BPT: A Friendship Built to Last

Chapters

Chapter 1. Setting the Gears in Motion
Chapter 2. A Delicious Deviance
Chapter 3. Trial and Error
Chapter 4. Brainstorming
Chapter 6. Steps Forward, Steps Back
Chapter 7. The Success Trap
Chapter 8. Nocturnal Trickery
Chapter 5. Conflict of Interests

Chapter 1. Setting the Gears in Motion

The airship landed in an airfield in Fillydelphia, and before long ponies were disembarking, among them a tall stallion garbed in a shadowy hooded cloak with a hole in the brim through which a horn stuck out, holding the hood in place, and a pair of saddlebags strapped to his barrel.

He gazed up at the city before him. Fillydelphia was one of the larger cities in Equestria, metropolitan like Manehatten, but it was also known for its residents including dragons, who had a large district where most of them lived famously known as Dragon Town, and historically known as one of the places where real efforts were and are made to better relations between ponies and dragons. It was also famous for having been the home of Stormy Kite, an earth pony polymath who discovered the harnessing of electricity, with the help of his pegasus son, during the mid-seventh century into the Celestial Era.

“Been a while since I was last here,” the hooded pony said to himself before throwing his head back, the hood falling down to reveal the face of Midnight Blaze, one of the alicorn monarchs of Equestria.
“But this time I’ll actually get a chance to maybe sightsee or relax. Still, first things first.”

Midnight’s horn lit up, and the cloak he wore seemed to turn to smoke as it was sucked into his left saddlebag, and his form briefly shimmered as his appearance changed.

He now appeared a more average-looking unicorn, with a coat grayish-blue like a cloudy overcast, a bronze-colored mane with a gold highlight, his eyes remained turquoise blue while his cutie-mark looked like a simple pentagram star. His wings were no longer visible and his tail looked more regular than its normal lion-like appearance.

The disguised prince gave the area a brief look-over and was satisfied to see nopony had apparently noticed his “transformation”. Everyone was going about their business, ponies arriving and meeting with friends or family, ponies getting ready to board airships bound for destinations across Equestria, and so on. It was just as well.

Midnight was in no mood for any flank-kissing.

Midnight began to walk through the city, unsure of what to do but sure of his purpose of being here in Fillydelphia.

It had only been a few weeks since the incident where he and Twilight had been experimenting with small-scale time-travel, nothing that could lead to conflicting temporal paradoxes or have a negative impact on the timeline. But rather the intention had been to use this small-scale time-travel to step a few minutes or even an hour into the past to assist one’s prior self in research and other such endeavors, temporarily creating another self who wholly understands one’s theories and goals.

To this day, Midnight and Twilight still hadn’t figured out what went wrong, but instead of being sent through time, Midnight found himself in an alternate Equestria!

Of course, he didn’t realize that until after he and a pony he met there fought each other with magic and technology, raised such a ruckus, accidentally turned themselves into stone statues frozen over in ice… that Twilight Sparkle, his own and the Twilight of that Equestria found each other and freed Midnight and the pony he fought from their petrified predicament.

They got such a scolding for fighting like foals and were given an explanation of how Midnight and his Twilight had come to an alternate Equestria, not to another time past, present, or future. Midnight and the pony he fought both apologized to their respective Twilights and to each other, complimented the other, and were a little sad that they were now to part and likely never see each other again until the Twilights pointed out their respective Equestrias likely had an alternate version of Midnight and his new friend in each other’s own Equestria.

Now, two weeks later since that wild adventure, here Midnight was, looking for the version of that pony he met in the alternate Equestria here in his own.

Not knowing where to find him, he guessed, May as well ask around.

He approached an earth pony stallion wearing a coat and tie, carrying a briefcase, and asked, “Uh, excuse me, sir, sorry to bother…”

The pony regarded him with a slight look of annoyance, “Do you mind? I’m running late for the office.”

“Sorry, sir, I just got into town and I’m looking for somepony,” Midnight was honestly glad he wasn’t being recognized as Prince Midnight Blaze, but rather an unknown unicorn. Still, would it kill the guy to be socially polite? Swallowing his own annoyance, he politely asked, “Perhaps you know him, do you know where I could find a pony named Techorse?”

“Techorse?!” the earth pony echoed and snorted, “I don’t associate with crazy and irresponsible children like him! Good day, sir!”

The earth pony shouldered Midnight out of his way and carried on, Midnight glaring after him thinking, Well pardon me for living!

Trying again, Midnight asked around town more about Techorse, and frankly he got… mixed results.

“Why would you wanna meet some wannabe inventor?” asked a mail-carrier.

“Such a good boy, and quite the imagination!” praised an old mare.

“He’s a crackpot and I want nuthin’ t’ do with him,” snapped a cab pony.

“Have you tried his products? This solar-powered fruit & vegetable peeler he made is amazing!” said a deli-chef.

Finally, after asking the umpteenth pony, Midnight got an address and soon found himself outside a shop a little out of the ways, almost at the fringe of Fillydelphia.

The sign read ‘Techorse Repairs and Specialized Products: Designed with Hooves in Mind’.

“Designed with hooves in mind…” Midnight said to himself and chuckled, “Catchy!”

But now that he was here, for some reason Midnight found himself hesitant. When he’d med Techorse in the alternate Equestria, they wound up fighting over Twilight and her friends under the mistaken beliefs that one was trying to replace the other. Midnight had thought Techorse had somehow messed with time to usurp his own place in history and take his Twilight away from him while Techorse had thought Midnight was literally trying to get rid of him and take his friends and loved ones for himself.

Those mistaken impressions were dashed once they saw their respective Twilights, Techorse’s Twilight was still a unicorn and Midnight’s who had become an alicorn like him. The Techorse of that Equestria had been a technological genius! His gadgets, his weapons, all of his technology practically sci-fi level!

With all the misunderstandings cleared up, they’d parted on friendly terms, but thinking back Midnight realized how badly that could have turned out, and felt guilt for his behavior then.

“But now…” Midnight said to himself as he gazed up at the shop, “a chance to start over. Heh, literally!”

He was about to make for the shop’s front door when-

*KABOOM*

Midnight’s automatic shielding ward protected him from debris and broken glass that exploded out from the shop, but he was still rattled. Shaking it off, he looked and saw smoke seeping out of the shop, worrying him.

He quickly ran inside, coughing a bit before waving the smoke away with his hoof and calling, “Hello?! Is anyone hurt?!”

“Sorry! Sorry about that!” answered a voice and then came the sound of a rushing fan and the smoke was soon cleared away to reveal where the voice had come from.

Midnight looked in awe, It really is him!

Techorse was a young earth pony stallion, with a green coat and brown mane, his cutie-mark a stack of yellow chevrons, but right now his coat and mane were a little blackened and ashy, and he wore what appeared to be welding goggles over his eyes. Once the place was relatively smoke-free, he reached up to a switch on the wall, turning off the ceiling fan.

“Whoo! That was wild…” he muttered to himself as he removed his welding goggles, revealing his bright blue eyes and the ash-free areas of his face around them.
“So! Welcome to Techorse Repairs and Specialized Products! I’m Techorse, so how can I help you?”

Midnight paused for a moment as he stared at the soot-covered inventor, shocked he'd actually managed to find him. After a few seconds of silence and a patient stare from Techorse, the alicorn remembered that this copy of the pony didn't know a thing about him! Starting over was going to be a much harder mental exercise than what he'd thought.

“Oh, uh... well I'd hate to take your time, but I'm not exactly looking for service.”

Thankfully Techorse responded, “Hey, there's no customers around. If you need to just talk I'm fine with that.”

“So what was that thing that exploded anyways?” asked Midnight, “You aren't building weapons are you?”

The green stallion scolded, “Who told you I was making weapons? Have my neighbors been spreading rumors about me again?”

Recalling the mixed bag of responses to his questions about Techorse, Midnight Blaze embarrassingly looked around a bit before answering, “Well... not all of them. I was just curious. If you like making weapons, that's pretty cool.”

“I don't like making weapons that much, I've only ever built a couple,” sighed Techorse, “and they never leave this shop. But it's not really the weapons that make me unpopular with half the ponies around here.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” continued Techorse, sighing, “see my dad Workhorse and my mother Serendipity...”

“Wait...” interrupted Midnight Blaze as he looked at Techorse in wide-eyed awe, “Workhorse is your dad? As in... the founder of the Iron Horse Locomotive company?”

“That's him,” answered Techorse, nodding proudly, “so now you know why so many ponies hate me. They'd prefer I'd be sitting at a desk getting rich pushing trains around than doing what I'm good at, inventing appliances that work well with hooves.”

“Wow, you could have been wealthy and you choose to live like this? What motivated you?”

Techorse smirked and raised an eyebrow, “Ever see an earth pony try to work a can opener?”

“Good point,” laughed Midnight Blaze, “I just hope your father is okay with you running off to be an inventor. My dad had a lot of expectations for me when I was younger.”

“Yeah, it seems like dads are okay with your dreams as long as you’ll eventually give up on them for their dreams,” Techorse replied with understanding. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s kinda nice to know I’m not the only guy with a problem with his dad.”

“That’s a little on the nose,” Midnight chuckled, spurring one from Techorse as well, before it went quiet.

After a moment, the inventor's eyes went to the floor, “I guess one day I'll have to give up and go take his place in the company. I don't really have any inventions that have impressed him yet, and I'm barely making it out here by fixing broken equipment and appliances.”

Midnight noticed his hopefully soon to be friend's back had a device strapped to it, just like the Techorse he had met before. But this one was different, it was a saddle, clearly, but it seemed to have more brass components, some tubing running around on the top, and had a sort of steampunk appeal to it. It could have been powered by steam, but it could also be some sort of magical conduit Midnight wasn't familiar with.

“I don't know, your battle saddle's always been a pretty cool gadget, can't you show him that?” he blurted out without thinking.

“How did you know that's what this is?” asked a startled Techorse, hoping nopony was spying on him.

Midnight realized he had just blown it, and stammered for a few seconds before finally deciding to say, “It's a long story but, well, you're kind of famous to me. That saddle is mighty impressive, Techorse.”

“Thanks,” he answered, a little bit of mistrust lingering in his voice, “it's my best creation, sure... honestly though, when I first debuted it, I was told I was creating a hazard for public safety. So I don't really use it much outside my shop.”

“Techorse, do you think maybe you hear that you're a mad scientist or a danger to Equestria so often that you start to believe the bullying?” asked the disguised alicorn, “I heard many good things about you, and there are so many good things I know about you already. None of the insults tossed your way are true.”

The earth pony tried to ignore Midnight's comment, frowning and returning to the destroyed machine on the table. Both of the small doors on the sides of the saddle opened up with a hiss of steam, and a pair of articulated robotic claws on the end of two extendable “arms” made of criss-crossed metal came out. Techorse grabbed a wrench off of the workbench and started to tightening a nut on the device, but it was clear he was working on a lost cause. He sighed and dropped the wrench before sweeping the destroyed components off the table and retracting the arms back into the device on his back.

“You know something, you're right,” he said, looking at Midnight again with a soft smile, “I am an inventor, whether or not those guys like me.”

Techorse looked a lot better than how Midnight had first seen him, and the stallion grabbed a nearby rag with his front hoof and wiped his face clean of the dirt blown on him by the destroyed device.

“So, enough about me. Since you say you know me, how did we meet before?” he asked, dropping the filthy rag into a nearby laundry basket.

Midnight didn't want to blow his cover any further, so he shuffled a bit on his hooves and said, “Well, it's a really long story, but basically we met one time on accident and we kind of got into a stupid argument. It didn't go too well for us, but now I feel like maybe we could do a little better this time around.”

“I can't remember a thing, I guess I've traded fire with enough ponies around here though that anything's possible,” muttered the inventor, who then looked up and improved his tone quickly, “but hey, apology accepted. We seem to get along a lot better now.”

“I agree,” concurred the unicorn, “I'm glad I finally found you, Techorse.”

Techorse laughed, “Hey, I just thought of this, but I haven't even gotten your name yet. If we're going to be hanging out like this, I probably need to know, right?”

Midnight didn't quite want to reveal himself yet, but it was getting fairly close to that time.

“Well, see...”

To answer his wish for a way out of uncloaking just yet, the door to the repair shop slammed open, and the earth pony in the business suit Midnight had run into earlier barged into the room, his face burning with anger and his tie loosened. He had a white coat, pale blue mane, but his cutie-mark was concealed by a pair of pants he wore.

“Techorse, that's the final straw you incompetent rat,” he growled, pushing past Midnight.

The unicorn rolled his eyes, “Oh no, it's you...”

“Damn straight it's me,” snapped the stallion back, who then turned back to Techorse, “that last explosion sent several ponies to city hall demanding action. Well, I'm here to kick your flank out of Fillydelphia. Pack up, ya little-!”

“Easy Redtape,” sighed Techorse, rolling his eyes, “I'm pretty sure you're overreacting.”

“I have put up with your insane contraptions for long enough,” retorted the bureaucrat as he shoved a hoof into Techorse's middle, “it's my job as an official to make sure peace and quiet is maintained around here, and you've ruined it for two years straight!”

“Are you really going to kick me out, Redtape? You're going to look like a stooge when the mayor finds out you made me homeless,” countered Techorse calmly.

“Who said anything about you ending up on my streets?” laughed Redtape, a bead of sweat escaping from underneath his hair, “I'm going to send you back home so you can take that desk job your senile daddy wanted you to take.”

“Get off of my property Redtape,” answered Techorse sternly, “or you'll regret it.”

“Don't you try anything funny, I've got the cops right outside!”

Midnight Blaze took a look at the two stallions, Techorse's known sense of justice was about to kick in, and who knew what Redtape would do in response? The bureaucrat certainly had the power to kick out his new friend, and it would be wrong to simply stand by and let things play out. Even though he had hoped to stay hidden for a just a little while longer to avoid bias from Techorse, Midnight decided he had no choice but to drop his cover and help him stop Redtape.

He stepped up, saying, “I don’t know what kind of problem you have with Techorse, and frankly I don’t care. Regardless, I think you should leave.”

Redtape threw Midnight a sneering look, “And who are you telling my how to do my job? I am Tweed Redtape, City Manager of Fillydelphia! I could have you arrested for-”

*FLASH*

The blinding flash of magic stopped Redtape’s mouth as he and Techorse both covered their eyes with their hooves, the light going out, but they heard the unfurling of wings and a stamp of a hoof. Lowering their own hooves, they gasped to see…

“Wait, are you... Midnight Blaze?! What the...” Techorse was in awe to see the sapphire blue alicorn in his shop as Midnight gave Redtape a glare.

“Who am I to tell you to do anything?” Midnight responded, “I am Midnight Blaze, Prince of Equestria, Element of Faith, Guardian of Harmony, and Arbiter of Canterlot!”

“...I see,” Redtape narrowed his eyes, hesitating as he considered his next words carefully. “Be that as it may, Your Highness…”

Midnight narrowed at the sarcastic emphasis Redtape made on ‘Your Highness’ as the bureaucrat opened his briefcase and brought out some paperwork.

Holding the forms up, he continued to growl at the prince, “I am well within my rights and possess the necessary forms to have Techorse evicted from this premises and shut down his place of business.”

Midnight raised a challenging brow, “So?”

“Soooo, even though your outmoded 'royal authority' gives you the right to complain to me, you're still just a figure of authority. In today's world, you must not only abide by the laws passed down by our democracy, but enforce them. Therefore, you will be taking my side.”

Midnight took the forms in his aura and read the first one carefully, and Midnight felt his heart sink to see Redtape wasn’t bluffing. But no way was he gonna allow some paper-pusher with an over-inflated ego dictate terms to him!

“All right, Redtape, since you managed to bully the prince, I'll take a look at your personal assault... I mean, eviction notice,” teased Techorse, walking up next to him, “done with that first page?”

“Yeah, here,” answered Midnight, giving the page to him.

Techorse's robotic arms came out of his saddle again, and he grabbed the paper, starting to read.

“Everything's in order gentlecolts, but please, take as much time as you need,” snickered Redtape.

After going through some of the paperwork, Midnight Blaze struck an extremely helpful piece of the third sheet of paper.

“Aha!” he cheered, levitating the paper forward while pointing with his hoof, “Right here. Section 24, line 3. If the party to be evicted proves that his violation of the ordinance was related to his work within a period of a week, the party may not legally be evicted.”

“I know that part,” grumbled Redtape impatiently, “but that explosion can't possibly be related to his repair job. He has nothing to show for himself!”

Techorse seemed to be a bit dejected, the explosion had been from his invention, something he had worked hard on and lost suddenly due to a crossed wire. The still smoldering wreckage of the device was on the table still, however, and Midnight walked over to the destroyed machine. He made sure Redtape was watching as he pointed at it with his left wing.

“See this thing right here? This is what's left of Techorse's invention, what he wants to do for a living,” explained the alicorn,”so that explosion was related to his work.”

“Yes, but without a functioning machine that claim will never hold up in a court of law,” countered the bureaucrat.

Midnight smiled, “Well that's where I'm going with this. I'd like to propose something, a wager.”

Redtape was somewhat of a gambler at heart, and his ears perked in interest, “I'm listening...”

“If Techorse invents something useful to ponies in one week, to be judged by Fillydelphia, Techorse can stay. If not, he has to leave.”

“Hmmm, interesting. I suppose I would have to wait my week anyways,” Redtape mused, “and watching Techorse's invention fail spectacularly in front of everypony before I kick his tail out will be well worth the wait...”

The suited pony laughed heartily, angering Techorse, who wished he could sock the odious official. Despite his anger, he waited patiently for Mr. Redtape to finish laughing before commenting on his behavior.

“And what happens if I win, Tweed?” Techorse growled. “It’s only fair I have something to win as much as to lose.”

His enemy snickered, “Like that'll happen, but sure. If you, by some miracle, can somehow manage to create a successful invention, you'll be awarded a grant to help your research and development. Technically I'm supposed to spend that budget on something every year, but it's always required a worthy cause.“

“So you'll agree to those terms?” asked Midnight Blaze.

“Absolutely,” answered Tweed Redtape, “I'll just write up a quick contract and have us all sign it for documentation. It's going to be fun.”

They drew up a quick contract with the terms in place, having to be hoofwritten before each pony signed the contract, setting the bet in motion although Midnight magically copied the contract for each party involved. Once it was secured, Redtape put his copy of the documentation back into his briefcase, and headed for the door of the repair shop.

“Enjoy your last week here, Techorse,” he said, taking a final shot as he closed the door behind him.

“What a jerk,” muttered Midnight Blaze.

“Now that he's gone, let me ask a few questions,” said Techorse, “first of all, why didn't you just come here as yourself?”

The alicorn stuttered as he tried to find a decent excuse, “I just... well I'm a prince, Techorse. Ponies try to kiss my hooves wherever I go, and it gets awful. I thought if I showed up here as myself, you'd....”

“Oh, so you thought I would have treated you differently because you're royalty?” interrupted Techorse with a slight laugh, “I'd probably save that for the older princesses like the Royal Sisters. But you're my age, and you're handling a lot of responsibilities you probably don't like, so I don't see why we can't talk like normal ponies.”

“You mean you see eye to eye with me?”

“Yeah, of course,” answered the green stallion.

“So I could have been myself this whole time?” groaned the alicorn, feeling dumb.

Techorse smiled, “I probably would have asked what you were doing here, but... everypony needs friends, and I'd bet it's hard making real friends once you're a celebrity.”

“You have no idea,” sighed Midnight in response, his ears drooping a bit.

“Well, we're friends now, especially after you bought me a week,” said Techorse, smiling at Midnight, who seemed very happy to hear it, “I need to get started now though. The inventing process takes a lot of small failures before you get a working product.”

“I can help you brainstorm a bit!”

Techorse bowed gracefully, “Of course, your Majesty!”

Midnight frowned and gave Techorse a look of shock, before the earth pony laughed and punched him in the withers with a hoof.

“I'm just kidding, Midnight! Let's get to work.”

Author's Note

Ever since Spiral did his story where my OC and his collided, I wanted to make this sequel, and I'm so glad we're working on it together

Chapter 2. A Delicious Deviance

Redtape smirked arrogantly as he settled into his large and comfortable chair before his walnut desk, feeling rather proud of himself. Sure, the mayor’s praise of him attracting more and more tourists and businesses to Fillydelphia had exponentially led to an increase of their city’s economy as well as high morale for the citizens and his reputation was solid gold among the Fillydelphia higher-ups and plebeians alike, Redtape’s true cause for his good mood was that not only was he gonna finally kick out that undesirable upstart and crackpot excuse of an inventor but in less than a week’s time he was going to turn Techorse’s name into mud.

He reached over his desk to his intercom, pressing the button and saying, “Stencil, be a dear and bring me a copy of my weekly schedule? I’d like to prioritize.”

“…Coming, Mr. Redtape,” was his answer.

Redtape then opened one of his desk drawers and chuckled at the case of expensive cigars it contained. Sure, he typically saved these for special occasions but what the hay? He was feeling good today!

He lifted one out and smelled the cigar from one end to other, sighing with content at that subtle yet unmistakable scent of tobacco when the door to his office opened and in walked his secretary, a mare named Stencil Guide.

She had a light gray coat, beautiful like a statue hewn from marble, her mane was a soft orange tipped blonde, pulled back into a bun with a couple stray locks. Today, she had forgone her contacts and was wearing her trendy glasses in front of her light blue eyes, and her cutie-mark was a colorful pen leaving a trail on a clipboard.

She carried a clipboard with a few papers on it and a pen tucked behind her ear, and stumbled a bit on her long trailing tail but caught herself so that she didn’t fall down.

Sure she looked a little nerdy. In fact, when the office first hired her and assigned her to Redtape, he’d taken one look at her and planned to replace her with somepony more appealing to his yes. But then later that week, during a business party, he’d seen Stencil and all but dropped his jaws at how nice she’d cleaned herself up! Her mane styled into an elegant braid, her contacts showing her sparkly blue eyes, and the dress she’d worn was simple but complemented her perfectly!

“Here’s your schedule, Mr. Redtape,” Stencil hooved it to him, and he accepted it without looking at it, placing it on his desktop while gazing in desire at her.

“Thank you, my dear. You know, Stencil, I am the stallion who has it all.”

“Do you, sir?” Stencil looked at her cop of her boss’s schedule, paying only minimal attention.

“Yes indeedy,” Redtape chuckled s he span his chair around, stood up, and walked over to his office window to gaze down at all the little noponies, scurrying about acting as though they mattered.

“I’m wealthy, successful, and not to toot my own horn but I’d say I’m one good looking son of a-”

“Oh, sir, sorry, just to let you know,” Stencil interrupted, “you have a notice from the Fillydelphia Weather Office.”

“Uh-huh, sure, but the point is, Stencil,” Redtape waved off her interruption before turning to give her another predatory look, “despite what I have there’s a very certain something I’m missing.”

“And that, sir, would be…?” Stencil noticed an error in the schedule and mental note to have that taken care of.

“A great, lovely, and amazing mare to share it all with,” Redtape answered, his smirk loosing some of its smugness at how little his secretary was paying attention to him. “See I’s got my eyes on such a mare and I aim to make her the Missus to my Mister.”

“Sounds like she’ll be a very lucky pony, sir,” Stencil still wasn’t catching on.

“How much more obvious do I need to be, babe,” he said, clicking his tongue on the roof of his mouth and pointing at her with a hoof, “it’s you!”

Stencil Guide’s mane hair stood up on end, “ME!??”

“Sure is!” laughed the haughty politician, “Just think of it, Stencil. You and I, in charge of everything this city has to offer! I’ll do all the talking and real work since I’m the stallion, and you’ll get to swim in all the attention and praise from the loving citizens… which they’ll give you when they learn you’re my sweet little wifey!”

The little secretary, still trying to process the massive amounts of chauvinistic garbage her boss was slinging at an alarming pace, cleared her throat gently. Of course, he was many times larger than the nerdy little mare, and she had a healthy fear of what he might do if she declined. But just thinking about the consequences of… marrying him made her shudder. Even if it meant unemployment, that was better than spending the rest of her life hitched to a total cavepony like Redtape.

“That’s, very nice of you, but… I’m not interested.”

All he could make out was a quiet, “...Excuse me?”

First, she wanted to try flattery to get out of it, “Oh well, you know, I couldn’t be married to you, Redtape. I mean, sure we’ve known each other a while sir, but… well, I’m just a secretary. I don’t deserve you the way that really special mare does!”

She activated her aura and picked up a very sultry copy of a stallion’s magazine from a nearby table, “Like this um… saddle model on this magazine. You deserve a much more beautiful, less… awkward mare like her!”

Unfortunately for Stencil, Redtape seemed a tad “determined”, as the stallion put on his most charming, suave face he could muster in that hot suit of his, and snatched the gentlecolt’s magazine in his manipulated shoed hoof before tossing it haplessly into a nearby paper shredder. Bits of the magazine scattered like confetti. Stencil watched the magazine get destroyed with fear in her heart.

“Those kinds of mares aren’t what I want,” he said, raising his eyebrows, “I want you, Stencil. You’re far more naturally beautiful, and you can handle things around the house while I’m gone at work, too!”

“Excuse me?” she gasped.

“Yeah, you’ll be doing your best as a homemaker, where a nice, smart mare belongs,” continued Redtape, sighing at the thought, “raising the best sons and daughters she can.”

“But… but I want to work!” protested Stencil Guide gently, “I have the cutie-mark for being a good assistant and secretary, and I’d really like to use that first. Foals can wait.”

“Ah but you don’t have to, and think of all the mares who’d bend over backwards to have that privilege,” chuckled the politician.

Running out of options fast, the poor mare had decided she was through with the deflective approach to the situation. If the stallion in front of her wouldn’t take the hint, she’d have to take more drastic action!

“Well, if you can’t stop this, I’m not sure I can keep working here,” she said firmly, turning away.

He boiled with anger on the inside, being presented a threat that she’d leave. How dare this little bespectacled secretary, a mere assistant to an important pony, deny him his right to wed her? To pass up such a great, lucrative opportunity to bear his foals was the worst offense that could be given, although pretty much anything involving telling Redtape he couldn’t have his way was an affront thanks to his titanic ego and poor decision making process.

Nonetheless, he wanted to end the conversation on a positive note, so he muttered, “Well, I want you to just think about it then, honey. I’m going to take my leave for the afternoon. Be sure to lock up, Miss.”

“Yes Sir,” said Stencil, rolling her eyes.

Redtape, still moping about his rejection despite his outrageously handsome appearance and vast fortune, walked over and grabbed his fancy sports coat conveniently hanging on a nearby rack. He suited up, adjusted his favorite blue-striped tie, and strutted out of the office with his nose pointed to the air. He failed to hear the sigh of relief from his target of interest, but nonetheless the moment he was outside, he started to indulge in self-pity again and mutter to himself about his misfortune.

“How dare she! After all I’ve done for her since the office party! Her own office, conveniently shifting the last merit raise to her account… she’s a stubborn one all right! Well forget it, I need a drink… and a new plan to get Miss Hottie in my future.

Shaken Not Stirred was Redtape’s watering hole of choice, a rather upscale and fine place in comparison to the other pubs around Fillydelphia. Only the best dressed ponies, or dragons if they were able to pull a good look off, were allowed to enter as patrons, and it wasn’t hard to guess that the drinks and fare were far pricier as well. Redtape’s size made him eye to eye with the alleged “bouncer” out front, a pegasus pony that only ever checked for dress code.

“Oh, Mr. Redtape, hello!” said the chipper guard, if he could be called that.

“Not now, Bowties,” grumbled the massive stallion, shoving past the greeter rudely.

Bowties adjusted his now ruffled dress shirt, and cleared his throat. It was best to not challenge the stallion on anything, at least when he was mad…

High class lounges and friendly barkeeps dominated the inside appearance of the establishment. Polished dance floors made from marble, high-class comfortable seats at black granite tables, and mares who could sing any song from the past decade completed the sophisticated atmosphere. One of the tables instantly recognized their favorite politician, and claws and hooves alike raised their glasses to him.

“Heeeeey R-T!”

“Knock it off,” demanded Redtape as he angrily plopped his flanks into the last empty chair, making sure each and every one of them knew he was angry.

Redtape’s friends were happy to see him despite his sour mood, and they continued to enjoy their slices of fine salt lick and various beverages. A few of them were just common stallions and their wives, a couple of ex-workers for the public office, mostly unicorns. But some of them were wealthy business owners who enjoyed a special sort of collaboration with Redtape and his political policies. Just last week, the pegasus to the left of him in a wide-brimmed white hat had accepted a little bit of money in return for making a very generous bid for the city’s new gas heating system, as well as giving Redtape a nice personal gift of a few million bits he happened to not need anymore.

The mare across the room in an outrageously purple faux-fur coat had been presented with an under-budgeted charity project to donate to for building a new library, but of course she had been permitted to write off the entire thing on her taxes despite the project being over-funded, and anything left over just “happened” to become liberated for Redtape’s own political projects, like a set of water fountains in the park he built in his own honor.

Of course, even the leftover bits from that were kept by the politician to make sure the books were perfectly balanced, it helped him even more that he got a nice discount on the cost of building the fountains from the master plumber a few seats down from him. And with the fountains built and the gas heating working at such a low monthly cost, who were the taxpayers to complain? They all believed Redtape had brought them the modern conveniences of city life in Equestria for reasonable rates, embezzlement wasn’t even a word to them with their houses warm and their thirsts quenched.

But the only real friend that Redtape had at the table was a dragon sitting to his right who went by the name of Jester. He was a smart, cunning dragon with scales of bright orange, and light blue head fins, his nickname came from the fact that his fins were rather long and bent over in each direction, giving him the appearance of wearing a fool’s cap. Not wanting to ruin his appearance with piercings, he decided to run with his nickname by wearing a few bells on the handful of thin spikes he had topping his tail. The wiry dragon ran his claws over his silver belly scales for moment, before drumming them on the table.

“Hehehe,” he snickered, bearing his actually very well brushed teeth for a moment,

"Tweeeeed, you are scowling like crazy and ruining this hangout. What’s wrong, strong colt?”

Redtape never let anyone but Jester call him by the first word of his name, but he acknowledged the clever dragon with eye contact and a huff through his nostrils.

“So how’d that there proposal work out for ya?!” laughed the western-hatted pony to his left, rubbing some liquor out of his mustache with a hoof, “tell us, Red!”

“Are you serious?” answered Jester, a threatening reptilian rumble being mixed with his words, “Redtape clearly is upset about...”

“No, it’s ok Jester...” grunted the earth pony, silencing him with a hoof, “well Baron, she totally rejected me.”

“Aw well, that’d be her loss then buddy,” Baron answered, frowning, “but hey there’s lots of lovely mares out there, and we know plenty ourselves who’d jump off a cliff just ta...”

“NO!!” shouted Redtape angrily, bashing his hooves on the table and sending several drinks flying.

His allies nearly thought about ducking for cover, but Redtape never made any threatening moves for any present. He was merely just making a point… for the minute.

“I want Stencil Guide as my wife,” he said, determined, “and I will have her hoof in marriage, one way or another!”

Jester’s bells jingled from a slight swish of his tail, which poked through the fold of the soft black cloth chair. The dragon was highly amused by his best friends’ antics, to him, he wasn’t the only fool at the table.

“And we will help in any way we can to make that happen, old friend,” he said, smiling.

There was just nothing more fun than the squabbling of ponies to Jester… though he truly cared about Redtape’s happiness.

With that in mind, he brought up a new topic, “On another claw… how about that clown Techorse you hate so much, hmm? Any progress on kicking him out on his rump?”

Redtape’s shoulders relaxed as he put all hooves on his seat again, “Weeeeell now that you mention it, Jessie, I actually do have some good news! I challenged Techorse to a little legal contest… he has a week to come up with an invention that actually does something good for a change, or out he goes!”

His supporters cheered for him, not because they also hated Techorse, very few of them knew much short of the occasional explosion, but because it meant Redtape was easier to work with while he was in a better mood. Jester scratched his scaly chin, thinking up something diabolical that could perhaps take care of multiple problems. But he needed to lead his friend into talking about it first.

“And… what if he wins? Don’t you think maybe you ought to weight the odds a little bit?” chuckled the dragon.

“Cheat? Jester, I thought you’d never suggest it,” agreed the stallion, snickering, “but it has to be something subtle this time…”

“Ah yes, of course,” he answered nervously, remembering his last failure trying to help Redtape.

After shaking away the embarrassment, Jester placed his claws together and sat at the table bent at the elbows.

“Now, if I may, I believe I may be able to solve both your problems at once,” he explained, all the ponies leaning in, “what if you send Stencil Guide to go spy on Techorse for you? She could then report back what he’s doing, and it’ll give you all the info you need to ruin his invention!”

“And then?”

“If you get caught… she takes the fall unleeeess,” giggled the dragon, shaking in his seat, “she agrees to accept you as her hunky, snuggly hubby?”

Redtape smiled in delight and picked up a nearby mimosa from a waitress, toasting his buddy, “Jester, that’s the best plan you’ve ever come up with!”

“Glad I could be of service as always,” answered the dragon, bowing humbly at the waist, “Now a toast to our best friend, Tweed Redtape every pony and reptile!”

Glasses clinked, liquids were downed, and for the first time that evening, Redtape was able to have a good time with his supporters. Soon, that pretty little mare would be all his, and his hated enemy would be gone. His thoughts turned to how his friend’s plan would be able to take down even that pesky alicorn in support of the inventor.

I’d like to see that meddlesome Prince solve this one! One hay of a honeymoon, here I come!

Author's Note

Spirals95 and I both handled the office scene while he wrapped things up with the rest. All characters in this chapter belong to him

Chapter 3. Trial and Error

The floor of Techorse's shop was littered with scrunched up balls of paper, as the inventor and the prince wearily wracked their brains in an effort to come up with a good idea for a useful invention. They'd been brainstorming for hours, unable to come up with such an idea nor what sort of use or purpose this invention could be used for. They'd decided to sleep on it, Tech offering Midnight his bed but the prince wouldn't hear it, instead conjuring a comfortable sleeping bag and slept on the floor of Tech's living room.

The next morning, Tech had awoken to the delicious smells of flapjacks, cheese omelets, hay bacon, toast, along with ice cold orange juice or apple juice, prepared by Midnight, who'd reasoned full bellies might fuel their imaginations to crank out a good idea.

Unfortunately, nothing doing.

"Ugh, why did I have to make that stupid bet...?" Lounging on the couch in Tech's living room, Midnight felt awful for putting Techorse on the spot and his work on the line.

"Don't beat yourself up, Midnight," Tech was weary too, going over notes for an idea on his easy chair, but he assured his new friend, "Something like this was bound to happen eventually. Redtape's been itching to kick my plot to the curb for some time, and I guess this was the excuse he was looking for. And hey, if you hadn't been there, he might very well have done so..."

Techorse walked over to his front door, preparing to leave and grab his daily mail for what he believed would be the last time. There just wasn't an idea strong enough to win the bet and let him stay in his cluttered yet comfortable abode. Midnight saw his buddy open the front door, and quickly realized what his words had meant to him.

“Wait... you're going to give up?” asked the concerned prince, bolting from the couch, “I said I regretted the bet, not that you should quit!”

“Let's face the facts, Midnight, there's nothing I can come up with that's going to gain the publicity it needs to win the bet,” the inventor said glumly, “I'm going to go get the rest of my mail and go contact the moving company. It's best I get out of here before Redtape forces me to leave.”

Midnight followed him outside, into the fresh air of Fillydelphia's suburban neighborhoods, where for the first time since he had arrived, noticed that something seemed a little bit off about the local décor. Although the homes seemed to be in great condition, save for the blast holes torn in Techorse's garage, the lawns had clear patches of dead grass, brown and wilted for a lack of water. Ponies and dragons alike were coming out of their houses and sighing miserably at the state of what used to be their gardens and patches of grass, even the other earth ponies, long known for their plant healing passive magic, seemed unable to really do much good without enough water. With a little bit of clairvoyance magic, Midnight could also feel the hostility starting to build up against the pegasus ponies, who were likely starting to be blamed for the lack of rainy weather to keep the lawns fresh.

Techorse had already reached his mailbox, an apparently thoroughly customized one with a stem made from interlocked brass gears and the box itself made from a metal milk canister. He frowned at the profound lack of mail, wondering if perhaps nopony in town truly cared about him anymore save for his brand new friend in the prince.

“Anything?” he asked from behind him, hopeful.

“Not even a bill,” sighed Tech, shutting the door to the interesting choice of mailbox, “you know, I'm really starting to think...”

“Hey boys!” cried a cheerful, elderly voice from the house over.

Midnight and Techorse turned to face the voice, the owner of the house next to Techorse's shop. He was an elderly and wise drake, his silver scales had lost some of their luster in his old age, but his bright blue eyes remained bright with the energy of his youth... however long ago that might have been. The drake held a bright blue garden hose in his left claw, spraying water all over his front lawn, green and fresh from the extra effort he was making. Techorse knew that his neighbor was sacrificing quite a bit of his water ration to do so, and always felt bad that the retried reptile felt compelled to have to make such a choice. Yet, his neighbor's smile never left his face, and he had always known him as a happy and carefree dragon, just him and his wife in their cozy one floor house with fresh side paneling, a tile roof, and a white picket fence.

“Oh, hey Mr. Coaldust,” answered Techorse glumly, his eyes barely making contact with the elder, “good to see you.”

“Well I wish I could say the same, Tech!” chuckled the dragon, a scratchy voice carrying the words out to the two stallions, “You look like garbage, kiddo.”

The alicorn of the two brought his friend forward with an encouraging wing, “Techorse was just given a week to figure out an invention to help out the citizens of Fillydelphia.”

It was then that his bad eyes finally picked up on the pair of wings attached to what he previously thought was just a blue unicorn, “My stars, is that the crowned prince Midnight Blaze?! What brings you here?”

He rolled his eyes in response to the query, knowing he was going to give his half untrue explanation once more, “Oh boy here we go again... yes, it's me. Techorse is my friend, so I'm here visiting with him.”

Surprisingly, the dragon simply aimed his hose towards another patch of thirsty grass and answered, “Well, I'm glad that the younger royalty are getting out of Canterlot and spending time with their friends. It must be a very heavy set of responsibilities for a pony your age.”

Midnight felt relieved to find another individual not trying to flatter him, and breathed a deep sigh, “You have no idea, sir.”

“Ah that's the spirit, youngster,” chuckled the old reptile, “taking the time to balance work and play. Why, I wish the other dragons back in my day knew how to do that. We'd have been so much happier, yeeees sir.”

Techorse told his friend, “Coaldust has always been someone I can trust, Midnight. Not sure why he likes me though when all my other neighbors don't. It's probably the explosions.”

“Well the explosions remind me of home!” Coaldust admitted cheerfully, pointing a clawed finger at the inventor, “Also, I know you've been making some pretty neat gizmos in that house of yours, son. Gotta keep moving forward, that's what I say.”

Midnight could tell the elderly dragon was a bit scattered, but friendly and dependable. With that in mind, he couldn't help but notice how much time he was spending watering his lawn, and pointed at the tube with his hoof, “So, what's with the garden hose?”

“Oh well, this is my little secret for keeping my lawn so nice,” he said, eyes twinkling, “my wife and I may not have much, but we've always appreciated the lawn and garden. So every few days I'm out here spraying the grass down to keep it alive.”

“I've noticed all the dead lawns,” the prince muttered, “what's been going on around here, Techorse? There should be plenty of water to keep the yards green if the pegasus ponies are doing their jobs.”

Techorse explained with concern in his tone, “Apparently there's been a long term drought in the city, the pegasus ponies haven't been able to bring in rainclouds for months now, and we're all getting our water supply from an underground reservoir controlled by a company downtown. Apparently Cloudsdale hasn't been able to divert enough of a cloud supply.”

Right away that seemed wrong to Midnight, knowing full well from his other friends that the weather factory was not failing to deliver rain to the city. Something was definitely up with the drought, which had gone unreported in Canterlot, but he would need time to collect evidence and develop a solid case to fix what, or more accurately who he suspected the problem was. Given that he had all week to investigate though, he was more than happy to focus on saving Techorse's hide.

“I see,” he finally answered plainly, “I'm sorry you have to stand out here in the open with a hose. Are you sure there's no other water around?”

“Well there is the community lake behind our houses which never seems to run dry,” he answered, “but that's not going to do me much good, I'd have to use a bucket. Might as well keep using the hose here.”

Midnight tilted his head curiously, “So there's a drought but the lakes aren't drying up? The water level isn't changing at all? Doesn't that seem a little weird?”

“There's some rain water coming it, but it's mostly to refresh those lakes,” Techorse continued, his eyes wandering over to the body of water visible behind the suburban sprawl, “it's not really that useful there to us, though.”

A short pause overtook them, before Tech's bright blue eyes sparked with energy, and a broad smile came across his face. The robotic arms shot out of his saddle just to permit him the ability to snap together the fingers in delight.

“That's it! We'll build a water sprayer that can pump water from the lakes! The residents of Fillydelphia can use it to keep their lawns and gardens alive until the drought ends,” he cheered.

“Heh, ain't that something? Glad you figured out something to build,” Coaldust said, proud of his neighbor, “might be a nice way to get some more money.”

“Well, this one's not about the money,” Techorse explained, “Redtape threatened to kick me out earlier.”

“I saw,” said the dragon, finally frowning at that name, “don't see what this has to do with it.”

“He was going to kick me out of town,” explained Techorse, “but Midnight vouched for me, and we took a bet with Redtape. If I can impress everypony with an invention within a week, I can stay.”

Coaldust wagged his finger and said sternly, “I hope you know what you boys are getting into. That Redtape is serious trouble, I tell ya.”

“Tell me about it,” muttered Midnight, shaking his head, “we'll show him, Coaldust.”

“I'm glad to hear,” the dragon hummed, smiling and moving to turn off the hose, “I just know you two will win that bet and show that hot bag of air what for. But for now, how about you both come inside, my wife's been making sugar gems!”

Techorse thanked him, “I appreciate it, but we've got to get back to work. I've got a machine to build!”

“Ah well, we'll send some over,” he answered, “it was very nice to meet you, Midnight Blaze!”

“And you as well!” responded the alicorn, already running off with Techorse to start work on the device.

As they left, he said to himself with hope in his voice, "I know you two will pull it off! That Redtape has it comin'!"

The Office of Affairs in downtown Filidelphia was empty for once, and Stencil Guide hadn't seen her employer all morning, luckily for her. It was kind of bizarre, yet relaxing to be able to work alone on her tasks for the morning, and there was a lot to do. So many ponies were being affected by the water shortages in the metropolis and suburban districts that the complaints and forms requesting additional water be pumped from Redtape's friend's facility that the studious unicorn was barrel deep in assignments. Her stapler click-click-clicked over stacks of forms, binding them together for “processing”, which meant her boss's best buddies sending out another bill to rob the residents of their hard earned bits so they could have enough water to bathe more than once a week. For “a magical reason”, Stencil Guide had gone unaffected by this drought, and her apartment complex managed to get lots of water piped in at no extra cost just a few weeks after she had moved in and started working at the office. The lengths that beefy politician was going to get her would be flattering, if she wasn't so creeped out by his unwanted advances.

“There... all the paperwork is finally done,” sighed Stencil Guide deeply as she plopped the massive stack of finished forms onto her desk, the stapled document spreading out all over the surface, “I cannot wait to get home. Just how many ponies are going to file the same complaint about the water problem, anyways?”

“What? Even more complaints about this city's lack of a decent water table?” hummed a very prideful voice from down the hallway.

“Oh horse apples... he's back,” gulped the secretary, shuffling the papers around with a quick spell to try to get them back in place, “y... yeah, Mr. Redtape, we had a ton of requests for more water today.”

The earth pony stepped into the room, a wicked smirk upon his face that made poor Stencil cringe in fear about what he might say next. It was so hard having to go to work with somepony who was constantly asking for inappropriate relations, but she needed the bits, even if it meant putting up with his ludicrous proposals for marriage at her age and level of comfort with him.

“Well, there will be no more paperwork coming your way for a while, miss,” he said, his eyes drilling into her soul.

“Oh no... I'm fired,” she whined in her own head, “he's found some other mare and he wants me gone now.”

Her heart rate went through the roof, pounding in her ribcage and surging anxiety through her mind. She'd have to move back home out in the country again, where she'd have to milk cows or fix irrigators for a living! So much for her dream of managing records for a big firm in the city.

Redtape snickered, knowing exactly what the shivering mare was worried about, “Relax, Stencil. I merely have a different assignment for you this week. You'll just be working away from the office. What do you say?”

Away from the office? Was this too good to be true? Stencil thought about how relaxing it would be to get away from her desk... and Redtape! Things could be much better for her if she decided to take on the mysterious assignment her boss was offering.

“S... sure,” she stuttered, trying to regain her composure, “what did you have in mind?”

“I need you to head down to Techorse's house and gather information about what he's doing, then submit it to me in a daily report,” he answered, “you'll be helping me ensure that I get rid of that crazy grease monkey once and for all!”

“Wait, WHAT?” Stencil shouted in surprise, “What are you talking about?”

“Oh it's nothing to be concerned with, it's just that Techorse has agreed to leave town if he doesn't come up with an invention useful to the city within a week,” explained her boss, rolling his eyes as if she didn't know he was up to something rotten. She hadn't met Techorse before, but she knew Redtape hated him for the wrong reasons, and often found herself feeling bad for the stallion from time to time.

“Did you make a deal with Techorse? Are you asking me to spy on him for you?!” she demanded to know.

Redtape pretended that wasn't the case, “'I just need you to keep track of his progress and report it to me so that I can get a nice head start on the papers for him moving out if he's showing no signs of progress. What do you say sweetie cakes, hmmm?”

'Sweetie Cakes' made her cringe a little both on the inside and out, and that was enough motivation to get her to comply with his orders. Her eyes filled with guilt however, as spying on Techorse and reporting back his progress to Redtape would definitely make her an accomplice to what she understood was a plot to kick out the inventor. To get out from under her boss's lustful eyes meant having to simultaneously work on a way to avoid hurting Techorse.

“Oh... ok,” she answered calmly, dropping her air of fear and dread.

The politician approved with a nod, “Good, I knew you'd agree. I'll be eager to hear your report tomorrow, Stencil.”

The unicorn made a slow, awkward exit from the room, “Y... yes, sir.”

Her long tail dragging across the floor was the last thing to leave, giving Redtape plenty of time to look over her natural beauty again from his favorite angle. Quickly the stunning, 'flattering' view reminded him of why he intended to make her his wife. He shook his head in disbelief, and started to gather up all the paperwork she had left piled on her desk.

“Look at all these requests for more water,” he chuckled, remembering his deal with the water company owner at his bar, “oh I'm going to be raking it in this year, once again. If I remember right, all that extra wealth will go right into my friend's new line of business in accounting. If the residents can handle the drought just a bit longer, they'll be so busy working for my benefactor's new businesses they won't even care and I'll turn the rain back on right under the muzzles while he charges them the same for the use of the pipes!”

Redtape knew his campaign contribution would be extra generous this year indeed, and with all that money, he'd be able to increase the mass of Stencil Guide's diamond wedding ring by a few carats at least. He let his imagination run wild, of him owning a giant estate outside of Canterlot, his little colts and fillies running around the floors of his decorative mansion draped in tapestries and alabaster columns. His wife Stencil helping him learn how to cook so that he'd have another thing to brag about to his buddies, all while swollen with yet another foal planted by him. Her cute baby weight, her cute, bubbly personality that she didn't have just yet... what kind of a mare wouldn't be interested in such an amazing life?

Redtape finished putting away the papers and hummed to himself, “Ohhh Stencil, you will change your mind someday, I swear it.”

Author's Note

Spirals95 and I both worked on this, and I did the editing

Chapter 4. Brainstorming

"A pumping system?" Midnight gave the inventor a confused look as Techorse was already writing down ideas and notes at his drawing board.

"It's perfect! Think about it... Ever since this drought settled over Fillydelphia, it's gradually become a bigger and bigger problem," Techorse explained as he continued to jot down the details of the idea hatching in his brain.
"We need to come up with an invention that is helpful to the public, so why not invent a device that could provide water from a nearby source at no personal cost and minimum effort?"

"The lakes," Midnight guessed.

"Exactly, but..." Techorse erased a mistake and continued, "it's too much work to haul very limited amounts of water going to and fro between the city and those lakes, so we create this pumping system to bring the water to the citizens! I'll show up Redtape, my neighbors will have plenty of water, everypony wins!"

"Speaking of Redtape and this drought..." Midnight pondered what he'd learned from earlier, "It doesn't make sense that Fillydelphia is even experiencing a drought to begin with. It'd be easy enough for the Fillydelphia Weather Office or even a public official to send a request to Cloudsdale Weather Factory for extra rain to fill the city's water reserves, and yet..."

"I'm sorry, Midnight, what was that?" Techorse peered over his shoulder to look at the sapphire blue alicorn. "Got a little immersed in my creative process."

Giving the green earth pony a sigh, Midnight responded, "You know what, never mind. Tell me more about this pumping system. It needs to be efficient to bring ample amounts of water just to residents who live closest to the lakes, and that's still a considerable distance."

"The distance, unfortunately, is a problem..." Techorse gave his notes a hard look, "The pump will need to have a great amount of suction power without burning out or over-exerting the system. I could try building multiple pumps along the distance between the lakes and the locals, but that would take too much time and the maintenance alone would be too difficult, like trying to read five books at once!"

"Heh, my Twilight once tried that and drove herself crazy trying to keep track of the books she was trying to read simultaneously," chuckled Midnight.

Then he gave it a thought. Perhaps there was a way to blend their talents.
"Well... Seeing as we're pressed for time and left with few solutions, perhaps we should consider involving magic."

Techorse turned and gave Midnight a look, "Midnight, I'm an earth pony inventor. My expertise lies in science and technological engineering. I mean, sure, I've heard of and attempted to use energems to power some of my more complicated devices, but compatibility is a massive issue without complex converters and..."

"It's okay, I can help with that," Midnight came over and gave the blueprint Techorse was drawing up a look. "Believe it or not, Tech, there are plenty of earth pony experts in magic and there are some kinds of magic that even earth ponies and pegasi can do! Mage Meadowbrook was a celebrated healer and a sorceress even though she herself was an earth pony."

That was news to Techorse, as he gave Midnight a bewildered look as the alicorn went on and conjured a notebook and pencil, "And besides, energems are useful for more than powering technology. Just like there are different types of gems, there are different types of energems, each with their own unique properties that can be utilized for different magical effects.

"For example, the properties of an Onyx Energem can be exploited to wield the natural force of gravity. With the right tinkering and enchantments, I think we could use an Onyx Energem of good quality to assist in the suction power of the pump! Even better, a unicorn mage with the right qualifications could be hired to assist in the magical concerns of maintenance. What do you think?"

"That sounds plausible, but..." Tech considered when-

*Knock-knock-knock*

They looked to the front door of Techorse's home.
"Were you expecting company?"
"No. This had better not be Redtape again, I swear I'll..."

Techorse went over, his saddle extending one of its mechanical arms to the door handle and opening it to reveal a slightly nerdish yet pretty unicorn mare. Of course, she had known that Techorse would be unlikely to believe she just wanted to observe his work for no reason, so she had come prepared with a decent cover. She had donned some goggles now resting on her forehead, put back her long mane in a nice bun with a beautiful pink ribbon keeping it tied together, and wore a long white lab coat to complete the picture. Now that she looked the part of a good lab assistant, she would play the part with the same level of detail.

"Um, hi! My name is Stencil Guide. Is um... Mr. Techorse home?"

“Yeah, that's... me,” said the inventor slowly, taking in the fact that there was this seemingly random lab mare standing in front of him, “can I help you, miss?”

Stencil Guide couldn't believe that the kind stallion in front of her was Techorse! The way Redtape made him out to be, he sounded like a crackpot, although she had always pitied him for drawing such undeserved negative attention from her boss.

“Oh, it's very nice to meet you,” she said shyly, her cheeks turning red, “I um... I've been looking for a place to apprentice as an inventor for a while. I heard you were the only one in town, so I was hoping I could become y-your lab assistant, so I can learn the basics.”

“Well, truth is, I could use a little more help,” he answered to her surprise, “I've got about a week left to come up with a good invention or I'll be run out of town!”

“How horrible!” choked Stencil, having already known that, “Can I come in, it's really hot out here.”

Midnight could tell that there was something off about this strange mare who just happened to show up not one day after Techorse made a bet with the most powerful stallion in town. Stencil Guide couldn't see him yet, so with a quick channeling of his glamour magic, he made himself appear again as the more mundane-looking unicorn he'd initially shown himself to Techorse as without being brown muzzled. Just as the last of the sparks and wisps vanished above him, Techorse brought his new acquaintance into the door.

“So I'd like you to meet my friend...” he said, ushering her in but halting his sentence as soon as he saw that Midnight had transformed, he tilted his head, “Really?”

“Hello,” said the fake Midnight, pretending to be friendly to the suspicious guest, “what's your name?”

“Stencil Guide,” she answered, quickly regretting her choice to reveal her true name.

“That's a pretty name,” Techorse said, unable to take his blue eyes off of the poorly tied-back mane and tail Stencil Guide sported, “well Stencil, I actually think this partnership could work out. Of course, I don't know if I could pay you much right now.”

“Oh, I have a scholarship to um... study abroad in Fillydelphia!” she lied, making up words on the fly, “I don't need any money, just some work to do! I gotta come home with something invented or they'll kick me out of my engineering school!”

Techorse sighed, “That's awful... I guess we're in the same boat then. I've got a week to finish this invention and prove it's worth, or I'll be out on the town by order of Tweed Redtape.”

She put a hoof to her cheek, almost like an actress, “That's awful!”

Midnight still felt suspicious of the mare. Sure, she seemed nice, and was rather pretty, even though her tail and mane was longer than even Fluttershy's. But things were a little too perfect about the sweet little unicorn. Questions needed to be asked, and he was determined to ask them without Techorse getting upset with him for being mistrusting.

“Maybe we can work something out then, you scratch our withers and we'll scratch yours!” said the disguised prince, putting on his best smile, “looks like you need to help invent something, and as luck would have it, you've shown up when we're working on a fantastic project. I was just talking to Techorse about it.”

Tech started to relax about Midnight's disguise, perhaps he was only trying to avoid scaring off Stencil Guide. Or maybe he was just trying to avoid nabbing himself another 'fanmare'. He couldn't help but chuckle imagining how many mares try to cling to him despite his aforementioned relationship.

“Yeah,” added Tech, smiling, “we were just about to get started. So do you want to join us?”

Stencil Guide didn't think it was going to be this easy, “You mean you'd really offer me this chance to help, right away? But we've just met.”

“Well sure, but, you need to work on a project, and I need to finish one to avoid getting kicked out by Redtape,” answered Techorse, “and it looks like you're eager to work hard. So welcome aboard, Stencil Guide!”

“Thank you,” she stuttered, floored that Techorse had offered a stranger help.

“Oh, sounds great! Can you tell me about it?” the mare answered, a bead of sweat escaping from out underneath her long mane, “I want to get to work right away!”

“Suuuuure,” hummed Midnight, shifting his eyes to his buddy, “Tech, go ahead and get started, I'm going to brief Stencil here on what we were planning for the device.”

As trusting as ever, Techorse nodded, “All right. See you inside the workshop, Stencil Guide. I think you'll like working here.”

Techorse exited the room through a steam-powered hatch to his workshop, the hissing of the door opening filling the room. Stencil Guide turned to the disguised prince and smiled.

“So, um... glad to be here now. What is it we're working on again?”

Immediately Midnight dropped his disguise, the glamour burning away to reveal his his taller and larger alicorn form, making Stencil Guide yelp in terror. The pony she thought she had seen had turned into... Prince Midnight Blaze! The mare dropped to the ground on her back, holding her hoof up to protect herself. She had always been afraid of the royal family since a young age, their level of magical power startling her, given that she only used hers for penmaneship. Now there was a very cross-looking prince in front of her, and a well-known wizardly warrior.

“Oh gosh!” she stifled a scream before managing to utter, “It... it's the prince?!”

“Quiet, you,” growled the alicorn, barely speaking above a whisper while glaring at her, “I don't know what you're up to, but I won't let you take advantage of Techorse's kindness.“

Now she was stuck. If she didn't tell the truth to the prince or dared to anger him, there was a good chance that she'd never bee seen again. But if she gave herself up and went back to Redtape, there was an equally likely chance that she'd end up fired, or worse... in his bed. Could this day possibly get any worse for her? Faced with a tough dilemma, she decided to do her best to tell Midnight half the truth in order to get past him without revealing her espionage.

“P... please don't hurt me, I'm not planning anything bad, I promise!” she whimpered, about to burst into tears, “I'm just trying to survive this summer is all! Please, if I can't help out... I'll lose everything!”

Midnight's eyes softened, and his horn ceased its angry glow, finally believing that perhaps he had been wrong. Yet he was still a little bit concerned, and pointed a hoof straight at the mare's sternum.

“I... I'm sorry I snapped, but you need to be honest with Techorse if you're going to work with him,” he warned.

“Like you were honest about being an alicorn?” she said, standing up on her hooves as the shock wore off, “I thought you were going to zap me!”

“I wasn't going to, I just... I'm not in the mood to deal with things after I saw how horribly Redtape treated Techorse. He's my friend and I care about him,” said the prince, looking at the ground, “forgive me.”

“Well, look, I bet whoever that Redtape guy is, he must be really mean... and a mare-grabbing pig too,” she said.

“Excuse me?”

Stencil shook her head, “Nothing, sorry! Let's go help Techorse!”

She marched over to the hatch, brushing off her coat from having been knocked down, and entered the garage. Midnight thought for a short while about her words, but decided Redtape's reputation must be a lot worse than what he thought, and dropped it. If Techorse found out he had threatened Stencil, he was going to be upset, and that was something he didn't want, their friendship getting off on the wrong hoof.

Techorse barely looked up from his work long enough to acknowledge the two of them entering his workshop. As was to be expected, the industrious stallion had already eagerly dug into his new project with blueprint paper already out and robot hands inking the pages with a white pen.

“I guess you decided to stop disusing yourself, Midnight?” he joked, “We like you for who you are, you know.”

“I was only worried that Stencil Guide might be uncomfortable around an alicorn,” answered his friend, his answer mostly true, “but she's nice enough to not really care.”

Stencil had a much harder time keeping her end of the secret intact, and she stuttered, “Oh yeah... I'm not scared of the Canterlot royalty at all! They're so nice, heh heh!”

Midnight shook his head at her, making the mare clench her teeth a bit. He really - really - hoped that he wasn't going to have to take any serious actions concerning her.

Trying to change the subject, she pointed out how much had been accomplished in just the few minutes that they had talked.
“Whoa, you already have twelve pages?

Techorse answered without moving his eyes, “I was already thinking about the designs in my head when Midnight and I came up with them. I just need to get them all out on paper before I forget!”

Stencil Guide let him continue his work, but looking around at the workshop made her frown at how horribly discombobulated the scene was, with parts and sheets of metal laying around on the floors, shelves, and work tables. There were probably dozens of pieces for machines sitting underneath other objects that Techorse had long forgotten about, and the only semblance of harmony between anything in the room were a few token common parts bins labeled for easy reference. The stark contrast between her cozy, neat, and very well-dusted desk at her office and the total dump in front of her made Stencil Guide want to laugh.

“Tech's not too good at keeping things in order,” she said quietly, trying to prevent herself from bursting out laughing. She was used to stallions making a mess when at work, but the inventor's workshop was by far the worst she'd ever seen.

“He's busy,” said Midnight, trying to make an excuse for him, “and I bet if you asked, he'd be able to pick out anything from this pile. I know a couple of ponies with that work habit.”

“I don't know,” she teased, “looks pretty messy in here.”

“Then go for it, ask for a part,” he insisted, “you're an engineer too, right? There's got to be something you know we need for this invention.”

Stencil Guide bit her cheek in realization that she had no idea whatsoever how engineering worked and that the prince next to her was calling her bluff. At least, she was paranoid enough to believe that he was still probing into her thoughts and actions. The truth was closer to Midnight wanting her to stop criticizing Techorse over what appeared to him to be a rather minor lack of organization.

She began to play with her mane, feeling the bun starting to unravel, “Uhhh, um...”

Quickly digging up a couple of words from her final school days learning about the science of electricity, she queried the inventor, “Techorse, can I please have... a...delayed capacitor?”

Techorse stopped furiously sketching the blueprint and casually scratched his head with the robotic hand he wasn't writing with, eyebrows raised.

“Delayed capacitors... where did I leave them? I haven't used one in a long time since I can just use a regular capacitor and a switch instead when building a conduit.”

The mare exhaled in relief, “Oh, you have some? Let me help you out.”

Her horn lit up, and aura energy of that amazing sparkly blue surrounded the scraps and bits all over the room. Techorse took a step back and watched in amazement, his workshop was being cleaned up and organized so quickly he didn't know what to make of it! The pieces of metal plating were stacked side by side on a nearby pushcart used for moving items around the shop, the electronic components and steam valves were sorted out into the many shamefully unused cups and trays left scattered over the benches and machine tables, and anything even remotely related to magical components eagerly followed Stencil's aura up and into their own little place in the room. Then the places for everything were also sorted by size, color, and how useful the 'intern' believed them to be despite her lack of experience, and the tools scattered all over the floor were back hanging up on the pegs Techorse should have been using all along. Even Midnight had to admit with a somewhat sarcastic shrug and lip curl that her skills in keeping things together were powerful.

Opening her eyes, Stencil took a look around the now unified workshop and felt the usual pulse of warmth she got on the inside when she got something in order. She looked at his expression, and wondered if she had taken things a little too far. He was not going to like what she needed to do with his blueprints if that was the case.

Techorse seemed to be pleased enough, and gave her an awed congratulation, “That was amazing! I haven't seen a unicorn with sorting magic before, you've got a really neat talent.”

“Oh well, it's not sorting magic,” she stumbled, a little surprised by the compliment, “it's just me mentally putting it all together and moving things around, Techorse. But... thank you, that's... really sweet of you.”

“And now that the place is clean, we should be able to pull together all of the parts we have to use to build the magical pumping chamber,” continued Midnight, approaching the large wooden table in the center of the room to read the blueprint Techorse was finishing, “let's see what you've got here and I'll start working on the arcane components we're going to need.”

The three of them huddled over what Techorse was drawing, going over the various details and elements of the design for the water pump. The lines were straight and crisp, the measurements listed on the blue sheets were perfect, and the parts all lined up in a show of Techorse's design skills. But of course, the sheets were unlabeled, out of order, and scattered across the table.

“The moment you guys start building this, you're going to do things out of order and probably break something,” she said bluntly, “here, let me help again.”

Techorse watched patiently for another act of help from her, this time surrendering his white pen and letting his assistant make changes to the blueprints. They were given a number and letter designation to help keep them together and in chronological order, and the segments of the machine that required a magical part or help from Midnight were marked with a star. Then she scooted around the papers until they were all in nice, neat stacks based on her rapidly devised organization scheme. A clipboard came out from inside her lab coat, she never left home without one, and she attached the first half-sized blueprint too it, handing it to Techorse who gratefully accepted it with the mechanics mounted on his back.

“There, now you can build things one at a time and we won't make a big mess again,” she said, giving him a warm smile with her pearly teeth, “just let me know what parts we need for each one and I can fetch them for you from the bins!”

“I wish you'd shown up a lot sooner,” Techorse smiled at her, “this is going to make things so much easier for us!”

His words were quite different from the “compliments” she received from Redtape, for her talents hadn't really been given very much attention over her other aspects. She had almost forgotten about her need to report back on Techorse's progress to the politician, but it looked like her initial nervousness had been for nothing. Now that she had been allowed to organize Techorse's workshop and participate in the production of this new device, it didn't look like her cover was going to be blown anytime soon.

For several hours, the ponies stayed busy putting together the pieces of the pumping machine. Wires, bits of brass and copper, pipes and plastic all were taken out from the now straightened bins and placed on the work table where Techorse welded or wrenched it into place. Occasionally Midnight needed to step in and perform a magical weld on something, either to aid in the use of future magical items, or more likely it was the fact that welding was fun and Techorse was happy to let Midnight participate. With Stencil Guide retrieving parts and the two stallions turning the blueprints into a visible product, the table was starting to fill up with the various functioning parts they were constructing before putting all of them together into the working final product. A couple of times during the process Techorse would leave a tool or piece lying out when moving on to the next step, and Stencil Guide would patiently put the things back where he got them from to avoid things getting messy again. Eventually, all that was left to build was the outer casing for the machine... and the arcane core.

“We're ready to build the null vacuum chamber,” Techorse declared, viewing the final blueprint, “this is where you come in handy, Midnight.”

“Remind me again what it is you need exactly,” the prince requested.

“So a null vacuum is a small area that is identical to the void of space, contained within a rounded core,” Techorse explained, emoting with his hoof in a circular shape, “it's not been done very often with machines, but you told me you could use an onyx energem to generate that vacuum power. So I've built the shell that will house that, but I need you to use whatever spell it is you're going to use to get it to work.”

“Right,” said the alicorn, remembering, “I'm going to have to enchant the gem to get it to generate the field on command from the activation of the magical conduits you've soldered around the chamber.”

Stencil Guide sat there, nodding and giving the boys thoughtful looks since she had no idea what it was they were talking about. The topics were deep, but in the completely wrong subject matter for her to be able to participate or really know what was going on. She did take a little heart knowing however, that in a conversation about the history and methods of Equestrian record keeping and technical writing, she would be able to mop the floor with both of them.

“...But I need to get the stone first, Tech,” Midnight pointed out, “I don't have one on me. Do you think there's a shop in town where we'd be able to get one?”

“I can think of a place,” he answered, “let me take you there.”

“That's fine, I should probably head back to my apartment anyways,” Stencil guide added, “I'll see you both tomorrow morning then?”

*GGRRRrGUrrrll...*

Midnight blushed a little as his stomach remind him of the hour, and he came up with a friendly suggestion, “You know, we've been at this all day without food. Why don't I get us all something to eat after we pick up the energem?”

“I like that idea,” Techorse agreed, noticing his own hunger now that it had been mentioned, “Would you care to join us, Stencil? Or do you really need to go home?”

With the current time, she knew she'd probably end up being too late back to the office to report back in to Redtape. Pretending to give it a little thought, she scraped her hoof on the floor of the workshop.

“I guess I could have dinner with you first, if Prince Midnight Blaze doesn't mind!”

“Hey,” he warned sternly, his aura already igniting to turn him back into his disguised form, “I'm trying to keep my identity a secret, if you don't mind. The minute ponies around here figure out I'm royalty, they'll be bothering us with unwanted attention.”

His transformation back into his old form complete, Midnight ran a hoof through his new mane hair and winked at Stencil Guide.

“You can keep a secret, right?”

The wording seemed to indicate he knew, and she nervously grit her teeth and shook her head.

“Yup! I'll be good.”

Techorse teased his buddy, “Midnight, please stop scaring her! She's doing so much for us.”

“Kidding, Tech!” he assured him, “Now come on, let's go get something to eat.”

Chapter 6. Steps Forward, Steps Back

“And... done!”

Techorse stepped back as his Battle Saddle's mechanical arms set his tools aside while he and Midnight looked at their prototype.

"Hmm, cumbersome, the design's gonna have to be improved before the deadline," Techorse mused before smirking, "But all things considered, we managed to put together something great rather quickly."

"Now, of course, is to test it," Midnight suggested but rubbed his chin, "but how?"

*Knock-knock-knock*

Both stallions looked towards Techorse's front door, the inventor pony going to answer it. He brightened up to see it was Stencil, and he welcomed her, "Stencil, glad to see you back."

"I'm sorry for running late," Stencil apologized as Techorse let her in, "I had an... errand to take care of that ran later than I expected."

"No worries, Midnight and I just put the prototype together," Techorse led her over to the worktable, pointing to the device, "With this, Fillydelphia's water problem will be taken care of, and everypony will get the water they need in spite of this drought. We were just talking about testing it when you arrived."

"You said this is supposed to be a pumping system for water, yes?" Stencil eyed the device, not quite understanding the design but for some reason something about it looked... off.

"It is, and those nearby lakes are just sitting there, waiting to be used in this alleged time of drought," Midnight brought up.

"Except some of those lakes are polluted," Stencil pointed out with concern, "The citizens can't rely on contaminated water!"

"Hold on, polluted?!" Midnight was vexed, "How'd that happen?!"

"I don't know," Stencil replied, "I've wondered about the problem for a while now. A remember a year ago the lakes weren't even really that full, but once they filled up with rainwater, ponies started reporting trash being thrown into or around the water. I don't think a formal investigation was ever conducted, because the pollution seemed to get worse, even birds and critters avoid the lakes now."

Midnight and Techorse shared a troubled look, and then Techorse said, "Well... That won't be a problem. This pumping system is, or at least it will be, a decent blend of science and sorcery, and we've taken into account the possibility of pumping contaminated water. Thanks to a filtering system enhanced with specialized energems, any water that the pump sucks into it will be cleansed and purified before the pump deposits it out the other end."

"But can it really pump water from the lakes all the way to here?" Stencil asked.

"It should, with the cohesive force manipulation energems I've set into its hose," Midnight answered, "but like I said, we still need to test it."

The three hmmm'd on it for a few moments before Stencil thought aloud, "Well, maybe one of your neighbors wouldn't mind giving it a try."

"It probably doesn't hurt to ask," Techorse shrugged, "just as long as they don't think I'm going to muck up their yard with polluted water."

“At this point Tech, the lawns around here couldn't get any more dead,” the mare frowned, “everything's as brown as the lake water.”

He nodded in response at the point, “We'll give it a try.”

They carefully brought the arcane pumping system outside, with Stencil looking around to see if she could find a willing 'victim' for the initial test. There was always the chance that the machine would work so well as to guarantee that Redtape would surrender and give Techorse a grant, and her a well-deserved break. But first the equipment would need to be proven in some trials before it could be finalized for the showdown later in the week. Stencil's attention to detail helped her to spot a suitable customer, an elderly unicorn mare standing in her front lawn with a defeated blank stare at the dead grass in front of her.

“Hey,” Stencil noted, pointing with her hoof, “Techorse, who's that across the street?”

He placed the machine down gently, nearly making Midnight lose his grip, “Oh, her? That's Mrs. Letterword. She used to run the post office alongside her husband, but they're both retired now.”

“She looks really sad,” continued the secretary, feeling pity for the old mare.

“They used to have this really great garden full of roses, irises, you name it,” Techorse explained, frowning, “then the water supply dried up, and anything they were unable to sell to ponies outside the city died.”

“I'm going to go ask if she'll let us test the pump,” Stencil continued, “this is a great way to start building up a case for you staying in town!”

Techorse tried to explain why that might not be a good idea, but his new assistant was already trotting her merry way across the road to talk to his depressed neighbor. Midnight shook his head and helped him pick up the unwieldy machinery again so that they could start moving it across the street. Despite being small and rather portable, it was rather awkward to pick up without tripping over the hose, a design flaw that would have to be corrected later.

Stencil got Mrs. Letterword's attention with a gentle approach from the street, getting a better look at the aging unicorn, who's gray mane clashed with her bright blue eyes that still sparkled with some kind of youthful energy.

“Hello!” she said to her, “how are you today, ma'am!”

“Oh, I'm.. I'm just fine!” she lied in response, trying to react appropriately the kindness, “I like to get out of the house, you know. Keeps the joints fresh!“

Stencil entered the dead lawn on hoof after carefully fixing her hair bun's pin to avoid it coming loose in the dirt, “It sure does! Don't mind me or my silly hair, just came over to ask a few questions if you don't mind.”

“You have a very beautiful mane, young mare,” flattered the shaky unicorn, “and such a stylish do, too! Now knock off this silliness and ask away!”

“Well, you see, I'm Stencil Guide... I'm working for Mr. Techorse from across the street,” she asked with a positive tone, “do you know much about him?”

Despite the inventor's supposed bad reputation, Letterword gave a wrinkled smile, “Ohhh, young Techorse! What a smart stallion he is, don't you think? And so nice too... why, when my garden was alive and well, I'd give him a rose from it each and every day for him to snack on. Wouldn't you know, he doesn't like eating flowers, so he would give it to somepony else who would have missed breakfast that day!”

Stencil wasn't used to that kind of behavior coming from stallions, “Oh... I... um, I guess that is really nice. Well, Techorse would like to help you today if possible!”

“Aw now, I don't need any favors sweetie.”

“But he has a machine that could help bring your garden back to life!” protested the younger mare, looking around at all the dead flowerpots and lawn space, “It's a pumping machine that can purify the lake water and provide life-sustaining hydration. Don't you want him to try?”

Mrs. Letterword obviously had first-hoof experience of Techorse's machines exploding in his face, “I'm not sure about that, miss Stencil...”

“Why not? You seem to like him,” she argued softly.

“Well,” defended her elder without trying to be too blunt, “he is nice, but his machines, well... they don't always...”

“Honey...”

The old mare turned her head back, having been called by her husband from the doorway. He was a tall, lanky earth pony with clear signs of wear and tear on his limbs from years of carrying heavy mail bags. But there was still an element of joy in his soft words and the way he carried himself.

As his wife, she felt obligated to tell him what was going on, “I was talking with this nice young mare about Mr. Techorse. She says he's cooked up some contraption that could bring back the garden, and we both know that young one's nice but, well... he's not always successful.”

“I know honey,” he continued in a quiet whisper, “I've been listening in. Mr. Techorse may not always be right about things, but... could the lawn really get any worse?”

She looked around at the dismal and gloomy yard, a dead rose bush here, a patch of tulip bulbs that would never sprout again there... pure misery. Granted none of her neighbors had fared any better, but they hadn't grown nearly the variety with the same passion and love she had.

“Oh... all right,” she answered, “I can see him coming this way with his gizmo anyways. Might as well give the child a chance at this...”

Techorse had the pumping machine set up rather quickly, placing the trapezoidal amalgamation of brass and steel parts in the center of the Letterwords' lawn to maximize coverage. The hose attached to the back of the machine was dragged out to the lake behind the elderly couple's residence by Midnight, who had regained his disguise on request of Techorse to avoid spooking his neighbors. When the alicorn got to the body of water to toss in the intake end of the tubing, he wrinkled his nose in disgust of the sickly looking water which reminded him of a school locker room, both by color and smell.

“Ugh, I hope that filter works,” he groaned as his magic dropped the hose into the bubbling cesspool, “how could Fillydelphia let the water table get this polluted, anyways?

Between Stencil's comment that there had been suspicious characters caught throwing trash in the water reservoirs around the city, and the fact that the pegasus weather management team should have noticed the city's water crisis ages ago, the young prince was beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Something was very wrong about a drought and polluted natural water in the middle of a state that valued its resources as much as Equestria.

Dropping his thoughts on the topic, he trotted back to Techorse, who was working with the buttons on the front of the sprinkler using the robotic arms mounted inside his saddle. Midnight remembered his friend telling him before he left for bed last evening that he had to work closely with foreigners outside of Equestria to perfect the form and function of the metallic hands, which seemed unusual for a presumed recluse.

“All right Tech, we're ready,” Midnight announced, “but I have to say, that water is absolutely filthy. I'm not even sure the disinfectant energems can process all that sludge.”

“There's only one way to find out,” he answered, having pushed the last button necessary to start the mechanism, “we test it!”

Midnight understood the risks, “Tech, you'd better come with us after you set it to go off. It could be dangerous.”

“We ran a dry test on some tap water, remember? The worst that happens is the safety engages and it sparks out,” Techorse assured him, “plus, I've gotten away from worse, you know!”

The prince rolled his eyes and walked over to the Lettewords and Stencil, corralling them to the side of the lawn a good twelve feet away. Conduits on the top of the trapezoidal pump glowed with purple energy as the top of the machine opened up like a music box, flaps opening and moving back to reveal a large nozzle mounted to a turret assembly. The machine's programming aimed the tube away from the ponies present, towards a patch of dead lawn ready to receive water. Techorse stood directly behind the pump, watching over the diagnostic lights and dials to make sure things were functioning as intended.

“All right, the pump should engage any second now!” he said to the others, not having to talk over the relatively quiet device.

A rumbling noise came from within the contraption, and Stencil watched as the hose vibrated with suction force, drawing gunky water from the lake. It was so polluted that she could see a line where the fluid was rushing rapidly towards the pump.

“So far, so good!” Midnight smiled, watching from a safe distance with the others, “We're about to have the water hit the processing chamber, so get ready!”

Techorse saw the liquid enter the pump, followed by a gross sucking noise as the motor and energem chamber took on the disgusting slurry. He knew something was wrong right away when his invention's nozzle started to look around in random directions, often at his friends who ducked and covered.

He reached for the off switch a little too slowly, “Wait... there's something up with the...”

*BOOOOM*

A loud, sharp report centered on Techorse's location sounded from the pump's innards destroying themselves violently, kocking the green earth pony away in a concussive blast that sent a plume of filthy water and machine parts sky high. Stencil screamed, covering her eyes with he hoof, and Midnight quickly put up a cyan bubble of shield energy, knocking away most of the goo and flung mechanical bits.

“Oh, Mr. Techorse,” Mrs. Letterword cried out, “are you okay?!”

Techorse sat up from having been knocked prone, and took a look at the pump's condition. For the violence of the explosion from the malfunction, it was actually in fairly good shape, having lost only the nozzle, the flaps that kept it inside the machine, and the first pumping chamber that handled sterilization.

“I... I don't know what happened,” he sighed, taking off his welding goggles and throwing them into the dirt out of frustration, “the pumping chamber just built up a ton of pressure before the safety could engage.”

“Forgot the machine, Techorse, that blast could have liquefied your insides!” shouted Midnight angrily, “You should have stood with us like I told you too!”

Techorse loosened his posture as he stared at Midnight. Then he scooped up the machine, carrying it in his saddle's arms, and said nothing else to his friends as he walked back to his lab.

“Poor Techorse,” Stencil sighed, ears falling back, “did you have to yell at him like that, Midnight? He's already in enough trouble as it is with Redtape trying to kick him out of town.”

“He'll get over it,” answered the stallion, “I was just... worried he was going to get hurt. I've... lost a few friends over the years, you know...”

Stencil agreed and then addressed the older ponies, “I'm so sorry, we'll have to find another way to test the machine again later.”

To her horror, Mr. Letterword's kind and soft demeanor turned into a very aggressive one, “Hold on there, missy, did you say that snake Redtape was trying to kick Mr. Techorse out of town? What does that waste of taxpayer bits got against him, huh?”

“Dear, please,” begged his wife.

“Ha! I take it you don't like him much, either?” Midnight chuckled, rubbing a tiny splotch of pond scum that had gotten past his shield off his mane, “Something personal?”

“Oh you bet your flank it's something personal, son,” Letterword nodded, “my wife and I had planned on working on that post office for another five years to earn ourselves a large pension promised to us by Equestria. When you get to our age, your job becomes training youngsters to learn how to do the mail deliveries right, and we loved that job, were really good at it too! Well, guess how we were 'thanked' for our hard work?”

Stencil felt her heart sink, “My gosh... he fired you a day before you were going to earn that additional retirement money.”

“Exactly,” answered the old stallion, his wrinkled body tense like he was young and strong again, “and we went to the mayor himself to complain, only to find that Redtape likes to kiss up to her just so he can get away with cheating old ponies like us! So... if this whole thing Techorse is doing is meant to smash that stallion right where it'll geld 'em... he can test it on our lawn anytime. I don't care if it blows up a hundred darn times!”

The anger coming off the old man radiated from him, but slowly died off as his wife gave him a hug, “We've made do, dear. The other postmares still help us out.“

“We'll get you that pension,” Midnight said, thinking of a way he could influence the situation, “once we beat Redtape, I'll have him sign the paperwork. It wasn't part of the deal, but... somehow I think he'll have to agree to it.”

“I'll be thankful for anything, kiddos,” Letterword answered loudly, “now get back in that garage and help Mr. Techorse. I wanna see that Redtape squirm like the earthworm he is.”

Unbeknownst to the retreating ponies, watching from behind the Letterwords' next door neighbor's house, Jester sneered snidely at the sight of Techorse leaving despondent from his apparent failure. The sleazy dragon had been nearby when he'd seen the explosion and carefully sneaked over to see what was going on. Smiling with satisfaction and schadenfreude, he slunk away to inform his boss of the good news.

"Hmm, yeah, put that over there," Redtape instructed the movers as they brought in the new furniture for Stencil's workspace, "and the oak wood desk can go right there!"

He'd spared no expense in his "gifts" for his adorable little assistant, and if all went well, she would become his adorable little wife and the mother of his foals. If not? Well, that's why he had the papers in his suit pocket, which he carefully stuffed into the drawer of the new desk so she would be kind enough to take the fall for him if push came to shove. As much as he hoped for her to say yes to his proposal, this step was absolutely necessary to twist her leg into matrimony should she fail to accept his 'generous offer'.

He looked on in satisfaction at the workspace he'd set up for his victim. The desk alone had cost a foreleg and a hind leg, not to mention the big comfy office chair behind it, the various office supplies and utensils, the comfortable waiting chairs, the lovely house plants, the knickknacks - All of that.... plus the papers he'd stashed into the desk that would definitely raise some red flags if she continued to be stupid enough to say 'no'.

Returning to his office, he quickly noticed Jester outside his window and hurried over to let him in, hissing, "How long have you been out there?! Did anyone see you!?"

"Relax, boss," Jester waved off the concern as he made himself comfortable in the chair before Redtape's desk, "your old friend Jester would never forget to use discretion. It's just I thought I'd drop by and tell you some very good news!"

"Oh?" Redtape raised a brow as he sat at his desk, leaned forward and held his hooves together, "Do tell."

"Techorse, whatever cockamamie contraption he was working on?" Jester snickered in a smarmy tone, "It blew up on its first trial!"

"Heh-heh-heh, why am I not surprised?" Redtape leaned back in his chair before reaching to his desk drawer to pull out his pack of cigars, "Tell me more."

"Well, out of boredom today I'd thought I'd just sneak over, spy on them, you know... make sure your secretary turned spy mare was doing her job," Jester explained as he accepted a cigar from his boss, "but before I get there, boom," he illustrated, spreading his scaly hands, "Felt the explosion from my hiding place. When the smoke cleared and all was said and done, there was a big fat crushing look of failure on that loser's face as he takes what's left of his broken toy back to his workshop, a dismal cloud of despair following him."

"And to think I was... concerned," Redtape snorted before he held a cigar and asked, "Gimme a light, huh?"

"Oh sure, pal," Jester leaned over and very carefully blew a small fire to light up Redtape's cigar, lighting his own after to take a taste of the leaf.

"By the end of the week, Techorse will be packing his saddlebags, and I'll have gained a wife," Redtape chuckled again, leaning back into his chair, holding his cigar, "and the Lord of Lords will make me Lord of all crime in Fillydelphia with our biggest money-maker yet!"

Let's not forget about Prince Midnight before we celebrate," Jester brought up, "I didn't see him, but he could still be helping that grease monkey."

"Let me worry about that pretentious poser of a prince," Redtape waved off the concern, "despite his archaic and undeserved authority, he is still bound to the laws of this nation. He interferes and I'll bury him in so much legalese he'll see siding with that waste of fur is more trouble than he's worth."

Then Redtape put the cigar to his lips, and after a brief inhale HACKED and coughed and spat and gasped for breath, Jester facepalming as he said, "Red, you're not supposed to inhale a cigar, you just taste it!"

Chapter 7. The Success Trap

“Come on Techorse, it's not that bad,” Midnight assured, worried sick for his new friend.

The inventor had cleared his entire workbench off and left the remains of his once-functioning invention on the dusty surface. It was still smoking from the blast, and lake mud oozed from every conduit and motor possible. Techorse couldn't do anything but stare in disbelief at what was left of several day's work.

“It's damaged beyond repair, Midnight,” he answered softly, pain in his blue eyes, “the pump has been completely totaled, and the circuitry has been shorted from all the pond scum.”

“Please don't tell me you're going to give up,” Stencil Guide fretted, “you've come way too far to just throw in the towel now! I don't want to see Redtape kick you out!”

Techorse sighed, “I'm not going to give up yet. I just want to start over with a new invention concept so that we don't cause any more trouble.”

“Tech, there's no time,” Midnight stated in a matter-of-fact way, “it already took us three days to get this design finished and build one prototype. By the time we come up with another good idea we won't have another machine ready and functioning for the demonstration, so you've got to build another pump.”

“It's not worth putting myself and others at risk just to stay in town,” he answered, shrugging off the statement, “I'm not that important, and besides... I'm sure dad will let me keep a workshop someplace I can use after work hours.”

He suddenly felt a gentle nudge from a hoof trying to get him to turn around. When he did, his eyes met Stencil's from just a hoof away, giving him a good look at the mare beaming with equal measures of concern and determination. The unicorn wanted to be absolutely sure that she had his attention, and from the quickly relaxing expression on his face, she had it.

“You're important to me,” Stencil said to him sweetly, “and to everypony else.”

“Other than that,” said the prince who was trying to get his friend's attention away from the mare, “this goes way beyond just you, Techorse. Others are counting on you to beat Redtape this week.”

The stallion diverted his attention as requested, “Wait... what do you mean?”

“Maybe you didn't know this about your neighbors, but Redtape took away their pension plan, likely ruining their retirement,” explained Midnight sadly, “he pulled one over them, and something tells me they weren't the only ones he's hurt.”

Techorse's mouth fell open slightly, his eyes going towards the ground, “The Letterwords... they told me they got that pension when they first retired a few years ago.”

“They didn't want you to worry about them,” Stencil explained worriedly, “or worse, they were worried Redtape would take further actions against them... like blackmail them or something!”

Again, Midnight wondered why the lab assistant sounded anxious when talking about Redtape when everypony else had nothing but an angry tone. Stencil Guide seemed fairly easily spooked by him, which got the prince's mental gears turning.

Setting it aside for the moment however, he continued, “That's right. If you don't stop Redtape, he'll continue to trample on other ponies' lives and using his posiiton in City Hall to do it. But if you embarrass him royally in front of Fillydelphia, he'll learn his lesson and never dare to try again!”

Midnight could tell that set off something in his friend, for the earth pony's eyes seemed lit ablaze with his new feelings about the situation. Justice for those cheated by Redtape was a must now. Techorse retrieved his blueprints and laid them out on the workbench again, unceremoniously swiping the remains of the machine off the table and into the nearby recycling bin, producing a horrible crash that made his companions flinch.

“If only I could figure out exactly what failed,” he answered, hope in his voice but doubt in his word choices, “the purification chamber failed to transfer fluid into the sprayer nozzle, meaning the second pump motor didn't draw the clean water into the spraying chamber.”

Stencil trotted up to the workbench and peered over Tech's shoulder, curiously looking over the white ink on blue paper. She wrinkled her nose at the atrocity that was his blueprints, having been hastily thrown together so he could jump right into physically building the machine. Lines and circles hoof-drawn on the documents crossed over each other in ways that made determining the specifics for construction near impossible. Worst of all, the electric wiring diagrams were a spaghetti-like mess with the icons for resistors and manaflux tubes looking almost identical. If Techorse had shown them to a master electrician, they might have died of shock if the resulting faulty wiring didn't kill them first.

“How did you read these?” she blurted out of revulsion, “don't you know how to draw blueprints?”

Techorse stopped scanning his documentation to address her, “I... hardly use blueprints. Most of my ideas come to me and I build them from memory, but since we want to mass-manufacture these if they work to fix everypony's dead gardens...”

The mare gasped, “Woah, so you build everything from memory?! How do you do that?”

“It's my special talent!” he used as an excuse while clearly flicking his tail to draw attention towards his cutie-mark, “These aren't chevrons, they're check-marks. My parents used to say you should check things three times to make sure you get it right the first time. I kind of took it to heart when building my own designs and may have ended up with a cryptic cutie-mark as a result.”

Stencil managed to put two and two together, “But with these kinds of blueprints, you can't really do any checking! But, if you have some more blueprints and a pen... I might.”

“Huh?”

She smiled, “Well, this is my special talent. I love to organize things, especially designs for things! I used to create them all the time, before I got into office work and started reading more books than anything else.”

“Office work? Aren't you going into inventing?” Midnight questioned, having picked up on the inconsistency.

Stencil realized her blunder and stuttered, “Um... well, this is a... career change for me because.... offices are boring, right Techorse?”

“Oh yeah, they are,” he answered, “and you made the right choice coming here instead! Let me get you that paper and pen.”

Midnight felt a twinge of suspicion, but once those blank blueprint papers and white pens were in front of the alleged trainee, he was impressed by the sudden display of artistry and perfection. Stencil was already concentrating with her eyes darting back and forth, her aura sending the pen in perfect straight lines as she read Techorse's garbled design and translated it into something legible and functional. Her design skills impressed Techorse as well, who couldn't help but stand so close he could smell her faint perfume and of course the shampoo in her thick mane. His presence went all but ignored in her intense fit of concentration and effort as she completed a complete rework of the stack of diagrams in minutes.

“There, done!” she declared, dropping the pen lazily on the bench, “I took your design and simplified it, keeping all the components and writing down measurements, wiring diagrams, and the notes you scribbled down in plain Equish! What do you think?”

“That was incredible, Stencil!” he answered, looking like a young colt on Hearth's Warming morning, “A perfect blueprint in record time, you must practice this constantly!”

“You... you flatter me,” she blushed, ears down, “but it's your engineering that's really cool. That's why I wanted to learn from you.”

Techorse too felt his cheeks go red, “Oh... well, thank you, Stencil.”

Midnight wanted to laugh at the astonishing lack of professional behavior, but instead chose to remain focused on the mission, “So, can we tell now what went wrong?”

The three gathered around the cleaned up designs and scanned for where the explosion may have been caused. It took about fifteen minutes of careful study and taking another look at the husk of the first pump, but eventually Techorse figured it out, a robotic finger smacking into the blueprint as his mental command triggered his saddle's sudden action.

“Aha! I found it! There was supposed to be a safety catch here that would slow the pumping of the pond water into the holding tank if it couldn't be purified fast enough. I never put it in,” he answered, mentally kicking himself in the flank.

“Yup, because you drew a tiny circle around that line right here and wrote 'catch device' on the original,” Stencil teased, “so it wasn't there in the final product.”

“Well this time it will be,” he answered with a satisfied nod,” Midnight, hand me my tools! This'll take half the time of the first pump, and then we can retest!”

It took them hardly any time at all to work out the bugs, thanks to the clarity made to the blueprints by Stencil, and after Midnight used his magic to clean up the Letterwords' yard, and with their permission, they were ready for the next test. As they set the pump up, Stencil stood by with the Letterwords, who, as much as they supported Techorse, looked a little nervous.

Stencil gave them a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, Mr. & Mrs. Letterword, I'm confident this time will be different."

They gave her an agreeable nod, but still.

"Okay, we're ready!" Techorse declared, retracting his mechanical arms into his saddle. "How're the hoses, Midnight?"

"All set and ready, Tech," Midnight reported, "I ran a quick scanning spell on them, and have confirmed all are in prime condition, as are the energems and the necessary spellwork."

"Excellent," Techorse looked down at the device, proud of the improved design making it more manageable, and definitely more appealing in appearance. Taking a deep breath, he gave everypony a look and when they all nodded, he stated, "All right, moment of truth... Here we go!"

The pump was switched on, and everypony held their breath as they heard the systems gear up. The unmistakable sound of suction reached their ears, sounding noticeably more fluid than it did before. A light lit up, signaling the water had reached the holding tank and so the purification process began.

Unlike before, there was no troubling sounds of sludgy build-up but rather the sound of liquid swirling, becoming fainter and fainter, until finally, the purifier fed the thoroughly cleaned water to the hose extension, reaching the detachable sprinkler. It span and released clear and glistening clean water!

Everypony gasped, and Midnight took the opportunity to just slightly light up his horn, casting a growth spell into the water, and almost instantly the results became apparent as the dusty ground of the Letterwords' lawn turned nice and muddy, the dried and yellowed grass turned vibrant green, growing lush and soft! Plants that were once nearly dead soon popped themselves back up, flowers blossomed through the accelerated process spurned on by Midnight, and the garden was restored to its former glory. The Lettewords, thinking they would never see their beloved display of horticulture healthy again, felt tears come to their eyes.

Of course, Techorse, Stencil, the Letterwords, and Midnight weren't the only ones to witness this wonderful sight, as neighbors and passerby quickly took notice. It was hard to ignore the sudden regrowth of a formerly dead and barren garden, after all. They gathered along the Letterwords' front yard, murmuring excitably and with keen interest, and Techorse couldn't help but laugh and cheer, "It's working! It's really working! We'll finally put an end to the drought!"

The inventor heard a happy laugh as Stencil Guide threw her hooves around him in a friendly quick hug. As he tried to hug back, she let go quickly, nervously pushing up her glasses.

“Heh, sorry! Got excited for a moment, boss.”

He answered after clearing his throat, “It's okay, this is our victory, Stencil!”

Everypony began to cheer for the clean water, which formed a rainbow in the light of the afternoon sun, and the neighbors finally began to see Techorse's true value. Midnight smiled happily for his friend as he thought,

Well done, Techorse!

Once the excitement had died down a little, and the neighbors had gone home to think about what they had witnessed, the three friends returned to Techorse's garage. The Letterwords couldn't help but bake them a fresh batch of chocolate chunk cookies, so they sat on some lawn chairs and munched on the treats while going over the results of the day.

“Looks like you've finally made something the locals want,” Midnight said, commending Techorse on his success, “I wouldn't be surprised if they came back looking for you to start mass producing those sprinklers. In fact...”

“One day at a time, Midnight,” interrupted the other stallion after a bite of cookie, “we're way ahead of schedule, and the blueprints are put away in my safe for now.”

“Well, based on the responses we got today, it's not like more work needs to be done,” Stencil added, licking chocolate off her hoof, “guess I don't need to come back tomorrow, huh?”

“Please come over anyway,” he answered, “I think we all ought to go out and have a day off! I know some places we could go for some fun.”

The long-maned mare jumped off the bouncy pink lawn chair and removed the crumbs from her face with a bit of magical energy. It wasn't really that late in the day yet, which roused Midnight's suspicion again.

“I'm looking forward to it!” she said, finding herself actually wanting to be there, “But I have to go home, guys. Got some chores to take care of.”

“No problem, take the rest of the day off, you deserve it,” answered Techorse, “I wouldn't have made it this far without you!”

“T...thanks!” she stuttered, before prancing off excitedly.

Midnight thought that there were two possibilities as to why Stencil consistently acted weird when talking about where she had to be, and why she wanted to come back each day. One of the possibilities was very fortunate for Techorse, and the other... not so much. The prince figured his natural abilities in the realm of stealth should allow him to harmlessly shadow Stencil for the rest of her day, and put some of his doubts to rest. But he needed to convince Techorse without directly lying to him.

“I think I'm going to get going too, if you don't mind,” he requested, “royal duties are a pain.”

“I don't doubt it,” responded his friend, chuckling while taking off his goggles for the first time that day, “go ahead and get your task taken care of. I'm just going to relax here until it gets dark.”

Midnight stood up and re-disguised, blue smoke rising from his position as his form changed into the identity he had picked. He walked a few steps away before Techorse stopped him.

“Hey, wait, are you going to be here tomorrow, I was thinking bowling or Crystal Beam Tag,” Techorse answered, “it's a new game imported from the Crystal Empire, heard of it?”

“Heard of it, never played,” he said after turning back, “and no thank you. I will probably need tomorrow for my task. Besides...”

After putting on a teasing smile and batting his eyebrows he added, “I wouldn't want to be a third wheel.”

Techorse's saddle opened up, and a robotic hand came out just to wag a finger at him, “Hey, don't imagine things are there that aren't. That's not very professional.”

The next morning, Redtape woke up in his master bedroom, stretching out the bed aches and getting up to open his bedroom window, taking in a deep breath of that fresh morning air. Sighing, he gazed out to his city, smirking victoriously, for the end of the week was nigh, and once that loser Techorse flopped with his so-called "invention" he would be kicking that wannabe onto the first train out of Fillydelphia.

And of course Stencil will accept my hoof in marriage, or she can rot behind bars, Redtape thought with a devious chuckle-

"Redtape, we gotta talk!"

"AUGH!!" Redtape reared up and fell over onto his back as something red and loud popped up in front of his perfect view, and he saw it was "JESTER!! What the hay, are you trying to give me a heart attack?!"

"We've got ourselves a problem!" Jester fretted, "I just got the word on the street! Techorse fixed his water-sprayer doohicky and it's working now! Heck, it's the talk of the town!"

"Ex-CUSE ME?!?!" Redtape snarled as he stood up and gave the dragon such a glare that Jester actually began to fear for his life! "Yesterday, you told me that grease-soaked gearhead's little toy was a DISASTER!!!!"

"Well... that was yesterday!" Jester responded lamely, bells jingling from his scales as he tilted his head, "Don't forget, he has Prince Midnight helping him! They must have figured out how to make that dumb thing work!"

For once, Redtape put two and two together, “Or a certain mare looking to get out of her wedding day is stabbing us squarely in the backs, Jester. I have a feeling my little sweetie is stepping over the line of our agreement. Not once this week did we get useful information out of her, but all of a sudden, Techorse is capable of creating productive machinery!”

And somehow you figure she won't betray you every day she's married to you?, Jester wondered but dared not to say, pretty sure it's a wedding ring, not a shock collar.

“Quit giving me that snarky look,” said his friend, snapping him out of his thoughts, “despite Stencil helping that grease monkey, we can still win this through some strategy of our own.”

“We planned to cheat since day one,” Jester said, rolling his reptilian eyeballs, “what's changed this time?”

“Come with me to the office, I'll explain on the way...”

The door to the town hall opened up, and Stencil walked in to give her daily report, catching Jester with her boss whom she'd never met before. She saw all the fancy office furnishings that had been loaded into the room, having replaced her previous modest desk, and whistled at the thought of the expense. Not only was it made out of fine carved wood, but a brand new lamp and monogrammed pen set were available for her use in managing her paperwork. After ogling the pricey set for a bit, she went ahead and asked about the stranger in the building.

“Redtape, who's this? What's with all the new furniture in the office?”

There was this new air of confidence about the mare that bothered Redtape, but he held his expression firm.

“Oh, this is just the... dragon who delivered the furniture,” he explained, “all of these new items are for you, Stencil! I figured your office space needed an upgrade after all you've been through.”

Jester took that as his cue to leave, and gave Stencil a finger gun with his right claw before walking out the door. The secretary held it open for him, and closed it in unison with taking a deep breath for what she had to say next to her boss.

“I'm sorry Redtape, but I've told you, no gifts,” she firmly stated, “I don't want them.”

“They're not for that,” lied the stallion, fixing his tie gently, “they're an apology... for that.”

The unicorn softened her expression, “Oh? You're sorry?”

“Yes, well... it turns out that after a few days of you not being here at the office, I've realized I only grew so fond of you because you're here constantly... there's no other mares for me to talk to,” he went on, running a hoof through his well-kept mane, “I think I might be overworked, out of touch even! Either way, I guess you're not that mare for me.”

A wave of relief passed through her body, “I'm really happy you've changed your mind. When you do meet that mare, she's going to really appreciate you. I'll come to your wedding even, if you want!”

Oh, you'll be at my wedding all right...

Verbally he carried out the rest of his plan, “You're very understanding, Stencil. Now, I want you to go back and continue your duties keeping Techorse under watch. I've already heard about the success of his invention, so if I'm going to win this little contest, you'll need to keep him busy while I work out a way to stop it.”

The mare sighed and braced herself for the other half of the conversation. It was too good to be true already that Redtape had no interest in her bunking with him anymore, now she needed to stop him from ruining Techorse's life as well.

“That's the other thing I wanted to talk about, Redtape,” the light gray mare continued, “Techorse isn't going to blow up half the city. His invention is stable, even if you lose, the water crisis will be solved!”

“True, but the city will make a mockery of me,” the bureaucrat insisted, “he must be stopped.”

“But can't you just take credit by being gracious about it?” she continued, “You inspired him to fix the problem!”

Redtape groaned and put his hoof to his face, “Just... what's he doing today, Stencil?”

She lit up with excitement, “Nothing! Turns out he's happy with the invention, so he's invited Midnight and I to go have some fun on the town. Might be a nice break from reading my books and drawing designs... alone, that is.”

Getting yet another idea, Redtape loosened up, “Ahhh, what a good idea! Please, spend all the time you need today with Techorse. Don't bother coming back for a report since he's up to nothing... you deserve a good break, Stencil.”

“Thank you! Redtape, I really like this new leaf you're turning over,” she said, proud of him, “I really mean it when I say somepony will be happy to be yours.”

“Anypony can change,” he assured her, “now please, go, enjoy your day. I have work to do.”

As soon as she was gone, Redtape returned to his own desk and poured himself a glass of something powerful. There were too many conflicting thoughts sailing through his head, and a drink could be the only cure. He filled his small crystal glass to the top with a brownish liquid out of a green bottle kept on a shelf near his desktop.

“She's... different,” he said to himself, slamming back the first glass of whatever the strange liquor was, “She no longer stutters when she talks to me, and doesn't shy away from my glance. That mare didn't even think twice about the fact I could fire her and ruin her career for good. It's... unattractive... and I bet that Techorse has been messing with her head!”

The deeper his plans got, the more he found himself... actually starting to lose interest in Stencil. This made her the perfect scapegoat for the water shortages and embezzlement that he himself had been committing under the nose of the public. There were other prizes to be won besides one mare, and Buck Cheap was about to make sure of that for him... if he could hold out for a few more days.

“You know,” he continued to say as if somepony was listening, all the while considering a second shot of his beverage, “even if she's right, even if I can have any mare I want, I couldn't have her. If she won't be an object of my love, then she most certainly can be an object of my hatred.”

After a second, he grabbed his bottle and poured himself one more glass, downing it right away.

“I still have to deflect the embezzlement charges to her though, and have Techorse beaten to a bloody pulp. Perhaps then she'll go back to being that timid, dependent unicorn I wanted,” continued Redtape, “But if not... well, maybe I am happy with letting her go! I'll have a mare in my hooves in no time, just like she said, and I'll be happy to remind her of that as they give her those twenty dark years!”

With a hearty laugh, he settled with himself and got to putting away his preferred poison. Confidence was not something he enjoyed in his mares... but Redtape certainly liked seeing it broken. He asked another worker in the office to send a message to Jester, detailing the rest of his plans.

Chapter 8. Nocturnal Trickery

Stepping out of City Hall, Stencil took a deep breath and smiled, feeling great! Things appeared to be working out. Her boss was no longer pressuring her, she'd help Techorse solve a major problem for the city, and now they were about to go out and celebrate. With a perk in her step, she began trotting merrily on her way, passing by her favorite coffee shop-

"What business didja have in City Hall?"

-and came to a grinding halt, as she recognized that voice!

Stencil hesitantly looked towards the coffee shop, seeing a few cafe tables out, but only one had somepony sitting at it, as he lowered a newspaper, revealing Midnight with an unreadable look.

For a few long tense moments, neither said anything, until Stencil gulped and uttered out, "I can explain-"

"I sincerely hope you can," Midnight spoke up, "because I saw you talking to Redtape in there."

"But- I didn't see you!" Stencil flabbergasted, "Nopony saw you!"

"I saw you through the window," Midnight clarified, "and I was using an Aversion Spell so nopony would be able to notice me. So spill. Now."

Stencil stuttered, "Please let me sit down. I know this looks awful but, there's no reason to do anything horrible!"

Midnight gestured to the chair across from him, and Stencil took her seat before taking a deep breath. So far so good... she wasn't a magically-irradiated pile of ash yet.
"It's true, your Highness... I work for Mr. Redtape as his secretary. It's a good paying job, except..."

"Lemme guess, you got tired of him being a jerk," Midnight gathered.

"I wish he was just a jerk," Stencil replied, "I haven't been working for him that long, but just a week after I was employed in City Hall, he started... flirting with me. Giving me little gifts, which I thought he did for everypony... only the other employees never got anything. It was sweet at first, but he never took the hints I dropped him that I wasn't interested. That is, hints I could get way with without him firing me or something.”

Midnight let her take a moment to pause, but from the miserable look on the secretary's face he knew she wanted to go on, “There's more, isn't there?”

The unicorn looked to him for pity, “A week ago, Redtape stopped beating around the bush, and started dropping less than discrete hints that he wants me to marry him!"

"And you started seeing him in a less-than-flattering light, his true colors," Midnight had an idea of where this was going, “and naturally you were looking for a way out that didn't involve you losing your job.”

"I tried to let him down, but then..." Stencil stuttered, almost sobbing, "then he came into the office, looking livid! Then, he told me about the bet he'd made with Techorse, and... Oh Faust, I feel so bad! Mr. Redtape told me to spy on Techorse for him, to- to earn Techorse's trust, find out what he was planning to invent, report back to Mr. Redtape. I agreed because I wanted to avoid him as much as I could, but...

Seeing her lose vocal clarity from the phlegm clogging her head, Midnight conjured a humble paper tissue and let the mare blow her nose so she could keep talking with open sinuses.

"Then I got to know Techorse, and I saw all too quickly that this wasn't some trouble-making, crazy-headed maverick, like Mr. Redtape said! This was a kind, creative, sweet and gentle pony, driven to make new things to help the ponies around him once he knew what they needed! And the more I got to know Tech, the more I wanted to help him. After his sprinkler system didn't work out the first time, seeing him so despondent, it-it just made me feel so bad for him, and...”

She paused, then concluded, "Anyway, I knew I had to step in and do what I could to help."

"And you did," Midnight nodded, "Thanks to the improvements you made to the blueprints, the sprinkler system's second test was a perfect success... Well, Stencil, while I still don't approve of how you approached Tech under false pretenses, I can see that you're not out to hurt him. But you need to explain to me what you and Redtape talked about in City Hall. That information could be useful in saving Techorse."

"Well... that's the thing, your..." Stencil stopped when Midnight raised his hoof.

"Just Midnight, please," he requested, "No more titles! I let it go the first few times because I wasn't certain about your motives. But since I can see your connection with Redtape is unwanted, we're still friends here."

"Fair enough. Anyway..." Stencil relayed to Midnight everything she'd talked to Redtape about, noting the brand new desk and furniture he'd given her as an apology gift and a promise not to pressure her into marriage anymore. But with every word, though Stencil honestly believed what she was saying, Midnight couldn't help but feel that something stunk about Redtape's apparent one-eighty.

"...and he told me to go out and have a good time."

"I see..." Midnight said, still doubtful.

“You know, I honestly thought after you yelled at me the first time... that this wasn't going to end with you politely talking me through my story,” Stencil admitted, looking away from him, “I really thought you were going to toss me in jail... or worse.”

“That would never happen,” assured the Prince, “besides, I'm just... worried about Tech. He's an interesting friend to have, but he doesn't really know me as personally as he should.”

“I don't understand what you mean....”

Realizing he'd said too much, the alicorn made the dirty tissue still on the table vanish in a puff of light, and then pushed himself out from the table quickly.

“Nothing, I'm just trying to digest what I've been told,” he said, acting tired, “plus, I won't be able to join you guys today. Royal duties.”

Stencil excused herself from the table as well, and tried to break away, but Midnight had to have one more word with her.

“Stencil.”

Wincing and stopping her trot, she looked back at him, finding his incognito form.

“You gotta tell Techorse the truth. Please. Not just for me, but for you as well. Nopony who's put up with your situation ought to have a guilty conscious to deal with in addition to a creep.”

Agreeing silently with a nod of her head, Stencil departed to go change into something more 'friendly' for her day off with Techorse. Likewise, Midnight vanished quickly into the shadows to continue his investigation.

There's way more to this than what Stencil knows, he pondered, I just hope I can uncover the truth in time.

“Is she even coming?” wondered Techorse aloud, worried he may have gotten ready for nothing.

He was standing around outside of his home, showered and groomed to the best of his abilities. Sure, his mane hair was still its usual mess, but his goggles and saddle had been removed in favor of a nice button-up shirt with short sleeves and a pleasing red that complimented his holly light-green coat. He'd have gone with something even more complex, if the hot weather wouldn't have punished him for it.

“Well, I'll give it five more minutes, and then...”

His impatience was answered by Stencil approaching him with a side of her that Techorse had never seen before. Instead of the lab coat and glasses he had gotten used to seeing over the week, she wore a summer jacket made from light blue material over a white T-Shirt. Additional effort had been put into her makeup, just enough to enhance her happy expression. Her hair was the least changed, the bun on her head keeping her mane from tripping her up, but a brand new purple ribbon tied it in place, an amethyst topping a pin through the place where the well-kept mass of hair met her head.

“Hey Tech!” she said, “Ready to go?”

“Sure am! Are you sure you can't see without your glasses though?” he asked, curious about the lack of eyewear.

“I've got contacts,” answered Stencil, giggling, “I just rarely use them.”

“Either way's fine as long as you can throw straight,” joked the stallion, “we're bowling, remember?”

She could dish out the teasing just as much, “That's right! Prepare to lose!”

While talking to him on the way to the alley, Stencil remembered her promise to Midnight. But since Techorse was having so much fun just hanging out with her, she figured it would have to wait until later.

I hope you won't be too sad, Tech...

Meanwhile, Midnight, garbed in his shadowy cloak, watched Jester from a dark alley, his predatory pupils narrowed at the dragon with shrewd intrigue.
And just what is your scumbag boss up to, or you for that matter...?

After his talk with Stencil, Midnight had gone back to City Hall and almost missed Jester slipping away from the building in a shifty-eyed manner. Though Midnight had intended to search Redtape's office, he couldn't help but get a vibe from Jester that tugged at his mental awareness to the point of having to find out where this dragon was going and what sort of trouble he was looking to perpetrate.

He followed Jester to one of the ritzier sides of Fillydelphia, where he saw the dragon go into a place of class called Shaken Not Stirred. A simple bewitchment on the bouncer allowed Midnight to get in easily, along with his aversion ward keeping everyone in the tavern from noticing him. Stepping in, Midnight noted how the clientele comprised of some of the most wealthy and privileged amongst Fillydelphia, the types of which didn't do anything for anyone unless they got something in return. Finally, he saw Jester who had just seated himself at a table where he was apparently meeting an earth pony wearing an expensive suit and shades. The earth pony was a stallion, big and muscular that his suit seemed just a tad too small for him, which only accentuated his bulging muscles, and his coat was stony gray with a buzzcut mane the color of rust.

Sitting himself at a table, his back to Jester's, Midnight willed for two holes to appear in his hood for his ears to slip through and then began to focus. Recalling the lessons in controlling his enhanced hearing from his old lunobi master, Midnight filtered out the racket of a crowded restaurant, the chatty patrons, the drunken slurs, and focused on the conversation between Jester and this earth pony.

"...tell ya, I can't wait until I can kick Redtape to the curb," Jester grumbled, "I'm sick of kowtowing to that bureaucratic fool. He has absolutely no idea what he's doing."

"So tell me about this wager he's got with that inventor pony," the earth pony said in a rumbly voice, "the Duke mentioned it, and I just wanna cover my bases."

The Duke?! Now who could that be, I wonder... Midnight thought, already having a very good idea.

"Redtape was about to kick that strong-headed buffoon Techorse out of town until that meddling prince interfered," Jester started before he explained the whole thing, "...but now that gadget maker has this water... pump... thingamabob working and it's gonna ruin the water crisis Redtape's been setting up!"

Ah-ha! Midnight had been certain something stunk about the water problem plaguing Fillydelphia as of late, and now he had confirmation that Redtape was responsible.

"Hmm, the Lord of Lords ain't gonna be happy to hear that," the earth pony said in casual disapproval, "he might even reconsider setting up that big operation here in Fillydelphia."

"Well trust me, Redtape is gonna do whatever the heck he has to to be named the new kingpin of crime here in Fillydelphia," Jester said in a blasé manner. "That is, assuming he makes sure Techorse loses the wager, which would have been a shoe-in if that bleeding heart Stencil Guide hadn't taken pity on him!"

"Didn't you mention Redtape's assistant was supposed to be spying on this guy?"

"She was supposed to! But Redtape, the hot blooded stallion he is chose to try and court her... forcefully. So she helped Techorse instead, and now he is prepared to end the water problem, win the wager, and ruin the plan!" Jester hissed angrily, "And I tell you this, no nerdy little mare or loser tinkerer, or even that snooping alicorn is gonna get in my way of becoming the arms trade Kingpin of Fillydelphia! Redtape may think he's got me on his payroll... but after this wager is won and the Duke's plans for Fillydelphia are a go, he'll be the one 'jestering' for my amusement."

"And... what about this Stencil mare?"

"Oh don't worry about her," Jester waved off the concern, "Redtape's already seen to it; poor little Stencil is gonna find herself in hot water if she doesn't marry that guy. Frankly, I'm honestly not sure which is worse for her, but either way, it makes me laugh! Perhaps I'll go easy on Redtape... he is good entertainment!"

Having heard enough and finding Jester's laughter sickening, Midnight slipped away, thinking, I gotta warn Stencil and Tech!

With his plans set in his mind, Redtape had enlisted the assistance of a professional unicorn who specialized in voice spoofing magic to submit an “anonymous” tip to the local bureau of investigation that there was substantial evidence Stencil Guide was behind the missing money intended for the drought relief fund. His office would be raided and turned upside down by the forceful entry of the authorities, sure, but the documents stuffed in her new expensive desk would be found for certain. This was of course, only a victory if he could also manage to cheat his way to victory against Techorse.

Once the raid on the mayoral office had been set up, the devious stallion entered a private changing room normally reserved for the mayor, and forwent his usual dapper look of suit and tie in exchange for business casual clothes and a balaclava. Looking at his new intimidating appearance, he gave himself a haughty bat of the eyebrows from within the holes of the ski mask, and then went outside to meet his two 'hired professionals'. The spoofer was not the only crime goon Redtape was permitted by Buck Cheap to call on of course, so the bureaucrat turned robber had also enlisted the help of two more ponies garbed in their gear, a cat burglar mare who had stolen blue diamonds from underneath the muzzles of the Canterlot elites before, and a professional lockpick and break-in artist who had learned his trade by pretending to be a legitimate locksmith by day.

The three of them boarded Redtape's private carriage, and traveled to Techorse's house near the edge of town, making sure the neighbors weren't paying attention. Once the coast was clear, the three slipped behind the house and encountered the back door to Tech's home, no more than a few semi-enchanted dead bolts on the other side keeping the white painted entryway in place so long as the counter-spell wasn't known or the bolts weren't moved, which could usually only be done from the other side.

“All right, it's a very simple job,” whispered Redtape to his team, “we break in quietly, we find this invention of the little maverick, and then we disable it carefully. Don't touch anything else!”

“Relaaaaax,” said the pegasus mare in a teasing manner, “this place doesn't even have any real security. Watch this.”

Slipping the feathers of her teal wings up the side of the door, she successfully pushed the bolts out of the way, allowing silent entry. Anti-telekinesis infused metal was still useless against a variant of the almighty feather sweep trick the diamond thief had mastered over her career.

Redtape pushed into the doorway first, nearly laughing at how much of a dump Techorse's back room was, or at least in his opinion. It was still rather dusty from the engineering sessions necessary to build the pump, and spare parts were still scattered around, along with an open pizza box from when Midnight scarfed the rest of his leftovers.

“Of course Techorse lives like the little piggy he is,” snickered the earth pony as he pulled his ski mask off, growing tired of the heat, “hopefully we can still find his safe in the midst of all this filth.”

“It's over here,” said the mare, ushering over with her agile wings, “he's keeping it under this tarp.”

By moving the big sheet of tan fabric, a tall and formidable safe was revealed, the metal box likely intended to be used for weapons storage when originally manufactured. It showed no signs of age, being a fresh silver color and featuring a massive, complex code dial with three concentric wheels that were covered in numbers.

“Phew,” whistled the lockpick, “that's one heck of a safe, boss. But don't worry, every safe has a combination.”

Stepping up, the unicorn stuck out one of his tall ears and placed it against the safe, his horn glowing as he fiddled with the dials. Normally safes were made of materials to prevent the average pony from just listening to the tumblers moving around as the numbers were entered correctly, but this stallion had developed a spell that could let him hear the mechanics perfectly fine. After a few moments of his magic twisting the dials to the right numbers, a loud click came from the wheels, and the door to the safe swung open, revealing the pumping system within along with its blueprints!

“Great work! Now put it on the table!” Redtape ordered, pointing to the old workbench.

Once the surprisingly light machine was on the table for analysis, Redtape spread the blueprints and scanned over them, fishing out his glasses from within his shirt pocket. It was mostly nonsense to him, but then he happened to notice the fix Stencil performed earlier, which had been circled in white.

“Make sure the safety catch is in place,” he read out loud to his team.

They worked together to unbolt and open up the machine, after which Redtape pointed out the safety catch, “Here it is!”

“Well, if that's what destroyed this the first time... we should just take it out again,” said the pegasus, “easy peasy.”

“I'm afraid I must disagree,” grumbled Redtape with a snarl, “You see, Techorse may be a social idiot and a total menace to my town, but he did manage to scrape together the brainpower to build this thing. He's not stupid enough to not notice a removal of that component.”

“So what do we do?” asked the other stallion present.

“Simple. If the machine failed because of this part being absent, we'll leave it in place... but in the opposite position,” he declared, removing the safety catch with his hoof.

The simple catch only consisted of a small brass cylinder with a hook facing upward that latched onto the intake pipe. If the flow of water into the main processing tank was too much, the hook would be pushed by the expanding pipe into a position that triggered a circuit, reducing the speed of the pump until the flexible pipe shrank. But the hook only moved in one direction, towards the inside of the machine, so flipping it around prevented it from moving while still appearing to be attached to the hose. It would cause a repeat of the initial disaster if used on thick, muddy water again.

“Now this mechanism won't work,” he hummed, “Techorse is ruined by one simple design change! Now let's reseal this contraption and go.”

After the sprayer was bolted back up again, the burglar used her feathers to dust off all the hoofprints from the machine and its paperwork. Then the unicorn in the room returned it to its safe using his magic to avoid further evidence of tampering, and resealed the safe, locking the door again by twisting the dials back into the proper positions. After the tarp was back on the safe, the trio of thieves left the building and locked the bolts, confident in their sabotage. Just as quietly as they had come, they left in the carriage again, the neighbors none the wiser.

Chapter 5. Conflict of Interests

“Pizza's here guys!”

Midnight's pick of restaurant surprised Tech at first, who was expecting his new friends' tastes to be a bit fancier given his lineage. It was kind of humorous to see an alicorn really enjoy the idea of sitting down to a hot deep dish pie and a couple bottles of the criminally over-sweetened Colt Cola. Even funnier was the ridiculous portion sizes that the restaurant had to offer. The poor waitress in charge of serving her three guests was forced to carry a pizza two feet in diameter weighed down with mounds of shredded hoofmade mozzarella cheese and the usual vegetables everypony at the table liked. Techorse could clearly see Midnight's, or more accurately his disguises' eyes light up at the sight of this ridiculous meal that probably could serve no fewer than 12 ponies looking for a decent supper.

Stencil Guide attempted to serve herself a slice of the titanic brick oven masterpiece with her magic, only to find it way too heavy from the melted contents contained within the buttery crust.

“Oof, that's heavy!” she grumbled, starting to feel a bit uneasy about trying to eat it.

“Luckily we have a couple knives,” Techorse joked, “of course I left my saddle at home so I'm in the same boat you are!”

The prince rolled his eyes, “I can take a hint you know. I'll dish one up for you.”

Unsurprisingly, he was able to multitask with multiple aura fields, grabbing the edge of the big tin plate the pizza was served on and working quickly with one of the big knives left for them. Soon he was able to get the equally big triangular pie server tool under the cut pieces, and floated a good fourth of the pizza onto Stencil Guide's plate. When he dropped it in front of her, the long-maned unicorn swore she could feel the table shake.

“I'll be lucky if I don't blow up, this slice of pizza is larger than my head,” she said with wide eyes, pondering how her share of the food was supposed to fit in her stomach.

“Trust me, you're going to love it,” Midnight winked before returning to cutting the pie, “all right, yours is coming up, Tech.”

“You know, you don't have to give me a huge piece to start with,” he answered shyly, learning from Stencil Guide's misfortune, “I appreciate it, but...”

Midnight quickly smiled at him and suggested, “Well if it's too much, why don't you split the piece I cut with Stencil?”

“You know, that might honestly work out better,” Stencil blurted, hating to waste food and insult Midnight, “I'll just cut this in half for us, Techorse.”

Her horn glowed when she grabbed the other knife left on the table, and stared at the pizza in front of her for a few seconds before skillfully making a perfect cut straight down the middle. Techorse was impressed with the skill of her slash of the knife, he hadn't seen laser-accuracy like that outside of actual lasers! Stencil pushed the plate towards him with the equal halves cut without spilling a single drop of sauce, and noticed his look of being impressed.

“I don't think I've ever seen anypony cut something in half this well,” Techorse said, smiling at her, “so which half are you taking?”

“Oh um, well...” she said, stumbling nervously, “I cut, so you get to pick!”

“It's getting cold guys,” Midnight said with a mouth full of his own massive portion, strings of melted cheese running from his plate to his lips.

“I'll just take the one on the right,” the inventor agreed, pulling the slice onto his plate with his hoof, “where'd you learn to do things like that?”

She opened up about herself eagerly, “Oh! Well, I've always been a bit of a scrapbooker, so I've developed an eye for cutting paper perfectly. I guess it works pretty well for pizzas, too!”

Midnight ignored the nagging feeling from his windpipe that cheese was trying to glob it up, and took a long swig of icy cola while he kept listening in on the friendly banter between his two friends. There was being a third wheel, and then there was his current situation of being a fly on the wall, which was much more entertaining. Stencil and Techorse were locked firmly in each other's eyes, and would not stop talking about their hobbies. It was one of those moments that to Midnight Blaze was both cute and incredibly socially awkward, making it absolutely impossible to ignore.

“So you have a scrapbook?” continued Techorse.

Stencil Guide's face turned a gentle shade of pink, “Oh, I do... it's kind of stupid though. Your machines are a lot cooler.”

“I don't know, scrapbooking sounds like a good hobby,” he assured her with his friendly smile and a twinkle in his blue eyes, “and you're really good with keeping things in order and documented. That's also something to be proud of.”

“W... Would you like to see my scrapbook sometime?” she asked, losing herself for a minute.

“I would love that,” answered Techorse.

“You two are staring,” the prince snickered.

Sure enough, they were looking at each other awfully close, and jolted back to rest.

“Sorry Midnight,” Techorse said, clearing his throat while holding his hoof to his mouth.

The disguised alicorn tried to sweep away the awkwardness, “No problem, if one of my other friends was here and we were talking about one of my hobbies, it'd be the same way! You probably hired the perfect lab assistant, Tech!”

Stencil looked down at her plate, cheeks still flushed, “Heh, yeah...”

“Don't put too much pressure on her, buddy,” Techorse said sweetly, “this is her first job after all.”

The kindness was a bit too much for Stencil, and she mindlessly turned her head back to Tech and said, “You're so sweet, Techorse. I can't see why Redtape rants about you everyday.”

Techorse went blank, “Wait, what?”

Midnight's suspicion peaked immediately, and he dropped his half-eaten slice of pizza unceremoniously on his plate. He had suspected the secretary from the start despite her skills, and had ignored it for Techorse's sake. But now there was definitely something off about Stencil's behavior, he could sense it.

“How do you know about Redtape ranting about Techorse every day?” he said, anger in his eyes, “you haven't even met him before! Aren't you from out of town, Stencil?”

She felt the impact of her mistake and nervously darted her eyes to the side, “Uhmmm, I... well...”

“You'd better have a good answer, Stencil!”

“Midnight, that's enough!” Techorse admonished with a raise of his voice, gaining the attention of some of the other patrons trying to eat their food in peace, “Why are you still interrogating my new apprentice?”

A couple of the patrons now seemed to be whispering to each other about hearing the name “Midnight”, and were thinking about Techorse's sanity if they weren't already since the unicorn sitting across from the inventor was clearly not the Prince. Still, the threat of having his cover blown was starting to test his patience, and Stencil Guide was clearly up to something. Midnight felt like taking his friend aside and telling him what was likely going on, but then he remembered something crucial and changed his mind on the matter.

Of course... it's Techorse, for goddess’ sake, thought the alicorn, relaxing in his chair, “He's a great guy, and he has a ton of potential, but he's oblivious. I wish I could afford to be that trusting.”

“Look, I'm sorry Stencil,” he said, “I'm just angry because... Redtape's been a problem let's say.”

The patrons in the restaurant lost interest in the conversation and turned their eyes away from the pony labeled “Midnight” by Techorse.

That was close...

“Oh well, yeah, I can see that,” she said slowly, having been granted time to collect her thoughts, “I was going to say that he keeps showing up at my new apartment I'm renting. Think my new landlord gets a lot from him too. He seems like a jerk, I can understand why you're angry.”

Techorse still couldn't believe that Midnight had snapped like that all of a sudden, not understanding his friend's ability to see through schemes. He trusted that the prince had somehow met him before, but was beginning to wonder under what circumstances, and why he seemed to be so eager to “protect him”. It was as if he wasn't trusted to handle his own affairs.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Stencil stood up from the table, “Well, I'm going to go home to my apartment. Thank you very much for the dinner.”

“You didn't eat anything,” Techorse said, holding out a hoof, “look, I know my acquaintance snapped at you, but it's okay, you can stay!”

Midnight didn't want to feel like he had earned the emphasis on “acquaintance”, but it wouldn't have been the first time he'd deserved a kick in the withers.

“I know I can stay,” she said softly, “but thank you.”

Stencil ignored the subtle jostling between the stallion's minds and sat back down at her place at the table. The princes' eyes pierced her and ramped up her anxiety even further, but she still needed to keep spying on Techorse in order to avoid Redtape, and managed to consume the slice she had been served before it got too cold.

Midnight's right about me, she thought, heart rate rising, I am a dirty little spy, and Techorse is a really good stallion who doesn't deserve to have his work sabotaged... but Midnight wouldn't understand if I told him that Redtape wanted... my body. He's probably used to the idea of a mare needing to be... chosen by a stallion, him being a prince and all. Nevermind... gotta stuff this pizza down and go home to think about this...

“So when do I need to be back in the lab tomorrow?” she asked casually, swallowing a bite of pizza.

“We'll probably start back up at nine,” answered Techorse, sighing, “got to get through the first prototype if we want to stay on schedule.”

“I can be there on time,” answered the mare with her mouth full, “looking forward to starting.”

Having blown through her food quickly, Stencil stood up again, “I really have to go for the night though, honestly. It's been fun.”

Techorse hadn't even gotten through half of his piece and faked a smile for her, “All right, have a good night, Stencil! I'll see you tomorrow morning.”

She left the table in a hurry, Midnight staring at the back of her head as he stuffed the last bit of deep dish crust in his mouth. When she was out of the building, he looked down to find two blue eyes giving him a rather filthy look.

“Mwhat?” he said through the crust.

“It would be great if you could be a little more trusting,” Techorse said bluntly, “I get that some serious things happen with your job and that makes you careful, but we need to focus on getting this invention working. Not everypony around here hates me... just half.”

He swallowed his food and cleared his lips of crumbs, “So you're admitting you have a fifty-fifty chance that Stencil Guide is hiding something from you.”

“I think she's a fun, but weird pony... like me!” answered the other stallion, chuckling to himself.

“Tech, I see your point,” Midnight answered, giving him a look of concern, “but you have to understand my point of view here. When I showed up at your house, you were perfectly fine with me saying we've met before and wanted to be my friend almost immediately. What if I had been one of Redtape's goons sent to deal with you?”

“Well, that could have happened,” he admitted, frowning, “but I'm fine taking the risk to try and find a new friend. If I had thought your way, we wouldn't be friends now.”

It was a great answer, but he decided to fire back anyways, “Friends? You called me your acquaintance just now.”

Techorse shrugged and put a partial smirk on his face, “It was the only way you were going to shut up.”

“If only some of the guys in Canterlot could be as blunt as you,” Midnight said, smirking back, “of course, you're only defending Stencil because...”

“Excuse me, here's your bill for this evening,” interrupted the waitress for their table, placing a folded leather check presenter in front of the two stallions, “will you need a box for the rest of the pizza?”

The two stallions sort of grunted at the interruption, but manners and such came before their friendly debate when possible.

“Sure!” answered Midnight Blaze, looking her in the eyes, “And thank you!”

Techorse immediately placed his hoof over the check holder and pushed down before Midnight could get to it.

“I'll get this,” he said graciously, “you recommended this place and I'll treat you.”

“Oh no, you invited me in and are giving me a place to stay, so I'll pay for tonight,” answered the unicorn, attempting to peel the check away from him using the underside of his own hoof, “let go, Techorse.”

“Never.”

If persuasion wasn't going to be enough to convince the green inventor to relinquish the honor of paying for the meal, then his friend was just going to have to test his theory about his gullibility based on the evidence presented during the meal.

Shifting his head to the side and looking past Techorse, he put a happy expression on his face and said, “Oh! Stencil, ya came back!”

Techorse immediately spun around to greet the mare, only to find nothing in front of him and a feeling of annoyance in his heart. He slowly turned back to rest in his seat, defeated, and looking at a smug disguised prince with a guest check hovering near him in his aura.

“Gotcha!”

He rolled his eyes, “At least let me pay the tip.”

Stencil felt bad about having eaten and ran off without much of a proper goodbye, but the discomfort of Midnight's interrogation had kind of forced her hoof. Now she was trotting along the way back home, trying to stay well within where the street lamps illuminated her path. She honestly believed that she was going to make it all the way back to her apartment for a nice, hot bath without any troubles, and the cozy complex had left the front lights on for her like it did for all their tenants. The mare entered the complex out of the safety of the lit street, and immediately Redtape stepped out of the shadows to block her way.

“AHHH!” she yelped, jumping back a foot.

“Shhh,” her boss teased, putting a hoof over his lips, “you might wake your neighbors, sugar.”

“D-don't call me that!” she whimpered, trying to calm down her poor heart racing in her chest, “Why are you following me?”

“I'm here to ask about what Techorse is up to,” he answered, raising an eyebrow, “you know... your new assignment?”

“He really hasn't done much yet,” Stencil answered, “this is going to take a little bit of time! The only thing I know for sure is that they intend to invent something to help others save water. Techorse believes that since the water shortage is the biggest problem our city is facing right now, inventing a machine to help with it will win the contest.”

Knowing that any sort of help with saving water would result in his office collecting fewer taxes per gallon consumed, Redtape muttered something rather offensive about the stallion he was up against. This information alone had made sending out Stencil worthwhile, all he needed now was a good way to keep Techorse from interfering with his water bracket. Of course, there was time to think about that later, when he wasn't hitting on Stencil Guide again.

Smiling, he pulled out a large sketchpad from his business suit, a beautiful set of fresh manilla sheets spiral bound together with a blue cover and backing made from painted cardboard, “Anyways, you did a good job today. I thought I'd give you this, if you'd have it. You know how much you mean to me, Stencil.”

Stencil Guide's jaw dropped as she recognized the brand of sketchpad as one of the most expensive ones in Equestria. Sure, organization and documentation were what she did as a job, but her real talent was sketching and design. She had thought of a million ways to improve Techorse's blueprints that morning, and had bitten her tongue with every mistake like a good spy would. That being said, there was no way she was taking such a present from a stallion that wanted her to accept his advances.

“That's a really pricey gift,” she answered slowly, “I can't...”

“Oh, but you can,” he answered happily, pleased with his new approach, “and there will be so many more of these for you to fill with your drawings and concepts if you choose to share a home with me! It is your special talent after all... or is your lovely cutie mark just for show?”

“Since when do you care about my talent?” she huffed, having just received confirmation he had been staring at her flanks, “didn't you say you wanted a housewife cooking and cleaning for you?”

“I've changed my mind somewhat. Yes, I very much want you as my sweet wife, but... you do need to pursue your passions,” Redtape continued to explain with a cheerful tone of voice and a whimsical wave of his right hoof, “I've got the means to hire staff to do all the boring chores while you do what you want at home. So what do you say Stencil... the door to my heart's still wide open!”

“I... I'm really glad you're thinking about mares in a better way,” she said nervously, “but I'm still not interested. I really want to have a career too.”

“Really?” Redtape growled, instantly losing his facade of being nice, “I'm compromising. I never compromise, Stencil.”

“And compromising is going to make your marriage to your future wife a lot nicer, Redtape,” she carefully answered, “and there's a big list of mares who want you and don't care about having a career. They're really nice, too!“

“I see,” he said flatly, “I suppose you're right, there is no shortage of mares after my heart. I wonder what it's going to take...”

“To stop Techorse?!” Stencil shouted, stopping him right there, “more spying, of course!”

Desperate to get back to her house, she walked around her boss, “I really need to sleep, sir. I'll let you know what Techorse is up to tomorrow night. I... I'll contact you!”

Redtape turned around and watched his love interest trot up to the door of her apartment, fumbling with her keys when her aura flickered, and slamming the door shut. Breathing a sigh of frustration, the stallion kicked away the sketchpad sitting on the ground, sliding into the darkness.

“Hey now, this is no way to treat belongings,” snickered a familiar voice.

“Jester,” Redtape answered as his dragon buddy emerged from the shadows with the kicked pad in claw, “you were watching me, weren't you?”

“Like a hawk,” he giggled, the bells on his head scales jingling, “that fine piece of plot you're after still shooting you down, I see. What an idiot that mare is.”

“She's smart, and that's the problem... she thinks she can do better,” the wealthy bureaucrat muttered while shoving his hoof into the dragon's chest, “brains and wisdom are not the same thing.”

Of which you have neither, thought the dragon to keep himself amused.

Aloud, the reptile said while placing a hand on his friend's back, “We can talk about your next step to win the hot lady's heart in a bit, Red. For the moment, your 'sponsor' wants to talk.”

He grumbled, “Oh no... what does he want? He... he's not here is he?”

“Oh, he's here in Fillydelphia tonight,” Jester answered, “but calm down, Redtape. He's told me it's very good news.“

Uncertain as to what his boss was going to say, Redtape reluctantly shadowed Jester to the designated meeting place. It was a small building at the edge of town, with two burly Diamond Dogs armed with crossbows watching over the entrance. Despite their fearsome appearance, whoever owned the building wanted to look professional, as both of them were dressed up in proper night guard attire and their fangs were well-brushed. They slung their weapons over their shoulders when they saw Jester approach with Redtape, and pulled open the two glass doors to the entrance of the nondescript building. Inside, the two found nothing more than a set of storage crates stacked up against the concrete walls, and a large metal hatch on the floor that had been left open to reveal a staircase. During the day, the guards shut the hatch and concealed it well underneath the floor of the building which was left ignored by the public.

“I wish we could have met at the club instead,” Redtape complained to Jester as he put his hoof on the first step down, “this place is filthy.”

He gave him the common sense answer, “And risk us all getting caught?”

When they reached the bottom of the dark staircase which led well underground, there was in front of them a green door with a welcoming light shining underneath. Redtape gave the secret knock on the wood, and the door was opened by another guard inside, who ushered the two into the room. It was rather nice, despite Redtape's complaining, a fluffy white rug on marble tile floor gave it the appearance of a lounge, and the room was well lit and ventilated with enough seating at a large black wooden table for about twelve ponies.

Redtape and Jester sat at their usual seats at this table, on the right side towards the front, where a big brown leather chair was facing away from them, cigar smoke wafting from the top.

“Ah, Redtape, I'm glad you're here. We have a lot to discuss.”

The chair swiveled around to face the stallion and his dragon confidant. Sitting at the head of the table, with a cigar in hoof and a crooked smile on his face, was the Head of House Avarice and Duke of Business and Commerce, Buck Cheap! He was a tall and well-fit pegasus stallion with a glass-bottle green coat, wine red mane, eyes like molten liquid gold, and his cutie-mark was an envelop with gold bits spilling out. He wore a dress collar with his initials embroidered onto them and a designer tie, cuffs above his forehooves with diamond cufflinks, not a hair on his expertly combed mane was out of place, and even his feathers glistened with a healthy sheen. However, he gave off an unsettling presence by his smile as welcoming as that of a crocodile’s.

“What's this about, sir?” demanded his underling loudly.

“Relax. I only want to make sure our little drought is going as planned,” answered the duke from Celestia’s Aristocratic Council, extinguishing his cigar in a convenient ashtray balanced on the left arm of his seat, “you and I both know too well that the mayor of this city is too concerned with fairness to help us make a profit. That's why I put you in charge of the water incident.”

“I'd say this scam is working wonderfully,” Jester interrupted, “every gallon of water over the ration cap costs several bits in tax stamps. Since most of the residents of the city are earth ponies that live in the suburban areas, they pride themselves on keeping their lawns green. They're spending that money, and then some!”

Buck Cheap let the dragon finished, and then cleared his throat, “Well, Jester, while I appreciate you rehashing what I've already known for quite some time, I would like a status report beyond it... if you don't mind.”

“There's nothing new to report,” Jester answered, chuckling, “besides Redtape enforcing the water rationing, me and the other dragons have been keeping ponies out of the water treatment facility so that the pegasi don't catch on that there's plenty of water to make rainclouds with.”

Buck reclined back in his chair, thinking aloud, “As I figured. I can't trust either of you to analyze the important details of business. It's a good thing I really like you boys... I could cancel this deal at any moment you know.”

Redtape heard the guard in the room play with the taught string of his crossbow, but he refused to show fear in front of his boss.

“Jester said you had good news. Or is that not the case?“

“Of course I have good news,” he answered, nodding, “this water racket has made Fillydelphia a more profitable outfit than almost any other city my guys control. Normally things have to get a little messy between the dogs like this fella here and the residents, if you catch my drift.”

The diamond dog chuckled softly and played with the weapon in paw again.

“We came up with a way to keep cash coming in without goons, and in exchange you've kept violence off of Fillydelphia's streets,” Redtape answered, “again, more restating of what we know. What's the new information you dragged me all the way out here for!?”

His boss smiled, “Well, in short... you're about to get control of the operation entirely.”

Retape couldn't believe his ears, “What do you mean, sir?”

“Simple. I've got a bit of a um... delivery service I want to put in Fillydelphia to help supply my customers better. I leave you in charge here instead of these visits to take care of business, and the whole operation becomes disguised as a freight company out of the city. No more risk getting caught. All you've got to do is make sure this little hydration issue keeps going for another month so we have the funds to put together the place.”

Redtape nudged his head in the direction of his friend, “What about Jester?”

He shrugged, “I still need spies and security as always. Heck, I'll give them a pay raise. Gotta keep the family happy after all.”

“The new operation is a weapons factory, isn't it?” teased the dragon.

“I'm impressed you figured it out that quickly,” Buck Cheap nodded, “but yeah, we need to start putting together some firepower for... what's up ahead. Might be some magical components too, but the ponies and dragons around here will never find out.”

“I love the idea,” Redtape said in agreement.

“Yup, and all you have to do is make sure there's no issue with the water crisis for another month,” continued his boss, “that won't be a problem... will it?”

This made Redtape a bit nervous, but he honestly answered, “Well... we do have one problem. It's that stallion named Techorse I told you about earlier.”

“What's one loon gonna do to this plan?” laughed Buck Cheap, “you already told me he's just a goofball. Ignore him for once, Redtape!”

“We can't afford to,” said his employee bluntly, “according to my secretary, he's inventing a device that can help fix the water problem. Granted, his inventions don't always work... but this time...“

Buck Cheap didn't like Redtape's pause at all, “What's happened this time, Redtape?”

“Prince Midnight Blaze is helping him complete the project,” he answered, so angry he could spit, “I made a bet with Techorse that if he couldn't finish it, he'd be kicked out of the city for good. But I got so caught up in how much he annoys me that I didn’t realize that Midnight is capable of working on machinery too. Together they might be able to do it!”

“What, by making water out of nothing?” Jester joked.

“Shut up, Jester,” Buck Cheap ordered calmly, “I msut admit, his royal pain in our plots could make things more complicated, but Techorse is the one creating the device... so he has to be our focus.”

Then, turning to Redtape, he gave an ominous suggestion, “Perhaps if he just happened to... get taken out of the picture?”

The bureaucrat didn’t bat an eye though he did raise an amused brow, “Sir... you'd kill Techorse?”

“With Midnight Blaze and him being friends?” Jester added, “Good way to become target practice for alicorn magic. He'll investigate our entire operation the second he suspects foul play.”

“I suppose you're right,” the duke answered, thinking carefully, “although if you ever want him gone once the weapons operation is going, Redtape...”

“I'd be more pleased knowing Techorse was alive, but whipped,” answered Redtape with a smirk, “which is why I promise you that he'll lose this bet and be driven out of the city. But since you're offering your stronger side, once he's left town... perhaps you could send some of your fine dogs to add a little suffering to it?”

“Redtape, if you stop Techorse, you can pick the number of teeth you want that stallion to have left in his mouth, and I'll have the dentist in the next town he stops in confirm it!” Buck Cheap responded firmly, “Just make sure he doesn't put so much as a dent in our operation... or this deal's over.”

You arrogant dumbasses, Midnight's the real threat here, thought Jester, but held his tongue as the two business ponies nodded in agreement of their plans.

Going back to light his cigar, Buck Cheap said, “But I believe you've gotten things taken care of, Redtape! I like ya for a reason. Now get out there and finish the job.”

“It'll be done. Techorse will be out, we'll have the money to start the factory, and Fillydelphia will be completely under our control!” Redtape said, pushing his glasses up.

“Now that's what I like to hear!”

Once outside the building again, Jester and Redtape got into a carriage that had been called for them, and it rolled away into the streets of Fillydelphia to take them back to Redtape's new mansion built well outside the city limits. Despite the fact that his salary obviously couldn't cover such a place, the residents didn't suspect his embezzlement for a moment. So long as he could keep Techorse and Midnight from winning, he'd be set for life financially and socially.

That still left one thing though. An empty bed without Stencil Guide in it!

“You seem down, Redtape,” Jester said, “Hey, I've got a great idea that'll make you happy.”

“I can't see how,” answered Redtape with a groan, “I won't be happy without... Stencil Guide. I don't get it. I was more compromising, I offered her a nice gift... nothing works. She thinks she's so much smarter than me, the stallion who truly has it all!”

“You'll never get her the normal way,” the dragon answered, bells on his scales jingling again as they usually did when he had a plan, “but I think I know what we can do to kill two birds with one stone, if you're interested.”

“What do you mean?” Redtape asked, tilting his head curiously.

“This goes back to that idea I mentioned,” continued his pal, “Let's say Techorse and Midnight Blaze discover you're behind the water crisis, or stop it somehow using their machine. All you have to do is frame Stencil Guide for the embezzlement of the tax money by depositing a lump sum in her account and forging some paperwork to back it up. Everypony... and dragon for that matter, loves and trusts you... but to them, she’s just a nopony! She'll be in horrible legal trouble...”

“...and then once the police come for her, I offer to bail her out in exchange for her commitment,” Redtape finished, “and she'll never be able to leave my home for fear of arrest! She'll be thrilled just to be out of jail and tending to our foals.”

“That's how you got to do it if you really want this mare,” the dragon winked.

“But what about Midnight?” asked the stallion, scratching his chin in thought, “he's a part of this equation too. How can we keep him from investigating into the water crisis or the shifting of blame?”

“Leave that part to me,” Jester answered, giggling, “soon you'll have your mare, and we'll have that factory and all that money!”

The two cheered for themselves as the carriage crossed over the city limits, heading to the massive home outside underneath the starry night. Fillydelphia was behind them, a beautiful town built by dragons and ponies working together, both completely unaware of the plots and puppet strings of those truly in charge.

Author's Note

Spirals95 and I discussed the storyline, worked it out, and then I did the editing. Due to a direction I’m taking my main story, I decided to include Duke Buck Cheap and we hashed out the idea that he’s responsible for the water problem in Fillydelphia but he has Redtape overseeing the operation