It's Hero Time!

The next morning rolled around and the girls, Discord, and I were standing at the train station. “So Fluttershy what’s your cousin like?” I asked her.

“Well if I had to say, he’s a little bit like Pinkie but more like Twilight.” Fluttershy said.

“He’s excitable when it comes to learning and making new things?” Twilight guessed.

“Yes.” Fluttershy nodded and the train pulled in. “He’s here!”

The train’s doors opened and ponies stepped out. To make sure there weren’t any hold ups Twilight used a spell to make it seem like she was a regular unicorn. There was a clatter and a light gray pegasus with a prosthetic limb and one wing stepped out, he had a rusty brown mane and tail, and a pair of gears for a cutie mark. “Flutter!” He said in a rugged voice and hugged the yellow pegasus.

“Gear!” Fluttershy hugged the pegasus back. The pair of pegasai smiled. “You’re looking better.” Fluttershy said as she separated from the hug.

“Thank yah.” Steel Gear pointed out his new metal leg. “I crafted this little bauble meself. With the help of some unicorn doctors, but with this I can rally help with any that has lost a limb.” Gear smiled.

“That’s impressive.” Twilight said.

“Thank yah. So what, can I do ta help?” I looked at gear and he looked at me, I showed him the face of the omnitrix. He looked up at the sun and squinted but winked at me. He’s a plumber. “It’s pretty sunny out here. The weather captain must be on the up and up.”

“Thanks.” Rainbow said.

“I hate to cut this conversation short but we need to get going.” Twilight apologized. The group headed to the castle.

“Excuse me but I thought Flutter said you were an alicorn?” Steel Gear asked Twilight as they were walking.

“Oh right.” Twilight let the illusion spell down. “I do that so ponies won’t bow to me while getting off the train. Last time it caused a delay, I had to write an apology to Railroad Commission.” Twilight said. “Either that or I just wear a jacket.”

“I gots yah.” Gear said and continued to walk.

“If you don’t mind that I ask, but what happened to your leg and wing?” Rarity asked.

“Oh yeah, about that. I was busy helping fixing some train parts and a steam engine fell on me pinning me right leg and wing. It tooks months of recovery and years to even get a prosthetic to even walk right, but I picked up me tools and made this bad boy.” Steel smiled. “As much as I miss flying around, I found a calling in making better prosthetics for those in need and seeing the smiles on their faces brings a tear to me eye.” He smiled as they got to the castle and went into the basement. Gear whistled as he stared at the parts. “Where did you get these things from again?”

“They fell out of the sky.” Pinkie said.

“Welp, stranger things have happened in equestria.” Gear said.

The girls all left to get back to work leaving Discord, Gear, and I in the basement. I heard the door close. “So we can drop the facade now?” I asked.

Gear’s brow furrowed, “Yeah we’re in the clear.”

“So who did actually make your prosthetic limb?” Discord asked. “Because last time I checked an alien DNA tracker was much more advanced than what we have on here.”

“One of my Galvan buddies, helped me out. Also gave me a an implant that allows me to scan and determine where something is from.”

“Is a Galvan a little gray frog-like creature?” I guessed.

“Yeah, they’re really good with tech. Highly intelligent.” Discord said.

“I have one in the omnitrix.” I mentioned. “But right now we have bigger things to deal with. Who wants the omnitrix?”

Steel Gear looked through and scanned the scraps of metal. “There’s only one person in the universe that uses these.” Gear looked to Discord.

“Vilgax.” Discord grimaced.

“Who is Vilgax?” I asked them both.

“A warlord that is number one on the plumber’s wanted list.” Discord explained he then looked at me. “Spike, I know we’ve had our differences in the past but Vilgax will stop at nothing to get the omnitrix. He cares about no life but his very own. I’m willing to put all of that aside in order to protect the planet.” Discord held his lion paw out.

I looked him in the eye then I reached my hand out and shook his paw. “As am I.”

Steel Gear looked at the two of us. “As much as I appreciate the little powwow, would you mind taking it somewhere else? I got work to do and having the two of yah talk ain’t helping me get anywhere.”

“Let’s head to the Everfree castle. That should be the perfect place to establish a base of operations.” I said.

“The plumbers of equestria do need a more permanent base.” Discord stroked his goatee.

“Celestia said we could use it. It’s deep enough into the everfree to keep away from the public eye.” I said. “The only person we would have to worry about is Zecora.”

“The Zebra?” Discord asked, and Gear cleared his throat. “Fine.” Discord sighed and snapped his eagle talon and He and I were transported to the Everfree castle.

I shook my head out and felt a bit a nausea. “Warn me next time you do that.” Discord was ignoring me as he looked around. “I also forgot about Twilight and the girls coming by.”

“That won’t be a problem.” Discord said. “I can teleport the books into Twilight’s library and take care of anything else the girls are interested in with the castle.” He teleported around a few times. “The place still has good structure.” He was now wearing a construction outfit. “But with a little effort this could become a fully fledged base. Good work Spike.”

“Yea- wait what did you say?” I asked him.

“Hmm?”

“You called me Spike, you usually just call me dragon or whelp.”

“That was before you had the omnitrix.” Discord said.

“Oh…”

“Also I respect you for your responsibility with the power it comes with.” Discord said.

“But you’re the lord of chaos.” I pointed out.

“True, but while I may cause chaos I abide by the rules set by the plumbers and intergalactic council. I may be a lord of chaos, but there are much more powerful creatures out in the universe, so powerful they can rewrite time, even create entire universes.” Discord said.

“Wow, I wouldn’t want to cross those guys.” I said.

“They’re generally hermits, they rarely ever interfere with anything.” Discord said. “Is there anything else you would like to know?”

“Yeah, I’d like to know more about the omnitrix.” I pointed to the device on my arm.

“Well I don’t know a lot about it, but from what I heard the omnitrix you have is a prototype, what it’s mean for is for other species to experience what another species’ life is like. It’s meant more for a device of peace.” Discord said. “From what I know, there are a lot of types of alien DNA within there other than just 10, but they’re locked away.”

“How do I unlock them?”

“Now that’s something I don’t know.” Discord admitted. “I swear to the element of honesty.”

“Alright, where do we start?” I grinned.

“With your fighting skills, there are going to be times that you don’t have the omnitrix to help you. Now I know you haven’t been in a fight for your life but never say never.” Discord stated.

“Okay then.” I said and we went to the training yard and Discord started to teach me how to fight. The afternoon turned into evening and I was laying on the dirt, sweating, and taking shallow breaths. “This would be much easier if I was older.” I said.

“You’re telling me.” Discord said while floating a cloud made of cotton candy. “You couldn’t even get past the first training dummy.” Discord pointed out an enchanted training dummy with some tears and burn marks on it. “I’ll give you one thing, you’re very ambitious for a ten-year old.”

I sat up. “I’m not ten.”

“I’m sorry, ten and a half.” Discord sarcastically said.

“Discord, I’m 19.” I told him and he looked at me.

“You’re shitting me.” Discord was shocked.

“You’re part dragon, you should know that dragons biologically age at 5,000 times slower than regular ponies.” I pointed out.

“So when do you start to look older?” Discord asked.

I shrugged. “I dunno, could be a year from now, could be a thousand years from now.” I wiped my forehead. “But I need to head home.”

Discord snapped his paw and sent me home. But while he did that he also teleported to the palace to tell Celestia about his plans.

When I got back home Twilight and Steel Gear were talking about the tech in the basement, and just talking in general. “So how long will you be staying in Ponyville?” Twilight asked Gear.

“As long as you’ll have me.” Gear answered. “With my occupation I’m always moving around, so I’m never in one place for very long.”

“Oh I’m sorry.” Twilight apologized.

“It’s fine, I got used to it. Basically me home is whatever is underneath me feet.” Gear said.

I walked into the sitting room. Twilight looked at me, “Oh hey Spike, how was your day?”

“Tiring, I’m trying to learn how to fight without using the omnitrix.” I spoke. “If you’ll excuse me I’m going to take a bath.” I took off my shirt and cargo pants. The clothes were surrounded in a periwinkle glow.

“I’ll wash these for you.” Twilight smiled.

“Thank you.” I went up to the bathroom and started up a bath.

When Spike went into the bath Twilight took the clothes into the laundry room. Then she came back and sat down in front of Gear again. “My apologies.”

“Nah you’re fine.” Gear said.

“I have a more personal question to ask you.” Twilight said.

“Yes?”

“What’s with all the secrecy?” Twilight asked. “I’m not stupid, I know when something is up, Spike and Discord just don’t all of a sudden get along. Something is up, and I want to know.”

“Yeah I figured.” Gear said, dropping the accent. “Look, I just want to say that I’m not your enemy here. It’s just that if this becomes public knowledge then we’re pretty much screwed.”

“What makes you think that I’ll tell anyone?” Twilight asked.

“It’s not you that we’re worried about, it’s your friends. They aren’t the best for keeping things quiet.” Gear said. “You know I don’t like this, especially when I’m keeping a secret from my own family. I’ll just say this, you’ll learn in time. I can’t say anything else or else I would be reassigned.”

“I understand, just blink once for yes and twice for no. Does Princess Celestia know?” Twilight asked and Gear blinked once. “Thank you Gear, would you like to stay in castle while you’re here?”

“Yes I would, thank you.” Gear thanked Twilight. “Goodnight Twilight.”

“Goodnight.” Twilight said and walked to her room, she noticed that Spike was out of the bath and asleep, she went into his room and kissed his forehead. “My little hero.”