Gerhardt spent the rest of the day and the next night repairing his body. Fortunately he was able to beat out all the dents in all of the copper plates meaning he didn’t have to scrap any of his exterior and use any of his materials to patch himself up. As he told Rainbow Dash, it was indeed a bit awkward trying to repair his neck by himself but he eventually succeeded and could once again move his head without having to use his hands to force it to face in any particular direction.

The only issue he ran into was replacing his eye. Yes, he had several corundum crystals but most of them were either too small or not clear enough for him to use. He only found one that was of sufficient size and of barely adequate clarity. The problem was that it was a green sapphire, meaning his eyes would be two separate colors until he could either find or grow another either blue or green sapphire. It also meant his vision would have two slightly different tints and image qualities which would be somewhat irritating. However it seemed as though he was just going to have to deal with it until later. As such he went about cutting, rounding, polishing, and enchanting the green sapphire. Finally he removed his main faceplate and installed the new eye. Once he was finished, he reattached his main faceplate and recalibrated his eyes in order to get them both perfectly aligned.

Now fully repaired, Gerhardt got back to work building those sterilization rays for the hospitals. He was able to work in peace for another three days. In that time he managed to finish both the sterilization rays for the hospitals of Equestria and the first prototype love generator for the changelings. He even spent about five minutes using some of the scraps of gold and steel that he had left over to build Twilight a fountain pen for assisting him in learning the Equestrian language, just as he had said he would.

Now that he had finished everything he was working on he decided to write a letter to Princess Celestia to inform her of this and to either send him a list of what all of the materials had cost in total or to schedule a meeting to discuss what she would think a fair price would be for the sterilization rays, since he had no idea what the materials were worth in this world and he had never exactly had to sell anything to civilians before. He had sold vast quantities of technology to kingdoms that were allied with the human kingdom but never a small amount to civilians. The R&D branch did own several companies that sold technology to civilians but managing those had never been a part of any of his duties. To him they had always just been another constant source of funding.

Then he ran into a rather serious problem with this plan. He didn’t have any paper with which to write the letter and he didn’t have any funding with which to purchase any. He didn’t even have a machine with which to mulch some of the empty wooden crates he had in his storage shed to convert them into paper.

He hated to do this but perhaps he could request to borrow a sheet of paper from Twilight Sparkle. He still had to deliver her new fountain pen to her anyways, so he would really be killing two birds with one stone.

He sighed reluctantly, but picked up the new fountain pen and proceeded to open a portal to Golden Oak Library. Walking up to the door he knocked politely. “Miss Sparkle, are you there?” He inquired.

“Yeah. Feel free to come in.” Came the reply from the other side of the door.

Opening the door, Gerhardt proceeded inside where he saw Twilight standing next to a large pile of books which she appeared to be placing back onto several shelves. Nearby was the large bipedal purple lizard named Spike, who appeared to be reading a very thin book made entirely of paper filled with numerous illustrations.

“Hi, Gerhardt. I wasn’t expecting you to come by so soon. Well, what brings you here today? Do you need a book?” Twilight inquired, stepping away from the pile of books for a moment and turning to look at him. “Also, uh… Why is one of your eyes green?” She asked after she managed to get a good look at his face.

“The only corundum crystal I had that was of sufficient size and barely adequate clarity was a green sapphire. I would have preferred if it were blue like my other eye or at the very least that I had two of the green sapphires so I could have just replaced both of my eyes, but this is the only one I had so I shall just have to deal with it until I can make a machine with which to grow my own perfect crystals in my lab. As for what brings me here today, there are two things. The first is that I have finished the fountain pen that you requested back in Canterlot, for assisting me in learning your language. To fill it all you need to do is stick the tip in an inkwell and press the button on the side. The second reason I am here is that I would like to borrow a sheet of paper so that I may write a rather important letter to Princess Celestia, if you would not mind.” Gerhardt explained, holding out the freshly made fountain pen for her to take.

Twilight looked both surprised and excited as she stared at the fountain pen in his hand. Gerhardt released the writing implement as a purple aura enveloped it. The writing implement immediately began floating over to Twilight who began examining it eagerly. “Of course! Just give me a moment and I’ll bring you the paper right away!” She said happily before turning and disappearing up a set of stairs.

“Sooo… Uh… Gears, was it? What exactly is a fountain pen if you don’t mind me asking?” Spike inquired, looking up from his strange paper book.

“It's a vastly superior writing implement to a quill and inkwell. It has an internal reservoir that stores ink, thus allowing it to continue writing for hours without ever having to dip it into an ink well.” Gerhardt explained, ignoring the fact that Spike had called him by the “nickname” that Pinkie Pie came up with for him.

“Oh. That definitely explains why she looked so excited about it.” Spike stated matter of factly.

“Indeed.” Gerhardt responded.

The room descended into silence with neither Spike nor Gerhardt having anything else to say to each other, until Twilight finally came back downstairs with an empty scroll floating behind her. She levitated the scroll over to Gerhardt, who immediately grabbed it out of the air, and asked, “So, what’s the letter going to be about?”

“I have finished the sterilization rays I had been building for the hospitals as well as the first prototype love generator for the Changelings. Thus I need to know how much the materials that she provided me with cost so that I may determine a fair price to sell my sterilization rays for, and I need her to inform Queen Chrysalis that the first prototype is ready so she may send a changeling over to test it.” Gerhardt explained as he created a small rectangular shield in the air in front of him and used it as a surface with which to start writing his letter upon.

“I see.” Twilight said before seemingly coming to a sudden realization. “Wait, does that mean you actually finished your work and have nothing to do anymore?”

Gerhardt froze. That was correct. He had finished what he was doing and had completely run out of materials with which to continue working. He mentally debated with himself about what he should say. Being stuck alone with nothing to do and nothing to occupy him seemed horrible as it meant that all he would have to focus on would be his thoughts which would inevitably lead to him thinking about the horrible situation that his kingdom was in. These ponies' attempts to teach him about friendship were irritating, yes, but mostly because they interrupted his work.

Now that he had no work left to do and was faced with the prospect of potentially being left alone with his thoughts for any length of time, these “friendship lessons” seemed by far the lesser of two evils. At least they would give him something, anything, else to focus on other than worrying about the situation his kingdom was in. Or at the very least they would give him an occasional break from having to worry about it since he knew the ponies would only be able to give him these lessons during the day and even then only on days where they actually had the time. He knew full well that the world most certainly did not revolve around him and that the ponies had their own lives and businesses to deal with.

“Yes… I… I suppose it does. Unfortunately.” Gerhardt stated in a shaken tone, resuming writing his letter.

“That’s wonderful! That means I can get started with your friendship lessons without having to worry that I’m bothering you, and you can teach me a bit more about technomancy!” Twilight exclaimed excitedly.

“Hm… How about we make a deal, Miss Sparkle? You may come over to my lab whenever you wish to learn more about technomancy as I can easily teach you while I continue working, so long as you do not interrupt my work for any of this friendship nonsense. Then, whenever I run out of things to do and must wait for a shipment of materials or something similar I will let you know so you may teach me all you wish about friendship — even if it is nothing more than an effort in futility — in the interim. Does this sound like a fair arrangement to you?” Gerhardt asked as he finished writing his letter. He let the shield fade and rolled up the scroll in preparation to send it off.

Twilight thought about this for a moment before saying, “I suppose it sounds fair but I would like to add one minor condition. Once you’re more set up, if it seems like you’re going to be busy indefinitely, then I will interrupt you but I’ll only do it once every week or two. Does that sound agreeable? Oh and on a side note, I could have Spike send that letter for you.”

Gerhardt sighed but said, “I suppose it is the best possible deal I am likely to get in this scenario, so I agree. Also, I have already been to Celestia’s throne room once before so I can simply open a small portal next to her throne and stuff the letter through. Having Spike walk all the way over to wherever your town’s postal service is located would be far less efficient. Observe.” He opened up a small portal next to Celestia’s throne that was just large enough for the scroll to fit through. He then slid the scroll through before immediately closing the portal behind it.

“See? That was significantly faster and more efficient and it took zero travel time.” Gerhardt stated.

“Uh… I suppose that works too, but just so you know Spike wouldn’t have had to travel all the way to the post office. He has magical fire breath which allows him to send and receive letters directly to and from Princess Celestia in an instant. It's how I send her my reports on what I learned about friendship every week.” Twilight explained.

“You have firebreath?” Gerhardt inquired curiously, looking at Spike.

“Well duh. Of course I do, I’m a dragon!” Spike stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“You’re a dragon?” Gerhardt inquired, genuinely shocked by this information. “I honestly thought that you were just some large, sapient, bipedal lizard of some sort. Forgive me if my words cause any offence as that is not my intention. My world also has dragons, you see, but they are vastly different then you.”

“Oh really? Well what’s so different about them then?” Spike demanded sounding somewhat offended.

Gerhardt stuck out a hand with his palm facing downwards and cast an illusion spell. A perfect 3D image of a dragon appeared standing on the ground beneath Gerhardt’s hand. It stood on all fours, had pitch black scales that looked about as strong as the armor on a super heavy combat golem, solid crimson snake-like eyes, two large bat-like wings on its back, multiple absolutely viscous horns on and around its head, and it’s neck, back, and tail were all completely smooth, unlike Spike’s.

“For one thing, this is what they look like. They are merely animals and do not have intelligence like you do. They are not bipeds like you are. They are absolutely massive creatures and even their eggs are as tall as I am if not slightly larger and all of them have wings from the moment they first hatch. They are obligate carnivores and have to eat extremely large quantities of meat in order to survive. They are cold blooded and require a cliff to launch from in order to fly so they tend to make their nests in caves in mountainous regions around the equator where it is consistently warm year round. They have an odd attraction to things that are shiny so their nests tend to be filled with things such as glass, mirrors, silverware, broken or melted golems, scrap metal, jewelry, crystals, and even coins.”

“To conserve energy due to their massive size and to not completely drain their surroundings of food and end up starving themselves to death, they spend decades hibernating and only ever wake up to eat and mate. Fortunately this also means that there is usually only ever between one and two hundred of them in the entire world at any given time. Whenever they wake up they are immediately classified as living natural disasters as even modern weaponry has difficulty penetrating their scales which have a very strong natural resistance to magic and are strong enough to let them completely shrug off physical artillery shells as if they were little more than a light breeze, and their fire breath is hot enough to melt through a ten inches of solid tungsten in a matter of seconds. Lastly their bones are both super light to allow them to fly and are super strong so that they do not end up being crushed to death under their own weight because of the fact that they are so massive.”

Gerhardt let the optical illusion fade and continued, “They are by far the single most dangerous animals in my entire world. Especially the — fortunately — extremely rare ones that are born with the ability to use magic, as any living creature in my world can potentially be born with the ability to use magic, except for plants. When dragons are capable of using magic even the most powerful of demigods tremble in fear. So, now do you understand why I did not immediately recognize you as a dragon?”

Spike looked equally amazed and horrified by everything Gerhardt had just said.“Yeah… I’m definitely nothing like those monsters…” He muttered. Suddenly his stomach began to gurgle before he belched green flames that formed into a scroll. Picking it up off the ground, he unrolled it and proceeded to start reading it. “Uh… It’s for you.” Spake stated, holding the scroll out for Gerhardt to take.

“Really? I wasn’t expecting to be getting a response back this soon. Besides, how on earth would she have known that I am here right now?” Gerhardt stated, casting a telekinetic spell and levitating the scroll towards him before snatching it out of the air. Unrolling it, he took a microsecond to read the entire thing. It said that Queen Chrysalis would more than likely be sending a Changeling to stay in Ponyville to test his prototype love generators until he could develop the final model. She also gave him a list of what all of the materials that she had provided him with cost and asked him to send what he had already built along with a letter detailing what they were, how to operate them and what the final price was as soon as he could. She also informed him that he could just place what he had built in the storage room where he had spent the vast majority of his time in Canterlot and that they would take care of the rest.

Gerhardt was shocked by how cheap gold, silver, and the crystals turned out to be. In his world they would have been extremely expensive, but here they were fairly close in price to copper or steel. That was both good and bad for him as it meant that he would save massive amounts of funding on material costs, however it also meant that he had to sell his machines for cheaper which meant he would get less funding then he would otherwise. To compensate for this he would have to sell more machines which meant he needed more materials which meant he needed more funding.... Were he still mostly organic he knew that he would more than likely be getting a severe migraine at the moment.

“Well, she probably recognized the scroll and assumed that you got it from me. Also, even if she didn’t it’s entirely possible that she might have sent the letter through Spike anyways, thinking it might get to you a bit faster.” Twilight explained.

“I see. I will have to build two linked portal machines so she can send any further such letters directly to me without having to rely on using you as an intermediary.” Gerhardt stated before casting a spell to vaporize all of the ink off of the scroll so he could just reuse it instead of having to request to borrow another one from Twilight. Creating a portal back to the inside of his lab he said, “Now, I shall not take up any more of your time. Thank you very much for the scroll.” Before either she or Spike could respond he was already through the portal and had closed it behind him.

Placing the scroll on a clear section of what used to be the kitchen counter but was now his main work table, Gerhardt began writing the letter that the princess had requested. He explained what the sterilization rays were, what they did, and how to use them. As for the prices, he set them at the material costs plus an extra 20% for each individual device. Once he was finished he created two separate portals, one leading to Celestia’s throne room, while the other led to the storage room that Celestia had indicated in her response letter. He slid the scroll through the portal leading to the throne room before closing the portal behind it and began levitating all of the sterilization rays into the storage room with a telekinetic spell.

When that was finished, he closed the portal leading to the storage room and sighed wondering what he could do to keep himself occupied and his mind off of the situation his world was in. Then it occurred to him that he still had yet to get rid of those damnable plants that were outside his lab.

Heading outside his hands were engulfed by a pitch black aura as he began casting a lethal curse on the grass, bushes, and flowers that made all of them immediately wither and die before crumbling to dust which was then carried away by the breeze. The curse would also prevent any more plants from growing there ever again. He had to walk all the way around the outside of his entire lab to get all of them but it was over in a matter of a minute or two.

By the time that was finished Gerhardt had yet another idea for something to keep him busy. Since he didn’t have the resources with which to expand his lab above ground, he could simply expand it below ground. There were no laws against it so as long as he kept his expansion within the bounds of his own property then there should be no issues. Not that it was very likely that anyone would find out even if he did expand his lab outside the bounds of his own property, but he supposed it was better to err on the side of caution. He would also have to be careful to avoid running into any water lines, sewage pipes, or electrical wires but he knew of a few scanning spells that would make that simple enough and he could just dig a shaft deep enough that he would be well below the level that all of that would be at. The only real issue would be finding a place to dump all of the excess dirt.

Thinking about it for a moment he remembered that while making his — still 2% incomplete — map of Ponyville the other day, he had seen a forest nearby. While he absolutely loathed the idea of going into a forest after what Silvanus had done to him and was surely doing to his kingdom, he supposed that if he could find a clearing or something of the sort in the forest it could potentially serve as an excellent place to dump all of the dirt since it should be out of the way enough to not inconvenience any of the ponies. With that in mind, he locked the doors of his lab before setting off for the forest.

As he walked he had a program open in his head and was already creating a 3D model for the underground portion of his lab, which meant the vast majority of it. He was mapping out everywhere the structural supports would need to go to prevent the entire thing from collapsing and bringing down hundreds if not thousands of tons of dirt on top of his head while he was digging and destroying the house that was above ground in the process. He wanted to avoid that at all costs for obvious reasons.

It was somewhat of an issue that he didn’t have access to any steel or concrete to use for the structure. However he did know a rather ancient spell that the Dwarves had invented thousands upon thousands of years ago to transmute most types of sand, dirt, gravel, and loose rocks into solid slabs of granite that was five or six inches thick at minimum but could reach all the way up to a foot thick. It normally involved the use of powerful alchemical reagents however it could be done through the use of magic alone, it just took far more time and was vastly more energy intensive.

So even if he didn’t have any concrete or steel to use for the structure he could at the very least turn the roof, floor, and outer walls into granite as well as craft very sturdy structural pillars or walls made of granite to ensure the entire structure would be more than strong enough to not collapse on top of him. However without those alchemical reagents he knew that between both transmuting and digging it would be an extremely slow process that would use up about 90 to 95% of his total magic energy reserves every day that he worked on it until it was completed. He would obviously have to save some of his energy reserves to either carry himself back up out of the shaft leading down to the underground portion of his lab or to simply open a portal back to the surface at least every so often.

Eventually he reached the edge of the forest. However the moment he set foot in the forest he was immediately set on guard as a sense of malice and danger washed over him. It was extremely similar to the times that he had been forced to conduct military operations in forests and the nature spirits that resided there had been angered by something or other. As such, before he took so much as another step he immediately reached into his robes, pulled out his pistol, and switched it off of the safety. He then increased the range of his sensors from a 50 foot radius to a 100 foot radius, ignoring the fact that they were slowly heating up from the sheer amount of raw data that they were processing. He would prefer to avoid having to fight the nature spirits that lived here if he could, but he would not let himself be caught with his guard down if they decided to attack him.

Now prepared to defend himself if anything were to go wrong, he began making his way deeper into the forest. He continued walking for about twenty minutes until he heard what sounded like three little girls screaming to the north east, which was behind him. He immediately came to a halt and took a few microseconds to mentally debate about what he should do. On the one hand, it could just be an auditory illusion conjured by the nature spirits of this forest in an attempt to lead him into a trap. On the other hand there could actually be children that were in very real danger and could potentially be killed if he didn’t save them.

Eventually he decided that he wasn’t willing to risk abandoning children to either wild animals or angry nature spirits. Thus he began sprinting towards the screams as fast as his body would allow. His joint’s whirred and clicked in protest as they were pushed to the absolute limits of their capabilities. In a matter of seconds his sensors began picking up the energy signatures of three ponies surrounded by well over a dozen energy signatures that matched constructs created by nature spirits, though fortunately were not the nature spirits themselves. He was glad that he chose to check it out rather than abandoning the children to their fates. In a few more seconds he reached a small clearing where the energy signatures were located and saw three extremely small ponies — from his perspective — cornered against a large tree by a pack of what looked like wolves that were made entirely out of wood and plantlife with glowing green eyes.

Gerhardt immediately dodged past and jumped over all of the wooden wolves faster than they could react in order to get to the ponies. Sliding to a stop in front of them he immediately conjured up a strong bubble shaped shield around the three fillies and aimed his pistol at the wooden wolves.

“Spirits of this forest, I am Gerhardt Mechanica, a master technomancer and experienced veteran of war. I do not know what these foals could have done to anger you to such an extent that you would send such constructs to hunt them down, but I shall not allow you to harm them! Have your constructs come at me if you wish, but be warned I am not so peaceful as the inhabitants of Equestria. While I would much prefer to avoid any confrontation with you if at all possible I assure you that I very much can and will fight back if you force my hand.” Gerhardt warned, knowing that the nature spirits could hear him through both their constructs and even the very plants of the forest.

The wooden wolves snarled furiously at him and immediately began charging. In response he immediately began pulling the trigger on his pistol, blasting inch wide holes through the wolves. Unfortunately, while this most certainly damaged them by no means did it truly stop them. As such Gerhardt was forced to duck and dodge out of the way as the wooden wolves jumped and lunged at him. Seeing how ineffectual his pistol was against these things, Gerhardt quietly cursed to himself as he quickly stuffed the weapon back in its holster under his robes before raising his hands to cast a fairly basic combat spell. An intense blast of fire exploded out from him in all directions and set several of the wooden wolves ablaze along with some of the surrounding foliage.

The wolves seemed to panic as they and the surrounding area began to burn. Gerhardt did not stop there, however. He stuck his arms out to the sides and slightly in front of him and a long string of copper colored orbs that were just a centimeter wide appeared between his hands before flying out in numerous different directions at super high speeds. Some impacted the ground near the wooden wolves while others impacted several of the wooden wolves directly, however each and every last one of them exploded with the force of a grenade. Dirt, rocks, and both burning and not burning splinters of wood went flying like shrapnel as both the ground and the wooden wolves were blown to pieces. At this point the few remaining wolves decided to turn and flee before he could continue.

Seeing this, Gerhardt let them run and instead turned his attention to the burning foliage. So as to avoid starting a forest fire as he didn’t want to risk angering the nature spirits anymore then they already were, he cast a spell to put out the fires before they could spread. “Spirits of this forest, I shall be completely honest with you, I do not like nature. I have had some bad experiences with it in the past. That being said, I would rather not be your enemy if I can avoid it so please do not attack me again. If these ponies have caused some sort of issue then — unless you are willing to appear before me and actually tell me what they have done that has angered you so — I shall simply try my best to find out what it is and find some way to resolve it without having to resort to violence. Until then I shall be encouraging everyone to stay out of this forest as much as possible. I hope this sounds reasonable to you.” He said to the forest.

“I know not to which spirits you speak, but your display was certainly not weak.” Said a voice from nearby.

He had noticed an energy signature in that direction, but it was not one he had ever encountered before so he had merely assumed that it was an animal that had been hiding from the constructs. Turning to look at the source of the voice he saw what he could only assume was this world’s equivalent of a zebra. “Greetings, ma’am. I am Gerhardt Mechanica, a master technomancer. I am honestly quite surprised to hear that you are unaware of the existence of nature spirits considering Ponyville is located directly next to a forest. Surely someone must have noticed the existence of those wooden constructs by now? After all, this can’t have been the first time foals have wandered into this forest only to be attacked by them.”

“I am Zecora and I live amongst this forest’s fauna and flora. Indeed timberwolves are quite infamous, however once you know how to deal with them they are not so dangerous. Had it not been for your intervention, saving these three had always been my intention. Though I did not know that the timberwolves’ maker were spirits of nature. Now, what might your intentions be, way out here in the Everfree?” Zecora inquired.

Gerhardt sighed in frustration. “You mean you already knew of them, but you just assumed they were just normal animals that evolved here naturally? Ugh... Somehow, I’m not even surprised. Well regardless, I guarantee they are just constructs made by nature spirits to attack whoever and whatever they don’t like.” He was about to continue talking when he was interrupted by one of the three fillies clearing their throat.

“Uh, we’re really grateful that you saved us and all, but could you please let us out of here now?” The orange pegasus inquired from inside the shield Gerhardt had put around the three of them to protect them from the timberwolves.

“Oh right. My apologies, little ones.” Gerhardt said before letting the shield dissipate. “Now, before I answer your question, Miss Zecora, I would like to ask these three the same thing. What in the world are you three doing out here? Especially when these “timberwolves”, as you call them, are apparently known to stalk this forest?”

“Well, we were out here helpin’ Miss Zecora gather some herbs and stuff. Then we sort of got lost, then those timberwolves started chasin’ us, then we sort of got cornered, but then you saved us!” The earth pony with the big red bow on her head explained.

“I see. Then that most certainly explains why Miss Zecora was in the area as well.” Gerhardt stated before looking back at Zecora. “Now, to answer your question, I am planning on expanding my lab in Ponyville by digging a few underground rooms deep below it. However, I need a place to dump all of the excess dirt while I dig. As such I thought I might find a good place out here in the forest where the dirt wouldn’t inconvenience anyone. Though, you claim to live out here so perhaps I should find another location other than this forest.”

“You have a lab in Ponyville? Where is it? What do you do there? Does it have something to do with you being a techno… techno… Uh… technoprancer?” The white furred unicorn inquired.

“The word is technomancer, and yes it does. A technomancer is what we humans call a mage who combines magic and technology. A mage is a human who is born with the ability to use magic. I build machines such as the augmentations that make up the vast majority of my body. I was not always made of metal after all. As for where my lab is, unfortunately it is essentially just a simple two story house that I only received very recently thus it is rather difficult to find if you do not know what to look for. Besides which, I’m sure that foals such as yourself have no business there. Especially since my business selling and repairing machines is not up and running just yet.” Gerhardt explained.

“If a place to dump dirt is what you seek, I know of a location that none shall critique. However I believe that transporting it there may prove a bit of a nightmare.” Zecora offered.

Gerhardt looked at her and raised one of his arms straight out to the side. He then in the direction his arm was pointing, he cast a spell and created a portal all the way back to Ponyville. “Transporting it will not be an issue, I assure you. Actually, now that I have this portal open, perhaps it would be for the best if you three were to use it to return home.”

“But we have so many more questions!” The orange pegasus objected.

“You have already been attacked by the constructs of the nature spirits once today so perhaps it would be best not to tempt fate, wouldn’t you agree?” Gerhardt stated in a tone that was a bit more stern.

“““Awww…””” The three fillies groaned in disappointment before heading through the portal Gerhardt had created. He immediately closed it behind them once all of them were all the way through.

“Now, I sincerely apologize for taking up your time, but might you be willing to lead me to the location you have in mind? If not, could you at the very least point me in the right direction?” Gerhardt requested.

“No need to apologise, it is okay, I shall be more than happy to lead the way. However, while we walk, could you please tell me more about the spirits of which you talk? The Everfree forest is where I live, so if any spirits reside here I would like our relationship to be positive.” Zecora stated as she began leading Gerhardt to the place she had in mind.

“As you wish. Well, I shall tell you that the instant I set foot in this forest I could feel the malevolence and danger it exudes. It was exactly like the times that I had to conduct military operations inside forests and something or another happened that angered the nature spirits that resided there, causing them to attack myself and the other soldiers. So I know the nature spirits of this forest are angry, very angry. However I do not understand why.” Gerhardt explained.

Looking around at the forest around them he continued, “The only thing I can really think of is the fact that an individual known as “Fluttershy” apparently interferes with nature by taking care of the wild animals in the area as if they were pets. Thus she is interfering with the cycle of natural selection. However that alone should not be enough to anger them to such a degree. Annoy them, certainly, but not truly anger them. So there has to be more to it. Do you know if the ponies do anything else that interferes with nature? Things such as interfering with the natural processes of plants on any large scale, controlling the weather, attempting to control the seasons, raising the dead, conducting massive deforestation, or anything else of that nature. Keep in mind I already know that the Princesses claim to control the sun and moon — as absolutely preposterous as that may be.”

Zecora had a very troubled look on her face. “They do not conduct deforestation nor do they raise the dead, but indeed they do everything else that you just said.”

Gerhardt froze in place for a moment. “Everything...? By the gods…” He muttered in horror before continuing to follow Zecora. “If they do all of that, then I am genuinely shocked that the spirits haven’t escalated far beyond using those weak little constructs to defend their forest. They should have long since grown far far more aggressive and should be trying to completely exterminate the ponies. If they are doing all of that then I am honestly not entirely certain that I can actually fix this. Even if I warned the ponies I honestly doubt that they would believe me or would care even if they did believe me since the forest doesn’t appear to have gone out of control just yet.”

He thought about this for a few microseconds before saying, “That being said, if you wish to have a positive relationship with the spirits of this forest on an individual basis, first and foremost for the love of the gods do not do what the ponies do. I cannot possibly stress enough how incredibly stupid what they’re doing truly is. Other than that, leaving out a small gift for them every once in a while certainly wouldn’t hurt. The elves tend to leave out things such as a glass of wine or whiskey, small pieces of candy, and sometimes even fertilizer they usually aren’t particularly picky. Just let them know that it’s intended as a gift for them otherwise they might not take it. I have also heard that they enjoy casual conversation though I cannot confirm this. Regardless they are supposedly some of the easiest types of spirits to please and if they start to like you enough they may start helping you or even protecting you like they do for the Elves. Well, actually, since these ones don’t seem to like to show themselves for some reason they may just have their constructs or even the animals that inhabit this forest do so for them.”

“I see. Thank you for telling me this my friend for these spirits I would rather befriend.” Zecora said happily.

Gerhardt wanted to point out the fact that she had just rhymed the word “friend” with “befriend” and that they were definitely not friends, however he decided to just keep his mouth shut as he didn’t want to risk offending her. At the very least not before she showed him the area where he could dump the dirt he would be digging up from underneath his lab.

They continued walking for about fifteen minutes until they came to a cliff. Gerhardt looked over the edge to see what was below and saw nothing of note. He estimated that this should indeed be an excellent place to dump all of the dirt from his little construction project. “This should work wonderfully. Thank you, Miss Zecora, your assistance is greatly appreciated. I believe I will be heading back now so that I may get started right away. If there is any place that you wish to go along the path that we walked or even in Ponyville, I would be more than happy to open a portal for you in order to save you time on your trip. It is the least I can do.” Gerhardt offered politely.

“Thank you but it is fine, your offer I must decline. I expect no audible response but with the spirits of the Everfree I would like to commune as this seems like a time that is most opportune.” Zecora declined.

“I see. Then in that case you need only speak to or near the plants and the spirits shall hear you. Good day, Miss Zecora.” Gerhardt stated before opening a portal to his lab and walking through before closing it behind him.

Surprisingly as soon as he was through the portal he saw Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity as well as the three fillies from earlier all standing outside his lab talking about something. Approaching them he said, “Excuse me, I do hope I am not interrupting something, but may I ask what you all are doing here?”

“Apple Bloom and the others told us what ya did out in the Everfree and well, we wanted to thank ya. I don’t know why ya were even out there in the first place, but the fact you went outta your way ta save ‘em from those timberwolves is greatly appreciated.” Applejack stated gratefully.

“Indeed! I don’t know what I would have done if something happened to Sweetie Belle!” Rarity agreed.

“Yeah, I guess it was pretty cool of you to save Scootaloo and the others...” Rainbow Dash said somewhat reluctantly.

“I see. Well, it was my pleasure. I could not in good conscience leave three innocent children, or I suppose I should say foals, to be ripped apart by the wooden constructs of angry nature spirits. As for what I was doing out there, in order to keep myself occupied I am planning on digging an underground extension of my lab and I needed to find a place where I could get rid of the dirt that would be out of the way, which I have found with the assistance of Miss Zecora.” Gerhardt explained.

“Wait, you are? Since when?” Twilight inquired, clearly caught off guard by this information.

“Since a few minutes after I left your library earlier today.”

“Um… Excuse me, Mr. Mechanica? Me, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo still have some questions for you, but you made us leave before we could ask. So would you mind answering us now?” Sweetie Belle inquired.

“Of course, little ones. I only made you leave the forest earlier in order to ensure your safety. I have nothing but time on my hands at the moment so you may ask me whatever you wish.” Gerhardt stated.

The three fillies cheered happily. “Earlier you said that you weren’t always made of metal. So what did you look like before you became like this?” Scootaloo inquired.

Gerhardt sighed and said, “It would be rather tedious to describe so I’ll just show you. I would brace yourselves as it’s not a pretty sight.” After lowering his hood he cast an optical illusion spell on himself. Suddenly he looked just like he had prior to inventing brain augmentations. He had wrinkly old skin that was weathered from age and was almost ghostly pale from lack of exposure to sunlight, a thin gaunt almost malnourished face that easily displayed the bones underneath, a head of short, uncombed, pure white hair, a short white mustache and beard, grey eyes with heavy bags under them from severe lack of sleep, numerous horrific scars of all different types of injuries from cuts to burns all across his face, and his right ear was completely missing. One of his hands appeared to be made of flesh and blood but was gnarled and covered in scars while the other still appeared to be made of copper.

All of the ponies displayed a wide variety of different reactions, all of which Gerhardt ignored. He honestly couldn't care less what they thought of what he used to look like. “By this point in my life, my augmentations were the only reason I was allowed to continue fighting on the front lines with the rest of my branch of the military, for reasons that I assume should be obvious. A tired old man is usually more of a liability on the battlefield than a benefit, no matter how skilled of a technomancer he may or may not be.” He stated, with his mouth and lips moving perfectly in sync with his words, unlike usual.

Finally he let the illusion fade and said, “Alright, well I assume there was more that you wished to ask of me?”

“Uh… Yeah, what’s that symbol on your shoulders? Is it something like a cutie mark? If so, how’d ya get it?” Apple Bloom asked.

Gerhardt pointed to it. “You mean this, correct? No, it is nothing even remotely like your “cutie marks”. Humans do not have “special talents” that we are destined to acquire like your species does, let alone naturally occurring magical marks to show for it. This is actually a military insignia displaying my rank and what branch of the military I was in. Both this gear and the color of my uniform symbolize the fact that I was in the research and development branch of my kingdom’s military. These five runes indicate that I was the highest ranking member in the entire R&D branch, the high lord. Finally each individual point of this star symbolizes one of the five branches of the military while the pentagon in the center of the star symbolizes the human kingdom which each of the five branches are meant to protect.”

“Do you think you could teach us this technomancy thing some time so we can see if we get our cutie marks in it?” Sweetie Belle requested.

“From what very little I have read, I do not believe that is how “cutie marks” work. Furthermore, I am sorry but I believe the only one who would be capable of learning technomancy would be you due to how unicorns’ magic works. It is extremely similar if not effectively the same as my own in how it functions. The other two might be able to learn engineering and perhaps even the science behind how magic works but that would be about it. That is, unless their respective forms of magic can be utilized in an active fashion that allows them to bend arcane energy to their will like unicorns can. I honestly have no idea how magical abilities that are in any way related to biology are supposed to function so I could very well be completely mistaken. I simply have never witnessed any earth ponies or pegasi casting spells like unicorns do.”

“““Awww…””” The three fillies groaned in disappointment.

“I suppose I shall take your reaction to mean that my assumption was indeed correct. How unfortunate.” Gerhardt stated, unsurprised by this. “Was there anything else you wish to ask me?”

Apple Bloom shook her head. “Nah, I think you’ve answered pretty much everything we can think of. Right girls?” The other two nodded in agreement.

“Alright, if that’s all then we won’t take up any more of your time, Mr. Mechanica. Thank you again for saving Sweetie Belle. Good day.” Rarity said before turning and walking away.

“Yup, I gotta get back to the orchard. Thanks for stoppin’ them timberwolves!” Applejack stated before heading off towards Sweet Apple Acres.

“Yeah thanks… Later metal head.” Rainbow Dash said before flying away.

“Thanks for helpin’ us earlier and for answerin’ our questions!” Apple Bloom exclaimed gratefully before she and her friends ran off together.

Gerhardt looked at Twilight and said, “Well, you don’t appear to have any relation with any of those three unlike your friends, so may I ask why you are here?”

“Two reasons actually. The first is that Princess Celestia sent another letter for you.” She said, levitating a scroll over to him.

Gerhardt took the scroll out of the air, opened it, and read it in an instant. Apparently Celestia and the other princesses had discussed it for quite awhile and had finally decided to release the information about magical fitness and proper training techniques to the public after all. However they were going to be publishing the tome he had written as a book under his name, so apparently he was going to be receiving funding for every copy of the book that was sold. However they were going to be marketing it as revolutionary new discoveries made by him only very recently, so as to minimize any possible criticism leveled at what Celestia had been teaching in her school in Canterlot. They would also be claiming that he was the sole survivor of an extremely distant hyper advanced kingdom that had been destroyed in a natural disaster rather than letting anyone know that he was actually an alien from another world that had been sent here against his will in an attempt to protect his privacy.

He had no complaints about any of this. A new source of funding was always more than welcome and the fact that he wouldn’t be bothered because he was an alien from another universe was a nice touch. He couldn’t care less about any of the rest of it.

Rolling the scroll back up he said, “I see. Well it would appear that I shall have a new source of funding very soon. Now what was your second reason for coming here?”

“To start your friendship lessons! I mean you said you had time now and I didn’t have much else to do today other than organizing the books in the Library, which I’ve already finished.” Twilight said happily.

Gerhardt sighed and said, “Very well. I suppose that I have no real reason to object at the moment.”

Author's Note

Hey guys! This chapter actually took a few less versions then usual! Only 4 instead of the usual 9 or 10!

Fun fact: In one version of this chapter I was going to have Silvanus get angry at Gerhardt for killing the plants around his house. Then he would lash out by using the tether he has attached to Gerhardt's soul as a conduit for his power to engulf Ponyville in a massive storm and make a ton of lightning strike around Gerhardt and his house. Gerhardt would have realized that it was Silvanus doing this and would have started taunting and mocking him in an attempt to get Silvanus to hurt or kill him thus violating the rules of the Greater Gods resulting in him being punished and never being aloud to return to the mortal world ever again.

In response, Silvanus would have gotten so angry that he would begin tormenting Gerhardt by filling his mind with false or at the very least greatly overly exaggerated images of his kingdom being destroyed and his people dying. Gerhardt would then proceed to have a mental break down shouting at Silvanus to stop, to just kill him instead, and to leave his people alone, before breaking falling to his knees and begging for Silvanus to stop before becoming completely unresponsive to the outside world.

The mane six would have managed to snap him out of it just long enough for him to tell them

“It’s Silvanus… The one who sent me here… I think he was angry that I killed the plants around my lab… So he made this storm… And the images… The gods forsaken images won’t stop… My kingdom… My people…”

before becoming truly unresponsive. The mane six would have then had to try to find a way to stop the storm Silvanus had created, and free Gerhardt from Silvanus' illusion. They may have ended up either having to use the elements of harmony on Gerhardt or having to ask the princesses for help most likely Princess Luna since she deals with dreams and illusions are vaguely similar to those, I'm not entirely sure which. Then Gerhardt would have a bit of character development somewhere around the end of the chapter.

You can see why I didn't go with this version. It was extremely over the top, it was overly dramatic, the plot was sorta dumb, and Gerhardt would have done little to nothing for the entire thing. That being said I don't exactly like this version of the story either but it's... barely adequate. Sort of like Gerhardt's new eye.

Anyways, as always, constructive criticism is more then 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!

Stay safe out there everyone!