Darkside Equestria: Redemption and Resurrection

Chapters

Introductions: Tor Ironclad
Introductions: Seething Mass
Chapter 3: Tor's Day Out.
Chapter 5: Some Time to Talk
Chapter 6: Settling In
Chapter 7: Meshing of the Gears
Chapter 8: Tor Ironclad- The Bounty Baker
Chapter 9: Holiday Troubles-Part 1
Chapter 9: Holiday Troubles-Part 2
Chapter 10: The Prodigal Heart Returns!
Chapter 11: A Hollow Heart Remembers
Chapter 12: Role Models
Chapter 13-Recovery and Remission
Chapter 4: Shifting an Immovable Object

Introductions: Tor Ironclad

Tor Ironclad

I was born in Canterlot one summer morning to a very poor family. Being a light yellow alicorn foal with a brown mane, I thought I had a very plain coloration for an adopted child of Princess Celestia.

I should probably explain that, shouldn’t I?

I was orphaned at a very young age, roughly five, as my parents had died at the hooves of a common thief, attempting to steal their valuables in a dark alley. After this incident, Celestia, while on a morning stroll, found me in the gutter. I was unclean, starving, and I doubt that I had smelled very pleasant. She looked warmly into my eyes, and smiled in a very friendly, but still regal, manner.

“Why are you sitting out here on the side of this street? Aren’t your parents worried for you?” She asked.

“I don’t have my parents any more. Somepony made them fall asleep and they never woke up...” I said, attempting to keep my tears in my then kind, naive eyes.

“Where do you live then?”

“I don’t have a home either. The same pony stole it away from me.”

“What is your name, young foal?”

“My name’s Tor. Tor Ironclad”

“Would you like to have somewhere to live?”

I nodded, and though I was crying, I couldn’t help but blush a little bit. Princess Celestia was the prettiest pony I’d ever talked to at that point in my life. She then took me to continue with her walk. I felt as though she was trying to show me to all of the residents of Canterlot, as if she wanted them and me to know that I was to be their prince.

Celestia took it upon herself to raise me with care. Even after my parents’ death, I was a very cheerful foal. The princess tried to raise me as a prince, sending me to the academy of magic. I wasn’t very good at magic, and I suppose I’m still not too good. Most days, I was bullied by other ponies in my classes. Sometimes they’d call me names, other times they’d surround me and play a game called, “pass the dummy”(A sport where they would shove me around to another pony in the circle. Never fun for me, but always painful.) One day , I decided I’d had enough, and told them so. I was not very physical about it, but I was very assertive. Afterwards they all apologized to me, and I forgave them. Things were quite civil from then on. I stayed in school, though I only remained at an average level. In the years to come, I would begin helping the less fortunate pony families in Canterlot. I would help them with chores, babysit their young, and even run errands for them. I quite liked being a helping hand.

On more than one occasion in my teen years, I helped catch criminals who had been preying on the poor and defenseless ponies of the city. I guess my strong sense of justice just came naturally to me. At the age of eight, I finally received my cutie mark. It was in the shape of a heart. While I did receive quite a bit of ribbing from the ponies in town, you know, because a heart isn’t the most “Macho” of symbols, I was never ashamed of it. I understood that the heart was a symbol of my trust and kindness towards others

It was at the age of fifteen when a fine filly trotted into my life. Her name was Sunny Mane. She was a purple earth pony with a green mane. I remember the day we first met as tough it were yesterday. I was delivering a package for a friend of mine, a very heavy one at that, but it was no difficult task for me. I was very large for my age. This package was for Sunny herself. I knocked on her door, and as she opened her door, it seemed as if the whole world were moving in slow motion. I tried awkwardly to get the package through her door, catching it on her front step. I tripped and fell flat on her porch, with Sunny watching the whole time. I was very embarrassed, and was having a problem keeping my composure. I felt disheartened, but then she reassured me with two simple words. “You’re cute!” At that moment I felt lighter than air. From then on, whenever I would walk by her home, she would playfully tease me and of course, there was an occasional exchange of flirtatious dialogue between the two of us. We eventually decided to become a couple. A year afterwards, everything went downhill as I made the worst mistake of my life.

It was the day after my sixteenth birthday, and I was even more madly in love with Sunny than ever. I had invited her to the Grand Galloping Gala, where I was going to propose to her in the famed palace gardens. You may be thinking, “But you were so young! What were you thinking?” well, to be honest, I wasn’t. Ponies in those days got married at a much younger age than they do now. But proposing that night was not the mistake. I was wearing my best tuxedo for the occasion, as she was wearing her best dress, which, by the way, she looked absolutely radiant in. She was such a charming mare that I was willing to do absolutely anything to make her happy. There we were in the garden, I was about to get show her the ring, when suddenly I heard her voice, as sweet as a song, ask me the question that ruined me forever.

“Sweetie pie, I know that this is an odd question... But would you maybe be able to show me the famed royal jewels? I’ve just always dreamed of seeing them ever since I was a little filly. I can understand if you can’t take me to them though... They are very valuable, so not a lot of ponies would be able to get to see them.”

I swiftly replied, “Of course I can show you to them! I am like a son to the princess after all. I’m sure the guards would allow me past.” Too blinded by love to understand how suspicious the request was.

As we made our way to the entrance of the hallway leading to the jewels, two guards stopped us. “Nobody is allowed to see the jewels. Turn around and go back to the party.” One of them commanded gruffly.

“But you guys have known me since I was little! You have to let me through!” I protested.

It was then that I noticed something I now realize that I should not have waved off as readily as I did at the time. I saw a short, yet still noticeable green flash coming from Sunny’s direction. I assumed I was just seeing things at the time. Immediately afterwards, the guards had a blank look in their eyes and allowed us to pass. I know I should have found suspicion in that, but I was in love, remember? As we reached the end of the hallway, I stopped in my tracks and right as I was about to turn around to speak with Sunny, I felt a hoof hit me forcefully on the back of the head. I teetered in place for a moment and then tumbled to the ground. As the world around me began to turn dark, I heard a familiar, beautiful voice facetiously say, “Thanks, sugar cube.” That was the last thing I heard before I slipped into a cold sleep.

When I came to, I felt my hind legs dragging on the red carpet leading to the throne room. I was still dazed, and quite confused. As I looked around, I noticed several guests look at me in shock, and some even gasped at the sight of me. I looked up and finally noticed who it was that was dragging me. The two guards that I had just talked to before I got to the hallway with Sunny were dragging me to Celestia’s throne room. Then it hit me. “Where is sunny?” I asked them with great concern. I had thought that she had been kidnapped, or maybe even worse.

The guards answered me with a question, “Who are you talking about? You entered the hallway all alone, you dirty thief,” How did they not see her? She was the most radiant mare at the whole party! I allowed them to drag me further, as I still hadn’t regained my balance, and awaited my arrival in Celestia’s room. There, I thought, I could plead my case with dignity and receive a fair trial.

I finally regained my balance as we entered the room. It was just Celestia, the guards, and I. We all stood there in uncomfortable silence for several moments before the princess finally spoke. Her eyes were Angry, yet very sad at the same time as she asked me a rather confusing question. “I raised you as my son, gave you everything, including my undying love for you. Why would you do these terrible things?”

The question felt like it stabbed me in the heart, as I replied frantically, “Terrible things? What terrible things are you talking about?”

“You have been charged with the murder of five innocent ponies, the torture of eight foals, and the theft of several thousand bits! You were about to strike again by stealing the Elements of Harmony, when my guards caught and subdued you! What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Well, I guess the first thing I want to say is that I didn’t do it, but seeing as you seem to think you’ve already got this figured out, I suppose that would be of no use, now would it?” I said, trying to stay strong, but accidentally being defiant, in the presence of the mother who I truly loved. Torrents of tears were running down both of our cheeks.

“I usually don’t do this, but as our evidence is so conclusive, I have no choice but to sentence you to life in the dungeon!”

My eyes opened wide as I tried to accept my fate, but then the unexpected happened. The princess floated down from her throne and walked over to me, with an air of utter gentility, and wrapped her wing around me, comfortingly. She looked deeply into my eyes and said, “My beloved Tor. I have known you since you were but a child. Because of this, I will take pity on you. If you say it wasn’t you, then I must believe you. But the evidence is so incriminating, that you still will be held accountable.” She looked up, and stepped back from me, and with a calm, yet commanding voice proclaimed, “Therefore, as punishment you will be banished from Canterlot until you can prove to me that you are not the one responsible for these heinous crimes.” And with that, She and the guards led me to the entrance to a long, dark hallway. We were completely silent until I reached our destination. I looked on in horror for I knew what was next. I was to be “Decorated”.

This may not sound like something that could strike fear into the heart of a fully-grown Stallion, but believe me when I say that it is terrible. Celestia only banishes people for doing something really, really horrible, but not quite bad enough that they would go to jail. But because she wants to make sure we never forget what we’ve done, she has us “Decorated”. These “decorations,” are made up of steel horse shoes that are nailed into our hooves and have braces that are screwed in all the way up our forelegs, steel wing braces that are screwed into the front of our wings, spines, secured to the feathers in the back of our wings, a steel cone-like covering to be screwed into our horns, and the most terrifying bit: a steel muzzle that covers our mouths. All of these are crafted artfully, out of the finest metal you could get, and to look as palatial as possible. Now, most ponies would get just the horseshoes, the muzzle, and either the wings or horn braces, but because I have both wings and a horn, I got the privilege of feeling the excruciating pain of having the full package fastened, nailed, screwed, hammered, and tightened into my bones, shrieking and screaming the whole time. I remember the “Decoration” process perfectly. No matter how much I begged for a reprieve from the pain, they wouldn’t stop, having bits of metal twisted into your bones while you are fully awake is not at all, as you can imagine, a pleasant experience. The only rest I got was after they finished. The pain had effectively knocked me out. They allowed me to sleep on the stone tabled I had been shackled to for two hours after the procedure. Then, the guards woke me up and carried me to see princess Celestia for the last time before they sent me off.

She looked at me in pity, with small traces of tears in her eyes. “I never wished to see this happen to you. I really didn’t. I promise, that when you come back, I will fully heal you and painlessly remove the steel that has become a part of your body. I promise.”

Her offer made me feel slightly better, though I knew that time would be very, very far off. My body was very sore and tender from the long and painful “Decoration” process, and after Celestia and I spoke, I got on my hooves for the first time in hours. The pain of my first few steps was excruciatingly painful, as my hooves were still not used to their new additions. I got used to them shortly, though they were still quite tender for a long time, and walked down the trail from Canterlot to the Everfree Forest, dejected and woeful.

No sooner had I come to the edge of the forest did I meet a very familiar mare. I smiled a weak, pained (partially because of sadness, but partially because of the muzzle) smile at my beloved Sunny, knowing it would be the last time I would see her. Suddenly, right before my eyes, the Sunny that I fell in love with changed dramatically into a creature I knew all too well from Celestia’s stories, Queen Chrysalis. I stared at her in fear, not knowing what to do, when she came closed to me, tauntingly smiling the entire way. She began to speak, with an air of arrogance and joy in her voice,

“You were very useful to my plans, dearest Tor!” She laughed. I attempted to ask her what she meant, but I still wasn’t used to my new muzzle, the pain causing me to stop halfway between my first syllable. Knowing what I was after, she swiftly answered,

“Why dear, you got me to the room where the Elements of Harmony are being kept! Your love for me gave me the power to do incredible things! There never really was a “Sunny” after all. It was I the whole time! But anyways, once we got to the Elements, I framed you for their theft! Oh yeah, and I also committed a few other crimes which I figured you wouldn’t mind if I shifted the blame onto you for, after all, I am your beloved, right?” She laughed maniacally again, and at that point, I was so enraged that I was preparing to charge at her. She noticed this and retorted, tauntingly, “I suppose I can understand why you wouldn’t want to talk right now... It just breaks my little heart though! Bye, my sweetie pie!” and with that, she disappeared without a trace.

Alone with my thoughts once again, I walked further into the forest. That was when it happened. The forest began playing its tricks on me. I received twisted visions of my friends and family, laughing at me, scolding me, yelling at me, telling me lies. I received visions of Princess Celestia replacing me and forgetting her promise. There were some visions where she pointed fun at me, saying things like, “You thought I actually meant to keep that promise? You’re dumber than you look!” and laughing at me afterwards. Then there were the images of Sunny and the Changeling Queen. All of these visions had literally driven me, as the doctors would say, insane. The visions in the forest caused me to lose trust in everyone and everything. Once the forest was done toying with me it left me with one lasting gift: My eyes were frozen in a contemptuous glare. No matter how much I tried changing my expression with my face muscles, they wouldn’t budge. After hours of the forest’s taunting, I just lay down right there, and cried, as I continued to lose every remaining bit of sanity I had. This may be hard to picture, but in fact, I was driven so incredibly insane that I became incredibly sane once again! After this, I came up with a clear goal: I needed to train myself in the forest. I stayed in the forest for at least a month, in total silence, as I practiced my combat skills, my magic, and once I could fly again, my flying maneuvers. I hardened in the forest, and became one of the toughest young Stallions I had ever known.

I decided it would be best to leave the forest once I noticed that the rocks were looking at me funny, and that I needed contact with real ponies. As I walked to the exit of the forest that was closest to the town of Ponyville, I noticed a large rain water puddle in my path. I decided to take a look at myself, as I hadn’t done so since before I entered the forest. I noticed some distinct changes in my physical features. Firstly, I was a bit more muscular than the scrawny pony I used to be, secondly, I had several scars on my face and body that weren’t there before, likely from my training. But the most shocking change of all was on my flank. My cutie mark, the heart that once stood so proud, was no longer there. In its stead was what looked like a heart, but ripped right down the middle.

At seeing this dramatic change, I exclaimed quietly, “What the...?” and realized that my voice had become much more rough than it used to be, probably due to its disuse in the forest. The only thing that hadn’t changed was that I still had that permanent glare I tried so hard to get rid of. I chuckled at the new me, and walked into Ponyville. My visage must have attracted a large amount of attention, because before long a lot of pones were gathered around me trying to figure out who I was. Some of them had even figured out that I was on exile, because of my beautiful “Decorations” and backed away slowly. I flew out of the group as quickly as I could, and realized that I needed to keep my identity a secret. With that, I went to buy myself a hat with the few bits I had on me. I bought a nice, black, wide brimmed hat to cover up my horn. At least that way they wouldn’t know I was an alicorn. After a few hours of aimlessly walking around Ponyville, I decided to find a line of work to go into. I remembered how good I was at catching criminals as a young lad, so I decided to become a bounty hunter for hire.

I've been here in this colorful town for a week, and I’ve already caught three criminals. The people here seem to be warming up to me too, and some of the foals have made a game of seeing who can get closest to me without running away, scared. That’s why I love kids. They can always see through outward appearances. There is one thing that’s been bothering me though. I saw this creepy grayish pony, mumbling to himself as he walked into what looked like a library. Something about him was very... Off-putting, to say the least. He must have noticed me staring at him, because he lifted his head and stared right back into my eyes. We stood there for what felt like a few minutes just staring at each other. He finally looked away in disinterest and went inside. Something about that pony didn’t seem natural. He didn’t have any cutie mark, which is a bit odd for a pony of the age he appeared to be. And then there was his horn... Broken in half! I know how much it hurts for your horn to be broken, but he was walking around like it was nothing! I think I’m going to keep an eye on him... He looked pretty suspicious. If he is a criminal, I think I’ll have my work in this town cut out for me.

Introductions: Seething Mass

Seething Mass

Nothing. Just nothing.

I am here, I am most certainly here. Wait, what is here? What is I? I… I… I think therefore I am, thought, thinking, I am thinking here. One mystery solved. I am myself because I think I am, such shaky logic but it is conclusive enough for now.

Thinking, I am thinking here. But what is here? Here is where I am, where I am thinking, here is there because I must have somewhere in which to think, and I am thinking therefore I am.

I was.

I am.

What am I?

Where am I?

A body, I have his body. I am, born once again. Whose body is this? It wasn’t mine, he left it for me. Who left it? The wood of the casket, the smell of the earth, but incomplete. It is dark, there is a scent in here, something cold, something damp, mold, what is mold? I feel, contained, I am in a box, container, chest, contained, I AM CONTAINED!

Calm down, calm down. Think, thinking is good, thinking, I am thinking. I am, I am existing. A box, I am existing in a box, in a casket. I’m breathing, breathing, I am breathing but it’s getting harder. Where is the air? What is air, how do I know how to breathe? Oh I’m so confused. Stand up, stand up and get out!

Ow.

Hurt, pain, I hurt myself on the box. I can’t stand up, what to do oh what to do. Why would I be in a box? Maybe I’m a present, a present. Wait, that smell is familiar, earth, dirt, mold, I’M IN A GRAVE! Buried alive! Why did they make a mistake, buried, buried myself, myself who thinks and therefore is! Help! Help me! HELP ME! I’m hitting at the wood, noise, sound, sensation, I’m hurting now so badly but I have to get OUT!

The box gave up. Pierced the side, no light still, but the box is filling with dirt. Oh my, this is worse! Dirt, earth, mold, dead, buried, BURIED! I have to get out! Digging, shifting out, out, I need to get out! So tired, digging, shuffling, I shouldn’t be able to breathe, I should have to breathe, but for some reason I’m not breathing. Shouldn’t be able to move, dirt is too close, too compact, and yet I’m moving, digging and scraping past all the dead things like me buried in the ground. I need to get OUT! Wait, something new. Light, light is something rather than nothing. Light is here, light is where I am thinking, light is where I am. But light is not constant, like thought is not constant. It is growing, hungrily devouring the nothing and the silence. NOISE! HAHA!! Another mystery solved! I hear noise, pounding, aching, echoing in my head! Oh help, the noise is like a drum beating my head into two pieces!

Wait.

What is a drum?

I see light, and I am going towards the noisy light and I am thinking therefore I am and I am here because I think I am and I am heading towards the light……..The light has stopped growing now. I have broken through, just a gaping hole in the Earth from where I came from. The noise I heard before is still pounding, echoing in my head. A heartbeat? I have a heart, I can hear it, now it is calming down, but now there is a new noise. I think it is called birds, this noise. But it is more than a noise, it makes noise therefore it is, like I am. The birds is an animal! Animal, Animal,

An, I, Mal, Mal, Mal is Latin for “bad.” What is Latin?

More important question, I am here. I think therefore I am, right? So where is here? I know I am, but what am I? Where am I? I can see a green hill, fading to the distance with vibrant color, I see animals, a bunny? Bunny, an animal, like birds but not like birds. There are trees, but not many. Trees are not animals. Anyways, not many trees here. Maybe I can find a river and rest, wash the filth from me. I feel like I have just been born, stumbling, walking, crawling, away from the grave. Oh horrid contained grave! Why was I there, who put me there? Who watched me being put there? There are flowers by me, flowers, someone was sad when they placed them here above me. So sad, I am sad as well, so sad, sad, sad. Oh what a world, and what a strange thing I am in this world!

I’ve been walking for some time now, and I’ve gotten my mind a bit more settled.

Things were, more hectic in the beginning. It was like being born, but remembering what it is like, I am afraid of new life. How horrid a thing, to have no knowledge save for the knowledge that you do not know anything. I can think of nothing more terrifying. And yet there was joy there, the joy of discovering that which I had not known. I still don’t know much, but I know more than I did.

I tried to walk some. It didn’t work well, I stumbled quite a bit. Stumbled, fell, into the mud, mud, mud is filth, and I came from it. Am I filth too? I still don’t have my feet about me. I try to make some noise, express thought with my voice, but my mouth is full of dirt and mold. The bunnies run from me, the birds fly away in noisy panic, they are absolutely terrified. What exactly AM I? I know so little about myself… but I know about ponies. I know about birds, and their wonderful songs, I know about royalty, about…..some princess, a princess and others, Oh I don’t know! I was close, I knew more than I did a second ago, but as soon as I think hard about something I am thinking about it stops coming! I am so frustrated. This is like some silly horror movie, where the protagonist is mysteriously amnesiac and must find out their past through various challan……. DRAT!!!!!! Train of thought derailed, and so easily. So CLOSE that time! I must be patient, it will all return. I hope.

I’m walking. I have always been walking it seems. So young, he was so young! Who was so young? I don’t know, somepony. Pony, Pony, a city of ponies, this is something important. Why is it important? It’s one word, just one word, I don’t know many words but I know this one is very important! Oh Celestia, what IS IT?

Then it comes upon me in a flash. Ponyville. Such a burst of knowledge that floods my brain! Ponies, six ponies, their stories filling my brain, and others as well! I know them, suddenly I know of their faults and of their passions, their trust and their compassion. And I know of their friendship. I need to find them, perhaps they can help, and Celestia, Oh Celestia, Luna, I know who you are! I’m going now, don’t know when I’ll be this coherent again. I need to hold these thoughts, so many thoughts, so many memories? Am I remembering the past, Discord and Nightmares, betrayal and renewal, So many of these thoughts, are they my memories or somepony else’s?

My mind is rather, fractious, at times. It splits and joins again, sometimes in the oddest ways. I have arrived in Ponyville, and at this moment I feel as sane as I can ever remember feeling. Sane, why am I so incomplete? So incomplete, I need something, something. I need something to make me complete, I am so raw. So unfinished. I need something, several somethings, but I can’t think what. I am plain, and I feel an urge to create. Metal and wire, twisting strands of coiled electricity, oh glorious animation!

The ponies are staring at me. I wonder why? I want to talk to them, but my mouth still has dirt in it. I mumble a few words to try to greet them, but they politely nod and edge away from me. Why do I frighten them? Aren’t they kind, don’t they know I am trapped here, in this body? I NEED HELP!The ponies all ran from me that time. I have, trouble realizing when I am thinking to only myself and when I am Shouting out loud. I must have shouted that time. They must think I’m crazy, or something. Oh I don’t know, I don’t know anything! Wait, that’s it! Twilight! Knowledge! I need to know! A library, I need a library! Need to know anything I can! She will help me, she is kind, she is compassionate, she loves knowledge almost as much as I NEED it! Library, where is the library? I have seen it, I feel like I have seen it but I don’t know for sure where it is.

Can you help me? Can you help, the library, somepony tell me where the library is! She is golden, the pony that helps me. Carrots, she has carrots and she points the way nervously. I thank you, so exhausted, I’m sorry. Just, just don’t be afraid. You have nothing to be afraid of. She says ok, but they are all afraid. Everypony is afraid. Why are we all afraid? I don’t know, I need to find the library. They all let me pass, the townponies move out of my way as quickly as they can. I need knowledge, maybe if I find answers things will be better, calmer, harmonious. Twilight-Sparkle has the best library here, I know this because I do know it. I have seen it before. I need to find it need to find the knowledge of who I am, Oh how I think and therefore am!

I must hurry, the thoughts are getting harder to hold together. Wait, I feel something odd. I’m outside the library now, and someone is watching me. A glance behind me confirms this. I lock eyes with the stranger, another pony, yellow and brown, with some sort of metal object on his face. Metal, it shines in the light, oh my, and the metal is a part of him. Someone has riveted steel into his bones. He peers at me, an unrelenting scowl showing through his eyes. Something isn’t right with this one, I can feel it. He’s

not like the other ponies. I know nothing of him, absolutely nothing. I recognize many of the ponies here, I know where some of them live and I know that they like parties and I know that they like friendship, but I do not know him.

I fear him, and the way his eyes monitor my movements as if expecting that I might try to escape. I fear him, and yet the metal calls to me. At last! I know what it is I need! I need metal, yes, yes, and I need wire, and cord, and electricity. Someone put his metal on him, he didn’t do it himself, he didn’t even want it I’ll bet. I will do it myself, I want that metal, I need that metal. I am powerless now, I am helpless without knowledge or metal, I need knowledge, I need metal!

And a bit of a unicorn horn, just a tiny bit would do fine…

But these things shall wait. All in good time. Now, whilst I am still partly sane, I must research in the library.

Hello Twilight-Sparkle, what? My, my name?

I don’t, no pony has ever,

Seething Mass. I am Seething Mass.

Chapter 3: Tor's Day Out.

Chapter 3: Tor's Day Out

Tor Ironclad

I didn’t move an inch from the spot where I stood when that gray pony and I stared each other down. Now, normally I’d never set hoof in a library, books really aren’t my thing, but there was just something about this pony that didn’t sit right with me. He made me nervous, in an a way no other pony ever had. I almost felt like my stomach churned at the sight of him, like he truly didn’t belong. Yes sir, this one was definitely trouble. As soon as I entered the place, a pony who I assumed was the librarian or something greeted me. She was a purple unicorn with a dark blue mane that had a pink streak in it.

“Well hello there! I haven’t seen you around here before.” I guess I hadn’t really made an effort to meet the locals in the week that I’d spent here. She chuckled a bit nervously; obviously something had her slightly frazzled.

“That makes two new visitors in one day! Anyways, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and…” she paused, looking me over thoroughly. It was obvious that my “decorations” had caught her eye. She became slightly more wary than before. I could tell that she knew what they symbolized. “If you’re planning on causing trouble, I suggest you go elsewhere,” she cautioned me. I felt saddened by this remark, as I had finally realized what sort of treatment I would receive from the more knowledgeable ponies in town.

“I’m sorry to have wasted your time, Miss Sparkle,” I said slowly as I turned to the door. This must have made her feel bad because she quickly tried to apologize. “I’m sorry, I was very rude to you and I promise to be more careful in the future.” This caused me to perk up. Something about her reminded me of the princess.

I tried to smile at her (though I doubt she saw it anyways. You know… the muzzle…) and replied, “That’s quite alright Miss. I’m used to it at this point.”

She smiled brightly, then furrowed her brow slightly. “I know we’ve just met, and I apologize for being so forward, but is something bothering you?”

I was a little confused. “No, why do you ask?” Twilight looked down at the floor for a moment, trying to decide whether or not it was polite to continue I’m sure. “Well, you’ve got this look in your eye, like you’re angry or upset.” No wonder I didn’t think about that. It seemed I had been in isolation for quite some time. “Oh, right. Well, it’s a long story for another time.” Her smile returned. “Okay then! I look forward to hearing it!” she replied promptly as I headed out the door.

I then realized that I had completely forgotten what I had gone in there to do! I felt stupid for getting caught up in a conversation and forgetting whom I was going to track. I turned around to enter the library, but that’s when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. Something gray, something unsettling… it was definitely him! He left through the back door. I casually tailed him down the street. I was only a few feet away from him, closing in, when suddenly, “Oh my, you look simply dreadful! Come with me darling, I must fix you up!”

I had hoped she wasn’t talking to me. Sure enough, I saw her staring right at me. She was a white unicorn with a curled purple mane. I tried to brush her off, “I’m sorry, but I’ve got places to be…”, but I failed completely. “Not looking like that you don’t! I’ve seen a makeover opportunity I just can’t pass up. Come with me darling. I’m taking you to the spa.”“But…” I tried to decline, but was quickly interrupted. “No buts about it! Come on, it’ll be my treat!” She said as she dragged me to the spa. I didn’t know what this “spa” she was referring to was, but it didn’t sound fun.

When we got there, the unicorn, who I found out was named Rarity on the way over, took me to the front desk and asked for “two afternoon treatment specials”. She also whispered something about metal varnish to the ponies at the desk. With that, the ponies walked us into a room used for massages and something called “pedicures” and made me lay down on a special bed. At first I couldn’t believe I was letting them keep me here. I had a pony to chase! But in less than five minutes, I had nearly forgotten about him. I was getting the world’s best massage and I was enjoying every moment of it. She must have noticed my eyes, because at one point, the masseuse asked me, “You look like you’re in pain. Am I hurting you? Is there somewhere on your body I could relieve some tension?”“No, you’re doing great. Don’t worry my face just… does that.” I replied. A few minutes later, some other ponies walked in the room and started scrubbing my “decorations’ with large brushes and rags. I’ll admit, I had gotten a bit rusty, but they did a really good job of varnishing and shining me up. I looked better than new.

“What do you think? I requested them specifically for you! Isn’t it just magnificent?” Miss Rarity asked me. I was floored by my appearance. “It looks fantastic! Thank you. Now, I really have to go…” She casually cut me off. “We aren’t finished with you quite yet, darling!”“What more could there be?” I questioned her. I was answered by a pony with scissors and a comb. She brushed and trimmed my mane. I had a lot of sticks and dirt in there, so I suppose I appreciated it. Afterwards, We went back to the front desk. “Thank you for coming with me! My friends haven’t been going to the spa with me as much as they used to.” I hadn’t really noticed it before, I guess I was too focused on my hunt for the grey pony, but Rarity was exceptionally beautiful. “It was very nice. Thank you Miss Rarity! Now I really must be going. See you around!”

I galloped out of the spa, looking sharper and feeling much more relaxed than before, eager to resume my chase. I hadn’t taken two steps on the street when I was interrupted yet again. This time, it was a blue pegasus pony with a rainbow mane. I was getting quite annoyed with all of these distractions.“Hey, you look like a pretty fast flyer!” she pointed out.“Who, me? I’m not really that fast…” I replied, embarrassed. It was true, I hadn’t ever really considered myself that quick as a flyer. ”Come on, I bet you’ve got some serious potential! Besides, I’ve been bored lately with nobody new to race. Don’t be such a dweeb about it, It’ll be fun! You’ll get to race me, the fastest pegasus in all Equestria (and future captain of the Wonderbolts) Rainbow Dash!” Wow, quite the introduction. “I’m sorry, but I’m really busy. Can we do it later?” Her eyes narrowed mischievously. “What are ya? A metal covered chicken?” the silence that followed that remark felt boiling hot. “Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, calls me chicken.” I said as I flew up next to her. “That’s what I like to hear! The finish line is Fluttershy’s cottage, next to the Everfree Forest! READYSETGO!” and with that, we were off.

One of us a swift pony with reckless abandon, the other a weighted down pony with absolutely no clue where he was going. I must have been faster than I thought, because I kept up with her for a few minutes. Then my metal started to weigh me down and brought me lower and lower, closer to the ground. I remembered the gray pony but decided I was having too much fun to care at the moment. We finally reached our destination, I lost of course, and Miss Dash punched me playfully on the shoulder before she took her leave. She probably had other, faster ponies to race. Now realizing how much time I had lost, I gave up on my search for the gray pony for the day. It seemed like a lost cause.

I began walking down the road back to town, when I noticed how beautiful the scenery around me was. I must have been enjoying it too much because I stopped paying attention to where I was going and bumped into something. I then noticed that it wasn’t a something, but a somepony. As I looked to see who it was, my cold, steel-plated heart sank. Lying on the ground in front of me was a yellow Pegasus with a pink mane, and she looked startled. She looked like she had just seen a ghost eating a school bus full of foals and puppies before it exploded twice. Needless to say, she was frightened, no terrified of something. I must have really plowed into her. “I’m terribly sorry Miss… You see, I was distracted by the beautiful scenery, and I wasn’t paying attention, so I…” not another word left my mouth before she leapt to her hooves shrieking all the way to her cottage. I guessed that she was Fluttershy.

That was why my heart sank. She wasn’t only scared of me, but terrified. This discouraged me greatly. It was a deep sorrow I had never felt before. I felt like I needed to fix things, so I went and knocked on her door. “Miss Fluttershy? I’m really sorry. Is there any way I could apologize? I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.” I almost broke down into tears. I guess I wasn’t as tough as nails as I thought I was. I had used my threatening looks before in my job bounty hunting, but never scared anypony that was innocent. This was the single worst feeling I had ever felt before, the feeling that I was a terrible metal monstrosity that couldn’t change. Just then I heard a very soft voice come from out of the door. “I’m sorry… I mean, you just frightened me a lot that’s all. I suppose… I mean, if you really wanted to… You could… Maybe… help me with a chore?”Regaining most of my composure, I took her offer without hesitation.

She opened the door and looked at me a second time, shyly hiding her face behind her pink mane. “All that we need to do is walk these sweet, cute, fluffy, adorable duckies to the pond in sweet apple acres.” “Miss Fluttershy, I’m the stallion for the job.” It took almost an hour, but we had finally done it! You’d be surprised just how difficult herding ducks can be. Still by the end of that hour we had walked the ducks all the way to a huge apple orchard. Once our task was done, Miss Fluttershy flew off, exclaiming, “Oh thank you Tor! Thank you so much! That would have been so difficult alone. Oh… and um… I’m sorry for being scared of you! You’re a really nice pony. Bye!” Satisfied with my work, my spirit lifted by Fluttershy’s kindness, I took a rest by the pond and started thinking about how much better I felt now.

I must have fallen asleep, because I woke up to a hoof nudging me in the ribs. “Excuse me, mister, but you can’t sleep here. This is private property. When I opened my eyes, I saw an orange earth pony with a blonde mane wearing a cowpony hat. She looked very concerned at first, but soon after, her expression changed to a more defensive face. “Now there’s no need to get all angry about it! I’m just trying to wake you up!” She must have noticed my eyes. “I’m sorry, but I’m really not angry. My face kind of… froze that way. I’m sorry for sleeping on your farm. I must have dozed off. You see, I was helping Miss Fluttershy with a very exhausting chore.”She seemed much friendlier now. “Aw shucks, that’s alright! Any friend of Fluttershy’s is a friend of mine! My name is Applejack, and this here is Sweet Apple Acres!” she motioned for me to follow her.

She took me to her home and called out her family. “Everypony, we have a guest! Come down and meet him!” I met her brother; a red draft horse named Big Macintosh, her grandmother; Granny Smith, and her little sister; Applebloom. She had me sit down for dinner with them. I like that family. They’re friendly. At dinner I was offered some delicious looking apple pie. It was difficult to eat, you see, because of my muzzle. Afterwards, I thanked the Apple family and headed out of the house.

It was dark when I left. I was walking back to town, when all of a sudden a swift movement caught my eye. I could barely make out the form of a gray pony moving quickly over the hilltop. “A gray pony? Why does that seem familiar? Oh right!” I tailed him silently and swiftly. He had a bag of sorts around his neck, a sort of satchel. I was getting more and more curious by the second. We were galloping over the horizon noiselessly, him leading the way, without knowing I was even there. Then he stopped. We were at his destination; a graveyard. What was he doing here? I didn’t like the looks of this. I followed the pony through the wrought iron gates into the boneyard and hid behind a gravestone as he searched the stones opposite of my position. He must have found what he was looking for, because he stopped in front of a grave and mumbled to himself. The earth in front of the grave was freshly churned and obviously had recently been disturbed, I thought perhaps he had lost a loved one. I began to think about leaving, but I never expected his next action. With slow deliberate movements he began to dig, beginning to rip up the fresh soil as his enthusiasm grew. He was a grave robber. He searched through the dirt, tossing aside bits of pine board and chunks of mould obviously looking for something. He cursed silently, a foreign word that sounded I had never heard, something like buck.

Then he stopped moving. He stared at the pine-board coffin he had dug up, and then reached into it slowly. Almost instinctively, I jumped out from behind my hiding place and faced off against him, “Grave robbing’s illegal. You just dug yourself a hole deeper than the one that pine box was in, you hear?” The pony hardly moved. I would have expected a jump like that to surprise anypony, but an inaudible mumble was the only response. He stood stalk-still, frozen with his head was turned away from me. This made his strange tumbling speech even harder to understand.

“What was that?”

“*mumble mumble mumble* care.”

“Speak up”

“I need what I took. Why should I care?” I was aghast. “Because you just stole somepony’s relative!” His voice was quiet, but I found that sick feeling from the library return as his words burrowed into my ears. “Says here that he was an orphan. Orphans are abandoned, left behind on their own. Don’t hardly know what they are doing here, just left here for some reason. What reason? Do you know your reason? Do you know why? You are because you think you are, that’s why.”A strange breeze blew around us, and I nearly jumped at a twig snapping behind me, I spun around quickly while the grey pony continued his mumbling rant. There was definitely something wrong with this pony, something very wrong. Everything about him was disturbing in some unquantifiable way. “Look here mister, I’m here to stop you. I’ve been watching you, and I knew I couldn’t trust you.”

“I know.”

That reply threw me for a bit of a loop. “What do you mean?”“You’ve been trying to follow me all day. Couldn’t, too much hospitality. It’s really something isn’t it? So much friendship, so much happiness, but they try not to look at me. I wonder why? I can look at them sometimes, but they try their best not to look at me. But you looked at me. Response, that’s what we all need. You don’t want friendship do you? No of course not. Not from Seething Mass, Not from the gray pony that no one will see. That is fine. I had to have you follow me. The metal, it, I, I need… help. “ My insides churned as I digested what he was saying. “I’ll say! I have never heard more crazy in one pony in my entire life! You are coming with me now, or else I’ll show you why they put this metal on me in the first place.”

At the mention of my Decorations the pony, Seething Mass I suppose, looked at me for the first time. The pupils of his eyes were white, surrounded by only a solid deep purple, and wide with what I suppose could be called admiration.
He spoke. “The metal, you can understand can’t you? That metal, It’s simple really, just a few bolts in the right place, twists of wire, do you know how to make Death fly? I do. Why? I have no idea, don’t even know what that means, but I feel that I know exactly what to do. Heheh, so very odd, really…”Now what exactly do you say to that? I had nothing. Luna’s handiwork stared down at us and the gravestones, the light from the moon making the grey pony seem even more faded and immaterial. We stood there for a while, just like before, staring each other down. We expected a lot of things to happen, but we couldn’t have begun to anticipate what did happen.

A pink pony with a cotton candy mane appeared out of nowhere and started bouncing around and giggling like she had too much sugar. Seething Mass blinked twice, and his wide, pale eyes focusing quizzically at her. I just stared, wide eyed and slack jawed. We looked back at each other, equally flabbergasted. Then we looked back at the hyper pony before us. We were assaulted with a barrage of words.

“SoIsawtherewerenewpoiesintownthatIdidn’tknowwhichwasweirdbecauseIknoweveryponyintown,

*GASP*

butanyways,Ithought’theymustbesadandlonely,nothavingmanyfriendsyet’soIdecidedI’dthrowyouapartytomorrowbutyouwouldn’tknowunlessItoldyousoIhadtofollowyoutomakesureyougotmyinvitationanditwasreallyfunbeingallsneakysoareyougonnacome? Are ya? Are ya? Hmmmm?”

she said all of that, out of breath, but still as thrilled and hyper as ever. I was quite impressed, to say the least. The gray stallion looked absolutely shocked. I spent the whole day hanging out with girls, and who knows where Seething Mass had been, but I guess we’d both be at a party tomorrow. Unless, of course, I hauled Seething into jail. I looked over at him for a moment and saw what he held in his hoof. A beam of moonlight fell and glinted off of half of a unicorn horn, its shattered edges matching the ragged edge of the stump in Seething Mass’s forehead. I still wasn't sure what it was doing there in that grave, but that horn was his and nopony else’s. For what seemed the millionth time these past few weeks, I didn't know what to do.

Chapter 5: Some Time to Talk

Tor Ironclad

That was an awkward party to say the least.

Actually, it was going fine until the other stallion of the hour showed up. I spoke to the six ponies I had met the day before. It feels kind of weird being the only stallion in a room of Fillies. What made it feel even more odd was that they were paying a lot of attention to me. I felt a little flirting coming from Miss Rarity. She even made a nice Faux-Leather jacket for me to wear. Being flirted with after having your heart broken doesn’t feel too good. You’re not too sure if you can trust yourself again. Even so, I think I enjoyed it a little bit, deep down.

Miss Pinkie Pie was bouncing around as usual and offered me a slice of delicious cake and some apple juice, both of which I accepted graciously. Miss Fluttershy was quiet but she still engaged in the conversations taking place around us, chuckling quietly along with a joke or telling a story about her experiences helping animals. As expected, Miss Sparkle asked about what brought somepony of my stature to Ponyville. I decided not to tell her about my job. We bounty hunters are looked down upon in most social circles. Instead, I told her, “I was just traveling and decided to settle down here for a bit.” It was a satisfying enough answer for her. Miss Rainbow Dash complimented me on my flying abilities as well as what she called my, “Awesome style.” Was she referring to my steel exoskeleton? I was a bit reserved about it, but even if she was talking about it, I didn’t really mind that much.

Miss Applejack asked me if I would be willing to help on the farm some time. I haven’t worked on a farm before. “If I do, do I get to eat more of your family’s cooking?” I replied smoothly. We both chuckled at this. Mr. Spike was a very funny dragon. I had never met a dragon before, but after talking with him, I felt like all of those stories about mean dragons weren’t true. Yes, everything was going wonderful. Until two events had agitated the mood at the party.

The first, while a much smaller event than the second, changed the mood of the party from happy and peaceful to slight surprise. I had gotten careless and went to scratch my head, but I didn't consider how difficult that would be with my hooves all ironed up and my legs having lost a large portion of their range of motion. As I lifted my hoof to scratch my head, I didn't gauge the trajectory as well as I could have and I accidentally knocked my hat off. This didn't really matter much to me, but then I heard an excited gasp. I forgot that ponies with wings and a horn aren't very common around these parts.

Miss Twilight had noticed, and was either excited or terrified by this. "Do you come here on behalf of princess Celestia?" She asked "Are you here to test me? Am I in trouble? Tell me! Please tell me!" Those were the only words I could understand out of the seemingly thousands she was saying at that point. She seemed pretty worried about it, but I didn't feel comfortable talking about the princess. Everypony else was rather surprised too. I started to panic. Had I blown my cover? The room started to darken and all of the ponies started to look grotesque. I closed my eyes, trying not to see, but no matter how tightly I shut them, the images wouldn't leave. And Miss Sparkle was still talking about the princess the entire time. I heard the sound of a hammer hitting metal, when suddenly it all stopped.

"Tor, are you uhhh... Doin' alright?" miss Applejack asked me as she tapped my shoulder. "You looked like you were in an incredible amount of pain just now." I opened my eyes and gasped. Everything was normal again.

"Did I confuse you with all of my questions? I'm sorry, the princess is my teacher so I always get a bit worried when I think she's testing me." miss Twilight apologized.

"Ummm... That's alright. To answer your question, no I'm not connected to the princess in any way. I... Just found myself in this neck of the woods and decided to settle down." I reassured her as I put my hat back on. That was a traumatic experience to be sure. I tried to move on from that subject as quickly as possible, to return the party to the way it was before. And, lo and behold, it did go back to normal. That is, until the other stallion of the hour showed up.

Seething Mass. Nobody actually saw him come into Sugarcube Corner, and he didn't make a single sound, but we all felt him. It was as if the air went a little colder for a second, as if something foreign and unusual was watching us. He stood quietly at the door, and seemed like he was confused about why he was here in the first place. To match that, he was a half an hour late! Miss Pinkie Pie was the first to welcome him, naturally, and offered him some apple juice. I was about to talk to him and engage in some hopefully friendly conversation when he started talking to Miss Rarity. I'll admit I was a mite bit jealous, but I quickly got ahold of myself. He seemed to really calm down, and was apparently talking to Rarity about some sort of job when his face suddenly changed, went slack.

That was when the horse-apples hit the fan.

He had looked calm enough at first while talking to Rarity, then the look in his eye changed. It looked like he needed to say something. That may sound natural, but let me tell you, this wasn’t just any old fun fact he was about to spout out. It looked like his life depended on saying it, as if he was afraid something had would happen if he didn't. Almost that same sort of look somepony gets on their face right before something terrible happens. He whispered something into Miss Rarity’s ear, and she was extremely surprised by whatever he said. We all took a step back, not sure what had happened. He noticed our movement away from him, and frantically rushed to Miss Fluttershy.

By now he was actin really crazy, loudly calling out descriptions of events that I couldn't make sense of. I could tell something was strange about what he was saying from the other ponies' faces. Whatever he was saying was something he shouldn't have been able to know. He bore down on Fluttershy, screaming out words and spraying spit. At the end of it, both him and Fluttershy were weeping, and he kept saying he was, “afraid.” Afraid? He was afraid? By this point we were all afraid of him. Fluttershy was distraught, and the rest of the fillies looked deeply disturbed by whatever Seething Mass had screamed. Why would he be afraid? Was this somehow my fault? I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe I had misjudged him, jumped to conclusions. Miss Fluttershy was absolutely panic-stricken; she hadn't cried this much even when I almost ran her over yesterday.

As if all of this wasn't strange enough, something very odd happened. The temperature began to fluctuate in the room, one second it would be cold enough to see your breath and the next instant the very air tore into your lungs hot and dry. I watched Seething Mass and a sort of, change came over him. It’s hard to describe, but it was almost as though the shadows in the room became more numerous, suddenly every aspect of Seething was rendered in stark detail before me. Suddenly I could see the covering of hair on him that should be invisible, his outline grew from smooth to detailed, somehow clearer. I had never seen anything like it, but suddenly I could spot every individual speck of dirt, every hint of a crack in his horn. And his eyes, they seemed to explode with a detail I couldn’t even comprehend. The room felt alien, strange, and I suddenly felt as if I didn’t belong here.

As I watched a gray aura extended out from him in all directions, crawling across the floor. I thought my vision was fading at first, but sure enough everypony and everything in the room was being drained of color. As the color drained, the same strange affect rendered everything in exquisite, painful detail. Every crack in the floor, every inconsistency in the painted ceiling, millions of tiny bubbles in the apple juice sitting on the suddenly hyper-textured tablecloth, everything took on that same aspect as Seething Mass. It came in waves, radiating outwards from Seething Mass like some sort of creeping tide. I watched as the aura enveloped my filly friends, the same disturbing change overcoming them as their colors faded to a sort of mute green tinge. Soon enough everypony except Miss Pinkie Pie and me had been touched by the cloud. My mind was drawn back to the graveyard, when Seething's color shone through his normally gray coat for a moment in that fit of spontaneous laughter.

Miss Pinkie pie tried standing up to Seething Mass for making Miss Fluttershy start crying. I was far enough away that the fog of gray hadn’t reached me yet, but somehow Pinkie could stand right next to Seething and remain her chipper pink hue. After scolding him, she then tried to comfort him, realizing that he was extremely distressed by something. Suddenly Seething reached up, quick as a flash, and gripped either side of Pinkie's head. His eyes were cold and without emotion, and this sudden movement forced me to act. My bounty hunter instincts reacted, and I leapt forward to stop him. Maybe I was wrong; maybe he really WAS a dangerous criminal! His eyes were so detailed they made Pinkie’s bright color seem, childish and fake. Seething Mass’ face twitched and a sort of sad expression came over him. He looked like he was in a lot of pain. He stopped for a moment, paused and tried to swallow, and then whispered something hoarsely into Miss Pinkie's ear.

Her face blanched and started to drain of color just like everything in the room, and she looked horrified as the details of hair and tears flushed out of her now colorless face, but all I could think of was how hurt Seething's face looked, how frightened and sad he looked. I had to do something. I thought that if I could knock him out of his current position the entire thing would stop. I realized suddenly how lonely Seething Mass looked, how completely alone. I’m surprised that I felt more concerned for him, all the other ponies were lying on the floor staring upwards vacantly, but for some reason all I wanted to do was somehow stop Seething Mass’ pain. I got ready to tackle him in an attempt to move him, but almost immediately as I had started to charge Seething Mass' head jerked upwards and his eyes locked on mine. All I could see were those frigid white pupils.

I woke up on a soft couch. Wait, wasn’t I just at Sugarcube Corner? It made no sense. That couldn’t have been a dream. It was too real. I looked around the room. It was very… Purple. I knew only three things at this point. One, I didn’t know where I was. Two, I had the most killer headache. And three, I had somehow gotten from Sugarcube corner to wherever this place was in an instant, with no memory of how. I attempted to get off of the couch and onto my hooves. This resulted in utmost failure. I got off the couch with my front hooves first, not knowing just how weak they were at the moment. As I put weight on my legs, they instantly buckled and I flipped over onto my back, causing quite a loud noise. This must have been noticed by somepony upstairs, as I heard hoovesteps on the floor above. I was still very dazed and couldn’t see straight. The headache wasn’t helping at all. I almost fell asleep on my back, but before I could, I heard a familiar voice say, “I’m glad to see that you woke up finally. You looked like you might sleep for days. Darling I’ve heard of beauty sleep, but that was just ridiculous!” It was Miss Rarity.

She must not have seen me immediately, because after she said that, she let out a gasp that made my headache pulse in my head and galloped over to try and help me up. I was still very wobbly. After a few minutes, she helped me over to her dining table and gave me some food. I couldn’t tell what it was; I was so out of it. I just ate it and thanked her for feeding me. We sat at the table silent, me trying to gather myself and figure out my surroundings, her staring at me, waiting for a chance to speak. Well, the gathering myself could not have gone worse; I was still as dazed and confused as when I had woken up.

Then it hit me: how did I get there? Miss Rarity was there, so she would probably know. I asked her, “Say… where am I, Miss Rarity?” “Why darling, you’re at my house, naturally!” “I guess that makes some sense.” I was still talking rather slowly, exactly as dazed as when I woke up. Why wouldn’t this go away? “But… then how did I get here?” She lowered her head in response to that question. “Something went horribly, horribly wrong at the party. The other ponies and I came to our senses shortly after that unsightly gray pony, Seething Mass, was it? Left Sugarcube Corner.” “Please be nice to him, Miss Rarity… I don’t think it was his fault. I think he’s nice, once you get to know him.” I said, almost forgetting what we had been talking about, due to my dazedness.

“Well, If you say so, darling. Anyways, we had all come out of the shock, but you hadn’t. In fact, you were asleep! Or maybe passed out. It was actually kind of cute, really. We tried to decide where we should take you, but because none of us knew where you lived we had to have somepony take you to their home. Fluttershy couldn’t bring you to her place, she taking care of a bear and there wouldn’t have been enough room. You would have been much too heavy to carry to Rainbow Dash’s house in the sky, and Applejack is in the middle of applebucking so she wouldn’t have been able to properly take care of you. Pinkie Pie had to clean up and Twilight Sparkle told us she wanted to study what happened that night. I felt bad that responsibility for you was being tossed around like you were a ragdoll, you poor darling, so I offered to have you stay on my couch for the night, and here we are now!” She laughed, seeming slightly embarrassed.

“You know you could have just tossed me out in the street, right? That’s where I’ve been sleeping ever since I got here.” I replied somewhat gruffly. My head was just killing me. Her face grew horrified. “Oh, no deary you can't be serious! That simply won’t do! That’s so bad for your complexion, darling! The other ponies and I simply must arrange for you to stay somewhere. Honestly, sleeping in the streets is dangerous, even for somepony of your… stature. Some crook could come by and steal from you! Go lay back down on the couch, while I go and talk to the other ponies about a place to stay.” She said, kindly yet commandingly. She really looked concerned.

Regardless of her concern,I knew that nopony would actually get away with stealing from me at night. Still, having a bed would be pretty nice. I obligingly went to the couch and lay down. I was still as dazed as I was when I had woken up. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I regain myself? Suddenly my scatterbrained aching head came to an odd conclusion; I have work to do! I thanked Rarity for her hospitality and darted out the door, still wobbly on my feet. I was headed to the police station to pick a job. I really don’t remember why I decided to go just then, but I’m almost positive that I wasn’t thinking straight. What would follow this simple, rash and thoughtless decision would be the worst day of my bounty-hunting career.

I got to the police station and went inside. I looked at the bounty wall, which is where I choose a criminal to search for, and nearly fell sideways trying to look it over. I chose a unicorn stallion that had killed three ponies and stole their valuables. He had a pretty good price on his head. I read that he had been seen by the edge of the forest and hassle anypony who got near the outskirts of town. As I left, I ran into Miss Sparkle. No, I mean I literally ran into her. Second pony this week! She seemed like she was actually looking for me. As dizzy as ever, I greeted her with a groggy voice and slurred speech, “Well g’mornin’ Miss Sparkle. I didn’t expect to bump into you here.” I said, helping her to her hooves. “What were you doing at the police station?” She asked, suspiciously. “Oh, you know… Just… Stuff.” She didn’t look convinced, dang she was good.

“If you say so. Anyways, listen. Do you remember when Seething Mass turned everything gray last night?”

“I ‘spose so.” I rocked back and forth a little.

“Well the something similar happened to us when we confronted Discord! Discord is an EXTREMELY dangerous, not to mention ANNOYING creature. He rendered Princess Celestia powerless and almost ruled all of Equestria forever! This Seething Mass' stunt at that party leads me to believe that pony is connected in some way to Discord, and I was wondering if you would keep an eye on him for me. I’ve been up all night but I still need to do more research, but he’s dangerous and shouldn't be trusted to be left to his own devices. I'd watch him myself, but I need to find out more about what he did back there! Could you help me Tor?"

“Yeah, sure. I can do that. Now, I gotta get to work. It was nice to talk to you!”

I ran off in the direction of the forest. If Twilight didn't notice something was wrong with me, then her head must already been too wrapped up in thought because I was acting very strange. By some insane coincidence, I ran into Seething Mass at the edge of the forest. Not literally this time, he was pretty far away and I (barely) had enough time to stop before hitting him. He was just sitting there, staring at the train as it pulled out of town towards Canterlot, his coat and mane as grey and colorless as ever. I walked up to him, stumbling and tripping over my own hooves. I was asked to watch him, right? So, what with my brain all scrambled and all, the next logical step was to ask him to come help me with work! “Would you come with me, Mr. Seething Mass? I got some work to do, and I was wondering if you’d like to join me?” I asked him.

Now I'm not sure how I would have responded, were I in his place, but let me tell you what I do know: the look on his face was priceless.

“Isn’t your line of work hazardous for untrained ponies?” He asked after faltering a bit. His voice sounded a bit, well, clearer for some reason, like he had more wits about him. I didn’t know that he knew what my job was. “Well usually, but I’m sure you could handle it! Besides, Miss Sparkle asked me to… Ummmm… well never mind that. Anyways, come with me.” “But that doesn’t sound safe…” He mumbled as he begrudgingly followed me. I don’t even know why he decided to come with me, I had obviously made a fool out of myself again. Why was I being so stupid? It was starting to anger me. We trudged on through the forest silently.

It wasn’t long before we found the pony I was looking for. I was less dazed than before, but my head was still pretty foggy. We were in a position where he couldn’t see us. “What do we do now?” Seething Mass asked me.

“Oh… Uhhhhhh… I hadn’t thought of that… What do you think we should do?”

“What do I think we should do? Isn't my job, isn’t. I mean this isn't my job. You invited me to come along, asked me to help, and now you're asking ME what to do? Didn't, if I didn't, I didn't know if I would say you..." he stopped for a moment, gathered his thoughts, and whispered again, “If I didn't know better I would say you were out of your mind! And I would know of what I spoke too, of being out of one's mind!"

“Hey, I’ve been dazed all morning for some unknown reason. Would you have been able to formulate a plan like that if you were as boggled as I am now? No! You wouldn’t have! So cut me some slack!” I said, getting louder and louder. My head was buzzing with pain. In that moment, I completely forgot what I was doing. “AND WILL SOMEPONY PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS HEADACHE?!?” I shouted at the top of my lungs, completely blowing our cover.

My target, a tall, slender electric blue unicorn stallion, whirled around and stared at us angrily. He knew exactly why I was there. “You should be a bit quieter when stalking somepony, you know!” he screeched, laughing maniacally. Seething glared at me and I just laughed, stumbling to my hooves as Seething joined me in a rather half-hearted charge. As we hurtled towards him, his horn started to glow and he shot off a spell faster than I could prepare my “steel chains” spell. Suddenly we stopped moving but we didn’t notice any immediate effects, although something strange did happen to my hooves. Suddenly they were heavy, very heavy. And this is coming from a guy who has steel nailed into his hooves, which I assure you is very, VERY heavy. I glanced back at Seething Mass, whose hostile gaze forced me to looked down at my own hooves. When I looked down however, the shiny steel, which was usually there, was turning (quite rapidly now) into the most detailed stone carving I had ever seen.

But not just my “decorations” no, it was the flesh and hair underneath too! Spreading rapidly throughout my whole body while that maniac stood there, watching, laughing! I looked over at my gray acquaintance, and the same was happening to him. We both remained relatively calm, despite the fact that any regular pony would have been completely freaking out. We were just staring, with fire in our eyes at this…sociopath. We had given up on trying to actually move; we knew this spell would complete our transformation before we could get him. We were prepared for the worst, which I assumed was us turning entirely into statues and being lost and forgotten in the forest forever. It turns out, however, that this was not the case. While the target did intend to turn us to stone, he apparently did not intend to turn our heads to stone as well. We stood there for a moment, confused, waiting for the last living part of our bodies to petrify, when suddenly he spoke. “I’m so very sorry.” He sounded like an entirely different stallion than before, with a soft, almost regretful voice. How could this be cold-blooded killer that I was assigned to bring into custody? He sighed as he looked sorrowfully at us.

“I’m sorry I had to do this to you… I never wanted to go down this road, the road of villainy. You see… my family is dying of hunger. My foal has been sick since she was born. She has Hoof-eating gout. I figured if I could make enough money to pay for her medicine, we might just get by! But… well… the pharmacist kept raising the price by several hundred bits with each of my visits, no doubt trying to extort as much money as possible from me. One day I went in assuming I had enough money, but that was the day it got to the point where nopony, hardly even the richest of Canterlot’s elites, would have been able to afford the medicine! My daughter has such a rare illness that nopony else needed the medicine, nopony else saw the price raise.” He glanced over at us again, after having looked down. Seething Mass and I glared back, but we both listened attentively. It’s not as if we had anything better to do!

He resumed speaking. “That was the day when I started… I waited near the forest and took the first opportunity I could to ambush some poor soul and take their money. It turns out that this pony was a fighter… He didn’t give up that easily… I got carried away and, well, shocked him with a little too much lightning. I’ve never forgotten that day, though there were many where the same thing happened.” His eyes were dewy at this point; half of his words were barely understandable. “I’m not asking you, or even society, to forgive me for what I’ve done… I just want you to understand my plight…where I’m coming from.” He concluded, lowering his head in shame. By now he was lying down on the ground.

This reminded me of my young life in Canterlot, helping the poor civilians. It hit a soft spot in my cold, hardened heart. Suddenly, if only for a moment, my head was clear and I had but one question for him. “Tell me, there is only one pharmacy in all of Ponyville, is there not?”

“Yes, and only one pharmacist.”

“Okay, I think we’re done here. You can run along now. Go on, get. I’ll take the heat for this one.”

“Really? I never expected to hear that…” He said surprised. As he was about to leave, he said, “I’m truly sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t de-petrify you… I haven’t learned that spell… I really hope you can come to forgive me some day.” “I have already forgiven,” I said, as kindly as I could. Seething Mass grunted harshly beside me and spoke. “I haven’t!” The unicorn looked us both slowly in the eye. “The best I can do for you is this,” He said as he walked over and turned me to face the disgruntled gray pony that I’d almost forgotten was there. “I figured you might want to talk for a while… I really do appreciate this! Honestly, I really do! You have no idea how nice it was, simply to have someone listen to you.” He said as he strutted off, with tears of joy in his eyes, holding his head proud and high. He was a new stallion now. It was obvious that he had never been given a second chance by society, but I broke his streak of bad luck. He vanished without a trace.

Now it was just Seething Mass and I. He was standing there, I was standing here. It was uncomfortable for both parties. There was a silence that seemed to last for an eternity while we tried to avoid eye contact. It was obvious that I had royally pissed him off. I could understand why though. I brought him with me without a good reason, and ended up getting him stuck with me, for what could be forever. Gosh my headache was still terrible, and back with a vengeance. At least I wasn’t moving around and getting dizzy anymore. I attempted to break the silence with some levity. “Well, I know somepony who’s getting his bounty hunting license revoked.” It didn’t work. Total silence. ““Well that was fucking stupid.” I still wasn’t sure what that fourth word was, but apparently it was something bad.

Another five minutes of silence passed before I heard him speak again. “You seemed to let him go pretty easily…” Seething Mass said, after apparently calming himself. “Yeah… look, I’m sorry… I know you didn’t want to be here in the first place, but I dragged you with me anyways and got us stuck in this mess.”

“It’s fine, I guess… my life can't be any worse as a rock than as a pony.” he said, weakly attempting a smile. “But I have to ask you, I need to know, need the knowledge, this pony..? You seemed so, compassionate. Why him? You've taken down so many other ponies, almost took me down once, why did this pony draw such sympathy from you?"

“Well… the rest of my captures were psychopaths… Ponies who didn’t think what they were doing was wrong. This pony… This valiant stallion was just a guy backed into a corner, who did what he did to help somepony dear to him, when all odds were against him and there was nothing else he could do. He went to far, and he couldn’t go back so he just kept going forward.” “I am, I am a psychopath?" he replied. Well horse apples. "well, uh, I... No?"

He stared, questioning me sternly with those frosty globes.

"Why do those less fortunate ponies affect you so?” He asked inquisitively.

“I’ll save it for another time… It’s kind of a long story.”

“We are going nowhere, nowhere rather soon. I hear it takes up a lot of time, going nowhere.” He pointed out.

“Good point… But I don’t know… I’ve never told anypony my story before… How do I know I can trust you not to disown me?”He looked rather confused at that.

"I am currently 79% rock, can't organize my own thoughts into a cohesive story of who I am, who I think I think I therefore am, and you have already suspected me of having done something illegal. Even if I did disown you, you have others who care for you, who think you matter and think you, therefore you matter because you are..." He replied.

“Yet another good point.” I somehow managed to chuckle. I suppose he was right, after all. Well, right about the half of what he said that I could understand. Still, he seemed to honestly care about my story. Something about this made me trust him even more. Trust… I hadn’t felt that feeling in quite some time. I unloaded my troubled past onto this pony’s back.

He looked at me, astounded. He seemed very surprised by my tale of hardship and woe. "The world, I, I don't understand. Celestia, Celestia wouldn't do such a thing, no, no no no, I never saw that side, never realized, is this, this "decoration" a strange occurrence? I've never heard any mention of it in the show! " I looked at him strangely. "Decorations don't happen often, but they aren't unheard of in the Canterlot circles. It takes a very odd crime and criminal for a decoration to take place. Now what show are you talking about?" his face blanked again for a moment, and I thought he was going to have another fit of manic grayness like at Sugarcube corner.

"I, I don't know what I meant, must have been, must have been talking, nonsense, about a show, magic, magic is friendship, oh I just don't know!" his face regained its former liveliness, and his brows furrowed.

No gray spell for now at least. I don’t understand why, but this drove me to be curious about his past too. “Well, I’ve been rambling on for ages… Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” The look on his face changed instantly. He went from shocked to depressed. I quickly tried to amend the situation. “But, if you don’t feel comfortable with telling me… you know, that’s fine too. You don’t have to tell me”

“No, it’s not that… I just don’t really… know. I don't know. I was, in a box, in a coffin, but I didn’t feel real. I, I woke up inside underground and I couldn't remember anything at all, but thoughts would float to me out of nowhere. It was like being born, ripping out of that casket and burrowing up from the ground like some, some horrid thing. I got out. I, I knew things. I knew what birds and bunnies and air was, and I knew about Ponyville and Applejack Twilight Rarity Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, and Spike. I knew about all of them, a lot about all of them. All in the graveyard. We went back the other night, you were hunting me. "

Yeah, that's still a bit embarrassing now, I'll admit it. Hey, he looked shifty! Then again, how would I have looked had I awoken in his stead? Jeez, buried alive?

"I went back, back to the grave. Forgot something, apparently. I just felt I had to go back. His name is, was Picket. Picket, and he, he, he did something selfless. " here Seething Mass nodded his head at his hooves, "Don't know how, somehow my horn broke off getting out. I somehow knew I could take the horn, that I would need it for something important. I, I just KNOW things. I don’t’ know WHY, I don’t know what they are good for. At the party, knew things I shouldn't, couldn't, unless I'd seen them before somewhere. Like a show..."

He trailed off a bit, but looked up and seemed a bit satisfied, I guess he hadn't been able to tell anypony any of this until now. I sensed it was my turn to reply. “Wow… That is confusing… But now I think I understand what happened last night better. You really weren’t trying to do what you did last night at the party… It just happened.”

“It’s… hard for me not to tell somepony something I know but shouldn’t… Somehow, I know things about them. I knew what they would all look like, how they would act, what they have done in the past, I knew it! Before I had ever seen them! Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Applejack. Even Spike! That’s what caused me to start having that, that, that short in the system, the tears, the rip that you saw… I turned everything gray…brought something through… even you. I don't even know how, or why.”

“Hey, I don’t mind! I’m just glad that you weren’t hurt. It looked like you were really suffering there. I was worried about you…”
“Well, thanks for your concern.”

“No problem, friend.” At the word, “Friend,” I could have sworn that I saw his color change a little from gray to green for a split instant, just a slight blotting of pale green on his shoulders and perhaps a dappling of purple in his mane. “Hey, could I tell you something?” He nodded at me. “The real reason I brought you here… The real reason we’re in this mess… Well… There was some similarity between your grayifying power and that of somebody called Discord… Somepony asked me to keep an eye on you and, well… I’ve had a headache and been in an awful daze that affected my judgment… and that lead to our current situation.”

“Was that ‘somepony’ you mentioned Twilight?” I nodded, “I thought she would do that… Oh well. Who wouldn’t, after all? I know Discord, saw what he did. He's powerful, unpredictable, chaotic, he found each of their strengths and he knew just how to reverse them. Except Fluttershy. " he smiled, knowingly. "He had to play against the rules for her. She was too kind." His head sank slightly. "She was too kind for too long..."

We then heard an unexpected voice come from the bushes across from us. It was soft and somewhat calming. "because of your predicament, you both could now bond. Of each other's company, I see you have grown quite fond.” We saw what looked like a black and white striped pony in the bushes. Seething's eyes lit up as he whispered hoarsely, "Zecora..." The striped pony continued to speak. "Your bodies may be wreathed in stone, but inside you see your hearts have grown. I know that your head may feel quite sick," She said, as she looked at me. She must have meant my headache. “but Zecora has a remedy that will fix you up quick.” She brought over a bowl of a green, oily looking liquid.

She put it to Seething Mass’s mouth, and he cautiously drank from it. Right before my eyes, he shed his rock as if it were only a shell! It was a miracle! We would escape this alive! She added some extra herbs to the mixture before giving it to me. I drank the rest as she instructed, and lo and behold, I was stone no longer! Plus, my headache was completely gone! “How did you know what would get rid of my headache?” I asked her. “You must sometimes find the cause to find the cure. It was Seething's graying energy that hurt your head, I’m sure.”
“But the other ponies turned gray too. Why did they seem just fine?” I asked, confused.
“But you see, little Tor, they’ve been grayed out before. Since it was your first time, it affected you that much more. Powerful magic protects them all, the magic of friendship helped them to only fall.”

She then sat down with us and introduced herself formally as Zecora. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, but she had me sit with her and Seething Mass for a bit longer. She had something to tell us. “In the fate of this land, a role both of you will play. What this fate might be, nopony could say. Be warned, take heed, is all I will say. Somepony’s trust will be broken, come of this what may.” With that she walked off into the forest, disappearing into the foliage. Seething Mass and I headed out of the forest, and when we reached the train tracks I took my leave of Seething Mass. I looked back at my new “Almost friend” only once as I ran out of the forest. He stared at the train again, but this time his face was less depressed and more contemplative. I galloped towards Ponyville; I had business to attend to.

My first stop was the Ponyville Pharmacy. As I walked into the store, I saw a bespectacled old pony with a pair of balanced scales for a cutie mark sitting behind a counter. I glared at him. He was the first to speak. “Hello there! Welcome to my fine establishment! I’m sure you will be able to find a cure for whatever ails you here.” “You don’t have anything that could heal my condition.” He looked slightly taken aback. “What might that condition be, if I may ask?”

“Righteous fury.” I replied

“Well, we do have some pills that can calm you down, but I will say, they’re pretty expensive.”

“That’s not the cure I’m looking for, you hack.” He looked at me confused, and suddenly froze with fear. I made sure to use my apparently permanent glare to my advantage and looked him right in the eye. I stalked up to the counter and stood to my full height. I towered above him, and he looked puny as he stared up at me from beneath my shadow.

“I met a respectable young stallion today. He told me about his family. His poor daughter… She was very sick. It turns out you were the only one who had the medication which could make her better.”

“Well, if I do say so myself, I am the best pharmacist in all of Ponyville.” He tried to look confident, but I was much too intimidating. I decided to bring out the big guns, keep it short and sweet.

“Save it. I know what you did! You raised the prices of the medication every time you saw the poor pony! He would come in, thinking he had enough, excited to see his poor, sick girl in good health for once, and you would smash his dreams right into his face! You ruined his life, forced him to become a criminal, you sick, twisted abhorrence of ponykind! You’re the kind of pony who makes my stomach turn.” He was sweating profusely now, knowing that his jig was up. I calmed down a bit. He was terrified. I don’t like scaring ponies very much, even if it is very advantageous. My voice was calm, quiet. I knew the rapid change would make him uneasy. “I’d like to see you behind bars. I really would. I want to show you why this metal was put on me in the first place. But… seeing as my only source is a registered criminal offender… Well, let’s just say I don’t have enough of a warrant to search you. But I swear, if I find out that you’ve engaged in ‘monkey business’ ever again, I will ensure that you’re put away for a long time. A VERY long time. You understand?”

He nodded, shaking, as I left the pharmacy. I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t do anything stupid again. Satisfied with my “lecture”, I headed to my second stop: The police station. To make a long story short, I was fired. I did let a criminal escape, after all, not to mention embarrassed the board that had certified me. My license was revoked permanently; with a business as poorly thought-of as Bounty Hunting is they couldn't afford anything but the best. But hey, I guess that’s just what happens when a nice guy like me gets into that line of work. I wandered around town, aimlessly after that. My goals were crushed within the first week of achieving them.

It was then that I ran into the seven friends I had made this week. That’s right, Seething Mass was there too, and get this, he was apologizing to them for last night! I was proud of him. Afterwards, they invited him to eat lunch with them and he awkwardly agreed. I was about to walk away and give them some privacy, but then I heard Miss Rarity call out, “Oh, Tor, Darling, there you are! We were hoping you would show up! Would you like to come to lunch with us all? We have some exciting news!” With that as my cue, I trotted over to the group. Miss Applejack commented on the dirt and twigs in my mane. "Hoo-wee! You look like you rolled in a pile of raked leaves! What have you been up to this afternoon?”

“Well… you know…” I looked at Seething Mass, who was smiling ever so slightly, “I’ve just been rethinking life.”

“Well, what gives? There anything new going on?” Miss Rainbow Dash asked me.

“Well… I got fired from my job.”

“That’s terrible! We’re all sorry.” The other ponies nodded in agreement.

“That’s fine! It really wasn’t my kind of job anyways.” I assured them.

Miss Rarity piped up, “Well, anyways, Have we got news for you, darling! We have arranged for you to stay at my house! Isn’t that nice?” She looked at me endearingly.

“Thanks! Much appreciated!” I thanked them all. Then I noticed one sad looking gray pony standing in the back. “But, uh… Isn’t there anywhere my friend Seething Mass could stay? He needs a place too.” His ears perked up at my gesture.

“Well… we have a guest bedroom at the house you could stay for a while. Or if you fancy yer privacy I suppose we do have this shed over on the farm he could stay in. You'd have to earn your keep on the farm, but you'd be welcomed as part of the family. I will say, it’s kind of cramped, what with all the machines and whatnot. But it's weather-tight and cleans in a jiffy, and it's not far from the main house. Do you think that’ll be fine?” Miss Applejack replied.

For some odd reason at the mention of machines Seething's ears perked up, and his eyes seemed to glow with excitement. I couldn't help but notice the colors seeping from his mane down to his tail, and I looked quickly and realized the other ponies saw it as well. Oddly enough, Miss Fluttershy seemed a bit, distracted, almost like she was hiding behind Miss Rainbow Dash. Evidently she hadn't gotten over Seething's somewhat insane episode yesterday. Poor thing.

“Ma, Machines? An entire shed of, full of, my shed of, of machines? That would certainly be… adequate, certainly adequate… thank you.” Said Seething Mass. His voice quivered with excitement, his face held a large grin, and his purple mane and green coat seemed to burn away any melancholy feelings in the rest of us, that is except Miss Fluttershy who seemed on the verge of panic. Seething Mass had walked closer, now in the center of our little group. I got the feeling that Seething's thanks were intended as much for me as they were Miss Applejack. Seething glanced around at each of us, but upon seeing Fluttershy desperately trying to avoid his gaze his shoulders slumped some, and his colors faded back to the old grey from before. Applejack noticed, but just smiled softly and leaned over, punching him lightly in the shoulder, "Well then pardner, I think we have us a mighty fine deal!l Seething Mass smiled quietly and we all trotted off to go have lunch. As we trotted, I realized something.

I may have lost a job today, but I gained a friend.

Chapter 6: Settling In

Applejack checked the time. AJ and her friends always tried to meet up together each week in one place, just to catch up on anything that might have happened and iron-away the stresses of the past few days with some good food, good laughs, and good company. Sometimes they wouldn't get together, if they happened to have a particularly busy week of adventuring, learning lessons about friendship, or wreaking havoc accidentally at Canterlot high society affairs. Some weeks they were just too darn busy to meet, whether it was Cider Season at Sweet Apple Acres or Rarity was called to make a particularly large and short-notice order, sometimes life just got in the way.

Despite these things, all six of the ponies tried their best to make time for themselves to just be themselves in their own company. Applejack grabbed a few new sweets to test with her friends and carefully set them in her saddlebags before heading off to Twilight's arboreal home, the site of this week's get-together.

When she arrived, she barely knocked on the door before Pinkie Pie burst outwards in a cloud of confetti, enthusiastically hugging Applejack and giggling madly.

"APPLEJACK! Oh I'm so excited, now the party can REALLY begin! Twilight is making some tea, and Fluttershy made some before-the-meal snacks that look SCRUMPTIOUS, and Rarity brought over new design sketches to run past us all! Can you believe she would trust US to look over her designs!? After what happened last time she let us critique her work, it's a huge act of generosity to let us look at the designs at all!"

Applejack laughed heartily. "Well darlin' that would make sense, what with Rarity bein' tha element of Generosity and all. Still, ah suppose it IS rather nice of her to let us look at them."

Pinkie grinned wider. "Let’s go inside, I'm so excited I could just WRIGGLE and SQUIGGLE all the way to Fillydelphia!"

Applejack followed the overly-enthusiastic hopping pink pony into the library, closing the door behind her and checking quick to make sure Pinkie's tight hug hadn't destroyed any of her new recipes. Luckily they had all survived mostly intact, and Applejack couldn't help but smile to herself as she walked in to greet her other four friends.

They were all sitting down at a small table in the center of the room when Applejack joined them; setting out her new deserts much to the joy of the other mares. Everypony laughed and joked around for a while, and one time a joke Twilight told (or rather, attempted to tell; She was reading in a flat monotone out of a book) made Fluttershy laugh so hard and suddenly that tea shot out of her nose and sprayed all over the floor. Wheezing slightly, and thoroughly embarrassed, Fluttershy helped clean up the mess. "I'm so sorry," she said, “the joke really wasn't too funny, but when I looked at you Twi you looked so excited at your joke that I couldn't help but laugh at your expression!" The other five fillies laughed heartily after Fluttershy said this, and Fluttershy giggled quietly the whole time.

As the evening rolled around things at the library began to settle down. Tea-snorting guffaws gave way to quiet chuckles and minor giggling fits, the practical jokes and prankster antics of Rainbow Dash gradually decreased and eventually ceased, and pretty soon each of the six ponies sat in a comfortable armchair as the fire burned low. Spike was serving as a temporary messenger for a noble in Canterlot, a job Celestia herself asked of him and of which he had hardly ceased bragging about to Twilight the entire week before he had set out. Because of this, the house and friends grew quieter and quieter until conversation at long last leaned gently towards the newcomers, two ponies that had entered the citizenry of Ponyville about a month before this very night.

"So Applejack I've been meaning to ask you, how is that Seething Mass guy doing? Has he had any of those crazy fit-things where he starts screaming about "bronies" like he did last week?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Applejack replied. "Nah he's been doing a lot better. I had him apologize to Derpy Hooves for tha' whole incident, poor thing thought Seething was a'pointing and a'ravin bout her eyes. I don't know what set him off that day, he just seems to pick up the darndest' things! You know we offered him a room in the house but he prefers to sleep out in the barn, woke the whole family up for three nights screaming about somethin' called 'the Internet', and yelling out nonsense like,'For-chan lies' and crazy gibberish like that. Now Granny Smith couldn't hear nothin o'course, but I thought Big Macintosh was goin tah throw Seethin out tha door himself the third night it happened."

Rarity gasped. "My gosh that sounds terrible! Honestly I don't quite know how you stand to have him live so close to you. I mean, I'll be honest he's a nice enough pony but he gives me the creeps. I know I shouldn't judge him so harshly, but the way he stares is quite uncouth! "

Applejack nodded slowly. "Well I don't be'grudge ya none Raritah, he can be quite the hoof-full sometimes. But the lads got a good heart in 'im, and he works hard. Did I tell you what he did when I shown him the barn?

Well Big Mac and Seething Mass and I headed out to that barn behind that first apple field south of our house, you know the one we keep our snow-clearin' plows and old farm equipment we never use? Well we take Seething over there and it's only about a minute oer there by hoof, and as we get nearer an nearer Seething just gets odder and odder, like he can't wait to get there. Now Big Mac didn't like Seething much back then so it just sorta ticked him off, but as soon as we git there Seething rushes forward like he was holding in his excitement and couldn't keep it in any longer. He opens the door to the barn and gallops inside and just sits there, pokin' at some machine from Granny's days, I don't even know what it's good fer. An he just sits there, pokin and proddin this thing and shaking up and down. Pretty soon I realize he's GIGGLING, laughing like Pinkie just told him her funniest joke. "

At this point Pinkie chimed in. "OOOH! The one about the leprechaun!?" Applejack gave Pinkie a somewhat stern look. "oh, right, sorry AJ. " Pinkie said. Applejack continued.

"Anyways, ah tell him that he can tinker with anything but the Snow-plows. Then he says something strange, he says 'Twilight couldn't drive well without magic.' I think he was talking' bout last Winter Wrap Up Twi. I doubt he heard that story bout you round town, so I don't know why he said it. That darn pony just knows things sometimes. Anyways, I tell him he can tinker with any of these machines he wants and he looks at me like I gave him Canterlot as a present. 'Thank you,' he says, ‘you can't imagine how wonderful that is to hear.' I thought he was goin to cry. His coat did that weird color thing like he's done before, ya'll remember how he changes colors sometimes, and he just dives into the machines and starts tearing them apart! Well Big Mac and I took our leave, but when we came the next mornin to fetch him for chores the crazy colt had been up all night fiddlin' with his machine! I can't quite make sense of it all but it looks complicated and he's in the shed working on it almost day and night. After chores."

"Woah, maybe his special talent is machines!” Pinkie chimed in. Rainbow's eyes were ablaze with inspiration. "I wonder if he could make me a ROBOT SUIT!" "Or perhaps an automatic bunny feeder.” Fluttershy mumbled ponderously.

“Well, It’s good to know he’s having a good time and staying out of trouble. He had me pretty worried for a while. He's such a curious pony, but I never could find anything in my studies to connect him to Discord." Twilight pondered for a moment. “You know now that we’re on the subject of our new friends, how is Tor doing, Rarity?”

Rarity blushed a little, then answered Twilight’s question. “Well, he’s just the sweetest thing, really! Since he lost his job he’s been trying to help me out around the house, and it’s adorable how hard he tries to be delicate and graceful! Why, just the other day he asked me if I wanted any help with my projects, and I let him help me by being a model for me! The poor darling turned as red as a tomato but he patiently stood there, wearing the tuxedo I was making, which barely even fit him in the first place! He’s such a large stallion, and then there is all of that steel, you know?”

The other ponies were staring at Rarity, smirking smugly. Rarity didn’t even notice.

“Then there was this time when I was in the middle of a huge project that took the whole day to complete, so the dear asked me if he could do any chores for me while I worked on it. I gave him a list of just a few things that I needed to have done, I didn’t want to overload him after all, and when I was taking a break in the afternoon he was trying to sweep the floor! The darling could barely hold onto the broom, and he was trying so hard too! I suggested he use his magic to hold the broom, but he just got embarrassed and told me that he didn't 'know any practical spells like that...’ so I took it upon myself to teach him some new spells. It was so very fun that I almost forgot about my order! Can you believe that?” Rarity giggled uncontrollably.

It grew very silent as rarity’s raucous giggling slowed down and eventually stopped when she had noticed the other ponies, still smirking as smugly as could be. She touched her mane and face, horrified. “What? What is it? Is there something on my face?”

“You liiiiiiike him!” Pinkie pie teased.

“I do not!” Rarity blushed.

“Yes you do! It’s written all over your face!” Rainbow dash fell on her back and laughed at this.

Then Applejack noogied Rarity with her hoof laughing, “You sure do! Well lookey here, the princess has fallen for the beast!” She joked. Rarity’s mane was messed up pretty badly, and her face fell as she heard Applejack say this. A.J. noticed and apologized quickly, “Gee, I’m awful sorry Rarity. I got caught up in the moment. I didn’t mean to tease you so much. I sure am sorry. Really, honest.”

“But you know, you shouldn’t be afraid to share with us. We are your best friends after all. You can tell us your feelings. WITHOUT the fear of being laughed at.” Twilight chimed in. She turned to the guffawing Rainbow Dash and glared at her. Rainbow Dash went quiet and sunk in her chair a little.

“Yeah, of course you can share with us Rarity! We’re your friends!” Pinkie chimed in.

“This is a safe place Rarity.” Fluttershy helped “Remember when I had that EMBARRASSING accident with my hoof and the pickle jar, and nopony even laughed?” Rainbow Dash remembered this and snickered a little. The other four glared at her and she gave a sheepish grin.

Fluttershy’s gesture brightened Rarity's face slightly. "Well, you all know how kind he’s been to us... It hurts my feelings a little to hear people make jokes about his appearance. We all know how nice and sweet and funny he can be.” The other ponies nodded their heads in agreement. Tor had shown how good he was under that scary steel exoskeleton to everypony in the room. The friends all looked at each other understandingly. Then Rarity spoke out quietly, “But... I guess I do like him...” and everypony, including Rarity, giggled wildly, like fillies at a slumber party.

“I do feel a bit bad about it though... We all know how much of a crush Spike had on me...” Rarity said with guilt in her voice. "It's really quite obvious how much he likes me, I just don't want to break his heart!"

“I suppose that would be a problem... We’ll just have to be very careful and thoughtful towards Spike until he gets used to the idea...” Added Fluttershy caringly.

“Do you think we should tell him right away?” Asked Rainbow Dash.

“I don’t think so sugarcube. That would make it even more painful for him.” Replied AppleJack.

“Hey, I’m sure it’ll all end up alright!” reassured Pinkie Pie. “Spike is pretty tough, after all!”

“I agree. This may be hard for him, but I think he’ll come to understand some day. Anyways, back to the subject on hoof,” Continued Twilight, “How does Sweetie Belle feel about Tor living with you?”

“She actually hasn’t been over to visit for a while. She probably doesn’t know he’s there. I should probably make a point to tell her about that...” Answered Rarity.

“You probably should. Be sure to take your sister's feelings into consideration. Has Tor only been helping you out around the house? Has he been doing anything else?” Fluttershy quietly carried the conversation.

“Well, sometimes when the dear leaves the boutique, he tells me he’s going out looking for other work. I’m not too sure how well it’s going though... Every afternoon when he returns home, he looks sad and dejected. I think ponies aren’t hiring him. Maybe they think he’ll scare the customers away. If only they knew how nice and not-scary he actually is.”

Twilight reached over and grabbed a book from a shelf. "I did a little reading on those braces and muzzle he wears, and they're called the Royal Decorations. They were designed for criminals." Everypony gasped at the words. "It says here that 'the Royal Decoration is a special restraint for a very special criminal, one whose specific individual crime is so odd or out of the ordinary that the normal laws regarding punishment have no viable application.' Essentially whatever Tor did was completely unprecedented, something about his unique case forced Princess Celestia herself to outline his punishment."

"So Tor did some horrible crime nopony has even thought of before?" Fluttershy cowed. "Well not necessarily. Maybe Tor was accused of a crime, but for some reason Princess Celestia had her doubts about his guiltiness. It says here in Article XII, Section twelve that, 'In cases where the punishment is death or lifetime imprisonment, and there is sufficient cause for doubt by either Princess Luna or Princess Celestia, the sentence may be replaced with a suspension of the sentence. Awaiting further evidence, the accused is Decorated and released once more among the public, the Decorations isolating him or her from their peers and ensuring a more vigilant populace.' so Tor COULD have been falsely-accused, either Luna or Celestia has a good reason to believe he is innocent. "

Rainbow Dash gaped in horror. "So you are telling me that Tor could be completely innocent, but still has to deal with everypony being afraid of him? Do those Decoration things hurt?" Twilight nodded gravely. "Every piece is secured tightly to the bone. It takes a highly trained surgeon just to get them all on without killing the subject, and nopony has near the magical skill to remove them safely except the Princesses. It's an ancient punishment that was used more regularly almost 1500 years ago, back when the Princesses ruled over a far rougher Equestria. I guess the law was forgotten until now. "

“I just got a GREAT idea!!!!” Sang Pinkie Pie. The other five mares stared blankly at Pinkie's abrupt interruption. “What if he were to work at Sugarcube Corner with me? We’ve been looking for another helper and I’d be super excited to see how well he does!”

“But won’t he scare the Cake family away?” Rainbow Dash said.

“No, silly! They’re nice ponies too! Besides, he has a lot of selling points they’d be looking for! Firstly, he’s really strong. We’ve been having to order heavy loads of ingredients lately, and it’s been REALLY REALLY super hard for us! He’s also really good with kids! Have you seen that game the little colts and fillies in Ponyville have been playing with him? It’s hilarious how patient he is with them! But besides that, there have been times when I haven’t been able to babysit for the Cake's, he’d be great at it!”

“But aren’t you scared he’ll crush them? I mean... He’s pretty heavy.” Interjected Rainbow Dash.

“I suppose that is true...” Replied Pinkie Pie.

“But he tries so hard to be as graceful and careful as possible! And besides that, he’s really aware of his surroundings!” Countered Rarity.

“I think he should have a try!” Pinkie continued.

Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash and said, “We ALL think he should be able to at least try, isn’t that right, Rainbow Dash?”

Dash looked slightly panicked, then cooled back down, “Of course! I just want to make sure it's a good idea! I can't believe Princess Celestia would allow that crazy Decoration thing; Tor's too cool for that stuff! He could still be dangerous though, even if he doesn't mean it. I just want to be sure."

Fluttershy leaned forward in her chair. "Well I think it's just a wonderful idea. "

Applejack leaned forward as well. "Me too. " each pony nodded their agreement, until it circled around to Pinkie Pie again.

“Then it’s settled!” Pinkie Pie added gleefully and began to bounce around, “We’ll offer Tor a job at Sugarcube Corner!”

Rarity chimed in as well, “I can’t wait to tell him when I get home! I want to see his reaction! He’s been looking so very hard for a job the past few days, after all.”

"Well whatever he did, I hope Tor can find a good life here in Ponyville." and with those words Twilight closed the evening. The ponies all went back home, snug in their beds until the next morning's light.

But not all ponies were safe at home.

Beneath the moon's ivory light there stood two figures, long shadows reaching graspingly towards the Everfree forest. One figure was a mare, her face indistinguishable in the darkness. She was tall, however, and her legs and back shone white in the moonlight as it glinted off of the pearly hooded cloak she wore. The other figure was a stallion, but where the mare stood proud and straight the stallion listed slightly, his stance that of one constantly off-balance. He too was shrouded. His cloak and hood were the deepest midnight blue and trimmed with fine, though very ancient, golden thread. His tail was a scraggly red thing, twisted and bent like ruined wire, and from beneath the hood two square glass lenses flared with the icy light of the moon as he glanced nervously about. His face was covered in strips of cloth, his identity completely obscured beneath the dusty fabric. On his back, sleeping soundly was a small bundled child. She was covered entirely by the thin white cloth, wrapped in a shroud like an ancient mummy from a Daring Do book. She snuggled into the stallion's mane, warm and cozy beneath the blue fabric of the cloak. The stallion looked nervous, and would randomly lurch to the left or right as if expecting to see someone in the distance watching the strange meeting taking place on the hill.

The tall mare leaned forward and whispered something quietly into the stallion's ears. He straightened slightly, and nodded solemnly before lurching his way towards town. The mare gave one last look before she spread her wings, until now hidden beneath her ivory cloak, and flew towards the city of Canterlot.

Through the quiet streets of Ponyville the stallion and the child passed unnoticed. They traveled through the newer parts of town, closer and closer to Sweet Apple Acres and the more historic streets. Finally they stopped in front of a tall dusty building, windows safe from peeking eyes behind lacy curtains the color of a dusty rose. The house was quiet and solemn, and for some reason seemed to hold the sadness of an abandoned child's toy left to crack and gather dust in a basement. No one had lived there in years, until this night.

The stallion took a deep breath and staggered as quietly as he could up the stairs. Each step let loose a puff of acrid dust as he touched it, but he hardly noticed. Standing in front of the tall grey wooden door, he slowly revealed a skeleton key from deep within the folds of his cloak. Brimming quietly with a burnt-red aura of magic, his horn sparked and the thin key slid into the door. A moment later and the two were inside, and the tall grey wooden door slammed shut suddenly in a caustic cloud of dust. A deep creak echoed through the slumbering town of Ponyville and several fillies and colts rolled over, sudden victims of night terrors. Then the town was quiet once more, silent as the grave.

Chapter 7: Meshing of the Gears

Seething Mass

Clink, Pow, socket, hammer, wrench, a bit of oil there perhaps, not much of a good thing isn’t very good at all you know.

“Are you almost done Seeth?” Big Mac has gotten so much more polite as time went on. He’s the protector I figured out that soon enough I figured it, protector of the Apple family. That’s his job, his duty. I don’t dare ask him what happened to the parents, not when he’s just started to trust me, but now he is the protector.

“The machine is almost completely functional!” I can yell now, I can raise my voice to let others hear what I say. It was so hard for a while, so hard to stand out at all in their eyes when I was already so strange. Best not to attract too much attention, I figured out soon, best to keep it quiet, to keep that thing that is me quiet. I don’t know why, but everypony is less comfortable when I am around. Well, they were less comfortable. Now I am starting to find a place. No, no that’s not it at all. There was no place for me to find. And yet, despite all of my strangeness, my fellow ponies have done something beautiful. They have made a place where I might almost fit.

“I need the gear, that gear over there with the small ‘7’ carved into it. I think it came from another old tractor you know, really old.” I’m under a massive block of ancient iron, resting above me like a chunk of the moon so far above. It hasn’t moved since yesterday, when Big Macintosh over-steamed the engine block while trying to build up speed to splash through a puddle. He doesn’t think anypony saw, and he’s right. He’s embarrassed though, and I can tell he must have been moving pretty fast for mud to get up under the shielding hood and to the top of the engine. He’s lucky the block didn’t split in half from the rapid temperature exchange. Oh well, I guess everypony needs to have fun in their own way. Big Mac splashes through puddles, and I repair the machines he damages.

“Uh, I’m sorry Seeth, but I can’t make heads nor tails of these gears you got piled up over here! Anything else I should know ‘bout it?”

I shuffle a bit under the block, craning my neck in the mud. There is a bit of the slushy gunk in my ear and my hair is stuck in my mouth and almost poking my eye. I see ok though, it’s right there, I almost say, little number seven all alone under that big red gear. Just look a little closer. “Think red Big Macintosh.” I say that and he grabs the red gear, almost heads off to give it to me, then notices that little seven underneath. “Hey! Found it!” Now he’s here, little number seven, and he brought Big Macintosh too. “Ever, you, have you ever wondered Big Macintosh, why the little details are like they are?”

He’s confused, I can tell. Here I am, neck craned, ear full of mud and hair trying to gouge out my eyes, and I ask him about some little hunk of steel. “Uh, nope. “ Simply stated. As always, master Mac. “Well I do, I do a lot.” This little gear, maybe it was the seventh in a row of interconnected gears, all mashing teeth and grinding steel, that powered some old farmer’s dreams for a while. Maybe it was lost for a while, and some little colt or filly found it while playing and had their grandfather carve their favorite number on it. Maybe it was a gift to somepony, a gift of a gear that was shiny and polished and didn’t have any rust on it, seven years married or something important. Or maybe it was just a gear with a seven on it. The little details matter, I try to tell Mac with my silence, pay attention to them.

He doesn’t understand, I can tell by the minor annoyance that flits over his eyebrows. Ah, one day perhaps he will get it. I pop the gear in and sloshing clamber out the other side. Macintosh is faster though, he’s in the seat already and when I nod at him he starts it. A bit of clanking, good sign of proper movement taking place believe it or not, then a small puff of steam as things heat up again and start shifting smoother, and then an acrid stench as that mud on top of the engine begins to burn off in the newly-borne heat. Steady noise, a shifting of a lever on Macintosh’s part, and the tractor moves forward to serve the Apple family once again. As he drives off, Macintosh looks back and waves with a hearty grin as the machine continues off towards the south fields. He’s happy now, not because the tractor is fixed, but because he can work again. Now he can work once more for the Apple family, to protect them and do his part as a member of the family. His purpose.

I’m really good at little details, and I over these past months I’ve realized ponies are just as much filled to the brim with such intricacies as any steam or magic powered mass of gears and cogs.

Back to the house I guess. I need some lunch I think. A quick glance at my left shoulder reveals it is about forty-seven minutes past the 4th hour after the noon clock struck twelve. Thanks to Twilight Sparkle’s insistent drive to help me make friends I was introduced to a pony named Time Turner, although for some reason I feel like I should call him Doc. He doesn’t seem to mind, although he seemed rather pleasantly surprised when I called him it the first time. Most curious isn’t he, most curious indeed…. At any rate he helped me repair a small clock I attached to my work harness, left shoulder so I can still shove stuff with my right if need be.

I haven’t eaten lunch yet, or breakfast, and come to think of it I almost missed supper yesterday as well. The house should be pretty quiet, Grams is gone to town I think, to meet with friends or something of the like. I noticed the cupboard where she keeps her scotch hidden behind the jugs of honey was slightly ajar, so I would deduce she will most likely return sometime close to dark time, that being around seven. Applejack will keep an eye out I’m sure.

I have to keep working on my project, my secret project nopony must know about yet. Needless to say, Tor’s intriguing,”Decorations,” as Twilight called them attracted my obsession to detail, a most marvelous setup to be sure. I have only the most modest of tools, but I think I can perhaps learn from their construction to create something much less harmful, hopefully something Tor will find interesting.

She’s here. Why does she need to be here, oh she of such quiet fearfulness? A quick look behind a pink mane, a light quiet step of a butter-yellow hoof towards the house where she no doubt hopes to find Applejack and not indeed a Seething Mass. I don’t understand, why after my first altercation at Sugar Cube Corner were the others able, willing in fact, to forgive me of my transgressions? Even more disturbing, why does my presence seem to bring such unease yet upon this one little Fluttershy? At this point my unnoticed vigil could serve only to further startle her when I appear. I step out of the door and announce my presence.

“Flll, Fluttershy, help, I, can I help you Fluttershy?” The slurring of speech, the reorganization of thought in a chaotic jumble that does not belong, no, doesn’t need to be, I recognize it as my thoughts in those first eventful weeks here. She brings it back, stirs my mind back to ill-ease and jumbled disorder. Oh Luna, spare me these awkward stumbles of thought. “umm, well, hi Seething. I-I was looking for A-Applejack..?” That is a question not a statement, Fluttershy, the little details tell me you want to leave, go away from me. Oh why does this horrid cloud of fear of pain of discouraged blue eyes flitting beneath pink locks she wants to leave she wants gone, away from this twisting and coiling, this roiling ocean of seething-“um, Seething Mass? Where is Applejack?”

Oops. Rambling mind.

“I, I don’t, I don’t know for sure I came back, I’ve been working, buil-repairing tractor, a tractor, and she isn’t here. “ She is quiet a moment. I can only see one eye really, one eye and a mass of pink hair shielding the rest of her from my sight. “um, well ok then. J-Just tell her I r-really need her help ok?” She backs slowly and is about to turn around and leave when I speak. Don’t know why, how, how I could speak but I speak.”Might, I might, I help I might help, might be able to help a bit.” She stiffens, tense, wings clamped to her sides. Couldn’t fly if she wanted to, she’s gone yeep. But she turns around, she’s nervous and afraid of me, but she wants to be kind. “Um, well, ok. I need some help, A-Applejack is so strong I figured she could help me move s-something out of the way. You see there’s, um, well a tree fell down and it landed in front of my door. I’d go in through a window, b-b-but they are all locked and I can’t get in.“

My eyes sag low for a moment and I’m greeting the cold grey of my hoofs and lower legs. Scatterbrained, yes, machine-friendly, yes, odd and disturbing, oh most certainly yes. All these things I am, and yet strong physically I am not.

“I can come, not sure lifting-not sure I’ll be able to lift. Not, I’m not that strong you see…” She’s somewhat saddened I think. “Um, that’s ok. I’ll go get Pinkie, she will be able to help. I wouldn’t want to disturb your afternoon.” “WAIT.” I run off, I have something, I forgot something; I’m also smart as well as scatter-brained and disturbing.

Oops. Don’t yell.

I don’t know why, she still stands there by the door to the house which she closed when I get back. It’s heavy, certainly, but perfect, so perfect for this. Fluttershy is a little shocked I think, maybe she’s heard of my tinkering from Applejack. “Woah, Seething, is that going to help?” She isn’t quite sure what it is for. “I want it to help, so I hope I can be useful.” She just nods a little, we move onward. She’s really quiet, even her footsteps are quiet. At least her wings aren’t clamped so paralyzing close to her spine now, she could probably fly if she weren’t trying to be polite. Myself? Quiet I cannot be. A clank here, a squeak of leather straps and glossy silver buckles. They were rusty, but I cleaned them when I would show them to Applejack and the rest. It shifts a bit on my back, but a quick tightening of clamps helps me keep them centered on either side. Rather odd really, a soft quiet yellow Pegasus nervously walking (more like pacing, but forwards only) slightly in front of a bony grey unicorn with all the metal joints and leather straps and cogs and such strapped to his back. How very odd indeed, Oh how I hope I can help.

“Well, um, there it is. Uh, do you want me to..?” I walk forward, yank a cord and a dull hum lights up behind me, on my back. Fluttershy goes quiet towards the end there, squeaking out the end of her sentence. “I, It rather needs to charge a bit, warm up, get ready. Then they will be ready. I hel-I hope I can help with these Shy, Fluttershy.” Still quiet, so quiet next to this clanking machine of a pony. “Wow, it has so many moving parts!” Unexpected, her eyes have dilated somewhat, she leans slightly forward, and speaking of (thinking actually, I am thinking now not speaking) I can now see both eyes. She’s genuinely interested in my machine. Confidence, I feel good about this I think. “Each part, parts serve purpose, serve the, purpose serve, serve, ser….”

I stop and take a breath, smile just a bit.”Sorry. Each part serves a purpose, every gear, every cog and lever, every strap or bent wire is just perfectly conformed to what it must be to make the entire thing work. And it’s not that delicate even, it’s hardy and sturdy and holds up well to use. I know, I had to test all night once! I was so tired when I woke up the next morning I had forgotten all my early chores!” The tempo of my words was slow and ponderous, but a subtle acceleration of word timing and intonation was obviously noticeable as I continued on with my unexpectedly generous bout of vocality. I didn’t even notice I was talking so much until I was done. “Oops, sorry.” I’m quiet after I say that, but I realize Fluttershy was laughing with me and not at me. “Oh, I think that’s funny!” She’s nervous, but continues.”After the Grand Galloping Gala I came home and didn’t wake up until 1-o-clock when Angel Bunny finally couldn’t stand his little tummy being unfed anymore!” Chuckle is the proper response. No, chuckle is the only response, natural; I don’t have to select it from a list this time. “Yeah.”

Then quiet awkward silence, a rest for both of us from the battle against our own selves. A tiny valve clicks by my ear; my beautiful machine tells me quietly that it is ready. “Ok, stand back a bit if you could please, the movement is a little jumpy. Tractor pneumatics are not especially precise.” She backs up, but not in fear. Her wings hang at ease, both eyes watch as the metal twitches and jumps clatteringly on either side of me. She is not at rest; she is attentively observing the entire process. She probably sees the joints like those of an eagle, or maybe her tiny bunny, so similar it’s uncanny. Then with a hiss the pistons jerk and the masses of steal, plastic and oil strapped to me spring outward roughly 1.37 feet to either side. My feet are planted, firmly, I’m in front of the door, but I knock a lever with chin by my right shoulder (My left shoulder says the time is now four minutes after the fifth hour after noon) and sturdy wooden legs flip down, five, to anchor me as I lift.

I grab another lever and give it a slight pressure, it clicks twice to the precision setting and I reach up with a hoof to a small joystick in the center of my chest, one of two right between the shoulders resting on my sternum. My front hooves are completely free to jerk the various small levers, press the different buttons, and maneuver the two joysticks lined up vertically on my ribcage’s center. The two arms stretch out to either side and gently extend the remaining foot to the tree. I open the clamps, a small hiss of steam release out the left and right mid vents, then settle these clamps around the circumference of the downed tree. I click the power lever upwards with my mouth, twice up to a stronger power setting. A hiss of steam, a wiggle of the joysticks, and the arms lift the tree entirely. Beautiful metal joints don’t squeak against their lubricated fellows, and soon the tree is entirely supported by the twin pillars of my own ingenuity.

I lean my head back towards where Fluttershy stares, her jaw is open, at the feat I have just accomplished with such ease. She looks and sees me smiling slightly. “Where should I put it?”

Fluttershy isn’t afraid anymore. Unnerved slightly, like the rest when I come unexpected into a room, but no longer afraid. The whole tree thing helped a ton, so many ponies wanted to hear about my machine, even quiet Fluttershy’s word spreads in a town like Ponyville. Twilight was so happy, Applejack so happy to hear the rumors, that I have some sort of genius. Big Macintosh hit me lightly on the shoulder, and Tor insisted that I further examine the construction of his Decorations once he learned of my inspiration for the joints of my Lifter. Applejack wants to see if I can help out with the machine, use it on the farm, maybe make more. I want to help, I found out how now! Even Rainbow Dash and Rarity applauded me, Pinkie Pie demanding I somehow mount her odd Party Cannon onto the next one I build. And all thanks to Fluttershy.

How much better to feel accepted, not out of a standard of polite acceptance and courtesy, but due to your own positive action! Oh how good action feels when it overcomes and obstacle! Fluttershy apologized for acting so afraid after I replanted the tree, but she doesn’t get it. Her fear was honesty, and without it I could not have overcome this mental paralysis the company of ponies brings me. Her true kindness was truth, and oh how the future seems so brightly illuminated! I don’t know where I am from, from before I came to Ponyville, but things are getting so much better here. Now that I can feel the metal, make my symphony of gears and pneumatics, now that Fluttershy does not fear me, now that Big Macintosh chuckles quietly at my oddities and abandoned streams of thought.

Now that I feel like I belong.

Chapter 8: Tor Ironclad- The Bounty Baker

Tor Ironclad

I woke up this morning to the sounds of a screaming foal. Before I opened my eyes, I remember thinking, “If this screaming isn’t by my hooves, it will be shortly.” I’m not much of a morning pony. Slowly, rustily, I opened my eyes. Standing in front of me was yet ANOTHER terrified pony. During my time in Ponyville, seeing terrified ponies had become a rather common occurrence. This one was younger than most. She was a white foal with a lavender and pink mane. She resembled somepony I knew, which made me even more slow to compose myself. Wow, did this filly have a set of pipes, it felt like she had been screaming for three minutes before I finally said something. “Hey... Now. Ho-hold up a sec.” I was having trouble formulating my words. I’m not used to having to explain myself this early in the morning. I got up off of the sofa and started moving toward her “I’m one o tha... them good guys.”

I must not have been very convincing, because moments later, I was out cold, lying on the ground. I woke up being shaken gently by miss Rarity. I was a little dizzy, and my head hurt. Lying next to me was a very badly dented frying pan. “Did I do something?” I asked, slightly out of concern that I actually did something bad, but mostly because I was concerned for that poor, poor frying pan. I stared back down at the pathetic and hopelessly dented piece of cast iron, with much regret in my cold heart. My mind drifted to the family the pan no doubt had left behind, young little pannlings that would grow up poor and without a father. It was almost enough to make me weep. Then I remembered that it was just a frying pan and snapped out of my spiraling depression. “Uhhhh... I can pay for that.” I said embarrassed out of my mind.

“Don’t worry about that at the moment, darling. I know somepony who has an apology for you. Tor, this is my sister.” Replied miss Rarity.

In front of me stood the foal I had seen before. She was looking down at her hooves and occasionally scuffing them. She looked like she felt pretty bad about it. “I sure am sorry mister. I thought you might be a burglar so I was really scared when I saw you on our couch. Please don’t be angry with me...”

I looked at her closely. She looked like she felt really bad about it. She still looked scared though. I realized what the reason for that was. “Oh, hey don’t sweat it, I get that a lot. And don’t worry about me being angry. My eyes... just kind of look like that. I promise you I’m not angry.” I could never be angry at a kid, it’s not in my nature. She perked up a bit. She was still very cautious though. I figured I’d try to make her feel a bit safer. “In fact, I’m quite impressed by your strength! Most fully grown stallions can’t even knock me out like that!” We both chuckled a bit, and so did miss Rarity. “Well she is rather good at causing trouble.” The filly gave a laugh that sounded like a ringing chime. She spoke. “Well there was that time with the toast.” The two sisters laughed at this, apparently it was some sort of inside joke. I wondered if Seething Mass would have known what they were talking about. “What is your name?” I asked her.

“I’m Sweetie Belle!” She said cheerily. “Well little miss Sweetie Belle, it is good to make your acquaintance! I’m Tor Ironclad.” “Well it’s nice to see that you’ve met my sister.” Said miss Rarity. I thought to myself, “So THAT’s why she looked so familiar.” “So, uhhh... What are you doing here, mister Tor?” miss Sweetie Belle asked

Inquisitively. “Oh. Well, I suppose I’ll be staying here for a while. I’m not really sure how long. Maybe until I can afford my own house.” After I said that, I could have sworn I saw Rarity’s expression change for a split second. “Are you Rarity’s special somepony?” I’ll admit, that froze me for a second. I glanced quickly at Rarity, who looked about as shocked as I probably did. “Um, well, not really.” Rarity quickly ushered us both into the kitchen, but I couldn’t help but notice her face was tinged with red.

We all sat down and had breakfast. I have problems eating breakfast. Or anything for that matter. There are a LOT of reasons. My jaw is still sore from when I had my Decorations installed, and the grill over my mouth only allows me to eat the tiniest bits of food at a time. It’s not very clean either, so after I eat I always have to rinse my grill out with water just to keep it sanitary. Today was particularly difficult. I can’t eat too well when somepony’s watching me, and there were two someponies watching me eat this morning. Miss Sweetie Belle was watching out of curiosity, and miss Rarity was staring at me as if she was in a dream. I couldn’t tell whom to stare back at, so I finished as fast as possible. “Thanks for the meal! Ummm... I should probably get going here, got more job hunting to do and all that.” I said nervously. I didn’t want to raise suspicion.

“Oh, wait, before you go, I have to tell you something! You see, Pinkie Pie has informed me that Sugarcube Corner is looking for new employees. Be sure to go talk to Pinkie today!” Miss Rarity said that as if she was going to see me off at the front door, but she in fact walked with me all the way to Sugarcube Corner. We had a nice walk together. She slowly but surely moved in closer to me while we were walking and talking. When we finally got to Sugarcube Corner, she was leaning in so close that she was almost touching me. I tried not to notice, but it was a little bit on the obvious side. I really didn’t know what to think. We stepped inside the bakery and were greeted unexpectedly by the one pony we had been expecting to see at Sugarcube Corner.

“Well good morning! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! What can we do for you?” miss Pinkie Pie cheerfully greeted us.

“I have brought Tor here because of the job opening!” miss Rarity replied.

“Oh how exciting and wonderful! That’ fantastic! You know we’ve been needing help for a while now! I’ll go and get Mr. and Mrs. Cake for you!” She exclaimed as she zipped off to grab her employers. They trotted downstairs and were obviously startled. I prepared to have to walk out the door, already planning the next locations on my job hunt, but then unexpectedly I heard Mrs. Cake speak.

“So are you Pinkie’s friend Tor? She’s been telling us all about you for the past few weeks! If you want a job, we can give you a chance. If you do well today, we’ll hire you.”

“Really? That’d be great!” I answered her. Why hadn’t I just started looking here?

“If you’ll follow me, I show you where you’ll be doing most of your work!” Mr. Cake instructed. He looked pretty happy to have a hand.

He took me to an alley behind Sugarcube Corner. The cobblestones were a different color here. They were covered in a thin white dust. A lot of white dust. “This is where we bring our shipments of ingredients! As you can see, there’s flour all over the place.” Mr. Cake told me. “This is mostly why we needed help. For some reason, this is where we drop the most ingredients. Probably because this is where we unpack everything from the cart and carry it ourselves. You see, every few days we get a shipment of supplies by train. It’ll be your job to take the cart from here to the train station to get the stuff we need, then bring it back here and get it in the cupboard. On the days when we aren’t getting a shipment, you can come in and we’ll find something for you to do! How does that sound?”

“That sounds great! What can I do for you today?” I asked excitedly.

“That’s just the kind of attitude we like in an employee!” said Mr. Cake. “Today we aren’t getting a shipment of ingredients, but we think we should see what you can do in the kitchen so we know what to have you do when you’re not carrying the shipments.”

I was a little worried by this. In my experience, cooking was a delicate thing, and I tend to break all that is fragile and delicate. And I do mean all that is fragile and delicate, I finally made a sworn agreement with Rarity that I am not to approach within twelve feet of any expensive silk cloth. Miss Pinkie Pie and the Cakes must have believed in me though, so I decided I’d give it a shot. We went back into the kitchen and miss Pinkie showed me around. She was more excited than necessary, but that is to be expected with her.  I was tasked with baking and decorating a cake before the six o’clock, the pony who ordered it would be around to pick it up by then. It was two o’clock so I figured we’d have to hurry a bit. My overseers sat back and watched and gave me additional input. Miss Pinkie gave me the most help. She really seemed like she wanted me to succeed. I tried my hardest, but there were some things I just couldn’t do. Mainly cracking eggs and whisking batter. My magic helped a bit, after I remembered I had it. I was still very shaky with the practical magic miss Rarity had taught me and I remember wishing she were there to help me. But this was one thing I just had to do alone. She was letting me stay at her boutique already, I couldn’t ask more of her.

It was four o’clock by the time I had finished baking the cake itself. Next was the really challenging bit: frosting it. I’m glad the Cakes and miss Pinkie Pie decided to help with that part. I wouldn’t have been able to smoothly spread the frosting without them. It was a beautiful cake. White frosting with a blue trim, red roses garnishing the tops and sides, and to finish it off the cakes frosted the words “Happy Birthday” in bright green letters on top and stuck in a few candles.

At six o’clock we had finished the whole thing. It was really pretty! We just had to wait for the customer to pick it up. At 6:15, a wealthy looking pony trotted in the door. He was a light blue pony with a crimson mane he had waxed into a quite suave and elegant position. He wore a gray pinstriped vest and suit jacket with a red tie. And his moustache was a sight to behold. It was a long, curved piece of art that was so long, it was tips were two inches from the sides of his face. His cutie mark appeared to be one of those fancy drinking glasses that the waiter brings you when you order a sparkling cider, but without anything in it. With an air of perfect elegance and astonishing benevolence, he asked, “Pardon me, but have you finished the order for Aiden Viscard? If you haven’t that’s quite alright, I can be back tomorrow morning for it.” He said.

“We have it right here!” Exclaimed miss Pinkie Pie.

“Splendid! I’m glad it was finished tonight! You see, my employees and I were going to celebrate my birthday tomorrow, and no celebration is complete without a cake!” Said the pony we figured was Mr. Aiden Viscard. “Well happy birthday sir, I hope you have a good one!” I was grinning beneath my muzzle, my first customer was ecstatic! “Thank you lad! I know my beloved employees will be quite happy to join me.” That last remark was a bit odd. He thanked us and paid us extra, it was easy to see he had plenty of money to throw around. He paid us enough to buy five cakes in addition to the one he actually bought for! We were very surprised to say the least. He continued to thank us excessively, marveling over the quality of the cake, then trotted out the front door with a cheery wave and a pleasant smile.

“Does he usually pay that well?” I asked Mrs. Cake.

“He’s never even bought anything here before!” She replied. I thought there was something very odd about how much he paid, but the Cakes gave me some of the money as a tip so I disregarded it. I guess some ponies just like to be generous, I mentally wished Aiden Viscard on his way. I noticed that there were enough materials left over from the cake we made to make a second cake, so I asked the Cakes if I could make another one. They allowed me to do so, and went upstairs to tend to their foals.

I got back to miss Rarity’s boutique pretty late. When I walked in the door, miss Rarity and miss Sweetie Belle were upstairs. It sounded like they were having a good time, giggling and such. They didn’t notice me come in. I sat down on the sofa and waited for the next time they came downstairs. I sat there for fifteen minutes just messing around with little spells I taught myself. They were pretty amusing. I was right in the middle of one that would make a small pile of rags dance like a pony doll when the two girls started to come downstairs. They were surprised to see me standing in the kitchen next to a big cake on the dining room table. I hoped they would like it. I tried to look as excited as I could, but that’s kind of hard when the only visible part of your face is two big angry eyes. They looked pretty surprised alright. Nopony moved. I glanced back at the cake to be sure it was still okay. The scrawl that said “Thank You!” on top looked like it had been written by a schoolpony, and some of the candy gems had slid a little, but not noticeably so. Other than that, it was perfectly fine. I waited a bit longer, then their eyes lit up. Especially miss Rarity’s. Miss Rarity and miss Sweetie Belle trotted forward and seemed very impressed with the cake I had made. I was glad, because I tried really hard.

“Did you make this?” miss Rarity asked. “Yeah, but it wasn’t much. The real trouble was...” I was cut off. “I LOVE it! The gems are perfect and the colors are perfect and the cake is perfect darling! How did you write on it? Wasn’t that difficult?” miss Rarity interrupted.

“Well, actually it wasn’t too difficult with the spells you’ve taught me. I used those to write with the frosting. It wasn’t exactly easy, but think I...”

“It looks amazing Tor!” miss Sweetie Belle interrupted. I didn’t really think it looked THAT amazing. Well, it was pretty good I guess.

“Well, I’m glad you like it.” I left it at that. I cut the cake so we could each have a slice or two, and we sat down to eat. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did indeed taste good! The others seemed to like it too. We all stayed up and chatted for a while. Later into the evening Miss Rarity sent miss Sweetie Belle upstairs when it got to be her bed time, and we stayed up a bit longer and talked on the sofa.

In the past we usually just talked about stuff miss Rarity liked because I try not to talk about myself very much. If anypony found out about my past, I’d be ruined, sent out into the forest again, all alone. I’d probably go crazy again. Well, crazier. I only ever trusted one pony to keep my secret, and that was Seething Mass. Tonight was different though. For some reason, all miss Rarity wanted to talk about was me. I had to be very selective about what I told her.

“Tor, you have an interesting name. What ancestry is it from?” miss Rarity asked.

“Well, there is a culture of ponies that come from the far northern part of this world, where the ice and snow are constantly falling, and the mountains seem to never end. My parents always told me that’s where the name came from. I wouldn’t know, because I’ve never actually been there.” I replied.

This seemed to mystify miss Rarity at first, then she seemed surprised to hear that I wasn’t from the Far North. “If you’re not from there, then where are you from?”

“Well...” I had to choose my words carefully, “I grew up in Canterlot.”

She was very excited by this. “YOU’RE FROM CANTERLOT???” She squealed in delight, “I can’t believe that darling! The glamor, the nobility, the fashion! Living in Canterlot is my grandest dream! Why were you living on the streets, surely you had a house in Canterlot? I’m sorry to ask, but did your parents have enough money to support you?” Her face was kind, sincere, and beautiful. Suddenly I felt more confident, maybe she could know just a little bit more…

“I don’t really know if they were rich.”

“‘Were’? What do you mean ‘were’?” She moved a little closer to me on the couch and I slipped up a little,

“They were killed by a thief when I was five. I was abandoned on that day. The thief burnt down our house and everything we owned that wasn’t of value, everything that was he took. I mean...” Rarity was looking at me in a very concerned way.

“What did you do? Did you just live in the streets?” She questioned. “I was adopted.” “By whom?” “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Tor, you can trust me.”

“Well she was a pony of noble blood...” Miss Rarity was getting much more excited by the second

“Who was she?”

I was a bit worried that miss Rarity would start to treat me differently if I told her. But I really wanted to tell her. “You have to promise me you won’t treat me any differently if I tell you.”

“I promise darling!”

“Uhhhhh... How much do you promise?” I asked, trying to drag this out for long enough for miss Rarity to forget what we were talking about. I didn’t figure I’d have much luck at that, but I had to try.

“Hmmm... I promise with all of my heart!” She said with the most sincere look I had ever seen.

“Make it a double, super promise.”

“Tor, please just tell me.” She said and touched my hoof with hers. It made me blush a little.

“Okay... Well... It was Princess Celestia...” I mumbled. “Excuse me?” “Princess Celestia.” “One more time darling.”

“It was Princess Celestia...” Rarity was so horrified that she almost fell backwards. Her eyes grew wide, and she sat there, obviously puzzled and terrified. I sat there, defeated. I knew I shouldn’t have told her. When she had composed herself, miss Rarity had one last question.

“Wait... Twilight Sparkle told me about those decorations that you have on you. Why would you have them if you were Princess Celestia’s adopted son?” My eyes went blank. I could feel a bit of the world slip away as the panic set in. Miss Rarity leaned down and picked up a hammer and a nail from underneath the couch. Her beautiful blue eyes blinked and turned red. Her mouth spread open over horridly sharp teeth, an insane grin on her face.

“Tor, darling, what’s wrong?” She asked and I could hear her teeth clacking together as she spoke. I was moving very slowly, the world’s tempo slowed. I looked down at my forelegs. There was blood running from the nails holding my decorations in place. I looked at my wing. The same was happening. All of the wounds caused by the fasteners in my decorations were fresh. I felt the pain of being decorated once more. I fell off the couch and curled up in a corner, trying to protect myself from my torturer. The room turned to a dark void. Princess Celestia and Queen Chrysalis were there, laughing at me. My torturer was coming closer to me, with steps that cracked the earth so harshly I could hear the screams of the stone as it broke. I lay there, awaiting  my demise. I closed my eyes for the last time.

I opened them. There was no blood. No hammer. No nail, no Chrysalis, no Celestia. Most importantly, no torturer. Only a very concerned looking miss Rarity, and a terrified me in a corner.

“That’s a very... VERY hard question to answer.” I said, and suddenly the world slipped away.

I awoke on the sofa the next morning, with a bedraggled miss Rarity laying next to me. It must have been very hard to move me up there. She was worried about me all day, trying to do everything for me. I could tell she was concerned and I felt really bad about it all, I don’t like to worry her. Everything went back to normal after I offered to be her mannequin again. We laughed and I apologized for worrying miss Rarity. I never felt closer to anypony than miss Rarity before then. I still can’t believe she can care for me like that, as hurt and damaged as I am. It’s good to have friends you can count on.

Chapter 9: Holiday Troubles-Part 1

Tor Ironclad

Tor didn’t quite know where he was at first, but after careful examination of the surrounding area, he knew all too well. A glance down showed sopping mud beneath him, his hooves were soaked with a rotten stench of the swamp. All around him were twisted and gnarled trees; their branches clawing at the sky like talons. The sky was black, but somehow there was enough light to see everything around him. Everything had taken on a dull green hue, as though he was seeing the world filtered through a lens overgrown with mold. Tor was in the Everfree Forest.

Tor stood on shaky legs. The silence was deafening, and he was utterly alone. His joints ached, and his skin shivered as waves of a dull pain swept over him. He could barely move and something cold and hard was attached to his body. His mind tried to remember where he had been before this, he had been with Sunny. He had been in Canterlot, at home. He had been ready to make the most important decision of his young life. The pain washed over him again, but he realized then that it was a familiar kind of pain. He had known it for a long while. Nor would it leave him, forever would his heart and body ache from the source of that hurt. He walked forward three steps, then laid down and wept. It was a world of infinite sorrow that he lived in, and never another world would he know.

But there was no use in laying there, soaking up the rot of the ground below him. He remembered, all and everything. His love, her betrayal. His punishment, her delight. He stood up, wincing with the pain it brought him, and looked the sky square in its thousands of beady, white, sparkly eyes and asked aloud, “Why? What did I do to deserve this? Why should I have to feel like this? I don’t have to be so sad, you know. I could be happy. Like I used to be.” The pain within and without him only throbbed in response, and the cold stars twinkled down at him as though winking merrily. This world was indifferent to his strife, and his resolve rose at that thought. “You know what? I could be happy again, I could try. I think I will. That’ll show you! I will be happy once more!” He shouted defiantly to the heavens, and his cry echoed hollow through the forest.

He returned to the tiny shack he called home, for he remembered the path well now. Past the Poison Joke patch and the path to Ponyville, beyond the den of the sleeping Ursa Major, and beyond the valley were the insidious sphinx whispered her riddles to herself in solitude and darkness; there stood his place of solemn respite. It was quiet, and this part of the forest saw little activity, so Tor was surprised to find that somepony was waiting for him there. A dark figure stood alone in the clearing before Tor’s front door. This cloaked pony was not facing him, so it was obvious to him that he wasn’t aware of Tor’s presence. Tor’s bounty-hunter instincts kicked in and he silently dropped to the ground, circling the clearing hoping it might give him a different view of who might be visiting him in his forest home. Alas, no amount of straining would reveal who it was. Tor blinked.

The pony was facing him now, and was stepping slowly toward him. Tor’s heart gave a small jittery start. He didn’t know what this pony wanted, but he didn’t want to be a part of it. Somehow he knew it would only bring him further into the world of sorrow he was trying not to accept. Tor ran away, at first, only hearing the sound of his hooves hitting the ground, then even the sound of that faded away. The forest blurred around him, shadowy figures lined up on his left and right whispering all at once. Tor was still running, noiselessly. Some of the figures started laughing and pointing at him, others were softly singing the words, “The world has thrown you out to die, and it will never take you back. Your body is cold as clay; your heart has withered dry and black.” Tor tried to block them out, but despite his best efforts tears were streaming down his cheeks, his lungs burning as he pushed himself harder. Then Tor tripped on an unseen object and fell on his face, directly in front of a small pool of water. He raised his sore head and looked down into it and saw that the tears burning his face were tears of his blood. His eyes began to hurt, and in the split second that he closed them to ease the pain he heard a rustling sound, like wind moving through the trees.

The shadows had surrounded him. He could do nothing as they picked him up and returned him to the world of sadness and pain he was trying to avoid. Far into the forest they marched until they reach a massive tree. Through a hole in its rotten core they took him, and then they were walking through the streets of Canterlot. He looked about, trying to break free, still they moved forward until at last they stood within the throne room of the Princesses themselves. The shadowy apparitions set him down and disappeared. Tor raised his head to look towards those thrones, but the room was empty save for Tor and the shadowy figure that had stood before Tor’s shack.

The pony lifted his hooded head and Tor saw a flash as light strafed across the square lenses that covered his eyes. The pony stepped closer, standing next to Tor now, and withdrew his hood with a flourish to reveal a large, rusty iron mask, terrifyingly splattered with the blood of the creatures he had doubtlessly tortured previously. Behind those square lenses his eyes were the eyes of a pony that is smiling and he reached with a hoof wrapped in cowhide leather into his cloak. What he pulled out sent a burst of desperate adrenalin through Tor’s body and made his eyes turn white as his pupils shrunk within themselves. The masked pony delicately balanced the red-hot nails on a single iron hoof and moved once more towards him. Tor was now trembling in fear unable to move as he struggled against some unknown force. Looking back from the nails to the torturer’s face, the mask had suddenly switched to one layered with jagged iron teeth, all arranged into a grotesque smile. The torturer pulled a wooden mallet from his cloak, and lowered the blazing nails to Tor’s body, sparks flying with screams of agony as they tore through the air. The torturer raised his mallet, gauging how hard to hit the nails, and like a flash his hoof descended as he made his first swing.

Seething Mass

It is a magical time of the year in Ponyville, as the coming of winter always is. The running of the leaves went without a hitch this year, and now the pegasi are preparing themselves to softly blanket the town in snow. Naturally all of the other ponies are working to help bring about the winter season in any way possible, and there is quite a bit of work to do. All around Ponyville unicorns and earth ponies are repairing roofs for the winter season, helping with the final harvest and canning of various crops, and seeing that all the sleepy animals make it into their nice warm dens before the snow begins to fall. Pegasi flit through the sky directing huge flocks of birds southward, settling them in to their winter homes before returning to help prepare and gather the snowclouds.

I actually woke up quite early on this morning, which is odd because usually I miss sleeping during the night entirely and must make it up during the late afternoon evening. My shop is a mess, no doubt Rarity would faint were she to see it. Then again I still don’t think she approves of my own appearance, she is good at avoiding awkward social situations but I can see that her kind smiles and compliments are not always wholehearted. Nevertheless she is a kind and compassionate pony, and if anything she is a concerned friend rather than a judgmental critic. Despite its apparent lack of pattern I can find anything I need in a short amount of time, no tiny spring or discarded article of machinery can escape my attention for more than half a minute if I decide I need it. The chaos is slightly comforting, for in all reality it is not chaos but rather a higher and more intricate pattern. There is nothing quite so comfortable as a nice clean pattern, and something rather rewarding about having a pattern that only you can see.

Enough dawdling, I must collect my supplies. I organized everything yesterday, so there would be no trouble getting ready this morning. A satchel containing four size twelve gears, two size nine, twenty-five size one gears and numerous assorted springs, handles, and metal coverplates. On the opposite side of the room, under those 2x4’s I accidentally knocked over testing some new Griffonson hydraulics, is my small toolbox containing every wrench from 1/16 up to ¾. My toolbelt in the second room resting on the top of my bookshelf filled with small clock mechanisms already has my large monkey wrench on it, just in case I really need to thok something into alignment. In go the wrenches and off I go, straight into what Applebloom and I have affectionately named, “The Alchemist’s Kitchen.” Underneath the sink and behind the sulfuric acid tub (apparently they don’t sell sulfuric acid anywhere in Ponyville, I had to order it special from the Canterlot Industrial Warehouse in 50-gallon tubs. A prêt-prett-pretty peh-penny I assure you) is a small can containing roasted acorns dusted with chili powder, just in case I get hungry during the day. That goes into my vest, in a special pocket I had Rarity sew on just for that purpose. Twilight said the arms, she said the arms should, come she said I should bring the arms I built and helped Fluttershy with. She thought she had just the job they would come in handy. Luckily I’ve made several improvements, not so clunky and stiff now that they no longer use tractor pneumatics. Turns out clunky tractor pneumos are more expensive than finer pneumos, something about a specific all-weather lubricant.

Well, I am finally ready I think. Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom, however, are not. They run around grabbing various things, checking to make sure everypony knows where to go and what to do and what to do once they are done going where they need to do something. Apparently Granny Smith (barely lucid at this hour) is overseeing and directing operations. Why did they give this task to her? I even, I bet that even Applejack started to question this decision after this past hour or so of Granny’s “direction”. I know I did. About six-o-clock and we are finally ready. I feel help, I help, I can here… I feel that I can help here today, my mind has never been so clear.

Tor Ironclad

Tor awoke to Rarity speaking to him, softly nudging him in an attempt to wake him up. Tor arose from his slumber, his decorations were creaky and his back was sore. “Are you alright?” Her tone was concerned, and Tor figured that his nightmares had apparently seen fit to bother her as well. “I had another screaming fit didn’t I?” He asked, embarrassed. Rarity’s face looked a little surprised. “Actually you were fighting someone off this time. I had to poke you with my yardstick to safely wake you. Not that I care much darling, I just hope you feel rested.” “Yeah,” Tor muttered quietly as he rolled out of bed and onto his hooves. “I feel alright.”

He did his usual morning exercises, stretching his back, rotating all of his joints. It was still dark out. “Oh Joy.” He thought to himself. He reflected on his nightmare. The dream was at least partly memory, not entirely a thought that his mind had conjured up for him. He couldn’t exactly place when the memory was from, except that it was from his time in the forest, he knew that. He couldn’t place it in a specific day, because it happened to him nearly every day in the forest. Not in reality, but as the hallucinations of an insane pony. His time in the forest had been a dark time, literally. For some reason to him the sun had never risen. His mind had whirled and spun, he trained under the tree branches and down by the river at all hours of the day. He had even stayed up for two days straight and yet to his eyes the sun had never returned from below the horizon. It was as if she had abandoned him, abandoned him to rot within his own mind and become one with the damp forest floor. Occasionally he would see Luna watching him, behind a tree or walking a distance from him along the path. Dreams were her realm, this Tor knew, and what was madness but a dream he could not wake from? She couldn’t speak, couldn’t help him, all she could do was watch with sorrowful eyes as he suffered.

That pony in black, he was new. Tor had been alone, always, within the forest. Well, aside from Luna, he had never seen another pony. Sometimes the rocks would whisper to him, sometimes the howling of the Timberwolves or the lilting song of a siren would tell a tale to him or ease him into a fevered sleep, but never had his hallucinations brought forth anything like that pony in black, the one with the square lenses for eyes.

He looked in the mirror. “Still plated in steel, I see.” He had dark circles under his eyes. After splashing some hot water on his face, he began to wake up more. Rarity had prepared an elegant breakfast for him and Sweetie Belle, who were both staying at Rarity’s Boutique. “Why did I have to wake up so early?” he said in his mind, wearily. He remembered Rainbow Dash explaining the previous day that the Pegasi were going to direct the clouds over Ponyville so the snow could fall. Everypony else was supposed to help make sure that the crops and animals remained safe and sound. Rainbow Dash had asked Tor and Seething Mass to help with some of the creatures that weren’t safe enough for anypony else to take care of; Fire Salamanders. They were apparently nasty pieces of work if you weren’t careful. They made their home in SwiftSand Valley which was also, as it happened, a popular sledding run during the winter. That was why it would take extra caution in order to properly prepare the Fire Salamanders into their homes. After a hearty meal, Rarity and Tor headed to the meeting place for all of their friends. Before leaving the boutique, Tor ran back inside to grab something important he’d almost forgotten, a piece of equipment he had recently procured from Seething Mass. Tor hadn’t quite shaken the eerie feeling his dream had left him with, the feeling that something was going to go wrong, and this object could help in the case of a dire emergency.

Everypony gathered at the town square, and all of the ponies were excited to start on their jobs. There was a short speech by the Mayor, and then all of the ponies split into their teams, either preparing the clouds to snow, helping animals find their new homes, or readying the fields for the winter. Tor walked for a while with Rarity, but was soon called over to where Seething Mass was standing blinking sleep from his eyes by a very chipper Miss Twilight Sparkle. Everypony else seemed to know just what they were doing, but Tor didn’t have a clue. By now only Tor and Seething Mass remained, awaiting instruction from the event coordinator Miss Twilight Sparkle. Miss Sparkle beamed at Tor. “Good morning Tor, I’m happy to see you are all ready to help! Seething Mass and I were just discussing Professor Fellhock’s most recent theory of Hyperenergetic Sub-Atomic Particulates.” Tor turned his head slightly. “Sub-atomic particulates? I hope my job doesn’t require me to know much about anything like that.” Twilight laughed lightly. “Well all motion relies directly on the physical and energetic properties of these particulates, Seething Mass was even telling me that he thinks they may even regulate the procession of our linear time! Regardless of their involvement, you really don’t need to know much about them to do some heavy lifting. We asked you to help with SwiftSand Valley because it is an especially dangerous task.” She turned, now serious, to address the two ponies at once.

“Is that because of those Fire Salamanders Miss Rainbow Dash told us about?” Tor asked.
“They do sound quite hazardous, as anything with fire in the name usually is.” added Seething Mass. “That is one reason why it’s so dangerous. The area is also prone to avalanches, and those salamanders are... Grumpy, to say the least. Be careful not to wake them, they don’t like to be disturbed. Do you understand the significance of SwiftSand Valley?” She asked them. Seething Mass shook his head quietly, while Tor wracked his mind for an answer. She may have been his friend, but whenever Twilight Sparkle asked him a question like this he always felt like a foal who had been called on in class by the teacher. “Wasn’t there something about ponies sledding during the cold months?” He risked a guess.

“Well that is true, it is a popular sledding run during the winter. All of the winding tunnels and the snow drifts are just perfect for sledding, but it has much greater significance than that. The Fire Salamanders that live there, and are only found in SwiftSand Valley, have exceptionally hot skin. The sand there contains all of the minerals and elements necessary to create raw gems with very few impurities. The Fire Salamanders there have such hot skin, even when they are asleep, that over the course of the Winter, their body temperature melts the minerals together creating those raw gems. The salamanders don’t care much for the gems themselves, but we need them for use as trade goods. They are perfect for delicate optical equipment and fine jewelry, some of them even have magical properties.” Twilight Sparkle explained.

“Yeah, and they’re the most delicious gems you could ever find!” Added Spike with excitement as he walked up, licking his lips in anticipation.

“Spike, you know these gems are too important for you to eat.” Said Twilight, as Spike crossed his arms and put a grumpy look on his face. “The Fire Salamanders burrow into the dunes and purify the gems, but also create molten glass from the sand. This cools quickly, but needs to be covered by the snow before it can be safe for sledding. After our Winter Wrap Up, we can clear the snow and see through the transparent glass to gather the gems. This is surprisingly safe, as the Fire Salamanders come up from their underground dens around late spring. This valley is an immensely delicate natural resource, and we need your help to prepare it for winter.” Tor and Seething nodded in unison. “Right. So what are those boards over there for then?” Asked Tor, motioning towards a large cart being filled with solid oak planks.

“Remember how I told you about the frequent avalanches? Well, your job is simple. You two are to help build snow channels on the valley’s sides to guide the avalanches to a non-destructive location near the bottom, a large pit where the snow can collect safely. Seething Mass, we’ll need your heavy lifting contraption in order to place the boards, and Tor, it’ll be your job to direct Seething Mass and hammer in the planks. This really won’t be too hard with the two of you, and there will be other teams if you have any questions. Now get out there and make us proud!” Twilight Sparkle sent them off with a wave and pointed them in the direction of the valley.

The job had been going well for Tor and Seething Mass for quite some time. Some ponies even stood by just to see Seething Mass work his amazing machine. This time it had worked even better than the last time he had used it, apparently he made some major upgrades to make it more efficient. Tor was cautious about all of the observers, he knew it wasn’t safe to have them around, but he allowed it anyways. He also figured it would help Seething Mass’s self esteem if he performed well in front of others. They moved surprisingly fast, there were already anchor points to set the boards in from the previous years so all Seething had to do was lift the boards into place so Tor could hammer them securely. He had tried using the hammer he had been provided, first with his magic, then with his hooves, but finally he grew frustrated as the hammer once again ricocheted off of the nail and hit him in the shoulder. He already had a bruise there. Tor gave a mighty shout and reared up, pounding the nail into submission with his steel-covered hooves. “Well now,” Tor spoke. “that is much faster.” And so the two stallions continued their work, Seething placing boards and Tor pounding the nails in with his hooves. All in all things were going smoothly, without a hitch. Perhaps Tor’s foreboding feeling that morning had been wrong.

Seething Mass

Lift a board or two into place, set it down and hold it still. A jiggle of the joystick, a crank of a few pressure valves, and a nice solid clamp to finish it off. My additional appendages are working fantastically, better than I could hope. Flim and Flam may make apple, may poor apple, may, make may…. Flim and Flam may make poor apple cider, but they do know how to keep a machine working in tip-top shape for the most part. The parts and oil I bought from them (quite overpriced I should think, but no matter) is doing its job. Tor has to sweat to keep up with me, and to think that at the beginning of winter in the chill autumn air we should sweat as we work! Regardless it is fast-paced and interesting for the first few boards. But what is this, a voice approaching?

“Now honestly, how could you begin to think this was a good idea? I know the Other One wanted to see them, but why NOW? You could have picked a better time! You know as well as I do what happens soon! And why send you, I wonder, why not come see them in person?” It is a male voice, rather low-toned. He sounds intelligent, and somehow familiar. A soft female voice replies, biting sarcasm clear on her breath. For some reason the sound of her voice gives me chills, as though somepony were trodding upon my grave. Well, somepony other than myself of course. I almost feel as though I know her from somewhere, or should.

“By now you should have expected me to be COMPLETELY honest, and to think you wouldn’t forget my reputation. It isn’t very important when we see them to the Other One, the Other One didn’t choose this exact moment for any specific reason. And you don’t think the Other One should show up? Why the Other One would show up but that would make perfect sense. I don’t represent the Other One anywhere I go, I don’t speak for the Other One and I certainly don’t observe for the Other One. The Other One even uses my name when it speaks to the Readers. To be perfectly honest…” Here the male voice gives a small scoffing laugh before the female voice continues.”Anyways, as I was not saying, to be perfectly honest I know exactly why I am here, why the Other One doesn’t just come instead. Maybe the Other One doesn’t like to seem mysterious, maybe the Other One just wants to lose the chance to get an eagle-eye view on everything, so that isn’t why I was sent. Why did you come, after all? Not that I’m interested, of course.” The male voice laughs quietly, not a scoff this time, then replies. “It was the Other One’s idea.”

Now the two voices’ owners have crested a small sandy hill and I can see their faces. The male is a rather tall unicorn whose coat is a light sand color, almost grainy. He wears a long brown coat and a cowpony hat, and his dark brown hair is short, practical, showing his clear eyes. He also has a rather impressive moustache. Dusty, rather dusty seeming, as though he just came from a desert by Apploosa. His eyes are steely, for some reason I think of gunfighters. Now wait a minute, do I know what a gun is? Have I ever seen one in Ponyville? There is one, on his flank, his cutie mark is two crossed pistols with a setting sun glowing orange between them. The Stallion looks rather worried at something, but his expression changes to a sort of shocked awe when he sees Tor. He gives an odd sort of smile, and Tor stares right back at him with a sort of quizzical expression. Well his body language suggests he feels quizzical, his expression hasn’t changed at all of course.

Far more interesting than the stallion with the brown coat, however, is the mare walking next to him. Her coat is really pale, with a tiny hint of orange, but like something wet-skinned and kept away from the sun for a long time. Her hair is elaborately pinned and braided in the back, but a long set of bangs keeps her left eye shrouded. It is black, but when the sun reflects off of it a hint of glowing red like the embers of a fire dance along its length. On her flank is a rather curious marking, some sort of machine with sharp points, maybe a trap? And it has snapped closed around some sort of bird, perhaps a dove. Rather disturbing, really. More disturbing is the fact that her single eye is focused with a bored half-lidded expression on me. The stallion is the first to speak directly to us.

“Wow, this is pretty awesome! Well then, Seething Mass…Tor…how are you both?” Tor is rather surprised I think, how did he know our names? Tor replies.”Well, fine. I’m sorry, my memory is very poor, have we met?” The Stallion lets out a small chuckle at that. “Well, not officially, now would be the first time. I must say it is quite awesome to see you in person, or rather, ponyson. You are exactly what I thought you’d be! Well I suppose that makes sense doesn’t it?” Tor stares, eyebrow raised. “I’m sorry, where did you hear about me?”
The eerie mare lifts her head slightly, eye never leaving mine. Her eyes are a bright yellow, but deep within her pupils burns a somber red. “Oh my, don’t stop drooling on his iron hooves for Faust’s sake, I’m sure he doesn’t mind. It’s not like he is EXACTLY how you pictured him, of course he isn’t. Why? Because that wouldn’t make PERFECT sense. Did you really think he would look any different?”

I speak now, but can’t move eyes from this mare. “Suh, suh….sorry, but did you say your names?” Almost can’t believe I said it. My words seem to jog the stallion out of his amused stupor because he turns now to look at me. The mare blinks her eye once and stares daggers into her friend. “Oh don’t mind Ann,” The stallion says. “everything she says is a lie.” The mare, Ann, glances back at me, then glares once more at the stallion. “my words are not always an outright fabrication.” He seems amused.”What color is the sky today?” Ann looks up for a moment, then down to the ground. “Greenish-Orange.” The stallion seems pleased with himself, the sky is a crisp blue. “See? It takes a while to get used to, but pretty soon you can understand that she actually means the opposite of what you think she means!”

“So,” Tor says, “Who are you?” The stallion stops laughing for a moment, then he looks at Tor again. “Oh nothing special. I’m just the Nice One.” Awkward, very awkward. Ann staring at me, and the more pleasant one staring at Tor. Odd, these two, very odd. I haven’t seen two ponies more out of place since I myself arrived. Suddenly Ann breaks my gaze and turns around, walking back towards Ponyville. “We don’t need to leave now. It isn’t time to go.” The pleasant one groans. “Really? We can’t stay and watch the fireworks?” Ann doesn’t even glance over her shoulder. “You won’t read about it later.” Disappointed, the stallion looks back at us. “Best of luck, you two!” He turns to run after Ann, shouting for her to slow down and wait for him. Tor looks over to me. “Well, that was strange, I didn’t know the crazy ones travel in pairs now.” All I can do is nod, lift the arms up and get back to work.

I still can’t shake the feeling that I know that mare Ann from somewhere, but where would I know an Ann, one lying Ann?

Author's Note

This is part 1 of a 2 part holiday special. The second part will be released soon, and from this point onward things will begin to accelerate story-wise. Thanks for your continued support, enjoy the show!

Also: Who ARE those mystery ponies? And how in the world did they end up in our story? Well tell us what you think of them, and whether they should return in the future. Carry on!

Signed,

The Nice One
and

Ann Lies

Chapter 9: Holiday Troubles-Part 2

Tor Ironclad

“Well that certainly was odd.” Tor didn’t quite know what to make of those strange visitors, but he did know there was something incredibly familiar about the one with the moustache, the tall stallion with the good manners. Regardless, Tor and Seething were back to work. The day wore on, but by now most of the jobs in town had been completed. The small crowd that had gathered had grown since then, and now ponies whispered on all sides as they watched Tor and Seething working. Tor didn’t really mind, his large bearing and the Royal Decorations meant he was used to such attention. Seething Mass, on the other hoof, wasn’t taking it so well. It started with the little things, Seething getting distracted when Tor was telling him where to place a board, tripping a few times more than he usually did when they moved onwards to another place in the valley. As the crowd grew, Seething began to drop boards just as Tor was about to nail them in. He was fidgety, and Tor knew something was wrong. At lunch they took a break, and all the other ponies left. It was just Tor and Seething.

“You don’t look so good, is everything alright?” Tor asked, genuinely concerned. “I feel, would better, I-I-I-I-I…” Seething paused to catch his breath. “I would feel better if there weren’t so many puh-puh, so many other ponies watching. It’s harder to concentrate; I don’t like what I think heard, what I think I hear when they think I don’t look.” Tor spoke. “Well you really can’t blame them; they are interested in what you are doing.” Tor heard a small noise, and Seething nearly leapt to his hooves as a purple stallion walked by, giving a glance and a smile at Seething. Tor continued. “They’ve never seen anything like you before, what you’ve done with some old farm equipment is amazing and they can’t help but be intrigued. Trust me, I can read a pony’s character from a mile away. These ponies don’t want to bring you down, they want to see what you do best.” Seething’s face merged a worried expression with that of one deep in thought. “Interested? Like me I suppose, interested, intrigued, they just want to know.” His expression brightened. “They want to see what I’m good at, they’ve come to learn like me, to learn, to see my special….”

Suddenly Tor heard something. Well, more like felt it. A deep rumble channeled through the ground, up his iron hooves, and into his eardrums. It sounded like something big. Seething Mass went quiet, and the two turned around slowly to look back up the sandy valley. A gust of bitter cold wind swept over the sandy dunes, carrying with it the oddly out-of-place smell of burnt cinnamon, and Seething mass wrinkled his nose as the scent seemed to burn into it like acid. Everything went quiet for a moment, and a few streams of sand broke down far above as the world went deaf. Suddenly what looked like a cloud of sand erupted from the fire salamander cavern at the top of the valley. It started to pack together on its way down, and soon became a massive moving sand dune. The two friends looked at each other; they had been warned about the avalanches, but they hadn’t counted on one happening while they were working. Frantically searching their minds for what to do, they looked back up to the avalanche. There was something that was not right about it. Through the sand storm kicked up by the avalanche, they could faintly see an orange glow that grew in intensity. Then an earth-shattering roar broke through the crisp autumn air.

Through the dusty cloud of sand, all of the ponies could see the terrifying visage of a monstrous lizard. Its scales were smooth and shiny, almost seamless, and the skin of the creature was polished making it look slippery and wet. But the beast radiated an orange and red glow so bright that anypony would know was hot without even being near it. The orange coloration of its scales flickered and pulsed in hot veins, like a burned log that was still red hot. Its eyes were black as charcoal, yet filled with the malice of a thousand infernos. As the creature roared again it revealed grimly curved and pointed teeth positioned perfectly to tear a pony apart. The roar let loose bright red flickering flames, which continued to leak from the creature’s enormous and gaping maw even after it was closed. The enormous salamander began to scuttle down the hill, faster than any average pony could gallop, and as it slithered the sand underneath its grubby monstrous feet began to glow and promptly melted to a liquid. Soon a clear glassy trail traced its path down the valley as it slide slipperily straight towards Seething Mass and Tor.

Tor, thinking quickly, pulled out the piece of equipment that he very nearly left behind at Rarity’s boutique. It was a large steel grappling hook attached to a chain. Seething had been trying to design a cheaper fuel source for the Apple family tractor engines about a month ago, and had discovered (in a comedically explosive way) that distilled zapapple jam was a powerful jellied energy source. It was too expensive (and explosive) to fuel the tractor with, but after hearing Tor’s stories of fighting crime as a bounty hunter Seething mass had been inspired. The hook he created fit firmly clamped to Tor’s front leg, designed to attach to the joint on his Decorations. With a simple movement he could deploy a small charge fueled by compressed zapapple gas, launching the grappling hook and chain at an incredible velocity. At the time Tor had explained that he wasn’t a bounty hunter anymore, that he would probably never need such a device, but Seething Mass had insisted on measuring Tor’s Decorations and experimenting with the firing mechanism if only for the science. Well, if there were ever a time to use it this would be it.

Tor quickly surveyed the landscape further down the hill where the salamander was headed and judged that it’s track would lead it to a tall overhang with a single dead tree on top of it. He let loose a bit of chain and swung the hook above his head, tossing it at the tree. The sharp point now firmly attached to the tree, he quickly swung forward on the chain and simultaneously shouted a single command. “Seething Mass! When that thing comes under the overhang, I need those boards at my hooves!” The gray pony blanched, mechanical limbs sagging into the sand as he watched the salamander approach. “Seething! Wake up!” Tor landed somewhat off balance on the tree, all the time keeping track of the movement of the salamander towards him. This would be close.

Seething Mass

I fully understand that Tor is speaking to me, but my limbs seem frozen. Approaching fast, almost impossibly fast, and Tor needs me. I’m far enough away, don’t know what Tor is doing, but I have to act. If only I could move. A twitch, Tor is still shouting, the salamander is still moving towards us, and by now a crowd has gathered. So many of them, and here I stand mute. If I could only MOVE.

Wait. Stop thinking about them; at this moment they don't matter. Tor matters, he needs me.
Turn quick and run to the board pile, nudge lever, extend arm, snatch boards one in each mechanical gripper. Turn back, salamander is so close now. I don’t have time to get closer, have to manipulate the controls just right. It’s a good thing I installed those new pistons, because the tractor pistons would never have the speed to do what I am about to attempt. Pull arms back, lift up, pull back, fully extended backwards. I have to rear up, I am on my two back hooves now, balanced precisely. Salamander is closer, almost beneath the tree where Tor stands looking at me. I nod once and he leaps.
slam mouth down on lever, my tooth cracks on the porcelain ball on the end. The arms jut forward with full power, I have to move impossibly quick to release the grippers so the boards can fly but this is much easier to do because time has slowed to a dramatic crawl. Boards sail, Tor flips grappling hook as he lands on the Salamander’s back, boards already burning beneath his hooves on the red skin of the creature. He almost lost the leftmost board on the way down, but he was able to retrieve it by doing a quick flip in the air. The two slide down a slope and I can no longer see them, I have to run and see if I can follow, help and follow.

What would have happened had I continued to be frozen?

Tor Ironclad

Tor almost didn’t think Seething Mass could do it, the way he had frozen stock still. The boards had landed true, however and had begun to catch fire the moment they were a foot away from the skin of the beast. Thinking as quickly as he could, Tor launched a hook down to the salamander’s top jaw to create makeshift reins. No sooner had he done this than the chain began to turn red hot and emit numerous sparks which flew through the air. A crowd had gathered and the beast veered towards them, but Tor successfully steered it away from them. It was still running rampant, however, and Tor was running out of board to stand on. In an act of desperation, he cried he name of the one pony he knew could calm the beast.

“Fluttershy!”

The shy pony, who was standing shocked in the crowd, gathered her courage and flew as fast as she could, racing the beast and eventually landing right in its path. She braced her legs and stared as hard as she could into the salamander’s black eyes, and what she saw there frightened her. Salamanders were grumpy creatures, and their skin made them dangerous, but this creature wasn't on a rampage fueled by rage; Fluttershy was shocked to discover the beast was in some sort of horrible pain.

Tor was rapidly losing board to stand on, now forced to stand on his hind legs in order to avoid the flames. No sooner had Tor’s hoof decorations begun to glow red hot than the creature slid to a halt in front of Fluttershy, who now looked even tinier than normal. “We need more help!” She had tears streaming down her face. “It’s hurt!” Tor leapt off of the back of the creature, and it collapsed on the ground. The thunderous roars no longer came forth from the creature’s maw; instead there was a sort of pained wheezing sound.

Seething Mass, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash had also gathered around the salamander. “They aren’t usually this mean.” Fluttershy said, sorrow easy to see in her eye, “I think he’s in pain. Excuse me, mister salamander? Could you, I mean, if it’s okay, turn over so we could see your belly? But not if it’s any inconvenience to you, that is.” She requested kindly and softly. The salamander groaned and rolled onto its back with a sound like a collapsing bonfire, and everypony saw what was wrong. The underbelly of the creature was made of thick plate-like scales, irregular masses of what looked like black stone with bright red seams in between them. However, a patch of its underbelly had turned white and shiny, and looked like a shell. Fluttershy picked up a stick and gently probed the area. When she touched it, the sound was like when a teacup clinks against its dish.

“Uhhh... Do Fire Salamanders usually have those?” asked Tor, exhausted. “Definitely not. This is something we’ve never seen.” Twilight Sparkle responded, clearly perplexed.

“Look!” Shouted Rainbow Dash. The salamander gave a twitch and the white spot began spreading rapidly, creeping along the prone form. A burst of chill air swept through the manes of the ponies and traveled up the creature, and the odd scent of burnt cinnamon that came upon the breeze burned in their noses. The salamander was writhing in agony, but soon was unable to move any of its body as the hard white layer spread. As the infliction was slowly enclosing the salamander’s head, it let out a horridly quiet whisper of a roar. The beast was dead, its form completely overtaken by the strange malady. Rarity had been unable to watch the horrible occurrence and was leaning hard into Tor’s shoulder. Fluttershy let tears fall freely, evaporating into puffs of steam when they hit the sand heated by the salamander’s skin. Everypony else was dumbfounded, staring wide eyed, mouths agape at the terror before them.

The first to speak was Twilight. “I think we should check out their den deeper in the cave at the mouth of the valley." “Do you have a deathwish?” Exclaimed Applejack. “Applejack is right, seeing that first salamander should have persuaded you otherwise. Darling, I know you’re worried about the creatures, but they are still quite dangerous!” Rarity replied.

“We need to investigate! These creatures are very rare; this is one of only eight known nests in the world, the only one in all of Equestria! If the salamanders are all dead, we’ll lose our supply of gems. Rarity, I know you need them for your dresses, and they are vital to this town’s economy. If something bad is happening to the salamanders, it is up to us to stop it.” said Twilight. “YEAH! It’ll be really super fun! Don’t worry Rarity, if any of them some near us, we can use our Kung Fu on them!” Pinkie Pie said as she reared back on two legs and demonstrated Kung Fu to everypony.

“I think... It would be good... To uh... go see them.” sniffled Fluttershy quietly. “I’ve never seen a disease like this before, and the thought of all those poor little salamanders left alone in the dark t-to, to die, *SNIFF* I can’t bear it.
“Oh alright. I suppose we should go, but we need to be careful.” Rarity admitted.
“Right, let’s do this LEROOOOOY..!” Shouted Pinkie Pie.

Twilight quickly interrupted. “Wait Pinkie. You’re forgetting somepony. Now that Tor and Seething Mass are our friends, we have to consider their opinions too.” She said, motioning to the two.
“There’s something odd here, but I could, I could help. I want to help, if I can.” Replied Seething Mass.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t go for an opportunity to have an adventure?” Asked Tor in response. The six mares smiled in response, friendship really was magic. "Alright then, what are we waiting for?" Rainbow Dash said.

Seething Mass

The ordeal is settled. Twilight grabs a map and is trying to find the best way to enter the caverns. She says that salamanders live in underground colonies with multiple entrances, but she was able to find a path to the entrance of the cave that was most likely to be the one that the salamanders originated from. The one that lies, rests, sits d-dead at our hooves must have burst through the side of a tunnel, but Twilight says she was able to find the most likely entrance. We’re walking up now, Twilight Sparkle is reading, “There seems to be only one similar disorder that matches the one the salamander had in my book of Magical Ailments. This is strange; the disease described in the book turns creatures to stone. It was a tactic used during the last Great War, listen to this! First a rock was enchanted with a specific petrification spell, then a complex Influence Charm made the petrification able to spread to any surface the stone touched. It was then placed in an area that the intended target was likely to come in physical contact with it, and when they did the enchantment began to turn the target into the same material as the rock, a Latent Petrification spell.”

Fluttershy looks worried, I’m worried too. Since when did Equestria have wars, what is this Great War? Fluttershy speaks. “That’s horrible! Who would do that to somepony?” Twilight responds in kind, “What I want to know is who would know how to? Things like this don’t exactly happen on accident.”

“Well it couldn’t possibly be that anyways, that salamander wasn’t rock.” Rainbow Dash speaking now. “Well true, but the way the book describes it the enchanted object doesn’t need to be a rock. It only needs to be a mineral that could produce the desired effect.” Twilight Sparkle now. “You could make the same spell work with table salt or a chunk of ice. The material that the salamander turned into was pure porcelain.”

I feel, now I can speak. “It seems the salamander’s death was no accident. Who would do, have a reason to, have a reason to do such a thing to these creatures?” Twilight glances at Pinkie Pie and the two share a glance. I wonder why? “I’m glad to see you using logic Seething,” Oh yes, MMMystery on the Friendship Express, that makes sense now. Twilight is still speaking. “I have no clue. Nopony I can think of would have any reason to dislike the salamanders. They don’t hurt anypony. Not a single death has been caused by a Fire Salamander in the entire history of Ponyville, despite how dangerous they are.”

Tor replies, thoughtfully. “Then maybe... This pony doesn’t have anything against the salamanders. What if this is just one of the means to the end of his plans? What if he or she is planning something much bigger and this is just one of the many steps?” “Just a gear in the machine…” I muse. None of the ponies around me look at-ease. “Let’s hope you’re wrong Tor, Let’s hope you’re wrong.” says Twilight Sparkle.

During the trip I can’t shake the feeling that we are being watched. The others feel it too, but no amount of looking about reveals our stalker. Pinkie Pie even darts around, behind boulders and piles of melted glass faster than our eyes can track, so fast it seems like she teleports from hiding place to hiding place, but if we are being observed our watcher is incredibly stealthy. Finally we arrive at the mouth of the cavern, and we all take a moment to catch our breath. Before us is the opening to the Salamander dens, a cavern so dark a pony can’t even see their hoof in front of their face. Twilight Sparkle lights up her horn using an illumination spell, and we stand there in awe. The cavern is truly the most beautiful I have ever seen. It is as if somepony had made a mosaic of gems on the wall, or more accurately, it is as if somepony had built a mosaic IN the walls.

Glistening clear glass, and imbedded, formed within the walls; beautiful, pure, faultless gems of every color imaginable, even in several hues you would have trouble naming. Aquamarine and chartreuse, fuchsia and cyan.

The colored light of Twilight’s horn plays off of the crystals in a way that makes the entire cave brighter than it perhaps should, brighter, brighter than it should be. We can see miles and miles through the cave walls; I can see the tunnels we will soon be walking through. “Well, nothin’ much to do but get on to the doin.” Well-spoken Applejack, we move forward. Further into the tunnels a dull red glow seeps into my vision, dull flickering red, like the fires of hell. Or is it Tartarus? Hell, hell, hell where does that word come from, and how do I know it? I could swear I’ve never heard Rainbow say it, or Twilight, perhaps…wait, I should concentrate on the light. It looks like it is coming from far below, spreading through the walls until the gemstones sealed within are groups of glowing eyes, watching us. Eyes, watching the ponies… Tor, being the largest of us, takes the lead in case there is danger ahead. The tunnel floors are smooth but covered with ripples and ridges, providing me with adequate hoofholds. The glass is somewhat slippery on the downward slopes, but otherwise the trip down into the cave, towards the red light like hell, like that word I know and don’t know, is fine. Just fine.

It has been about a half hour since we started down the tunnels, and we all decided it would be best to be as quiet as possible. Even Pinkie Pie is quiet, sneaking along like some sort of ninja. The red light fills everything now, but I can see spots of pure smooth white porcelain in the floor and walls just like the diseased salamander. Rainbow Dash moves towards a patch of clean white porcelain on the wall but she stops when Twilight harshly whispers after her. “Wait! Don’t touch that! In fact, don’t touch anything that looks like that. It could get you contaminated too. I don’t think I need to remind you about what happens then.” She’s right to be worried, being turned to stone is unpleasant. The porcelain spots look truly ominous, more so when they are seen in this red, this hell-light. They seem malevolent, I swear I can see them pulsate, twitch, twitch ever so slightly, about the edges. As we walk down, shifting, sneaking past patches of smooth white, Fluttershy gives out a sob.

Everyone but me jumps at the sound, but before we can hush Fluttershy we realize what she is looking at. Huge forms nearly block our path, and it doesn’t take long for us to realize what the large motionless forms are. They were salamanders, frozen in time as porcelain statues, every expression of their pain and terror evident in their huge coiled bodies. Fluttershy barely holds back her quiet sniffles, it is painfully clear the salamanders did not gone down quietly. “How did we not notice this?” Rainbow Dash is shaken. “Surely they must have made some noise before they, well, you know.”

“Because,” An unknown voice with a fancy Canterlot accent answered, “somepony sealed the sound magically from the cave and prevented it from getting outside.”

Tor Ironclad

The group whirled around suddenly, and standing in a small tunnel a suitable distance away was a male unicorn wrapped completely in black strips of cloth. Tor’s mind reeled as he looked at the stallion. Around his shoulders was draped a blue cloak trimmed in golden thread, his mane was a scraggly thing the color of a dusty red rose. His skin and horn were hidden entirely by strips of cloth that wrapped him from head to hoof, and he seemed to be missing an ear, but the detail that Tor noticed first was the two square glass lenses through which the pony watched the party. A shrill sound split into his head and his vision shifted uncomfortably as Tor struggled to reconcile what he saw with reality. There was no denying the resemblance to the pony from Tor’s dream.

“Everyone stand back!” Tor shouted and leapt forward, pushing Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy out of the way as he stood defensively between the mystery pony and Tor’s friends. “Stop! Who are you? What are you doing here? Who are you, tell me!” The pony started to lean over to the side, almost falling until he caught himself and took a step forwards. Tor hadn’t played the intimidating bad-pony act in quite a while, so it felt odd doing it now. Perhaps he had gone too far, he really hoped not. This pony didn't look healthy, and Tor was preparing some sort of apology in his head. As if to refute Tor’s thoughts, the figure laughed dryly and spoke in a gravely voice. “Woah, down boy!” The figure mocked. “A fine way to treat somepony who’s trying to keep his hide from being tanned, I say!” Tor was breathing heavily. “Just tell me who you are”. He tried to shout, but it came out in a whisper.

The pony before him seemed amused. “Very well then, I am Barnabus Thom, good sir, how do you do?” Barnabus attempted a cordial bow here, but quickly lost balance and barely managed to keep himself from falling to the ground. Tor stood down and tilted his head slightly to the side in suspicion. “What are you doing here?” Tor wasn’t about to let his guard down, not when a figure from his nightmares had suddenly appeared in front of him. He suddenly grew worried that this might be a hallucination, concerned about what the others might think seeing him act so crazy, but Twilight Sparkle soon saved him from this self-doubt.

“Tor’s right, what are you doing here?” Asked Twilight. Barnabus took another few steps forward, but he appeared to be constantly off balance and nearly toppled until he caught himself. “I saw, Tor, is it? I saw Tor and the renowned inventor, Seething Mass, taking action outside when that poor salamander went on the rampage. I was watching in AWE at the performance, goodness, why, I could barely keep my urge to cheer wildly contained! I myself work with the jewels that come from the salamanders’ caves, so I was MOST concerned to see the creature in such a state. I watched the beast’s transformation into porcelain, and that is where I truly became intrigued. I am, heh, a somewhat unfortunate expert on latent petrification spells I am afraid. It is a very detailed and beautiful, but terrifying process, to be sure. I was wandering around here, looking for the source object when I heard your friend Tor’s rather loud footsteps. I followed the cacophony and here we are now. A nice little tale, isn’t it though?”

Tor recognized an insult when he heard one, and he was also good at telling when somepony was lying. This Barnabus Thom was hiding something, but even though Tor had a few guesses as to what that might be he didn't want to jump to conclusions directly. Tor thought back to the last time that had happened, when Seething and him had tried (and failed. Miserably) to apprehend that unicorn criminal. Things had turned out to be different then, maybe they would be different now as well.

“How did you recognize the spell? It hasn’t been used for centuries, not since the last great war.” Asked Twilight Sparkle, clearly not impressed by Barnabus’ story.

“Oh ye’ of such suspicion and error. I probably know more of this spell than even you my dear. You see I am most unfortunately afflicted with it, have been for quite some time now!” He exclaimed as he motioned to his face. This brought Tor’s attention to the wrappings around Barnabus’ narrow skull. As Barnabus moved his mouth, tiny flecks of white dust filtered through the wrappings and floated to the ground. This aroused Tor'a suspicion even more. “I wear these clothes in order to protect my frail and fragile body, my skin is almost pure porcelain.” They all noticed he was somewhat shaky on his hooves.

“If you have the same disease, how can you still move?” Asked Twilight Sparkle.

“Why, that’s a bit of a touchy subject. No need to get nosy.” Barnabus replied sharply.
Fluttershy spoke up.

“How did you catch it?”
“Also touchy. You lot are very good at being inquisitive, aren’t you? Try something a little less rude and a little more of your own business.” Fluttershy's eyes brimmed with tears and she visibly shrank.

Applejack's face clearly reflected her frustration, Barnabus wasn't even hiding his disdain now.

“Well fine then, if'n you're gonna act so darn snippy about it, do you even know how these Fire Salamanders are catching it?”

“Ah, now that’s the right question. It is my expert opinion that they have probably dug too deeply into the earth, accidentally uncovered something that was supposed to stay covered. I am a student of history, among my many other pursuits, and I know that despite the royal sisters' efforts many dangerous items were lost in the Last Great War. Still I can’t say for sure, for I am of course but a humble music box maker.”

“Why would you know where the entrance to this cave is?” Asked Twilight.
Barnabus scoffed viciously at Twilight's question. “And now back to the foolish questions again? Honestly, we are in the midst of a tragedy here my little ponies! Could you be troubled, at the very least, to put forth a relevant query?" Rainbow Dash flew at Barnabus' face. "Alright you jerk, if we're so bad at asking questions how come you don't just tell us what you know so we can get on with things huh? You're so worried about us asking the wrong questions, do YOU have something to hide?"

The cloaked pony stared down Rainbow Dash from behind the amber lenses, then started to giggle. The laughter was a horrible sound with little joy in it, and as it grew Rainbow Dash landed and took a few nervous steps back. Barnabus' snicker grew to a chortle, which grew into laughter, which then grew into the most horrid coughing and hacking sounds the group had ever heard. Cracks and the sounds of chipping glass punctuated each movement that bent the pony's body, mixed with a wet gurgling sound, and it didn't take long for Barnabus' knees to give in. Soon he lay at their feet, wearily shaking with the pain and what remained of his horrid amusement. A burnt red glow surrounded his bandaged horn, and a wave of mending energy swept across his shaking body as he slowly rose to his feet with the help of Fluttershy and Seething Mass. He chuckled wearily a few more times, more like a wet pained sound, then spoke. "What do I have to hide? Look at me, look at me now and ask yourself what I have to hide. I'll tell you the answer; everything. I have EVERYTHING to hide."

He was now standing, and shook off the two ponies' help. "At any rate, to answer your...clever inquiry... I can’t suffer to make bland, boring music boxes, can I? I would make no money that way! I come down here every once in a while to replenish my stock of gems, of course. A fine mechanism is nothing if you cannot *cough* appeal to ponies' aesthetic sensibilities." Barnabus replied.

“You... You make music boxes?” Asked Seething Mass. "Gears, twists of wire, springs, somewhat like a clock? Like, like so many clocks on hardwood shelves?"

“Why, yes my fine sir, I certainly do! Why, I’m getting flustered! A famous inventor, taking interest in my work? This is not something that happens every day! We must discuss machinery and clockwork some time! I do know a thing or two about gears.” Barnabus said.

“Of... Of course! It would be my pleasure.” Replied Seething Mass.

Tor thought Barnabus seemed a bit too impressed, like he was putting on a show. He was certainly a lot friendlier with Seething Mass than with everypony else. He also seemed slightly nervous and on edge, and some of his shifting back and forth didn't seem to be because of his lack of balance. The signs were subtle, but they were there. A flick of the tail, a slight anxious pawing at the ground, the occasional rolling of the head as though to shake of a fly, he tried to make it seem like he was annoyed but Tor knew these were textbook indications of unease in ponies and he had seen them many times when ponies' were lying. Tor snuck a glance over in Applejack's direction and caught her eye, nodding slightly towards Barnabus with what he hoped was an inquisitive expression. Applejack looked for a moment, then shook her head grimly, negative. Applejack didn't trust him either, at least Tor wasn't alone in his suspicions.

After making sure Tor's yelling hadn't attracted any hostile salamander attention, the group continued to ask Barnabus questions about the affliction plaguing the salamanders. Tor, sitting outside of the group, silently got Applejack and Rarity’s attention. .

“Uhhhh... I’m not sure we should trust this guy. He seemed a bit too excited to see us. And I think he’s lying to us about why he’s down here. I don’t know... I may not be good at math, but this doesn’t add up.” Tor warned them. "Applejack, this is your turf, how much of his story was the truth?"

“He's darn nervous for all that bluster, an there's somethin' he ain't tellin us. You're right Tor, his story don't add up. How in tarnation did he manage to get up here before we did? And more importantly why didn't we see his tracks in the sand?" Rarity spoke. "Well he's horribly rude, but he seems to know quite a bit about this sort of magic. I don't think we can do much but trust him. "

"I think he's just being a grumpy-meany pants because I haven't thrown him a party yet! That's not a good excuse, but he might cheer up if we throw a surprise one today!" Pinkie Pie popped up right in the center of Applejack, Rarity, and Tor's huddled discussion. After recovering from the small fright, Tor couldn't help but chuckle.

"I think this one needs more than just a party Pinkie, I think he needs a shrink..." Tor looked over to the strange pony only to find the square sockets staring straight at him. Tor shuddered. "...and a better choice of head gear. "

Seething Mass

We are once again moving forward. Barnabus seems out of place here, among the ponies. He doesn't like them, I can tell, and as a result they don't like him a substa...very m-much. He seems to like me alright, however. As we walk he chats, all sorts of things. Speaking of music mechanisms and things called orgels and lamellae. This talk reminds me, I can hear the clicking gears and whirring clockworks, so many clocks...

And suddenly I am in a cold white room. There is no heater on, everything is cold and white and yet there is such a clear detail to everything: I get the feeling it is not here, not really. There are wooden shelves on the walls; simple, cheap, and on them rest the clocks. Not one is the same, not one of them has the same hands or the same body or the exact same mechanism inside because each was made piece-by-piece, by me. They may not have the same hands, or the same bodies, or the same mechanisms, but they do have one thing in common; each and every one chimes at the exact same moment. Flawless, pure, regular, antiseptic. And that is where I was. Or am. Or will be.

"*ahem* Seething Mass? We are getting closer." Barnabus Thom stirs me from my imagination's work, reminding me of where I am and what I am doing. We stand at a crossroads, with a glass path leading either way into the black which is not so black now but instead a horrid hell-red all around, so red I can only describe it with that strange word no one speaks. The others gather to speak, Twilight stepping forward. "Ok fillies and gentlecolts we must be very close to the fire salamander's central chamber. We have to be quiet, I for one really don't like the idea of being chased out of here. "

Tor steps forward, clanking slightly. You know I never really realized it before, but Tor is a bit loud. “Mister Barnabus, about how far down do you reckon you’ve been in this cave? And don't you dare say that is an irrelevant question.” Barnabus seems slightly nervous but he manages to keep a sharp wit. I really don't like how he talks to, them speaks friends don't...I really don't like how he talks to them so harshly. But then again I do not know him well yet, I don't dare correct him.

“Why, I ‘reckon’ I’ve been almost to the Fire Salamander nest. That’s about when the salamanders started to chase me off.” Tor is up to something, something interesting.

“Do you think you can lead us down there? You are the only one who's seen it."
Barnabus is nervous, even I can tell. "Are you insane? In my fragile state? No no, I think I will be content to guide you from the middle of the party, much less hazardous to my delicate skin. "

Tor looks pleased. "Your 'delicate skin' got you down there safely before didn't it? And with no help at all! Now that we are here we can defend you against any monster you are too weak to defend yourself against, or for that matter not clever enough to get away from. I suppose I can go in front, if you don't think you are strong enough." oh no, now Tor is being rude as well. Perhaps they shouldn't yell, perhaps it would be too loud if they yell and wake up the engineers down the hall. The engineers would try to stop us if they woke up, they would know what I was up to and shut it down before I could make it through all the way.........back to the present Seething! Barnabus looks flustered

“Why, I hardly feel safe with YOU at the head of the party, at least I have some skill in traversing undetected! Follow me, and I shall be your guiding light down this tunnel. Wouldn’t want somepony as clunky as YOU accidentally taking a wrong step and destroying the entire glass cave, would we?” Tor looks pleased, despite the backlash.

Tor Ironclad

You can put up with this for a bit longer, Tor. Contain your irritation. He thought to himself. “Grrreat! I suppose that means you’ll be at the head of the party then, doesn’t it? Well, lead on, our fine guide!” Tor replied, keeping the urge to sound mocking hidden. After a few seconds, Barnabus realized how surely he’d been tricked. Grumbling and frustrated, Barnabus lead the group on. The stretch of cave that remained was littered with porcelain salamanders, even more so than before. This was likely where the salamanders who couldn’t escape the nest fast enough frantically crowded up on the way out and died. Thankfully, there was a nice, wide path through all of the wreckage, which Tor found odd. It didn’t look like a natural path; some of the salamanders had obviously been moved out of the way. Barnabus must have had time to make it on his way up. Time is not what somepony being chased by giant lizards had.

The further they got, the more nervous Tor noticed Barnabus was getting. As the oppressive red light grew near the end of the cave Barnabus was having trouble just staying upright, and almost fell heavily on several steep inclines that surely would have shattered his skin had Rainbow Dash not been fast enough to stop him. "Are you doing alright Mister Barnabus? Shouls we stop and rest for a while, or is there something we could get you?” Fluttershy asked, truly sincerely. By this point even Tor was starting to worry about Barnabus, he thought this sudden lack of balance and nervousness might be an effect of his sickness.

“No, I’m fine. My constitution is stronger than that of SOME ponies.” Barnabus replied, quite pointedly.
“Just trying to help...” Fluttershy squeaked to herself.
Rarity leaned in close to her and whispered rather loudly, “I’m sorry you have to deal with his meanness Fluttershy. I’m sure it’ll be over soon, darling.” Barnabus merely scoffed in reply, the motion sending small streams of porcelain dust trickling through the folds and layers of cloth that covered his face.

By the time they came to the opening of an enormous chamber, the dominating red light had removed all other hues from the scene. The entire party was cast in varying shades of red, and a pungent Sulphur odor exuded from the cave. The room they were in was huge, and surrounded on two sides by massive lava flows whose glow pervaded the glass caverns above. Petrified salamanders filled the room, huge mounds of icy white creatures contained forever in their suffering. Half of the cavern was a harsh black rock, and at the far end there was a cave. They took a step in and noticed that this chamber was much darker than any of the other parts of the cave. The ground they were standing on and the walls were pure basalt, deep cracks glowing orange from the hot magma that bubbled far beneath them. The chamber was unbelievably, but bearably hot. At the far end of the room, they all could see a large pool of glowing magma. It seemed as though it was slowly moving, but not enough to cause alarm. The room had an almost sacred quality, and everypony to feel the need to whisper. All of this scenery was somewhat expected, but there was one thing that was terribly out of place.

In the center of the chamber, there was a large patch of porcelain. “Look!” whispered Twilight Sparkle. She was pointing to the center of the patch of porcelain. There, completely out of place in the deep cavern, was a pillar of rock that had been turned to porcelain. Atop this pillar a statuette poised precisely in the center, a small pony doll dressed in a fancy dress. “That must be the source!” She quietly exclaimed. “ I'll need to do some pretty complex magic to break the enchantment, but someone needs to shatter the doll at a critical moment during my spell casting." she looked over to Tor, but before she could speak he replied.

"Oh sure, you need something broken and you call on me. " Twilight stammered, but Tor stepped in to save her the embarrassment. "Well good, because that is what I'm best at. Breaking things! Start the spell, Miss Twilight Sparkle!"

During the time it took Twilight to charge the spell, Barnabus was getting much more uneasy. “Ok, here we go.” whispered Twilight at the moment she was prepared to release her spell. The glow of her horn encompassed the chamber and a transient hum signalled the release of the magic was approaching.

“WAIT, the Broodmother!” Shouted Barnabus loudly as he lurched forward and attempted to dive in front of Twilight. He was too late, as the spell was already careening down the chamber toward the statuette. At the same time Tor launched a concussion wave towards the small finely-crafted doll and as it shattered the chamber shook and rumbled and a blood curdling roar came from the magma pool. Slowly, a fiery figure rose from the pit. As it slowly shook off the molten rock that remained on its hulking body, the ponies all froze in awe. The enormous salamander had a flat, pointed head with monstrous spines coming out of the sides and going down its back, starting with a massive row of spines starting at the end of its snout and ending at the tip of its tail with spines. Its eyes were charcoal black, as the other salamanders were, but in the center flared a hot orange. As it opened its gaping mouth for another roar, bright flames flew past is easily ten-foot long teeth. It moved slowly, and as it closed its mouth the giant teeth fit together in such a way that it appeared to be grinning at the intruders, with fire and brimstone spilling between the cracks. It shifted it's gaze across them, smelling the air as it move forward and focused that grin on one of them in particular: Barnabus Thom. Tor began to stare at him too, wondering what Barnabus could have done to make the monstrosity so angry. This creature was afflicted by the porcelain disease as well, but the heat of the magma appeared to have stopped it from spreading. Half of its head and most of the body, as well as patches on its legs, were porcelain.

“That must be the broodmother. Everypony, back away slowly. I read that its vision is based on movement. Make any sudden movements and we’re toast.” Whispered Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash gulped audibly. "Literally!" At first, everypony complied and the entire cavern was still, save for the bubbling and dripping of molten stone. But after a few more sniffs the broodmother came after them nonetheless. The commotion woke more salamanders, who seemed not to be afflicted by the disease at all, and as the party ran into the glowing red room more salamanders filled the space. They moved towards the broodmother, towards the black cavern, and the giant female salamander did a most curious thing. As soon as the other lizards approached the entrance to the cave where the doll had been the broodmother stopped chasing the ponies and instead turned on her subjects, launching rocks at any who approached with her tail. "She's...she's protecting them." said Fluttershy, smiling sadly. "Protecting them against the infection."

"Yes yes, very heartwarming Fluttershy but we gotta leave!" yelled Tor, narrowly dodging the stray tail of one of the salamanders. A cacophonous roar hit the chamber and the ponies were able to look back for just long enough to see the broodmother rear her head for another blood-curdling scream, then finish her transformation into porcelain. She fell to the ground, shattered into several large pieces. The other salamanders, of which there were about twenty now, whimpered piteously at the loss of their queen. Unfortunately, without her to distract them, their attention fixed on the ponies they now perceived as a threat.

"I think n-n-now would be the proper t-t-t-time for dep-de-depar...RUN." stammered Seething Mass. "Could not have said it better myself good chap, cheerio!" replied Barnabus as he turned and raced limping ahead of the others into the glass caves.

Racing ahead, the ponies lost track of the correct tunnels and came to a deep chasm. They all either flew, bounced, or teleported across, with the exception of Seething Mass. “What are you doing?” Shouted Tor. Seething stammered, seemingly frozen in place on the other side. The Fire Salamanders had nearly caught them; Seething Mass was effectively committing suicide. Suddenly he snapped back to reality, took a few steps back, and took a running bound across the chasm. The next few moments moved slowly for him, slowed by the almost euphoric feeling of success that filled him as the other side grew closer. For a moment he thought he would make it all the way, that his weak limbs would not fail him, but he was wrong. He hit the side of the cliff with a soul-wrenching CRACK and scrambled madly to hold on to the edge as his back legs flailed over an abyss. Tor leapt into action to help Seething Mass, but as he started to move forward Barnabus Thom shoved him out of the way. When Seething Mass had caught the ledge, it was Barnabus who had helped him up, not Tor. Everypony cheered for Barnabus for catching Seething Mass. Tor felt shunned.

“Thank Faust you're all right, we make a pretty good team, don’t we? Barnabus asked Seething Mass as he struggled for air against the broken ribs.

“Yes, *gasp* we certainly do!” Replied Seething Mass. The salamanders had made it to the opposite ledge, but were unable to make it across, due to their stubby legs. The ponies were home free now, free to go at their own pace out of the caverns.

“It looks like none of the other Fire Salamanders are infected! One of them will become the new broodmother, and the whole lifecycle of the nest should return to normal. Destroying that statuette should have removed any traces of the disease, without the focus object the spell will begin to unravel so we should be safe now!” Twilight informed them all. “When we get back to town, I’ll have to start investigating who might have put it there.” Barnabus and Seething Mass were at the front of the group again, but this time, Tor sunk to the back. After a while, Rarity noticed and went back to him, to see what was wrong.

“What’s the matter, darling?” She asked.
“Well, don’t make a big deal about it, but Barnabus shoved me out of the way when I tried to catch Seething Mass earlier...” Tor Replied.

“What? That’s ridiculous! I could barely take how mean he was being to you, but that is the last straw!”
“Wait, no, don’t make a big deal out of it!”

“Twilight Sparkle, come here please!” Rarity requested.
“What’s wrong, Rarity?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Are you aware that Barnabus shoved Tor out of the way when Tor was trying to save Seething Mass?”
“No. Is this true Tor?” Tor silently nodded his head. He didn’t want to cause a fuss, but there was quite obviously a fuss now. “Barnabus!” Twilight shouted. The pony in question looked back at them and replied.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle?”
“Why did you push Tor out of the way when he clearly was able to catch Seething Mass?”

“Why, that’s simple. Tor’s clunky metal would have obstructed his grip on Seething Mass. There was no time to ask politely, so I had to shove the mewling quim.”

“While that may be true but you need to put more trust in Tor! He’s a very capable pony, you know.”

'...that may be true...' those words sent a chill down Tor's spine. Was Twilight, agreeing with Barnabus?

“But does one leave caution to the wind to trust somepony when somepony else’s life is on the line? I think not.” Barnabus countered viciously, then turned around he and Seething Mass continued their conversation as if they hadn’t even been interrupted in the first place. Nopony could logically refute this last point, so they carried on without addressing the subject further. Twilight gave a apologetic look back at Tor, then shrugged her shoulders and continued to walk. Meanwhile this whole conversation about trust confused Seething Mass, and even caused him to doubt his new friendship for a split second, he still wanted to be friends with Barnabus. He was the only pony who he could talk to about gears and mechanisms and other such things. Rarity stayed near Tor for the whole rest of the trek out of the cavern, but he didn't speak again. He just tried to stop thinking about the whole incident.

They had made it out of the cave by nightfall and noticed that some of the ponies had finished Tor and Seething Mass’s job for them. Snow was already covering the ground, and it was continuing to fall softly. The avalanches had been safely diverted, and there didnt seem to be a snowflake out of place. Everypony went to their respective homes and slept warmly. Everypony except for Tor, that is. Thoughts just wouldn’t stop running through his head. Thoughts like: Who is this pony, this Barnabus Thom? Why does he so closely resemble the pony of my nightmares? Why was he after Seethe’s friendship so badly? Why did Seethe not seem to care that Barnabus was being so rude? Does that mean he doesn’t care about me? If it does, does that mean he doesn’t want to be friends anymore? Disconcerting thoughts flew wildly around his head. He had no sleep that night; he just stayed up and stared out at the snow. "Should I tell Rarity about this, the dream and everything?" he wondered. "No, probably not. I don't want to cause a stir, to cause trouble." He realized then that winter was a a magical time of year in Ponyville. A time for changes, and the cold. Change for the better, or for the worse.

Author's Note

Thanks for sticking with us while we got this chapter to you. I'll admit I slacked a bit on my editing duties, and that is the principle reason this is so late. The good news is that in the future I will be devoting much more time to my job as co-author of this story, which means that YOU (the reader) gets to enjoy more story!

Ann says 'Hi...', by the way. At least I think she does...

Signed,

Ann Lies

Chapter 10: The Prodigal Heart Returns!

Tor Ironclad

I had my usual dream again last night. I was in the forest, being tortured by all things imaginable. Chased through the mud, swimming through the pain of my own subconscious. I wasn’t alone though, there watching all of my suffering was the pony with square amber lenses for eyes and the horrid maw of steel teeth. He needed a name in my mind. “Barnabus Thom” was the obvious choice, and it truly seemed to fit him well on account of all of the similarities. Sometimes I find myself wondering if my smart-mouthed adversary truly wears that iron grin under all of his wrappings, but I’m sure he would consider it rude were I to ask him. He’d probably call me names and make fun of my decorations again, like he did when we were preparing for winter. I’m not sure I’d want to know how much he resembled the terror in my dreams. Knowing a specter from my worst nightmares walked the world; that might throw my world into utter disarray! Though, it seems as though that’s happening anyways, even without the knowledge of Barnabus’s true face.

I woke up as usual this morning, creaky, rusty, covered in metal from head to hoof. I went through my usual routine; rolled off of miss Rarity’s sofa, rotated my joints, stretched out my spine, splashed water on my face. This morning looked as if it were to be a regular day for me in Ponyville. Oh, how wrong I was. This was going to turn out to be a very good day for me, one my most treasured memories since the incident with Chrysalis and… and Celestia. It wouldn’t be with out its oddities, however, and something else happened this day I doubt I will ever forget

Today miss Rarity prepared apple fritters for breakfast. Usually, one would associate apple fritters with the phrases “whipped up” or “deep fried” but these were Miss Rarity’s fritters. These could not be just any fairground food! No, these were elegant and magnificent, as beautiful to the eye as they were to the tongue. As miss Rarity and I were sitting down at her dining room table, I was looking forward to having my first taste, yet I noticed something different about the mare sitting across from me. She had a twinkle in her eye that wasn’t usually there. And my goodness, what a twinkle it was! It was a twinkle to remember, I’d say.

I’m sorry. I suppose today got me a bit excited. I’m writing like a love-struck schoolpony.

Needless to say, miss Rarity was looking even more divine than usual on this morning, if that’s even possible. We discussed my job, how I was handling my work and if I was able to stand being around miss Pinkie Pie all day. We discussed her designs, though I am not the best at understanding fashion, as is the case with most stallions that are not trained in such things. She really does seem to appreciate my opinions though, so I make sure I tell her all I can. She giggles a lot when I get to talking, and I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten to be a lot shyer around her lately. I feel like I always want to try and impress her, but when I open my mouth most of the time whatever comes out isn’t very great.

I desperately wanted to say something nice to her, and I wasn’t having a hard time finding something to say, I just didn’t want it to come out stupid. “I… I appreciate how you’re letting me stay here and cooking for me all the time. Since I got my job at the Corner, I haven’t been able to help you out as much as I used to. If you can think up some jobs you need done, why, I’ll do them for you!”

“Oh, Tor, I don’t really mind all that much. I understand that you’ve got a job now. I don’t want to overwork you, darling! I’ve handled myself fine before you came along, and I wouldn’t think of causing you more stress. It’s so bad for the complexion.”

“Well, all right. But just keep it in mind! The offer’s always on the table.”

“All right Tor, you are generous as always. Thank you for your offer.” She said as she smiled a warm smile at me.

Well, there we were, miss Rarity and I, eating breakfast and having a chat. Then she glanced up at the clock on the wall and alerted me that it was almost time for me to head off to work. She retreated to her room upstairs as I prepared myself to head out to Sugar Cube Corner to help out the Cake family with their store.

I always make sure I’ve polished my decorations a bit before heading off to the Cakes’. They run a respectable joint, and I need to be sure to reflect that in my own hygiene. I have a brush and can of fancy silver polish that miss Rarity bought me. It’s top of the line stuff too. I make sure to pass over my decorations at least twice with the stuff before I head out. Today I wanted to try combing my hair in a specific way to make it look much neater than usual. I needed to call Miss Rarity down for help in order to do it, and I felt bad for interrupting her work, but she didn’t seem to mind. When we had finished, I slipped on my jacket and hat and miss Rarity sent me off with her usual farewell.

As I was making my way to Sugar Cube Corner, I noticed several things out of the ordinary. For starters, everything around town was decorated much more heavily than usual. Everything was some shade of pink, red, or white. There were flowers adorning every stall at the market and every home. The next odd thing I noticed was more in the ponies themselves. Everywhere I looked I saw pairs of ponies, most of whom looked as though they were something more than friends. If I did happen to see a lone pony, whether they were sitting at a table alone, or trotting down the road, another pony would without fail approach them, nervously and blushing, with flowers or candies and the two would form a pair and continue their activities together. I quite liked to see that part, because for the first time in a while, I saw happy, cheerful faces as I passed by, as opposed to the usual frightful and wary ones. I was greeted by a, “Good morning, there!” or a, “Have a nice day!” wherever I went, and that was truly therapeutic. Ponies have gotten a lot more accepting ever since that incident at SwiftSand Valley, no doubt my friends helped dispel some of the more unpleasant myths about me. The only other thing I found odd was that everywhere I looked; I saw a very familiar, yet somehow distant, shape plastered on every wall, or hanging in the air in the form of balloons, or even in the shape of the cards that ponies were giving to each other. The shape was so very familiar, like something important I had forgotten about, or a dream I had woken up from and was now desperately trying to recall.

I walked into Sugar Cube Corner and was greeted by the Cakes, who seemed much more in love than usual on this day. Miss Pinkie Pie bounced out of the kitchen and greeted me as usual, but she as well seemed much more excited than usual on this morning. “Hiiiii Tooooorrrr!!!!!” She shouted. “Did you talk to Rarity this morning? Didja? Didja?” She seemed to know more about something than I did.

“Yes. I talk to her every morning. Why do you ask?” I asked, totally oblivious to whatever she was hinting at. This caught Miss Pinkie off guard. She still was bouncing excitedly and grinning as wide as she could.

“Wait… Did she have anything exciting to ask you? Anything special?”

“Ummm… No. We kinda just talked about the usual. Why do you ask?”

She stopped bouncing and smiling, and started to look as though she were on a mission. “Oh, nooo reason! I’ve got to go and… Pick some flowers? I’ll be back later!” She said as she zoomed off into the street, leaving a trail of dust as she sprinted through the streets. I watched after her, wondering what she was going on about.

Today was a delivery day. I was to go to the train station and pick up our shipment of ingredients. I like these days. They give me a chance to show that I’m a regular pony, just like everypony else, and I get to see what’s going on around Ponyville. Today I saw Seething Mass waiting near a park on my way back to Sugar Cube Corner. He looked like he was waiting patiently for somepony to meet him. He saw me and I motioned for him to come walk with me, and he eagerly obliged.

“How you… How do you do, Tor?” He asked, sounding as mixed up and nervous as usual.

“Why, I’m good! This has been such a nice morning hasn’t it? Though, it’s a bit odd, but I keep seeing couples all over the place! Have you noticed this too?”

Seething Mass looked a bit surprised, but he obviously knew what was happening. “Why, t… To… Tor! Don’t tell you’ve… Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten! It’s Hearts and Hooves Day! Love poison, the day when meshing occurs!”

I was shocked that I had forgotten what day it was! I had been thinking about this day all month, and it was finally here, and I lost track of it! The last thing that Seething Mass said confused me a little though, as the things he said often did. “Oh yeah! I can’t believe I forgot! Now, what was that about the meshing?”

Seething Mass shrunk away from me a little. He started doing that whenever I didn’t quite understand what he was saying. I try so hard to understand him, and I’m not sure he knows that. “Well… I compar… I was comparing the bond these form… These ponies form… On Hearts and Hooves Day ponies form bonds similar to that of a pair of gears. When two ponies who fit… Who come together and fit perfectly emotionally can mesh, they become part of a much greater machine that functions accurately and precisely! Why, this isn’t… This bond isn’t limited to just ponies in love though. It can even apply to friends…friendship. The Cutie-Mark Crusaders, for instance, experienced…”

He was suddenly cut off by an unfortunately familiar voice. I stood up straight and became serious as I heard the voice that now made me instinctively shudder exclaim, “Oh Seething Mass! Most excellent to see you here today! Why, I thought we had agreed to meet here, but I mistook this for someplace else when I saw the large trash heap!” called the voice of Barnabus Thom. He trotted beside Seething Mass, then cocked his head in my direction with a delicate grinding sound. “Oh, wait, pardon my mistake. That was just Tor. How do you do, you iron workhorse you?”

He was obviously taunting me, so I retorted, “Oh, yes, I do have a job to do. One can’t laze around all day, can they? I have become quite the regular working stiff these days.”

“And stiff is certainly the right word for it! A little rusty around the joints these days? I’m glad SOMEPONY could find a use for you!”

“At least there is a use for one of us!” I finished the verbal battle. Barnabus merely shook his head a bit, then looked back straight into my eyes. All was normal for a moment, but then a shrill ringing shriek filled my ears and I flinched. I saw a bright flash, and the whole town behind Barnabus appeared to have caught fire by some coincidence. Barnabus’s face became the jagged iron toothed smile of my nightmares and my eyes widened in horror at what I saw. This lasted for no longer than a second, and then I saw another white flash and this vision had left me. I stood there, my eyes wide and my legs shaking, immobilized by momentary fear. Barnabus obviously noticed and gave a small scoff, then began to canter in the direction he was headed. He errantly kicked a hind leg against a loose stone in the road, which rocketed right toward my muzzle. On impact, it made such a loud “CLANG!” that the street vendors looked in my direction to see if something had broken. My head was still shaking from the rock, and I had noticed that Barnabus was far ahead of me now, and Seething Mass was in between us. He looked back at me and then at Barnabus as though he didn’t know what to do. “Come along now, Seething Mass! We have much to discuss!” exclaimed Barnabus, and Seething Mass followed, glancing back at me for only a moment.

Only two things were able to occupy my mind as I made my way back to the bakery. The first, and longest lasting, was the horrifying vision I received of Barnabus. I began to think much too deeply about what had happened, instead of discarding this as merely a lunatic vision, I actually began to believe that he was conspiring against me, causing these terrible visions. It was as if he were casting some curse on me. The only other thing I could think about was Hearts and Hooves Day and how nice it was that everypony was finding somepony else to spend their time with, romantic or not. I knew I wished I could be that way with somepony, but for some reason my mind had deemed this a physical impossibility. I was a monster now, how could anypony have such feelings of friendship or love toward me?

My feelings of self-pity were doomed to an early death immediately as I entered Sugar Cube Corner. Miss Pinkie Pie had that effect on me most of the time. She always cheered me up if she saw that I was feeling down. She asked me to help her with some baking, and I obliged her, still feeling depressed. Moments later, she praised me for my hard work and told me I was good at baking, which put a smile on my face, which nopony but I could tell. I wish they could, but with this cursed muzzle… I am starting to get really sick of it. I’m beginning to grow used to, even attached to my other decorations, but I have never been able to get used to the muzzle. My eyes didn’t help either. They made me even harder to read. I was thinking precisely these thoughts as I worked on the cakes today, bringing me back into my pit of sadness. Miss Pinkie had been slowing the process, but I couldn’t stop feeling miserable. It didn’t help that on every cake we made pinkie wrote the words, “My very special somepony.” This made me regress back toward how unlovable I was. It was then that my mind made the connection. What if this was Barnabus’s fault too? What if the nightmares scared the ponies off? What if he was attempting to break me in all ways possible? I could not let that happen. I continued working, fueled by my thoughts, almost blocking Miss Pinkie out of my mind.

We had worked until six in the evening and then Miss Pinkie sent me off, telling me to “enjoy my holiday” and other cryptic messages. I walked back through the streets, through the crowds of ponies aflutter with love and caring. They were still giving each other tulips and posies and boxes of candy. They were still looking at each other and blushing and laughing, and being in love. All of the things I was afraid I was incapable of. Especially love. It was a thing I wasn’t sure I wanted to experience again, this love. I missed it, very dearly. I was reminded of how I used to feel about love, even friendship, only months ago. I used to believe that everything was out to get me, and if it weren’t already, it would be sooner or later. But this had changed. I met my friends, I have a good life, I quit a job that ran on my old beliefs and started a new job that allowed me to enjoy and trust the world. I was, admittedly, a much happier pony than before. Yet no matter how much I had changed, I still didn’t believe I could not grasp the concept of love again. Every time I saw a couple embrace, Sunny’s face filled my mind as her skin melted away and revealed Queen Chrysalis underneath. Every giggling filly brought searing memories of Celestia looking after me as a foal, and the look in her eyes as she gave me the sentence that brought me this pain in the first place.

I was caught up in my thoughts for so long that my head started to hurt and my eyes started to tear up. When I had made it back to the Boutique, I was very nearly crying out of confusion and frustration. I opened the doors and walked in slowly, not noticing that miss Rarity was waiting for me on the sofa. I looked up, and there she was, looking right at me.

She blushed as she asked me a question, “Tor… Would you… Like to accompany me for a stroll?” My mind was uneasy, but simply seeing her helped.

“Why, I reckon that would do me no small amount of good, miss Rarity.” I replied, glad that I might have an opportunity to escape my thoughts.

I opened the doors for miss Rarity, and got distracted by the beautiful colors in the sky, the entire thing painted pink and purple almost as if it was trying to reflect what holiday it was today. I took my first unsure steps outside, and hoped that the world would stay as normal as it was right now. Miss Rarity stepped out ahead of me and playfully said, “Tor, what ARE you doing darling? We’re losing valuable daylight!” The sun had nearly set.

“Just making sure it was safe.” I mumbled as she turned to look at me, confused. We walked all over town underneath the radiant sky, Celestia’s sky, and just as we made it to a little bridge on the river, the golden rays of the sunset were beginning to reach across the pink and orange sky. We stood there talking like usual, but as time went on, the usual perfectly composed miss Rarity was turning more and more red. After several moments of silence, she had finally found something to say.

“Tor, darling. Pinkie Pie has been trying to set this up for a very long time. Would you… Like to be… My very Special Somepony?” She asked me as she turned toward me and looked right into my eyes. I froze. Warmth filled my body, and I started to shake. My eyes grew wide, and my head felt hot. I saw another white flash, and the burning Ponyville was back, but this time, in Rarity’s place was Queen Chrysalis, grinning and laughing at me. This persisted only momentarily, when another white flash interrupted this vision and returned me to reality. There was a strange beating in my chest. This beating felt oddly familiar, as though I knew what had caused this beating a long time ago, but it had left me. This beating inside of me felt like a gift from a friend. Not wanting to make her wait, I knelt down, and held Miss Rarity’s hoof and gave her my reply.

“Why, Miss Rarity, I would be deeply honored to be your very special somepony.”

“Please, just call me Rarity from now on, darling. No need to remain so formal, is there?”

“Of course… Rarity.” I said as I stood back up. We couldn’t make eye contact for a few moments. The air was still a bit awkward. She turned to watch the sunset, and I followed suit. She leaned into me as we watched the light of the sun finally disappear on the horizon. We stayed silently for a few minutes after it was dark, then headed home together. I couldn’t think of much to say, but whenever I looked in her direction, our eyes met and we instantly looked away from each other, blushing. She giggled a little every time it happened, and I had to catch my breath. I felt alive again! No longer was I but an iron shell. The beating, the pounding inside of me was starting regain its name. It was my heart. The thing that I felt was lost forever had been reclaimed. I knew that my heart had returned from its exodus, and had returned filled with forgiveness for the stallion that had forsaken it. As I looked about me, I noticed that today’s recurring shape was starting to make sense to me again! It was the heart, the symbol, and source, of love, kindness, and friendship. I was so happy to greet this that I could have cried.

When we made it back to Rarity’s boutique, we sat together on the couch for a while and found more things to talk about. Then she left for upstairs to work on some very luxurious outfits that she had been asked to work on. On her way up the stairs, I caught her staring at me, as if I were something of great value. Once I noticed, I looked right back at her, and blushed again. She continued up the stairs and vanished into her room.

I was feeling restless. No doubt the memory of the heart was intriguing to me. I tried to sleep on the sofa, but eight o’clock just seemed much too early for sleeping. I tried to think of what was wrong. Maybe the sofa was too uncomfortable, I could go ask Rarity if I could buy a bed and where I could put it. No, I didn’t want to bother her. She was busy. I decided that laying down there wasn’t going to solve the problem. I went out to go and get some fresh air. I walked around Ponyville for a while, watching the smiling faces of the ponies. I’m still not sure why I like to see them so much, but the smiles made me feel like everything was right with the world.

This illusion of completeness and peace was soon shattered. The instruments of this cruel vandalization were none other than Seething Mass and Barnabus Thom. I was out near the park, and I saw them sitting at one of the benches, excitedly discussing mechanisms or science or whatever horse-apples they like to talk about. But they weren’t alone, standing next to them was a mare I had never seen before. She was tall, and I thought for a moment she was that strange Ann character Seething and I had met at SwiftSand, but she was a bit different. I watched as the mare began speaking to Seething Mass, then made my way out of the park. I’m not sure if they saw me, but seeing them filled me with anger. The sight of that… villain, speaking so freely with the friend he had stolen from me enraged me beyond belief.

Rage caused me to make a rash decision right then, one I soon wished I hadn’t. I walked down the roads towards the far end of town, the oldest part of town nearest to where the Apple family had initially settled. Most of the buildings there were a bit run down, but every bit as cheery as the other houses in town. There was one store that was not. It looked as though it had been abandoned, and had not been visited for years, but I knew that the opposite was true. I have on multiple occasions seen Seething Mass go inside this building, sometimes emerging with Barnabus Thom. This had to be Barnabus’s lair, I thought to myself. I was unfortunately right.

I knew that nopony was home. Seething Mass and Barnabus were both out and about doing errands or whatever it was they had been doing. Even though I had this thought in my head, I made up an excuse in case Barnabus showed up. I simply went into his house because I wanted to have a word for him, that’s all. I hadn’t thought about what that word might be, but this was only a minor detail that needed no real consideration. I’m sure I could think of something good on the spot. The front door was tall and grey, and held fast by an equally ancient lock, but I knew a thing or two about lock picking. My magic may not be good for moving objects around, but in my youth I had been fascinated by lock mechanisms.

I opened his dilapidated front door and was instantly distressed by the damp, dusty smell that greeted my nostrils. It smelled oddly of burnt cinnamon, and I had to push through the scent if I wanted to accomplish anything. I stepped inside, creaking the floorboards under my immense weight. The entire first floor seemed to be a regular music box shop, if that could be called regular, anyway. There was no artificial lighting, and the windows were covered by wretched, pink, lacey drapes through which every trace of light was filtered. The light from outside on the street had to make it through those fabric monstrosities first, and when it did it came out a horrid dusty rose color. The entire interior of the shop had a hazy pink to it, claustrophobic and antiquated.

There were cogs and gears and gyros piling behind the register counter, and there was a box of decorative gems sitting on top as well. Underneath the counter were all of his tools, for the finer points of construction, and several types of glues. The room behind the counter was a supply closet, filled with even more music box supplies. There were plenty more boxes of gems back here, which struck me as odd. He obviously had enough gems to last him a lifetime, or at least a very good year of work. Why had he been so frantic to get more from the salamander caverns? Covering everything was a thick layer of dust, save for a pathway where the filth had been disturbed. Obviously he hadn’t touched any of his tools or supplies for months, maybe years! When had he moved in here, anyways?

I had investigated the first floor. It was now time for the second floor. I had figured he might have more to hide up there, but in the first few rooms I checked all was normal. The entire floor was just as dark, old and pink-looking as the first. Layers of dust covered everything, and there were wilting plants on end tables placed around the short main hallway. The first room was a master bedroom, obviously Barnabus’s. It had a large bed and a window that overlooked the street in front of the house. It smelled of burnt cinnamon. Not interesting. The next room was a guest room, the bed much smaller, but this one also had a window. This room appeared to be prepared for a guest that Barnabus was expecting to arrive within the week. The furniture was dusted, the bed was made, and there were new potted plants on end tables beside the bed. I wondered if the burnt cinnamon had come from an incense burner somewhere hidden in the house, as it was following me even into this room. Odd, but still uninteresting.

The next room I checked sparked my interest slightly more than the last. There were blueprints and designs posted on the walls. Most of them appeared to be designs for Barnabus’s music boxes, but others seemed much more strange, almost sinister in design. I didn’t understand what they were, but I was trying to figure them out. This room smelled of burnt cinnamon the most strongly of all the rooms, so I figured it was where Barnabus spent the most time, and therefore kept the incense.

After a good five minutes in this room, I heard a small noise, like a hoofstep in the room next to me. This was the last room I hadn’t checked. My heart began to beat faster as I approached the door in the hallway. Whatever was in there, I knew it was going to be important. I opened the door inch by inch, and saw that the room was just another bedroom. But this one wasn’t the same as the other two. On the walls was a faded pink floral paper, peeling at the corners as if it had been there for decades. There was an entire wall taken up by shelves on the walls, with dozens of porcelain dolls and figurines sitting on them. There were wrapped gift boxes and fresh flowers littering the room on either side of the small bed that was sat in center of the far wall. The small bedside table was overflowing with cards, apparently get-well cards from what I could see after looking through a few. The room appeared to be that of a small filly who might have been ill recently. I didn’t really see Barnabus as the fatherly type, but I suppose we all have our secret sides. The wallpaper might have been peeling, but this was beyond a doubt the cleanest room in the house

It was then that I noticed the most unsettling thing in the room. In the corner, I saw a life sized porcelain filly who had been arranged into what appeared to be a tea-party with several other small toys, a stuffed Ursa Minor and what looked like a pink and purple hippogriff. The tiny doll’s porcelain skin was pure white, but she seemed old because tiny cracks covered her surface and her skin was a bit discolored from age. Her mane was the brightest ruby red I had ever seen, and arranged in an intricate pair of braids. She wore a pink bonnet and a frilly dress, and I briefly wondered what lavishing praise Rarity would have to give the delicate folds of silk and lace. The features were perfectly lifelike, as if whoever crafted it had spent years perfecting it. Its eyes were a glistening pink.

I walked nearer to this doll, and I wasn’t a meter away from it when it tilted its head and blinked at me. I froze in my tracks, and began shaking profusely. This adorable doll had immobilized me with a glance, and to think I used to call myself a bounty hunter. Once my heart had started beating once more, I attempted to engage in conversation with the filly. “Uhhhh… Hey there. I didn’t notice you.” I chuckled nervously as I began to back away. She looked very sad, as if she hadn’t had any contact with anypony for years. Once I got over the creepy-doll thing, she was actually very cute, adorable even. She attempted to voice a response, but her words came out as a whisper.

I leaned in closer, “I’m sorry little one, p-please forgive me but this iron makes it a little hard to hear sometimes.” She gasped as I moved closer and as a result her mouth opened. It was hardly an inch, but there where her lower jaw met her cheek formed a crack that widened her mouth horribly and made a sound like somepony had dropped a large window. She froze perfectly, uncannily still, and lifted a small delicate hoof up to the crack, which even now began to ooze blood. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please, I’ll get help!” I stammered out. I noticed that the skin on her joints had been apparently broken, then taped up so she could move. The bandages were tinted with blood, I hadn’t been able to see them before under the sleeves of the dress. She lay down and began crying without moving her jaw, a terribly hollow sound that told me she had felt this pain before. She huddled curled up, glancing anxiously at the door like she was afraid that she would get in trouble with her parent for breaking something. I tried to calm her down, but it was no use.

I was only a foot away from her when she lifted her head and stared right at me, tears streaming down her shiny porcelain cheeks and mixing with the blood leaking out of her distended mouth. Half of her jaw hung down, nearly touching her neck and exposing her glistening tongue while the other half was fully closed. I moved my face closer to hers, trying to inspect the crack more closely. Her eyes looked behind me and I swiveled around, preparing to run downstairs to get help, when I saw Barnabus standing in the doorway, rage and fury practically visible behind those square lenses.

“What is the meaning of this…” He spoke quietly, softly, the shaking accompanied by the slight crunchy grinding of what I sincerely hoped were his teeth. “What have you done...” I tried to explain, but was unable to get a single word out before the world around me began to distort and a high-pitched scream began to fill my ears.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY DESDEMONA?” He shouted at me suddenly, his cry of rage and anguish punctuated by a snapping sound from somewhere beneath his cloth wrappings. I looked from side to side, and saw the dolls that were on the shelves warp and twist into the dark creatures that chanted in my nightmares, their eyes hollow and their tiny mouths distending outward into grins. The floor shattered with the sound of Barnabus’s rage and were replaced with the floor of the shack in the Everfree forest. Barnabus was screaming now, blood boiling up inside his glass lenses and streaming out of his cloth wrappings, jetting in torrents from his joints and tainting my vision a throbbing red. I couldn’t hear what he screamed; the piercing tone filled my head and spiked my sight with white cracks. Suddenly my vision cleared.

The teeth. The wretched, horrid, jagged, grotesque iron smile was there, and it was attached to Barnabus. There was another figured behind him, Seething Mass. His features were twisted just as grotesquely as those of his companion, greasy hair falling in strings in front of two eyes that dispassionately dissected my suffering. And he was carrying a shipment of rivets and nails, and a mechanical limb of twisted black steel and blood-soaked barbed wire was handing a mallet to Barnabus.

When the pony behind the lenses finally spoke again, his voice was a demonic harmonious cacophony of his true voice, as he shouted, “REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THE PREMISES, YOU CRETINOUS, FOOLISH OAF! LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO MY, MY DAUGHTER, MY POOR DESDEMONA!” I rushed out of the room, terrified to see that it opened to the Everfree Forest. All I could see was the trees and the dark shadows lining the hallways, then the streets in pairs. They turned to look at me as I tried to run, but tripped with every step I took. I stumbled through the forest, through the winding paths, tripping on roots, the shadows moving out of my way whenever I drew near. After ten minutes of the same, over and over again, I saw a building that was entirely out of place. Rarity’s boutique on a distant hill, shining like a beacon of warmth. I followed the path to her front door, and I turned back to be sure nothing had followed me. I threw the doors open, being sure that everything was as I had remembered, then slammed them behind me, cowering on the floor as absolute terror filled every inch of my body.

I heard the voice of a very surprised Rarity exclaim, “Tor! Is everything alright darling?” she asked concerned. I lifted my head and gasped. All was as it should be again. Miss Rarity’s face was only a few inches away from mine, her face wracked with worry. After I had quieted my breathing and my eyes had adjusted to the light, I stood up and answered her, sheepishly.

“Yeah… I think I’m ok. I certainly hope I am, at least.” She stared at me for a moment. Her eyes had shifted to a new emotion, embarrassment. We each said good night to each other and then something unexpected happened. She embraced me with her neck. I hadn’t had this happen to me in such a long time, not since Sunny. I remembered the feeling and embraced her back, no doubt I only made it more awkward.

I may have once known how to do it, but I just couldn’t figure it out again. I almost started tearing up from frustration with myself again, when she nuzzled my face (which I’m surprised didn’t hurt her) and said, “I’m glad you’re my very special somepony,” Smiling at me with a twinkle in her eyes.

“I’m glad to be your very special somepony, Rarity.” I responded, and she blushed again. We said our good nights and Rarity retreated up to her room once again, offering one last word of encouragment. “Why don’t we talk about this in the morning dearest, when you’ve had a good night’s sleep.” I just nodded and she left. I was worn out, too many delusions in one day. “These sure are becoming frequent, aren’t they?” I asked myself as I headed for the sofa.

I laid there, thinking some more like I’ve taken to doing every night lately. Tonight I thought mostly of Rarity and my friends, but that brought my mind to Seething Mass and what happened today. As I left the room with the crying porcelain foal, Desdemona, I caught a glimpse of Seething Mass behind Barnabus. He didn’t try to help me, or to calm Barnabus so I could explain myself. He just stood there; he froze, allowed it all to happen. This has been happening a lot lately whenever Barnabus has started being cruel to me, but I used to be able to dismiss it as Seething Mass’s inexperience; he didn’t know how to help his friends. Now, it seems almost like Seething Mass was… helping him. I don’t want to accept the fact that my best friend has been turned against me, but maybe I have no choice. I’ll keep trying to be his friend, but I’m not sure how much I trust him now.

I feel like my friendship with Seething Mass is hanging by a thread, and Barnabus is holding the Scissors.

Chapter 11: A Hollow Heart Remembers

Seething Mass

“Come along now, Seething Mass! We have much to discuss!” Barnabus is calling; I feel I have to go. Tor doesn't seem very happy about that, but there isn't really much I can do.

Perhaps a week before Tor and I met in my Alchemyst's kitchen to measure out his Decorations. Somepony really put a lot of work into making them difficult to remove, and complex healing work had to be done in order to keep the countersunk screws in his leg bones from coming out, I'd imagine there is some sort of locking edge along the screw to keep it firmly in place.

Oh dear, I've gotten off track again.

Well Tor didn't really want to discuss the Decoration process; I suppose I can understand that. He is kindhearted, even if he can't quite follow my ideas about sympathetic string vibrations representing the universe at large. Then again, Twilight Sparkle seems to be the only one who understands those anyways. Even Barnabus Thom reacts in what I can assume is a rather bewildered respect.

Back to the present Seething! I happen to know Tor has somepony-else he needs to see today, Rarity herself asked me to help her so I agreed not to bog Tor down during this festive day. The simplest way to do that is to bring in Barnabus. I guess I can't really say I brought in Barnabus, like he is some sort of Tor-deterrent I summon up when required. He has something, and somepony, with which he would like me to discuss.

"Hurry up Seething, she is very punctual and she likes to be on time.” Barnabus is testy, as usual. I've found him exceedingly intelligent; in the weeks since the incident at SwiftSand Gorge we have had many the lengthy discussion about mechanisms and various clockwork items. He's even taught me some rudimentary knowledge on the way unicorn magic works; although he found it strange I didn't already know. My own magic is relatively useless, I can produce a few mint-green sparks but without my horn's full length I am completely unable to produce any useful telekinesis spells, although Barnabus and I did learn I can make a rather exciting burst of lightning if I concentrate. He said afterwards it was a very good thing porcelain isn't a good conductor of electricity. I have been looking through Twilight's medical section to see if there might be some feasible way of repairing my horn, although it doesn't seem likely that I will ever have as much control as a normal unicorn over my magical energies.

Barnabus Thom leads us finally to a park bench, where standing is a tall, lean earthpony mare. Grey coat, grey mane, the same color. Her eyes are silver, and I can't help but think that there isn't a distinguishing feature about her. She seems forgettable. Even her cutie mark is plain, a simple silver circle. "Seething Mass, most pleasant to finally meet you. Barnabus Thom and I are friends from way back, and he recently said you had some very interesting theories." her voice is quiet. Not too loud, not too soft, her tone is not solidly robotic and monotone but she has a tendency to humm out the softer consonants, but again somewhat forgettable.

I speak. "M-most, I am most pleased to m-meet you. Might I ask your name and profession? I find it easier to remember ponies that way."

"So very polite, and direct. I like that in business. My name is Cilia, and I am the director of a scientific research effort sanctioned by Princess Celestia aimed at finding new sources of energy." A small twitch of the lip, often indicative of nervousness or amusement. Shifting weight subtly, a standard movement common when ponies are at-ease. She is unnerved by my presence, like most, but she seems to have a great deal of self-control.

Looking around me I see foals playing, farmers and seamstresses and wagon-pullers, a few ponies that pull carts for a living, numerous ponies in the candies and sweets business, all low-energy jobs. Canterlot doesn't seem to use much electricity, mostly magic. I speak my thoughts; I am somehow incredibly at-ease.

"New sources of energy? I wasn't aware we had a shortage. There seem to be few devices that work using electricity, are there other regions where these technologies are m-mmore preh, prr-prevalent?"

Both ears lower slightly, textbook sign for aggression, emotional affection, embarrassment, or enthusiasm. As I find it unlikely that Cilia wishes to fight or court me at this time, and she has nothing to be embarrassed about, I think it is more likely that she's knows a great deal about what she is going to discuss and is preparing herself mentally to inform me. That collection of writings on reading pony body-language has been most helpful in my day-to-day social dealings, as few as they are. I wish Twilight Sparkle had told me about it earlier.

Cilia speaks. "Well you see in the past few years numerous new devices have been invented, many of which require electrical power, but in reality it is mostly a matter of defense. Recently Equestria has been put under a lot of stress due to outside forces. A changeling attack, the antics of Discord, the return of Nightmare Moon, all of these events ended well enough, but Celestia feels that additional measures should be taken. In addition as I understand it the Griffon nations have been using electrical power for centuries to make up for their lack of magic, and they have created some truly amazing innovations that Celestia feels could benefit our Equestrian nation."

Equestria creating a power grid for a national defense system? I can’t help but voice my concerns.
"This d-defense, is it weaponry? How are you going to do this?"

This seems most incongruous with my previous assesment of Equestria. Did the defense of the nation not previously rest upon the Elements of Harmony? Shields powered by unicorn magic might? Cilia speaks excitedly now, though still oddly humming her words in a low voice.

"Oh no, we aren't building weapons. We are building a shield. Before now we have relied on unicorns to protect areas with magic, but we are working on a device that can use energy to do that instead. That is where you come in."

Barnabus speaks now. I don't know why, but whenever he speaks the word, "British", pops into my head. I don't know what a British is, or why I think of it as capitalized, but there it is. His emotions are somewhat harder to read than the average pony, partly because of his missing ear and lensed eyes but also because of his cloth wrappings. He shifts his weight from his back right hoof to his front left, a sign I have come to associate with nervousness in his case.

"When I...when this happened to me and my daughter," he waves a hoof in front of his face, indicating the porcelain skin that lies beneath. "Cilia studied the burst of magic that caused it. She tried to help us, get us well."

Cilia nodded. "I thought electrical energy might hold the secret to reversing the condition, acting as a booster to magical power."

Barnabus resumes speaking; grinding his teeth together as Cilia speaks. He is frustrated, slightly annoyed, but why? Isn't Cilia a friend of his? Then again, seemingly the only pony he isn't irritated with constantly is me, oddly enough.

"It didn't work." Oh, that explains things. "Still, she tried hard and we've remained friends ever since. I told her about our talks, Seething, about your sympathetic strings theory, and other worlds. It seems she already knows something about all of that."

Cilia. "Absolutely. Barny..." Barnabus cringes visibly at the nickname. I don't need to decipher his body-language to recognize that this is a good name to stow away as a comeback later. "...Barny told me about your ideas and I was most impressed. You see our idea for limitless energy is rather complicated, and it would take a long time to explain, but essentially it hinges on using a portal to siphon stray wasted energy from other universes to use in our own. You claim to have arrived at your current string-theory all on your own?"

Energy from other universes, other places. Some, other place…
In my mind I can see him…a bright lime-green unicorn…his mane is short, purple…fields of green, darker green than he is. There is a storm above, a howling wind claws at him but he doesn’t seem to notice.
He is collapsed in the field…his legs are broken, in great pain…but he lifts his head and looks around, at the clouds, at the grass, his eyes sting in the wind. He smiles weakly, he is so happy in that moment, despite what I said to him and despite how I hurt him…how did I hurt you, Picket?

His head falls to the ground, eyes close, not dead just asleep. Picket sleeps, as figures trot over the hilltop…

“Seething Mass? Seething are you quite alright?”
“He’s fine, he goes all wonky every once in a while, wake up you git!”

Present, I am in the present day, I think therefore I am here with Cilia and Barnabus Thom. Apparently they are waiting for me to speak. “I am very sorry, did you ask me a question?”

Cilia’s face relaxes, she was concerned. Barnabus stands impassive, emotions hidden beneath his shroud of black wrappings. Cilia speaks. “That’s quite alright. I was asking if you arrived at your current string-theory all by yourself.”

Yes, the theory. “Somewhat, I made extensive use of Twilight Sparkle’s library, but the idea was my own as far as I can tell. My memories are, incomplete, so I do not know if I truly came up with the theory on my own. It could possibly have been somepony else’s.”

Cilia nods. “Well regardless, you somehow arrived at a very similar theory to what my team has discovered. Where you got your idea I do not know, but if you arrived at such an exotic realization by yourself then you would no doubt be valuable to our efforts. We would like you to join our research and development team, KRONOS. Barnabus, the schematics please?”
Barnabus reaches into a small bag and pulls out a set of papers, blueprints with some sort of machine. Instantly I recognize the shapes, though they seem somewhat different, as the outlines of a simple generator. “You will make the energy with this device?”

Cilia. “Yes, this is a generator that will take the raw energy we collect and focus it into a useable product.” Barnabus hoofs me another blueprint, this time with a complicated device that looks somewhat like a massive tower with a bladed ring of knives at various points along its height. “And this is the Dimensional Energy Extraction Profiler, we call it D.E.E.P. It will essentially allow us to look through the various multiverses, to navigate beyond the boundaries of our universe!”

These designs are primitive, for some reason I can’t help but notice where structures are wrong. So many improvements could be made here, but how do I know this? I have never seen a device like this before, haven’t even thought of the possibility of moving to other regions of the multi-space my sympathetic string theory proposes, or perhaps I have. I don’t remember.

“Parts of this are wrong. I could help correct them, if you’d like.” Cilia looks overjoyed, in a passive and somewhat artificial way.

“Excellent! I’m afraid I must depart, but Barnabus has more in-depth plans at his home. I’m sure he’d be willing to show them to you. Welcome, Seething Mass, you are now a member of KRONOS. The Princesses will be very pleased to know we have such a bright new mind on the project.”

“Of course, I am honored to be a part.”

Cilia has left, now Barnabus is taking me to his home to further debrief me on the project’s plans. “I’m positively thrilled you are on the project, I am afraid I don’t have near your wits about these sorts of things, I just know the gears and such. I figure out how to build it mostly. And don’t worry, she may be a bit annoying but Cilia is one of the most intelligent mares I know.”

“I didn’t think she was annoying, a little different that’s all.”

“Well I suppose you are right, regardless with your influence I am hopeful for the future of this project. The princess was thinking about scrapping it, I’ll have you know.”

Barnabus seems oddly excited, usually he isn’t this jubilant. He grows more reserved as we reach his home, however, and when we are outside the front door he tells me why.

“Seething Mass, I must ask you something.” His head is downward, signifying emotions of fear, shame, sadness, regret, or guilt. “I have never before let you see her, but it is time for you to meet my daughter, Desdemona. The princesses were…unable to help cure us after the accident, but they were able to keep us from further harm. In order to keep my daughter alive, they had to,” He breathes in a ragged wet breath, and begins hacking violently before resuming. “They had to stop us from growing, so that we wouldn’t grow out of our porcelain skins. My daughter was just a filly then, just a child, and she still looks like one now, but please…” He is interrupted by a noise from inside the home, a terribly hollow sound. Barnabus tensed, and then shaking with rage tore from inside his wrappings a large key. Into the house we ran, Barnabus loping along with more balance and speed than I had ever seen him move before. Up the stairs, down the hall to a room I had never entered before.

The room holds two occupants, one a tiny filly in a pink dress and bonnet, from whose bleeding lips the cry had no doubt emanated. Standing before her, looking desperately worried, is Tor Ironclad.

Several thoughts stream through my head in that moment. Tor and I frozen as partially stone statues in the Everfree forest, myself realizing what it is like to have a friend. Tor and I meeting at my home on Sweet Apple Acres, agreeing to let me build him a device which would later save lives in Swiftsand Gorge, meeting at Sugarcube Corner to discuss his new job, his new life, my various intellectual pursuits. All of those times when my mind was torn, in all those months the Apple family always knew that they could call upon Tor to stabilize my mind, remind me that I was sane, and return me to joyful awareness.

This same Tor had broken into Barnabus Thom’s home.

Tor fled. We aren’t sure what happened. I’ve never seen Barnabus look so worried before, never seen so much concern and care and love from his as when he carefully knelt down to dab a bit of blood off of Desdemona’s face. He’s holding her now, and she no longer crying tears, and I find that suddenly there is not enough space for me in this tiny room. Out of place again, I’m out of place.

Two voices speak to one-another. There is no emotion in the one, and the other tries desperately to garner attention. It is a small voice, a child’s voice.
“What do you want, I’m busy.”
“I was wondering if we could go to a movie today, there is one I think you’d like. It’s about math, I think, A Beautiful Mind.”
“It’s not about math, nothing more than a dramatization, a sick parody of a man’s life. We aren’t going.”
“But, you can tell me more about it. I’d be a good listener. I would be quite all the way there and-“
“Be quiet now, I have to concentrate on this it’s important.”
“Ok.”

“For Faust’s sake snap out of it! I need you Seething Mass!”

Barnabus is there, suddenly, and the emotionless voice and the child are gone.

“I’m so sorry Barnabus, what can I do to help?”

He sighs deeply. “I’m sorry too Seething, I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that. I just want you to stay with Desdemona, she says she’s ok but I want you to make sure her jaw doesn’t break any more while I get some supplies.”

“Of course, I’ll wait here.”

Barnabus swiftly leaves the room, but his gait is more measured. He is no longer recklessly charging through the halls like he was when we heard the scream. Desdemona’s injury must not be that bad. She is lying down on her bed now, Barnabus carefully carried her over and now she is errantly sketching with magic. The drawing is of a beautiful unicorn maiden wearing a dress and a hennin. She is in a castle, and terribly sad. I can’t help but realize the quality of the sketch, the emotion in the piece is clear and I don’t need to read her body language to determine her mood.

“Desdemona, are you lonely?”

She looks up at me and I can see the tears in her eyes. She talks quietly, lips barely opening to avoid stressing the crack in her jaw. “I didn’t mean to scare him away, he caught me by surprise. Father never has guests, when the pony in the suit of iron came I didn’t know what to do. I, I wish I hadn’t reacted like that. Is he a knight?”

“He is not a knight, not that I know of. He once helped the weak, he hunted bad ponies.” She hasn’t stopped her drawing, and now an enormous dragon has taken shape on the page, guarding the princess in the tower. “He is my friend.”

“Why was he here? Why did father chase him away?”

“Well, sometimes two ponies don’t like each other very much. I don’t know why he was here, but your father and him don’t get along. Please don’t talk so much, you’ll strain your jaw. How about you show me your, dollies?” I am uncomfortable with children. Tor can always get a child to laugh, he always knows just how to tell a joke, play a game, throw a child in the air just high enough so that they giggle madly as they come down safely into his iron forelegs. I do not know children well. They make me nervous, and I do not know what to say.

“I’m not a child you know, please don’t speak down at me.”

I should have anticipated that. Barnabus’ words return to me. “I-I…s-sorry, your, forgot, d-d-d-didn’t r-r-r-r…”

She speaks, she sounds more confident now. “It’s ok, I anticipated this. I assure you I am not a child. And I’m not dumb, either. Father has been teaching me for years, ever since the accident. I’m as old mentally as you are, really.”

Suddenly I have the urge to laugh out loud. She is surprised by my outburst, but soon she is laughing as well. Her laugh is a tiny, bright sound. Like a bell ringing in the crisp winter air. It is much more wholesome than her scream, there is only a hint of hollowness in her laughter, just a hint of sadness. It is matched by my own somewhat hollow laughter. Finally we regain our composure, and I speak once more.

“I am very sorry f-f-or that, Miss. Allow me to introduce myself pruh, prop…properly. I am Seething Mass, I am a friend of your father’s.”

She stands and curtsies. Difficult to believe this tiny creature is as old as Rarity and Twilight and the rest. “Good Sir Mass, I am Lady Desdemona, and it is an honor to meet you, though I do wish the circumstances had not been this unorthodox.”

She extends a hoof delicately. I kneel and kiss it as is commonly demanded by social etiquette. Her skin is cold, though not chilled. Somewhere deep inside there is warmth.

“An honor to meet you, Lady Desdemona. I trust you are feeling better?”

“Much. So who are you, exactly? Does my father know you from work?”

“I will be working with your father. I am…fear, I don’t, I….I’m afraid I really don’t know who I am. I can’t remember, it was lost somewhere. “

“That’s, horrible.” She is quiet a moment, head turned down, when once again she matches my grey eyes with her glassy pink. “Whoever you were, I’m sure you were a good pony.”

Barnabus returns, and immediately without ceremony begins applying a white crusty paste to the cracks in Desdemona’s skin. She rolls her eyes over her father’s shoulder when he kneels down to grab a bandage. Despite myself I chuckle quietly. He finishes quickly, charging the bandage with a small burst of magic then sealing it over the crack. His magic aura floods Desdemona’s face with a rusty-red light, and the paste beneath the bandage crinkles and cracks like breaking glass.

“What are you doing?” I ask. Barnabus looks at me for the first time, he looks weary and sounds exhausted.

“In Canterlot I made dolls. My special talent…I could make the finest porcelain. Her cheek should be fine.” He lifts the bandage, running a last smoothing wave of magic over Desdemona’s face. “Smooth, I used to be well-known for this talent. I couldn’t think of a better use for it now than to help my daughter. Do you know what it’s like Seething, to have children? To value someone so much, you’d do anything for them?”

There are again two voices, speaking back and forth. One is angry, enraged by something trivial and irrelevant. The other is pleading at first, desperate to gain sympathy, to let Anger understand nothing is wrong, but soon there is anger in this voice as well. Noise bellowing, disappointment and shame and sadness and heartbreak, all these emotions flood through like such torrents of tears.

And then there is the sound of gasping, hacking coughs. And four small whispered words finish breaking a heart that lies cold and unused inside a shell, a shell which breaks open to reveal a twisting undulating seething pile of matter and rot and uncertainty within.
“I have ALS, Dad.”

I am chilled by the vision, and I inexplicably feel ashamed. “I, I think…maybe…I did. M-mean, mmuh….What, whatever that m-means.”

Author's Note

I don't care that you read this chapter, and I don't hope you enjoyed it. If you don't like Lego Bionicle and/or are uninterested in concept art, don't check out The Other One's new blog entry which cannot be found here (BLOG ENTRY HERE)

I hope you don't have a nice day.
Signed,
Ann.

Chapter 12: Role Models

Chapter 12
Role Model Day

Seething Mass

So many problems, there are so many problems with this machine.

Barnabus tries so hard to help, he really does, but he can’t do much except care for his daughter and bring me new sheets of parchment. This team KRONOS, as they call it, is made of only the best and brightest minds, I am told, and yet how they managed to get so many details wrong I will never understand. For instance, how in Equestria could they POSSIBLY forget to factor in the gravitational force of Dark Matter into their calculations! That tiny bit of data in-and-of itself sets the entire D.E.E.P (That being of course the Dimensional Energy Extraction Profiler, as Barnabus INSISTS on telling me every time I use their convenient acronym) haywire, completely useless! Nopony around here seems to know anything other than the most basic of gravitational laws. I guess that makes sense, Princesses Luna and Celestia control most of the orbital bodies, but the D.E.E.P. won’t locate any other universes with the wild variables Cilia’s team throws in. It appears there are places in the multi-verse where gravity is a constant force, and for some reason I am the only pony who seems to have thought of that idea.

At least Desdemona has been helpful. Her cutie mark itself is a rather beautiful book wrapped up in ribbon, her special talent is reading and retaining information. She has been far more helpful, seeing as she remembers all the little detailed calculations and measurements that I can’t quite hold on to. I’ve been staying nights working at Barnabus’s house; he has a room set up for me. I usually don’t sleep much anyways, so I’ve had plenty of time during the nights to work on the designs for this trans-dimensional portal. I make the blueprints during the night, then build prototypes back at my shop on Sweet Apple Acres. I can tell the Apple family doesn’t like me being gone, I help, try to, try to help with the chores with even more enthusiasm when they wake up so they won’t be worried. I’ve been trying to convince Barnabus to let me take Desdemona out here with me, she would be such a benefit to my work! Alas, he is frightened of what might happen if the Apple family found out about her, which is most inconvenient. At this rate I’ll be lucky to get done in less than a month, Celestia apparently wants this done as soon as possible.

This coil of copper needs to go here, a few high-quality cut diamonds here, perhaps this metal sheeting will do fine as a casing…

“Mr. Seething Mass?”

I would know that tiny southern accent anywhere.

“Yes, Applebloom? What do you need?”

She is standing in the doorway to my Alchemyst’s Kitchen, she has her booksaddle from school. Her stance is at-ease; she at least no longer cringes when she enters a room I happen to be in. Tor is right. Children are so very accepting.

“HI! Watcha’ workin’ on?”

“Well it’s actually the focusing apparatus for a dimensional-rift generator. This part right here is the finder, it looks for the tiny holes in space-time at the quantum level, quantum foam. When it locates an appropriate amount of them it sends the information to this part here, which uses an energy pulse to merge them into something about the size of an electron. This hole can then be stabilized, all of this happens in less than 1/10,000th of a second, or will if it works.”

Her face registers as confusion. Not surprising. Most adults don’t understand this kind of thing, and she is just a foal. Still, she is helpful in her own way. She has a most convenient talent for putting things together, I’m sure when she discovers her special talent it will have something to do with sound construction.
She speaks.

“Wow, that sounds comp’licated. Hey, I was wondering…”

Tor Ironclad

“…if you would like to be my role model for Role Model day at school! You are the BEST, the first pony I thought of!”

“Wow Sweetie Belle, I would be honored! What is the occasion?”

“Well recently in school we have been learning about how everypony has someone they look up to, and how a good role model is somepony you can talk to about anything. Miss Cheerilee said we should try to pick somepony outside of our family, and I thought of you right away!”

I was, as always, reminded that I am somewhat intimidating. I’m not even sure miss Cheerilee likes me, why would she think it’s a good idea to let me come to class? Here’s the way I see it: I quite often can be found conversing and playing with the foals of Ponyville. Miss Cheerilee sometimes walks by and gives me a worried look, but not worried for me. She’s worried about the children. I can understand why, though. I am very big and very heavy and even clumsier than my size and heft combined. She probably thinks I’ll crush the foals or hurt them in some way, which makes me feel a bit sad inside. I always make sure to be extra careful with the foals. I couldn’t ever forgive myself if one of them was hurt and it was my fault.

All that aside, I tried very hard to think of a good reason not to come, so as not to make miss Cheerilee nervous. Forgetting how smart and naïve young ponies are, I mistakenly replied, “Of course, I would love to come… But you see, I’m not entirely sure what I would talk about.” I remembered all of the stories (censored of the more violent parts, of course) that Sweetie Belle secretly made me tell her about my bounty hunting days. “As you probably remember, my past isn’t all too foal appropriate”

“Well you don’t HAVE to talk about those parts silly! You could just talk about your job at Sugarcube Corner! I’m sure everypony, even Miss Cheerilee, would love to hear about that!”

I was backed into a corner. Sweetie Belle had gotten me good. I’m actually kind of glad that she did, now that I think of it. “You know what? You’re right! Why, young miss Sweetie Belle, I would be absolutely honored to join you to class tomorrow!” I said, and Sweetie Belle giggled like usual when I called her “Young miss”. She likes it when I do that.

Rarity smiled at how well I was doing with Sweetie Belle. I smiled back, and I think somehow she could see it.

The Next Day

The room is full of little fillies and colts and their mentors. I see that Twist has invited Miss Pinkie Pie. I enter the room, and miss Cheerilee gives me a nervous smile and welcomes me in. She doesn’t seem as worried as usual, which puts me at ease. I’m looking around the room to see who else might have been invited. I see a few elderly ponies and several public workers. It’s good to see that so many foals had somepony to look up to. As my eyes continue to wander across the room, I notice somepony who I had hoped I wouldn’t. Standing next to little Applebloom is Seething Mass. He’s nervous, but not as nervous as usual, somehow. I glance at him, and he stares back. I try to be nonchalant about our eye contact. Still I am unable to look for long, as staring at him seems to make me start to feel emotions that cause me to feel ways I know I shouldn’t, I’d almost call it anger. I wager that it’s because of what happened on Hearts and Hooves day. I mean, he just stood there and didn’t help me when he knew he should have. I have every right to be angry, don’t I? But for some reason, I feel I shouldn’t be angry with him. It’s an absolute mess.

I must have been dwelling on these thoughts for a long time, because most of the other presenters have finished speaking while I was stewing. Some of the speakers were construction workers, others were police ponies, and others still were dentists and doctors. None of them had caught my interest enough to penetrate my thoughts. The next filly that walks up does, however. One of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Scootaloo, is up next. Scootaloo stands up and walks to the front of the room, grinning as Rainbow Dash trots and stands next to her.

“My name is Scootaloo. For my role-pony, I chose Rainbow Dash of course! She’s only the fastest, most AWESOME, truly inspiring pony I know! She can go from 0 to RAINBOOM in less tha-“

Miss Cheerilee doesn’t look too pleased. She grunts a little and Scootaloo gives a little laugh.

“eheh, sorry Miss Cheerilee. I meant to say that I chose Rainbow Dash because she has been teaching me so much about flying and helping me exercise. She IS really cool, but she is also really good to her friends and stuff.”

Miss Rainbow Dash pats Scootaloo on the shoulders and she smiles, they are obviously very close. Then Rainbow Dash speaks.

“Yeah, Scoots and I practice our moves all the time. She’s a wonderful audience for me. She is right, I am the fastest pony in Equestria and someday I’m going to join the WONDERBOLTS! In the meantime though I hang in Ponyville as a weather pony, I coordinate the weather team for The Coming of the Snows and Winter Wrap-up, and I am the Element of Loyalty!”

Here she turns to Scootaloo.

“Thanks for choosing me as your role pony Scoots, you’re a good kid and I know you’re goin’ places. You just need to remember that no matter where you go, no matter how far ahead of everypony else you fly, don’t forget your friends. They are the ones that support you when you feel like giving up, and believe me they will hunt you down and tie you up to protect you if you get too far off track. Trust me, I’ve had it happen before.”

Everypony in the room laughed here, but I notice Pinkie Pie has a particularly satisfied look on her face. I hear Seething Mass mutter, “Discord…Cloudsdale wasn’t really in danger…” which draws my attention to him. I wonder if he doubts our friendship like I do, and when Rainbow Dash talks about loyalty I can’t help but remember how Seething Mass just stood there while my world fell to flames and Barnabus raged at me. He looks over and notices my expression, and a look of confusion crosses his face. I wonder if he realizes that my rage is real this time, and I wonder if he can feel the sadness beneath it. I look away and Rainbow Dash finishes speaking.

“So never forget your friends, ‘cause they won’t forget you.”

Everypony claps and Cheerilee steps forward. “Thank you so much Rainbow
Dash, what a wonderful role pony you have Scootaloo! Alright Sweetie Belle that’s it, settle down! You can go next! Remember, introduce yourself and your role pony.”

Sweetie Belle bounds up to the front of the room, and I follow her slowly, trying not to make a sound. “Hi everypony! I’m Sweetie Belle, and today I brought in Tor Ironclad to be my role model!” Miss Cheerilee lets out a small cough. I turn my head to look, and my decorations choose the worst possible moment to let out a loud squeak. I’m paralyzed, wide-eyed in embarrassment.

Sweetie Belle continues, “I chose to bring in Tor because he’s a super hero! Does anypony remember the Mysterious Mare-do-well? Well Tor’s like that, but times 10! He used to be like a cop, or something like that! Why, he told me about the times he…” I nudge her very gently, signifying to keep the secret, “Excuse me, I meant to say that he told me about the TIME he decided to quit that job and become a baker at Sugarcube Corner!” At this, Pinkie Pie is cheering very loudly, and soon stops in embarrassment as many ponies in the room are staring at her. “He’s made me a lot of sweets at work, and he’s really good at it too! I’m always glad to see him come home even if he doesn’t have anything with him, because he’s always super nice to Rarity and me. He likes to help us with the chores and tell me stories! He’s just like a brother to me, and he’s super cool, and that’s why I chose to bring him to school today.”

I start blushing, and am unsure of what to say. I am expected to say something, but the words won’t come out. I am frantically thinking of a speech, and then miss Cheerilee concernedly asks, “Mister Ironclad? Are you okay?”

I have nothing to say, and yet I feel oddly able to speak now. “Yes, I am alright thank you. I just had to think of something to say, sorry. I suppose I will start with this statement: I indeed was an instrument of the law a long time ago. I, I hunted down rogue ponies and turned them in. I was a bounty hunter. It kept me alive, and kept good ponies out of harm’s way, but I have since realized the error in my ways. I know that being a hero sounds wonderful and exciting, but it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. That’s why I became a baker. Because I knew that would be helping more than fighting crime. That may sound nuts of me to say, but it’s the truth. It’s the little-known heroes, the bakers, the dentists and doctors, not to exclude the police of course, who make this a community worth fighting for. To be honest, I’m doing more good as a baker than I was as a hero. Don’t get me wrong, the police and fireponies are real heroes. I just knew I wasn’t doing any good where I was. I thought that I might be accepted into this amazing and friendly community if I looked good. But all that really did was alienate me even further. When I became a baker, I knew I had done the right thing. I was happy, and even more importantly, the ponies I served were happy. Seeing the smiling faces of this town taught me one thing, and this is the thing I want all of you to remember. Don’t do good things for the sake of looking good, impressing others, or earning rewards. Do good things because they’re the right things to do.”

Everypony in the room stands quiet for a moment, and then they erupt in applause. I glance at Cheerilee, and she gives me the warmest smile. Sweetie Belle is ecstatic, and gives me a huge hug. The room settles down, and Cheerilee goes to address the last mentor.

“Applebloom and S-Seething Mass? You are next.”

Seething Mass

I wouldn’t be doing this if it didn’t mean so much to Applebloom.

When Tor stood in the front of the room he was nervous, the room was nervous. He was able to win them in the end, however, and when he was done speaking they accepted him. Acceptance.

Applebloom tugs on my hoof and I give her a smile, but as we move to the front I can feel the wave of discontent roll through the gathered students and their mentors. I’ve gotten used to it, something about my presence is inherently unsettling to them, like I don’t belong somehow. Regardless, I walk up to the front of the small classroom as Applebloom begins to introduce me.

“Mah name is Apple Bloom, and for mah mentor tuhday I chose Seething Mass! Seething lives on mah family’s farm, and he always helps us with our farmwork. He isn’t as strong as mah brother, Big Mac, and he can’t applebuck like mah sister Applejack, but he helps us in other ways. He’s a wiz at muhchines, and he can always help fix whatever is broken on our tractors and stuff! He even teaches me things, like how to rig-up a motorized go-cart! He may not be an Apple, but he is definitely part of Sweet Apple Acres and the Apple Family!”

Clapping, applause, standard fare. Polite and restrained, more for her than for me I’m sure. It is now time for me to speak, but like Tor I find myself struggling for the words. The old uncertainty comes back as I try to make my words form themselves into ideas.

“You, thank…Thank you Applebloom. I’ll admit I d-don’t, know don’t I….I don’t k-know what to say, exa-exactly. Lost, quite, quite, I’m quite lost for w-words.”

Suddenly my mind is full of a feeling. Not really a picture, per se’, but an impression of emotion. Then a voice speaks. “I hate you dad, I hate you.”

I lift my head up. I didn’t realize it had fallen so low. My mind continues to fill with that emotion, the hollow feeling that comes from being hated, from not fitting in. I’ve felt it before. “I’m s-sorry about that, I had to find the right words. I’ve been sitting here, listening to all of the other mentors, and I realized something odd. Kept, I kept hearing all these words of encouragement, these hopeful praises to these little colts and fillies, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they were all honest.”

A silent gasp echoes through the tiny classroom. My vision starts to shrink, but I hold back the nervousness as my limbs begin to grow numb. These words must be spoken. I turn to Applebloom.

“Applebloom, I realize that the s-socially acceptable thing to say here would be something along the l-lines of, ‘There will always be someone to help you,’ or, ‘Life will always be good for you as long as you have friends,’ but the reality is that these are not true. Life is hard sometimes, and your friends will not always be there to help you.”

In my mind I can hear the clicking of dozens of clocks on shelves in an office, each one hand-made, each one completely different, each one impeccably on time. In the room I can hear Cheerilee switch from hoof to hoof nervously, my words displease her. I cannot bring myself to care, after all my very presence displeases her regardless of what words I do or do not speak. I continue.

“There will be times when you must find things out for yourself, when no one else will be able to help you, when no one else will give a d-d-damn. Even if they do, there may be nothing they can do to help you. You need to know this because someday you will experience what it is like to be alone, to be separate from everyone else. I want you to be strong enough to overcome that.”

Cheerilee steps in, interrupts me. I am not angered, I was able to speak and that is all that matters. Now at the very least they know what I think. She speaks. “Well Seething Mass, that is a very interesting take on things. You said you had some sort of demonstration of your work. Outside?”

Ah yes, the machine. “I did, please follow me.” This will hopefully impress them, at least. It has been somewhat of a pet project of mine. I cannot hope to ever regain the full use of my unicorn magic, but I can use my innate power for something else. Outside Applejack and Big Macintosh have brought over the machine. It’s huge, clunky, made mostly out of spare farm equipment, but I think it will work. The group of fillies and colts stand far enough away, I think, and watch as Applejack and Macintosh help me prepare to put the device on. To my surprise, Tor comes over to help. I don’t know what’s been up with him lately, he hasn’t spoken to me much since he broke into Barnabus’s house. I wonder if he feels guilty?

Tor Ironclad

All of what Seething Mass said was true, I will not argue with that. But the foals don’t need their illusion of safety broken yet. He was a bit too honest. He has the best of intentions, I’m sure, but even he has to know that he went too far this time.

We head outside. Seething Mass is talking to Applejack and Big Mac now, and even from a distance I can hear a condescending tone in his voice. It’s obvious that Applejack and Big Mac are only considered accessories to Seething Mass at this point. I need to have a word with him, he’s sounding disturbingly like his new buddy Barny. I move through the crowd and next to Seething Mass; his back turned to us as he is looking under a tarp at his design, probably to be sure it’s all secure. I gently nudge him with my hoof, and in a bored, apathetic voice, he answers me. “Yes, what is it Tor?”

I respond, “Seething Mass, how are you toda… Never mind, I’ll cut the cud. Look Seething Mass, don’t you think your speech may have been too harsh for the foals? I know you were only trying to prepare them, but nopony expected you to be that harsh. These are kids, Seething, it was too much. Know what I mean?”

“Are you insinuating that I should lie to them? Another great lesson from the virtuous Tor Ironclad, I suppose. I shall keep th-, mind time next keep… I shall keep that in mind for-”

“No, Seething Mass, I am not ‘insinuating’ anything. I merely suggest that you, I don’t know, moderate your words a bit better or something? The foals don’t know that the world is a dangerous place yet, and they don’t need to yet. I mean we don’t want them all to grow up into a bunch of manic depressives do we?”

Seething stopped paying attention seconds ago. He is looking at the tarp now, and finally rips it off of his creation. I am amazed, even horrified by what I see. I had trusted Seething Mass, but I was disgusted by this new invention. It was a pair of wings, but that wasn’t the bad part. What made them so grotesque was the fact that their design was based, quite obviously, off of my decorations. A mechanism that was very similar, if not the same, as the joints on my front legs controlled the joints of the wings. Every last one. I suppose this is what he was using me as a reference for. The wings themselves are squarish and blocky, with sharp and very heavy blades instead of feathers, much like a piece of farm equipment. Long horizontal struts holding them steady connect them.

As he attaches the wings to his body, I notice how he controls the device. Connected to something under the wings are some long, twisted wires that connect to Seething Mass’s horn stump, so I will assume that he powers the contraption with his magic. Special braces are attached to his two front legs, probably to easily control the angle and direction of his wings. He is using pieces of me, no, pieces of my punishment to awe the crowd, and I don’t like it. Too much of me, too much that could go wrong.

There is one thing that sticks out to me especially though. After a few moments of inspection, I notice that there is a very rusty, corroded spring in the joint at the base of one of the wings. I can see it quivering and shaking as though it just couldn’t hold on any more. I’m not sure how this device works, but I feel like I need to bring this up.

“Seething Mass, are you sure that every piece you used for this contraption is up to the task?”

He sighs and responds, “Yes Tor, I’m sure.” He pauses a moment before continuing. “Not that I’m cur… that I’m curious, but why do you ask?”

I see that he isn’t taking me seriously. “Well, it would SEEM that there is a very corroded spring in one of the joints in that wing. Do you, the esteemed inventor, deem that worthy of caution?” I ask. In retrospect I could have used a nicer tone of voice.

“Tor, I do-don’t mean to be rude, but you don’t know how this device works. I’ve work, been on months... I’ve been working on t-this for m-months. I know my own m-machine.” He turns his back on me. All I can do is allow the inevitable I suppose. But for some reason, I can’t help but feel that he’s right. Maybe I do jump to conclusions too easily.

In any case, Seething Mass has begun to do some articulatory testing with his wings. The children watch in awe as he gets ready to show off his handiwork. He is rotating the joints of his wings and I can see the spring stressing and getting more and more sickly with every gyration.

Then, everything freezes.

The moment when everything goes wrong just happens to be the moment when I’m at my sharpest. The spring snaps directly in half and the shattered bits shower right in my direction, some even hitting my muzzle. Seething Mass makes one final gyration with his wing, and the horizontal struts holding in the wing blades fling outwards without any warning, releasing all of the blades in my direction as the device spins out of control and breaks into pieces. As they spin through the air at an immense speed, I remember in horror that there is a crowd of ponies behind me. The first thing that comes to mind is deflection. I focus the power in my horn to appear directly at the tip of each blade and, thankfully, I am successful. As each blade touches the orbs of magical power I have created in its path, they fall to the ground and stick up straight in the dirt.

I have made a horrible oversight. I only stopped most of the blades. There is one blade, the largest of them all, still flying through the air. A group of paralyzed foals are standing directly in its path. I cannot use magic for this one; I have no magic strong enough for this one. The only thing left to do is use myself. Everything is speeding up again. There is so little time. I spring in front of the foals, covering them with my body. I close my eyes and wait for the blade to bounce off my decorations. I hear a clunk and nothing else. Not the sound I expected, but nonetheless the foals are safe. Everypony stares at me momentarily, then the parents and miss Cheerilee usher the foals away from the scene. I haven’t moved since I heard the clunk.

Only two ponies remain at the scene, Seething Mass and I. My hat is the one thing keeping him from my vision. I want to look directly into his eyes to see what he’s feeling. That is, if he can feel anymore. I lift my head slowly and jerkily, as I’m beginning to feel strangely cold and hazy. I finally lock eyes with my target, and see nothing. All that is on Seething Mass’s face is something that resembles embarrassment and frustration, but underneath it all, I see only anger. He’s been thrown to the ground by the force of the breaking spring, and now he is trying to get up while overbalanced by the weight of the other unbroken wing. I’m done looking at him. I make my way over to Seething Mass, and find myself lurching. I don’t care. I am assisting my glare now, instead of allowing my usual passive glare to remain on my face. I look directly at the gray pony on the ground in front of me.

I feel so weak that I am hardly even available to force any words out of my mouth and yet somehow I manage to shout at the top of my lungs. “Are you insane? Didn’t I tell you about the spring? Guess what broke? THE SPRING!”

He weakly replies to me, “Small ove… It small was… Small… It was merely a small oversight… I can have it fixed for the next time, I…”

I interrupt him and continue shouting, “The point here is not about the spring! It’s about the ponies you endangered today! I mean, come on! Do these wings look particularly SAFE to you? Because they look pretty sharp and pointy to me! Think logically. What do you think most ponies would do if they have some grotesque device that is held together by a single spring that they wish show off to some crowd? The answer: BE SURE THAT THE SPRING IS UP TO THE TASK. If somepony could get hurt, that’s not labeled an oversight, that’s carelessness! I mean come on; even you have to be worried that your inventions might get somepony hurt, right? RIGHT?”

Seething mass has regained his confidence once more. He fumbles with a few straps and the saddle and wings slide off. He stands and looks at the ground. I hardly even notice as the world begins to grow grey around us. I am shocked when his head shoots up and he stares straight at me.

“I can’t care Tor! I don’t, can’t, it isn’t, it doesn’t even m-matter! You stand there, everyone afraid of y-you, and then when you speak they just forget how terrified they were. They accept you, they t-take time, take the time to look at who you are and they like you all the m-more b-b-because of it.” He takes a deep breath, then slams a hoof into my chest and I fall backward to my haunches. I stare deep into his eyes as they grow, somehow more real. More clear.

“Tor is always there to save the day, Tor is the one that ponies smile at when they go to Sugarcube Corner, Tor is the one who the children love, who has a special somepony, who is noble for so many reasons! I’m not the hero, Tor. I’m the mad scientist. Victor Frankenstallion, Claude Reins, I don’t get the girl and I don’t charm the children and I don’t earn the respect of the town! I m-m-make things that can hurt ponies, fine, I accept that. I build the clocks on the walls, I don’t care if I hurt people, I am cold, I am a scientist, I d-don’t…I can’t…”

His statement takes me aback. I am sitting there wide-eyed and paralyzed like an idiot as Seething Mass grabs the pieces of his device and races away from the scene. My drowsiness returns to me now. As I attempt to pick myself up off the ground, I am unable to muster the strength to bring myself up again, and collapse onto the ground as I am halfway upright. I am confused by my sudden affliction, and then it all makes sense. The unexpected clunk, the drowsiness, the lurching, and the weakness. I have finally put them all together, and they equate to the wing blade that has sunk deep into my foreleg. I was so enraged previously that I hadn’t even noticed, but now the cold and unforgiving pain is sinking in. I am suffering from extreme blood loss. I can’t get back up, can’t even call for help. I lay my head down and accept my fate, looking in the direction that Seething Mass has gone. Barnabus’s house. It would just have to be. He didn’t even notice I was hurt, he didn’t even tell somepony. I see a tall grey pony watching Seething leave. She’s very plain, I wonder who… everything I see goes red, then black.

Seething Mass

Anger. How could he, how could he think that, why... He betrayed me. I did nothing wrong! One mistake, a tiny mistake that's all! It ended fine, he was once more there to save the day, there to prove again that when he is around things are safe. Nothing, nothing worry, nothing to worry about when Tor can save the day after Seething Mass finishes ruining it.

The walk to Barnabus's home is uneventful, aside from some worried ponies who are all too quick to throw themselves out of my way when they see my horn stump sparking and hear the grinding of my wingblades on the ground. The door is unlocked when I get there, and to my surprise Barnabus is waiting for me.

"Seething Mass, my good sir, whatever is the matter? You seem most distressed! Is there anything I can-“ I cut him off. I just need quiet right now.

"Quiet. I need quiet right now. No, no words, no emotions, just quiet."
He makes no effort to stop me, in fact he seems infuriatingly amused about the whole thing.
"Well that is quite alright. I'll be down here if you need me."

I won't need him. I don't need anyone.  Desdemona is standing at the top of the stairs. I think about brushing her off like I did her father, but I can't bring myself to talk to her like that. Not when she is standing there looking so concerned, she is so very small. Not when she is standing there in her lavender dress. My favorite color is lavender.

"Seething Mass..."

"Please, Desdemona." She is silent for a moment as we look at each other. Then she turns towards her room and beckons me to follow. The dry smell of the parchment is calling me, the dusty smell of my closed drapes and the smoky scent of burning candles is all I want, to be sealed away in the dark once more. As I stand there at the top of the stairs, a melody floats out of Desdemona's room, a music box melody, and despite my desire to recede into seclusion I find myself obliged to follow the pristine notes.

When I enter the room she is sitting on the bed, somehow the notes of the music box ease my mind. So mathematically precise, each note following the other as pre-ordained by their position on the brass cylinder of the music box. The box itself is a garish thing of red satin and fine porcelain; the dancing figure atop is no doubt Desdemona herself as crafted by her father's magic.

Desdemona speaks. "Seething Mass, I want you to tell me what happened. I want to know." Fine then. I recount to her a summary of the tale as she watches without pity or false sympathy. Her eyes are such a pristine ruby red, glassy and crystal clear, marbles in whose depths there is no pity or false sympathy. I attempt to keep my frustrations short, for her sake.

"The spring just broke. How could I have known that at that for that one time Tor would be right? Everything should have been perfect, it should have turned out perfect. They should have been amazed! Instead I made just one mistake, just a single accident! One accident, ruin, everything everrr...ever... One single accident ruined everything!"
I taper off as she leans over and rests her head on my shoulder. The song has restarted several times, but somehow it still calms me.

"Seething Mass, one accident is all it takes. One small accident and my entire life was ruined.” she breathes in deeply and I turn to look at her. Dull white meets vibrant ruby as our eyes meet. "It will be alright Seething, I truly know what it is like. Your world falls down around you in a million pieces, but if you can pick yourself back up then what you find might surprise you."

Within my mind there stirs a strange feeling of connection. Here is one who knows the pain of which I speak. She leans heavily into my shoulder, and whispers below the sparkling notes of the music that is still playing.
"If that accident hadn't, hadn't changed me, I might never have met you."

"Sir, your son has been in an accident. "
The cold voice from before responds, any emotion besides annoyance is absent.

"Where is he, is he seriously hurt?

"He is at the Lavender Hollow Hospital, I'm afraid he will need to stay there for quite some time. He's suffered a broken leg and several broken ribs."

"Was he doing something stupid?"

"I-um, sir?"

"Never mind that. Where is this hospital?"

"My favorite color is lavender Desdemona, I thought you might want to know that."

Suddenly I stand, and Desdemona falls surprised to the bed as I leave. When I reach the door I turn back, and she is watching me. Once again I am somehow surprised at how tiny she is. So tiny and fragile.

"Seething Mass I-"

"I just need quiet. No emotions, no noise."
As I leave the room, I can here the slight hum of her magic and the metallic click as she shuts the music box. The music stops. Her door swings shut with a disgruntled creak.
To my supreme annoyance, Barnabus waits for me outside my room. “I don’t want to talk.” I say, but I can tell I can’t stop him from speaking.

“Look Seething, I know something is wrong. You don’t need to tell me what, I just wanted to make you an offer. Celestia is happy with your work, and she wants you to move to Canterlot so you can work in a real lab, with better supplies. Desdemona and I are going, regardless, but we would be very happy to have you come with us. You could get away from whomever is bothering you here.”

Lilting off to the left side, his non-dominant side. His remaining ear is laid flat, he paws with a hoof at the floorboards. I can tell by the inflection in his voice, and that last comment, that he somehow knows about Tor. I don’t even care about how he knows. Anywhere is better than here.

“I will collect my things from Sweet Apple Acres later. For now just leave me alone.”

“Absolutely, take as mu-“

I slam the door.

Chapter 13-Recovery and Remission

It has been a while since my last entry, more than two weeks now. I believe you may be interested in what happened after I was left lying on the ground, as sure to die as the sun was sure to rise. It always rises now, doesn’t it? It is possible that it chose not to rise on one of the days I was asleep, I suppose. Was I asleep or was I comatose? I’m still not sure what I should call it. The last thing I remember from the whole fiasco was waking up in the hospital, barely able to breathe. There really wasn’t a whole lot of their regular equipment they could use on me, mainly because I have so much extra mass that I simply can’t fit into some of the stuff they use.

I was lying there on the stretcher, ponies with red crosses and white crosses surrounding me taking notes they called, “diagnostics,” and the longer it went on, the more frightened I became. While they were moving me through the halls of the hospital my head began spinning, and a high-pitched tone filled my ears. We eventually came to the Everfree Forest. The place smelled like meat, raw meat, and heard one of the doctors say my name. I looked over at them, and all of the doctors and nurses and other patients looked very much like insects. Black cockroaches, flies in the shape of ponies. All of them were smiling at me, and some of them were even laughing and pointing.

We came to an abrupt stop, and as suddenly as it all began all was back to normal. We were in the operating room; nurses and doctors arguing back-and-forth about what to do about me. I think some of my friends were there with me too, because I think I heard Rarity’s worried voice in the background. The professionals had finally made a decision. I think they tried to explain it to me, but my head was wonkier than usual. Blood loss, no doubt. They tried to put me to sleep, but the mask couldn’t fit over my face. They were able to inject me with anesthetic, but my decorations made this difficult and by that time I could see the doctor mouth the words, “Forty percent blood loss and falling...”

One of them made the final decision, and Rarity must have known, because she was standing by my side trying to comfort me. Nurses and surgeons were crowded around me, and to my confusion they began to saw away at the braces on my legs. Soon the metal struts swung free, out of the way, and I felt a great pressure relieved. Strangely there was little pain. I could feel the blade in my leg, but it didn’t hurt. Then the head surgeon got a hold of the hunk of metal in my leg, counted to three, and yanked on the blade. I felt a tremor go through me; a response to the almost immeasurable pain I would have been feeling were it not for the shock. I screamed anyways, and Rarity stepped away.

My vision flashed again, I saw the flies, the insect ponies in the forest again, and their ringleader had just nailed a very large and corroded nail into my leg. I blinked and the creatures disappeared, the forest now gone. Apparently, the blade only came out a few inches, and it was in deep. My body was creating a vacuum in the wound, holding the blade in place. The doctor looked grimly at his assistants, counted to three again, and suddenly a spike of pain broke through the haze of shock bringing with it a burst of adrenaline. With the next shout I could hear the windows vibrating in their panes, my voice bringing them to the verge of shattering. My eyelids slammed shut and splintered, and through their broken shards I saw the changelings and the forest again; the ringleader had hammered the nail again and was shrieking with laughter. He pulled back for one final tug, and this was the most painful of them all. I screamed with such volume that the windows broke in the operating room. The changelings had delivered one final blow with the hammer, and were rolling on their backs laughing, the nail sunk all the way into my leg. My view stabilized and the hospital room faded back into existence. I felt the open wound exposed to the cold air, stinging and bleeding. Even I wasn’t sure what had happened, but the last thing I saw was thankfully real. Rarity was crying over me, I could see her face as my eyes began to close again.

During what I believe is the time I was out, I had only a single nightmare. It was surprisingly short, but it chilled me to the core. At first I saw flames, a sickly emerald green, but from their burning depths stepped a face that was all too familiar to me. Chrysalis. She was looking down on me, first with disgust, and then she chuckled and smiled a grotesque smile that distorted her whole face. Two figures joined her. I didn’t need to see their faces to know who they were. Seething Mass and Barnabus Thom. Seething Mass appeared to be decaying like the corpse he was, his face impassive at first then bent into a smile that ripped the skin. Barnabus, as per usual, removed his hood to reveal his grotesque and horrifying metal mask, the iron teeth pointing in every direction in a horrid and putrid grin. They all started laughing at me, Barnabus was spraying me with metal teeth that were falling from his mask, and Seething Mass was coughing out dust. My chest seemed to tear, and I asked them, “Why are you doing this to me? What have I done?” in the most defeated, miserable, and pathetic voice I had ever heard. There was no reply except for their continuing laughter. Strips of skin were ripped from Seething Mass until he was just bones, cracks spread through the iron skin of Barnabus Thom, and both were still as Chrysalis leaned forth to whisper in my ears. “Oh Tor, your crime is that of innocence.” She let out one final cackle and the three of them collapsed into dust. Then the dream was all over.

I woke from my dream immediately. When I came to, I was in Rarity’s boutique, on Rarity’s bed surprisingly. I slowly arose from my position, being careful not to make too much sound, my head was hurting and my eyes were dry and stung. As I moved my leg again, I felt the pain I expected, drawing my eye to the appendage. I stared at it for a moment, examining the cast in detail. It had been signed by my friends, even the Cutie Mark Crusaders had written their names. That made me smile. As for the rest of my injuries, there were stitches in my leg and scars and cuts and bruises and all manner of unpleasant sights. I had shakily gotten to my hooves but right as I put pressure on the hoof of my injured leg, I fell to the floor. Rarity in her worry must have honed her senses, because she heard the din from downstairs and came up to check on me. She, with much effort, got me back up and helped me back into her bed.

“Please, Tor, stay in bed. The doctors said you needed to rest for quite a while when you woke up.” I now got a good look at her. Her mascara was running, and she looked as ragged as though she had just been trampled by a stampede. I wasn’t going to tell her this, of course, but it saddened me to see her in this state.

With the small amount of strength I had, I tried to sound as normal as possible, “Why, Rarity, why is it that whenever I wake up in your house, you’ve always been taking care of me instead of your own needs?” My voice was weak, and Rarity noticed. She was miserable. I lifted myself slightly and embraced her, because it was the only thing I thought would be of help. “Because I love you.” She replied in-between sobs. She brought me some food that she and Sweetie Belle had prepared for me. The doctors had apparently told them to be sure I ate a lot so I could have a lot of energy to regenerate my lost blood. I ate a single meal and told them I was unable to eat any more, but they stuffed me full of even more food. I slept a lot more that day. When I was awake, I drank a lot of water. I caught a glimpse of my face in the silverware they brought to me. I was looking ghastly and pale. The parts of my face that weren’t covered in the mask were sagging and tired, and my eyes were red and bloodshot. I still could barely lift my injured leg. Rarity gave me a crutch to use and the doctors had it reinforced with steel so I wouldn’t break it.

In two days, I was out of the bed and Rarity took me straight to the hospital every day. We went through basic physical therapy, they helped me stretch and rotate the damaged joint. Eventually they had me on a special treadmill to help me regain my strength, and in an unprecedented two weeks I was, for the most part, back in working condition. My earth pony magic allowed my injury to heal in record time, but the doctors told me I would probably have a limp for the rest of my life. When I asked about Seething Mass, Rarity just shook her head. Apparently Applejack had went out the one day to discover that Seething Mass had just left, without a trace and without telling anypony where he was going.

The doctors and Rarity told me that I really needed to get to a more open space today. Applejack offered to help rehabilitate me at Sweet Apple Acres, and I was happy to take that offer. The town has started feeling too small for me. Whenever I would go out I had ponies staring at me, the once great and powerful Tor Ironwill, now reduced to using crutches and having to be escorted by Rarity everywhere. I don’t really mind having Rarity around me all the time though, because she’s able to distract me from the rest of the place with what’s on her mind. Females are very complex, I unfortunately am very much the opposite, and yet Rarity doesn’t seem to have any trouble explaining to me what she’s talking about, and I think that’s why she’s able to keep me so nicely distracted from everypony else.

This morning, as was the plan, we met Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres. She took me down to her field so I could get some exercise while she and Rarity watched over me in case I got hurt. I was pretty much free to roam wherever I wanted as long as I told them where I was going. I really wanted to run to the other end of the orchard and back, but I couldn’t run yet with this crutch, so I had to be satisfied with trotting around in circles for half an hour. There are many activities in this life that are so monotonous that even the most mundane of objects will seem interesting in comparison, and this was one such activity. After what seemed like an eternity of exercise, I noticed a small, very ramshackle, run-down shed near the spot where Applejack and Rarity were standing and watching me. Something about it sparked something in my memory that I just couldn’t place no matter how hard I tried. I told my supervisors that I wanted to go and take a look and they continued to talk, they didn’t seem to notice where it was that I was going.

The shed was, upon closer inspection, very dusty and rotting, appearing barely to be able to stand upright. The door was hanging loosely on its hinges and its corners scraped on the dirt as I opened it. I was in a kitchen. Everything seemed gray and dull in there, even the light that was passing through the multitude of knotholes in the walls. There were a large amount of mechanical components lying about, but not all of them seemed as though they belonged to farm equipment. Even so, I couldn’t really distinguish one pile of scrap from another; aside from the few projects that seemed much more complete and were standing upright, mostly assembled on frames or tables. All of the contraptions seemed oddly familiar somehow. I wandered through the shack and entered a room that appeared to be a bedroom, the only room that looked in shape and largely undisturbed. A small bed at the far wall, the floor and walls covered in drawings and sketches of technical equipment. It hit me like a ton of bricks: this was where Seething Mass had lived.

I examined the drawings on the walls closer. They seemed like the scribblings of a madpony, strange mathematical equations and drawings of harsh-looking gears and wires. Over there seemed to be a design for hoofboots with springs in them, right next to them hastily-scrawled notes describing a machine that would allow a pony to breath underwater. I moved on into the next room. It seemed to be a machine room, probably where the Apple family had their tractors tuned up. Hobbling about the room I looked carefully through all of the items, there were gizmos and gadgets to spare. Some seemed complex, others seemed simple, but I looked at them all with interest until I came across the biggest, most complete one.

Standing in the middle of the room, staring straight at me was a large pony mannequin, faceless and nameless. It looked like it might have come from Rarity’s boutique, but I hadn’t ever seen one with those proportions there before. The mannequin itself wasn’t all too interesting; it was more of what it was wearing. At first, I couldn’t believe my eyes, but it looked like somepony had… Decorated it. Not some silly decorations like you set up around the house for the holidays or that Pinkie would set up for a party. No, these were THE decorations. My decorations. They were modified, certainly, and where mine had been designed to look ironically regal these seemed rather fearsome. Almost, hungry. A muzzle gripped the front of the mannequin, whose face had been carved roughly out to make room for a bit covered in small buttons. Wires covered the thing like some sort of horrid web, and the hooves were sharpened into two points. I was horrified to say the least. Every moment my gaze was upon them, and even now that I reminisce upon the incident, I was reminded of the immense pain and torture inflicted by these terrible symbols of exodus and injustice. I closed my eyes for a moment in order to clear my mind, but I feared the moment when I opened them. I didn’t want to, and still wish I hadn’t.

I opened my eyes, slowly and carefully. I knew this was coming. Suddenly, I was no longer in the machine room I had been previously standing in. The area in which I then resided was the reflection pool in the Everfree Forest that had haunted my nightmares for months. I was there, staring into the pond with tears of blood streaming from my eyes and the wounds from my decorations dyeing the pond black. I did not see myself in the reflection, however. The pond appeared as though it were a window through which I could see the interior of the machine room, and in the center of the window was Seething Mass, wearing the horrible Decorations. He appeared to adjust something on the leg joint, then looked up at me and grinned. I slammed my eyes shut in fear, dreading what would happen next. The blood tears welled up behind my eyelids, forcing me to open them again, and there, in the foreground of the pond’s scene, stood Seething Mass. He continued to step closer to me, I didn’t know what to do. I reared back and stumbled backwards, my movement impeded by a tall tree. I was no longer able to see the pond’s reflection, but the pond itself seemed to boil away, flinging its black waters in random places all over the forest floor. A figure, huge and alone, rose from the pit of the pond, one I recognized too well for comfort. This figure shared all its features with me, except for a few major differences. Firstly, its coloration was pitch black, such a deep black that it might not even be described as black, but instead as a complete and total absence of light. Its eyes were glowing a solid red like they were filled with the blood of a thousand innocent souls. Most frightening of all were the shape of its eyes, a look of complete and total glee, bliss, and joy spread across its visible face. It was happy to be torturing me, and it wanted to be sure I knew that.

I stood there immobilized; staring with horror at the being in front of me, blood was still pouring from my eyes and from every chink in my decorations. It took a single step toward me, and I was suddenly reminded that I was a mobile creature. I ran as fast as I could through an opening in the trees, but it still wasn’t fast enough. I heard no hooves hitting the ground except for mine, but I heard a terrible, metallic, booming laughter echoing from every direction. I looked behind me and the laughter stopped, but there wasn’t a single creature behind me. As I returned my gaze ahead of me, I saw the thing. The horrible, horrendous, terrifying dark horse that was torturing me was right in front of me. I skidded to a halt as I neared the beast. I knew there was only one thing I could do. Without even thinking, I turned around and kicked it one time, leaning on my front legs and using my hind legs. It didn’t budge, the impact was much more solid than expected. Almost as if the thing were rooted into the ground. I was reminded of the injury in my leg as I noticed the crutch supporting me. I turned my head to look back at the monstrosity, but it wasn’t dead enough yet. Its head had merely been bent and twisted by my last kick. I heard only its laughter and a faint, startled, nearly inaudible shouting behind me. I turned back, and rhythmically let out another harsh kick. The impact was still as dense as a wall, but had some give to it. The creature was rearing up on its hind legs, still laughing its horrendous laughter. Its neck was twisted almost into a spiral and its front leg was snapped in two places. I turned back, and with another rhythmic kick, it was done. I watched as it fell on its back, unable to move due to the pain. Its eyes were so full of glee at my act, and its laughter continued, though noticeably waning in strength. I lay down, as my hurt leg was unable to support me any longer. The beast let out its last jubilant breath, as much a laugh as it was a sigh.

I was jerked my head with a shock, as somepony had nudged me in the side with their hoof. My eyes suddenly opened wide, and I gazed in terror at the scene that I had created. Behind me was one of the Apple family trees, a large one at that. It was lying on its side, splintered and twisted; its boughs were hanging to the ground. It was obviously my fault.

Applejack was standing at my side, livid. “What in tarnation do you think you’re doing? If you think you can just trot in here and decide to take advantage of our hospitality, why, you’ve got another thing coming! I bet you got restless and bored, just walking in circles for an hour. You probably thought it would be fun to stretch your legs and see if you were strong enough to kick down that poor tree, didn’t you? DIDN’T YOU? Well I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I don’t share your sense of humor, buddy! You’re gonna be paying off that tree for a good long while, mister! Mr. Twigbottom is as old as I am, now what do you have to say for yourself?” She raged, staring with deadly intent into my eyes. There were no words. Not a single one I could think of to justify what I had done. I didn’t feel like I was justified in what I had done. Applejack continued to stare in furious silence at me, as I was only able to stare back in utter fear.

Just then, as if a beam of light began to shine down on my face, I heard Rarity’s voice shout, without warning, “Please, wait Applejack! There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for this!” She shouted in the elegant manner that I had grown to know well. She pulled Applejack aside for a few minutes, no doubt explaining to her what I was doing. She seemed to have a much better understanding of what was wrong with me than I did. All though the explanation, I was pathetically trying in the futile practice of scraping the splintered tree back together, crying over the mess I had made and the vision that haunted me.

I had made a neat pile of splinters by the time Applejack called me back over. With tears in my eyes, I turned to face her. She was much less mad now, and was deeply apologetic. In an attempt to be much more understanding, she said, “Gee Tor, I’m sure sorry. If I had known that you had… issues like that, why, I never would have said such awful things to you. Don’t worry about the tree, it wasn’t your fault. I really am sorry. I see that you’ve tried your best to clean up, but we can take it from there.” She said as she motioned to the pile I had made. “Is there anything I could get for you? Is everything alright now?” She asked, obviously concerned.

My eyes were stinging, wrung out dry from the tears. I answered, “No, thank you for asking. I think it would probably be best if I left the orchard for a while. I don’t want to do something…horrible again.” I was still in hysterical shock at the crime I committed.

Applejack touched my shoulder and I froze. For just a split second behind her I could see the trees of Sweet Apple Acres ignite, only for the flames to die away. “Look Tor, you really can’t feel bad. It wasn’t your fault. We know what it’s like. When Seething Mass was here sometimes he would get so worked up over little things we said, and sometimes he would wake us all up screamin’ in the middle of the night. He was, well he was different. But he found a place here, and we helped him as best we could before he left. Now ponies like you two, well ah know you can’t control your own actions sometimes. I’m not mad at you for breakin’ ol’ Twigbottom here because I know you didn’t do it on purpose.” She was silent for a moment. “You wanna talk about it?”

And so I did. I poured it all out then and there. I didn’t say why I had been banished, but I explained it was for a crime I did not commit, and I spoke about how my mind had been reformed in Everfree. Rarity and Applejack somehow managed to keep the looks of pity out of their eyes for the most part, though Rarity did gasp when I spoke about the times in the forest when the sun wouldn’t rise.

Applejack escorted us to the entrance to the farm, silently and obviously full of a multitude of confusing emotions due to the awful scene I had caused. We stood there for a few minutes, talking things over, Applejack and Rarity ensuring that I was okay to make the journey back to town while I reassured them, with little certainty, that I was alright to make the journey. We were just about to leave when we all heard a loud, WHOOSH noise, approaching fast as if somepony were flying at a high speed toward us. We saw a rainbow heading straight for us and we knew instantly that it was Rainbow Dash. “Everypony come quick!” She shouted, “Something horrible has happened, something with Seething Mass!”

Chapter 4: Shifting an Immovable Object

Seething Mass

You know, it's getting easier.

Talking, I mean. I feel like a puzzle being put together. Twilight Sparkle was nice enough. She said hello to me. "Hellooo...Oh, um, well hello sir. "Hello Twilight-Sparkle. She seemed slightly surprised I knew who she was, perhaps the word concerned is better? She seems off-put by my presence, just the slightest bit less welcoming than usual. What am I saying, less welcoming than usual? I have never seen her before, but before she opened the door I knew exactly how she would look, behave, that she has a brother Shining Armor and he is married into royalty and how manic she is about her organization and learning and friendship. How do I know this? I know it because I think I know it, and that is all. 
"Um, hello. Can I help you? What is your name?"

"What..? My, my name? I don't, no pony has ever.... Seething Mass. I am Seething Mass." 
She just nods, trying to avoid eye contact. She is nervous, why is she nervous? I'm not sure, I don't understand. And that name, Seething Mass? It fits me so well, my mind churning, twisting, but where did it come from? Yet another mystery in an existence filled with them. Why is Twilight-Sparkle so nervous, she glances behind her and catches the attention of Spike. Spike, a dragon, how do I know who you are? Your struggles with greed, your love for the unicorn Rarity, another pony I do not know but know so much about. What AM I?

"I see, well I assume you were looking for a book?" She's trying not to be, but she is being short with me. Trying to get away, shove me to Spike, remove herself from my presence and she doesn't even know it. She'd be so ashamed if she realized, I won't tell her. "Knowledge, I need knowledge. On what subject, what subject, I, I, I need knowledge on the universe, of space, stars, MACHINES! I need knowledge on machines!" She jumps when I say that. I was doing so good, my thoughts are so ordered compared to what they were, but that one word broke it.

She realizes what she is trying to do now, as soon as I yelled "machines" she realized she needed to get away from me. She is ashamed now, she will try to amend but there is no time. Not now, later, sometime later. "Ah, yes well, Spike? Help this nice pony, this Seething Mass find some books on Astronomy. And, machines." The dragon, Spike, responds. "How about Greycloak's Introduction to Basic Dimensional Astronomy? And I think we have a few manuals on engineering over here by the practical section. Woah, uh, well, sup?"

He walked around the corner and saw me. Wonderful. He is wary as well, senses something else the Pony can't. She'd need magic for that. How did I know that? Know what, it was so vague I can't even quantify, can't quite grasp my own instinctive meaning, oh the FRUSTRATION! Common courtesy demands I now speak. "Thank you exceedingly for helping, this knowledge is very important." She tries to make small talk. She is so extraordinarily nervous, I feel sorry for her.

"Are you working on some sort of project? A telescope or something for observing the stars? I have quite a lot of equipment of that nature, if you were interested in looking at it." "No. Something different. Don't know what, exactly, but this is very important." Somewhat warier now, she speaks. "I see then, well I hope we can help." Suddenly, someone is at the door. She answers, as Spike hands me a stack of manuals and a rather large book. A satchel, I brought one from somewhere, was I carrying it this entire time? I don't know. I knew I needed it apparently, and I brought it for myself despite the fact that I didn't realize I was doing it. Only makes sense. More sense than some things.

He's here. I can hear him in the doorway. The strange pony, don't know anything about him, but he is looking for me right now. No one else looked at me, but he did. Angry, his face is angry all the time, maybe not his heart but his face. Something horrible, that expression in his eyes won't et him forget it.

 "Can I borrow these? " I snatch the manuscripts and book from Spike, who looks first surprised, then a bit angry. "Hey, no need to be so abrupt with it. Sure you can borrow them, but I expect to see you back here with them tomorrow. Twilight might need them for something! And don't fold the pages!" I move quickly and exit the building, lower to the ground, but I feel the pony in steel look at me as I leave. He got distracted, but he sees me now. Following me, how to deal with this? Switch the tables, he hunts so now I hunt him hunting me. I almost pity him.

He tried his best to hunt me, he really did, but the others wouldn't let him. So much hospitality. So much friendship, he is frightening to them, some more than others, but they see past it. How do they see past the metal? The finely crafted screws locked in place to prevent any casual removal. Someone didn't want him to get those off; they are his new bones now. Why do the ponies try not to notice me? I do not understand. I watched him all day, his reactions to the other ponies were logical enough for me to properly examine them, but why did they react to him as they did? And where is the tangible difference that makes them act differently around me? I do not understand. Oh well.

It is night right now, I left him halfway through the rising of the sun, asleep by a pond. Ducks, he led the ducks, I wonder if the ducks think they are and therefore do, in fact, exist because of it? Who would know? No matter, he is gone now. I wander for a while, but I finally come upon what I didn't realize I was seeking. It's home, my birthplace apparently. I can see the ground has been packed in where I came from. The graveyard, so chilling to think of it. Not a cradle, not a warm fire in a house with family and people who love you and a child who you wish all the best for, he’s not there, no one is there because it is a graveyard and everypony in it is dead. Everypony except me.

The headstone! Knowledge! Origin, name, death and birth in perfectly understandable chronological formatting! In my chaotic birth I did not think to look at it, did not realize the answers to my origin were right above me. I gaze at the stone, at my origin, ”Picket the Unicorn. Born: Unknown. Died: 08-05-1002 A.B.” Beneath that is the epitaph.  ”His soul has returned to the parents he never knew.”

Not me, NOT ME! I am different, this is not I! Who would, not funny, humor absent! Origin false, file not found, corrupted data! Cannot be, cannot be, will not be! Falsified, Apocryphal, DIFFERENT! I am DIFFERENT! Not me, it isn't me! DON'T SEND ME! NOT ME! I'm SEPARATE! NOT ME!

Fuck. Fuck.

Suddenly, in the midst of this chaos of my thought, a cold icy chill on my spine. He's here isn't he. I can tell. The strange pony, the one with the steely eyes and iron skin. I won't tell him. I was doing so good, but one look at the headstone, stability has left for a moment, a tiny moment, the difference between past and future that silly ponies mistakenly call the present. An illusion, no reality.  I have been perfectly still this entire time. He thinks I don't know he's there. Suddenly I realize what I need, something missing. Now I know what I came back for. Dirt is easy to remove from the grave, it was oh so recently disturbed by these self-same hooves. There it is, the shattered remnants of my coffin. Mixed in with the dirt, pieces of wood and mould and rot all around, my birth place. My genesis.

There it is, the shard I require. This pony, this Picket, he was old. He was so young, but he was wiser than I am, I think. I’m not sure why I think that, but he is. And kinder, he knew he his time had passed, but he had one more gift left to give.
I am new, I took what was offered, what was available, and that is what I am. He had to go, this Picket had to leave, and somehow this was left behind, a body vacant and waiting. The unicorn horn that is mine that I missed somehow. I lift it up and recognize it, the break is mine. That's when He has had enough, the iron pony. He jumps, but he doesn’t understand. I need it can't you see, this pony is not using it anymore, I am using it now because I think and therefore am, and I need to be for something. This is something, can't he see. He can't understand me.

"Speak up" "I need what I took. Why should I care?" "Because you stole somepony's relative!" "Says here that he was an orphan. Orphans are abandoned, left behind on their own. Don't hardly know what they are doing here, just left here for some reason. What reason? Do you know your reason? Do you know why? You are because you think you are, that's why." A twig snaps. He's off guard. I think I said something, maybe some more words. Can't remember. Metal, steel and bolts working together, binding something important to something even more important. Perfect. PONY. Shock. Surprise. Unexpected. Pink? Pinkie Pie pops up out of nowhere!

Words, So many words, can't think, can't follow, something about this one, what is different about her? She's broken the fourth wall. I don't know what that means, but she has done it. I have done it in a way, different side, from the other side the fourth wall has been shattered for an instant long enough for a seething mass of intellect to slip through. Most of it even made it, found a home, slipped into the being of another. Different, she's different. A party, that's what she said.

"ummm, h-hey m-mister? Why do you have a unicorn horn in your bag?" IMPACT. The pony with the steel roars, like a beast in anger. He's knocked me to the ground. I could feel him shiver as he did it, something about my skin is colder for him, unpleasant. I see a small tear from one of the metal hooves on my shin, tiny, glistening blood, not very big. But something very unexpected about this single droplet. It's grey, not red. No red blood, just grey. I look down and see something now not unexpected, but sad all the same. The grass not green where I rest, but grey. I have turned it grey for a moment, no color. The grass grey, but there is something else odd about it, something I can’t quite explain, it looks, more real. Denser, another dimension of color, detail and focus, it seems more real.

"That's it punk, I'm taking you out!" He's on his feet again, shivering still from hitting me. He's going to capture me, I don't want to be captured? Not what is needed, it belongs to me because Picket gave it to me, like he gave up everything else when he left. When I arrived. Something, there's something, something very interesting about those leg braces He (Iron pony) wears. Jointed, not smooth swivel, clicks, they click slightly at his knees when he moves them. Tiny teeth, oh so many tiny teeth all biting in very specific places. Cogs and gears, all biting.

He is moving forwards now, he's fast despite the dead metal weight. Used to it. Those cogs, I know something could go wrong with them. Must have trained out of the way of dirt, out of the way of something that could block the teeth, give them something else to bite down on.

STICK.

He stops abruptly. He wasn't expecting it, neither was I to tell the truth. Oh good, I can think clearer again. I have a headache, but not as big of a headache as He has. I must have grabbed a twig, a stick on the ground. Those gears are so delicate, strong but fine, and the twig popped right in the perfect place. The gears did what gears do; bite. And when they bit they bit too hard, and his front right knee stopped working.

A bit amusing actually, He tripped over his own foot. Shoved his face straight into the ground, horn first, hat flying. Heh, heheh, heheh I'm not laughing, not on the outside. The pink pony, Pinkie Pie, I know her as well! Like Rarity and Spike and Twilight and Celestia! She is laughing like crazy, bouncing and rolling and giggling. I made her, laugh? She's laughing! Hah! I made somepony laugh! Now we are both laughing, and I can even hear a sort of echoing chuckle from within the metal muzzle, the pony in the iron mask. So funny! Hah! I made somepony laugh! Suddenly the Pink pony looks at me and stops laughing. Why did she have to stop? She is staring at me. No, not me, my mane. I look, purple, a dull grey purple color. And my body, green. Light green. Not grey, not colorless, green. Green and purple, COLOR! I glance at my knee, red blood, reason to laugh! She' s laughing again! Oh my mind feels so clear!

I reach down to help the pony on the ground up. He glances at me oddly, eyes taking in my new color. "Alright, I won't tackle you, but you had better have a darn good explanation of why you, why you stole that horn."
"To be true with you, I don't know. Wait! What is your name?" I asked that, coherently! He is quiet for a moment. "Tor Ironclad. And you?" "Seething Mass." "AND I'M PINKIE PIE!"

I know she's Pinkie Pie. Of course she is. Tor looks at me funny, then shakes his head. "It doesn't sit right with me, knowing that you did that. Seems rude, seems disrespectful. At least give me a your motivation. What makes you think you can take that?" I think for a moment, and then realize something extraordinary. "He said it was ok for me too, that I need it more than he does anymore. "

Tor looks confused, his eyes are apparently stuck like that. Not stuck confused, stuck like, well like they are. Angry. Someone made him so angry, locked away inside his mind. I wish I could help him unlock it, but I can barely handle my own twisting psyche. At least I can think straight right now. With a twinge of sadness I can see the color on my hooves and mane and body fading. The crystal gem of red on my leg fades, all is grey now. I can feel my mind slip, slipping, closer, oh how I miss thinking well, thought, clear, clarity.

I'm going to a party today. Party, party, movement and sweets and celebration, celebrating me? Why me, I am worth celebration? Also celebrating Tor, a celebration of us both, dual celebration of hunter and prey. Who hunted, who preyed? I'm still grey today, still grey and the scab is grey and the floor of the room I stayed in late last night is gray beneath my hooves, and the walls I touch are leached of color for an instant in my presence. They seemed, more detailed somehow. Small focus, something so odd about them! I don’t understand. Saddens me, a loss of color I cannot find my own color.

It was there and now is gone and I could see but now am blind and it's horrid to finally see and lose your sight once more. STOP. Concentrate, party, celebration. I am walking down the street. Clearer mind? Not so much. So nervous, judging the appropriate time to enter, when should I arrive? What to do, the art of the partier is lost to me.

I reach the building, sugar building on sugar corner, a corner of sugarcubes, Sugarcube corner bakery of Mr. and Mrs. Cake. Walk in. I can see them all. The six are there, Spike, Gummy the crocodile, how do I know so much about them? I do not know how I know, but I know. Tor is there, he is speaking with Rarity and Twilight, turns to see me come in. Can't tell whether or not he wants to punch me, eyes are misleading.

I try to act confident, not so much. My entrance is noticed by everypony, they all feel me enter. The door was quiet, I was quiet, but feel me enter they did. Rarity, Tor Ironclad, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Spike and Fluttershy. They shudder when I enter, it's warm outside but they shudder anyways. Quiet, why do they have to be so quiet. "Hello." I mumble out. Pinkie naturally comes over, she wants to make me feel better. Offers punch, ok. Offers cake, ok. Talks. She is talking, I am listening. CONCENTRATE. Important, pay attention. Don't slip.

"Sooooooo, where do you come from?" The ponies are watching me. Truth, no truth? Truth. I don't really know. The grave, thought it was where I woke up. Dug out, dug my way out before I stopped thinking about what I am because it was dangerous. Shouldn't wake up in a grave." Rarity spoke. "No, I suppose not. Why you look dreadful darling, you really must come by the spa sometime. It would freshen you right up, get that dirt and grime out of your mane like nothing else! And loosens the muscles doesn't it Tor?" Tor is quiet, perhaps slightly embarrassed. He nods and smiles within his muzzle, can't see it but feel it I can.

A small joke is made I think, the laughter is quiet and awkward. I am awkward. They act awkward because of me. Have to let them know need them to know I am good too, they can joke with me like Tor they can it's true. I look at Rarity. She stitches, I'll need her help. The horn can do so much, the metal can do more, but the cloth, without the cloth it is nothing. I know I shouldn't think of this in present company, not when I am trying so hard to be liked, but now is as good a time as any to ask. "You make your own clothing Rarity." She nods, graciously twirling to show off her gown. Very large. Very flashy. Very impractical. No matter."Why yes! I own a very prestigious dress shop right here in Ponyville, and I have designed dresses for fashion GODS! Do you need something darling?" I nod. "Your dress is very beautiful. Impractical, but beautiful." Applejack snickers at this. I made a bit of laughter, encouraging.

"I might need stitching done. You, help, you, you could help perhaps? Very simple, but strong, it will need strength. " She looks a bit surprised. "Why, of course. I would be willing to offer my services to help a new friend." Friend. She said friend. Suddenly I get a feeling, a memory, something I feel like I shouldn't know but do. I can see it clearly, right In front of me, a maze, movement, I can't help myself. I need her to know that I know.

 "There were three gems you could see. " She looks at me strangely. "Three gems, in the rock Discord showed you. Three peaking through the stone, the iceberg's top with the massive gem beneath. But it was a rock. You found that out, didn't want it known. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. " Mistake, it was a mistake. She's looking at me warily now. "How, how did you know of that? Who told you?" "no one. I, I just know. "

I'm losing them, all of them. A slight murmur, a breath of air everyone passes on, what do they think? Hurry, have to save this. I walk up to Fluttershy, so fast, need to hurry, need to save this! They are wary now, I need to show them I know, I mean well. "Fluttershy, you want to be a tree, the train remember? You said you would like to be a tree, a tree, Discord's butterflies couldn't shake you, too kind, far too kind, had to resort to unfair measures didn't he? Not fair, life isn't fair, THE MINOTAUR! Remember? He changed you, but you showed him, weren't satisfied, made him leave. So brave, you were so brave, why are you afraid now? Afraid, afraid like me!" She's quivering uncontrollably now, so filled with fright, can she possibly be so afraid as I am? I don't know, I just don't know.

"Don't be afraid, you have nothing to be afraid of!" She's crying, I can't believe it. She's crying. I'm crying. So grey, everything around me is turning grey. Suddenly I can see every detail, every single hair on her face is separate, detailed, it is suddenly REAL. Is this place not? Not real, it’s not real! Color fading She looks down at her skin, her hair and screams. What is wrong with me? It's worse, so much worse, the grey. Oh Help me! Suddenly Pinkie Pie is next to me. She's still, color still there? Floor below, Ceiling above grey. I see every crack, every speck of invisible dust on the crinkled surface of the wood surface that is suddenly so inexplicably NOT vector art, not cartoon, what is going on?

One little lost pony, grey, but Pinkie is not grey. She's speaking to me, telling me "Now that was just rude. We go to all the trouble to throw this party for you and you go and talk to Fluttershy like that! You should be ashamed of yourself! Who do you think you are!?" She had to ask that one question, the question I cannot answer. "I, I have no idea who I am." Crying , I'm openly weeping now. So sad, now everything in the room is grey, everything suddenly detailed and real and horrible. Everyone is miserable, everyone suddenly gray, suddenly REAL, everyone but Pinkie Pie, somehow different than the rest. Something different, something about that fourth wall.

She's trying to console me now, she sits down next to me, about to tell a joke. I grab her head. Tor moves quickly, jumping forward to intercept me, but I just lean forward, lean towards her ear, why is my throat so dry all of a sudden? So grey, but she has color, color, so much color. I whisper as best I can, throat is so dry, fluid drained like the color, like the joy, like the reality around me. "Pinkamena Diane Pie, you have broken the fourth wall." Her face loses expression. "But, but, how do you? How do you know?" She whispers. I shake my head. Tor stands at ready, wary but prepared. I look back at Pinkamena, and stare slowly as her color is slowly leached away. Her eyes are so clear now, clearer and more beautiful, more real and more utterly sad than they have ever been. Her hair is straight now, a curtain that falls over those eyes as the last of her color finishes draining away towards me as she turns a sorrowful shade of grey.

What am I? What horrid fiend am I?