Prologue - Some Background
The Equestrian Wasteland was bare; no trees, flowers, grass, or even rocks. Just an endless plane of sand and dust. Well, that's what I’ve been told.
My name is Silver Gears. I'm the maintenance pony of Stable 72, one of the Stables in Manehatten. My father, Golden Gears, disappeared after I was born, and my mother, Tangerine, died of radiation poisoning when I was five. I was then taken in by my dad’s parents, Grandma Ink Pen and Grandpa Monkey Wrench.
I was the first in my class to get a Cutie Mark, two gears and a light bulb. I got it when I was nine and Grandpa Wrench thought me how to use his tools. I had a bit of trouble at first, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly and built a crank-powered light bulb.
I wasn't very liked by the other kids because I got my Mark one-to-two years before the average pony. I think that my classmates believed that I thought I was better than everypony for getting it early, but I did make two good friends during my childhood; Rough Cut, an Earth Pony filly with green eyes like emeralds with a long, red mane and tail and a cream-coloured coat (her Cutie Mark was a Fire Ruby with a keyhole), and Python, a Pegasus colt with a lime-green mane and tail with a black stripe going through it with dark blue eyes and a grey coat (his Cutie Mark was a computer terminal).
Python was the last in our class to get his Mark (he got his at thirteen), for you see foals weren't allowed to use computer terminals unless they had special permission. He got his when I was organizing some reports on my terminal for the head of maintenance when Python came by to see what I was doing. At that point I had been working for seven hours straight, staring at a computer terminal doing the most boring task ever. He told me that he could take over and finish for me, which I gladly accepted because I needed to sleep, so I told him what exactly I was doing.
“I have to go through all of the reports from the previous year and file them onto this floppy drive and then I have to order them by date,” I explained.
“Seems easy enough,” he replied.
And so I went to bed. The next morning when I walked into my office I found Python asleep at the terminal. I went to see how much he got done and was surprised to see the computer doing it by itself!
“Python, how did you do that?!” I exclaimed.
“Hueghh dfergleb…” Python said groggily.
“How did you make the computer run itself?”
Python wiped the rest of the sleep from his eyes. “It was just a simple algorithm. It only took like 450-ish lines of code.”
It was then that I realized that he had something on his flank. “What’s that?”
He looked at his flank and gasped in surprise. He then looked straight at me with the biggest smile I could imagine on his face.
If it wasn't for his program I would have been working for another day, and even though I got scolded by my mentor for letting somepony who wasn't a mechanic do my work Python’s program is still used by mechanics in Stable 72 for organization. Since then it's been updated to include over 1,000 lines of code.
Rough Cut, in my opinion, got her Mark the coolest way in my opinion.
During her eleventh birthday, her parents gave her a Fire Ruby, one that has been in her family for generations, as a gift. That's when she realized how much she loved gemstones.
She quickly became Stable 72’s go-to pony for information on jewelry and gemstones. After a few weeks everypony was wondering how she still hasn't gotten her Cutie Mark yet.
One day when Rough, Python, and I were walking down hallway 2-B, we heard a scream from a nearby familial living quarters. We rushed over and found out the pony was locked behind a metal door, screaming that her Mr. Handy had an error and locked her in there.
Python and I tried to buck down the door but then Rough Cut stepped up and picked the lock, and when the door opened the room was on fire! Rough Cut rushed in and shoved the screaming pony out of the room and closed the door behind her.
“Is there anything in there that you need, ma’am, because I have a feeling that nothing is going to survive that big a fire,” Rough Cut said to the pony.
“Oh, yes I do. In the back of the room there’s a locked dresser. In one of the drawers there is a diamond ring in a little plastic box. It’s been in my family before the Megaspells even hit and-” Rough Cut silenced her.
“Don't worry, I'll get it,” she said before she opened the door and rushed in again.
“Are you crazy!” I yelled.
“You'll die!” Python said.
But our shouts were to no avail as she didn't come out until she had the little plastic box in her mouth and a Cutie Mark on her flank. At that moment three unicorns showed up and started casting water-related spells to put out the fire.
“How did the Mr. Handy not get you?” I asked.
“I bucked it so hard that robot parts flew out of its other side. He won't bother any pony any time soon.”
Since then the Overmare has been trying to cover up that event, but Rough cuts Cutie Mark is still a reminder of that day.
Rough Cut and I are now both nineteen and Python’s birthday is in one week.
So, now that you know a bit of background about my friends and myself, let me tell you about my journey through the Equestrian Wasteland.