Piston

A knock could be heard on the door. Twilight quickly scanned the room to make sure nothing had been left behind from Piston's records. After she confirmed that everything had been sent back, she walked to the door and opened it. Outside was Piston, smoking as usual, and carrying a heavy clock. Before Twilight could say anything, he walked straight into the room.

"Okay, Twilight; where'd you want this thing?" Twilight quickly circled around to face Piston. "I thought you said you were going to bring it tomorrow," she said. Piston set down the clock and sighed as if the action of talking to another pony disgusted him. "Tomorrow, I’m taking a personal day for myself; which means you get your clock today. I tried to give it to the mail carriers, but all they wanted to do was say 'hi' to me, and offer me muffins." At the end of his statement, Piston began opening various compartments of the clock and removing packing material that had prevented the clock from being damaged. "Now; where was it you wanted this thing?" He asked.

"Right over there, please." Twilight replied. Piston quickly put the clock where Twilight asked him to and made his way to the door. "Wait right there!" Shouted Rainbow Dash from above. "Who do you think you are, doing something so awful to my friends, and then acting like it didn’t happen?" Piston snorted some smoke through his nose, and then replied, "Last time I checked, I was Piston. And as for your friends, maybe they'll get over it, or maybe they won’t. I really don’t care." He then continued to make his way to the door. However, he was soon stopped by Applejack.  "Hold up, now! Maybe you have a good reason for being so heartless, but I think now, you should apologize." She said sternly.

"Here’s an idea." Piston began. "How about you move your apple-picking flank out of my path, and I won’t put your name on the list of ponies I want to buck up today?" Now Applejack was mad; Piston had gone too far. "That’s it!" She said. "You get out of this library before I give you a mouthful of my hoof!" Rainbow Dash swooped down and pressed her face uncomfortably close to Piston's. "But first, you’re going to apologize to Pinkie Pie, Rarity, AND Twilight!" Piston was unmoved by the threat. "Get out my face, you rainbow-haired vulture," he said, pushing his nose against hers in defiance.

"Um, please stop." Fluttershy squeaked, unable to be heard by anypony. "How about this," Piston repeated. "You can have your apology when you suck my di-"

WHAM!

Before Piston could finish his sentence, Applejack turned around and kicked him right on the mouth; however, the attack was less effective than she'd hoped. Applejack's two front hooves were firmly placed on the ground, but her two back hooves were now smashed against Piston's head. Applejack quickly turned back around to see if it her attacks had injured Piston as much as she'd anticipated they would. They hadn't. "But... I just kicked you as hard as I could!"

Fluttershy squealed again, "Please, no fighting."

"Let me explain something to you," Piston said. "I live in Canterlot as a blacksmith, and it was my job to fix the broken armor of royal guards. If I can throw them out of my workshop and endure several severe burns, I guarantee you I can take on you." In defiance to Piston's warning, Rainbow Dash charged at him, only to be swiftly deflected by Piston's hoof.

"Hey!" Pinky Pie interjected.

"You simply cannot bully our friends like that!" Rarity glared at him. Each and every pony shoved their faces in Piston's. "And what exactly do you plan to do about it?" His sudden outburst sent the two ponies reeling backwards. Spike could feel the disturbance, and spoke up. "Don’t you dare harm Miss Rarity!" Piston, caught off guard by the sound, looked down to only see the empty floor and Rarity. "What? Oh, that must be Twilight’s pet dragon." Spike, offended by his phrase, corrected him. "I’m not a pet!" Piston's eyes widened with shock as the he realized where Spike's voice was coming from.

Disturbed, he faced her. "Did you...?" He trailed off for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, whatever floats your boat, I guess. Personally, I’m not a fan of the whole 'dominating-hooker' thing." This time, Rarity’s eyes shot wide open. "EXCUSE ME?! I refuse to be adressed to like some sort of common hussie!" Rarity said with quite a large amount of anger in her voice. When she attempted to lunge for him, only Pinkie Pie held her back. Piston only laughed at her anger.

"Um... Please, no more fighting." Fluttershy said. Hearing this, Piston finally turned his attention to the yellow mare sitting awkwardly next to the purple one. As Piston began thinking up an insult, Twilight stopped him. "That's enough, Piston. You can leave now." Before he opened the door, she spoke quietly to him. "What happened to you? The Piston I knew so long ago was never like this, and he wouldn’t want to be." Piston frowned. "That Piston never existed." Twilight was adamant. "But Piston," Twilight insisted, "You can't just live your whole life like this. Don’t you ever want friends?" Piston laughed as he stormed smoke through his nose. "I learned a long time ago there is no such thing as friendship."

"Um, please stop." Fluttershy squeaked again, but still was not heard by anypony. "You can take your books, and your friendship, and anything else you have, and you can shove." Fluttershy squeaked again. "Them." Piston continued. "Up. Your. ASS!"

As soon as Piston uttered the last word, Fluttershy eyes opened. "YOU BIG, DUMB, MEANIE!"

Piston's flailing body was then thrown out the front door, landing on top of a vegetable stand.  "Okay, I’m hurt now." He said, as he stood up and began walking away.

"Sorry about that, Twilight." Fluttershy said, closing the door. "It’s okay, Fluttershy; anypony would lose their temper with Piston."

Applejack snorted. "Why the heck does the princess even care about this pony? I mean, if he’s bitter, that’s on him, isn’t it?" Twilight put a hoof to her mouth.

"Hmmmmm… Actually, Applejack, I’ve been thinking the same thing. The princess usually does care about all ponies, but she seems to have taken a sudden interest in Piston. She’s a very busy mare, so why would she concern herself with a personal life of one pony?"

"I’m writing a letter to her right now," Twilight decided. "I need to tell her what just happened and what I think of Piston living in Ponyville. Maybe I should ask about what happened when she first met Piston..." Twilight grabbed a piece of paper and an ink well, then hastily began to scribble down all that she had wanted to tell Celestia.

"I could care less about what happened to Piston," Rainbow Dash said from above. "If he’s mean, he should live with the consequences. Isn’t that right, Rarity?" Rarity distracted by a conversation with Spike, looked up. "Oh, um, what? Sorry, Rainbow Dash; I was just talking to Spike. Oh, and Twilight, can you please ask the princess for a solution to this problem? I think he’s working his way further down, and we don’t exactly have a lot of time left." Spike shouted from Rarity stomach, "For the love of all things sacred, please ask the princess to fix this!"

"Okay, Spike; relax," Twilight said as calmly as she could. "I have the letter right here; send it to the princess, and maybe some answers will come out of it." Rarity braced herself for what she knew was about to happen. Once the plume of fire erupted, the letter was sent. The six ponies gathered around Rarity. "So, how long do you think will take for her to-"

Just then a letter burst forth from Rarity's mouth. "Well, that was fast." Rarity said as she wiped her mouth free of any residue. Twilight quickly grabbed the letter and prepared to read it…

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

Now that your character assessment of this new pony is complete, I can tell you exactly why I’ve been having you observe him. The pony's name in question is Piston Allen Shmooze. I’m afraid "Shmooze" is the important part in that sentence.

As you probably know from your history studies, the Shmooze is a horrible creature said to have been created by the first Shmooze, John Bakst Shmooze. After he died, control of the monster was handed down to his two sons. I thought I’d have to destroy the two in order to keep Equestria safe, a desperate and horrible measure I know but likely I found that the Shmooze would not rise unless both blood descendants agreed on the action the Shmooze would take.  The brothers could never decide on how to use the Shmooze and it was not a problem.  Time passed and the bloodline fanned out into so many Shmooze I thought it not a problem.

Now, I’m sorry to say that Piston is the last pure bloodied Shmooze capable of controlling the horrible monster. I’d like you to continue surveillance of piston. You all are the elements of harmony and friendship and hopefully you can make piston see the light. If you can’t I will have no choice but to take drastic measures to ensure he will never use his powers.

Included in the attachment below is a spell that will allow you to spy on piston please understand the spell is highly immoral and is only to be used with my permission.  The as for rarities little problem I’m afraid the safest course of action is to let nature take its course I’m sorry to both spike and rarity for their dilemma that the safest thing to do is nothing I’m afraid.

Your loving princess.

Rarity was now blushing a shade of red that was in fact so red it could only be described as purple.  After only a brief moment of this she fainted back on to a couch of which seem to appear from nowhere.

"So, let me get this straight," Rainbow Dash began. "This pony has control of one of the most horrible monsters in Equestrian history, and unless we make him a good guy, we're all done for?"

Twilight only lowered her head in response. "I can’t believe it. I’ve read all about the Shmooze; it’s the entire reason Canterlot is built on the side of a mountain."

Fluttershy quietly moved up to Twilight and asked, Twilight what is the Shmooze?"

Twilight grew even more depressed as she began to describe the horror that was the Shmooze. "The Shmooze is said to be an unstoppable, never-ending flood. It destroys everything within its path. No magic can shield you from it, no ditch is deep enough to stop it and no wall is high enough to keep it out."

Applejack stepped up. "You don’t think Piston would actually use the Shmooze against anypony, do you? I mean, he may be a bad pony, but he’s not that bad, right?

Twilight sighed again. "I honestly don’t know, Applejack. When I was with Piston a long time ago in school, he was always so nice to me. I wish I’d had the experience back then to understand how much was changing over the time we were together. Now he's so bitter and angry.  Maybe all of this is my fault if only I put down my books, stop studying so hard and paid attention to piston he would have friends now and maybe we wouldn’t even know about his powers.

Don’t beat yourself up apple jack insisted.  You were just a child besides usually when someone’s hurting on the inside even when their small child they hide it especially from the people they care most about that would be you if I heard the stories correctly.

Pinky Pie bounced up to no pony in particular; she was merely being Pinkie Pie. "Why is he so angry, anyway? I didn’t understand the song lyrics that came with him."

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash added, "there been plenty of ponies that have had bad childhoods, and still turn out okay. Why is he still in this funk now a days?"

Twilight put a hoof to her chairman and tried to think. "Well, it’s no secret that Piston has huge problems reading, and maybe that’s one of the reasons. I know!" Twilight declared with some excitement. "The princess is right! We are the Elements of Harmony; each one of us represents something from the elements of harmony basically friendship itself and with all the books I’ve read about therapy over the years we should be able to figure out exactly what’s wrong with Piston and help him through it."

"With this spell, and our knowledge of friendship, there’s nothing that can stop us from turning Piston into Ponyville best model citizen."

She gained even more enthusiasm as she jumped up onto a table and held up the spell included in the letter, which was written down on a small piece of paper.

Come on every pony twilight declared go home and get some shut eye for tomorrow we have an entire world to save she said triumphantly as she struck a heroic pose.