My Little Pony: Third Gear

Chapter 20: Life Reflected In Words

Princess Celestia led Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash into the catacombs underneath Canterlot Castle. They were not far from where Chrysalis had tried to imprison the mares who got in her way, but these caverns had an altogether different feel to them, which helped Twilight be less skeptical about where they were going.

If Princess Celestia knew of any resources that might be useful in getting the five dimension jumpers back home, Twilight would hold faith that the possibility was there. Still, Twilight was on her guard against anything that might look like the princess had come under someone else’s control again.

While Twilight had once held absolute trust in her mentor, she now was beginning to question whether Princess Celestia really had Equestria’s best interests at heart all the time. Besides being under Chrysalis’s influence, the princess did not exactly have the best record when it came to decisions which changed the course of life in the principality. Yes, the quality life was generally good, but it never seemed to be very long between the re-emergence of yet another ancient threat. Twilight had thought that Princess Celestia knew as much as she needed to, and was the most powerful being and thus able to protect Equestria from any threat. Recent events had proven otherwise, especially with Chrysalis overpowering her.

The caverns became a maze, but Princess Celestia led the small group unerringly forward. Twilight could see why, as Starswirl had posted directional signs everywhere. If he had any security measures in place at all, it was in the signs’ language.

“I’m surprised all this and the three colonies fit into the mountain,” Twilight said.

“Oh, it doesn’t,” Princess Celestia said. “Starswirl created a pocket dimension that exists two steps from our reality. That way his libraries, the Jackrabbits, moles, and Goblin Ponies could all exist in the same space, and not even know it.”

“Well, that’s not a concern anymore,” Rainbow said. “When’s the last time this library’s even been used?”

“I am afraid only I have used it, and only occasionally,” Princess Celestia said. “I sometimes wish I could go more often, but my duties prevent me. Also, with Luna back I have felt the need to go less.”

“Who wouldn’t want to read Starswirl’s research?” Twilight asked.

“Me,” Rainbow said, “if it’s not an adventure story like Daring Do.”

“Well, I guess it would matter a lot less to you, not being into magic theory and that sort of thing,” Twilight allowed.

“We’re here,” Princess Celestia said, as they approached a large set of heavy-looking double doors.

“’Athenaeum?’ I thought we were looking for a library,”

“Rainbow Dash, that’s what it means. I gave you a thesaurus for your birthday, so why didn’t you read it?”

“Because it’s a thesaurus,” Rainbow said dryly.

Twilight rolled her eyes, but Princess Celestia merely smiled as she led the way inside. “Oh my,” Twilight said, “would you look at that? It’s Starswirl’s cape and hat – his actual hat! And—“

“Let me guess: every book he’s famous for?” Rainbow rolled her eyes.

“We’re in his library after all,” Pinkie said. “I bet you’d sound the same if we found a house with lots of Daring Do stuff, Dashie.”

“You kidding? I’d be totally cool!”

“Yeah right,” Twilight said, but her friends had already helped her to refocus.

“Much of Starswirl’s later research is given over to the magicks of time and space,” Princess Celestia said. “It is a large amount of material through which to comb.”

“Ooh, we should have brought Rarity!”

“Not that kind of combing, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said, smiling. “But it’s a good thing I brought you two along to help: it’ll make the search that much faster.”

“More reading? I bet it’s as stimulating that history stuff for the Crystal Empire.”

“We don’t know magic, so probably less?” Pinkie suggested.

“Oh yeah: it’ll probably be in some ancient gibberish.”

“Only some magic is written in gibberish,” Twilight said, haughtily, “and you’d know that if you’d read the Equestrian-Magic language dictionary I gave you for Hearth’s Warming Eve.”

“Who reads a dictionary? Oh wait, yeah I see where this is going.”

“Lets just get reading,” Twilight said, and they spread out to search, Twilight more than a little star struck from being in Starswirl’s library.

* * *

While Fluttershy and Discord watched, the others inspected Gearhead’s upgraded sani-station. They were all standing in the cargo bay, the Wind having returned from its short flight. The newcomers had all wanted a tour of the ship, but then they quickly became bored since everything looked just about the same, and they seemed to have seen at least one thing similar to the Wind before.

Aurora Mage was the most interested in the sensor chamber out of all of them, asking Gearhead what ‘this’ or ‘that’ scanned for, or in her words, “what does this one do?” Gearhead gamely answered each time, until he started having to repeat himself. Fortunately Mage quickly recognized each sensor type based on its appearance and location on each cluster, so she stopped having to ask each question.

Doc Wolf and Silver Quill, meanwhile, were scrolling through the display readout that Gearhead had installed beside the chamber. Besides the controls, it also had a listing of each sensor, and when either of them read off a sensor’s name or designation, Gearhead supplied its purpose.

Mage and Doc made the most suggestions of other things for which Gearhead could scan. They were things he had never heard of, like neutrinos, tachyon particles, and positrons, but once they were explained to him, he could build devices that could scan for them. From there, he could miniaturize those sensors, and mount them into the sani-station’s sensor clusters.

KP also had her suggestions to make, but she spent a surprising amount of time looking at the armours secured in the hold, or in the cockpit, playing with the controls even though they would not respond to her. The armours were refined versions of the ones Gearhead had created during basic training at the Wonderbolts Academy. Should the Elemental Six need more protection than they generally had, these suits would provide it.

At first Fluttershy was jealous of the ease Gearhead seemed to have with Mage, but then Fluttershy realized that the Unicorn was simply a friendly, comforting pony who was like this with most, if not all, others. The Pegasus became jealous of that social ease, until Mage booped her on the nose, making her giggle at the absurdity of it all. Fluttershy knew that Mage wanted to get home as badly as the rest of her group, and that none of them could stay here. It was odd to think that anything could happen, when she was merely being friendly. If anypony might try to steal Gearhead away from Fluttershy, it was Dawn, and they had an understanding.

Mage had already booped everyone on the ship. It was usually preceded by her staring straight at her target’s face. Then she would slowly creep up, lift a forehoof, and then softly say “touch” as she did it. Gearhead had had the most amusing reaction, looking at his muzzle as he twitched it, so his glasses fell into place from off of his forehead. Fluttershy would have thought that Mage would need to jump up to do the same to Discord, but as the Draconequus stared across at the Unicorn, she had simply hovered in the air using her magic.

“Don’t you dare,” Discord had warned.

Mage smiled, approaching ever so slowly, and staring intently all the while.

“Don’t,”

“Eh-heh,”

“I said...”

“Touch,”

“You did it,” Discord said flatly.

“Hey Mage,” KP trotted up beside her.

“Yeah?”

“Lift your hoof for a sec?”

“Like this?”

“Yeah. Indirect touch,”

“Oh, okay,” Mage put her hoof back down.

“Are we done here?” KP asked Gearhead.

“Just about,” Gearhead said.

“Good, then lets get on with it,”

“By which I mean we have done all we can for the day,” Gearhead said. “The chamber will not be complete for a couple more days while my system manufactures the parts we need.”

“Bored now. Hey, what’re these for?” KP lifted a hoof toward the nearest hanging armour.

“Are you interested in trying one out?”

“I might be,”

“Oh, me too,” Quill said.

“Even Snowflake’s armour would not fit you, sir,” Gearhead said. “I shall have to make a custom suit for you.”

“I blame my Griffon parts,”

“Oh, it is not too much of a problem. It will merely take time,”

“Time is something that we have,” Doc said. “Please take all the time you need, in order to make everything properly the first time.”

“I do believe that is the wisest course,” Gearhead said. Fluttershy also knew that that was the entire way he operated his store.

* * *

Starswirl the Bearded had conducted exhaustive research on many things, including the celestial bodies and how they affect the world around them, and time. Such a copious amount of notes would probably take decades, or even a century, to read thoroughly. Fortunately, since Princess Celestia had helped Starswirl in some of his research, she was familiar with where to look for his material on alternate planes of reality and how to get to them.

Starswirl had created a number of mirrors to act as the anchors for interdimensional travel. According to the renowned mage’s notes, the corridor that connected one world to another existed within the space between the worlds. There were portals that were always open, but sometimes new portals opened too. Instruments like mirrors, or certain fixtures within the landscape, could be enchanted to act as anchors for stable portals, creating a long-lasting passage between worlds.

Starswirl had chosen mirrors because they were the easiest to use, and required one of the lowest amounts of magical power to open and hold portals stable. Their size also limited what kind of creatures could successfully use the portals, as well as what the users could bring with them.

Starswirl and Princess Celestia had created two types of mirror portals. The first used a great amount of magic to open the portal. The second borrowed power from the celestial bodies to accomplish the same task. The first type of portal could be opened at any time, but there was always the risk of draining the caster of his or her power. The second type of portal relied on the movements and phases of a given celestial body, such as the moon, and could not be opened at any other time, according to the research Twilight had found so far.

By altering the spell slightly the first time a mirror portal was activated, one could change the destination. The same mirror could not be used for more than one destination, therefore in order to sever the connection between worlds, it had to be either sealed, or the mirror acting as the anchor had to be destroyed. There were set spells for that as well, since destroying an anchor could release a great amount of energy. On the other hoof, unsealing a portal was also possible with a greater amount of magical power.

Starswirl had taken copious notes of each world he had visited, and there were so many that Twilight found fascinating. She would have liked to visit each one in turn, however there were some that the old mage had deemed too dangerous, and so he had sealed or destroyed the anchor as appropriate.

“Each time Starswirl and Princess Celestia visited a new world for the first time neither had any idea what they would find,” Twilight said to the others. “It’s likely that because they didn’t have any destination in mind, they anchored to the portals randomly.”

“Trying to connect to a specific world that way will take way too long,” Rainbow said, “unless we let Pinkie choose and she gets lucky again.”

“Hm?” The Earth Pony in question looked up at her name.

“I have to admit, Pinkie, you do have the knack for finding exactly what we’re looking for.”

“Thanks!”

“I’m not sure we’ll want to take that much of a chance with our new friends, though: someone will have to test each portal each time, which means going through. I’m not sure if any of us would recognize their home world, and we don’t know what’ll happen to them if we send them anyway.”

“In other words, we want to be sure,” Rainbow said. “In that case, we’ll have to wait to see what Gearhead’s crazy contraptions turn up.”

“In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to keep looking for clues,”

“Speak for yourself, Twilight,” Rainbow massaged her temples with her feathers. “My head hurts from all this reading.”

“I suppose we could take a break,” Twilight said. Rainbow sighed as she collapsed into her chair, closing her eyes for a moment. Even Pinkie seemed to relax a bit.

* * *

While they waited for the sani-sensor chamber to be finished, the visitors had a look around town. First, of course, they went down the Wind’s ramp and into Gearhead’s Gadgets to have a quick look at all the devices he had on sale. Unfortunately none of the five had any bits to use to buy anything at the moment, so they could not actually purchase anything.

Not knowing how long they would be staying in Equestria, the new friends nevertheless started looking for ways they could help out and earn some spending money.

Alec decided that the town newspaper would be the best place for his acerbic wit to shine.

Fluttershy agreed to let Doc turn the back of her cottage into a temporary office, where ponies could come and consult with him for a moment or three.

KP went from job to job, but it was not as though she was not good at them, because she was good at all of them. And that was the problem: everypony wanted her help, so none of them could hold her for very long. And that was just in a single day.

* * *

Rarity hired Mage to help her with her designs, fittings, and crafting. When Sweetie Belle visited Carousel Boutique for the first time since the newcomers had arrived, the filly did a double-take because both white-coated, purple-maned Unicorns were working furiously. “Why didn’t you tell me I had another older sister?” Sweetie Belle piped.

“Oh Sweetie Belle, we’re not sisters... are we?” Rarity raised an eyebrow toward her counterpart, and stopped patting the top of Sweetie’s head.

“Not that I know of,” Mage tilted her head, thinking. “I guess we could be a kind of sister, since we’re from different worlds.”

“Hey! I never said I didn’t want two older sisters,” Sweetie Belle said from between the two.

Mage got down lower to the floor and looked Sweetie Belle straight in the eyes. “Would you like to be sisters?”

“Gee, let me think. You’re pretty and talented just like Rarity, but you’re also mysterious – so yeah, I think I do.”

“Okay then, we’re sisters. My name is Aurora Mage, but you can just call me ‘Mage.’”

“I’m Sweetie Belle, but then you already knew that.”

“Yes, I was paying attention just now.”

“Oh, but I heard you know all sorts of things!”

“And who did you hear that from?”

“Discord,”

“Oh, you know better than to believe everything he says,” Rarity said.

“Except when it’s true,” Mage mused. “He can be very helpful when he wants to be. You just have to make him want to help.”

“Funny, that’s how Fluttershy and Gearhead suggested we turn him to our side.”

“And?”

“I have to admit it seems to be working so far. But we’ll see if it holds when the next big thing comes up.”

“Like inter-dimensional visitors falling into your lap?”

“No, more like an attack from a horrible monster that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna sealed away a thousand years ago.”

“Why does that happen so often?”

“Maybe it has something to do with the Elements. That’s a question to ask Twilight, since I’m sure we’ll never get a straight answer out of Princess Celestia.”

“Oh come on, it can’t happen that often,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Wait and see, Little Sister,” Mage said. “In the meantime, there’s one little thing we must do before we can be sisters for real.”

“What’s that?”

“Touch,” Mage said with a smile. Sweetie Belle wiggled her muzzle, and then giggled.

* * *

As for Silver Quill, he offered to help Cheerilee out at the school. “I’m not sure ‘buck the bully’ is an appropriate lesson,” Cheerilee said.

“Well, I’m no coin-operated ride either, missy. I’ll look elsewhere for employment, but thank you for the opportunity.”

Quill traded verbal jabs with Discord for awhile, and when they both tired of that they started pulling pranks on the Ponyvile citizens, which got old for the ponies really fast. Still, Discord’s pranks were far tamer than Quill expected.

The Hippogriff ended up spending half the day helping at the library, and the other half helping at Sweet Apple Acres. “Thanks for your help, Silver Quill,” Spike said. “It’s awesome to have someone who can reach the high shelves without a ladder.”

“I’m glad to help reduce the incidents of your pratfalls, Spike. Especially if I can help get some work done.”

“It’s a shame Twilight and the princess had to leave us behind,” Spike said.

“Yes, I don’t trust the idea of splitting the party. But we’re getting more done, so there’s that.”

“And if something happens?”

“I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to be a defender of Equestria,” Quill said, puffing out his chest.

“No, I mean in Canterlot,”

“Well,” Quill deflated, “I’m sure the princesses will send a letter if they need reinforcements. And you’re the fastest way to get a message across any distance.”

“That’s not completely true anymore,”

“Beg pardon?”

“Any city or town with an Alicorn Array can talk with each other. So unless there’s something Twilight or the princess don’t wanna talk about in semi-public, they’ll use Gearhead’s comm network.”

“But if it’s ‘your eyes only,’ you’ll be spitting out a scroll,” Quill said.

* * *

At Sweet Apple Acres, Quill helped with the harvesting. Since he was bigger even than Big McIntosh, Quill could carry more apples in his baskets, and as long as he flew stably he would not spill his cargo. That meant he could carry more fruit to the big hampers, faster than any Apple. This was great, until Mac caught him sneaking the odd apple. “I guess that’s it for me,” Quill said.

“Beg pardon?” Mac asked.

“I know these apples are your livelihood, so I kind of, sort of, feel bad for sneaking some here and there. And yet, they’re so delicious. I’ll go before I end up bankrupting you guys.”

“That there’s a nonsense excuse and you know it,” Mac said. “Even we apples snack on the odd apple here or there, so you don’t have to feel bad about it.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m a bit bigger than you,”

“So?”

“That means a bigger appetite,”

“So? You’re worth your weight as an extra farm-hoof, considering your speed and carrying capacity.”

“Thanks, but I think I’d better find something better suited to me,” Quill said.

“You’re welcome back anytime,” Mac called.

“Oh, I have a feeling I’ll be challenging that later,” Quill said as he left.

Quill was halfway through Ponyville when he heard Rarity complaining from the street outside the Boutique. “What seems to be the problem?” Quill asked, coming in through the unlocked door, since the shop was open for business.

“Oh, hi Silver,” Mage said. “Why the long face? I mean, we’re the horses, so it doesn’t make as much sense on you.”

“Oh no, Missy, you first.”

“It’s quite simple: we’ve run out of shiny stuff to put on the dresses.”

“That’s surprising,” Quill said. “I guess you have to go looking for gems even more often than you already do.”

“The problem,” Rarity said, “is that when we’re both in the zone we tend to work and go through all of our materials quite quickly. Even my fabric supplies are beginning to run low, but it’s the gems that take the longest to find.”

“Even with your magic?”

“Yes, even then. Wait, did I ever tell you about my magic?”

“It’s just another of those things we know,” Mage said.

“Ah, I see. Anyway, it takes even longer because Gearhead and Spring Flight have mined nearly all of the good deposits that are nearby. I simply can’t go traipsing off into the Everfree Forest and guarantee getting close enough to enough deposits to restock. And I wouldn’t dream of asking Gearhead for some of his, not when he works so hard.” Rarity rubbed her chin with a forehoof, and quietly said, “I get my revenge by teasing him anyway.” Mage, who heard her, giggled.

“Why not see if I can help you out?” Quill asked.

“You want to help out a dress shop?” Rarity asked.

“With the gem gathering? Because I’m a flyer, I have longer range than a Unicorn on hoof.”

“That would give your wings some exercise,” Mage said.

“Yes, well, not all of us use our gifts as a matter of course.”

Mage merely smiled.

“Curse your cuteness. So how ‘bout it, Rarity?”

“I suppose I’ve not got anything to lose by accepting your offer. Very well. See what you can find, but be very careful. I don’t want you exposing yourself to further risk than a few hours in the Everfree would get you.”

“Oh come on: Apple Bloom goes to Zecora’s on her own, so how dangerous could it be?”

“Zecora’s hut is a short distance away on a defined and protected path. You’d be flying a further distance. And again, you know of this because you know?”

“Exactly,” Quill said, grinning. “So, wanna give it a try?”

“Very well,” Rarity said. She left the room, returning a couple minutes later with a custom harness lined with saddlebags. She used her magic to fit it precisely to Quill. “How’s that for a spot job?”

“It fits like a... horseshoe, I guess.”

Rarity nodded. “Oh, and if you happen to hit enough mother lodes, do be sure to send some Gearhead’s way.”

“Even though he’s got a good stockpile going?”

“It lets me be more merciless in my teasing.”

“Ah, understood,” Quill said, and he took off.

* * *

The following day, Gearhead and his automated assembly system finished upgrading the sani-sensor chamber, and installed it back into the Silver Wind’s cargo bay. He did not want to put it back into the modified stall just yet, although that was a matter of convenience for those about to be scanned: if he did put it back, they would have to walk through the ship to get to the stall, and then walk all the way back out. This way they only had to walk up the cargo bay ramp, go to the section where the chamber was anchored and plugged in, and stand through the scanning procedure before they walked back out.

Naturally, in order to ensure the chamber worked as desired, Gearhead tested it on himself before he even put it back aboard the ship. The results he got back in the Hangar indicated that the sensors gleaned a wealth of information from him. The Earth Pony scanned through it all once, and decided that the test was successful enough that he might as well get right to the main task at hoof.

Gearhead had considered the problem of getting baseline scans before he asked Alec’s group to take their scans: he wanted to gather information from the more average citizens of Ponyville, on top of the scan profiles he got from those who were exceptions or exceptionally gifted among their tribes. Gearhead himself possessed magicks that were entirely different from his tribe’s specialties, making him an exception. Dawn was both an exception as a Light Mage, and exceptional, as a gifted mage. Spring and Torrent were more average than Prism and her flight, however Radar had a preternatural awareness of the things around her.

The Elemental Six, or those still present, were exceptional as well: Applejack for her growing ability, Fluttershy for her rapport with animals, and Rarity for her precision with telekinesis, as swell as for her vision. Of course, Pinkie was exceptional on a level that allowed her to disobey what were generally considered the laws of physics, and her Pinkie Sense did not do anything to dissuade other ponies of that impression. Dash had her exceptional speed and agility, while Twilight could master practically any spell you put in front of her. All of this was without mentioning their connections to their respective Elements.

While Gearhead, Dawn, and Spring discussed how they might go about recruiting ponies for the scan, they opened up shop, and the answer came naturally: Gearhead was always adding something new to his stock, so even though he had been in Ponyville for awhile already, he often had repeat customers who would come in just to check if he had anything now. On top of that, there were those who came from out of town. He would not ask first-time visitors to submit themselves to being experimented upon, however Gearhead could tell when a customer was comfortable with the shop and with him or one of his other staff. Those were the ponies he, Dawn, Spring, or Radar asked to contribute to the library of profiles.

The greatest majority of Gearhead’s customers agreed, more than happy with his service as well as the products he sold. Even Cranky Donkey did not complain overly much about the premium prices, given how durable the devices were, so he became the archetype for a Donkey. Likewise Zecora gave Gearhead the only Zebra profile available from this side of the Everfree Forest.

Gearhead wanted an even sample of mature and young profiles, from all three tribes represented in Ponyville. Maybe later he would ask the princesses to add some data points from the Alicorn tribe. Unfortunately no one was available to provide baseline profiles for Hippogriffs or Wolves to be compared to Silver Quill and Doc Wolf. Gearhead had to make do, working with what was available.

Lovestruck, Lyra, and Vinyl Scratch represented the adult Unicorns, while Snips, Snails, and Sweetie Belle volunteered to be scanned for the foals. Bon Bon, who had come with Lyra, Nurse Redheart, and Toe-Tapper were the adult Earth Ponies, with Apple Bloom, Button Mash, and Pipsqueak representing the foals. Blossomforth, Snowflake, and Thunderlane weighed in for the adult Pegasi, with little brother Rumble, Featherweight, and Scootaloo contributing in the name of the foals. The Crusaders had come together, while Button had brought his own friends along.

It was a good sampling, given how much data the sensors got from each scan, and it got bolstered further when Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity insisted that Gearhead scan them as well. Finally Gearhead was able to ask Alec’s group to come be scanned.

Last to go through the process was Silver Quill, who was just barely able to squeeze through the doorway. He turned around to face Gearhead at the control panel, and Mage had to stifle a giggle because the poor Hippogriff was having to balance with his talons on the transparent walls. He adjusted the light-filtering glasses Gearhead had lent him with one talon. “Do not worry: you will not break this glass,” Gearhead tried to assure Quill.

“I can break anything, unfortunately. Mostly by accident.”

“Not anything I have made,”

“Is that a boast?” Dawn asked, jaw dropping.

“Is it?” Gearhead asked, blinking. In short, deft movements he activated the sensors. Light burst in waves from the sensor clusters, seemingly at random, and yet there was a well-defined sequence in play. It allowed any residual waves to fade before the next cluster fired, so interference between the sensors became minimized. Quill stood as still as he could, but found himself blinking against the light bursts despite the sunglasses. Mage and the others continued to encourage him until the scan was complete.

“Well done,” Doc said when the door opened and Quill just barely avoided spilling out in relief.

“I think I’ve had enough of cramped accommodations,” Quill groaned.

“I do apologize: I could not make the chamber any larger and still have it fit in its original stall,” Gearhead said. “Still, I do believe we accomplished exactly what we set out to do, and now we have a complete set of data for your profiles.”

“Wait, fit where?” Alec asked, looking around the cargo bay.

“Well, the chamber is modified from the original sani-station I designed for the Wind. The stall is between the cabins and the cockpit.”

“And what was it for?” KP asked.

“Something no lady should live without,” Rarity said helpfully.

“So ‘sani’ as in... a shower?” Doc asked.

“Exactly,” Applejack said.

“Um... it also helped Shining Armour,” Fluttershy said.

“Oh right, on our first trip to the Crystal Empire. I forgot all about that,” Applejack said.

“Wait, what else did he do in it other than shower? Or do we wanna know?” KP asked.

“It is also ‘sani’ as in ‘purification,’” Gearhead said. “We encountered some Dark Magic, and Shining Armour needed it removed. We removed it.”

“Useful, that,” Alec said. “So what’s next?”

“I added some processors and storage to help handle the massive quantity of data my computer system now has to process and file. This part is going to take some time. How long, I am afraid I do not know: We took every possible point of data we could in these scans. We now need to compare those data points for similarities and differences based on tribe or species and home origin. If we end up with a marker that we can use to identify your home dimension, we can then use the energy we are generating and storing to connect the portal directly.”

“And send us home,” KP said.

“Or at least, that’s the idea,” Rarity said.

“Unless another plan comes to light, it is the best we have,” Doc said, “and I believe it will work.”

“Not that we don’t enjoy your company, we do, but we want you all to get home safely, please,” Fluttershy said.

“That’d be nice,” KP said.

“Right now I’d just like a nice stretch,” Quill said.

“And some fresh air,” Mage added, beginning to float toward the open bay door. The others followed her outside, where night had already fallen.

“Perhaps a good night’s sleep is in order,” Doc said.

“Oh, I agree,” Fluttershy yawned.

“I will fly you home,” Gearhead said. He secured the Wind once everyone had disembarked. Dawn went into the shop to help Spring Flight finish up the clean-up, and the others went to their assigned shared accomodations.

Given the amount of space available, Silver Quill was sleeping in the house beside the shop, now called ‘Dawn Flight Place.’ Gearhead and Dawn had re-raised the walls for the second room in the basement, so while Dawn had to give up her laboratory space, it was still the best place for the Hippogriff.

Fluttershy had invited Mage and KP to stay with her and her critter friends, but only Mage accepted. KP wanted to stay with Rainbow Dash in her cloud castle, and since the Pegasus was away, she had the space all to herself, permission asked for and granted through Spike.

Likewise, Alec and Doc got permission to stay at the Golden Oak Library, using the second room on the main floor rather than the main section or the loft, where Twilight slept. Quills and Sofas made a bit of business on the visitors’ sleeping needs while they were in Ponyville, since they also sold beds.

* * *

Now that they had completed the scans, they did not have anything left to do as they waited but explore Ponyville and its environs, although Applejack told Alec and his group that they would probably want to stay close, in case news of some discovery came back from Canterlot.

And it was true that they would want to respond quickly to such news. As long-time observers, however, they wanted that chance to explore the world they admired so deeply, so all of them hoped the answer to their problem did not come too quickly.

Just to be on the safe side, Gearhead set aside some earpieces they could use to stay in touch if some of them decided to go exploring further afield. Quill decided it was imperative that he take one whenever he went looking for gems – and discovered that he had a knack for the task. Maybe it was something positive for which he could credit his Griffon parts.