Apparently Twilight’s plan to protect the Crystal Empire was for her and her friends to put together something known as the “Crystal Faire” which was supposed to “renew the spirit of love and unity in the empire so they could protect it from harm". It sounded like complete and utter bullshit to Gerhardt, but who was he to judge? He still wasn’t fully certain how the magic of this world differed from that of his own. He still had decades of research he needed to conduct in order to figure all of that out.

After the announcement of the faire Gerhardt spent the entire time on the castle balcony overlooking the city humming his lullaby while losing himself in his memories of the happier times in his life in an attempt to help himself calm down after his conversation with Celestia. That was until Twilight came and told him about some artifact called the “Crystal Heart”. Apparently the Crystal Faire was meant to lift the Crystal Ponies' spirits, and the light within them was supposed to power the Crystal Heart to protect the empire from evil. To him the Crystal Heart just sounded like the single worst barrier generator he had ever heard of. He knew that given a few months with the right materials and a few skilled construction workers he could build an equivalent if not superior barrier generator that didn’t run off anything so fleeting as emotions, though he kept this information to himself as he didn’t feel it an appropriate thing to say at the time.

Regardless, in an attempt to keep the Crystal Ponies’ spirits up, Twilight asked him to come down to the path below the castle and cast one of his optical illusions on a fake Crystal Heart that she had apparently carved until she could find the real one. Thus that’s what he spent the rest of his time doing. Since he had never seen this “Crystal Heart” before, apparently his illusion was passable but not perfect as several of the Crystal Ponies commented on it looking slightly different then they remembered. However they all seemed too intimidated by him to stick around for too long so none of them figured out that this Crystal Heart was a fake.

Later black crystals began growing out of the top of the castle and Rainbow Dash was forced to fly up and catch Spike as he was forced to jump off in order to prevent himself from being impaled. It turned out that he was the one to deliver the Crystal Heart to the bottom of the castle as Twilight had activated some sort of magical trap set by King Sombra in order to protect the artifact and was trapped at the top of the castle. Regardless, as soon as it was back in place it began to emit some sort of magical field that turned everyone into what Gerhardt could only describe as crystalized versions of themselves — including him though his appearance didn’t really change all that much — and destroyed the black crystals at the top of the tower, freeing Twilight.

Now Gerhardt was in the throne room of the castle with Celestia and Shining Armor. Cadance wasn’t present as she was still resting.

“So, now that the Crystal Empire itself is protected, all that’s left to do is find a way to get rid of King Sombra, hopefully without having to resort to sending Mr. Mechanica to kill him given how dangerous the magic he would be using is. Any suggestions?” Shining Armor inquired, looking between Celestia and Gerhardt.

Celestia thought for a moment before saying, “I might have one idea. Gerhardt do you think you could use your necromancy to restrain him without killing him?”

“Perhaps, but it wouldn’t be easy and nothing I can do will last forever. I could only restrain him for so long before my energy reserves start running out, at which point I will have no choice but to release him.” Gerhardt explained.

“That’s perfectly fine. I’ll only need you to restrain him for a few moments anyways. My plan is to have Twilight and her friends use the Elements of Harmony to restore his physical form. After that, either Cadance, my sister, or I should easily be able to subdue him thanks to how strong all of our magic has become from the magical exercises that you detailed in your book. Once he’s been captured, we should be able to drag him to Tartarus where he won’t be able to harm anypony ever again.” Celestia stated confidently.

“Very well. However, if I may, I would like to suggest a minor addition to this plan. I would like to return to my lab and use what few remaining scraps I have left over in order to build a device to block his magic once his physical form is returned to him. Both to prevent him from ever being able to use his magic to escape as well as to return the favor for paralyzing my limbs with those black crystals earlier. Though, this should be significantly more permanent as I will ensure it will be nearly impossible to remove without completely severing his horn along with it. Alternatively, I could either shoot his horn off his head with my teleportation pistol or break it off with my bare hands.” Gerhardt suggested.

Both Celestia and Shining Armor winced as Gerhardt suggested shooting or snapping Sombra’s horn off his head. “No, no. Your first idea should work just fine. How long do you estimate it will take you to build this device?” Celestia inquired.

“Since it will have to be rather small and simplistic, it should take me about twenty minutes. Twenty five if I decide to rig it to explode and kill him if it is ever tampered with or to cause him excruciating pain if he ever tries to cast magic. Thirty if I did both.” Gerhardt stated.

Celestia shook her head. “Let’s not go too overboard. Just blocking his ability to use magic should be more than enough. Twenty minutes is perfect. I approve of this addition to the plan. It should definitely help in keeping him contained. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, could you please open one of your portals back to Canterlot so I may go retrieve the Elements of Harmony, as well as update Luna on everything that’s happening here? We sort of left without informing her of anything that was going on, which I really should have done before coming here. I’ll have to apologize to her for that. It should only take me thirty minutes.”

Gerhardt looked at her and frowned. “Forgive me as I do not mean to be rude, but why do you need me to open a portal for you? You can teleport which is a far faster and more efficient means of travel than my portals. I only opened a portal to bring you here in the first place merely because I wanted you to fix your mess as soon as possible and I needed a means of returning here myself. Not to mention the fact that portals are highly energy intensive over such vast distances. With everything I have already done today just getting back to my lab, building this device, and returning here will leave me with 13.817% of my total arcane energy reserves, 1% of which I require to power my body and all of the rest of which I will need to restrain Sombra for any length of time. I imagine teleporting over such large distances also requires a significant amount of energy, but you are a demigod and have vast energy reserves compared to me after using those magical exercises that I detailed in my book.”

Celestia looked somewhat embarrassed as he mentioned how powerful she had gotten after using the magical exercises in Gerhardt’s book. “Oh… Right… I’m sorry, Gerhardt, I’m still trying to get used to this sudden drastic increase in power. Sometimes I forget that Cadence, Luna, and I are now so much stronger than everypony else…”

Gerhardt’s frown deepened. “That is a very very bad thing, Princess. If you forget your strength in the middle of a battle or something to that effect then you could accidentally end up killing everyone in a several mile radius around you. It has happened numerous times in my world, where demigods forget their strength in the middle of a battle for whatever reason and end up obliterating entire cities by accident killing millions in the process. For the safety of everyone around you as well as your own, you need to remember that if a normal mage or unicorn is a bomb capable of wiping a small town like Ponyville completely off the map then demigods like you and the other princesses are weapons of mass destruction capable of doing the same to the entire mountain that Canterlot is built upon as well as quite a bit of the surrounding area. For the love of the gods, please try to keep that in mind. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you do not forget it.”

Celestia’s hind legs gave out causing her to sit down where she stood, and she was suddenly looking extremely overwhelmed. “We’re that strong…? Sweet harmony… I... “ She tried to say something but seemed incapable of forming the words.

Shining Armor gave her a sympathetic look. “It’s alright, Princess. I know for a fact that if anypony is both worthy and wise enough to wield such power and use it responsibly, it’s you, Cadence, and Princess Luna.”

“You do not have to be so concerned, Princess. As long as you and the other princesses remain aware of your strength then you should have little to worry about. Also, you aren’t quite at that point just yet. I was talking about demigods at peak fitness. You and the other princesses still have quite a ways to go before you get to that point.” Gerhardt told her.

Celestia took a couple of moments to process this before saying, “You know, Gerhardt… I think I’m seriously starting to regret ever reading that book you wrote… This is just… Harmony, it’s just too much…”

“Indeed, I imagine it is. After all, power and responsibility always go hand in hand. Thus the reason that in the Human Kingdom all mages are immediately drafted into the military from the very moment they first begin to display the ability to use magic, typically somewhere around four to five years in age. So I imagine that the weight of the responsibility of the divine, even the partially divine such as yourself and the other princesses, must be quite heavy indeed. At least to those who do not completely disregard said responsibility entirely like the one who sent me here.” Gerhardt said in a somewhat understanding tone.

Both Celestia and Shining Armor gave him horrified looks. “Your kingdom forces foals into the military?!” Shining Armor exclaimed.

“Children, not foals. And yes, of course we do. We need the power of every mage we can possibly get in order to defend the kingdom and mages in general are simply far too dangerous to ever risk allowing them to go rogue, like King Sombra or Caedes has and had. Remember, my world is immensely more dangerous than this one and the Human Kingdom is constantly under threat. Plus it’s not as though we send children to fight in wars alongside actual soldiers, we aren’t barbarians like the Orcs and Ogres. They simply receive training until they officially become legal adults at which point they are finally sent into battle. They are even allowed to choose which branch they wish to join which does not officially become permanent until they turn sixteen.” Gerhardt explained not seeing their issue with this.

Both Celestia and Shining Armor were silent for a few moments until finally Celestia said, “Alright… Well… This conversation has been as enlightening as it has been horrifying and it has given me much to think about. Now I believe I will be heading back to Canterlot to retrieve the Elements of Harmony. Shining Armor, could you please inform Twilight and her friends of our plan?”

“Yeah, I’ll do that. Mr. Mechanica, we’re going to have to continue this discussion at some point in the future.” Shining Armor replied.

Gerhardt just rolled his eyes and said, “Very well. I shall see you both in twenty to thirty minutes.” With that he turned, opened a portal back to his lab, and walked through it before closing it behind him.

[Meanwhile on Earth]

Silvanus was absolutely furious after listening to Gerhardt’s conversation with the lead demigod in the world he had ended up in. While watching Gerhardt suffer was quite enjoyable, once again the insufferable metal abomination had denied all responsibility for the invention of necromancy and the events of the First Necromantic War. Even worse, that insolent demigod had gravely insulted him by saying he was no better than Gerhardt’s former apprentice, the Father of Liches.

Currently he was taking out his frustrations by ripping apart an entire regiment of heavy and super heavy combat golems and soldiers that were defending a major human city. This regiment was being aided by a couple squadrons of aircraft which were having to fight against all the rain, fist sized hail, lightning, the category six hurricane, and the multiple category seven tornadoes that he was conjuring in an attempt to force them out of the sky. Though the impudent little nats seemed to refuse to acknowledge that they had lost and fall like they should have for some damnable reason, making Silvanus increase the strength of the hurricane even further. This seemed to begin causing the aircraft some trouble though even now they continued to defy him, infuriating him even worse than he already was.

Regardless, these damnable humans couldn’t use their infernal W.M.D.s against him while he was destroying one of their precious little cities full of their pathetic civilians. Their super heavy combat golems, artillery cannons, and missiles were still infuriatingly painful whenever they hit him, but not nearly as much as their antimatter bombs and arcane energy eradicating weapons. He still had gamma radiation burns from when they had quite literally hit him in the face with two antimatter bombs in a row a few days ago.

He was in the process of melting a super heavy combat golem with continuous blasts of lightning when he suddenly had a brilliant idea. He couldn’t do anything to that demigod since she had not attacked him, and he couldn’t do anything to Gerhardt because he was in another universe and thus couldn’t currently be considered a member of the human kingdom plus he didn’t want Gerhardt to find out about the tether he had tied to his soul. However, he might not have to.

Apparently the nature spirits that resided in that forest next to the town Gerhardt was currently living in were angry and wanted to destroy the ponies for manipulating nature as they do. Silvanus strongly suspected the only reason they hadn’t was because something was restraining them from doing so. As such all he would have to do is extremely subtly send another thread through the tether tied to Gerhardt’s soul without it being detected by his sensors or being seen by the gods that ruled that universe or the greater gods that ruled this universe. Then he could use that thread to start expanding his influence in that world beyond just Gerhardt himself, at which point he could free the nature spirits and let them lose on the ponies they hate so much and he might mention how much he personally despised one bipedal metal abomination.

And right now was the perfect moment to do just that! Gerhardt was currently in his lab in that little town to build a magical restraining device of some sort and would only be there for a few minutes before heading back to that icy shit hole of a so-called “empire” to capture some pathetic excuse of a rogue mage. As such, a wicked smile formed on Silvanus’ face as he extremely cautiously sent a tiny thread of power through the tether attached to Gerhardt’s soul and tied it to some nearby plants. Once Gerhardt finally left his lab and went back to that icy shit hole Silvanus would then begin very, very carefully working his way over to the forest and have a little conversation with the spirits there.

He sincerely doubted that these spirits would actually manage to kill Gerhardt — the abomination had this very annoying habit of surviving situations that by all rights should kill him — but they would most certainly make his life a living hell for a while and would absolutely devastate the pathetic ponies the metal freak had allied himself with which should be a very nice slap in the face to that bitch of a demigod. Plus it should set back any progress he had managed to make with his lab and destroy that “love generator” he was building for the so-called “Changelings” in the process, which would most certainly be a nice bonus.

He realized that it may take awhile to free the spirits of whatever was restraining them since he had to be subtle about it so as to not get caught by the greater gods or the gods of that universe, but he still couldn’t wait to see that kingdom of mutant horses immediately go up in flames when his plan finally came to fruition. Now that would be a hundred times more entertaining to watch than anything that had happened to Gerhardt in that world up until this point. Knowing this, Silvanus’ mood improved significantly. While it would take time, he was nothing if not patient. After all he had waited eight hundred years to figure out how to get his revenge on Gerhardt and compared to that this would be nothing.

That was when something stabbed him through the back. Looking down he saw a very familiar and very unwelcome sword sticking out of his gut. The blade twisted aggressively before it was ripped back out and its owner kicked Silvanus out of the air and sent him hurtling to the ground like a meteorite. He impacted the ground hard enough to cause a decent explosion and create a sizable crater.

Pulling himself up out of the crater Silvanus looked up with a furious sneer. “Lanius the executioner… What do you think you’re doing, stabbing a fellow god in the back?” Silvanus demanded of the being who had just attacked him, who was currently standing on the ground on the opposite side of the crater.

Lanius the executioner was a lesser god of justice who was perfectly on par with Silvanus in terms of overall power. His skin was solid grey representing his neutrality in most matters. He had perfectly straight shoulder length hair, half of which was darker than vantablack while the other was the brightest white that was physically possible. He had a blindfold covering his eyes, but even with his eyes covered in such a way he could still see perfectly. He wore an executioner’s robe that was half black and half white. In his hands was a long flat tipped executioner’s sword, the blade of which was covered in ornate engravings. Finally his face currently bore the same stoic expression that he usually displayed during his executions.

“You, Silvanus, have violated the law. If not the letter of the law then most certainly the spirit of it. I know what you did, nature god. The loophole that you exploited for your misguided revenge against that metal human for a crime he did not commit. While the Greater Gods may refuse to take action against you despite my pleas for them to punish you for your crimes, I refuse to sit idly by while you twist and manipulate the laws to suit your own ends to allow you to slaughter innocents with impunity. You wish for a repeat of the genocidal war that Deimos declared against the humans twenty thousand years ago, which is the exact reason the laws were created in the first place. No. I will not allow it. Stop this now, if possible bring that human back this instant, and go back to the divine realm peacefully and your crimes shall be pardoned. Refuse and continue to violate the spirit of the law in such a manner and yours shall be the next head that I take.” Lanius stated in a deadly serious tone, pointing his executioner’s sword at Silvanus.

Silvanus scoffed at him. “Oh please… Lanius, you should know far better then I that if the Greater Gods refuse to take action against me then clearly I have done absolutely nothing wro—”

Lanius cut off Silvanus with a flick of his sword which left a horrible gash on Silvanus’ face, despite the fact the lesser god of justice was standing too far away from him to actually reach him with the blade of his sword. “Do not make me repeat myself!” Lanius growled at him.

Silvanus gave him an absolutely murderous glare. “Fine… You wish to stop me? You wish to protect these insolent worms?! THEN DIE YOU SELF RIGHTEOUS PRICK!” He roared. Suddenly roots shot up out of the ground towards Lanius at supersonic speeds in an attempt to spear him.

In a flash Lanius swung his sword and cleaved through all of the roots before they could reach him. “That was the last mistake you shall ever make, nature god… Silvanus, I hereby declare you guilty of all charges and for your heinous crimes I sentence you to death.” Lanius said in a grim tone, raising his sword in a combative stance.

[Meanwhile in Equestria]

About five minutes into building the device that would block King Sombra’s magic Gerhardt’s sensors detected an almost imperceptibly small arcane energy signature. Since his sensors were a little overdue for a standard recalibration he dismissed it as little more than a normal fluctuation in the usual background noise and completely ignored it. Though he did make a mental note to take the time to recalibrate his sensors at his earliest possible convenience since little errors like this were a bit annoying.

Exactly twenty minutes had passed as Gerhardt finished the small ring he had been building. Picking it up, he opened a portal back to the throne room in the Crystal Empire and stepped through before closing it behind him. As he had predicted he was left with exactly 13.817% of his total arcane energy reserves. Some of that would likely recharge while he waited for Celestia to return, but not nearly enough to really matter.

Perhaps in the future he could build a device to gather ambient magic and channel it into his soul in order to help his energy reserves charge faster. He hadn’t been allowed to do so in his world because of the laws surrounding necromancy but those laws didn’t exist here so nothing was stopping him anymore. He might even be able to use what he learned about how changelings feed in order to assist this process, though significantly modified to skip the emotions and the requirement of a living victim to parasite off of and instead go straight for the arcane energy in the atmosphere.

As Gerhardt waited for Celestia, Shining Armor and the others he began drawing up schematics for this device and mentally debated the pros and cons of placing it either inside his mouth, inside his chest, or inside his hands. Eventually the idea of placing it inside his mouth won out. It would be a decent representation of how he would be “devouring” magic just as the changelings devour love, plus the device would be closer to his brain and thus closer to the location that his soul was bound to his body which would theoretically make the process more efficient then it would be if the device was further away from his brain.

After about seventeen minutes and thirty four seconds had passed and he was starting to wonder where in the world everyone was, finally there was a flash of golden light. Suddenly both Celestia and Luna were standing in front of him and floating in between them was a very gaudy box surrounded by dark blue aura. Unsurprisingly considering the changes that Cadance had undergone Luna had grown to be the same size as Princess Celestia.

“Greetings Princesses. I was not expecting both of you to come along. Am I correct in assuming that this box is what contains the Elements of Harmony.” Gerhardt inquired.

Celestia nodded and said, “Yes it is, and Luna refused to stay in Canterlot while I came here to help subdue King Sombra. Before I sent Twilight here to save the Crystal Empire she had insisted on coming with all of you, so when I told her what happened she was justifiably upset.”

“I told you so.” Luna stated in a tone that was both somewhat smug and somewhat frustrated.

Celestia rolled her eyes. “I know, Luna. I heard you the first ten times. I have already told you how sorry I am for not listening to you earlier.”

“I’m just making sure you remember so next time something like this happens you actually take what I say into consideration. I might be the younger sister but that doesn’t make me any less competent than you.” Luna told her.

Celestia sighed and asked, “You’re never going to let me live this down are you?”

Luna shook her head and said, “No.”

“Well, Princess Luna, it seems that you were absolutely right in this case. However, it appears as though that has already been established. Having already yelled at Celestia for her mistake earlier, I shall not press the matter any further.” Gerhardt stated.

Luna chuckled slightly. “I heard… Not literally, unfortunately, but Celestia already told me what happened. Honestly I wish I could have been there to see it. I just can’t imagine you of all ponies yelling at anything, Mr. Mechanica.”

“Admittedly, it is quite rare for me to lose my temper and actually shout at someone. However, I was in a very bad mood earlier and this entire debacle just managed to get under my skin, metaphorically speaking. Regardless, shall we go look for the others and get this over with? The sooner King Sombra is dealt with the better it will be for everyone.” Gerhardt said, wanting to change the subject. He always found it somewhat embarrassing whenever he lost his temper like that, even when it was entirely called for.

“Yes, that would be for the best.” Celestia stated before proceeding to lead the way out of the throne room. It took them another solid half an hour of searching since none of them really knew the layout of the castle but they eventually found where Shining Armor and the others were located. They appeared to have been in the middle of discussing something when the three of them walked in.

Upon hearing the door open and seeing Gerhardt enter with the Princesses, Twilight immediately demanded, “Gerhardt! Is it true?! You actually wrote a book on magical exercises and training techniques and you never told me?!”

“Er… Yes. Apologies, Miss Sparkle, but Princess Celestia requested that I keep it secret until she and the other princesses decided how to distribute the information to the public while minimizing any possible backlash. They decided to have it published as a book under my name.” Gerhardt informed her.

“Fine, but that still doesn’t explain why you didn’t tell me after they decided to have it published!” Twilight exclaimed, sounding quite frustrated.

“I’ll be perfectly honest, the thought simply never crossed my mind as I do not view the information as very significant. These exercises and training techniques are common knowledge in my world. Besides, considering your relationship with the princesses and the fact that you run a public library, I just assumed that they would send you a copy once they were finally ready to be released to the public.” Gerhardt said.

“Of course. I was actually planning on sending you the very first copy as soon as it was ready. In fact it should be ready in the next couple of days.” Celestia told Twilight placatingly.

Twilight huffed in irritation and glared at Gerhardt but didn’t press the matter any further.

Celestia smiled at Twilight before looking at the entire group and saying, “I assume Shining Armor told you all our plan to defeat King Sombra?”

Applejack nodded. “Yup. We're goin’ to send Mr. Mechanica out there to hogtie King Sombra long enough for us to use the Elements of Harmony to restore his body. Then you or Princess Luna are gonna beat the hay outa him and Mr. Mechanica will put one of his fancy thingamajigs on King Sombra’s horn that’ll keep him from using magic. Then you’ll lock him up in Tartarus where he won't be a threat to anypony ever again.”

Princess Celestia nodded. “Correct. Are there any questions?” She waited for a moment but no one said anything.

“Well, assuming there are no questions I suggest we get moving. My arcane energy reserves are running low so I will only be able to hold him for a minute or so. Be ready to use your artifacts as soon as I have him restrained.” He said before turning and walking back out of the room.

Several minutes later Gerhardt and the others were standing near the edge of the barrier. Looking over his shoulder behind him, he saw Twilight and her friends wearing various bits of jewelry that he could only assume were supposed to be these so-called “Elements of Harmony”. Both of the princesses were standing on either side of them. “Are all of you prepared?” He inquired. All of them nodded in response. “Good. Then when I restrain him, be careful not to be hit by any of his spells. Keep in mind, while I can keep him stuck in one place I can’t stop him from using magic until his physical body is restored.”

With that being said, Gerhardt proceeded outside of the barrier with all eight of the others following behind him. It honestly reminded him a bit of some of the missions that he had been on back on Earth, except with significantly less machinery and death. He sort of wondered if this was what it was like for members of the army branch whenever they were deployed without any vehicles, combat golems, or members of the R&D branch to back them up. He doubted it was exactly the same considering the circumstances, but still.

As soon as they were outside the barrier, Gerhardt overclocked his brain and drastically sped up his perception of time until to him it looked as though everything around him was moving at a crawl. This would give him ample opportunity to react to any of King Sombra’s spells. After what felt like a few minutes to him but was only a few seconds in real time, King Sombra finally materialized in front of him and the others.

Not giving Sombra any time to do anything, Gerhardt immediately sprinted around him and slid to a stop a ways behind him. As soon as he was behind Sombra, both of his hands were engulfed with an other worldly ethereal green aura as he cast a spell to restrain the shadowy creature. Suddenly ethereal green chains appeared and wrapped themselves tightly around and even through Sombra before embedding themselves in the ground to hold him firmly in place.

Sombra thrashed around and roared furiously, futilely trying to escape his bindings. He even tried his best to turn and shoot some beams at Gerhardt. Unfortunately for Sombra those beams were moving at a snail’s pace to Gerhardt thus he avoided them with ease. All of them struck the ground around and behind him and created several large jagged pillars of the same black crystals from before. It seemed as though Gerhardt would have a second chance to collect samples of these crystals for study, which he was definitely not opposed to.

After what felt like a few minutes to Gerhardt, Twilight and her friends began glowing and rising up into the air before firing a massive rainbow colored beam of magic at King Sombra. When it was over, King Sombra had regained his physical body and the ethereal chains that were binding him in place had shrunk to match his new size. Seeing that he no longer needed to keep restraining him, Gerhardt released his spell and allowed his perception of time to return to normal.

That was when both Celestia and Luna sprang into action. Both of them blasted King Sombra with primitive combat spells simultaneously, and it was clear by the fact that no one had died that both of them had made certain to remain aware of their power. King Sombra had tried to raise a shield to protect himself but the shield of a single mortal mage was less than useless when up against the combined power of two demigods. Thus the shield collapsed almost instantly and the princesses' attack sent him flying and knocked him unconscious.

When Sombra finally landed and stopped rolling, Gerhardt broke a chunk off one of the nearby pillars of black crystals and quickly pocketed it. He then immediately walked over to him and stuck the ring he had built onto Sombra’s horn. There was a quiet whirring sound as four screws drilled into Sombra’s horn and bound the ring in place. Then the ring began to glow red hot for a few moments as it permanently fused itself to King Sombra’s horn. The intense pain of this process actually woke king Sombra up and made him scream in agony. As soon as the process was over, Gerhardt immediately cast a sleeping spell on King Sombra to knock him back out. Once the dark unicorn was unconscious again, Gerhardt picked him up and threw him over his shoulder before carrying him back over to the others.

“What happened?! Why was he screaming?!” Celestia demanded as soon as Gerhardt was close enough.

“Because apparently he found the way the ring bound itself to his horn to be quite painful. It makes sense. Four screws were drilled into his horn, and then the outside of the ring heated up to partially melt his horn in order to fuse itself to the horn and permanently weld the screws in place. I told you that it will be impossible to take off without having to completely remove his horn along with it. I never said that the process would be completely painless. Regardless, he’s still alive and he shall never be a threat to anyone ever again. Furthermore the pain should be gone or at the very least significantly dulled by the time he wakes up.” Gerhardt explained.

Celestia rested her face in one of her forehooves and sighed. “Ugh… At least he’s not dead and all of his limbs are intact, so I suppose that’s progress.” A golden aura surrounded her horn as she grabbed King Sombra with a telekinetic spell and levitated him off of Gerhardt’s shoulder. “I’ll be taking him to Tartarus now. I should be back in a few minutes.” She said before she and Sombra both vanished in a flash of golden light.

“Well. While it was a lovely walk all the way out here, I think I would rather not have to walk all the way back to the castle. So, everypony please gather around. I’ll be saving us a bit of time by teleporting us back.” Princess Luna told everyone. Thus all of them gathered around Princess Luna. Then in a flash of dark blue light they were all standing in the middle of the throne room once more. Luna then proceeded to gather up all of the Elements of Harmony and put them back in their box.

Unfortunately as soon as they were back inside the barrier the black crystal that Gerhardt had collected for study disintegrated inside his pocket, meaning he would have to collect another on the way back. Fortunately it wasn’t long before they were all preparing to leave. Shining Armor woke up Princess Cadance just to let her say goodbye to Twilight and the others. Celestia and Luna said their goodbyes, Celestia had a short private conversation with Twilight, then they both teleported back to Canterlot with the Elements of Harmony. Finally they began making their way back to the train and Gerhardt was able to collect a few more of the crystals for study on the way back.

The train ride took a few hours, which allowed Gerhardt’s energy reserves to recharge all the way back up to 32% by the time they got back to Ponyville. So as soon as they were back, he immediately opened a portal back to his lab and got to work trying to use what very limited tools he had in order to study the crystals he had collected. It was extremely difficult as they blocked almost all forms of magic but after a couple of days he eventually had somewhat of a breakthrough and managed to figure out what kind of magic they responded to. He determined that it was actually a type of curse though it was not any kind of curse that he was familiar with.

He would have continued working to figure out how the crystals worked, but eventually there was a knock on his door and his sensors detected the presence of three ponies. Two pegasi and one earth pony. Setting down the crystals, he walked over to the door and opened it up. Standing outside was Scootaloo with whom Gerhardt could only assume were her parents. Seeing this he lowered his hood to look a bit less intimidating and said, “Ah, good day. I am Gerhardt Mechanica, a master technomancer. You must be Miss Scootaloo’s parents, correct?”

Scootaloo’s parents looked somewhat intimidated by him but eventually her father cleared his throat and said, “That we are, mate. The name’s Snap Shutter and this is my wife Mane Allgood. We’re here because we were told you can fix Scootaloo’s wings. Is that true?”

“It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Shutter and Mrs. Allgood. And yes, I can. I have already informed Miss Scootaloo of this, but there are two options available if you wish for me to do so. First, I can replace her wings with augmentations like this.” He rolled up one of his sleeves and showed them his mechanical arm.

After letting them examine the limb for a moment he finally lowered his arm and straightened out his sleeve before continuing, “They would function just as good if not better than organic wings. Unfortunately I’m still trying to replace all the tools that I lost when my original kingdom was destroyed in a natural disaster recently, so currently I am unable to make them look organic. They would be solid metal and would be blatantly artificial. The second option is that I can use what biomancy I know to fix her current wings. The only drawback being that I am not as skilled in biomancy as I am in technomancy so while I guarantee they would function and look just fine, they may not be absolutely perfect. However if you chose the artificial wings you would likely have to wait for a few more days as I am currently out of materials and we would likely have to set up an appointment with the local hospital, plus she would likely have to be on pain killers for a few days as she recovered as it would require surgery to remove her current wings and attach the new ones. Biomancy has none of those issues, should be completely painless, and you can be present for the entire thing.”

Scootaloo’s parents looked at each other for a moment before looking back at him. “Can you excuse us for a moment? We would like to discuss this before we come to a decision.” Mane Allgood requested.

“Of course. Take all the time you need.” Gerhardt said understandingly.

“Thanks mate.” Snap Shutter said before the three of them walked out to the road away from him and had a short conversation. Gerhardt did not wish to invade their privacy so he did not increase the sensitivity of his audio processors in order to hear what they were saying. After about two minutes the three of them walked back over to him.

“How much will this operation cost?” Mane Allgood inquired.

“I try my best to keep my prices fair so that would be 486 bits for the artificial wings, that’s just 20% over the material cost so I can make somewhat of a profit as I am trying to start up a business. For the biomancy, since it costs me nothing and since I’m not quite as good at it as I am at technomancy, I’m willing to lower that price to 314 bits which is a full 35% discount.” Gerhardt informed them.

Both of Scootaloo’s parents looked completely shocked. “A-Are you sure about that, mate? That sounds extremely cheap. I’m pretty sure an operation like this would normally cost at least one or two thousand…” Snap Shutter said, sounding completely baffled.

“As I said, I try my best to keep my prices fair and to be perfectly honest I have no idea why a simple procedure like this would cost so much. It’s not as though the materials are expensive enough to warrant it. Then again I have been in the military my entire life and have never had to run a business like this before and I have never had to deal with finances before considering mages like me never actually got paid in my kingdom since we were never actually allowed to leave the military. So I honestly have no idea how civilian doctors determine costs in the first place. Regardless, the price is what it is. So which do you choose?”

“Uh… Well we all agree that we would rather have Scootaloo keep her current wings, so we would like you to use biomancy instead of replacing her wings with artificial ones.” Mane Allgood told him.

“As you wish. Would you like for me to do it now or would you prefer to schedule an appointment for a later date? I estimate that it should only take me roughly… ten to fifteen minutes. Possibly twenty depending on if there are any complications or not.” Gerhardt inquired.

Scootaloo’s mother thought about it for a moment and said, “Well, in that case, now should be fine.”

“Very well. Then feel free to come in. I do not have any furniture as I do not really need any due to my augmentations, but try to make yourselves as comfortable as you can.” Gerhardt stated before turning and walking into the living room of his house. The three of them followed him inside and one of them closed the door behind them.

As soon as they were all inside, Gerhardt sat down on his legs and requested, “Miss Scootaloo, could you please sit in front of me so I may begin?”

“Sure!” She said happily before walking over and sitting down in front of him. Gerhardt raised a hand above Scootaloo’s head and a copper colored aura enveloped her wings. “Oh, that feels really weird.” She said as the copper aura enveloped her wings.

“If at any point you feel uncomfortable or in pain I need you to inform me immediately so I may undo whatever it is I did.” Gerhardt told her in a very serious tone.

“Nah, it doesn’t hurt or feel uncomfortable or anything like that. It just feels really weird. Sort of like my skin and feathers are moving.” She said looking back at her wings.

“That’s because they are moving. Your bones and muscles are moving too so you might be able to feel that as well if you decide to focus on it. I am currently having to use my magic to make them grow as well as repair a few minor issues I believe I have found. Were I better at biomancy this likely wouldn’t take nearly as long as it will, but I’m trying my best to be as careful as possible to ensure I don’t make any mistakes.” He explained.

“So, Mr. Mechanica, earlier you said that you’re trying to start up a business here. What is it that you do exactly?” Mane Allgood inquired, apparently trying to make small talk while Gerhardt worked.

“I’m a technomancer. I combine magic and technology to make machines. These machines can range from the augmentations that make up my body, to weapons, and even to simple cleaning golems. Recently I even built an animal from my home kingdom as a gift for an individual named Fluttershy as she was quite afraid of me.” Gerhardt stated.

“Built an animal? You mean like a toy?” Snap Shutter asked, somewhat confused by Gerhardt’s wording.

“No. I mean I built an actual honest to the gods animal. It may be made of metal like me, but like me it is still very much alive. It was actually the first truly sentient golem that I have ever built. Though I can understand why you might have that misconception since that is very likely the first true artificial intelligence this world has ever seen. Even I am not an actual artificial intelligence. I used to be fully organic. Now all that’s left of my old organic body is my frontal lobe.”

They continued to make small talk for a while. Eventually fifteen minutes passed and Gerhardt finally lowered his hand. Looking at the wings on Scootaloo’s back he frowned. They were a bit larger than they should have been. They weren’t freakishly large, but they were still bigger than they should have been. With a frustrated huff he said, “They’re a bit larger than they should be but they should function just fine. I might be able to fix that if you want but it would take a bit longer.”

Scootaloo looked at her wings and happily exclaimed, “What? No way! This is awesome! Thank you so much Mr. Mechanica! I can’t wait to try them out!”

Scootaloo’s parents smiled happily. Snap Shutter reached into a pouch on his saddle bags and pulled out a large sack of bits. “Here ya go, mate. Six hundred bits.”

Gerhardt stood up and looked at him. “You do realize that you're overpaying by almost double, right? The price was only 314.”

“Yeah I know. It’s just that I’d feel like I’m rippin’ you off if I gave you any less. I don’t know if you realize how much you just helped my daughter but this is my way of showing how grateful we all are for it.” Scootaloo’s father said, holding out the bag of bits.

Gerhardt walked over and took the bag. “I suppose if you’re certain…” Gerhardt said somewhat reluctantly. “Well there shouldn’t be any complications, but if anything does come up then please feel free to come back. I’ll be more than happy to give you a full refund and fix the issue to the best of my abilities.”

The three of them nodded at him and said their goodbyes before leaving his house.

Looking at the sack of coins in his hand he already knew exactly what to do with it. Setting it against the wall next to the fireplace, he opened a portal to the Carousel Boutique. There was an open sign on the door so he walked inside. Hearing him come in, Rarity looked up from what she was doing and said, “Hello Mr. Mechanica. What brings you here today? I imagine it’s because you would like me to repair your clothes, correct?”

“Actually no, though I do plan on asking you to do so at some point after I commission my more formal uniform. I’m actually working on a new project and I would like to commission you to make a different set of clothes. Might you have a piece of paper I could borrow? I could draw you a picture of what I have in mind and give you all of the measurements.” Gerhardt requested.

“Of course! Give me a moment.” Rarity said before going to retrieve a piece of paper. Coming back with the paper she levitated it over to him.

Gerhardt took the paper out of the air, took out his fountain pen, created a shield in the air in front of him, and proceeded to use the shield as a surface to write on. He drew a simple robe that was similar in design to his and a simple pair of pants, and wrote out all the measurements with lines pointing to what measurements were for what part of the clothes. When he was finished he put the cap back on his fountain pen and put it away, picked up the paper, and let the shield fall. He then used his own telekinesis to levitate the paper back over to Rarity.

She took the paper from him and examined it for a moment before a confused expression spread across her face. “Um… Mr. Mechanica… I don’t mean to question your measurements but judging by what you’ve written here these clothes seem rather small for one of your significant stature… Also, they are dreadfully bland.”

“That’s because they definitely aren’t meant for me. As I said, I am working on a new project. These clothes are for that project, not me. Also, it’s supposed to be at least somewhat bland. It’s for everyday use like my current robes, not special occasions like the formal uniform I will be commissioning from you in the future will be. You may think of my sketch as a template and tweak the design somewhat if you wish, as long as you don’t go overboard and you keep in mind that it shouldn’t be too excessively ornate. Also, I would very much appreciate it if you could keep the project I’m working on secret until I’m actually ready to unveil it. I would be absolutely devastated if it’s existence were to be revealed before it’s actually ready.” He told her.

“Alright my lips are sealed, but what is it that you’re working on if you don’t mind me asking? Judging by the design of these clothes it almost seems as though you’re building another smaller version of yourself.” Rarity inquired.

“That’s close to what I have in mind, but no. I will not be building a second me. Just one of me is already more than enough in my personal opinion. As for what it is exactly I will be building, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait to find out like everyone else. In fact, you’re the only one I have told about this particular project in the first place and that’s strictly out of necessity because what I’m building needs clothes and I do not have any idea where to buy fabric nor am I a professional tailor like you. Anyways, could you give me an estimate as to how much this will cost?”

“Hm… Let’s say… One hundred and fifty bits, and I’ll even repair your current attire for no extra cost.” Rarity offered.

“Er… The price is more than fair, but… um… I think I would prefer not to remove my clothes. At least not until I have other clothes to change into.” Gerhardt said somewhat uncomfortably.

“Oh? Why not?” Rarity inquired, not understanding what the issue was with him removing his clothes.

“Cultural differences. In my kingdom it is considered indecent to walk around without clothes. I believe this is at least partially due to the fact that my species can not hide our more “delicate” areas like your species appears to be able to, plus we lack fur so clothes help us regulate our body temperature. My body is mainly made up of augmentations and I do not care to make it look like my old organic body so I no longer have these issues so technically I could walk around without them, however given my society’s culture I still find it somewhat embarrassing to be seen without any clothes.” Gerhardt informed her.

“I see. I’m so sorry Mr. Mechanica I honestly did not mean to make you uncomfortable. If that’s the case then I will not press the issue any further. Just know that after you do eventually commission your new uniform from me, the offer still stands.” Rarity said with a friendly smile.

“Thank you, Miss Rarity. That is very generous of you. I shall keep that in mind.” He stated, before creating a portal back to his lab and grabbing the sack of bits that he had just received. Using telekinesis he counted out exactly one hundred and fifty bits and set them all in several neat stacks on a nearby table. “There, exactly one hundred and fifty bits. Now, I shall let you get back to work. Good day, Miss Rarity.”

“You’re quite welcome. Good day, Mr. Mechanica.” Rarity responded as Gerhardt turned and left the boutique.

Author's Note

Yes! Another chapter done! It's not the best chapter ever but it's a chapter and it progresses the plot.

Fun fact: Lanius wasn't exactly my first choice for a god to side with the humans and fight back against Silvanus. I was also considering gods and goddesses of: war, death, order, and knowledge. I was also considering a god of technology but... I think I'm probably not going to be including any machine gods of any sort. After all, despite the hilarious memes this isn't Warhammer and Gerhardt isn't actually part of the Adeptus Mechanicus. He's way to into progress and developing new technology to ever be part of the Mechanicus.

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!