Hoofing with the Devil

Chapter #3: A tour of Ponyville, and a job well done.

When the pills Dr. Horse gave me a few minutes after my talk with Dr. North began to take effect, I walked out of the hospital room feeling refreshed. It was almost like Luna had used one of her relaxation spells on me. For the first time in a long time, I actually felt at ease. When I entered the waiting room Rainbow and the others spring from their seats.

“Are you alright darling?” Rarity asked as she rushed towards me. I nodded.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I replied as I licked my hoof and wiped the area around my eyes, getting rid of the tear stains on my face. Rarity leaned away in disgust. The grin on my face quickly melted away as I saw two nurse ponies rush an unknown stallion on a stretcher to the emergency room.

“How about if we head outside, I’m starting to feel a bit uncomfortable.” I said, silently wishing not to end up like him. The others nodded.

“What did the doctor say?” Rainbow Dash asked when we were walking back to the town’s center.

“He kinda freaked when I told him what happened, and he gave me a bottle of pills he wants me to take to stop my hooves from aching, but other than that he said that I’d be perfectly fine.” She nodded. Not a complete lie.

“How about a tour of Ponyville?” I suggested to keep my mind away from what I learned at the hospital. The six friends agreed. Pinkie showed me around the sugarcube corner, while explaining that she makes cupcakes and desserts at the bakery. Rarity gave gave a show of her boutique while flinging idea after idea at me about what I should wear, and what saddlebags I should carry, and what fashion ideas are in style.

I turned a vast majority of her comments down. Fluttershy showed me around her cottage and explained all of the different methods she uses to help wounded or sick animals while pointing out all of the animals that took residence in her small cottage. Applejack had given me a tour of her farm, while explaining all of the tasks that her family does to supply food to Ponyville.

Rainbow gave me a quick spell of her house.

A few minutes later Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and all of the others were sitting in the throne room of the castle. The castle itself glowed with magic and gave off an aura of power when the six friends sat in their respectful royal chairs.

"So, what do you think of Ponyville?" Twilight asked.

"It's nice. I think I'm going to like it here." The purple mare nodded. A bird call rang out in the distance, causing the six to jump in surprise. A ball of fire had flown through a window, set my saddlebag ablaze as it flew past me, and gone out through another window. The mares stared at my saddlebag with eyes widened in shock as they eyed the burning bag.

The fire quickly burned itself out, revealing a pair of scrolls with two red feather on top of them. The two letters just barely peaked on the outside of my travel case because of it’s size. “It’s just Blaze.” The six mares nodded.

I reached into the saddlebag and pulled out one of the scrolls while trying my best to think of the unavoidable truth that I was cursed to endure.

“What does it say?” Pinkie Pie asked as I read through the letter.

“The wonderbolts are coming to Ponyville in this upcoming week, and they are inviting all of you to come to the show.” I said trying to sound surprised by the news as I pulled up seven premium backstage passes, and tickets for front row seats attached to the letter.

"How did you get all of the good stuff?" Rainbow Dash asked gleefully as I handed each of them a ticket and backstage pass.

"Let’s just say I have a few connections.” I commented bluntly.

Rainbow Dash nodded happily, not caring for an explanation. “What kind of connections?” Twilight asked.

“My dad.” The six mares nodded weakly, knowing that it was a sore subject for me to talk about.

“What about the second letter?” Pinkie asked excitedly as she bounced up and down. As requested I pulled out the second letter. It had a bright seal and a red bow that tied the scroll closed. Rainbow stared at the scroll in surprise.

I slowly untied the bow and my eyes darted as I read the letter. “What does it say?” Rainbow Dash asked still excited about the tickets. I huffed an annoyed sigh, and made a high pitched whistle.

“Why don’t I ever get a break?” I asked myself, angered by quick change in circumstances. A ball of fire materialized on my shoulder before burning itself out, revealing a dark red and gold phoenix.

“Did she send it over?” I asked the bird on my shoulder. He cawed in response.

“She knows that I just moved, right?” The phoenix nodded.

“Do you mind if I work on a project here in the castle, my house is still under construction and I have nowhere else to go.” I commented.The six mares were incredibly confused but nodded in agreement.

I thanked them and let out a sharp whistle. A gold and dark red bird materialized on my shoulder.

“Can you go grab my tools, headphones, and calibration devices?” The bird nodded as he shot a ball of fire in the air, causing a small portal to form as the magically induced fire expanded. He flew through the gateway making the portal collapse on itself.

The six mares looked beautifully confused as they turned to look at the spot where the bird had vanished, and then back at me. When he had gotten back, he circled around me forming a tornado of fire, before coming to an abrupt halt. I was now wearing an all black outfit fitted with tons of pockets, multiple sashes, and a utility belt equipped various tools.

Blaze opened another portal by my hooves, and out came a large black box with backward double quarter note on the sides and a large red button on the top. “You have a job?” Twilight and Rarity asked in shock. I nodded as I grabbed a small remote from my utility belt, pointed it at the device, and inputted several codes.

The mechanism made a small beep as it opened, showing all of the inner components. "This device a highly complex machine. It takes a watchful eye to replace parts, and quite a bit of knowledge to figure out the mechanisms, and in most cases not even that is enough to make this thing start working again."

I used one of wings to deactivate the main battery from the reactor core, setting the mechanism on standby. I then used my hooves to reroute the secondary batteries to the external and internal fans to cool off the gadget’s fusion chambers and metal plating. While I used both of my wings to get out all of the dents in the machinery, and replace the burnt out wiring.

The mares were completely silent while I worked, awestruck by my ability to work on such a complicated piece of machinery.

“What’s the speed of light?” I asked the ponies without taking my eyes away from the machine.

“1 ,079, 252, 848,800 meters per hour” Twilight answered. I nodded and made a few more adjustments based on those numbers.

“Speed of sound?”

“1,225 miles per hour.” Rainbow Dash answered. I nodded in thanks and made more adjustments. A couple of minutes later Spike came in with a plate of sandwiches and set them by me as I worked. I thanked him but my attention didn’t waver from the task at hand.

“Blaze.” I called. The bird materialized in a ball of fire and slightly heated my sandwiches.

“Thanks.” I commented. The phoenix cawed lightly in response before shooting a hateful glare at the baby dragon.

“Don’t even think about it.” I reprimanded the judgemental bird before he could do anything to the small reptile. He cawed in protest but otherwise didn’t advance. Instead, he wrapped himself in a ball of fire and teleported away with enough force to cause a combustion with the oxygen in the atmosphere as he left.

“What was that all about?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Phoenixes and Dragons don’t get along very well.” I commented as I worked. The blue pegasus nodded.

“You’ve said that twice already, but you didn’t give any of us an explanation on how they don’t get along.” Twilight stated.

“I strongly believe I do not need to inform you of the origins of the quarrel. If you needed to know by now, I’m sure Spike would have told you.” I commented as I reset the calibration to the device. Twilight was taken aback by my response.

When I finished replacing the last busted piece and the last of my calibrations. I pressed in a few codes on the remote, causing the device to close back into a box. I entered a few more codes to force the device to reset it’s settings. A small beep emitted from the device as the repairs were made and the device was reset.

I scribbled down a letter on a scroll, balled it up and threw it towards Applejack’s head. A ball of white fire had travelled through a window and intercepted the balled up scroll. It burned to ashes before completely turning into particles of magic, and disappearing from sight. I nodded in satisfaction and pointed to the newly repaired product.

A large portal had formed right under the machine and swallowed it whole, before collapsing into itself and vanishing from view. “What do you guys want to do, now that I hopefully have a free schedule for the next couple of hours?” I asked.

“Flying lessons!” Rainbow Dash said excitedly. I was confused for a second on why she would say that, then I remembered what I promised her.

“I’ll met you outside.” I told her. She nodded before bolting out the throne room in record time.

“Twilight, Fluttershy. You two should come as well. Just in-case things get out of hoof.”

Twilight used magic to open the doors to the outside of the building and followed Fluttershy and I out.