“Now normally, there isn’t much to do around here,” Echo Shade says. She shows Lightning Bug around the entrance to Townsquare, where she and Polaris first entered. “But what with the festival and the… eh… you know, there’s a lot of work.” They walked past several buildings, and many of them are surrounded by scaffolding, pulleys, and other kinds of construction.

Presently no pony seems to be doing much. Any lunchtime rush has ended and most ponies have shuffled off the streets to eat. All of the construction ponies, discerned by their yellow bump-caps, just sat around on their wooden contraptions. Their foreman is too busy chatting it up with an elder to notice.

“There’s always room for more construction workers,” Echo says. “But it’s a pretty hectic job… when there’s actually stuff to do.”

“Do tell,” Lightning says.

Finally one bump-capped stallion notices the two fillies watching them. And so does another. Instantly they’re all on their hooves, lifting buckets and pieces of woods like weights, or doing pushups and planks on their wooden beams and… planks.

Lightning makes a face and side-eyes them.

“Yeah, they do that sometimes,” Echo says.

“Echo Shade! Miss Pegasus!” the foreman, Hacksaw, approaches them. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen Slashbuckler today?”

“Oh, he’s further south, by the road to Riverton,” Echo says. “He’s busy building Lightning a house.”

Hack Saw’s face twitches. “A house?” he sputters. “Why, he really ought to get a permit or something…”

“It’s outside the town limits, so he’s honoring whatever agreement you two have,” Echo says.

“Yes, of course, but it would be much easier if he actually joined the carpenter’s guild!” Hack Saw said. “He wouldn’t have to cut all that wood himself, he could build wherever he wanted, and me and the boys could lend him a helping hoof!”

Presently ‘the boys’ are chatting and badgering each other, until they notice Echo and Lightning are staring at them. They go back to flexing and lifting.

“Riiight,” Echo says.

“That is to say, we’re always looking for more helpers! Would either of you be interesting in trying carpentry? There’s plenty of work to go around after… well you know.”

Echo glances at Lightning, who quickly shakes her head.

“Actually, we just wanted to ask if you’ve heard of any other pony who happens to need help today?” Echo asks.

Hack Saw sighs. “Actually I do. Word on the street is Spindle Sprocket is looking for another intern for his shop.”

“Spindle Sprocket?” Lightning asks. “Where have I heard that name before?”

The shop in question is a large garage-looking building to the far north of town. It looks like two or three different buildings strapped together by planks of wood and strips of metal. A steady stream of smoke rises from a hole in the roof, while the chimney sits uselessly beside it less than three feet away.

As she and Echo Shade drew nearer, Lightning Bug counted off all the workplace safety violations that would have gotten this place shut down back in Meteoras.

“We don’t have a radio repair shop, but this the closest you’ll find,” Echo says.

Hanging near the front door to the shop is a sign dangling on two pieces of rope.

Sprocket ------- 's Workshop

A plank of wood had been nailed over whatever the second word on the sign was. It looks like a hasty, spiteful alteration.

“Echo Shade, I’m scared,” Lightning Bug whimpers.

“Don’t be! Sprocket is… well he isn’t terrible, and the shop is perfectly safe!”

They get to the door, and Echo Shade is about to knock when it flies open on its own. Lightning yelps and leaps behind her.

Polaris steps out of the door. He looks exhausted. He glances at the two. “I’d turn around while you still can,” he says. “This place is a death trap.” He walks away back to town, and Echo and Lightning awkwardly make their way inside.

The workshop is a cluttered building, stacked ceiling high with parts and junk. There are several desks with tools placed on them, and in the center there’s a large empty space with cranes and pulleys strung from above.

“Oh, hi there Echo Shade!” a pegasus greets them with a smile. She had just finished ratcheting two parts together. “Need something?”

“Yes, actually, we’re looking for your boss?” Echo says.

The pegasus looks both ways. “I haven’t seen him since that other unicorn came in here. I don’t know where he’s at--”

“SCOOTALOO!” A familiar raspy voice booms from above. “Scootaloo! Why aren’t the pulleys arranged in alphabetical order?!”

The apprentice-pegasus makes a noise under her breath before shouting back. “I’ll get to it, boss! There are some more ponies here to see you!!”

A noise from the ceiling. One of the many chains begins creaking. Slowly, a dirty, spindly Galloway is lowered to the shop. He’s wearing goggles, and presently he’s completely wrapped up in the chains of the crane. He slumps to the ground.

“Oh, I remember him!” Lightning says to Echo. “He was in charge of the construction of the barricade back at the grotto! …He kept bossing everyone around and didn’t really do anything.”

Echo smiles and shushes Lightning. “Good morning, Sprocket!”

“Eh, It’s a morning.” The stallion gradually unwraps himself.

“Word on the street is you’re looking for a new apprentice,” Echo says.

“I am?” Sprocket asks.

“You are?” Scootaloo asks from across the room.

“Wait, I am! I remember now.” Sprocket looks across the shop. “Me and Scoot are busy here on the first floor. We need somebody to help install the goods on the top floor.” Sprocket finds a box of cords and gadgets and slides it across the floor to Lightning Bug. She peers inside.

“What’s all this for?”

“I’m off the grid,” Sprocket says.

Echo blinks. “...Sprocket, what grid?”

“I’ve cracked the code, I’m sticking it to the stallion. I don’t need to pay the council for running water anymore.”

“Sprocket, nobody pays the council for… nevermind.”

“I didn’t understand half of that,” Lightning mutters. “But I bet Meadow would get along with this guy.”

“What I need you to do is…” Sprocket shuffles through the box and produces something that looks like a gas lamp, but there was no wick on the inside to light and the glass cover was completely shut with no way to light it. “Every shop here has to stop working once the sun goes down, sometimes sooner with how steep the valley is. But I’ve invented a way to keep the lights on so to speak.”

“We could buy oil and light lamps like the rest of the valley?” Scoot asks.

“Or!” Sprocket says triumphantly. “I could shine a light as bright as the sun right beneath my own roof! So I’ve created this little device. It emits a light source that’s trapped behind a glass bulb. I call it---”

“A lightbulb!” Lightning says happily. “I haven’t seen one of these since I left Meteoras.”

Sprocket’s eye twitches. “...This isn’t a lightbulb it’s an… er… oil-less lamp. And unlike lightbulbs, this is powered by--”

“Electricity!” Lightning says. “That’s what all these cords are for, right?”

Sprocket’s face twists into a scowl. “Well, I was going to be helpful and show you how to set them up, but since you’re so smart…!” He shoves the gadgets into Lightning’s hooves. “You figure it out!” He storms off. “If you can get it working before sundown you got the job.”

Lightning glances over at Scootaloo. The apprentice shakes her head back and forth. “Don’t talk back if you wanna stay,” she whispers.

“SCOOT!”

“Y-yes boss?”

“Come over here and help me with the pulley.”

“Uh, Scoot?” Lightning Bug asks. “What does this plug into?”

“What do you mean?”

“Back home if you had an electrical device it needed to get its power from somewhere.”

“Oh, I guess the boss didn’t think that far.”

“Seriously?”

“You could try this,” Scoot pushed a small, heavy metal thing over with her forehead, barely ankle-high for a pony. “I don’t know where he got it from, but it’s got that zappy-thing on the top,” she points at a decal.

Lightning swallows. “That’s a battery from an airship, a big one.”

“Will it work?”

Honestly Lightning doesn’t think so. “Maybe, just… lemme hang up the lightbulb first.” Lightning takes the light in her teeth and flies to the top of the workshop. The top floor was just a walkway circling around a large empty cylindrical room. If there were any doors inside Lightning couldn’t find any. She cords the light and strings it up, and then she reaches for the cords. The cords are also very old.

“Howzit look up there?” Sprocket calls up from below.

“Oh, it’s working great! I just need to…” in her haste she nearly drops the lightbulb. She flies and grabs it just in time.

“Please don’t shake the lightbulb!” Sprocket calls.

“I know, sorry!” Lightning hooks it up. “Just let me grab the cord and…”

“Hurry it up! I want to know it works before the sun even starts to fall!” Sprocket attaches the cord to the battery.

“Alright fine… mister bossy,” Lightning grumbles. She didn’t realize that her coat had accrued quite the static charge, nor did she realize how nervous she was, nor did she realize these ancient cords weren’t insulated that well. That isn’t a problem for her, necessarily. It’s a problem if her stormtouch bounces from her hooves and down to the battery below, which is exactly what happens.

The battery starts vibrating and sparking as it fills with magical pegasus lightning energy. “Boss look, it’s working!” Scoot points.

“It works! Hah! Lightning Bug, go ahead and finish the circuit.”

Lightning holds the two cords up to each other and gulps. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea…”

“Just do it already!”

Lightning didn’t even need to connect the two cords before her own energy finished the circuit. The lightbulb turns on. At first it’s dim, then it’s bright enough to illuminate the dingy shop.

“It works!” Sprocket screams. “It works! It---”

A wave of light like the sun engulfs him. Pure white light, silent and overwhelming, floods out the doors and windows and cracks in the walls and out into the valley.

Echo was on her way to check on Slash when she’s nearly knocked to her hooves by the sudden wave of heat and energy. A bird falls out of the sky. Still, motionless.

“Oh no, Lightning Bug?!” She scurries back. “I’m on my way hon! Oh… Wanderer please!”

When Echo finds the shop, the incredible light has ceased. Lightning is on the bottom floor, disheveled and tired, her mane blown back behind her head, and in her hooves she carries Sprocket’s fried invention.

Scoot is busy trying to peel her boss off a wall.

There’s silence.

“Did she, uh…” Echo looks at every pony present. “Get the job?”

Sprocket is freed from his perch on the wall, and he’s covered in a thin layer of burnt carbon. He pulls his goggles from his face which leaves clean circles around his eyes. “No she did not. And if I were a banana-slug-looking pegasus with blueish green eyes I’d be hightailing it out of here.”

Echo doesn’t need to be told twice. She takes Lightning by the hoof and pulls her out of the shop.

“That was visible from space!” Echo Shade said. The two are back at the bridge where they found Meadow Skip, but he’s nowhere to be seen. Echo tries to smile as she wipes the soot off of Lightning Bug’s coat with a rag. “If you were still trying to find your squad, that little lightbulb would’ve done wonders!”

Lightning Bug wasn’t cheering up. She leans over the side of the bridge and studies the rocks and gravel below.

“Hon come on! You’re only… let’s see, Satin Splash, the Inn, Sprocket’s… three for three!”

Lightning shakes her head. “This is how it always is! Even back home I kept screwing up.”

“What do you mean? …Lightning Bug, how many jobs did you have before you became a scout for the army?”

Lightning pauses and briefly counts with her feathers. “Two…elve?”

Echo is dumbstruck.

“First I was a handy-pony at a workshop, but I zapped my boss with every the metal piece so he fired me, then I was an errand-pony for a convenience store and I kept frying or destroying the customer’s deliveries so they fired me, then I worked on a railway and nearly crashed a train when my coat zapped the tracks and they fired me…”

Echo is still listening, but her tail and ears are drooped.

“...And then my dad tried to get me a job at the Stormforge factory he owns. First he had me as an office-filly, but I set fire to my desk because of all the paper, so he put me on janitorial duties on the bottom floor, and there was an emergency with one of the generators and I touched it just right and my stormtouch set it off and… and… well. I applied for the military and got recruited the very next day.”

Echo swallowed.

“Do you believe me now?”

“I, uh,” Echo chuckles. “Your luck may be awful and your powers may need some… practice, but that doesn’t mean you’ll never find a job! We just gotta keep looking. If we don’t find one today, we’ll just look tomorrow, for however long it takes.”

“It may take a long time,” Lightning says.

“I don’t want to think about that~~!” Echo says sing-songily. She pulls Lightning along. “Let’s find your next interview.”

“Slash?” Smokey asks. “What are you doing with that cider?”

Slash sets out another thin saucer around the base of the treehouse. He chuckles as he pulls off the cork. “Get this. Sugargliders love sweet things, which means they also love cider.” He winks. “Cider.”

“Okaaay…” Smokey takes a step back.

“And Sugargliders get really---” he winks. “Sleepy after they drink cider.”

“Uh-huh…”

“So first, I’ll pour in two shots of cider…” he empties the bottle and looks at Smokey. “And wait for the Sugarglider to come by and get a sip of the cider,” he winks. “And after it’s too sleepy from drinking the cider,” he winks again. “I’ll be able to catch it in my net and move it to a safe location so I can finish building the treehouse.”

“Uh, Slash?” Smokey points with his hoof.

The Sugarglider in question has already found the saucer. The saucer is now empty. The glider does indeed blink and wobble after having its fill.

“Ah-ha!” Slash readies his net. “Just hold still…” He throws his net down. The glider flaps and floats in mid-air, just above the reach of the net. It lands on the net and squints at Slash.

That’s the last thing he sees before it lunges for his face.

“AUGH! Get it off!” he pulls at it as he tumbles into the grass. “It’s not a sleepy-drinker! It’s not a sleepy-drinker!”

Smokey backs away and runs.

“Smokey, get the net. Smokey? What’s going on? Smokey? SMOOOKEY!!!”

“Baking?” Lightning asks. “I don’t know…”

“Aw come one, you’re already great at it!” Echo Shade says. She takes Lightning into the biggest bakery in town square. She leads her past the pretty lobby with all the shining pastries behind glass cases into the back kitchen. The kitchen is dimly lit with a dirt floor, all the sinks drain to a hole in the corner of the room, and the multi-purpose oven is the most modern piece of equipment in the entire building.

Lightning is positive she’s seen the oven in a museum back home before.

“Steamroller?” Echo calls. “I got your working interview right here!”

The pastry chef is a heavyset Galloway pony with a graying mane. He doesn’t look mean by any means, but he doesn’t look particularly friendly. Presently he’s rolling a blob of yellow stretchy dough on a counter. He snorts, and Lightning hides behind Echo.

“I was thinking one two-hour shift would work?” Echo says. “Just to get her bearings.”

“ ‘At’ll be fine,” Steamroller says. “If’n she can keep up. I got a big order to fill.”

“You haven’t seen the way this girl bakes cookies and flips flapjacks!” Echo Shade waves a hoof and smiles. “She’ll catch on in no time. Right hon?”

Lightning nervously bids farewell to Echo Shade and prepares for a short shift at the bakery.

Polaris walks down mainstreet of Townsquare once again, downtrodden, his frazzled mane hangs over his head and almost brushes the dirt road as he trudges along.

"Who are you kidding, Polaris?" he asks himself. "Two degrees and unemployed. Perhaps mother was right..."

"Polaris, is that you?" a familiar voice finds him amongst the crowd. It's Echo Shade. She trots over to him.

"Oh, hullo. What's become of our dear scout?" Polaris asks.

"She's busy with her working interview," Echo taps her hooves and makes a little 'EEEE' noise. "She's doing so well! I'm so excited for her! What about you?"

"Oh... it's, uh..." Polaris doesn't want to embarrass himself in front of a fellow unicorn. "No... sizeable development yet, but any progress is progress!"

"What about Apple Bloom? Did you talk to her?"

"I saw her once, as a matter of fact," Polaris said. "But she ignored me... Echo Shade? What's with that expression? ...Won't you answer? You're starting to scare me."

Echo Shade is smiling, intensely. Her eyes almost glow with emotion. "Come with me," she whispers. She and Polaris leave in the direction of Apple Bloom's hut, and every pony on the way clears a path for Echo Shade.

Apple Bloom is shuffling about in some boxes beside her counter when she hears rapping at the door. "Apple Bloom? Hon? Are you in there?"

It's Echo Shade. She groans.

"For the last time," Apple Bloom creaks the door open. "I'm not interested in any help right now, Echo--" She glances over and notices Polaris. "Oooh Sh---!!" She tries to slam the door shut.

She fails.

Echo Shade's horn glows. The door remains in place, unmoving like a stone monolith erected on the earth at the dawn of time. "Hon?" She takes a step forward. The door opens and she steps inside. Apple Bloom takes a step back. "I have this problem, and I was hoping you could help me?" Her eyes really are glowing in the dim light of the shack. "You see," and her tone got really pouty. "I have a good friend here who just wants to fit in and be helpful, but nobody is giving him the time of day! I was really really hoping that some kind, generous pony like yourself could take him under her wing and give him something to do? Just to see what it's like?"

Her horn hasn't stopped glowing, and it casts deep, dark shadows across her smiling face.

Apple Bloom has been backed into her counter, with no escape. She notices Polaris awkwardly tapping his hoof outside, whistling.

"I uh," she swallows. "I guess I could, for a day..."

"GREAT! That's great!" Apple Bloom is pulled forward and Echo Shade gives her a big bear hug. "You're the bestest friend a girl could ask for, Apple Bloom!"

"My pleasure," she wheezes.

"I'll just leave him here, I gotta get back to Lightning Bug. You two have fun now!" Echo Shade skips out the door and vanishes outside. Polaris shows himself in.

The two ponies just stand there in the dusty shack, surrounded by the warped light reflected though bottles and the bubbling sound of potions. Polaris coughs into his hoof. Apple Bloom does everything she can to avoid looking Polaris in the eye.

"So... what is it one does in a place like this?" Polaris asks.

"Sell potions," Apple Bloom says.

"Ah, good. Just what I thought. ...How?"

Apple Bloom groans. "I have this big order to fill out," she says. "I need it done today, and I can't have any distractions." She readies a small mixing pot and starts gathering ingredients. "Just... stand there and watch. Don't do anything unless I say so."

At first, Polaris is perfectly amiable and does as his new tutor says. Apple Bloom is mixing a batch of ointments for various customers across the valley. She is not preparing or mixing her ingredients the way a Lustrian would. Polaris grows antsy.

"Wouldn't a more viscous sap be more preferable?" he asks.

"I'm using what I can find in the valley," Apple Bloom works with a mortar and pestle.

"But I saw a gloom berry growing just outside your house," Polaris said. "Those make excellent binders for ointments. They smell better too."

"I don't work with that kind of berry for ointments."

"It was just a suggestion."

"I don't need any suggestions. Pass me that jar of powder."

"This one?"

"What did I just-- that's boom-berry powder, are you crazy?! The one right next to it!"

"I can't tell the difference! Maybe if you instructed me better… This one?"

"That one. Thank you."

Apple Bloom mashes her concoction together, and whenever she asks for an ingredient, Polaris passes it to her.

“All boom-berries are good for is blowing stuff up,” Apple Bloom says. “Not for ointments.”

"I figured. And what's this ointment for again?" Polaris asks.

"Electrical burns," Apple Bloom says.

"Why would... ah."

"Yeah. Ah," Apple Bloom steps away. The concoction is under a rolling boil, but there's no flame beneath the container. Its moved by its own chemical reaction.

"Is it supposed to do that?"

"Yeah, keep stirring wouldja? I need to grab something." Apple Bloom steps away, and Polaris hurries over and stirs with a glass rod. He notices a decidedly unsatisfying reaction in the concoction. The bubbling has slowed.

"Well this is no good, her potion is separating!" Polaris glances over his shoulder. He spies the berries growing outside the door. "Well one or two of these shouldn’t hurt.” His horn lights up, and from all the way outside he retrieves a single berry and places it inside the mortar. He crushes it and mixes it into the brew. The bubbles return, delightful! Polaris is pleased with himself. He keeps stirring.

The bubbling doesn’t stop. The batch begins to froth. White bubbles spill from the side. A distinctive smell fills the room… and is that heat he feels?

“What did you do?!” Apple Bloom drops whatever she’s carrying and gawks at the overflowing mixture.

“I just added a single gloom berry from outside--”

“Those weren’t gloom berries! Those were fresh boom berries!!” Apple Bloom cries.

Polaris glances at the mixture. The heat fogs his glasses.

“Ah.”

When he turns around Apple Bloom has already scurried under a table.

A flash of light.

“And then I said… Nay good sir, that’s my sword in your belt!” Meadow’s story draws fits of laughter from the gaggle of mares surrounding him. They’re resting by the creek just outside of town.

“You’re so clever!” one says.

“And funny!” Says another. “A young stallion like yourself ought to have a marefriend.”

“Please, please,” Meadow strings his lute. “One at a time,” he winks.

“Meadow Skip?” Smokey comes around the bed of the road. “Have you seen Polaris? I wanna ask him something.”

“Last I saw,” Meadow tests his lute. “He was heading towards Apple Bloom’s hut--”

BOOM.

A shockwave topples them all over into the grass. Smokey drops to the ground and covers his head. He looks eastward and spies a mushroom cloud rising from the Dark Forest.

All are silent. A bird drops to the ground near Meadow Skip. Motionless.

“NOOOO,” he picks up the little animal. He starts giving it chest compressions with his hooves. “STAY WITH ME!”

“He’s so sensitive,” a mare whispers.

“And kind!” says another.

Smokey looks away just as Meadow tries to force air into the bird’s lungs.

Smoke still rises from the broken shelves and out the freshly blown hole in the roof. Polaris pulls himself free from the fallen debris, and a moment later Apple Bloom does the same. Her mane is a mess, her coat is ruffled up, but she doesn’t seem to have much to say. Her expression is blank and unreadable. She kicks at the now empty pot.

“Now, in my defense,” Polaris said. “You weren’t very clear with your instructions.”

Apple Bloom’s eyes snap open. “Clear.” She turns on him. “Clear?” She takes a step forward. “You want clear, Unicorn? RUN.”

She takes another step, and Polaris steps back. “Run where?”

“Back to Lustre.” She snarls like a direwolf, and Polaris is out the broken door and gone from the hut in an instant.

“Slash?” Snowy asks.

“What are you doing?” Smokey adds.

Progress on the house has slowed considerably. The roof is up, and so are the floorboards, but the walls haven’t been nailed into place. Slash is currently sitting in front of a saucer suspended over some kind of gadget, with two containers at his side.

Smokey watches as he pours in a huge helping of honey into the saucer, followed by some cider. “Oooh, I get it, you’re going to try and catch that Sugarglider with a little bit of both, arencha?”

“Draw it in with the cider and then it gets stuck by the honey?” Snowy asks.

Slash lightly depresses the saucer, which makes a noise like the clicking of a gas stove. The fumes of the cider catch fire, and the saucer turns into a makeshift brazer. The air is filled with the smell of cider and caramelizing honey.

The wave of heat makes the twins leap back.

Slash idly smacks his lips as the flames dance in his eyes. “Something like that,” he says.

Lightning Bug does not catch on.

“Lightning! We need three dozen rolls, I only counted thirty-five!”

“Ack! Sorry! I ran out of dough and was waiting on the mixer--”

“And what about the donuts. Have they had their first bath?”

“First bath?!”

“We dunk our donuts twice for the crispy finish! Don’t tell me you’d send a customer away with a half-cooked donut?”

“No sir! I’ll get right on it!”

“And make sure the shortbread is done mixing before then! I’ll work on the pretzels.”

Her white uniform itches and there’s no room for her wings. The kitchen bakes like, well, an oven, and sweat drips from her chin, and for an awful moment it feels like her back might start foaming.

Lightning is constantly rushing back and forth between three or four different kinds of baking, and it feels like putting tracks before a moving train.

A loud ‘ding’ nearly makes her jump out of her coat.

“That’s the cookies!”

“Yessir!”

“No, don’t box them! Put the tray down and let them air out!”

“I’m sorry I didn’t--”

“The donuts! Don’t let them in the bath for too long!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I--”

“And what about the shortbread!”

“I’ll get right on it, just let me--”

“Don’t turn off the oven I still need to load the pretzels!”

“I--I--!!”

“And what about that final roll?!”

Zap. Snap.

Lightning holds her head and screams. A wave of blue electricity sweeps the kitchen.

The oil burns. The floor is covered in soot, and the oven spews smoke before swinging open. The shortbread is baked perfectly by the sudden surge of energy.

Everything else is burnt to a crisp.

“I am super super sorry, the blame falls completely on me!” Echo Shade’s words are tumbling out of her mouth. “You can send a bill to the Lorekeeper and I’ll make sure it’s cashed as soon as we possibly can--”

“Don’t trouble yourself for now,” Steamroller waves the last of the smoke from his kitchen. “I’ll let you know when.”

“Of course sir! Again, I’m incredibly sorry and I just--”

“I appreciate the sentiment, but the sooner you two fillies move on, the sooner I can get my kitchen back in order.” Steamroller closes the door and leaves the two on the street.

Lightning hangs her head and walks away.

“Aw, hon! You did alright! He wasn’t that mad at you!” Echo Shade trots alongside her. “You weren’t awful! You just need to find your rhythm, that’s all. You’re a great cook. You probably could’ve been a cook back home if you weren’t already a scout. We just need to find you a place where you can cook or sew or whatever that matches your rhythm.”

Lightning spins on her hoof and faces Echo Shade. There are tears in her eyes.

“I do all those things for fun!” she says. “I bake for fun! I’ve never been forced to get a batch right or-or make sure they’re baked perfectly! I never wanted to do this for a living!” She shakes her head. “There’s just too much pressure! I hate feeling pressured, it makes me screw up and ruin everything and I’m just such a bad pegasus…”

Lightning Bug sobs.

“Honey! You’re not a bad pegasus!” Echo Shade holds her. “I’m sorry Lightning, I’ve been going about this all wrong. I never meant to overwhelm you.”

“It’s an easy thing to do,” Lightning says.

Echo tuts and shakes her head. “Tell you what, how about we take a break and just go home?”

Lightning sniffles. “Okay.”

Smokey and Snowy meet them part of the way back. “Hi Lightning! Didja get a job or… oh?” Smokey watches them pass by.

“We’re taking a break, Snowy,” Echo Shade says. “We’re just going to go home and relax for now.”

“Oh, okay. Is Lightning gonna cook dinner?” Snowy asks.

Lightning didn’t seem to hear her. “I doubt it.”

It’s morning, and Lightning Bug drags herself out of bed. The others are tangled up in their bedsheets, fast asleep. She yawns and flaps her wings. She briefly thinks of what to make for breakfast, but then she remembers the sound of Steamroller’s voice and decides against it.

What became of Polaris? Did he have any luck finding a job? She was so upset that she forgot to ask him before she went back to the Lorekeeper’s house.

Her stomach rumbles. There’s some leftover food from yesterday morning, but she can’t bring herself to eat it. She decides to leave the old flapjacks for the Lorekeeper’s family, and she steps outside and heads out into town to find something to eat. She has her last few bits with her, maybe she can buy some food.

The inn is almost always open. She peeks her head inside, and she hears music. A few patrons are lounging at the tables, one pony mans the counter, but beside the stage sitting on a stool is a lone pony plucking a stringed instrument. A pony tosses a bit into a jar at the musical pony’s hooves, and he transitions to another song.

“Meadow Skip?” Lightning whispers. She makes her way over to him.

“Oh, good early morning Lightning Bug!” he says.

“It is early for you, I guess,” Lightning looks around the room. “What are you doing here, I thought you said you already had a good gig?”

“Yeah, that’s what artists always say before they find something better.”

“And what’s that exactly?”

“Playing for tips and free lodging!” Meadow strums his lute. “See, Fullboard over there loves my music and he loves how it attracts more patrons. So, as long as I play for him three times a day, I get a whole room for myself for free, and I get tipped for playing!”

“The room ain’t free!” the Fullboard calls from the counter. “You keep all the tips you want, but you still gotta pay for the room!”

“We’re ironing out the details,” Meadow shrugs. “What about you, where are you working now? Lightning?”

She had went for the door in the middle of his explanation. “Oh, I’m still… I don’t know,” Lightning closes the door behind her.

The general store ought to have something nice for breakfast. Lightning’s mane almost brushes the ground with how low her head is. Meadow Skip found a job. Meadow Skip of all ponies. She’s happy for him but it’s not really helping her mood.

She wishes that staying happy was easier. She wishes she was back to making breakfast without a care in the world.

She steps inside the general store and lazily makes her way to a shelf of biscuits.

“Welcome,” comes a lazy and uninterested voice from the counter.

Lightning picks a bag of biscuits and carries it to the counter with her teeth. She sets it down.

“Will that be all?” the pony at the desk asks.

“Yes, please.”

“Two bits.”

Lightning sets the two gold coins down and the cashier receives them with his unicorn magic. “There you go… thank you so much --” Lightning finally looks at the cashier and reads his nametag. She blinks. “Wait, Polaris?!”

Polaris blinks slowly as he loads the coins into the ancient cash register. “Yes?”

“What are you doing here?”

“Apparently two college degrees and three years working in the University of Lustre amount to deskwork in retail in the middle of nowhere,” Polaris adjusts his nametag.

“What about a house? Are you still pitching your tent?”

“No, the young couple are letting me use the parlor upstairs.” Polaris yawns. “They took pity on me.”

“Oh, that’s nice, I guess.” Lightning nibbles on her biscuit and looks quite miserable.

Polaris’ expression softens. “Lightning,” he says. “They’re always looking for help here. I’m sure if you asked they could put you to work.”

Lightning shakes her head. “That’s fine, they seem like good people. I’d hate to make things worse for them, or for you.”

She leaves the store.

“Oh Lightning Bug, don’t be like that.”

But she’s already gone.

Lightning Bug sits on a hill as she finishes her bag of biscuits. Maybe it will be fine, she tells herself. She doesn’t need a job to stay here in Harmony. She would just have to rely on Echo’s family for food… and she’d never be able to repay Slash for making an entire house for her.

Maybe Tall Tail would actually hire her as a maid if she asked nicely enough. That was the only solution she could think of without being a burden to everyone.

Lightning is about to finish her last biscuit when she hears someone struggling. At first she’s not sure and takes another bite, but then she hears the voice again. An older mare? Could it be Miss Betelnut again? Lightning sets her bag down and flies over in the direction of the noise.

Miss Betelnut is lugging this package nearly two times her size. She pulls it up a hill with her teeth by a rope, and her old bones are barely enough to make it budge. Lightning dashes to the other side of the package and pushes it to the top of the hill.

Miss Betelnut is confused how the package could have moved itself until she sees Lightning Bug land next to her.

“Hi there, sweetie, what’s the occasion?”

“Miss Betelnut! You can’t keep dragging these things all on your own! You’re going to wear yourself out!” Lightning Bug tries to speak with authority but it doesn’t come out quite right.

“Oh… I know that, sweetie,” Betelnut sits down.

“What’s so important about all these packages anyway?”

“My grand-daughter,” Betelnut says. “She moved out to Townsquare a few weeks ago. She says she’s all grown up and doesn’t need any help, but her flat is as empty as an Oliphaunt’s jar of peanuts!” She motions for the package. “So I’ve been sending her some of my old furniture to help liven up the place.”

“All by yourself?! What about the post office?” Lightning asks. “Won’t they deliver it for you?”

“Why Lightning, I put in my request right after she moved out! They haven’t sent one pony, so I started doing it myself.”

“Not one pony?!” Lightning cried. Her face flushes. She feels a vein pop on her forehead. Lightning’s face twists into a frown. She whinnies and snorts and grabs the rope. She lifts it up all by herself and flies away with it.

“Be careful with that!” Betelnut calls after her. “That was her favorite desk!”

Paper Pusher stamps a letter and files it away. The doors to the post office fly open. “Paper Pusher!” a voice calls.

“Yes, that’s me,” the elder mare adjusts her glasses. “Can I help you, Miss Lightning?”

Lightning Bug is livid. She stamps over to the counter where Paper Pusher is working. Her new assistant cowers away and hides himself behind a pile of papers. “So much for Harmony, right?!” Lightning says.

“That’s what I said when we let you lot stay, but that’s neither here nor there, is it?” Paper Pusher doesn’t even look at her.

“What’s the point of having a post office if nobody ever delivers anything?” Lightning asks. She glowers at the assistant, who shows himself out of the room. “Why is it that poor Betelnut has to deliver pieces of furniture to her granddaughter without you guys helping her?”

Paper Pusher sighs as she files away another letter. “Listen, Lightning Bug.” She turns to face the angry filly. She winces at the arcs of electricity bouncing off Lightning’s coat and licking the floor. “By design, government offices here don’t receive an awful lot of money, so we lack a lot of incentive. We do only what we can. Ponies are more than welcome to ask each other for help, or to hire some pony like Cedar to carry their packages for them.”

“And what if they can’t? You fire all your help and just sit in your nice little chair and lick stamps all day while ponies’ packages languish in there?” Lightning looks over to the room of unsent packages.

“With all due respect, Miss Lightning, every station manned by an elder has been very busy after the you-know-what happened a few days ago.”

“So now it’s my fault?!”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Listen here,” Lighting puts her hooves on Paper Pusher’s table. “Back home, each post office had a dedicated Delivery Pony who would make sure the packages made it to their destination on time. How hard is it to open one more position?”

“It hasn’t been done in years, Miss Lightning,” Paper Pusher says. “Have you any volunteers?”

Pause.

“I’ll do it,” Lightning says. “I’ll deliver every package!”

“Oh, will you now?” Paper Pusher shrugs. “Well, you’re welcome to try, ‘Delivery Pony.’ Just know that even if you pull it off, the post office won’t be able to pay you very much.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Lightning Bug says. “I’ll do it.”

Paper Pusher leans forward and looks Lightning in the eye, like she’s testing her. Lightning’s expression is unwavering.

A moment later, Paper Pusher stands up and walks over to the room of unsent packages. She creaks the door open, and a box tumbles out. She pulls a map from the door and hands it to Lightning Bug.

“Familiarize yourself with the districts of the valley,” she says. “In Townsquare the first house number is counted counter clockwise from the statue of Sir Rat Tail with number 12 starting at due north and ending with 11 north-north-west. Two houses north from the statue would be 12-something while two houses north-north-west would be 112- something for example. Some addresses are simply the names of their business or trade, and some like the Lorekeeper’s home have no proper address.

“Riverton to the south only has house numbers that begin with 1 or 2 to the west and east of the river bank respectively. Northtown is divided into four rows, numbered 1 through 4, with the house number increasing the further north you go.

“As for any of the miscellaneous homes and businesses located between, you’ll have to use your own judgment.” Paper Pusher hands Lightning Bug a delivery bag stuffed with envelopes. “Did you get all of that?”

The truth was she didn’t, but for some reason Lightning isn’t panicking. She confidently takes the delivery bag and slides it on. She takes the map and runs her eyes across it. “I can do this.”

“You have till sundown, that’s when the post office closes,” Paper Pusher walks away. “Good luck.”

Lightning is left alone in the room overflowing with backed up packages and letters. Some of them are piled up to the ceiling, glowering over her like a band of dragons. She swallows. “I can do this,” she says again. “Compared to what I’ve been through, this will be easy.”

“Polaris?” Minty sweetly asks. She’s a shorter pony with a bright mane and a coat colored, well, mint-like. “Could you run down to the post office for us?” She hands him a slip of paper. “We’ve got a delivery from Northtown that’s been sitting there for days.”

Polaris is currently manning the cash register. He helps a customer with checkout before taking the slip. “You have to walk all the way down there just for a small package of oats?” he asks, befuddled.

“Yes, and once I find the other slips I’ll have you bring back some more. Well, normally our friends would bring it straight to our door, but they’ve been leaving them at the post office and things have been busy ever since--”

“I know, I know,” Polaris eagerly takes his nametag off and steps out the door. “Be right back.”

“Please and thank you!”

Polaris is barely out the door when a sound like a cannonshot makes him stop in his tracks. There’s a whistling sound. Polaris looks left and right. “By the Queen! What on Cabalos--”

A yellow streak passes by, and a package drops at his feet, addressed to the general store. He picks it up and takes a peak inside; organic oats from one of the farming families at the north of the valley. “...Well that takes care of that. Blast, and I was looking forward to stretching my legs.”

He’s about to step back inside when he hears the sound again, and once more a package drops at his feet. More oats, this time slightly bigger. “What on--” He looks up. A yellow and cyan streak is rushing back and forth between building after building, zipping across the sky. It comes back overhead in his direction, and the shape freezes.

He recognizes the pegasus pony with the mailbag.

“Lightning Bug?!” he cries.

Lightning Bug is carrying a large parcel. “Sorry!” She sets it down by the door to the store. “Can’t talk right now!” and she zips away again, making the same sound from earlier. “Laterrr!”

Polaris’ mane is blown back, and he just stands there. Minty peeks her head out of the store. She looks at all the packages. “That was fast! Did you fly?”

Lightning Bug is flying faster than she’s ever flown since coming to the mountains. She pulls out her map, selects a few stops, and then races down to the ground and makes deliveries in the blink of an eye. She slides letters into mailboxes, places packages on doorsteps, and for the bigger ones she asks for a signature. She feels a little bad about waking ponies up at this hour, but the town is already stirring awake and her job is on the line!

Besides, most of them seem happy to see their mail personally delivered straight to their door.

Some of the addresses are hard to understand, but if it wasn’t for those first few words from Paper Pusher, she’d be completely lost.

She makes a few familiar stops near the center of Townsquare. At Satin Splash’s, she drops off a very large but very light box filled with thick string for weaving.

For Steamroller, the parts to fix his old oven.

Spindle Sprocket, a box of nuts and bolts that had no business being as heavy as it was.

She even stops by the inn for a delivery of pens, towels, and bars of soap. Meadow Skip answers the door, but Lightning Bug just misses him.

Echo Shade is half awake when she looks out the window of her house and sees the yellow streak darting across the sky. “There’s no way…” she mumbles.

The streak lands in front of their house and knocks at the door. Her siblings stir awake, and Echo runs for the door and opens it.

“Delivery for the Lorekeeper! …There’s a lot of it.” Lightning Bug stands there with a bundle of letters.

“Lightning Bug! Look at you!” Echo happily takes the letters, and gives Lightning a big hug. “You’re a delivery-pony now! I knew you’d find something you were good at. I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks, but I gotta hurry!” Lightning pulls herself free. “Paper Pusher said if I don’t deliver everything before sundown I don’t get the job!”

“She did?!”

“Something to that effect.”

“Well, let me help!” Echo reaches for her scarf.

“No, that’s okay! Look, I got a map, see?” Lightning shows them the delivery route from the post office. “So long as I follow this I’m fine! I got this!” And Lightning takes off with a sound like a thundercrack.

“Good luck!!” Echo calls after her.

Smokey and Snowy poke their heads out of the door. “Was that Lightning?” Snowy asks in disbelief. A spare issue of Brightlites flutters from the pile of letters.

Smokey takes the magazine. “It was an angel,” he says in a half-awake stupor.

It’s sometime in the afternoon when Polaris is finally able to catch Lightning Bug again. He’s in the middle of a grocery delivery and sees her flying overhead near the Statue of Rat Tail.

“Private! --- Lightning Bug I mean, hey!” he’s able to coax her down to ground-level. “What is all of this? I’ve seen you zip through the sky all day!”

“I’m… making… phew!” Lightning has to catch her breath. “I’m Harmony’s new full-time delivery pony!”

“If you fly that fast all day you’re going to wear yourself out!” Polaris produces a bottle of water from his saddlebag and hands it to her. “What if your wings tire out like with the Direwolf? What if you crash?” Lightning drinks the whole thing in the time it takes Polaris to finish his sentence. She gives his bottle back.

“Oh, I’ll be fine! I’m actually kind of excited. I haven’t felt like this since cootbamp-- Bootcamp.”

Polaris produces another bottle from his bag. “You won’t be able to make your deliveries if you’re too tired to think.”

“Hah! I’m a pegasus, I don’t need to think! My thick skull retains all the information I need! Plus I just need to check the map Paper Pusher gave me--” Lightning reaches into her bag and digs around, and panic sweeps her face. “Ack! The map!!” She whips her head around. “I must’ve dropped it at Echo’s place! Ooooh…”

“Don’t panic!” Polaris says. “Just take a minute to breathe! I can run over there and--”

“It’s already been a minute!” Lightning Bug takes off. “Sorry Polaris I’m almost done I’ll talk later thanks for the water okay byeeee!”

Lightning Bug just finishes dropping off a handfull of letters at Riverton and is on her way back to the post office. She hears a familiar voice from below.

It’s Miss Betelnut, with a pile of small parcels. She’s waiting outside the door to her house.

“Hi there!” Lightning’s forehead is covered with beads of sweat. “What seems to be the matter?”

“I don’t want to interrupt you but I was wondering…”

“Are these going to your granddaughter?” Lightning picked up one of the parcels and checked the address. She remembers the map Paper Pusher gave her, and determines that they’re going to the same house from earlier.

“I can take some of them, but since you were already going in that direction…”

Lightning nervously peeks at the mountains. The sun is turning orange and slipping behind them. It’s almost sundown. “O-Oh, I can do a few more! No problem!” She reaches for the heaviest ones and carries them away.

She nearly drops one on the way over. One slips out of her hooves. She has to fly and intercept it before it hits the ground.

By the time she finishes dropping them off, it’s almost evening.

Lightning storms into the post office, her mane damp with sweat, her wings flopped to the ground, her legs trembling. She stumbles forward, the new assistant pony nervously gets out of her way. Paper Pusher quietly watches her make her way to the vault.

“Oh! Just one more letter!” Lightning chuckles nervously. “I can do that before--” The glass ceiling turns dark, and the sundial on the floor moves to evening.

Paper Pusher lifts the window shade. “The sun is down.”

Lightning freezes.

The doors swing open again, and the bell rings. Polaris and Echo Shade arrive.

“No. Nonono!” She collapses. “I was so close!”

The two unicorns walk over to their collapsed friend. Polaris kneels down beside her, and Echo Shade sorrowfully nuzzles her head.

“I was so close,” Lightning is on the verge of tears. “I had my stormtouch under control! I didn’t even screw up this time…”

“It’ll be alright hon,” Echo says. “You don’t NEED a job, we’ll be happy to look after you.”

“Oh, she has the job,” Paper Pusher says.

The three pause.

“WHAT?!” They all stand up.

“B-but you said before the sun goes down--” Lightning stumbles over her words.

“When the sun goes down, the post office closes, and we’re not allowed to make any more deliveries. Council mandate. I said that to make you hurry, I never said your job depended upon it.”

The three deflate a little.

Paper Pusher continues. “That notwithstanding, no other pony delivered so many stupid letters and packages in a single day since we opened this building, not since my age caught up with me.” Lightning is taken aback. Paper Pusher used to be the delivery pony? She didn’t just manifest behind the counter one day as a cranky old mare? “As far as I’m concerned, you were hired the moment you took the delivery bag.”

Paper Pusher gathers her things and steps for the door. She drops a small pouch of coins at Lightning Bug’s hooves before leaving.

“Come in tomorrow morning bright and early to start your shift, Delivery Pony. Until then, go home. No loitering in the office after hours. I'll have a key made for you so that you may lock up in the future.” The assistant pony follows Paper Pusher out. The bell rings as the door slams shut.

“What’s left for her to deliver…?” Polaris thinks to the now empty mail vault. “You might have peaked too soon.”

The other two are still stunned and remain there for a moment.

“Home…” Lightning mumbles. “Right, my tree house! I haven’t even checked back with Slash!”

The three make their way to where Slash was working yesterday. It is dark out, but the street lamps are lit, and a nice bright light sits right beside the road where Lightning picked her tree.

“Slash??” Lightning Bug calls. “Slashbuckler? I’m sorry for taking so long. Are you there? Slash?”

The three turn the corner, and the sight takes Lightning’s breath away. The treehouse isn’t just a box, or a typical house-shape plopped on a tree, it’s a lovely, cozy shape that compliments the tree’s strong silhouette. A stepladder about two ponies high connected the tree to the ground, and a little porch made of the same wood sat at the bottom. A rug with the words ‘Treehouse sweet Treehouse’ rests at the foot of the ladder.

Slash somehow made use of every single plank of wood, the ground was completely clean of any sign of construction.

“Slaaash?” Echo calls.

Suddenly there’s a racket from inside the house. It shakes lightly, and one by one the windows light up. Slash thunders down the steps and halts in front of the three. His mane is a mess, and judging by how ruffled his coat is, he’s been asleep.

“Welcome!” He clumsily flourishes his hoof. “To Casa de Lightning Dust!”

Somewhere a tree branch rustles, which makes Slash’s eye twitch. He looks over his shoulder.

“Slash, you look awful!” Echo says.

“Moreso than usual,” Polaris adds. Lightning jabs him in the side with her elbow.

“What happened here?”

“Hm, me?” Slash asks. “Nothing but the usual. I haven’t had this much fun building in so long, the time must have… yawn… gotten away from me.” Slash blinks for a moment. “Come on up! I’ll give you the grand tour!”

It does look slightly bigger on the inside. Slightly. It was mostly a one-room treehouse with a few small areas sectioned off. In the center was a large table with pillows placed around it. On one side of the house was an empty space for desks and drawers, and on the opposite was a spot with large barrels and jars by an extra-large window. One wall of the treehouse gave way to the treetrunk. A blue hammock swings between the tree trunk and a post running from the floor to the ceiling.

Candles and one gaslamp provided illumination, and Polaris glances at these uneasily.

Lightning is in complete awe and covers her mouth. She notices something. “My armor!” Lightning bounds over to a pony mannequin resting by the wall. It wears her armor, polished and new looking as if it came off the assembly line. “When did this get here?”

“The lorekeeper dropped that off yesterday,” Slashbuckler said. “Apparently he took it to be cleaned while you two were jobhunting.” Slash cleared his throat. “Now, I figured one side of the house could be for your trophies of battle and your armor and whatnot, and since you like cooking so much I left space for an oven by the large window.”

“Because the one thing missing from this place is another fire hazard,” Polaris mumbles.

“It’s wonderful… it’s better than I could have dreamed!” Lightning says. “Are you sure there’s nothing I can do to repay you?”

Slash sputters. “This is nothing, really. I could do much better if I had more wood and more hooves. Just tell me about Meteoras and the pegasus soldiers you’ve met and I think we’re square. This is done-in-an-afternoon stuff.”

“It’s been a day and a half, Slash,” Echo tilts her head. “What took you so long exactly?”

That makes Slash’s eye twitch. “That’s the other thing,” he says. “You gotta watch out for the, how do I say, rodent problem.”

Polaris bristles. “Rodent? Pegasus, did you even make sure this place was properly habitable before signing off on your work?”

Slash glares at him. “Hey! Art is a work in progress alright? I did what I could. So long as Lightning Bug keeps an eye out for the --”

Squeak? Squeak!! A little silver shape leaps from the trunk and scurries across the floor.

“SUGARGLIDER!” Slash pulls out a net from out of nowhere and slams it on the floor. The little animal gets away. “I’ve been trying all DAY--” he slams the net again. “To get rid of this thing!” He misses.

Echo yelps and ducks out of the way as Slash chases the little thing in circles around the room. Lightning just stands there and watches.

Finally Slash tumbles over into a tired heap on the floor, and the Sugarglider scurries on top of his head. “I’m sorry Lightning,” he wheezes. “I thought I had this taken care of, honest! You don’t have to move in until I get rid of this thing.”

Lightning tilts her head at the little creature. They make eye contact. Lightning raises one of her hooves. The creature rears up and hops high into the air. It spreads out like a fuzzy parachute and gently hovers down until it lands on Lightning’s hoof.

Lightning sits down and holds the little thing up. It regards her with deep dark eyes and squeaks at her.

“I’m going to call you Honey!” Lightning says with a smile.

Slash rolls over and collapses again.

Author's Note

Our first non-premiere episode is finished!

I feel like we repeated some information from the premiere but that adds to the cartoon show atmosphere doesn’t it? It’s been a while since the premiere finished IRL as well so it kind of makes sense.

Slice of life is one of my favorite things to write so this was a blast. The next episode will be jus a lil more action packed tho.

We hope you stick around until then!

~Team Gen S