One Day Off - A 'My Little Pony: Canterlot High' Side-story

Verdant Gearhead – no, in this world he was ‘Gerald Green’ – took a deep breath in his seated position, and as he had done for nearly a year back home in Equestria, and here for the past five months, he reached out with his senses. Not sight, for his eyes were closed. Not hearing, for the only sound he would hear was the beeping of his computer should it detect a magic field. Not touch, for his hands lay in his lap, fingers touching. Certainly not taste, for he had removed the distractions of hunger and thirst just after dawn (even here he was an early riser). Not smell, as he kept the laboratory in his small house clean and well-ventilated. He reached out with those other senses that he used so often to detect the otherworldly fields around him.

Gerald was used to success in this endeavour, as Luna had taught him how to reach out to ambient magic and draw it in, even before he learned he had Unicorn magic. But here the ‘stuff of magic’ was so thin and distant that he could barely brush against it with the tip of his index finger, let alone grab hold of it. Twilight Sparkle, who called herself ‘Twila Evenstar’ in this world for simplicity’s sake, had given up on trying to cast magic here because he new form did not include a horn. Neither did Gearhead’s, since back home he was an Earth Pony, but he was almost as accomplished in magic as she was.

As Gerald continued to reach out, he reflected on the differences between his friends in Equestria and those he had found at Canterlot High. Not only were the ones her adolescent students, not yet in their prime, but they had grown up in vastly different family settings, surrounded by technology instead of magic – although one could easily make the argument that technology was a form of magic, but one that anyone could use. Also, while their skin was not the technicolour variety he was used to seeing in ponies’ manes and coats back home, the dominant beings here still came in various shades – usually some variety of tan or brown. Their names were different too, and while Gearhead and Twilight both thought of them as silly-sounding names, the others did not laugh any less at the ponies’ names, not even at their own equivalents.

This world’s Applejack still lived on a nearby farm with her family, and they were still called the Apple family. But she was ‘Jacqueline,’ Mac was ‘Mark,’ Granny was ‘Gladys,’ and Apple Bloom was ‘Beatrice.’ Bea, as she liked to be called, was a student in the junior high division of the school, together with the other Crusaders, Stephanie (Sweetie Belle) and Louise (Scootaloo).

It took still more time to get used to Felicia Warder, this world’s, partly because Gearhead still had feelings for the Fluttershy from home. Felicia volunteered at the pet shelter, and while she was usually timid she also had her brave moments. She did not speak about her home life at all, but Gerald did not blame her or ask: nothing would have shaken him more than seeing this world’s version of his oldest sibling, Vines, after what they had both been through during the Dark Wars. Thankfully, if this world mirrored Equestria further, this world’s Verdants should be living far to the west. And never should the twain meet, Gerald thought, trying to refocus on his efforts to find the magical weave.

Diane Pinkamena Pie resembled Pinkie Pie the most, right down to her random, but often accurate, insights. Even if Twilight hadn’t stumbled on her initial introduction, Di, who preferred that her close friends call her ‘Pinkie,’ would have figured it out anyway. Just as with the Pinkie back home, Gerald stopped trying to make sense of everything she was able to do shortly after they met at the Fall Formal.

Rayne Dasher was a ringer for Rainbow Dash in her athletic prowess, just without the wings and with the old ego. Rae wanted to excel at every sport, which apparently included something called ‘Parkour,’ which was interesting enough that Gerald had given it a try as a way to get around without the benefit of his armour. His conclusion, after several scrapes and bruises, was that it was not for the casual athlete, and given Gearhead’s more studious and cautious nature, that was what he was, at best.

Rochelle Grant was the budding fashionista of the group. Looking at her was like seeing what Rarity might have been like before she opened Carousel Boutique. Rochelle tried to be just as posh as her pony counterpart, but her enthusiasm as a teen sometimes got the better of her.

Gearhead, Twilight, and Spike had yet to meet several counterparts to ponies they knew back home, like their own, and Discord. Twilight and Spike were not looking forward to that, but Gearhead was curious to know whether this world’s Discord would possess his usual magic, or something more watered-down. And would Gearhead’s resonance with the Draconequus work here? If so, maybe Gerald could connect more fully to the ‘magic stuff’ that he still could not reach.

A chime interrupted Gerald’s efforts. He picked his glasses up from his left side, where he had put them while he meditated, and put them on. He didn’t need them for his vision, although if he stayed in this world and spent too much time staring at computer screens, he might start to need corrective lenses. He merely found that the square-framed glasses had the best surface onto which to conveniently project data from a built-in HUD, so he didn’t always have to consult his smartphone or wrist unit when something happened. Regardless, it was nice to have redundant systems.

Gerald squeezed the right-hand temple lightly, and the Heads-Up Display showed the feed from a camera posted above the front door: his visitor was Rochelle. Sighing, he realized he would not likely be getting any further work done. “Enter,” he said, and the system responded to the command by unlocking the door with a click only anyone standing at the door would hear. Rochelle looked up at the camera and pouted theatrically, then she pulled the door open and came in anyway.

As the black-haired beauty came in, Gerald recovered the omnipresent geargem dagger, its diamond-edged emerald blade and ruby-threaded amber handle gleaming, from his right side and, allowing it to revert to shrink to dagger size, returned it to its scabbard, which he then placed on his belt. He went over to his computer console and quickly called up his live information feeds for last-minute updates. He knew this would likely upset Rochelle when she saw him doing this, but he wanted to keep abreast of the situation anyway.

“Now, is this any way to greet a lady, much less your girlfriend?” Rochelle asked from the doorway. Gerald didn’t have to look to know she had her hands on her hips as she projected imperiousness at him.

“I’m finishing up, and then you have my undivided attention,” Gerald said.

“What’s so important, anyway?” Rochelle sacheed into the room, a motion which would have been even more impressive if she hadn’t taken her platform shoes of first. Fortunately for the floor, and for Gerald himself, he had a no-shoes rule.

“Not so much ‘important’ as staying updated,” Gerald said. “I want to know the instant a gate opens up, regardless of its strength.”

“So no progress on getting your magic back?” Rochelle was behind him by a little as he sat in front of his triple screens. She put her manicured hands on his shoulders, and squeezed a little.

“Some days I can almost reach it, but no. I think I might be able to access the magic near an open portal, if it leads to a world with magic more dense than here.”

“But if it’s the right world, why would you need magic?”

“Right,”

“And what about that fancy suit you came in wearing? Repair it yet?”

“It was never severely damaged, but the Gatekeeper armour’s systems got a good frying when the energy from the portal hit it. Purged all the energy, and it took every particle the condensers still had to get it off of me and transformed to portable mode. So it’s been sitting in the clean room charging.” Gerald called up a schematic, which showed the armour’s energy storage units at a mere ten percent.

“It’s been months. Why doesn’t it have enough power yet?”

“The city’s grid can’t supply the amount of power the armour needs to do a self-purge and restart, and there aren’t enough gemstones available without going to war in this world to build a new core system, even a single-core version. Only the Alicorn Engine can provide enough power for that.”

“How did you start it up the first time, not having the power for it on-hand?”

“’On-hoof,’ in this case.”

“Semantics,”

“Pesky, I know. Anyway, I left that gem at home, so it wouldn’t disturb the balance between worlds or fall into the wrong hands. What I didn’t predict was Princess Celestia and Princess Luna having to blow the portal’s anchors to preserve the balance between worlds. And zutz! Shock-wave shorted everything.”

“I don’t think anyone saw that coming, not even Sunset Shimmer.”

“Yes, and now she’s stuck there while Twilight, Spike, and I are here.”

“Do you realize how much you just tensed up?” Rochelle started kneading his shoulders, and Gerald could not deny that it felt good.

“What I realize is that I cannot afford to be lax, and I have fallen into routine these past few months. The last any of us knew of Equestria, it was still recovering from the war. Still stabilizing. If a big enough threat comes along, it could all go right back to war. Twilight needs to get back there as soon as possible, and to do that, we need a portal. That means keeping all this up.” Gerald indicated his screens. One of them was a wireframe map of the world.

“This isn’t live, is it?”

“What kind of information network would I be running if it wasn’t?”

“But how? You haven’t been here half a year and you know how to program a computer from scratch? How are you getting these readings anyway?”

“I’m bouncing signals off of the satellites and space junk in orbit, of course.”

“So it’s just a signal you had anyway? Nothing... illegal?”

“I also sliced into some surveillance satellites,”

“What?!”

“Don’t worry: the governments let me use them in exchange for hunting down illegal operation rings and such. At least I think they’re letting me use them, since they haven’t come to arrest me yet.”

“And you’re not worried doing all this is going to make someone put a hit on you or something?”

“Who, little old me? I haven’t done anything they can pin on me. I’m just looking at places I can reach fairly easily for... they don’t know what.” Gerald turned serious again. “The problem is, neither do I, not exactly: I pulled all the data I could find about the portal that was at Canterlot High from the Gatekeeper, but it’s not like I can equip anything already in orbit with new sensor arrays. I don’t even know if portals will look the same wherever they happen to pop up. But I have to try anyway.”

“You see? All this worrying is why you need a girlfriend, and why you need  day out and about to relax and recharge. I’m just not sure I’m the right choice, in the long run you might end up giving me wrinkles.” Gerald looked up and back into Rochelle’s scrunched-up face. “Just kidding.” She stepped back and, putting her hands on her hips leaned forward and glared, eye to eye. “But where’s my greeting?”

Gerald heaved a sigh as though he was a child having to deal with a parent who had suddenly strapped him with a chore (even though Gearhead would never hesitate to help Father or Mother), and got up and out of his comfortable computer chair. He drew himself to his full height right in front of Rochelle, forcing her to look up as he was a head taller than her. She tuned her head so she had her left cheek directed at him, and he leaned forward to plant a gentle kiss there.

Only she turned her head at the last instant and he got her lips instead. The shock of it stunned Gerald for a moment, and when he realized their lips were still touching, he jumped back to lean against his chair. “That’s for all this,” Rochelle said. “Gotcha good, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, right,”

“Now come on, it’s your day off. Where do you want to go?”

Gerald’s glasses beeped, and he reflexively turned to the monitor. Looks like we may finally be in luck, he thought. “I was thinking the pool, but we’ll need to get some things together first.”

Rochelle’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Oh, I agree! And we’ll have to invite all the others, too.”

Oh, Brother, what have I stepped into?