Armour’s horn with the pommel. Threads of wind magic wound themselves out from the point of contact, wrapping their way around Armour until he was tied to the ground with them… and completely incapacitated because he could not gather enough focus to blast them away, or even gather magic to his horn. Armour groaned: he was out of the fight.

As Gearhead leaped for what scrap of cover remained, Cadence climbed, a greater distance plus the high vaulted roof keeping her out of Gearhead’s physical reach. Now the match was a duel, with both combatants having spent a significant amount of magical energy. Armour hoped Gearhead was out of delayed spells.

Cadence knew as well as Shining Armour did that as long as she was flying high enough, she was out of Gearhead’s reach as far as physical attacks went. She was also fairly confident that she had enough space to react and dodge any spell he shot off at her. Still, she could not be fully certain of anything, considering what he had just pulled off in order to incapacitate Shining Armour. Cadence would try to free him if she knew Gearhead would not take the opportunity to attack her, and if she knew how many spirits he had called to tie up her partner. She did not, and neither did Shining Armour. Only Gearhead himself knew for certain, and Cadence could not take the risk of using overwhelming force and harming Shining Armour in the process.

Cadence was on her own, but she was also capable in her own right. Even as she searched for Gearhead, she was also pushing his fog back toward the edges of the room. Cadence could continue to take shots at Gearhead whenever she saw him, all the while watching out for his own shots so she could counter them effectively. Her only concern was the uncertainty as to whether her shield would hold out if Gearhead succeeded in hitting her. Wait and see. Be patient and don’t act rashly. No need to waste any energy, Cadence counselled herself.

An approaching cluster of golden lights wrenched Cadence back to the present. Here, Cadence knew, was only Part 1 in a multi-part plan, and yet she could not see anything other than this one round coming at her. She easily identified them as Lightning Arrows, and evaded them by flying higher, and then she continued to watch the arrows out of one eye because they could be guided back to her.

Suddenly Part 2 became highly visible as Gearhead launched himself up at Cadence with a wind spell. Cadence could not hear him, but even as he leaped up at her, she could see him gathering more Lightning Spirits. They swirled and collected all about his sword blade. Cadence started to let loose a string of countering attack beams, but Gearhead’s own shield absorbed them and he kept coming, only slowing slightly with each hit.

Gearhead was still climbing when he flipped his sword from his tail to his mouth, and pointing the blade directly at Cadence, released the Magic Arrows in a more compressed form. The lead arrows reached Cadence far faster than they should have, and on impact with her shield, Cadence realized that they were Light Arrows, so their speed was greater, their impact purely concussive. The second impact from the Lightning Arrows caused Cadence’s shield to buckle, just as her joint shield with Shining Armour had earlier, under the weight of those multiple rounds from before.

Unwilling to give in, Cadence closed her eyes and focused all her efforts on reinforcing her shield. Despite her doubts that it would hold out longer than the sustained round of Magic Arrows, she kept pouring her magic energy into her efforts. She did not want to be bested by a trick that was only slightly different from what had taken Shining Armour out earlier.

And then the pressure was gone. Cadence opened her eyes. There were cracks spiderwebbing all over her shield, but the stream of Magic Arrows was gone. Cadence looked around for Gearhead, and found him beneath and ahead of her, having just landed. He looked like he was out of delayed spells, and he was caught out nearly in the middle of the room, the few scraps of remaining fog too far away for him to reach – and probably too small for him to use as cover anyway. Cadence saw his lips moving, although he was being quiet enough she could not hear him.

Cadence absolutely could not allow Gearhead to finish that incantation! She chose to focus her energy on an attack round of her own, instead of on her shield. She relaxed her hold over her defences and collected magic power to her horn. She ignored the cracks deepening over her shield even after it shattered, and the shards began to fall toward the ground, leaving her completely defenceless.

Gearhead obviously saw all of this too, but rushing could make him foul up or bite his tongue, and either of those events would cause him to lose his spell. Still, he probably figured he had time before Cadence could unleash a spell powerful enough to put him out of the fight. Which meant that Cadence had just ran out of time.

Princess Cadence unleashed a stuttering salvo of magic blasts down at Gearhead through the still-falling and spinning shards of her shield. She expected the blasts to pass right through the energy shards. Instead, they got refracted and redirected into each other at the center of the falling formation. And then, with a high-pitched scream, the single blast lanced out and hit the target before Cadence could even blink.

The spell died on Gearhead’s lips when he saw the shards acting as a focusing array for the smaller beams. It was similar to how the five necklace-mounted Elements of Harmony focused their power, and that of their Bearers, into Twilight and the Element of Magic.

Gearhead did not have enough time to complete his spell, or move out of the way of the supercharged, super-speedy blast anymore. The impact was sudden and jarring, pinning Gearhead, shield and all, to the unyielding floor. Gearhead’s shield shattered as he bounced up against the top of it, and then he was thrust back into the ground at the head of the blast. The pain was excruciating and spread everywhere in an instant, and then Gearhead knew darkness.

* * *

Gearhead did not dream, but he thought he was in a dream because the pain he expected to experience was gone. It was only when he became aware of himself and dared to try opening his eyes that he realized that he had lost consciousness. He looked up and recognized the concerned faces of Princess Cadence and Princess Luna standing over him. “How long was I out?”

“Fifteen of the longest minutes of my life,” Shining Armour’s muffled and strained voice came from over Gearhead’s shoulder. “If you can tell us how many Spirits, we can get me out of this thing!”

Gearhead looked up and back to glance at Armour, and heard Cadence and Princess Luna gasp in concern. “What is it?” Gearhead asked.

“You shouldn’t be able to do that yet,” Cadence said. “Your spine… I was so sure I’d broken it. Sorry.”

“For all that you do great healing work,” Gearhead slowly got up, testing his legs.

“It wasn’t me, at least not entirely,” Cadence said.

“Your Highness?”

“My niece speaks true,” Princess Luna said. “It seems a major portion of your recovery was done by yourself. It was troubling, as even we, with out ability to enter dreams, could not ascertain your condition.”

“I did not dream,” Gearhead said, walking gingerly over to Armour. He touched a hoof to one of his Magic Arrows of Binding Wind where it met the ground, and they all unwound and flowed into him through that same leg. Armour would have fallen on his face if Gearhead and Cadence did not rush forward to catch their friend.

“My legs have fallen asleep,” Armour explained lamely. “But I didn’t expect it to be that easy.”

“I had to be conscious to do that sort of thing,” Gearhead said. “In any case, being out for a full fifteen minutes, it was clearly my loss.”

“No, it was a fluke and I lost control of my magic. You had a good chance to beat us,” Cadence said.

“If I am unable to adapt to the circumstances, then it can only be my loss. I did not have a counter prepared against such force, nor did I have the speed to dodge the resultant blast.” Armour was moving his legs to get the feeling back into them. “Two more reasons why I lost the match, although speaking of which, Armour, did you teleport beside Cadence to block my flanking attack before?”

“No, it was a form of instant movement – a physical energy-type technique I’m training the rest of the Royal Guard to use. Did you want to learn it?”

“If at all possible, yes.”

“I’d be glad to teach you, if you tell me how you pulled off three delayed Magic Arrows in the thirty second time limit. Because I had plenty of time to run the numbers, and they don’t add up.”

“Indeed, the fastest I could incant a single round of Magic Arrows is twelve seconds, including the activation key – I really need to register a shorter one. In any case, I could do two rounds, but not three, in that time. So I did not do three rounds, or even two.”

“A single round, split into three parts? That’s two hundred thirteen.”

“Yes, except..?”

“It’s no longer a prime number,” Cadence, who had studied some of the ancient magic alongside Gearhead, said. For whatever reason, the spirits upon which mages called for their spells seemed to favour prime numbers, or no number at all. “You have to add some on to make it work. The next one in the sequence is…”

“Two hundred twenty-three. Ducenti viginti tres,” Gearhead said.

“You end up with time and arrows to spare,” Cadence said.

“Both of which you could put to use in the salvo you delivered personally. Plus that wind cage you set to a keyword trigger. Well then, here are some basics for you to practice. First, gather what energy you can to all your hooves. Second, while pumping your feet as hard as you can from a standing position, or even while in motion, send the energy out explosively in the opposite direction from the direction in which you want to go. As you’re launching, aim and judge your distance with all of your senses. Third, gather energy under your hooves prior to landing to cushion yourself. Land stably and either launch into your next step or stand and exit. My legs are almost back to normal, so I can show you.”

“I would appreciate that, thank you.”

“Now that things are under control,” Princess Luna said, “we will return to our rest. We are thankful nopony is hurt.”

“Yes, we are,” Cadence said, smiling.

“Thank you for your concern,” Gearhead said, bowing. Princess Luna nodded in acknowledgement, and left Gearhead and Armour to practice their movements, with Cadence following along.

* * *

“So…? How did it go?” Pinkie Pie asked at lunch.

“Do you mean the training session?” Gearhead asked.

“Hm-hm-mm!” Pinkie nodded enthusiastically.

“We had a match, two-on-one. I defeated the guardspony.”

“That’s awesome! You know, unless he was really just bad,” Rainbow Dash said.

“No, he is quite skilled, and will not be caught by the same strategy again.”

“Well then, could you beat him again?”

“With a different strategy, or at least one he would not expect, yes.”

“Weren’t there ‘two’ against your ‘one?’ Seems kinda unfair, though,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Oh, you mean the Princess? She defeated me,”

“You fought against one of the Princesses and expected to win?” Dash asked.

“I hope you didn’t actually hit her,” Rarity said.

“Oh no, she hit me quite solidly before I could do anything of the sort.”

“Not for lack of trying, though,” Princess Celestia said. “Gearhead is quite clever and powerful. It took everything they had and something they didn’t know they had to defeat him.” She grinned, going along with Gearhead on avoiding any mention of Princess Cadence and Shining Armour.

“So what’s your afternoon going to be like?” Rarity asked.

“I will practice some new techniques, and then study some new spells,” Gearhead said.

Princess Celestia nodded. “Gearhead has earned unlimited access to the spell libraries. Anything he can find, he can study. Whether or not he ends up using the spells he learns is completely up to him.”

“What will all of you be doing? I doubt there’s much more of Canterlot to tour at this point,” Gearhead said.

“Well, it’s not as if I’ve shown you everything I’ll be showing them,” Princess Celestia said. “After all, there are one or two dozen things for fillies that a stallion cannot appreciate.”

“I will accede to that,” Gearhead dipped his head respectfully.

“By the way, I have a query for you from your shopkeepers,” Princess Celestia said, floating a letter down the table to Gearhead, who read it before composing a reply.

* * *

Early on the second day, Fluttershy and Twilight ran into a problem in sales: they had sold nearly the entire inventory that was for sale. All they had left were five or so items still for sale plus the display items. Twilight had Spike send a letter to Gearhead through Princess Celestia asking what they should do.

They did not get a reply until after lunch, and until then they kept the shop closed. Neither mare wanted to go on a supply run for Gearhead, and they would have had more trouble than him locating the materials he usually dug up. And they would have to dig it all up. The reply said to sell what they could, and then they could keep the shop closed, just coming in to check if everything was secure. Gearhead also wanted the pair of mares to keep him posted on the egg’s status.

Sale of the display items went quickly, but it took nearly the whole day for the five remaining items to be sold, at which time Twilight was able to close a mostly-empty shop. Fluttershy was away, tending to her animal friends. Twilight spent the time between sales continuing to read through the books recovered from the Castle of the Two Sisters – except for the ones Gearhead had taken with him to Canterlot, including the mysterious volume he always seemed to keep in one of his own saddlebags.

Other than the occasional customer who wanted a replacement for an item he or she had bought at Barnyard Bargains, the shop was fairly quiet, and Twilight got a lot of reading done. As she closed up, she wondered how the others were doing in Canterlot. She wondered how her brother was doing.

* * *

“Look here,” Princess Cadence said, sliding the book she was reading in Gearhead’s direction. “It’s a shorter version of the Song of Battle that you use.”

“So it is ‘Cantus Bellax’ instead of ‘Cantus de Proelio.’ That is certainly shorter. What about the other spells?” Gearhead asked.

“Not here,” Shining Armour said, looking through three different books at once. “I’m starting to think you were right in telling Princess Celestia that you had the shortest possible versions of each of the spells you use.”

“If that’s the case, couldn’t you create your own version of a spell that ends up being shorter?” Cadence asked.

“I think the result would be the same as Lightning Axe is to Jove’s Thunderstorm: It is significantly faster, even than Lightning Arrows, to cast, but it is also less powerful than Jove’s Thunderstorm.”

“But more powerful than Lightning Arrows?” Armour asked.

“Yes, unless I use a higher number of Spirits…”

“What?”

“It could be that if I summon enough spirits and then shape them, I could bridge the power gap. Theoretically that would permit me to use a low-level spell as a mid-level spell.”

“Or as more,” Armour suggested as he offered Gearhead a look at another book. “Is this Greek?”

Gearhead perused the entire incantation and description before he offered a response. “I can understand much of it, but not every word. I will transcribe it to my spellbook for further study. Yes, this spell is written in Greek. The length and the portions of the spell I can understand indicate it is high-ancient magic. I think… it is an Ice Magic spell, and that could prove difficult as I have never cast one before.”

“I’m sure you could master it if you wanted to,” Cadence said.

“She’s right, you know. If anyone can master elemental magic, it has to be you.”

“Elemental, huh?” Gearhead could not help thinking about the Elements of Harmony. Powerful Artifacts that they were, no other single Artifact, amulet, or spell of which he knew could match their collective power, or even the power of one of them should there be a way to use one without the others. Perhaps not with the existing Elements, but Gearhead was certain he could do something about that. His thoughts returned to the question at hoof, and recalled that he had already used a variety of elemental spirits in his spells. “Elemental Magic could indeed be my specialty,” he said.

The three spellcasting ponies continued to peruse the collection of spellbooks and scrolls. As Princess Celestia had promised, Gearhead now had unlimited access to Canterlot Castle’s entire archive and library on all things magical. Under instruction from the Princess Sisters, Armour and Cadence had opened up the doors to the deepest and most secure parts of the castle library. These consisted of massive rooms with vaulting ceilings absolutely filled, top to bottom, with books and scrolls of all descriptions.

Reading anything in the library was complicated by the fact that there were not any ladders or lights, so it had clearly been set up so that only spellcasting ponies like Unicorns could read the material, or even get to them – unless they flew. Anyone who wanted to read the material would have to supply their own light, one which would not degrade the paper or ink. To guard against further mischief, none of the original material could be removed from the complex of vaulted rooms: According to Princess Celestia, attempting to do so would result in a barrier being raised that would trap the material inside, while the fleeing pony would be on the outside, still trying to hold on to the book or scroll, and would therefore be just as trapped.

In this case, neither of the three had any problems retrieving material with their magic, or summoning lights by which to read them. Cadence could even fly up shelves to look at book and scroll titles before they brought them down, and while Gearhead had been forbidden from bringing his core system in for fear of what the light particles would do, he could just as easily raise himself on a pillar of earth or light fashioned into his own set of wings. Even Cadence had to be careful so as not to disturb the material with the downdraft from her wings.

In the process of their research, the curious trio came across spells by various notable Unicorns. Most of the spells’ authors were court mages who held the title ‘Magister Magi’ while serving either of the Princesses, or both. The title simply meant ‘Master Mage,’ but since it was in Latin, many of these individuals probably were familiar with the type of spell Gearhead was learning.

Twilight Sparkle would have been in Heaven, being able to learn spells personally penned by her personal hero, Starswirl the Bearded, also known for being the Father of the Anamorphic Spell. Other notables included the Princesses themselves, Clover the Clever who was Starswirl’s protégée, and somepony else of whom Gearhead had never heard with the odd name of ‘Spring Onion the Fieldmaster.’

Spring Onion had developed a series of disarmament spells that stripped the target of her or his armour and armament, as long as they were not secured with metal. The very existence of such a spell was curious, as a Unicorn could cast spells without needing anything other than her or his horn, which was (more or less, as Discord had proven) attached to the caster’s head. Gearhead could only conclude that the Exarmatio spells were for combat against warrior ponies, and ponies with special equipment – or perhaps conditions for casting, like Gearhead himself.

Fortunately the spell itself only required a rudimentary understanding of how it worked, and the correct few words. Vento Flore Exarmatio would summon a wind. Flos Exarmatio would do the same with vines. Flamma Flore Exarmatio would burn armaments away. Using Glacies Flore Exarmatio or Aqua Flore Exarmatio would freeze and shatter or flood out the extra gear.

The latter two were of interest to Gearhead because the spells indicated that there was both Ice and Water Magic. If Gearhead could not use Ice Magic, he should be able to use Water Magic. Gearhead decided to memorize the Flower, Windflower, and Waterflower versions of the spell.

He also found that Spring Onion had been interested in combat spells and techniques that could enhance his abilities in battle to the point where he would not need a partner to run interference against physical injury, and from that loss of casting ability. Besides various levels of invoking Cantus Bellax, Spring Onion was able to take his spells into various parts of his body to enhance his combat skills. He was a master of delayed magic, and he even had a spell that would give him a more dexterous form.

According to the description, the form the spell gave the caster (or his target) would be reshaped to maximize his or her ability to manipulate objects, as well as adding some agility. At the same time, most of the form’s senses were dulled and the muscles became weaker in some ways and specialized in others. In place of one’s coat, there was a thin cloth covering that got added. The critical ingredient was an image of ‘strength,’ but the incantation was also telling, as it called on various Spirits for aid.

One of the Spirits was Jupiter, who was also called ‘Jove.’ Gearhead had used the name in Jove’s Thunderstorm, but it was also the Spirit upon whom healers called. Jove represented the Wind.

The second Spirit was Terra, also called Demeter. Responsible for the state of the earth and soil, the harvest and even drought, Terra represented the Earth, as its name implied.

The third Spirit was Neptune of the Sea, Lord of the Aqua Spirits. Its domain would be all things to do with water, thus it could be just as responsible for a hardy life as the others.

The fourth and final Spirit was the Lord of Flame, whose name was only said aloud by those who could master Fire Magic and obtain a complete contract with the Master of Destruction and Rebirth. Of course, this reminded Gearhead of Philomena, who as a Phoenix personified the Lord of the Fire Spirits, Vulcan, or Hephaestus the Forger.

Calling all four Spirits together would cause the transformation to take hold, only to be released upon the spoken trigger for reversion, which was set in the incantation as well. All of this had been thought out well enough that the casting should be flawless, and the results hard to miss.

An untried, high-level spell like this would undoubtedly be tricky, but Gearhead would not know if he could master it, or if it could be useful to him, unless he tried it. He transcribed it to his spellbook. Once that was done, he walked around to where he would have more space without tables, chairs, or shelves to interfere. He took a deep breath, and then began.

As Gearhead proceeded with the incantation, four petals, one made of each of the four elements, sprouted from the floor and engulfed him, like a flower closing. Illuminated only by the light of the Fire petal, and with his vision of the outside world blocked, Gearhead could only focus on the spell and the tingling sensation that spread throughout his body. The transformation was beginning.

When the petals opened, releasing him, Gearhead stumbled forward a step. He noticed immediately that he stood higher up than he was used to, and when he looked down he saw he was reared up on his hindquarters. He braced with his forelegs, but when he did not fall forward, he took to examining his new form more carefully.

Gearhead’s legs were strange and gangly, twisted in directions that were all wrong for quadrapedal travel. His hooves were covered in shoes similar to those he wore against his geomancy leaking, but shaped significantly differently. When he focused on his hooves, he could wiggle something inside his shoes, and he almost lost his balance and fell. Fortunately, waving his forelegs a bit saved him the embarrassment.

Speaking of embarrassment, Gearhead’s coat was indeed gone, although his mane remained. To avoid being entirely bare-skinned, the spell had given him a plain black tunic of a simple cut, green pants with large pockets, and a belt with many pouches. Gearhead turned slightly to look back at Armour and Cadence, and was startled by two things.

One thing was that Cadence looked more brilliantly pink than before. Even in turning his head and watching the world seem to move around him, Gearhead could tell that his vision had changed – better in some ways, and worse in others.

Gearhead watched Armour and Cadence tracking his forelegs’ movement as he touched his shortened snout. He noticed, too, the strange wiggly parts at the ends of his former-hooves. Touching the padded parts against his nose revealed that they were soft and unsuitable for walking, let alone running. If his hooves were similar, then it was no wonder the transformation came with shoes. The top portions of the wiggly things were hardened, and pressing them against his nose or the main part of his hoof hurt slightly. But these cuticles also had too much give to be used as claws.

As Gearhead wondered what good this form actually was, he continued to wiggle and turn his hooves and the wiggly things in fascination. Then he realized that he could rotate his hoof where it met his foreleg, and that the offset wiggly thing met the base of one of the others when he bent it. If he curled them together, they formed a grip similar to the one Spike made to grip a pencil or quill to write letters or checklists for Twilight. In fact, apart from the complete lack of scaled armour or hardened nails, Gearhead’s hooves were more similar to Spike’s claws than to his main form’s hooves.

Curious, Gearhead drew his non-magic dagger. He noticed that the transformation spell had also changed its hilt to be more cylindrical. When he gripped the dagger in one claw (no, that is not quite the right word, is it?), it fit comfortably. Gearhead made several slow swings and thrusts, trying to approximate an attack pattern as he would with his mouth or tail. It seemed his new forelegs had a longer reach and arc, and if he rotated the joining part he had noted before, he could manipulate his dagger more precisely. This was interesting.

But in trying to move closer to Armour and Cadence, Gearhead quickly tripped and fell. “This shall take some getting used to,” he said. To which Cadence giggled. Fortunately, it seemed, he could still speak and understand the common language. That made sense, since Gearhead had not changed the way his brain worked. He spoke the phrase and returned to equine form.

20. Snow That Blooms In Autumn

Chapter 20: Snow That Blooms In Autumn

In designing the stabilizer pack for the single-core Alicorn Engine, Gearhead decided on an eight-wing design that would attach, by way of a single ring, all around the conical core itself. He moved away from the two-winged design because that would concentrate most of the weight too far forward, and while the particles the Engine generated could deal with the weight, Gearhead did not want to divert more power than necessary away from what the Engine was supposed to be doing. He also recognized that he might have to be able to carry the stabilizer while the system was powered-down, and that could get awkward.

Gearhead made the stabilizer out of the same gemstone combination as his condensers, with an adamantine skeletal structure and frame for durability. The core processor and logic core would be located inside the ring, along with the docking collar, while energy would be stored and dispersed in the wings, depending on what was needed at a given moment.

The stabilizer would have to be able to recognize and connect with the Engine. That, and the thought about carrying both around with him, led Gearhead to thinking about giving the stabilizer the ability to deploy when he summoned it, and fly short distances to dock with the Engine. That meant creating enough flexibility in the frame for it to have enough aerodynamics to fly on its own, transform in mid-air, and dock. That also meant installing guidance lasers into the stabilizer so it could dock properly 100% of the time. Gearhead needed to upgrade the rudimentary operating system he had originally written for the Engine, to work with the stabilizer without creating conflicts that would shut the whole thing down, or cause malfunctions within the system. He also wrote in additional safety measures so that other intelligent beings would not be able to hijack the system.

Naturally, if the stabilizer system worked, the same frame could not be used with the single-core and the twin-core systems. Gearhead designed a possible stabilizer system that would plug into the cores on the twin system, instead of connecting around the cores. With some tweaks here and there, he could even keep the eight-wing design.

Gearhead’s first trial with the single-core stabilizer took place in the Laboratory. He used a gantry system to carefully lower it into place while he wore the core’s harness, and observed carefully as the two docked. He made sure the two systems were able to lock fully into place, and that the release system was also working, and then he let them do a complete system check and synchronization before running the Engine up to see how the stabilizer was affecting its output – because if the difference was not sufficient enough, it was not worth the extra weight or material.

According to the numbers, the stabilizer multiplied the single-core Alicorn Engine’s output threefold, and that was in the static test. Gearhead grinned through the thickly-floating particles, because he could not wait to take everything outside and do a full flight test.

Gearhead trotted upstairs as fast as he could. He kept a notebook in his bedside dresser in case an idea occurred to him while he was sleeping. Naturally, it was all in a code only he could decipher, so he did not need to worry about anypony else taking his ideas and running away with them. To anypony else the scrawled chicken scratch was Gibberish, but many of these sleep-inspired ideas held the key to some part of the plan Gearhead had for the Alicorn Engine system, for example the interlocking system between the Engine and the stabilizer. Gearhead had just remembered something he had written down for the stabilizer, and he wanted to go and double-check it before he moved on.

Just as he was moving past his dresser, he saw the snow-filled globe containing the dragon egg wiggle, and stopped to watch. There was another bump, and the globe shook in its cradle again. It kept jumping like this, but Gearhead could not see anything past the snow and frost, and he did not want to risk releasing all of that all over his living quarters.

It was while Gearhead was worrying that the dragon might hatch only to discover that it could not break free of the orb, and Gearhead would not be able to see it in all the snow to know to let it out, that irregular white shapes splattered against the sides of the orb, causing it to jump twice as high, and fly free of the cradle. Gearhead had to catch it between his hooves to prevent it from rolling off the table. The snow began to swirl around strangely, and then the irregular shapes and frost began to peel off of the transparent orb, becoming a silver vortex that flowed right into the tiny open mouth of the snow-white creature that sat in the middle of the containment system.

The dragon closed its mouth only long enough to see that there was more snow and frost it had missed on the floor around it, and slurped that all up. Then it belched, unleashing a shockwave that made the globe jump again. Gearhead fumbled to catch it, in the process undoing the latch. Both ends of the globe went clattering to the floor, but he managed to catch the little dragon between both hooves. The baby dragon’s long neck and head flopped down along his muzzle between his eyes, and he felt its cold begin to seep in before the dragon sat up.

As the dragon twisted and craned its neck to get a good look around the room where it had hatched (and it must have been expecting to be born into a cave, not a wood-and-stone house!), Gearhead got a good look at it. Besides the brilliant-white scales, the little creature had a short, incredibly pale blue mane, a beak, a tail of decent length, and leathery wings that it flexed and flapped free of frosty residue. Its spines were short, rounded, and a darker blue than her mane. The inquisitive chirps it had been making as it scanned the room stopped when it – she – locked her incredibly sharp, pale blue eyes onto Gearhead’s, and her left eye faded to bright green.

“Hello,” Gearhead said softly as he felt something warm seem to wrap around his head, although there was not anything there physically. “I know this is not the sort of sight you were expecting, but then... welcome to the world. Welcome to Ponyville.” Gearhead wondered what he should call the little dragon, since her mother had not given him a name or any guidelines. Indeed, even in all the books he had read, the sections on dragons were incredibly sparse. It would be difficult to imagine dragons naming their progeny in the same way that ponies did, and the only draconic name that Gearhead knew, Shadow Wright, would not suit this little one.

But ‘Snowbelle’ would, Gearhead thought. “That’s right. Welcome to the family, Snowbelle. I am Gearhead.” The little arctic dragon trilled and purred, bobbing her head slightly. Gearhead had the impression that she approved of the name, although there seemed to be something nagging at her, a little something more. Then she opened her mouth and blew softly, forming a large snowflake. Gearhead did not know how, but he knew there was a name contained within. Snowbelle’s one true, draconic name, and the one that would hold power over her when it came to magic: Fleury. That she felt such a way toward Gearhead that she knew he could be trusted with her true name was an honour even greater than being Dragonfriend, Gearhead felt. He could not tell a soul about this name, but he could leave it to Snowbelle whether she would tell anyone else. It was her name, after all. Welcome, Fleury, Gearhead thought, and was shocked to see a shock of turquoise run through her mane to match his, as though in acknowledgement. A great honour indeed. Snowbelle purred for a moment.

The happy moment passed, when Gearhead somehow felt a sensation of alarm and discomfort. He looked around, and even got a Read after setting Snowbelle down on his dresser, but did not detect a threat. He only felt the discomfort seem to migrate to his stomach, and then he heard a soft rumbling begin. He traced it to Snowbelle’s stomach. She is showing me how she feels? Oh, she’s hungry! Uh... what can I feed a hungry arctic dragon hatchling?

Gearhead knew that Spike sometimes ate hay sandwhiches and other pony foods, but he preferred gems. As baby food went, that could get to be expensive, and he had no idea what that would do to Snowbelle’s developing teeth, however it would be better all-around than ponies. Also, since Spike was a firedrake and Snowbelle was an ice dragon, their diets might be a little different.

When he thought of gemstones again, Gearhead felt a cool and sunny sensation in his stomach, and turned to see Snowbelle sitting up, swishing her tail from side to side. Her wings were half-open, but did not yet look capable of supporting her for very long. She obviously liked the idea, and that gave Gearhead another one. “Hold there,” he said, holding one hoof up in the baby’s direction, and then he bolted for one of his storage bins.

Gearhead came back with a baby blue sapphire. Snowbelle was still sitting on the dresser, but now she was thumping her tail against it impatiently. “Hold on,” Gearhead said, and then he called on his magic to imbue the ingot he was holding with Wind and Water Magic, filling the crystal with Ice Magic. “There,” he said, and then he held it out for Snowbelle to inspect.

The pearl-white dragon sniffed at the gem, and then grabbed it in her beak. As she rolled onto her back, she wrapped her tail and her legs around different parts of the gem. As he watched, Gearhead realized that she was sucking on the jewel, rather than chewing on it and eating it. Looking a little more closely, he saw that she was sucking the magic out of it – and judging by the sensation she was feeding back to him, she was satisfied by the meal.

It did not take long before Snowbelle decided she was full. She rolled over and used her tail to position the jewel so she could hold it between her wings, still containing some of the magic Gearhead had put into it. She then started to stride in circles. Gearhead wondered what she was looking for until she fed him a warm sensation surrounded in safety. Oh, she is sleepy, he thought.

The dragon looked up at him, but she was staring above his eyes. At my mane? He brought his head in close, experimentally, and the dragon hopped on, landing between his eyes. She hopped again, and there was a slight whoosh from her wings before Gearhead felt the slight contact of her paws. Snowbelle walked a couple of circles, her tail tickling Gearhead a bit, and then she lay down there on top of his head, and snoozed. At least she does not have any extreme nesting behaviour, Gearhead thought.

Gearhead looked into the mirror as he faced his bedside again, and remembered what had brought him up here in the first place. Trials would have to wait. Right now, he had to gain as much insight as possible as to the caring of baby dragons, and then he would have to figure out how he was going to keep his promise to Snowbelle’s mother. Princess Celestia had written the dragon entries in the encyclopedias, but Gearhead did not know if she had raised any dragons. He could consult with her later. Twilight had raised Spike, so she was more ideal. But if Gearhead was going to go out and ask about the care of a small animal, he had better also go to Fluttershy, because if nothing else, she would probably want to meet Snowbelle. It was the least Gearhead could do, considering Fluttershy’s cottage was nearby.

As Gearhead turned away from the mirror, having made his decision, he suddenly wondered why he was only feeling a slight cold from Snowbelle atop his head. It would make sense for him to feel more of it, since the head was one of the places from which one lost body heat the most quickly, but this did not seem to be the case here. Maybe whatever bonding had occurred between them already was protecting Gearhead from the arctic dragon’s natural cold. Did that also work the other way?

* * *

At first Gearhead was worried that he would jostle Snowbelle awake while he walked, or that the comparative autumn heat would make her uncomfortable. Evidently the motion from walking lulled the dragon into a deeper sleep, and such low ambient heat did not seem to bother her.

While Gearhead was also somewhat concerned that Snowbelle’s rolling around in his mane might result in him balding early, the most she did was nuzzle more closely into his hair with her beak. He felt a little cool from there, but it was still pretty comfortable. If Snowbelle was able to protect Gearhead from the cold, then it seemed likely that he was protecting her from a heat that would have been uncomfortable to other arctic dragons.

That brought Gearhead around to thinking about Snowbelle’s mother and the promise she had made him make. Gearhead was to take Snowbelle into the mountains in the north, where the arctic dragons would probably be living, and give the young dragon the opportunity to learn from her own kind. She would also probably end up staying and living there, but then what did the bond between them amount to if that was the case? No, I cannot think like that. Snowbelle is a dragon, so even though she has become family to me, if she chooses her draconic heritage, I will not stop her. It is what her mother wanted for her. In the first place, giving one’s egg up like that cannot have been easy, and to some pony at that.

Gearhead determined that he would do his best for Snowbelle, so that when he returned to the Canterlot Caves he could tell the elder dragoness that she did not have anything about which to worry – assuming she was alive for that long. Gearhead hoped she was.

In order to get Snowbelle to her ancestral home, Gearhead would have to survive the environment himself. Despite the protection Snowbelle gave him, he doubted it would prevent him from freezing solid in the arctic heights, or in the ice caverns that might make up the dragons’ homes. Gearhead would have to build a vessel that would protect him, and anyone riding with him, from the cold. While he was at it, it could be something that would work as a multi-purpose vessel – for research, travel, and also for carrying cargo like the materials Gearhead needed for business. And of course it would require another Alicorn Engine as its powerplant and propulsion. Equestria had its airships, but this vessel would have a design and properties that would allow it to go almost anywhere.

The ship would take time to build and test. In that time, Gearhead would do his best to raise Snowbelle. He probably should not let her eat any meat, unless it was a requirement of her diet, but then he did not know if Fluttershy would allow that to happen. Certainly some of her friends were carnivorous and omnivorous, and she would not stop them from eating what they had to eat to survive. But ponies were certainly off the menu for the dragons who lived in Ponyville. All two of them.

Gearhead was lucky to find Fluttershy at her cottage when he arrived there. “Oh, good morning,” she said in her usual soft tone. “I wasn’t expecting you so early today. Please do come in.”

“I guess this really is not part of my previous routine, but then something changed this morning. I knew right away that you would want to see first, before I go to see Miss Twilight about it.” Gearhead said, more than matching Fluttershy’s quiet voice.

“About what?” Fluttershy asked, blinking. She barely even seemed to notice the stallion’s efforts, which almost made him laugh: what was so effortless for her was difficult for others.

That is right, Gearhead thought. There are not many areas in which their expertise overlap. It may be best just to show her, but there are a few things to take care of first. “Before I show you, can you please promise to react as quietly as possible? I cannot predict how she will react when she wakes up.”

“’She?’” Fluttershy tilted her head curiously. “I can’t tell what you’re talking about, but okay.” The mare leaned forward and smiled, coyly playing Gearhead’s game as she lowered her voice even further. “I promise.”

How in Tartarus did she..? There were many other qualities and ways in which Fluttershy continued to impress Gearhead. Being absurdly quiet usually annoyed him, because he could barely hear her when she was like this, but this was a new height... or low, since it was a matter of volume. Time to get this over with, Gearhead thought to bring himself back to the matter at hoof. He lowered his head, giving Fluttershy her first view of the dragon sleeping there.

She squeaked, and Gearhead immediately looked up at the mare, afraid she had inadvertently awoken the dragon. Fortunately Fluttershy had already clapped both hooves over her mouth, only keeping her height by flying. Her eyes seemed to become huge as Gearhead watched her float closer as she inspected the creature curled up on top of her friend’s head. If she had something to say, Gearhead could not hear her.

Fluttershy backed up slowly, until she was several meters from where Gearhead stood, head still bowed. The mare uncovered her mouth, and made such a clear satisfied gesture with her legs, and with such a wide smile, that Gearhead could almost hear the ‘squee.’ Then Fluttershy’s expression turned thoughtful as she looked all around the cottage. Gearhead exchanged a glance with Angel, who merely shrugged. Despite the presence of a dragon, the bunny himself seemed unimpressed and unmoved. Gearhead wondered if that spoke to the variety of creature that visited Fluttershy’s cottage, or to Angel’s own attitude. Maybe both.

Fluttershy suddenly started pushing Gearhead, steering him toward the door. Angel jumped up to ride on the curl in his owner’s long tail as she pushed the stallion out the door, and then took the lead on the path into Ponyville. The stallion gave a mental shrug and moved to follow.

Minutes later they were inside the library, and Fluttershy was very quietly making Twilight, Spike, and Dash promise to be super-extra quiet before letting Gearhead come in further than the doorway. Gearhead himself thought this was ironic, since passing ponies could almost see the top of his head better than Twilight and the others could. But oh well.

Once the other three were sworn in, Fluttershy motioned for Gearhead to come in and let them see. Spike promptly started to jump around, claws clamped to his mouth. He was clearly overjoyed to see another dragon, and not the type that was filling the air with smoke. At first Dash recoiled with an ‘are you crazy?’ expression on her face, but when Snowbelle nuzzled into Gearhead again, her expression simply melted. Then she shook her head and scowled, but that did not last for long either.

Twilight’s reaction was the most telling of them all. She marched in close, examining the sleeping dragon from every possible angle, and then started to scramble silently about the library, looking for books with the slightest of mention of anything even remotely similar in description, aided by Spike. Once the Unicorn had had a good look around, she ushered everypony upstairs where there were less books or much of anything else to damage. They all crowded around Twilight’s bed, waiting to see what would happen.

Finally, Snowbelle seemed to respond to the air of expectation, yawning to show off her teeth. Gearhead watched and judged what she was doing not only by the others’ reactions, by them leaning in or out and the wideness of their eyes, but also by the mental impressions he continued to get off of Snowbelle, who was lazily sitting up even as she opened her eyes and became aware of the strangers around her. Gearhead was ready to send her comforting impressions, in case she panicked, but he did not like having to control her emotionally, so he held back.

For a long time, the ponies and dragons just stared at each other. When nopony still had not moved, Snowbelle craned her head back to retrieve her ice gem, and once she was holding it between her claws, she started to suck on it again, all the while keeping her eyes on those who were watching her.

“I think it is okay,” Gearhead said softly. “She does not seem to see anypony as a threat.”

“How d’you know? I mean, know for sure?” Dash asked.

“Because that is the impression she is giving me,” Gearhead said.

“Impression? She’s sitting on your head!”

Fluttershy and Twilight both shushed Dash, but Snowbelle merely flexed her wings a bit.

“It is rather amazing: she sends these impressions to my mind, like when she is hungry or sleepy. Right now she just seems... curious.”

“So you can hear what she’s feeling?”

“It is more than hearing, Spike: I feel it as well, the sensations of her thoughts and feelings. And the most amazing thing about it is that even though she does not use words, if I think about the most basic form of whatever she is expressing to me, that is exactly what it is. That is why I call it an impression.”

“You’re mentally bonded to each other,” Twilight said.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy said. “I’ve heard of a hatchling bonding to the first thing it sees, but this seems to be more than that if you know what she’s thinking.”

“Wait, does that mean she knows what you’re thinking?” Dash asked.

“Maybe,” Gearhead put his hooves up so Snowbelle could walk on to them, and then he lowered her to the bedspread. They looked across at each other for a moment. “Yes, we can both get a sense of each other’s thoughts.”

“I guess you’re gonna have to hide some from her, then,” Spike said, “being like a parent.”

“There are some things she could be better off not knowing,” Twilight said. “She’s just a baby, after all.”

“I will obviously have to learn a certain mental fortitude,” Gearhead said, and Snowbelle chirped in a way that sounded like laughter. He felt it too, her amusement.

“Well, what’re you gonna do with her?” Dash asked.

“I will raise her, of course, and fulfill the promise I made to her mother.”

“That’s going to take a lot of time and effort,” Twilight said. “Whatever experience you have with your younger siblings and other foals, raising a dragon is not like that!”

“Yeah, be careful what you leave near her,” Spike said. He reached out a claw toward Snowbelle, but when she got close she recoiled a little, hissing at him. “Oh. Guess I better be careful about that,” he said, sounding and looking hurt.

“It is okay, Spike,” Gearhead said. “She will become more hardy as she grows older, and you can be good friends. I will need somepony to give her a good idea of what a dragon can be, after all.”

“A noble dragon,” Spike said proudly. “Plus, I’m the older of the two of us. I can be like her big brother!”

“Maybe,” Gearhead said, smiling. “Dragons can live many, many more years than ponies, so maybe in your terms you are not that much older than she is.”

“But still I’m older,”

“Of course. We are just teasing you,”

“’We?’”

“Me and Snowbelle. She might not have much of our language yet, but she is very, very clever, and she has ideas.”

“Your ideas, no doubt,” Dash said, grinning.

“Some,” Gearhead said.

“’Snowbelle,’ huh? That’s a pretty name,” Fluttershy said.

“You sure it’s not inspired by another ‘belle?’” Twilight asked archly.

“Seriously? Even as Dusty I knew I was too old for her,” Gearhead said.

“Who?” Spike asked, a question Owlolicious gamely echoed.

“Sweetie Belle,” Dash said, getting it.

“That’s just weird,” Spike said, shivering.

“Yes it is, and enough of that, please. Twilight, I came to you for tips on care.”

“Sorry, there’s not much I can help you with here: she’s a different type of dragon, after all. But she hatched, and she looks like she’s happy, so maybe just keep doing what you’re doing?”

“We eat different things,” Spike said, “but she really seems to like that gem.”

“Good point,” Twilight said. “Maybe you can feed her those and hay. Hey, there’s something swirling in there!”

“I loaded it with magic. Is that bad?”

“I don’t know. We’ll have to ask Princess Celestia if she knows anything about arctic dragons.”

“’Happy dragon’ means ‘happy house,’” Spike said, “and she looks happy again.”

“You’re kind of in uncharted territory here,” Twilight said, “but I’ll send a letter to the Princess and keep my eyes and ears out for new information.”

“I’ll ask my critter friends,” Fluttershy said.

“And I’ll keep out of the way,” Dash said.

“What did you come here for again?” Twilight asked.

“Oh yeah, I wanted to see if you had books on any flying tricks I don’t know yet.”

“I might,” Twilight said, “if you haven’t learned all the classics yet.”

“Aww,”

“Rainbow Dash, do you have any idea how many times you’ve been through the library? Until I get more books, you’ll have read up on everything I have on flying! And books on meteorology and weather control are useless to you since you make up your own terminology, and even know at least as much as the books.”

“Yeah, yeah. We’ve been over this a gajillion times.”

“Because it’s true,”

“Well, I’m still bored.”

“Maybe you could read up on another subject,” Gearhead suggested.

“Like what?”

“Archaeology?”

“What for?”

“To be honest I am not sure,” Gearhead said. “It just came to me.”

“Don’t tell me it was another of your dragon’s jokes,”

“I could not say,”

“Maybe we should get started on those mental exercises,” Twilight said, staring at Snowbelle as she laughed again.

* * *

While Spike sent Gearhead’s request for research material to Princess Celestia, and Twilight dove back into research mode, Gearhead himself had little else he could do about finding out how to care for arctic dragon babies – except to dive in and take care of whatever needs and wants Snowbelle herself had. And her desire for the moment was both simple and easy to fulfill: she wanted to see more of Ponyville.

All Gearhead had to do to satisfy Snowbelle was to walk around the town and talk briefly to the other ponies as they went about their business. At first they were obviously caught off balance by the sight of the little dragon, but that feeling did not last for very long.

It was not as though Ponyville, with all they had already seen, were simply ‘uncomfortable’ with a dragon’s presence, since they had gotten used to having Spike around – and he proved his worth time and again by being able to contribute to the town either by lending a helping claw or by helping Twilight and the others with the activity of the day. The ponies were set back, stunned, by the visual of a dragon standing excitedly like a puppy on the top of a pony’s head as he strode about town. Snowbelle’s excitement and posture, and especially her lolling tongue, were more suited to a furry creature like Winona than they were to a creature most of Equestria would assume was fierce and destructive.

The only way to counter Ponyville being stunned, as well as their discomfort, was to let them see Snowbelle and how happy and harmless she was. Even though he was usually uncomfortable with going up to ponies and talking to them when he did not have any business with them, for Snowbelle’s sake Gearhead did exactly that, introducing the dragon to them and talking about nothing more consequential than the weather. Snowbelle’s happiness and excitement at all the new things and faces bubbled through their connection into Gearhead, so that their alacrity overtook his own nervousness even as the dragon chirped and trilled happily away.

“Oh, that’s pretty cute,” Sweetie Belle said, as the Crusaders spotted the dragon. Gearhead was taking her past the school even as Cheerilee was letting the foals out for the day.

“She looks just like Winona!” Apple Bloom said.

“You gonna train it to attack your enemies?” Scootaloo asked.

“She is just a baby, Scootaloo,” Gearhead said. “Also, I am not sure she would agree to that.”

“So she’s the one who came out of that egg that you’ve had for all this time?” Apple Bloom asked.

“That is correct,” Gearhead said. “Let me introduce you to Snowbelle.”

“’Belle?’” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo stared at Sweetie Belle.

“What?” The Unicorn filly asked, blushing in her discomfort at the sudden attention.

“It is like a flower that blooms in the winter,” Gearhead said. “A snowdrop, but different.”

The three fillies stared more closely at Snowbelle and her glistening, white scales. For her part, the dragon stared right back, spreading her wings slightly. “She is like a flower,” Apple Bloom said.

“So is she like Spike? Could you use her to send letters to a princess?” Scootaloo asked.

“I’m sure Spike didn’t know how to do that right away,” Apple Bloom said.

“I thought maybe he could do that because he was watched by a Unicorn,” Sweetie Belle said.

“I actually do not know,” Gearhead said. “Maybe she could learn a spell like that.”

<Learn magic? Okay,>

“Yes, dragons are intelligent creatures. I am certain she could learn magic.”

“Speaking of, could I come around for practice later?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Okay,”

“Yikes, a dragon!” Diamond Tiara took a mocking hop back away from Gearhead and the Crusaders, then burst into laughter with Silver Spoon.

Snowbelle growled softly, but quieted at Gearhead’s thought. They are not worth it; they are just schoolyard bullies. Gearhead knew she could have jumped at them and sprayed them with her breath attack, but it would not have done much besides get them wet. Besides, it was not okay to let such taunts bother you. All the same, bullying was not okay. “Yes, this is a dragon, and even if she was not a dragon it would be better to be careful. Teasing others is often not a good idea, because you never know what they might do that would make you regret it.”

“Ooh, you must feel real big threatening schoolfillies,” Tiara said.

“A threat? Oh no, you misunderstand me. I was bullied when I was younger, so I know that both bully and bullied can act in such a way to make each other regret what was said and done. I decided, based on your taunt, to share a little wisdom with you girls. All of you,” Gearhead said, glancing at the Crusaders.

“Pfft. Lets go home,” Tiara said, and Spoon followed her.

“What’s got into them?” Apple Bloom asked.

<They do not like being outdone,>

“No they do not,” Gearhead said.

“They don’t what?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I thought... nevermind,” Gearhead went to speak a bit with Cheerilee, while the Crusaders shrugged and went on their way.

* * *

While Gearhead did not dare take Snowbelle into the Everfree Forest with him while he mined for resources, nothing prevented him from keeping her close by while he worked at developing and assembling gadgets. There was, for one thing, the crystal player Dash had asked for, which Gearhead completed while the dragon watched. And while he did not dare test it in the field just yet, Gearhead could also tune his prototype stabilizer, as well as the twin-core Alicorn Engine, which was nearing completion.

Sweetie Belle came by for her magic lesson, as promised. Rarity came with her, to watch but also probably to see the new dragon. They set up for the lesson upstairs, and while Gearhead and Sweetie Belle meditated on the floor, Rarity spent most of the time talking to Snowbelle on the bed. The dragon divided her attention between the ponies on the floor and the chattering Unicorn, trying her best to absorb everything she was hearing together with everything she was seeing. Afternoon faded into early evening, and the newborn fell asleep. Rarity spent the rest of the session cradling her while she watched Sweetie Belle.

After Rarity left carrying her exhausted little sister (strangely without any jibe against Gearhead about Snowbelle and her role in his life), Gearhead put Snowbelle on his head and went downstairs to open the shop for the few hours before everypony went to sleep. He was, after all, still running a business. Once the trickle of customers dried up, he closed up, had dinner, and tucked down for the night, Snowbelle sleeping beside him on his pillow.

In his dreams, there were two starry fields joined together as though placed within the two chambers of an hourglass. One fold felt naturally familiar in its entirety, and Gearhead decided it was his even before he saw that it was crowded with all kinds of knickknacks and gadgets and shadows of Engines he had yet to fully imagine. The other fold was mostly empty but vast. This one likely belonged to Snowbelle.

“It does,” Princess Luna said.

“Ah, good evening, Luna.”

“And good evening to you as well, Gearhead.”

“What brings you here so soon?”

“I wanted to see all this first-hoof,” Luna said. “It is incredible simply to hear that a pony has been joined mind-to-mind with a dragon, and yet here between your minds is the indisputable proof.”

“Indeed,”

“I can teach you the techniques to ward off unwanted mental intrusion, as well as those required to wall off certain sections of one’s psyche and memory. Your Snowbelle is but a child, and there are many things she does not yet need to know.”

“I agree,”

“And so we understand one another, you fully intend on seeing it through?”

“Absolutely, yes.”

“Even though some will inevitably see her as a threat, and by extension you?”

“Yes,”

“They may, in fear, attack you.”

“I will not allow her to come to harm,”

“She is that important to you?”

“She is my daughter.” Gearhead realized that it was true: he would never allow any being to harm Snowbelle, and he would likewise never harm her. They had already connected on a deep enough level that despite being of different species and despite being from different regions, Gearhead considered Snowbelle his own daughter. And that was the way he would see her, even if she decided to stay at her ancestral home.

“I can give you the location of her home,” Luna said, “but I do not imagine it will do much good without a way to get there and survive. You can ask my sister, or me, for it again, once you are ready. Unfortunately, what little we know about Arctic Dragons has little to do with raising one. We know only that they are a proud race.”

“As most dragons seem to be,”

“Indeed. Good luck, Friend Gearhead.”

“Thank you, Luna.” Gearhead watched the Guardian of the Night leave the dreamscape, and only then remembered the voice he had heard earlier in the day. It was certain, now that he thought about it, that none of the Crusaders had been speaking to him. Neither had it been Luna, communicating telepathically as she sometimes did. The only other being in Gearhead’s head besides himself was Snowbelle, and she had not demonstrated possession of a vocabulary before.

But that did not mean she did not have one. Rather, it was more likely that she had much the same menu of words at her disposal that he did! In a way, this would represent a step forward, since it meant that Snowbelle could express what she wanted from Gearhead more fully and more accurately. On the other hoof, transmitting an impression or picture came across much faster than a set of words. It was not as though one method was better or worse than the other – they were simply different.

But the difference between language within pictures and language in the form of words was something to ponder further. This would mark the second time within a short period of time that Gearhead had been inspired by a youngling.

The next day, Gearhead gave the crystal player to Dash, and she invited everypony to watch the race recording. Gearhead brought Snowbelle, and he got to see the race from a spectator’s viewpoint. One feature he enjoyed seeing was a spotlight on all the racers. They were all assigned numbers based on their starting positions.

Gearhead noticed that the first five racers were all residents of Hoofington. Racers six through nine were Winter Flight. Ten through twelve were also Hoofington residents, and then there was Spring Flight, which included Radar. Summer Flight was right behind them, and then there was a group from Las Pegasus, the sister-city to Cloudsdale. Autumn Flight was behind them, then Gearhead, and Prism Flight near the back. Gearhead also recognized the Pegasus mare who had tried to cut him off. Her name was Lightning Dust.

Uncle Windwalker was acting as a guest commentator, highlighting the different strategies the racers were using. He called attention to the difference between the team and solo racers. The two announcers followed Azure Wing’s representatives pretty closely, but also the city’s representatives, even though they started fading back early on.

As the race proceeded into the maze, Windwalker called attention to Radar’s ability. She was shown guiding Spring and the others through the most direct path without stopping or pausing. Sometimes the maze’s paths changed on her, but even when that meant her team had to backtrack to get out of loop, she did not hesitate, and Spring did not seem to question the changes.

From the start, the hoof-down favourite to win was Prism, who Windwalker called ‘Azure Wing’s fastest and most daring flyer.’ In the maze, Windwalker applauded her willingness to work with Gearhead in order to get past the obstacles. And on approach to the finish line, Gearhead saw what he had missed while he was embroiled in the race itself: Prism Flight used Contrail Boost to give them the speed they needed to overtake Gearhead and win. They had made great use of their abilities to beat him.

“That was amazing,” Twilight said.

“Eh. I coulda beaten that Prism,” Dash said. “Still, she was pretty good.”

“Of course,” Gearhead said, “Azure Wing is famous for sending many flyers to the Wonderbolts, either as straight-out members or as instructors.”

“You mean I’ll see them at the Wonderbolts?”

“She did promise to have gotten that far the next time we meet,” Gearhead said.

“I’d like to see that,” Dash said with a huge grin.