The next day Gerhardt went out to Ponyville to look for somewhere that sold furniture in order to buy a bed for Pixel considering the fact that she had the ability to sleep and would probably want to do so on occasion. The first furniture store he found only sold quills and sofas, so he and Pixel kept looking. After about half an hour they finally found a store that actually sold beds. Upon finding one that was big enough for Pixel, Gerhardt immediately purchased it and opened a portal to one of the empty rooms on the second floor of his house before grabbing the bed with telekinesis and moving it through the portal and into the middle of the room with the headboard up against one of the walls. Both he and Pixel then stepped through the portal themselves before Gerhardt closed it behind him.

“Well, dear, you have a bed. So I suppose that makes this room your private barracks now. Whenever I am not teaching you, you are not assisting me in my lab, and you have nothing else to do then you may come up here and sleep in your new bed.” Gerhardt stated.

“Yay! Thank you, Daddy!” Pixel exclaimed with a happy smile.

Gerhardt returned the smile and said, “Of course, dear. If there is ever anything else you want, merely tell me and I will see what I can do to procure it for you or to build something that is equivalent if not superior for you. Though, I may not always be able to afford it, in which case please understand that it will take some time before I can get it for you. Anyways, I have been considering something Princess Celestia suggested last night and I would like your opinion on the matter since it’s about you.”

Pixel tilted her head curiously and asked, “What is it?”

“Princess Celestia recommended that I get you enrolled in the local schoolhouse. While I am absolutely certain that I can give you a superior education, she suggested that it would help you make friends and I am inclined to agree with that assertion. So I leave the matter up to you. Would you like to attend a public school in order to make friends, or would you prefer for me to teach you everything myself? Keep in mind that I will be teaching you either way so going to a school will mainly be for you to make friends, though I would fully expect you to keep your grades up. I personally hold the belief that friendship is but a distraction from one’s work, however I will not attempt to force my opinions upon you. Especially since friendship is supposed to be a crucial part of your very being considering how and why I made you.” Gerhardt explained.

Pixel thought about it for a few moments, which meant she was thinking very hard about it indeed since her mind processed information even faster than Gerhardt’s did. Eventually she said, “I want to make new friends, Daddy!”

Gerhardt sighed and said, “As you wish, little one. I shall look into getting you enrolled into school as soon as possible. For now though I would like to teach you a bit more about technomancy, so come. This world’s medical technology is quite primitive, so I will be building a few small but quite advanced surgical tools from my world to sell to the hospitals of Equestria.”

They both went back down stairs and Pixel watched as Gerhardt built the surgical implements and listened as he explained the entire process to her. Since these were fairly simple devices after he finished making the first set of surgical tools he let Pixel try building the next set. As she worked Gerhardt tried his best to guide her, correct some of the larger mistakes she made — which were far and few between considering her memory was just as perfect as Gerhardt’s —, and answer any questions she had. When she was finished building her set of surgical tools, Gerhardt proceeded to examine them and activated them in order to test them to ensure they worked as they should.

They all functioned adequately. Were she a recruit back in the human kingdom and this was a graded assignment then almost any other Technomancer probably would have given her an A. Gerhardt, on the other hand, would have given her a solid B. They worked but they were nothing truly special nor were they even particularly well made, at least not by his standards, meaning there was plenty of room for improvement. Regardless, considering this was her first time building anything on her own and she had only just learned how these particular tools were made she had done some very impressive work. As such, Gerhardt patted her on the head and praised her for her work, much to her delight.

That was when both of their sensors detected a giant wave of magic. Frowning Gerhardt said, “Pixel, wait here. I’ll be back in a moment.”

“Yes, Daddy.” Pixel responded obediently, a bit of confusion and worry in her voice.

Gerhardt then walked over to the front door of the lab, opened it, and began looking around. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Not at first anyways. After a couple seconds he looked up towards the sky and finally noticed what looked like a giant force field covering the entirety of Ponyville. Then he closed his door and walked back to the work area of his lab where Pixel was still waiting for him. He had no idea what was going on but he assumed the ponies would sort things out eventually so he wanted no part in whatever this was.

He and Pixel continued to work for about an hour before there was a knock on his door. His sensors informed him that there were multiple ponies outside and one dragon, who he assumed was Spike. With a frustrated sigh he set down what he was doing and walked over to the door. This time Pixel followed along behind him, eager to talk to everyone. Opening the door he saw all of Twilight’s friends minus Twilight herself. “Yes? How can I help you all today?” Gerhardt inquired.

Applejack stepped forward and said, “We hate to come bother ya like this, Mr. Mechanica, but we sorta need yer help. See, there’s this unicorn named Trixie who’s causin’ all sorts of trouble in Ponyville. She’s got a hold of somethin’ called the “Alicorn Amulet”. Apparently it’s supposed to grant whoever wears it “untold power” but it also corrupts whoever uses it. We would just try to take it from her ourselves, but it's got some magical lock so Trixie’s the only pony who can take it off. So uh… You got any suggestions as to how we can get it away from her?”

Gerhardt was silent for a moment as he processed all of this and thought of possible solutions. Eventually he said, “I suppose I can think of a few things but first I would like to ask, why come to me of all people? Why not ask Miss Sparkle? She seems quite clever and very competent in magic, at least by this world’s standards. Plus you all know her and like her far better than you know or like me. Also, on an unrelated note, why is Miss Pie’s muzzle missing and how can she possibly breath without a nose or a mouth? By all accounts she should be suffocating at the moment.”

“Ugh… We would do that but Trixie banished Twilight from Ponyville and put this stupid giant force field around the town. So we decided that it would probably be easiest to just come to you and see if you could help. Sending Fluttershy to sneak past the barrier and go tell Twilight what we learned is plan B.” Rainbow Dash explained.

“As for Pinkie Pie, Trixie cast some sort of absolutely dreadful spell on her that removed her muzzle so she can’t speak anymore. Though I am unsure as to how she is able to continue breathing like this. I can only assume her muzzle still exists somewhere and is still attached to her somehow.” Rarity added.

“I see. Well, feel free to come inside. I don’t think the bench I built is large enough to accommodate all of you but try to make yourselves comfortable while we discuss our options.” Gerhardt stated before turning and walking back inside.

“Hello everyone! I’m so sorry someone’s being mean to you. Don’t worry, I’m sure Daddy will be able to fix this in no time!” Pixel said in a cheerful tone before turning and following Gerhardt.

Once all of the ponies and Spike were inside and were sitting down either on the bench or on the floor Gerhardt said, “Alright, so based on what you’ve told me there are several possible solutions to this matter.” Quickly casting a noise dampening spell on Pixel so she couldn’t hear what he was about to say he continued, “The first option is the most obvious, the quickest, and the easiest though admittedly I do not expect you to agree to this and I would rather avoid it if at all possible. I could simply kill her and take this amulet off her corpse.”

“No.” Applejack said in an unamused tone.

“I expected no less. The second option is that I could use a portal to sneak up on her, grab her by the horn, threaten to break it if she tries to cast any spells, and use curses to inflict pain on her until she agrees to relinquish the amulet. I would also like to avoid doing this if at all possible as torture is never one of my prefered methods of doing things unless I have absolutely no other choice. It is quite barbaric.”

All of the ponies just stared at him silently for a few moments. “Is that a yes or a no?” Gerhardt inquired, not understanding why they were all being so silent.

“I believe that is a no, Mr. Mechanica. Might you have any suggestions that do not involve the use of excessive violence?” Rarity inquired.

“Plenty.” Gerhardt stated, letting the noise dampening spell he cast on Pixel dissipate. “The third option is that I could use some mental illusion magic to control her mind and force her to remove it, which I would also like to avoid as controlling minds is not something I enjoy doing. The fourth option is that I can challenge her to a contest of sorts for the amulet. However, that is entirely reliant on her willingness to lose the amulet in the first place, how confident she is in winning the contest, what she would get if she won, and whether or not she would actually hold up her end of the agreement or not. So I honestly don’t see that option working. The fifth option is that I can use mental illusion magic to force her to see nightmarish images and scare her into giving me the amulet. The sixth option is that I can use what I learned from the crystals King Sombra made to curse her horn and prevent her from using magic. Then I would hold her magic hostage and would only agree to undo the curse if she gave me the amulet. Personally, I would prefer the fifth or sixth options as those two are the only non-violent options that I am confident will actually work.”

“Could ya give us a moment to discuss our options?” Applejack requested.

“Go ahead.” Gerhardt stated in an uncaring almost bored tone. The ponies then gathered together and began whispering to each other.

“Daddy… I think something is wrong with my audio processors… I couldn’t hear the first two options.” Pixel stated, in a worried tone.

“No. Nothing is wrong with your audio processors. I cast a noise dampening spell on you so you couldn’t hear those two options as they are quite violent and I didn’t want you to hear them and start thinking that such things are acceptable.” Gerhardt told her, looking at her with a small smile on his face.

“Oh... Alright.” Pixel said, not sounding upset in the least, much to Gerhardt’s relief.

Eventually the ponies broke up their circle and looked at him. “We all agree with you that option five or six would likely be for the best. Personally I would prefer if you used option six as Rainbow Dash has informed us what sort of images you can conjure if you so choose, but we will leave that decision up to you.” Rarity informed him.

“Very well. I need someone to show me where to find this individual, and I would appreciate it if at least one of you could do me a favor and stay here with Pixel while I am gone.” Gerhardt stated.

“Um… Mr. Mechanica, I can stay here and watch Pixel for you until you get back. It’s the least I can do after you built Goldy for me.” Fluttershy said in her usual quiet tone with a timid smile on her face.

“Thank you very much, Miss Fluttershy.” Gerhardt said appreciatively. “Pixel, stay on your best behaviour and listen to Miss Fluttershy while I am gone. She is in charge until I return. This shouldn’t take very long.”

“Alright metal head, follow us. We’ll bring you to Trixie.” Rainbow Dash stated, before getting up and walking to the door.

The four remaining ponies and Spike led him to town hall. Upon entering he saw a blue unicorn sitting on what looked like a throne, wearing what he could only assume was the Alicorn Amulet.

“You five wait here, I shall handle this.” Gerhardt stated before proceeding to walk up to Trixie. As he did he was very surprised to find that his sensors informed him that she was on the very edge of surpassing the peak of power that the strongest mortal mage should be able to achieve. That meant he would have to be extremely cautious about this as she was far more powerful then he was.

“Ugh… Who and what are you, and why do you approach the Great and Powerful Trixie, you ugly metal beast?” Trixie said in a disgusted tone.

“Greetings, oh “Great and Powerful Trixie”. I am Gerhardt Mechanica, a master technomancer. I merely wanted to congratulate you on conquering Ponyville, and I came to make you an offer…” Gerhardt stated, taking slow predatory steps towards her.

Trixie scoffed and said, “Oh please… What could a metal freak like you possibly offer the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

Gerhardt crossed his arms behind his back to conceal the aura that appeared around his hands as he cast a mental illusion spell on her. “Hm… Well… I can stop them.”

“Stop who?” Trixie asked in confusion. Then she reeled back in terror as she saw dozens of arch demons crawling and flying all across the room, very slowly making their way towards her.

“Them. These arch demons you see before you. They are Spirits of Evil, and they are attracted by that amulet around your neck. However, if you undo everything you have done here in Ponyville and give the amulet to me, then I can banish them before they take their time slowly violating and torturing you in ways too horrific for any sane mind to possibly imagine. They may not even kill you, in fact they probably won't. It’s far more likely that they will just use their magic to keep you alive forever to continue torturing you for all eternity, forever reveling in your suffering. Not even the end of time itself nor the death of the universe will stop your suffering as they are beyond the concept of time and space.” Gerhardt explained in a perfectly calm tone as he casually circled Trixie like a shark. He exaggerated slightly as Arch Demons were not beyond time and space, however Trixie didn’t need to know this.

He adjusted the illusion slightly so her mind was flooded with images of some of the less extreme tortures that Gerhardt had personally witnessed normal demons commit. He had been fortunate enough to have only ever encountered an Arch Demon once and it was the single most terrifying experience of his life. He only survived because an Arch Angel intervened and fought it off. So he had been lucky enough to have never had to witness nor personally experience the sort of tortures committed by Arch Demons, otherwise he would be filling her mind with images of those. “So what will it be, oh “Great and Powerful Trixie”? Will you undo all the damage you have done and give me the amulet or would you rather experience what hell is like?”

“N-Never! These m-monsters are no… No match f-for the Gr-Great and Powerful Trixie!” Trixie stuttered in defiance even through the intense primal fear that was currently coursing through her. A red aura surrounded her horn as she shot some sort of beam at one of the illusory Arch Demons she was seeing. Gerhardt altered the illusion slightly to have that one split into four more Arch Demons.

“Tsk tsk tsk… My word, now look what you’ve done. There’s four more in place of that one you just attacked, and they all seem quite angry. That is most unfortunate. If you hadn’t angered them the tortures they would have subjected you to would have merely been unimaginably horrific. Now that you have, I’m afraid your fate shall be far worse… Of course, it doesn’t have to be. You know the terms of my offer. You had better come to a decision fast, oh “Great and Powerful Trixie” as they are starting to close in and once they reach you I’m afraid there will be nothing I will be able to do to save you, especially without that amulet.” Gerhardt said in a tone so cold it wouldn’t have been a surprise if the temperature in the room dropped several degrees.

He started adding things to the illusion. Rivers of blood forming behind the Arch Demons as they approached, everything starting to corrode and crumble to dust around them just like what happened around shades, the tortured screams of the damned and the scent of rotting and burning flesh and blood filling the air, ponies being grabbed by the Arch Demons before they proceeded to rip them to bloody shreds and their agonized screams joined with the disembodied screams of the damned, and the building starting to catch fire around them.

Gerhardt leaned down from behind Trixie’s throne and whispered, “Tick tock... tick… tock… Time is running out and they are almost upon you… Do you see it? Do you see what they are doing to the other ponies? All of that is nothing compared to the horrors they will inflict upon you once they reach you… Do you hear the screams of the damned? Your voice shall join them in chorus as yet another lost soul damned to burn within the infernal realm unable to do anything except scream for eternity, and unlike these ponies you see dying all around you your suffering shall forever be without end...”

Trixie began to hyperventilate in terror and tears began to stream down her face. Her body was visibly trembling from fear. Gerhardt was almost worried that she may very well be on the verge of having a heart attack. Not that he really cared. If she did, then he could just use biomancy to restart her heart and revive her to continue the illusion. “F-F-Fine!” Trixie stuttered in abject terror. A red aura surrounded her horn and a wave of red arcane energy exploded out from her in all directions. “T-Th-There… I un-undid ev-everything, now ta-take the b-bucking amulet and save me!” Trixie shouted, ripping the amulet off of her neck and tossing it to the ground.

As soon as the amulet was off, Gerhardt’s sensors began registering her as a normal unicorn albeit a particularly strong one by Equestria’s current standards. He assumed that she had heard about his book and was using the magical exercises detailed within it. Still she had quite a long way to go before she reached peak fitness, so currently she was still quite weak by his standards.

Gerhardt picked up the amulet and examined it for a moment before saying, “It was a pleasure doing business with you.” He then allowed the illusion to fade from her mind. “Now, I am not totally unreasonable. So if you would like, I could obscure this memory from your mind for you. You will know that you had a terrifying experience and agreed to give up the amulet in exchange for my assistance and even agreed to allow me to obscure the memories for you, but you will not remember any of the specifics. I already have the amulet so I do not require anything in exchange for this.”

“Y-yes please…” Trixie muttered, still trembling in terror.

“As you wish.” Gerhardt stated. He then raised a hand and cast another mental illusion spell, this time to heavily fog Trixie’s memories of this event. The memories could be brought back at any time with another spell but without that, she would never remember what happened here on her own. That was probably the most merciful thing Gerhardt could offer her at the moment as what he forced her to see was quite horrific.

When that was done, he turned and began walking back to the others who were waiting for him. “I chose option five. I decided that while I have learned much I still didn’t know enough about King Sombra’s magic to use that spell safely. I estimated that there was a chance that crystals would start growing out of her entire skeletal structure puncturing her skin and shredding her internal organs if I tried casting the spell and made a mistake. So rather than take that risk, I decided scaring her would be the better option. Afterwards I offered to obscure her memories of the event and she agreed, so there shouldn’t be any lasting trauma from the things that I made her witness.” He informed them as he approached.

“What did you make her see?” Spike inquired curiously.

“Arch Demons. The next level of spirits of evil above normal demons. I would have made her see the Devil, my world’s Greater Spirit of Evil, but I have never had the immense misfortune of having ever seen him myself, let alone in his conceptual form. So I couldn’t make an illusion of him, fortunately for her. The Arch Demons were doing things, but it is better that none of you know what.” Gerhardt explained. “Regardless, I shall be keeping this.” He held up the amulet for them to see. “Don’t worry, I am not so foolish as to ever use it myself knowing that it corrupts its wielder. I simply mean to study it to find out how it works and possibly find a way to safely incorporate it into a machine of some sort without risking being corrupted. Besides, it will be far safer with me then it will be with anyone else, especially once the underground portion of my lab is complete.”

“Well… Considering how much you have helped us in the past, we trust you not to abuse it like Trixie did. Though please do try to keep it as far away from Pixel as you possibly can. It would be absolutely tragic to see a darling filly like her be corrupted by such a vile artifact as that.” Rarity said.

Gerhardt opened a small portal and stuffed the amulet through it before pulling his now empty hand back out and closing it. “Indeed. I will be building a stasis device to contain it whenever I am not studying it or experimenting with it. Until then, I will be keeping it somewhere I know she will not be able to get to it. Regardless, I suppose one of you should go find Miss Sparkle and inform her that she is no longer banished. If you need anything else, I will be returning to my lab to get started on building that stasis device. Good day.”

He then opened a portal back to the recreational lounge of his lab and stepped through it before closing it behind him. There he saw Pixel and Fluttershy talking about something. He didn’t have time to learn what because as soon as he entered, Pixel immediately noticed him. Turning around with a big smile on her face Pixel exclaimed, “Daddy!” She then ran towards him and wrapped her arms around his legs. Looking up at him she asked, “Did you beat the mean lady?”

Gerhardt smiled at her and patted her on the head. “That I did, dear. Though we didn’t actually fight, fortunately. With that amulet enhancing her power I don’t know if I could have actually won if we had come to blows as she was significantly more powerful than me until I convinced her to give the amulet to me. Well… I might have been able to beat her but I would have had to use some very underhanded methods to do so, and the end results would be… let’s just say it wouldn’t have been pretty. Thankfully it didn’t come to that, and the Alicorn Amulet is now safely within my possession.”

Pixel pouted at him and said, “No! You’re the strongest mage around, Daddy! No one could beat you!”

“No, I am far from the strongest mage. I may be the oldest human mage perhaps, but I’m not even close to the most powerful. To be perfectly honest I am barely above average for a mage. Hell, you yourself are already far more powerful than I will ever be, Pixel. So please don’t overestimate my ability to such an extent as despite my augmentations I am still only human. To be honest I am something of a jack of all trades, I am competent at almost everything but the only things that I truly excel at are Technomancy, Alchemy, and all things scientific.” Gerhardt told her. He honestly didn’t like the fact that she thought so highly of him and had such high expectations of him. He may have built her but by no means did that make him a god. He was still very much a mortal and he had his limitations.

He heard Fluttershy chuckle. Looking over at her he said, “Ah yes. Thank you very much for watching my daughter while I dealt with this amulet situation, Miss Fluttershy. It’s also good to see that you don’t appear quite as afraid of me anymore.”

Fluttershy smiled at him and said, “Your welcome, Mr. Mechanica. Pixel is an absolutely wonderful little filly and it was a delight talking to her while you dealt with Trixie. She was so curious about all the animals I take care of that I almost wish we could have talked for longer! And… um… After building Goldy for me and seeing how nice your daughter is, you just seem a bit less scary to me… I’m sorry, but... I am still a bit afraid of you after what happened in Canterlot…”

“That’s fine. I honestly don’t expect that you will ever truly stop being afraid of me, and I do not blame you for that. Though, it is good to see that you’re no longer cowering in fear at the mere sight of me. Regardless, you have done me a favor looking after my daughter so if you ever need anything then you need only ask and I shall endeavor to do my best to assist you.” Gerhardt stated.

“Thank you... I need to go check on my animals. Have a good afternoon, both of you!” Fluttershy said before getting up and walking over to the door.

“Good bye, Miss Fluttershy! I hope I can come see your animals some time!” Pixel chirped happily, waving at Fluttershy as she left.

“Indeed. Good day.” Gerhardt stated before turning and walking back towards the main work area of his lab. He then got started on building the stasis device to contain the Alicorn Amulet.

“Daddy, what are you building? That doesn’t look like the things we were making earlier.” Pixel asked curiously, standing on a small wooden stool to see what Gerhardt was doing.

“That’s because it’s not. I am building a device to contain the Alicorn Amulet whenever I am not studying it or experimenting on it. It’s too dangerous to just leave laying around where anyone can grab it. Do you remember what I told you about my teleportation pistol if I ever leave it somewhere?” Gerhardt inquired.

“It’s dangerous so I shouldn’t touch it unless you are watching me so I don’t accidentally hurt myself or someone else.” Pixel responded.

“Correct. This amulet is much the same as my pistol but many times worse. Unless the situation is so dire that you have absolutely no other choice, then you are never to touch it period. From what my sensors detected when Miss Trixie was wearing it, it is an extremely powerful magical artifact that drastically increases the power of any mage who wears it. However it corrupts whoever uses it and I don’t want that to ever happen to you. Even I refuse to wear it, knowing what it does to people. So trust me, it’s for your own good that you don’t touch it unless the situation is so bad that me, you, and everyone around us will die if you do not. Do I make myself clear?”

Pixel nodded. “Yes, Daddy.” She said in a solemn tone.

Gerhardt turned his head and smiled at her. “Good girl. Now, while I’m doing this how about you make a few more of those surgical implements? You still have plenty of room for improvement and practice makes perfect.”

This time she smiled back at him and said, “Okay!” She then proceeded to start building more of the surgical tools for the hospitals.

Author's Note

Sorry, I realize this chapter is a bit short by my usual standards. I'll try to make the next chapter extra long to make it up to you guys, but that depends entirely on how it goes while I'm writing it.

Anyways, in case you didn't notice I rewrote chapter 9 again. Hopefully version 3 fixes most of the mistakes of the previous two.

No fun facts this time, unfortunately.

Anyways, as always, constructive criticism is more than welcome. Please, tell me what you guys thought of this chapter and how you think I could improve if at all. I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much if not more than I enjoyed writing it!