Hammer & Anvil

Current Time: 12:58 AM, Friday

“Ow!” Jackboot yelped when an apple landed on his head.

He and Ballpin were taking a half day off and were helping Applejack and Big Macintosh with the apple harvest. After Ballpin completed in making all of the Modules for the Electric Pentagon by himself the day before, he and Jackboot became a bit closer as friends.

Applejack approached Jackboot with Ballpin, or one of him, by her side.

“Thank ya again for the help Jackboot.” She said as she glanced at another Ballpin walking by. “Remind me and I’ll send some of the profits to y’all.”

“I appreciate it, Applejack.” Jackboot said as he picked up the bucket of apples. “But you don’t have to.”

“Why shouldn’t I Sugercube?” Applejack asked. “You and Ballpin here have been a great help.”

After two Ballpins passed by, both with buckets of apples, the original noticed that Applejack didn’t seem the least bit concerned.

“H-hey, Applejack.” He said. “Can I-I ask you s-something?”

“Sure Sugercube.” Applejack said as she bucked another tree. “What’s on your mind?”

“I was wondering w-why you don’t seemed to b-bothered by the fact that there’s five of me walking around and that J-Jackboot appearing and reappearing like that.”

Applejack chuckled.

“Well when you’ve been friends with Twilight for as long as I have, these sorts of things don’t surprise me none. Not as much as they used to anyway.”

Ballpin nodded, confirming that he understood before continuing with his work.

Over half an hour had passed since the harvest started.

As they gathered at the cart, they heard a familiar pony calling over to them.

“Hello Darlings!”

They all looked and saw Rarity approaching them.

“Howdy Rarity!” Applejack called over. “What brings y’all here?”

“I came bearing good news.” Rarity said as she stopped in front of the ponies. “I got a letter from Sassy Saddles!”

Jackboot and Ballpin, one of them anyway, looked at one another. Both of them didn’t recognize the name.

“W-who is that?” Ballpin asked.

“She’s the manager of my boutique in Canterlot.” Rarity answered. “And she invited me to a dinner party this Sunday.”

“Good for you Rarity.” Jackboot said. “When are you heading over there?”

“The next train to Canterlot is tomorrow at twelve. Ooh, I’m so excited!”

Jackboot smiled. He liked seeing Rarity happy. The image of her winking at him still lingered in his mind. That wasn’t the only thing that was on his mind, her removing the screws from her oven door still bothered him. Did she like him?

As the ponies talked, Applejack spotted somepony, or two somepony’s approaching.

“Hey you two!” She called.

Everypony else looked and saw that it was the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Well, two of them.

“Howdy sis!” Applebloom said as Sweetie Belle followed behind.

“What are you two doing out of school?” Rarity asked.

“Miss Cheerilee said that her sister was sick so she cut school short today.” Sweetie Belle explained. “She would’ve got a substitute but it was really short notice.”

Applejack looked around.

“Where’s Scootaloo?” She asked. “I thought you three would be zipping over.”

Her question was answered by the sight of a gamboge colored pegasus trotting towards them. She was wearing her purple helmet but she wasn’t on her scooter.

“There you are Scoot.” Applejack said as the filly approached the group. “We were wondering where you were.”

Scootaloo took off her helmet.

“I had a bit of an accident.” She explained.

“What happened?” Jackboot asked. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Scootaloo said. “I was zooming through town on my way here and…”

“…and she ran into me.”

Everypony looked and saw Rainbow Dash flying over to them with the base of Scootaloo’s scooter in one hoof and the handle bars in the other.

“Jeez, did you hit her that hard?” Ballpin asked.

“A little bit…” Scootaloo said with embarrassment.

“It’s cool kid.” Rainbow Dash as she set the pieces of scooter on the ground before walking over to the filly. “I’ve been hit harder.”

Ballpin took a look at the dismantled scooter.

“Want me to fix it?” He asked.

“Would you really?” Scootaloo asked.

“I’m a blacksmith, of course I will.”

Ballpin then looked at his duplicates.

“Can all of you take care of this from here?”

The four Ballpin’s saluted.

“Alright then. Let’s get over to the shop.”

The two Pegasi followed the white Unicorn out of Sweet Apple Acres.

“Now, what else did I come here for?” Rarity asked rhetorically.

Suddenly it came to her.

“Oh of course!” She said. “Jackboot, I was hoping you can help me with something.”

Jackboot smiled upon hearing this. But he then got suspicious. What else did Rarity break?

“What do you want help with?” He asked. “Did something else break?”

“No, thankfully.” Rarity said. “Spike and I are heading over to the gem fields. I remember that you require some crystals, so I’d thought I’d bring you along.”

A double whammy. Spending time with the loveliest mare in all of Equestria and get materials for the Pentagon. How could he say no?

Oh, and hang out with Spike. He hasn’t seen much of the little guy since he got the shop running.

“I don’t see why not.” Jackboot said. “After all I do need the crystals. Especially the command crystals and the black crystal.”

“What if you can’t find these, command crystal or whatever it is?” Applejack asked.

“Then no Pentagon.” Jackboot said. Suddenly and idea came to his mind. “But there is a way to make one.”

“Make one?” Rarity said. “How does one do that?”

“It’s a special procedure. I’ve never done it, and father hasn’t either. The one’s he used he found.”

“What kind of procedure is it?” One of the Ballpins asked.

“It involves making a certain concoction.” Jackboot explained. “I think I have the ingredients written down in my notebook. They’re some pretty unique ingredients and I don’t know that much about potion making or anything like that.”

Suddenly Applebloom spoke up.

“I know somepony who can.” She said. “Zecora can help.”

“Who’s that?” Jackboot asked.

“She lives in the Everfree Forest.” Applebloom explained. “I help make all sorts of potions and all sorts of stuff. I’ll tell you what, meet me at the entrance to the forest over near Fluttershy’s house, We’ll go to Zecora’s from there.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

The workroom of the metal shop was filled with the noise of somepony welding.

That somepony was Ballpin with a welding mask on. He was using the energy from his horn to weld the handle bars back onto the rest of the scooter.

“How hard did she her hit?” Ballpin asked himself, not bothering to correct himself.

He then stopped the welding. He then stood it up to make sure it was perfectly straight.

“Perfect.” He said. “Now to scrap the melted bits off.”

He then took hold of a hammer and pick and began to chip away the melted metal.

As he picked away, he saw Rainbow Dash poked her head in.

“Is it okay if we come in?” She asked.

“By all means.” Ballpin said. “Come in.”

Rainbow Dash then entered the room with Scootaloo in toe.

Scootaloo’s face lit up when she saw that her scooter was fixed.

“My scooter!” She said.

She then ran and gave Ballpin a big and sudden hug.

Ballpin almost dropped his hammer.

“Thank you so much!” Scootaloo said with joy.

“Not a problem.” Ballpin said as he chipped the last of the melted metal away.

He then set the scooter on the floor as Scootaloo let go of him.

“How much do I owe you?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Rainbow you don’t have to pay.” Scootaloo said.

“It’s cool Scoot.” Rainbow said as she rubbed the filly’s mane.

“Let’s get this over to the scale.” Ballpin said as he led the filly and mare into the front room.

Scootaloo then stepped off of the scooter, allowing Ballpin to put the scale.

Blonde stallion eyed the scale carefully.

“You owe me…”

The needle on the scale stopped.

“…its nine pounds, so that means you owe me eighteen bits.”

“No problem.”

Rainbow Dash then planted eighteen bits onto the counter.

“Thank you.” Ballpin said. “Have a good day.”

“Yeah you too.” Rainbow Dash said. “Come on Scoot, let’s go and grab a couple of shakes. Try not to crash into anything.”

“You’re on!” Scootaloo then turned to Ballpin. “Thanks Ballpin, I’ll see you later!”

The two pegasi then raced out of the shop.

Ballpin laughed as he dropped the bits into the jar. The jar had gotten really full lately.

“What do I do now?”

As he stepped into the backroom he heard somepony ring the bell.

“Coming!”

He entered the waiting area and saw the new customer.

“Oh, hello there.” He said to the gray pegasus. “What can I do for you?”

The cockeyed mare held up a shiny toaster, which had really large dents one both sides.

“I just don’t know what went wrong.”

Jackboot and Rarity scanned the ground in front of them with their horns.

He, Rarity, and Spike were all at the fields outside of the Ponyville looking for crystals, or gems as Rarity called them.

“What colors are you looking for Jackboot?” Spike asked.

“I need red, blue, green, yellow, and pink.” Jackboot answered. “I need six of each. And I need six other crystals that are to be command crystals.”

“What about that black crystal, darling?” Rarity asked.

“I don’t know about that one.” Jackboot answered as he followed his horn. “Maybe if Zecora really knows her stuff. Maybe she’ll figure something out.”

Jackboot then saw something glow in the ground in front of him.

“Found some.”

Before Jackboot could start digging, Spike lunged forward onto the ground and began digging, flinging dirt everywhere.

“Here we go!”

Spike then held up several crystals in his claws.

“Good job, Spiky Wikey.” Rarity said causing Spike to almost go into a love sick trance.

Jackboot and Rarity then collected the crystals they needed.

Rarity watched as Jackboot examined each crystal carefully for their color and size.

“Okay, these are perfectly sized, I just need to cut them to a certainly shape.” He explained. “I also need to be sure that each one of these is the same exact weight, otherwise they won’t work.”

He then looked over and saw Spike drooling over the crystals.

He smiled upon seeing this.

“Hey Spike, when I get done cutting down the crystals I’ll give the rejects to you. How does that sound?”

“Will you really?” Spike asked excitingly.

“Of course. What else am I going to do with them?” Jackboot asked as he put the crystals into his saddlebag. “I’d give them to Rarity but I’m pretty sure she has no use for crumpled up bits.”

“Spikey Wikey!” Rarity called over. “I found more!”

Without a word, Spike darted over to the spot Rarity had pointed out and dive head first into the dirt.

“Jackboot come on, there’s more here!”