Hammer & Anvil

Current Time: 12:23 PM, Thursday

“Come on, come on.” Twilight said as she tapped her hooves on the train platform with excitement. “When’s the train going to get here?”

“Twilight, calm down.” Spike said. “Cadence and Shining will get here soon enough.”

“Sorry Spike, it’s just that I’m so excited!” The purple alicorn said. “I haven’t seen them since they told us about their baby!”

Suddenly the air was pierced with the sound of a loud whistle.

“Here it comes!”

The crystal train rattled along the track just as the brakes emitted its loud screech, grinding it to a halt.

As soon as the train stopped moving, the air was then filled with the fanfare of royal trumpets. The door to the train car opened and out came two royal guards. One on the left was a crystal pegasus, while the one on the right was an orange pegasus with a blue mane.

“Presenting, the Princess of Love and the Empress of the Crystal Empire, Cadence…” The orange guard said. “…and presenting the Captain of the Crystal Guard, Shining Armor!”

On que, the pink alicorn and white unicorn stallion walked out from the train car and onto the platform.

“You’re highness.” Cadence said as she and her husband bowed.

“You’re highness.” Twilight said as she bowed in return.

After a quiet moment, the two mares began to laugh.

“It’s good to see you Twilight.” Cadence said as she opened front legs open. “C’mere.”

Twilight then found herself entangled in a hug with her sister in law.

“It’s been too long Twily.” Shining Armor added as his younger sister gave him a hug.

“You’re room is all set up back at the castle.” Spike said. “Want me to get your bags?”

“Thank you Spike.” The Princess of Love said. “Flash Sentry will help you.”

She then nodded to the orange stallion, who of which made his way to where the bags were held.

“Here I come!” A new voice shouted form inside the train.

Everypony looked and saw a green unicorn mare trotting out of the train car wearing a red ascot around her neck while carrying a large suitcase with her magic.

“Enjoy your nap, Emerald?” Cadence asked.

The green mare put her suitcase down.

“I did, thank you.” She said. “Sorry about that, I almost left with the train.”

Cadence chuckled.

“It’s alright. Let me introduce you two.” She then directed her attention to Twilight. “Emerald, this is Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. Twilight, this is Emerald Button, the mother of the creator of the mechanical wonder that we’re going to see tomorrow.”

Jackboot, finally better from his illness from the day before, was finally almost finished with the core module of the Electric Pentagon. He had finished the inner workings of the module. The inner workings were much more complex than with the outer modules, as it had a rotary mechanism which held five tubes of twittermites set up in a circle. The center of the circle was a smaller circle which consisted of five crystals, which were red, blue, yellow, green, a pin, with the clear command crystal in the center. Above the circle of crystals was currently vacant as it was meant for the most important piece of the mechanical puzzle. The Black Crystal.

Ballpin wasn’t with him as Jackboot convinced him to go on his lunchbreak. He had also noticed that Ballpin seemed to be rather down about something, when he would ask him; Ballpin would merely say that he either didn’t get that much sleep. Despite not being convinced, Jackboot decided it let it be for the time being.

“I’m the Jack to the B, to the double O and T…” He sang to himself as he reached for the last tube of twittermites. “…and ain’t no other stallion pound that metal like me, I’m Jackbootlicious!”

“I bet you are, darling.”

“WHAO!”

Jackboot jumped, flinging the glass tube into the air.

The tube was then suddenly surrounded by a light blue aura of magic.

Jackboot turned around saw that it was a familiar white mare.

“Oh, Rarity, what a surprise.” He said with a pant. “I didn’t hear…”

He then realized that there was a second mare in the room.

“Mother!”

He then trotted over to the green mare and put his front legs around her as she did the same.

“When did you get here?” Jackboot asked as he let his mother go.

“Just did earlier.” Emerald said. “Along with a couple other ponies who want to see you and your little project. I think you might be a little familiar with them.”

“Oh really?” He asked. “Who are they?”

“Ask them yourself.”

Emerald then turned to the doorway.

“You two can come in now!”

Just then entered a tall white stallion with a blue mane and a pink alicorn mare with a multicolored mane donned with a golden tiara.

“Hello, you must be Jackboot.” Princess Cadence said. “Shining and I have heard so much about you.’

“The pleasure is all mine Princess Cadence, Shining Armor.” Jackboot said as he carefully shook each of their hooves in greeting. “I know it’s a bit late at this point, but congratulations on getting married.”

“Why thank you, Jackboot.” Shining Armor said. “Emerald told us that you helped with the repairs after the Changelings attacked.”

“I did.” Jackboot confirmed. “But I couldn’t stay long. I had to go and clean the house and the old shop. A couple of Changelings thought it would be good idea to use the shop to set up a nesting ground. I swear the shop smelt terrible for weeks.”

The ponies chuckled at this.

Shining Armor then noticed the six modules behind Jackboot.

“Is that the Electric Pentagon we heard so much about?” He asked.

“Indeed it is. Please, have a look.” Jackboot said, waving the royal couple over to the core module.

The two trotted to the module as Jackboot took hold of the tube of twittermites that Rarity had saved from destruction.

“As you see, this one is the core module, the most important part of the pentagon.” Jackboot explained. “You see, each module uses these twittermites.” He held up the tube of twittermites. “The twittermites are what create the charge that is needed. Thanks to the command crystal, it is able to transfer the charge to each of the five outer modules, all of which contain a tube twittermites. All of which take hold of said charge.”

“I was made aware that it can create an image of some sort.” Cadence said. “How does that work.”

“That is where the crystals come in.” Jackboot said as he placed the twittermite tube into the core module. “This device requires a total of thirty six crystals, well thirty seven counting the black crystal. These crystals are colored different and are required to be a certain size and weight. There are six blue, six red, six green, six yellow, six pink, and six command crystals, of which were created with the help one Zecora, who will be present tomorrow, I’ll take note to introduce you. Anyway, that’s how the image is produced; now here is the interesting part, the black crystal. Pardon me a moment.”

Jackboot then turned around and disappeared in a bright flash.

“Where’d he go?” Cadence asked.

Before anypony could answer, the flash returned and disappeared, leaving Jackboot in its place, holding something that was wrapped in a brown cloth.

“May I introduce…” Jackboot removed the cloth revealing a large, black crystal the size of a grapefruit. “…the black crystal.”

Emerald’s eyes almost went as wide as the crystal.

“This is right here is what makes the Pentagon go.” Jackboot continued. “You see, only a unicorn can operate this device. How to operate it is that you use your magic to both take hold of the black crystal and the rotary assembly that holds the tubes. And as you know, an irritated twittermite causes a small discharge of electricity; put a lot of irritated twittermites into a group and the discharge becomes larger. Now combine one tube of irritated twittermites with multiple tubes of them, and the discharge is even larger. Since the operator has a hold of the crystal and the assembly, the crystal begins to absorb the charge. When you apply a large charge of electricity to a black crystal, it does some pretty strange things, such as enabling the ability to synchronize with the operators mind. Through which, you can create any image you wish.”

“What sort of images do you plan on creating for tomorrow?” Rarity asked.

“I’m glad you asked my dear.” Jackboot said with a smile. “I had Ballpin, he’s a colleague of mine by the way, place several advertisements around town for suggestions. I’ve been getting letters all day.”

Shining Armor raised his hoof.

“Do you have a question?” Jackboot asked.

“How did you find the black crystal anyway?” Shining Armor asked. “Because this doesn’t seem like you could find it just anywhere.”

Before Jackboot could come up with an answer, his mother spoke up almost immediately.

“Could it have something to do with the disappearance of your watch?” Emerald asked.

Jackboot’s eyes went wide.

“W-What do you mean, mother?” He asked.

“You never go anywhere without your watch.” Emerald explained. “It might be the possibility that you might have forgotten it in Ponyville. But since you’re here in Ponyville, where is it?”

Jackboot was at a loss of words. He knew his mother was smart, he never doubted that in the least, but he never expected that she was aware of the situation the entire time. But now, there’s no other way out.

Jackboot sighed.

“It’s…” He began. “…It’s gone.”

Ballpin swallowed part of his hay burger as he sat at a table at the Clover Café before letting out a sigh.

Last night Ballpin had visited Octavia to ask her to be his special somepony. But there was a problem. A stallion by the name of “Noteworthy” showed up, revealing to be Octavia’s coltfriend. As a result, Ballpin felt as if his heart had fallen out of his chest and shattered on the ground.

As he looked upon his half eaten hay burger, he heard somepony calling over to him.

“Excuse me are you Ballpin by any chance?”

Ballpin looked over and saw a pegasus standing there. It was a stallion with a cornflower blue coat with a dark, grayish blue mane. His cutie mark appeared to be a swooped cloud with a lightning bolt striking the center of it.

“I’m him.” Ballpin said. “Who are you?”

“Oh where are my manners…” The stallion then offered his hoof in greeting. “…Soarin. I’m pretty sure you don’t recognize me without my uniform.”

Ballpin’s eyes almost burst from his head.

“Soarin, as in Soarin of the Wonderbolts?” He asked with amazement as he shook the pegasus’ hoof.

“The very same.” Soarin said. “Anyway, I’m glad I found you.”

Soarin then pulled out a pair of flying goggles. The rim of the left lens was cracked.

“If it’s not too much trouble, I was wondering if you could fix it.” He said. “This is the third time I cracked my goggles and if Spitfire finds out she’ll have my flank on a platter. Could you please do me a solid? I’ll even pay for your lunch.”

Ballpin’s eyes went wide. Was one of the “Big Three” of the Wonderbolts really asking him for help? If it were another pony, it wouldn’t be that much of a big deal, but this was Soarin. How could he say no?

“Of course, I’ll help.” He said. “And you don’t have to pay for my lunch.”

“Hey, it’s alright man, I insist.” Soarin said as he sat down in the seat across from Ballpin. “Besides, I’m starving. We had to cut breakfast short.”

A waiter trotted over and took Soarin’s order, a large piece of apple pie and a glass milk to wash it down.

After the waiter left, Soarin looked back over at Ballpin who suddenly had a look of sorrow on his face as he chewed.

“You okay?” He asked.

Ballpin swallowed.

“Yes, I’m alright.” He answered. “Why do you ask?”

“You looked like a mare said no to you.” Soarin said. “Trust me, I know that feeling.”

Ballpin sighed.

“Well, she didn’t exactly say no.” He said. “But she might as well have, given that she was already taken.”

Soarin was surprised on how on the mark he was.

“Sorry to hear that buddy… …thank you.” Soarin’s pie and milk had arrived to their table mid-sentence. He took a good forkful of the pie before continuing. “It’s never a good feeling for a mare to say no.”

Before either of them could say anything else, a third pony approached them.

“Ballpin, there you are!”

The two looked and saw a blue stallion with a pair of music notes for a cutie mark trotted up to the table.

“I knew I’d find you around here.” He said. He then noticed the Wonderbolt and introduced himself.

“Nice to meet you Noteworthy.” Soarin said before taking a gulp of milk.

“Anyway, I’m glad I found you Ballpin.” Noteworthy said. “I wanted to say thank you for helping Octavia when she scraped her knee like that. You have my respect.”

“Really?” Ballpin asked.

He wasn’t expecting this at all; then again, he wasn’t expecting to meet a member of the Wonderbolts either.

“Yeah, seriously. What you did was a really good thing.” Noteworthy said as he pulled up a chair. “I’d buy you lunch but it seems to me that you beat me to it.”

“Order what you want man, I’m buying.” Soarin said after swallowing another mouthful of pie.

“Might as well.” Noteworthy said as flagged down a waiter. “And still Ballpin, thank you very much.”

“I hope Jackboot has a big appetite.” Frosted Cookie said as she and Dive Bomber approached the metal shop.

Cookie carried a Hay Burger bag that was filled with several hot hay burgers and fries.

“He probably does now that his stomach isn’t like it was yesterday.” Dive Bomber said. “I hope so anyway.”

As they approached the metal shop, they saw a familiar green mare exit through the front door.

“Hello Emerald!” Dive Bomber called over. “How are you?”

“I’m doing well.” Emerald said. “I just got here earlier.”

She then saw the Hay Burger bag on Cookie’s back.

“Looks like you got some lunch.” She said. “There isn’t anything sugar related in there, right?”

“No, why do you ask?” Cookie asked.

“Well Jackboot is forbidden from anything sweet until tomorrow. He is also to come straight home… …I mean, straight to the Castle after he’s finished with whatever needs to be done.”

“So, we can’t have lunch with him?” Dive Bomber asked.

“Oh you can have lunch with him.” Emerald said. “He’s in the middle of a break anyway. He’ll need a break to rest his hoof after all the writing I made him do.”

“What did he do anyway?” Cookie asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.”