My Little Pony: Third Gear

Chapter 4: Pinkopalypse Now

Gearhead did not know who was checking in on whom more, between himself and Fluttershy. They both must have appeared to be somewhat off-kilter to their friends, but together they seemed to be able to keep each other balanced, so neither became depressed during those crucial first few days after Gearhead had taken Snowbelle to Frost Dragonhome.

Soon business picked up again for Gearhead, particularly since the princesses had signed on to the defence contract, and Princess Celestia wanted the first few Alicorn Arrays installed as soon as possible. She and Luna had chosen Canterlot, Ponyville, and Hollow Shades as the first three sites to follow in Crystal City’s hoofsteps.

In order to get the gemstones he needed to those locations as quickly as possible, Gearhead hired a Pony Express Pegasus to deliver the order details to Hoofington. He would have used Sending magic if he could, but that required a certain Dragon to work. Cloudsdale dispatched Hasty Hoof, the Wonderbolts’ fastest flyer, to make the delivery.

Security had been a concern from early on, since even unprocessed the jewels made an extremely tempting target for banditry, and there was a large quantity to be sent to each city or town where Gearhead would process the materiel to make the turbines and core condenser.

That was why Gearhead had recommended an escort of fixed strength: two Flights and three Unicorns per wagon in any given caravan. Some wagons could carry enough gemstones for two components, but Wing Commander Windwalker liked the idea of splitting up the resources, just in case. That also meant assigning a larger escort to the entire caravan. Midnight approved of sending a whole Squadron out, complimented by an equal number of Unicorns. Father wanted to be absolutely sure the deliveries were secure, so he assigned two tough-looking Earth Ponies to tag along, although neither would be a warrior.

As it turned out, at least this time, the sight of such a large group of ponies travelling together was sufficient deterrent against any highwayponies that might have been stalking them. Hasty Hoof made the order delivery in three and a half days, and the D.A.’s coordinators took a day and a half to assemble all the materiel and ponysonnel for the caravan. If the supplies had been coming from the Western Storehouse, it would have taken eleven days to arrive at Ponyville. Instead, Hasty Hoof brought the order dispatch to the Central Storehouse in five days, and the caravan arrived in two more days. The escort, riding and flying hard, got to Ponyville a few hours later.

Windwalker and Midnight would have liked a faster turnabout, since the presence of the escort meant the assigned ponies were not available for anything else. Nightstar suggested trying teleportation rings, although their stability could not be guaranteed. They would have the best chance if Midnight, Nightstar, Dusk, and Dawn casted them together, but still, they could only guarantee that inanimate objects would make it through the rings intact. They would also need one on the receiving end, and until they arrived in Canterlot, for example, they could not plant the second ring. Nor could they easily open both ends from anywhere other than the Shadow Estates, where their power was greatest.

The last possibility was that Gearhead himself would pick up and deliver all the materiel using the Silver Wind. The problem with this was that he would have to take two trips, and during the second trip he would be leaving the gemstones he had delivered on the first run under whatever guard the city or town could spare. In Canterlot this might not be a big issue, but in Ponyville and other small towns, it most definitely would be.

Given all this, the Defence Alliance chose to send their resources by caravan, the old fashioned way. All of this meant that it took twelve days instead of the original estimate of sixteen, before Gearhead could even begin processing the material into the forms he needed to assemble each part of the Array. It was not as though he had expected the smaller towns to be able to provide the material themselves, however he could not help being somewhat disappointed when he compared the experience to the Crystal Ponies’ efficiency and competence – but then, they had had two advantages that none of the other settlements in Equestria seemed to have: a rich mining facility, and an uncanny understanding of all minerals.

Mayor Mare went with Gearhead to meet the caravan as it arrived in Ponyville, and offered the escort a place to rest and get refreshed. All of the guards, however, insisted on staying with the material until Gearhead was finished securing them by anchoring them to the ground or a nearby building, just as he and the Crystal Ponies had done. The guards kept all curious onlookers and spectators well away from the parts, so they would not see anything but the housing to be able to guess what lay within or how it was assembled.

Just as before, Gearhead led the team in building the Array in sequence: first the turbines, then the central condenser. Unlike in Crystal City, however, that last component became a free-standing building of its own. It took three hours to refine and assemble the parts for a single turbine, and half an hour to install it. By the time Ponyville’s Array was operational, both Gearhead and the guards were ready to bed down for the night.

* * *

At sunrise, Gearhead helped to load most of the gemstones onto the Friendship Express. While the escort took up their stations inside, on top of, and around the train Gearhead took to the air, racing ahead of the train to ensure the tunnels were clear of any obstacles or sabotage.

Although he could have arrived in Canterlot well ahead of the train, Gearhead wanted to prevent anything from going wrong on this venture because they were establishing everything that they would do for every other city or town in Equestria. It was important to show that this sort of thing could be done at all.

Again, Gearhead guided the guards to each site for the three turbines in turn. He assembled the parts while the princesses, having returned from their tour of Crystal City, watched. This time, having seen the whole process done once before, the guards took turns pitching in, so that while the work went faster, the other gemstones were never left unattended by the team representing the D.A.. Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns coordinated to lift heavy pieces into place, although Gearhead could have done it all with his own magic. Still, he understood the need to own part of the project, and encouraged pitching in.

The whole team was on the two o’clock train to Hollow Shades, which stood to the east of Canterlot. They arrived in the evening, and took the remaining jewels to a secure storage facility, which they would guard overnight. While the town’s mayor wanted to offer the escort comfortable beds to sleep in, they would not depart from their mission parameters. They would, however, accept a warm meal.

* * *

This time the team waited until mid-morning before they started assembling the first turbine, so they could avoid disturbing most ponies’ sleep. Because they were more experienced, the guards managed to cut assembly time down to two hours, and Gearhead had selected the sites for each turbine, as well as for the central condenser, before breakfast, so they knew exactly where to go. Once the central condenser was online, Gearhead granted permission for the escort to return home ahead of him. He did not know whether the team would split up to take advantage of its tribal advantages, and was somewhat surprised when they stayed together. After that, however, he was not surprised when he saw them teleport out of Hollow Shades.

Once he was able to confirm that all systems were running as expected, and he had trained some of the municipal officers on the use of the controls, Gearhead was able to follow the escorts, at least part of the way home. Unlike them, however, he would be flying, and unlike before, he could make full use of the Twin Engine’s power now that he did not have any cargo about which to worry.

* * *

Before returning to Ponyville, Gearhead checked in with the princesses in Canterlot to let them know that everything had gone smoothly.

“How is your progress on equipping the Array to the Pegasus cities?” Princess Celestia asked.

“I could easily rig the turbines and central condenser to hover, but that would divert some of the power, and if the mechanism was destroyed, you would then have a falling piece, and a failing shield. I think it has to be a mechanism natural to those cities.”

“Why not try inspecting some of the solid items the Pegasi use?” Luna asked.

“Would that be permitted?”

"We shall give you a letter authorizing you to inspect anything you believe would help,” Luna said.

“That’s an excellent idea,” Princess Celestia said. “If you can understand how the Pegasi keep solid objects from falling through their cloud cities, you’ll probably be able to learn how to replicate it.”

“We shall get that to you right away,” Luna said. “But for now, would you like a snack?”

“I have been travelling a little on the light side these past couple of days,” Gearhead admitted.

* * *

Just as when he flew to the west to visit his family, the Pegasi saw him coming from a long way off – and in Cloudsdale, very few ponies were not Pegasi, since only those with the right spells could keep from falling through the clouds. Unfortunately, such spells expired in a matter of days. It was not as though they could not be applied to the Array, but they would have to be renewed quite frequently. That would be impossible, if Unicorns who knew the spell were unavailable.

Gearhead was surprised to see that Cloudsdale sent a contingent from the Wonderbolts to escort him into the city, but then given the importance of his mission and the princesses’ involvement, perhaps he should not have been surprised.

“Welcome to Cloudsdale, the greatest city above the earth,” Hasty Hoof said to Gearhead, once they had landed. Since the proper spell would have been exhausting to cast, Gearhead was using the Twin Engine to remain at the proper altitude.

“Should you not be resting after your long flight?”

“I have rested! The Captain wants me to see to your needs for the first few hours so you get started on the right hoof.”

“Do you mean somepony else might not be able to do that?”

“Well, you didn’t hear it from me,” Hast Hoof said, leaning close, “but a lot of the Pegasi here are sort of in awe of you ‘cause of how much and how fast you can fly.”

“So they would be distracted,”

“Yup. As for Soarin,’ we’re both pretty sure he would spend most of the time just showing you all the tourist traps in the city without showing you anything of real consequence.”

“So... he would goof off.”

“You said it, not me,” Hasty Hoof said with a grin. “Now c’mon. As much as I would like to give you the two-bit tour, we have a task to focus on.”

“Yes,” Gearhead said, following the mare. “I need to know how it is possible to make solid objects so they do not literally fall through the ground.”

“Well, getting a variety of tools to study should be pretty easy.”

“Why is that?”

“Weren’t you paying attention? It’s because so many Pegasi idolize you for your flying skills. Not to mention, I am a Wonderbolt.”

“That you are,” Gearhead grinned.

It turned out to be as easy as asking for an item: a paperweight, a jackhammer, a pen, and even a wooden desk quickly became items of interest. Gearhead scanned them three ways to Moonday in order to find the answer for which he was looking, and each item seemed to offer up a clue, but not the complete picture.

The first way Gearhead had of examining any given object was with the scanners and sensors built into his glasses and the Twin Engine system. The second way was to use Shift Focus to detect the types of magic being enacted on the objects. The third method was to simply touch the object to let his Geomancy do its thing through Read.

It was obvious from the start that the reason Pegasi could have objects that were not made of cloud matter in a cloud city was through some magic. The question was what type of magic it was. Gearhead’s thorough scans each brought in a piece of the puzzle, but he could only begin to see the larger picture once he had scanned a dozen items and interrupted the normal work schedules of dozens of busy Pegasi.

While Gearhead took a short break, he pondered how he could redesign the turbines and central condenser units so they could best project the particle shield both above and below the cities at equal strength. He could build them double-facing, with the part that attached to the cloud in the middle. Bisecting a turbine would be far from ideal, but if he just made it a band embedded and hidden somewhere on the outside of the housing, that should work. But first he needed a proof of concept.

Looking at the cores on his shoulders, Gearhead realized how important it was to get the directional projection issue sorted: a shield thrown in the wrong direction could end up facilitating an infiltration or attack instead of preventing it, and the Twin Engines tended to be very directionally-specific. Heck, that was one of its strengths in performance over the Single-Core Engine.

Gearhead asked Hasty Hoof for some gemstones so he could try some small-scale experiments. Cloudsdale had a smaller supply of gemstones than most ground-based towns like Ponyville, but Spitfire seemed happy to oblige. Gearhead even ended up with a small audience. One which, he was pleased to see, was more than happy to offer its own opinions on a given configuration – and just as important, they offered suggestions as to how to overcome a specific challenge.

As it happened, Gearhead’s small-scale experiments also helped him to understand the magic behind the ability to keep solid objects on top of cloud-state matter. It was, he realized, an important aspect of a Pegasus’s magic, since they interacted with and used solid objects all the time, from toiletries and food to weapons and armour. They needed to be able to live without having to worry about losing their possessions, so they naturally developed this passive type of magic that changed the mass and density of the object to make it lighter and more diffuse, but not all the way. At the same time, it also made the cloud matter it touched more dense. So that bit of cloud did not fall out from the rest, matter further away also got changed, until there was little or no difference to speak of. And with each type of matter meeting the other partway, neither became too disparate from its original state to cause an operational problem – or at least that was the way Gearhead made sense of it.

Research completed, Gearhead thanked everypony for their cooperation and took flight again, this time heading for Ponyville and home.

* * *

Regardless of what else might happen, Gearhead had a mental image of Ponyville as a calm, neat small town where little seemed to be happening. In reality, it was a nexus for trouble since it was so close to both Canterlot and the Everfree Forest. But Gearhead could never have expected the sight that greeted him as he flew toward his shop.

To confirm the reality of what he was seeing, Gearhead flew down, matching the apparent stampede’s speed and heading. “Excuse me,” he said over the group’s chatter, “where are you all going in such a hurry?”

“To have fun, of course!”

“Fun! Fun! Fun!” The nearby pink ponies chorused, setting off a chain reaction within the rest of the herd.

“Yes, but where and with whom?”

“Fun! Fun! Fun!” The group chanted.

“Hey, wanna have some fun with us?” This was the first of the pink ponies who had spoken up.

“But that’s not Applejohn or Fluttershutter,” another one several ponies away objected.

Do they really not know something as elementary as the original’s friends’ names? “I am Gearhead, another friend,” he said.

“He says he’s another friend,” Toha Pinkie said.

“Then we can have fun with him, right? Buth Pinkie said.

“Fun! Fun! Fun!” As one, the group stopped and oriented on the flying Earth Pony.

Uh-oh, Gearhead suddenly had the impression that he had sprung his own trap. He knew that he did not have any chances of outrunning a determined Pinkie if he kept going along the ground, so as the Pinkies pounced, he flew straight up, as fast as he could. The particle rings the Twin Engines made flowed right through the copies without having any effect on them. Of course, if they would have had any effect, Ponyville’s Alicorn Array would have activated before now. Indeed, by connecting to the array network, Gearhead could see that the sensors were not detecting any sort of threat in any of the places where he had an operational Array.

Gearhead stopped, turned around, and inspected the Pinkie copies once more, but this time he scanned them through his glasses as best as he could from as safe distance. He saw, however, that the safety he enjoyed was about to be put into jeopardy as several of the copies began to build odd flying machines out of whatever they found lying around. Gearhead turned again and immediately went back to full speed, heading for the Golden Oak Library.

* * *

To Gearhead’s dismay, he found the library locked, the lights off, and nopony was visible inside through any of the windows. He had not seen a single pony who was not pink and did not have three balloons for a cutie mark since returning to Ponyville, but it was too soon to conclude that the town had been abandoned. Still, the situation required confirmation.

Before the copies could catch up to him on their wacky flying machines, Gearhead went ahead and checked Fluttershy’s cottage. Unlike the library, it was not locked, however not a single animal remained in residence, nevermind their gold-coated minder. As long as she is with the others, she is safe, Gearhead thought.

There were a limited number of places the Elemental Six would go to hide, especially if they were in the company of anypony else from the town. One of those places was the library, already confirmed as empty, and another was Sweet Apple Acres. Gearhead doubled back as soon as he saw that it had been abandoned mid-barn raising: Given a choice, the Apples would never leave their work undone, which meant they were elsewhere.

It was a stretch, but Dash’s cloud castle was one of the less accessible places, even for an unusual Earth Pony like Pinkie Pie. Gearhead flew up, and through the open halls, to confirm in moments that it was also empty.

If his friends were not at the library, farm, or hiding on a cloud, one alternative the fun-seeking copies would likely never check was the Everfree Forest. The problem was where in the Everfree to check. Fluttershy might have wanted to calm herself at the Butterfly Glade, but it lacked sufficient clear space for more than a couple ponies, so it would never do as a refuge for more. If the Pegasus had found a useable hiding place, it was likely Gearhead would pass it over completely as he flew. He was better off spending his time and efforts elsewhere.

Gearhead looped around and dove on a zig-zagging flight path toward his shop. He pulled up with barely enough time to buzz the grass, and then stopped in front of the door. After he unlocked it, he got inside as quickly as possible, and then locked it back up. The shop’s interior was darkened and empty, but there was not such a thing as being too careful in the case of Pinkie Pie or one of her copies. Gearhead flew upstairs first and confirmed his living space as being empty. Only then did he go downstairs to the Workshop.

What Ponyville needed at the moment was a reliable way of rounding up the Pinkie Pie copies. Such a method would have to be able to contain the copies despite their logic-breaking abilities. A normal net would never do the trick, but what if Gearhead tricked it out eight ways to Sunday? It would have to be an 'Eight,' Gearhead decided, thinking of the different levels signified by how many sides and points a star had when incorporated into its spell circle.

To put the theory simply, each spell had a level or ‘star’ designation. The most common ones were four-star spells, and if you looked at Rarity’s diamond mark, you could see a four-sided star in each of them. Twilight’s mark was centered around a six-pointed star, the Equestrian symbol for magic itself. Dawn, however, had a simplified magic circle with an eight-pointed star on it. This did not mean that Rarity could not perform a six-star spell, nor Twilight an eight-star, since they were just examples. Besides, a star could probably have up to ten points before it started to become too complex to make anything out.

Gearhead started with a sturdy mesh net. It needed to be woven tightly enough to keep the subject or subjects inside, but ideally without injuring them by cutting into them, bruising, or even holding them too uncomfortably. He then came up with a system of imbuing the nets with elemental magic against a Pinkie-style escape. For this, he used small gemstones, like the cobalt he had added to Spike’s lance. Just not as rare or expensive.

Gearhead also needed a means of delivery that ideally would not take that long to load, and that would be easy to power. He built a mid-sized air-powered canon that he could strap to a harness. When moving, he could sling it on his back between his cores. Then he would have to stop and swing it in front of himself while standing up on his rear legs. He could aim the gun with a combination of his magic and his forehooves, all while pivoting the butt of the gun against his barrel.

After several failed attempts, Gearhead came up with a way of loading the nets that meant pushing the nets, folded into a six-inch long bundle secured around three staves, either into a port on the gun’s back, or a longer slide along its top. Pulling a hoof-adapted slide on the barrel’s underside pushed the netting forward, and cued the three air intakes to vigorously and loudly suck air into the internal canisters. Once optimum air pressure was achieved, Gearhead could pull the trigger. As long as he could see a bit of the target above the top-center intake, he could almost guarantee a capture.

Gearhead needed a quiver in which to keep a decent number of nets, so he built a simple one for his sides that could carry twenty of them between them, and which he could have his Stabilizer carry out to him. He made a second set of quivers, and arranged a simple assembly line to keep himself armed, just in case there were more copies than he had arrows.

Since the Stabilizer could not stay aloft for long without its own core, Gearhead tasked the Wind to oversight operations, launching it on auto-pilot. He had to hope the copies would be too busy to notice it until after it was too high for them to reach. He then made his way to the center of Ponyville for some live, field testing. He did not have to wait for long for his first few targets of opportunity.

The first few pink ponies bouncing along spotted Gearhead instantly, and began to bounce his way. Gearhead put Town Hall behind him and placed one of his quivers on the ground beside himself. He swung his gun around to his front, and planted his hooves for the best balance possible, forehooves firmly on the aiming rails. As the copies grew close, he flipped the safety off.

“Hey, what’cha doing?”

Gearhead nearly popped out of his own skin when a Pinkie popped up to his left, and he could not be certain it was a copy and not the real thing.

“I was looking for the others,” he said.

“Really? So are we!” Now there were other copies trotting up behind this first one. “It’s like everypony’s playing Hide-and-Seek, and we’re It. But that would mean you’re It too.” The copy snorted.

“Sweet Apple Acres looked like a mess. Did the Apples already all get found?”

“Sweet what who? I like sweets!”

FUMP! Gearhead managed to swivel himself and his canon. He did not even really have to aim that much, given how close his target was. A thick black stick shot out, the staves separating and spreading the mesh wide even as it came alive with silvery-white energy. Heywha Pinkie was completely enveloped and went tumbling a couple strides before the stakes got caught in the ground and prevented her from moving further.

“Fun? Fun? Fun!” The approaching copies picked up speed, and Gearhead lowered his gun’s barrel even as he wrapped his tail around the next arrow and shoved it into the gun’s rear port. He quickly cocked the gun and raised it to sight in on the approaching horde. I was certain there were less of these before, he thought as the air intakes whirred. Even the three-quarter second it took to fill the canister seemed like a long time to watch the approaching pink doom.

“Say ‘hello’ to my little pop gun,” Gearhead muttered.

“Fun?”

“Gun,” Gearhead pushed the trigger and his second missile was off with a FUMP! just like the first. This time since there were more copies grouped closely together, the single shot took five or six at once (it was difficult to count). As soon as he had made the shot, Gearhead loaded the next round.

“Fun?”

Gearhead glanced flatly at the group of Pinkies approaching from the left. FUMP! “Not particularly,” he said, and then he slung his gun, picked up his quiver, and hot-hoofed it for a place that was not quite so badly surrounded. With three successful captures, I think we can call this build a success, he thought.

* * *

Between his hooves and the Twin Engines he was still wearing, Gearhead made the sign for the Golden Oak Library with plenty of space to spare. According to the Wind’s sensors, being displayed on his glasses, this part of Ponyville should be Pinkie-free for a couple minutes more, with the exception of the crowd still following him. Gearhead set his quiver down again and got into firing position.

FUMP! Reach. Reload. Cock. WHIR. Aim. FUMP! Repeat. It was a fast sequence, but not fast enough to hold any position against such a large, energetic horde. The data relay beeped at Gearhead, and he shifted his focus even as he reloaded for the eighth time: multiple coloured blips had become visible within the edge of the Everfree. The computer quickly made library matches at full fidelity and placed pictures of five familiar faces along the display’s left edge.

“Brilliant. Wind, target the five for extraction, please.”

“[Confirmed: Silver Wind to pick up targets – Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle. Now leaving station].”

“I will live,” Gearhead said, although he would prefer to have adequate coverage. FUMP! He reached his side with his tail to reload from his hip while he used his magic to start swapping the quivers around. He paused for half a second, realizing that he would become overrun before he could do much more, and returned his mostly-full quiver to his side. He turned in the direction he remembered being the most open and started to hobble that way, gun and quivers bouncing against him. Thinking better of his mobility, he quickly reverted to relying on the Twin Engines.

* * *

Resolving to find a way to return the Pinkie copies to the Mirror Pool, the five friends left the warren, grateful to Fluttershy’s critter friends for sheltering them as long as they had. Twilight did not like the possibility of having to confront the real Pinkie Pie, but before they did anything else they had to find what they could about the Legend of the Mirror Pool – assuming there was any written record of the local myth.

As the group was cantering out of the Everfree Forest, the Silver Wind swooped in and spun, quickly turning to offer the rapidly-opening cargo bay doors as an entry. The friends paused, and then charged aboard. “’Bout time you showed up,” Dash said.

“[Rapid acceleration in 15 seconds. Please grab a hold.]”

“Oh my,” Fluttershy said, biting down on a nearby strap.

Twilight glanced back and saw that the bay doors were staying open. “You don’t think..?”

“A fast drop,” Dash grinned.

“Is Gearhead aboard?”

“[Negative].”

“And we’re flying on auto-pilot,” Applejack said.

“I’d grab onto something if I was you,” Dash said.

“I’m afraid I’m with Fluttershy on this one,” Rarity said, then she grabbed a strap while Spike braced himself between her and Twilight.

“Here we go,” the Dragon said. And on cue, the ship lurched forward and upward, offering a uniquely terrifying and yet thrilling view to its passengers.

“[Drop in 10 seconds].”

“I’m glad we don’t have to go far,” Fluttershy said.

“I just wonder what’s waiting for us there,” Applejack said.

“We already know,” Spike said. “It’s more Pinkies.”

“I just hope the real one’s okay,” Rarity said, and the Wind dove.

“[Rapid deceleration and drop in five. Four. Three. Two. One. Mark].” The ‘deceleration’ was gut-wrenching, but then the ship’s nose came up, and it became even more so. Twilight looked out the open door to find Gearhead fighting the Pinkies off with some gadget he had cobbled together, and she understood that they were meant to be his reinforcements. They were only a dozen or so meters above them when the ship said ‘mark,’ and Dash led the charge out into the air.

“This is a really bad idea,” Fluttershy said.

“You can fly,” Applejack said, deadpan.

“Oh, but—“ Rarity was cut off in the sudden rising of a silvery, magical wind, and the friends were delivered to a soft landing. The wind also pushed the Pinkies back a bit. Overhead, the Wind’s bay door closed, and it launched into a higher altitude.

“What’s it doing? It could’ve gotten us out of here,” Spike said.

FUMP! “Since we do not have another flying telepath at the moment, the Wind is providing oversight intelligence. And if we cannot hold off or capture these copies, Ponyville will not be the last town to fall to their numbers, or so I suspect.” FUMP!

“Hey, that’s neat,” Spike said.

“And it may be just what we need, or at least part of it,” Twilight said. “We need to get to the library.”

“That space was overrun a minute ago, but we may be able to force our way through, or even sneak back to it.” Gearhead held up the two empty quivers in his magic, and his Stabilizer came flying in from behind to deposit a pair of fresh, fully-loaded ones. It latched onto the empties’ straps and whisked them off. The stallion put on the new hip quivers, reloaded from the left-hoof one, and nodded. “Lead the way,” he said over the gun’s whirring.

With the Elemental Six at his side, fighting while staying mobile became incredibly easy: not only could Rarity and Twilight hold some of the copies off with their magic, but they could also hold one or both of his quivers and help him reload. This meant that he only had to worry about keeping the gun in firing condition, aiming, and firing. When they regained the library, Twilight quickly unlocked the door to let everypony inside before barring the door back up.

“Okay, there’s got to be something on the Mirror Pool here,” Twilight said, and everypony spread out to search. Gearhead flicked the gun’s safety back on and put it and the quivers down on a nearby table to help with the search.

Gearhead’s results were as disappointing as those of the others, with each of them coming up empty until Spike shouted in surprise. They all turned to see the Dragon holding a book. “Good job, Spike,” Twilight said when she located the proper page. “Let me see...” While the Unicorn read up on the legend, the others prepared to go back out into the Pinkie storm, as Dash put it.

“Hey, you think you could let me get in on that action?” Dash asked Gearhead as he began to strap the pop gun back on.

“Let us see if you can comfortably carry the weight first,” Gearhead said, and Dash came down to give it a try. By keeping it aimed diagonally down while flying, the Pegasus could cover a larger area than Gearhead had thought to do. “How does it feel?”

“In a word, awesome. I’m ready.”

“Not quite,” Rarity said, holding the quivers magically. “I’ll support you.”

“Thanks,”

“Okay,” Gearhead said, giving the Stabilizer the command to make and take deliveries to the gun’s location instead of to that of the Engines, “that will do it.”

“Girls – and colts – I have some good news and bad news,” Twilight said, closing the book and returning it to Spike.

“What’s the good news?” Fluttershy asked.

“I learned a spell that will return the copies to the Mirror Pool,”

“So what’s the bad news?”

“The spell can even take our Pinkie to the Mirror Pool, so we have to be careful.”

“But the copies or whatever look exactly like the real deal,” Applejack said.

“And act a lot like her,” Dash added.

“But not close enough,” Gearhead said.

“Oh yeah: some of them just chant ‘fun’ over and over,” Spike said. “It’s really starting to wear on my nerves.”

“Mine too,” Rarity said, gently patting Spike on the head.

“I think I heard one get some of our names wrong, too,” Dash said.

“Which means that whatever the Mirror Pool does, it does not give the copies the original’s knowledge and memories. They can be tricked.” Gearhead said.

“But how will we trick them so we can be absolutely sure?” Fluttershy asked.

“We’ll test them, using knowledge only the real Pinkie would know,” Twilight said. “But first we have to gather them up into one place.”

“All of them?” Dash asked.

“We have to be absolutely sure we’re not sending our Pinkie away by mistake,” Twilight said. “We need to gather up all the Pinkies.”

“I just hope none of them left Ponyville,” Rarity said.

Dash groaned.

* * *

Despite her griping, Dash was definitely into the Pinkie copy capture mission, especially armed with the pop gun and aided by Rarity. While they went off for the high-speed, high-tech route, Applejack went into action armed only with her trusty lasso. Gearhead, Spike, and Twilight went and collected all of the copies Gearhead had already captured with his netting, which held up surprisingly well. Fluttershy had the easiest time capturing the copies out of all of them, because the copies would just follow her out of sheer fascination, staring at her bobbing, swinging tail, transfixed like a cat. Maybe that was why Opal took to Fluttershy so completely.

It was on their way back out to retrieve more netted copies that Gearhead, Twilight, and Spike saw a most unusual sight: a Pinkie was sitting with her head on a table, looking dejected and sad, her ears flat to her head. “I don’t suppose you’re the real Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said.

“I am!” Another one popped up, and Twilight immediately captured it in her telekinetic hold.

“Oh, that’s just what all the other Pinkie Pies would say,” the sad Pinkie moped. “What if I’m not the real Pinkie Pie? Oh, who in the world is Pinkie Pie?”

“That’s just what we’re going to try to find out,” Spike said.

“Well, good luck trying to do that,” Pinkie snorted. “Every single one of us acts the same, making it pretty much impossible to sort all of us out.”

“’Impossible?’ Do you not do such things on a regular basis?” Gearhead asked.

“Yeah well, this is a whole new level. And I feel just awful for letting it happen, because instead of being happy like everypony’s supposed to be, all my friends are miserable, and that makes me miserable. Waaaaaaaaa!”

Twilight shielded herself from Pinkie’s fountaining tears. “If you could stay and make everypony happy again, would you?”

“I don’t see how, but... if I could?”

“Uh-huh,”

“I’d do anything for my friends, even if it was something that would be really hard for a Pinkie to do. I really wanna fix this mess!”

“Pinkie, are you going to be here for awhile?” Twilight asked, exchanging glances with Spike and Gearhead.

“I might poke at some holes, but I probably won’t get anywhere far.”

“We’ll be back, I promise. We just have to go pick up all of the copies first.”

“Okay. I’ll be here, or close. Not that it particularly matters.”

“Wow, she’s really down,” Spike said. “Now I’ve seen everything.”

“Not yet, Spike. But I think now I have a workable plan. Lets keep gathering the copies into Town Hall. Gearhead, can you keep on eye on the sad Pinkie?”

Gearhead nodded. “I have already tasked the Wind to do just that.”

“Then lets get this all wrapped up.”

* * *

It was simple to find the Pinkie copies, but what was challenging was not getting swept away by them when they came charging at you. Earlier, Gearhead had used the simple solution of falling back, but there had always been a limited amount of space through which to retreat. Now, however, the real Pinkie was the only member of the Elemental Six not pitching in, for understandable reasons. Gearhead was nearly certain that the Pinkie who was moping was the real one, but he did not have solid proof. Fortunately, they would be getting that as soon as he, Fluttershy, and Dash completed their sweeps of Ponyville airspace to retrieve any stragglers and wanderers.

Soon Pinkie copies were crowded into the main assembly area inside Town Hall. Gearhead was leading the sad Pinkie up the left side of the stage, where the others were waiting. Dash, meanwhile, closed and barred the doors to prevent any mid-test escapes. Once Pinkie was sitting on the stage beside him, hidden from the audience by a thick curtain, Gearhead nodded to Twilight.

“Alright Pinkies,” Twilight started. “I’ve...” The Unicorn trailed off, realizing that the copies were continuing to chat noisily amongst themselves and not paying her any attention. “Could I please have your attention?” She asked quietly. “Excuse me,” she said more loudly, but that did not work either. “QUIET!” The Pinkies snapped their mouths shut and stared directly at the Unicorn at center stage. “That’s better,” she said.

“Alright Pinkies, I’ve gathered you all here for a simple test. Pass it, and you get to stay. It’s that simple,” Twilight said, as Gearhead gave the Pinkie beside him a stack of placards and a set of markers. “The test is something you should enjoy doing: it’s a Friendship Quiz. I’ll ask all of you a question, and if you know the answer shout it out. If you get it right you get to move on to the next round, until only one of you is left.”

Gearhead looked into Pinkie’s eyes and touched a hoof to his lips. She nodded in understanding, her ears perking up.

“Everypony ready?” Twilight asked.

“This is gonna be good,” Spike said, sitting down with a tub of popcorn. Dash and Fluttershy took up guarding positions and waited, with Applejack acting as another enforcer. Rarity kept sweeping the captive audience with her discerning eyes. The Pinkies cheered. In front of Gearhead, only one Pinkie remained silent, intent on her stack of blank placards, marker held tightly in her mouth.

“First question: which of you and your best friends have siblings? Name them from oldest to youngest.”

“Applejohn--!” Zap!

“Elus--!” Zap!

“Purple Smart... Oh wait, she’s—“ Zap!

As Twilight continued to zap away the copies with incorrect answers, and this was a vast majority, Gearhead checked what Pinkie was scrawling:

Big McIntosh, Applejack, Apple Bloom

Vines, Ivy, Gearhead, Roselle, Bean, Coriander

Maud, Pinkie, Limestone and Marble

Rarity and Sweetie Belle

Shining Armour, and Twilight Sparkle, Spike

It was good that Pinkie had remembered to include both her own family and his. Including Spike just to be on the safe side was a nice touch as well. When she looked up from her writing, Gearhead nodded. Pinkie dropped her first placard to the floor with a sigh, and tensed for the next question. In the middle of the stage, Twilight blew on her overheating horn, having just eliminated all but five copies.

“Whoa, that was intense!” Spike said.

“Second question,” Twilight said. “What are each of you and your friends’ pets and their species?”

“We have pets?!”

“How fun!”

Zap! Zap!

“The Apples have Winona. She’s a – hey, is that a frog crossed with an orange?” Zap!

“Um, uh... I don’t remember!”

Zap!

Apple Family: Winona (dog)

Fluttershy: Angel Bunny (bunny)

* Verdants don’t have a pet!

Pinkie Pie: Gummy Gator (toothless alligator)

Rainbow Dash: Tank (tortoise)

Rarity: Opalescence (fancy house cat)

Twilight Sparkle: Owlolicious (owl)

There were a couple of attempts with incorrect spelling, but Gearhead nodded because Pinkie tried hard enough to eventually get it right. Now there was only one other Pinkie near the middle of the floor.

“Question three: who is your best friend in the whole world?”

“Um...” The copy started to pant, wiping off her own lather. “Is it... no, that’s not right. Hm, I... hang on, hang on!” She held out a hoof to stall Twilight.

“Enough, no more!” Pinkie jumped to her hooves, scattering her placards everywhere and throwing her marker across the room. “I don’t wanna see anypony else suffer because of me. It’s a trick question anyway, because nopony and everypony’s my best friend!”

“Thank you, Pinkie Pie. But the copy’s still got to go.”

“I know,” the copy said, surprising everyone. “We were only trying to have fun, but we ruined everything. I’m so sorry, Pinkie.” She looked at Twilight, and then at all the others in turn. “I don’t wanna see anyone sad either.”

“I’m just going to send you home,” Twilight said.

“I saw how the others blew up,” Pinkie said. “That’s scary and I don’t know if it did, but it looked like it hurt!”

“It’s okay. I’m ready.”

“But--!”

Before anything else could be said, Twilight fired off a focused blast, this one appearing softer than any of the others. The last copy glowed, becoming fuzzy, before shooting off as pink energy. “Bye, other me,” Pinkie Pie said. “I’m sorry, everypony.”

“It’s alright, Pinkie,” Twilight said.

“We all know that seeing everypony happy makes you happy,” Fluttershy said.

“Still, even though it was kinda cool seeing more of you, I’m more than happy enough with just the one,” Dash said.

“The one and only true Pinkie Pie,” Rarity said.

“I hear that,” Spike said.

“And now things can start to return to as normal as they get around here,” Gearhead said.

“Not quite,” Twilight said.

* * *

Twilight had Pinkie show them the way to the Mirror Pool, so they could figure out how to deal with it. Gearhead scanned it and took a sample for further study, then Twilight decided to seal it off because it contained powerful magic and its results would always be unpredictable.

Rarity and Gearhead found a good sized boulder, and together with Twilight and Applejack, they lowered it into place. The boulder perfectly and completely filled the hole through which Pinkie had fallen to find the Mirror Pool in the first place.

Pinkie revealed that she had only intended on creating a couple copies, but the copies had copied themselves, resulting in the degradation that Gearhead had noted earlier. Still, he mentioned how amazed he was that the copies’ magical signatures were too similar to notice any differences at all. If they had not been so wild, they could have fulfilled Pinkie’s wishes to have Ponyville covered.

“But how would you have experienced the fun they had? It is not as though their experiences ever returned to you, even when Twilight sent them home.” Gearhead asked as they walked through Ponyville, where the other ponies were resurfacing from hiding.

“Hey, you’re right! But they would have told me about everything that happened. I had that figured out.” Pinkie sighed. “It’s too bad, though: I don’t think any of us ended up having any fun at all.”

“Well, how about a nice picnic?” Fluttershy asked.

“That does sound fun,” Pinkie said, opening the door to Sugar Cube Corner. “But if you really wanna know, there’s only one thing I really wanna do right now.”

“Oh?”

Pinkie fainted, dead asleep on her back and began to snore.

“That does looks like fun,” Fluttershy said.

“Come on,” Twilight said, “lets leave her be.”

“I shall help with the clean-up,” Gearhead said.

“That’s much appreciated,” Applejack said.

“I’m exhausted too, but I’d feel remiss if I didn’t also render some assistance,” Rarity said.

“I’m in,” Dash said.

“Number One Assistant, right here,” Spike said, producing a broom.

“Where did you get that?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I had it on me almost the whole time,”

“But you were eating popcorn before,”

“Huh. I never thought about how often we just seem to pull things from nowhere before,” Spike said. “I guess it’s not just Pinkie.”