A few days have passed since then. Bender's machine was impressive, but it was a shame that Scoutalu lost his last chance to fly independently. When he flew out, a branch tore off the middle growth of the bone in his left wing. Although Bender repaired his machine, which he named Falcon, he didn't start the program he had announced. He says he won't put anyone in such danger again.

Today, Luna and Cadence are arriving, and Celestia wants to prepare a special test for me. The zap apple has already appeared and will ripen tomorrow. Applejack and Apple Bloom are extremely busy, but despite this, they help Scoutalu a lot, who, due to his leg injury, can only walk with crutches. However, this doesn't stop him from learning to fly with the Falcon.

Bender has started on his new machine, which… what does he call it? I can't remember, it's such a nonsensical name. The essence of this machine is to store unicorn magic, or more precisely, to harness his own horn, which has been even less controllable since the accident. It seals the magic and then shoots out like small light points, like a slingshot with pebbles.

"Twilight! Bender is asking if you know anything about a blue booth with a sign that says 'Free Call Police Box.' This is the other thing—ever since we found them, he's been mentioning a blue booth and showed me a strange letter written in a language I've never seen before."

"Tell him that if he keeps nagging, I won't pay for the instruments." Spike stormed out, but this thing keeps bothering me. Maybe I should tell him what I heard from Derpy about how Dinky was born because when she told me, it was unbelievable.

"Scoutalu!!!" I knew something was missing, but I didn't know what it was. Of course, I didn't refuel! How could I be such a numbskull? Lucky that Fluttershy and Twilight caught me, my goodness!

"Bender, calm down!" Twilight's eyes now had a motherly sternness. "Start from the beginning."

"Twilight!" I only heard this gentle, soft voice because of my attention disorder, but I didn't pay attention to it. I wish I had in hindsight.

"Well, it's hard to explain, but it's not that important right now." I looked around and saw the Falcon. It was turned by its wing, but except for the left wing, everything seemed to be operational, except for the bent propeller. "You know what, make yourself useful and lift it by the fuselage."

"Twilight! Please!" The voice became increasingly worried, but I didn't understand why at the time.

She snorted, and I didn't understand why. "Fine, but what are you doing? Anyway, what is this? It looks like a seagull with its wings stretched out, and a three-pronged mill wheel attached to its beak." That made my blood boil. A mill wheel, really? This was too much. This is a groundbreaking invention, and she insults it.

This here is the Falcon, a…

"Twi-light!" This voice was still soft but as firm as a soldier's. "We need to take him to the hospital!" At these words, I recoiled. Then I looked at Fluttershy and the one lying on her back. I thought my heart would stop. Scoutalu's wings hung limply, and the middle of one was missing a bunch of feathers. The middle of his left wing was completely torn out.

"My goodness! I'm sorry, Fluttershy, you're right." Twilight lifted his left wing, and now I had a complete picture. Our wing consists of one main and three auxiliary bones, usually completely hidden by feathers with a bit of flesh. On Scoutalu's left wing, the middle auxiliary bone was out of place, which I knew meant…

Looking back, this day was partly my fault. I shouldn't have been fooling around but should have looked for him as soon as I could. But as he said, he didn't refuel. My wing is no longer suitable for flying, not that I could before.

Bender has been behaving terribly lately; he almost cut off his own wing so that a regeneration spell might give me another chance to fly. But Fluttershy and I managed to talk him out of it with great difficulty. He is still consumed by guilt, and it's like pulling teeth to get him to come up with new cutie mark ideas.

Meanwhile, thanks to him, Smash Engine has received his cutie mark. One of the Falcon's wings had fallen off, and the propeller was bent from all the tree branches. When the two of them replaced one of the damaged rear control panels, he got his cutie mark, which was a hammer about to strike a metal plate. Meanwhile, Bender gave me the repaired Falcon and asked me to perform a demonstration with him at tomorrow's physics parade. He also built another one, but it doesn't have an engine, so he'll sit behind me during the demonstration to help if needed.

With one hour left until the demonstration, I decided to have a smoothie with Sweetie Belle, and I wanted to invite Bender too, but he insisted on doing a full check before the demonstration. I'm really sorry about this because I've seen him hesitating, torn between me and him, but afraid to approach either of us.

"Scoutalu!" I jerked my head up and saw Sweetie Belle looking at me strangely, almost puzzled. I shook my head to clear it.

"Oh—sorry, I zoned out. Where were we?" She sipped her strawberry smoothie and cleared her throat.

"You said you're not sure if you want to do this demonstration anymore. By the way, Bender mentioned something about a moving fortress he plans to design if he gets permission from the army to supplement the magic legions. Do you know anything about this?"
"No, unfortunately, since the accident, he only lets me near his workshop if the Falcon needs repairs. He is deathly afraid for me, almost paranoid, which is quite unusual for him. When..." My voice faltered because I realized that everything I said was just the consequence of my own mistake, as if I hadn't broken down then...

"Twilight lent me a horn ornament filled with a thought-interpretation spell for today, so I know what you're thinking, and no, it wasn't his fault or yours. It was an accident, a series of completely random coincidences. The same thing would have happened in reverse. This didn't fully reassure me, but I managed to hold back the tears that were about to spill.

"Thanks, Sweetie Belle, I couldn't ask for a better friend on all seven lands than you, but..." I glanced at the clock. "I'm going to be late!" I downed my chocolate smoothie in one gulp, which felt like swallowing one of Spike's larger rubies—cold and painful—but I didn't dwell on it. Instead, I burst out with a speed that would make Rainbow Dash proud to get to school on time.

I made it just in time. Bender was checking the controls, and as soon as he saw me, he moved to the second seat where he had installed a strange device. The machine could rotate, and it flashed lights. He called it Morse and had given a device to Miss Cheerilee that converted the received signals into sound. I walked slowly, and as I did, I put on the equipment one by one from my saddlebag: the helmet with the goggles, then the crank, which had since been made removable because it turned out that pushing the joystick forward and to the left was obstructed by it. I also had a special hoof protector called a "Glove," which theoretically wasn't needed yet, but it was better to get used to it.

I got in. A pegasus could easily operate the machine. My two front hooves controlled the joystick, while my two back hooves operated the pedals that moved the rudder. My right wing also handled the throttle. My left wing was still healing, so I couldn't use it. Despite this, I had a good view from the plane. Bender peeked forward and assumed a position as if lying on a massage table.

"Ready?" he asked, almost in a fatherly manner. His eyes sparkled with a maturity that I didn't fully understand at the time.

"I was born ready!" He just rolled his eyes and slid back into the rear seat. While I cranked up the machine, he simply tested the lamp, rotated it, then flashed a "CQD SOSW" signal with it.

The engine roared to life, and the hangar doors opened as if by magic. Scoutalu pushed the throttle forward, and the Falcon slowly rolled out. When we got outside, there wasn't a large crowd, just three people—Twilight and the two Crusaders, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. Twilight approached the side of the Falcon, unable to hide the slight tears in her eyes.

"I’m proud of you, Bender, and I truly believe this experiment will be crowned with success."

"Thanks, Twilight. I couldn't have rebuilt it without your help." Meanwhile, the Crusaders hugged Scoutalu, wishing her good luck as I overheard. The Falcon's engine roared louder and louder. The wheels spun again, and after a short acceleration, the small plane no longer shook.

We were airborne again, soon only seeing the rooftops of houses below, and the only sound was the hum of the Falcon's engine. Scoutalu pulled her goggles over her eyes and made a sudden sharp turn to the right, so sharp that the right wing was pointing up and to the left, and the left wing down and to the right. The Falcon flew even faster, and we zoomed over the spectator area. Scoutalu quickly leveled the Falcon again, and I spotted the podium where the control panel was set up.

I quickly aimed the Morse gun and started typing. "Welcome everyone to today's physics demonstration, and apologies if we startled anyone." Scoutalu made another daring turn, causing the Morse gun to slip, so I had to wait. Scoutalu performed a beautiful loop-de-loop... I still don't understand why they call it a loop when it's a vertical circle. Scoutalu didn't even finish it; about ¾ of the way through, she flipped the plane and leveled it out. I seized the opportunity and aimed the gun again. "My name is Bender, and this is the Falcon, the future! Sit back and enjoy the show." Then I turned to Scoutalu. "Let's show them what we can do!"

She didn't respond but started weaving between a few clouds.

Luna wasn't particularly interested in the small school kids' makeshift machines demonstrating various physical phenomena, preferring to converse with Mayor Mare and Filthy Rich instead.

I was personally looking for Twilight, but she had disappeared from view since the parade started. Shining mentioned that Twilight had recently borrowed an unusually large number of technical books from Canterlot and had been researching in the Crystal Empire archives, but I didn't think much of it. Fluttershy said that Twilight had headed towards the school. I was about to follow her direction when a buzzing, crackling sound reached my ears. I looked around, noticing a strange speaker on a podium, which seemed suspiciously set up for the judges, but it wasn't making the sound. The noise suddenly grew louder, and something flew overhead. I don't know what it was, but it looked very interesting.

"Welcome everyone to today's physics demonstration, and apologies if anyone got scared," came the voice from the machine at the judges' podium. I then noticed something blinking on the plane. The plane flew upward, almost vertically, and then did an almost complete loop. The plane spoke again. "My name is Bender, and this is the Falcon, the future! Sit back and enjoy the show." This time, I took a closer look and realized that there were two ponies in the Falcon. The one in the back was flashing some kind of strange light at the plane, which was speaking, while the other was piloting.

They weaved around a few clouds, then took a sharp left turn, heading towards us. As they made a graceful arc, the pony in the back fiddled with something, and the plane started emitting smoke. It then straightened out, and the smoke took on a faint orange-yellow hue, beginning to form shapes.

Soon, a face appeared—an orange mare with a thick, purple mane almost falling into her eyes. But the plane wasn't done yet. It started trailing a red streak, and shortly after, another face emerged. "Isn't it artistic?" This voice made me jump nearly as high as the plane.

"Twilight! You scared the life out of me!" She briefly looked like a foal caught in mischief, then we both laughed.

"Oh, Cadence! You know you're the funniest?" I just shrugged and looked back. The machine was out of sight, and the two faces were fully formed.

"Thank you very much. If you're interested in the Falcon, you can find us in front of the school garage," the plane announced again, and the crowd erupted in cheers, even catching Luna's visible attention.

As the parade ended, the Falcon started running low on fuel. Though we hadn't fully refueled, its consumption was astonishingly high. The engine couldn't be run at full power for long. As soon as we landed, a few ponies approached.

"Excuse me! Please clear the way!" The voice was simultaneously authoritative and somewhat childish. Suddenly, everyone present bowed, but I stood tall and proud. Soon, Princess Luna and Princess Cadence stepped forward, accompanied by Twilight and another pegasus pony I couldn't recognize. The pegasus wore a blue suit that covered their cutie mark, had an orange mane similar to Scoutalu's coat, but with a beautifully bright lemon-yellow coat, and wore glasses.

When Scoutalu saw who was approaching, she bowed like everyone else, but I remained standing tall, like a soldier, only my horn betraying how much I was trembling inside. I had seen Princess Luna in my dreams, and heard about Cadence from Twilight, but the pegasus mare concerned me.

"Princess Luna, what an honor! My name is Bender…"

"I know who you are, and I'm glad my advice was well understood." This was somewhat reassuring, but not for me. In the meantime, everyone stood up and looked at me in amazement. "Tell me, young one, what is the purpose of this highly advanced invention?"

"Indeed, I am an experienced pilot, and I see tremendous potential in it," spoke the pegasus. Her voice was harsh and stern, like a female drill sergeant, which further hinted to me that she was some kind of air force commander. I had heard of the Wondercolts, a famous winged elite unit, but I never thought anyone from there would come to see this contraption. The name was amusing to me, as it roughly translated to "delight strike" in my language. Of course, I knew it meant something like "fantastic flyer" here, but it was still comical.

"Well, it's a... a... a prosthesis (of sorts)!" At this, the symbolic weight lifted from my heart, though my brain was still stressed. The princesses raised their eyebrows in a questioning manner, as if asking if I was serious, and my horn began to spark even more, reaching out not only to my mane but to other nearby objects. "Ahem, excuse me, just a moment!" I quickly and stealthily jumped into the back of the plane and came out with a rubber swim cap that fit over my horn. "A thousand apologies, but I don't want to shock anyone."

"Oh, it's alright, no one will hold it against you for being special," replied Cadence. "Returning to the matter at hand, do you really intend this invention to be a prosthesis? Because I see great potential in it." I rolled my eyes as if I already knew what she was going to say or ask.

"This model, yes, I focused on ease of piloting. The first 'test subject' figured out almost everything on their own. However, I do see potential in the invention, although..." This pause was meant to be dramatic, as I needed to secure funding to make a proper fighter similar to the foundational CR42, though I wasn't sure if there was a demand for it here. I also pondered on the other aspect. Prosthesis, huh, that was a good call on my part, what an opportunity. When I was still human, I often dreamed of helping others, back then I saw potential in leadership, but here, this is also a form of help.

"Although?" Luna inquired.

"Surely you don't have problems after creating such an invention?" Cadence pressed.

"Obviously, something is limiting you. May we know what it is?" asked the Pegasus.

"Well, the prototype consumed all my capital, and it no longer belongs to me. Currently, my dear friend and test pilot, Scoutalu, owns this unit, and she doesn't have enough money for another one. Scoutalu has endured numerous humiliations due to the condition of her wings, which is why I gave it to her." This elicited sympathetic looks from all three princesses, while Scoutalu glanced at me with slightly sharp eyes.

"Is that all? That's easy to solve." The voice was incredibly familiar, and I quickly realized who it was. Filthy Rich, the local moneybag, Diamond Tiara's father, who, despite his unappealing demeanor, had better business acumen than even James Onedin. He stepped forward and placed a sack of bits on the stand. "Exactly how much do you need?" His expression was typically that of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. "I can provide almost any amount of capital you need." This statement made it clear to me that he wasn't entirely foolish and could see the potential in aviation.

"Where's the catch? No pony gives money without expecting a profit in return. Spit it out, what do you want in exchange?" This raised not only his eyebrows but also the princesses'. My late mother taught me that no one helps selflessly.

"Well, it's true, there's a lot of money in this invention." His mouth showed that he hadn't expected this, and he was sweating under his fur. I had won! I thought to myself. "I was thinking you could work for me for a monthly salary of 500 bits and continue developing your invention."

"Well, I think I could design a transport variant that could carry 10-15 tons of cargo. However, I'm interested if Princess Luna has any claim to further development of the plane."

"Well, I don't think we need a transport plane, but it's true that we've often come up short in battles recently. I believe Equestria will have a need for this invention."

"In fact, the Crystal Empire could use weapons capable of fighting in our conditions," Cadence interjected. "The Crystal Heart protects us, but we don't know its limits. The cold is a significant enemy of the pegasi."

"So it's settled. Mr. Rich, I am willing to work for you, but the patents for new developments must strictly belong to the state. If that's not acceptable, I'll travel to the Crystal Empire to develop there." They looked at each other and argued for a bit. I was wondering if Luna would even raise the moon today or declare a lunar eclipse when they finally turned to me.

"We accept your terms, but the details will take a few weeks to discuss. Until then, neither party will fund you for further developments." I knew what this meant; my development got the green light, and they just needed to sort out the financial details, but my main concern was designing good planes. Their petty financial disputes didn't concern me.

"Then we have a deal. However, I stipulate that I need funding for an additional ten of this type immediately to ensure my own interests. This did not become a major issue; I received ten times the price of the plane plus another 120 bits, and after a handshake, everyone went about their business."

"Dad! How could you make such a deal with that freak?! It's humiliating." I could almost feel my blood boiling. Just yesterday, I had trampled the self-esteem of those four blank flanks into the ground, and now my father made a deal with not one, but two of them.

"Sweetie, do you really think I don't have a plan? You'll be practicing in the new section on how to maximize profit, which means your famous rival will be working for you." My eyes sparkled like my tiara. If this is true, I'll make sure all the glory is mine and only mine... (evil laugh).

Author's Note

Hi everyone, I don't think this chapter is very good. The business aspect is hard to portray in this world, but I hope you still enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, I still can't phrase things in a way that truly conveys the pain, and ChatGPT isn't very good at translating all the wordplay into English either, so I apologize if there are a lot of nonsensical phrases.