Chapter 3: The Value of a Gem

Collecting wood for the frames of his larger devices was always something Gearhead found tricky. This was because the wood he used had to be sturdy, yet flexible, so they could withstand as much wear and tear as possible – sure, Gearhead could draw out their maximum potential with his ‘knack,’ but there was always a fine upper limit to that attribute.

Ash, yew, and cedar were some of the more useful types of lumber for the jobs Gearhead had to pull off. He could find some of these in the Everfree Forest and in the trees around Ponyville, but sometimes he could not get enough wood the ecological way. Still, he preferred to order as little processed lumber as possible.

When Gearhead headed into a stand of trees closer to Carousel Boutique than to Gearhead’s Gadgets, he hadn’t expected any trouble. That was before he heard the scream. He put his saddlebags down where he could easily find them again without them falling easy prey to theft, and was off at a gallop.

Unfortunately, by the time Gearhead arrived where he thought he’d heard the scream, all he saw was a hole in the ground. He looked down the hole with his low-light goggles, and did not see anything spectacular.

Gearhead looked up at the rustling-rushing sound of moving dirt. He saw the field fill with holes, and felt his jaw drop at the sight. Something was going on here, and he aimed to get to the bottom of it. He zipped up his left show to use his ‘Echo Location’ trick, and that was when the five friends and Spike arrived on the scene.

“Holy moley that’s a lot of holeys!” Pinkie Pie said.

“Yes, and quickly dug, too,” Gearhead said. “What is happening here?”

“The Diamond Dogs took Rarity down the hole – when there was just one hole!” Spike said.

“Diamond Dogs?” Gearhead had never heard of such a creature. He looked at Fluttershy, who shook her head. Apparently this was her first encounter with them too.

“They said they were hunting for gems, and then they grabbed Rarity. We’ve gotta save her!” Everypony looked down a different hole. They each saw glowing eyes, and then dirt started fountaining upwards, filling the holes one after the other and leaving the ponies with mud in their faces. Applejack tried to force her head into a hole, and got forced backwards instead. Rainbow Dash tried diving into a hole from a height, and barely managed to pull up in time to avoid crashing.

Gearhead was still in front of a filled-in hole. He shifted his attention away from the others’ unsuccessful attempts to get into the tunnels to get his echo reading. “Okay, I think I can get us inside, so please stop what you are doing and come over to me. This will happen quickly.”

“D’you really think you can dig your way in that fast?” Applejack asked.

“Dig? I will do something much faster. After all, it is my knack. Stay close.” Gearhead zipped all of his shoes up. He then reared, clapping his forehooves together, and slammed them down on top of his dirt pile. With a sound like a zipper coming undone, he went through the dirt and sank into the ground, quickly followed by the other ponies.

When they finally stopped, Gearhead was the only one left standing. While the others regained their senses and their hooves, he zipped all but his left forehoof back down. They looked around. “There’re so many tunnels! Now what’ll we do?” Applejack asked.

Gearhead closed his eyes for a couple of seconds. “Follow the tracks?” He pointed to the dirt, where there were faint footprints. Following these worked until the floor changed to stone, which would not so much as retain heat from anypony who stepped on them.

“Now what?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“We could go down each tunnel in turn,” Applejack suggested.

“That could take forever!”

“I bet they took Rarity down the tunnel with the highest concentration of gemstones!”

“But Spike, Rarity’s the only one who can find gemstones.”

“No she’s not, Twilight. You can copy her gem finding spell.”

“You’re right! She showed me how to do it once.” Twilight focused. Her results were so clear, both Spike and Gearhead could see a little aura around the gems. Spike mounted Twilight, calling out “we’re coming, Rarity!”

“Miss Twilight,” Gearhead said as he trotted along, “if we find a concentration big enough, there is something I would like to try.”

“Okay, but it’d better not take very long.”

“If it works the way I think it will, it shall be worth every second of delay.”

Twilight soon stopped their advance and nodded to a deposit that was in the wall, slightly off the tunnel floor. Gearhead performed an Echo Read even as he walked up to the indicated spot. He nodded, satisfied that the deposit held enough gems to make the attempt, then zipped up his left shoe. He reared to clap his forehooves and complete the circuit, and as usual energy zipped about the site of the deposit from his hooves on contact. This time, though, what Gearhead was attempting was different.

His eyes closed, Gearhead imagined the gems, as they were detailed to him in his earlier reading, flowing through the porous earth toward the surface between his hooves, to reform there. First he collected it all into a single malleable ingot, then he began to transform the gem into a form he imagined would be equally useful in the open parts of a cavern and in the more confined spaces of the tunnels: a dagger with a squared, flat handle so ponies could wield it in their mouths.

When Gearhead heard the girls’ gasps of amazement, he opened his eyes. What floated between his hooves was indeed the pony dagger he had wanted to create, but the design on it and the melding of the gemstones were far more intuitive than anything Gearhead had created through his knack before: The hilt was amber and emerald, vines growing in the sun. The blade had the appearance of a leaf with the diamond core and sapphire veins. Emerald and ruby chased each other in a complimentary flow, ending near the hilt in what could only be an apple.

“Amazing,” Twilight said.

“Cool,” Spike said.

“So pretty,” Pinkie Pie said.

“Could be more awesome,” Rainbow Dash said.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Applejack said.

“Won’t it… hurt?” Fluttershy asked.

“It’s a sword, of course it’ll hurt – whoever it hits!” Spike said.

“To you, perhaps, it is sword-sized,” Gearhead said. “In certain situations, even a dagger can be more useful than any other implement.” He picked it up and faced a nearby stalactite. “Problem is its strength, for I have seen the common weakness in all ornamental blades.” He took an experimental swing, using both his neck and his tongue to turn the blade. It struck the stone with the flat of the blade, ringing clearly, without breaking. Gearhead turned the blade again and made a back-head swing, returning to his original position. “They break,” he said, inspecting the clean cut made with the edge this time. Satisfied, he dropped the dagger to his left hoof and offered it to Applejack.

“I couldn’t possibly. B’sides, I’m more comfortable with my lasso.”

“It is well-suited to you, otherwise it might have a lightning bolt design instead. Besides, I am certain we will come across more deposits that I can use,” Gearhead said.

“A lightning dagger? That’d be so awesome!”

“See?”

“Why don’t you hold onto it until we do?”

“If that is your choice,” Gearhead made a belt and scabbard for the dagger and strapped the belt on in easy reach of his mouth, and they moved on. They did encounter more deposits, although some of them were not large enough for Gearhead to transmute new daggers from the gems they held right away. Instead, he transferred the stones to his pockets until they were full, and then used his knack.

“Did you make your entire shop this way?” Twilight asked as they moved along.

“The image was a little different, but yes. Also, it took me several attempts to complete construction on my much larger shop. That was more a feeling of ‘shaping and reshaping.’ With these, I am making the gems ‘flow’ to extract them without disturbing their original places of rest, and then folding and pressing them into the shapes I want. But the way they fold and re-fold is not something I imagine, so it is interesting how they are coming out.”

Twilight had to nod in agreement: Besides the double-bladed apple dagger, they soon had a single-bladed rainbow lightning dagger for Dash and a double-bladed party dagger, with its hilt shaped like a balloon, for Pinkie Pie. The other two having accepted their new weapons, Applejack agreed to carry her own.

They entered a small cavern that ended in a door made with barred metal. The ponies could hear voices beyond the door. “She must be in there,” Rainbow Dash said. Before they could take another step, Diamond Dog guards descended on the group. Because he had kept his right forehoof uncovered, Gearhead ‘felt’ them coming as perturbed dust and warm stone a mere moment before anypony saw them. Reflexively, due to the sense of incoming danger, he reached out to the earth around the ponies and pushed. Twilight and her friends rose half a meter, and the guards smashed nose-first into the stone, yelping in surprise.

“Diamond Dogs!” Spike called. “Where is Lady Rarity?”

This elicited only a growl from the guards, as they regrouped and charged.

Twilight, Spike still riding her, zapped the one charging her between the eyes, confounding him. “Over here!” She called, and the dog charged on, but succeeded only in slamming full-force into the wall behind her.

Applejack turned, but instead of running like the guard expected her to do, she kicked straight out with her hind legs. Taken by surprise, the dog arched neatly to the other end of the room, where he fetched up against the wall. And stayed there.

Pinkie Pie bounced from one side of her guard to the other, giggling all the while. The guard kept trying to follow her and only ended up beaning himself on a support column.

Fluttershy backed up against a wall while her guard advanced menacingly on her. Gearhead slid by on his side, neatly taking out the guard’s hind legs and spilling him halfway to the ground. The stallion’s own guard, right on his heels, was clumsy enough to crash right into his compatriot, and Gearhead had to leap clear before they crashed into the wall behind him. For good measure, he transmuted their helmets into hammers and gave them each a whack to the head.

Rainbow Dash drew her dagger, and was surprised and pleased to see it grow to sword size in her mouth. Grinning, she charged her guard, and with a single airborne flurry of strikes, neatly cut the straps from his armour. The guard covered himself with his ham-fisted paws, and left, embarrassed.

Twilight strode up to the still-disoriented guard she had handled. “Where is Lady Rarity?” Spike repeated, with a little extra weight in his voice. The guard whined and pointed at the barred door. Spike looked around for something with which to break it. He found a stone outcropping that could serve as a lance, but Gearhead was already on it, transmuting a gem deposit that had been between him and Fluttershy into a diamond-core lance for Spike. The blade was shot through with streaks of amethyst and sapphire, with the edges in emerald, like Spike’s scales.

“Heigh-ho, Twilight. Away!” Spike brandished his new weapon.

“Spike!”

“Please, Twilight. At least give me this.”

“Fine,”

And the friends charged through the gate, with Twilight and Spike leading. Metal bars and hinges were no match for Spike’s new lance and Twilight’s speed. The door flew right off the rock where it was bolted, and landed on the floor. “Lady Rarity,” Spike called, feeling very gallant, “we’re here to rescue you! Huh?”

Spike’s confusion and surprise was understandable, for the Diamond Dogs, who were different from the guards, were cowering behind some of the rock. “Please! Take her! We, uh, give her to you.”

“You’re just gonna let her leave?”

“Take her! She’s so loud. And critical!”

“Why hello, girls. And gentleponies. You’re just in time to assist me,” Rarity said. She was pulling a cart piled high with gemstones, and other than the fact that the harness was rusted, she looked perfectly fine and composed – unlike her captors.

“Assist you with what?” Applejack asked.

“Why, with these, of course.” The others looked, to find five other cards filled with gemstones, just like the one Rarity was pulling. For the second time that day, Gearhead heard the others gasp and comment in amazement.

“You’re just gonna let us take all these… delicious jewels?” Spike salivated.

“Take them! Just take them all!”

It took a couple of minutes, but then the ponies were leaving with the carts. Gearhead looked back, to find the cavern devoid of anything except the cowering Diamond Dogs. Rarity had done that, all on her own. There had been no need at all for Gearhead’s daggers.

Guided by Gearhead’s Echo Location and the growing natural light, the ponies found their way back to the surface along paths that they could travel with their carts. Gearhead had taken over for Rarity pulling one of them, while Spike munched on a ruby on the top of the pile. “Wow, Rarity! Now you have enough gemstones to cover all of Sapphire Shores’s outfits.”

“Not if you eat them all first, Spike,” Rarity said, using her telekinetic magic to snatch the half gem that remained, to Spike’s dismay.

“I can’t wait to write the Princess about what I learned from you, Rarity,” Twilight said.

“What could I have possibly taught you?”

“Just because somepony is ladylike doesn’t mean she can’t handle herself. Through her own strengths, she can outshine anypony else.”

“There are no damsels in distress here,” Gearhead added.

“Except when one’s wagon wheels are in a rut,” Rarity smiled.

“Um… I’m always in distress,” Fluttershy said.

“Except against manticores, dragons, and cockatrices, or so I hear,” Gearhead said.

“True enough,” Twilight said. “When you need it most, true strength can come from the ponies you least expected it to come from.” From her grin, though, Gearhead knew that Twilight had not missed how Gearhead had ‘used’ the Diamond Dog that had been after Fluttershy to trip up the one pursuing him. In other words, Twilight was calling him out on his ‘no damsels’ comment. Fluttershy also obviously knew what he had done, and after she’d questioned how dangerous his daggers were, so he had done it without the use of a weapon.

And yet, Twilight’s lesson against underestimating ladylike ponies could easily be taken to point at Fluttershy instead of Rarity, assuming one of the former’s friends was threatened, or an animal injured.

Gearhead left his cart at Carousel Boutique and returned to the woods where he had left his saddlebags. He was pleased to find them untouched, however he had now used enough of his energy through his knack that he wanted nothing more than to rest. He would have to return to collect more materials.

Although Gearhead could have opened Gearhead’s Gadgets the following morning, using what he had gathered before Rarity’s capture by the Diamond Dogs to build more gear frames, he decided instead to venture into the woods. Packing only a meal, his tools, and empty saddlebags once more, he trotted out and zeroed in on his first cache using Echo Location.

Now that he had learned to make the material he wanted ‘flow’ through the ground, Gearhead no longer had to expend energy excavating what he wanted, only to cover the ground again as best he could. He brought the hidden metal ingots up without disturbing the ground and placed them in his saddlebags, before moving on to a stand of trees, some of which had fallen over.

Using dead trees had the advantage of only having to worry about some insect residents, but the disadvantage of using weaker, less flexible material. When Gearhead approached standing trees, he knocked with one hoof or nosed his head into an available hole to see if there was anypony to disturb. So far he had been lucky, in that most of the trees he had found were largely abandoned, so he did not have to worry about relocating the residents. Occasionally, though he still encountered wood being used as a place to live.

After knocking and getting no response, Gearhead cut one of his logs into pieces small enough for him to carry. He was about to proceed to the next stand when he smelled something rancid. Curious, he looked around, but could not find anything nearby that said ‘swamp.’ He was still looking when he saw a pair of glowing, golden eyes poke out from a bush over his shoulder. Another poked out to his left, and a third to his right. Straight ahead, he saw a snout housing jagged branches below a matching pair of eyes. The stench came off of the creatures.

Timberwolves. Wolves made of wood, animated by an unknown magic. You could knock them apart, and they would reform, only to come at you again. But, Gearhead thought as he reached a bare hoof ahead and tapped the ground, they are made of wood.

As the Timberwolves stalked out of the bushes, Gearhead focused, summoning wood and metal from beneath the ground and making it rise past his hoof. He made the staff pop out of the ground, and caught it in his mouth. The wolves charged, howling, and Gearhead spun on his forehooves, clumsily trying to move the staff with his tongue while he looked back and forth.

An early swing took the front and rear Timberwolves, both in the chest at the same time. Gearhead had to step and spin to keep his momentum, sweeping the feet out from under the wolf to his left. The one to his right hesitated, and the pony brought one end of his staff down on its head for its trouble. The first two wolves had already reformed, but Gearhead moved quickly to the right, deeper into the woods.

Gearhead bowled right through another group of four Timberwolves, and realized that the pack that had been stalking him was larger than it had first appeared. That didn’t help much at the moment, as impact with his wood-and-metal staff shattered the wolves to pieces. He heard the howl of their pursuit, and continued to pick his way between the trees and their roots.

Gearhead rounded a blind corner, and immediately felt the claws of a Timberwolf that had been waiting to leap on him from his left. The pony rolled, his staff flying from his grasp. He found his hooves and leaped back some more, again tapping his unshod hoof to call another weapon to mouth. This time it was a dagger, made purely from metal, unlike the ones Gearhead had made in the Diamond Dogs’ caves. This one would not respond to his thoughts the way Rainbow Dash’s did, but Gearhead did not need it to: he just needed a weapon he could use quickly and simply. With the trees being closer to each other than they were closer to Ponyville, the shorter weapon would be much more effective than the staff he had been using before.

The Timberwolf that had pounced on Gearhead before came at him again, accompanied by three others. The other eight wolves came up the path, and Gearhead had to rush the pouncer to get his hit in. He leapt for the wolf’s head, dropping its lower jaw and causing the attacker’s eyes to widen in surprise. Gearhead pivoted when he landed and leaped again for the nearest wolf, again cutting into the leading snout. This third time he had to dive instead of jumping to avoid the wolves’ better-coordinated attack, but now he was finding his rhythm. He kept a couple more attacks, each time landing on the outside of his attackers’ ring formation. Then he ran again.

Gearhead had to manoeuvre quickly to keep from hitting the trees, they were so close to each other, and he was far from any path. But the trees were helping him, too, since the wolves could not run so closely together, or they would crash and collapse, as some of them were doing. Gearhead, dagger still in his mouth, was almost flying between the trees, navigating as much by sight as through the quick reads he got whenever his right forehoof hit the ground.

Gearhead had no idea how long he was running, but suddenly he was bursting out of the trees to face a long climb, nearly steep enough to be called a cliff. Without hesitating, because the wolves were still coming, Gearhead charged up the easier path. He had to slow down a fair bit to avoid stumbling, but by the time the wolves were in view again he was almost ten meters up, and could see a cave entrance below some bushes.

A pair of Timberwolves started slowly climbing the cliff. Gearhead looked down at them, into the cave, and back down at the incoming predators again. Shrugging, he donned his goggles, slipped his dagger into a band on his vest, and headed into the cave. Behind him he heard the Timberwolves grunt, and a short sequence of scrabbling. Then silence.

Gearhead proceeded cautiously into the cave, his vision tinted amber by the low-light lens. The cave meandered mostly straight into the mountain for a fair bit, and then turned right. Once past the corner, it opened up into a cavern, filled with all kinds of gold and gemstones. This was just the kind of lair a dragon would have, except that the entrance Gearhead had found was not large enough for an average adult dragon. Still, that did not mean he should throw away his caution.

Gearhead made his way around the outside of the cavern, careful not to disturb anything on the pile of loot in case it might cascade and cause more noise than he could afford to make – assuming the cavern was occupied. As he moved, the back of the cavern became visible. There was a much larger entrance set into the back wall. This, any dragon could comfortably use. The thought was not comforting, since a dragon could roast Gearhead before he could conceivably do anything about it. But even with the realization that there were greater odds this cavern was occupied by a dragon, Gearhead’s cautious approach did not change.

Gearhead paused in his progress when he was halfway to the larger passage, and watched the loot pile for the rise and fall of a sleeping dragon’s stomach. Not seeing any, he shifted his attention to the areas on both sides of the deeper passage. And spotted the rise and fall of something else.

The lizard was approximately the size of two wagons standing end to end, and it had slate grey scales. If not for Gearhead’s lenses, he would have missed it completely. Its rock-like skin blended it nearly-perfectly with the walls and uncovered floor. Since it was in the mountains instead of in a bog, it was entirely possible that this was a Cragodile. It might not be able to swallow Gearhead whole, but he was not willing to take the chance of an engagement against it. But he couldn’t completely override his curiosity either.

Gearhead moved as quietly and carefully as he could past the Cragodile, leaving it undisturbed as he moved down the passage, even deeper into the mountain. The passage descended, seemingly into the mountain’s heart. This was how long and how far it seemed to go, until it finally opened into a red-lit room.

It was magma that was lighting the chamber, Gearhead quickly realized. A ledge circled the magma bowl, creating a path that he could use to walk around it. Actually, with the ledge being wide enough for a dragon, he did not have to worry about falling in and getting burned that way. Walking around some ways, Gearhead kept looking for other entranceways. Since he was looking past the fire, it took some time to notice the dragon lying almost directly opposite the entrance he had used to get down here.

It was a black, winged dragon, possibly a firedrake. It raised its head from the magma bowl and watched Gearhead with keen interest, but remained lying where it was. Regardless, Gearhead figured it could quickly catch him by standing and running or by taking wing over the magma. Which it might do, if it thought Gearhead was after its treasure.

Gearhead kept moving until he no longer could, realizing that he was afraid of the creature on a very deep level. He had heard of something similar: the older books called it ‘dragonfear.’ All dragons had it at one level or another, and it was aptly named, as the most potent version could paralyze potential prey even as the dragon flew overhead. Given all that, it was curious that Gearhead had not felt it at all until just now. Maybe it was the dragon itself, warning him not to get any closer.

“Um… Hello,” Gearhead said dumbly.

“Greetings, curious pony. Prey tell what brings you here?”

“Timberwolves and curiosity. They chased me through the forest, and when I got here, I wanted to explore the cave system.”

“Curious and troublesome creatures, those. If they bothered me, I would burn them all.”

“I do not doubt it,” Gearhead said. “The entrance I used is not your size. Is there another, bigger one that you use on another side of this mountain?”

The dragon shook its large head. “I came in through the same entrance, five hundred years ago. I have grown larger and stronger in those centuries, and can no longer leave through the same means. I will use the fires of this mountain to melt my way out. Perhaps I will set fire to all the Timberwolves when I leave,” the drake mused.

“If you did all that, more than just the wolves would burn,” Gearhead said. “The melted rock would descend into the forest, and this magma chamber might even ignite when you use the magma, resulting in a volcanic eruption here. In the worst case, every cavern and tunnel would fill and burn. Only you would likely survive that conflagration.”

“And lose a millennium’s worth of treasures horded,” the drake said. “I would prefer not to do that, however it is time for me to move on. If I cannot find a larger egress, I must make one.”

“I have a possible solution,” Gearhead said. “I can move and shape stone to some degree. I could widen an entrance so you could leave without causing any sort of explosion.”

The dragon arched one stone-like eyebrow. “By what means, Earth Pony? And what have you to prove it?”

“I suppose the closest thing to it anyone might understand it as is ‘geomancy.’ Here, I made this dagger in much the same way.” Gearhead drew the weapon and placed it on the ledge as far as he could reach without moving, still being rooted to the spot. The dragon looked, turning the dagger over with one claw as he inspected the workponyship.

“It is a single piece, although made of many metals. A work without the brittle weaknesses that come with forge-firing, as is more common among your kind.”

“Because it is magic?”

“Yet this item is quite ordinary, without enchantment. It would be a simple matter to melt it to slag.”

“If I need to get through the Timberwolves again to get home, I would appreciate you refraining from doing so,” Gearhead said.

The dragon nodded. “Then I offer you this bargain, curious geomancer: Enlarge the entrance for me, and I will give you not only your life and safe passage back to the forest, but also a unique and precious item.”

“What about the Cragodile in the cavern above?”

“It shall serve as my next meal. Do you accept?”

“What might the alternative be?” Gearhead asked rhetorically.

“A burning mountain,” the dragon said without hesitation.

“I accept,” Gearhead said.

“Very good. Can you get past the Cragodile without my help?”

“If it stays asleep,”

“I have a solution,” the dragon said. It walked over to the upward entrance through which Gearhead had come, careful not to step on the pony as it moved around and over him. The dragon inhaled deeply, and breathed a full lungful of smoke. It then made its way back to its original position and lay back down. “I must stoke my fires further with the magma, but little. You have until I have done so to deliver on your deal, also else the Cragodile awakens.”

“In that case, I hope I have enough time,” Gearhead said, recovering his dagger.

“I have every confidence that you shall,” the dragon smiled knowingly.

Gearhead did not truly have a choice either way: if he failed, either the dragon or the Cragodile would find the stallion for a meal. The forest and possibly Ponyville would also end up aflame, and Gearhead could not have that. He made his way back up the passage as fast as he could, then slowed down to check on the beast sleeping within the cavern. As promised, the Cragodile had been smoked into a deeper sleep.

Gearhead quickly made his way to the passage on the other side and eyed it. As he moved, he abandoned all attempts not to disturb the dragon’s horde, moving as directly as he could while also avoiding going so deep he would be swimming in gold, rather than walking.

Measuring quickly against what he remembered about the dragon’s full dimensions as he had walked, Gearhead stepped into the passage, zipped all his shoes up, and focused on the image of a nearly-uniform, wider passage, while the rest of the mountain remained undisturbed.

Blue-green lightning raced up and down the passage, lighting it up for all within and without to see. There was the same zipping sound as when Gearhead dug into the Diamond Dogs’ cave complex, followed by the long grind of stone against stone as the tunnel heeded Gearhead’s call.

Gearhead lost all sense of time as he walked toward the entrance, the entire length of the tunnel lit by his lightning as he kept widening, section by section and the whole expanse together. Finally he stood at the entrance itself. The last bit of rock groaned as it settled, and the energy from Gearhead’s efforts fizzled out. The dragon came and stood directly over Gearhead, looking out over the forest. “A fascinating thing to watch,” he intoned.

“Thanks?” Gearhead said, also staring straight ahead: the sun was setting.

“I am Shadow Wright of the World’s Spine, by way of Three Peaks.”

“I am Gearhead of Hoofington, by way of Ponyville.”

“It is an honour,” Shadow Wright said. He stooped his head and deposited something red and glowing beside him at the very edge of the entrance. The dragon then turned back and made his way back down to the cavern. Most probably he had a horde to pack.

“The honour is mine,” Gearhead said. He only managed to move a step closer to the gift from the dragon before realizing that it was party red due to the heat. He would have to wait for it to cool down.

It was full night, with the moon shining down on the cavern and the forest below. Shadow Wright had come out nearly an hour earlier, grunted a greeting, and taken flight circling to the other side of the mountain before vanishing from view. Gearhead had been waiting for the red glow to fade from the stone in front of him (and eaten while he had done so), but it was still there. He reached out with one hoof, and was startled to realize that the stone had cooled.

A mysterious gift from the dragon Shadow Wright in one of his saddlebags, Gearhead rose to make his way down the mountain. After a moment he decided to check the cavern where the dragon had kept his treasure, and quickly made his way there. To Gearhead’s surprise, the dragon had left a pile of gold coins, a set of rainbow-coloured gemstones, and two small boxes, both of which could fit inside his saddlebags. There was a wood box containing bars of an unknown metal, and a box of the same metal containing darkened wood. Figuring them for a further gift, Gearhead stowed them as well, and then made his way out of the cave and down the mountain. The Cragodile was not the only threat that was gone without a trace, Gearhead discovered, as the Timberwolves did not show themselves at all through the whole trek.

If not for having gotten lost, this would have been an amazing adventure, but instead of coming out of the forest near Ponyville as originally intended, Gearhead entered a clearing dominated by a wood-and-straw hut. Tired but still cautious, Gearhead looked about the property. He spotted tribal masks outside, and also inside the hut as seen through one of the windows. There were jars and vials of all kind, filled with potions of which Gearhead could not begin to guess the effects.

Fortunately, having heard some tales, he could guess at the owner’s identity: Zecora, Twilight’s zebra friend. And indeed, the zebra did show herself, as she was just about to lay down for the night. Startled by this fact, Gearhead knocked on the wall before the mare could fully lie down. She startled, but quickly recovered.

“Who goes with nightly woes?” Zecora looked out the window.

“It is Gearhead, from Ponyville. If you could show me the way, I will be out of your hair.”

“Ah, but you look a sight! Did you perhaps get into a fight?”

“As a matter of fact, I fought some Timberwolves earlier today.”

“And given a moment of calm, you could use some of my balm,” Zecora pointed to the wound he had gotten earlier, from the leaping wolf. It had scabbed over, but apparently not fully. Gearhead accepted Zecora’s invitation, following her inside the hut. She quickly found the jar she wanted and applied both the cream within and a bandage.

“With what weight do your saddlebags sag?” Zecora asked, noticing them bulging on the floor where Gearhead had placed them.

“Mostly wood and metal alloys for my gadgets, but a few gifts from a dragon as well.” Zecora gasped, and Gearhead decided to just show her. While the zebra rattled off rhyme after rhyme, it was quickly obvious that Shadow Wright had been extremely generous in his gifts.

The gold, of course, was straightforward. The wood was an extremely durable type that could stand up to iron, and if processed correctly, even some of the tougher alloys. As they were hardened by dragonfire and dragonbreath, they were about as good as they came. The metal, likewise, was both light and extremely strong, a mythical alloy only made by ponies who dwelled, all their days, deep in the mountains. These mountain mining ponies were ancient enemies to dragons, since they dug deep enough to waken the latter, but also because they coveted the same metals and gems.

The rainbow gemstones had depths which Zecora said she could not plumb. Gearhead would have to conduct further research to see if they held any magical properties.

Finally there was the ruby gemstone that Shadow Wright himself had placed before Gearhead, the one gift that the dragon had explicitly given to the pony. According to Zecora it was a Fireheart Gemstone, and contained a living fire within itself. It could only be formed under extremely rare circumstances – by mixing magma with various gemstones in the stomach of a living dragon, who gives the resulting jewel willingly. A Fireheart Gemstone could grant complete control over any one fire or flame. Considering the primary breath weapon of most known dragons, this was a massively honourable gift.

Having taken copious notes and checked Gearhead’s wound for progress, Zecora reluctantly agreed to allow him to get on his way back to Ponyville despite the late hour. Gearhead would arrive in the early hours of the morning – and sleep past noon for the first time in over a decade.

Gearhead awakened to the sound of light knocking on his window. He banished the last of his sleep before he reached the window, and drew the curtains aside to find Fluttershy hovering there. Curious, he opened the windows to admit the mare, and was stunned to find the sun high in the sky as she landed inside. “I hope you don’t mind,” Fluttershy said. “I just didn’t see any sign that you’d come home last night.”

“Ah well, I was out gathering resources and I got a little sidetracked.”

“Oh, but you’re hurt!” Fluttershy pointed at the bandages still wrapped around his midsection.

“This is the better part of it, actually. I stopped by at Miss Zecora’s and she applied the poultice. I guess it is a lesson learned for trying to handle a few too many Timberwolves. I will be keeping my guard up from now on.”

“Timberwolves?! And you probably didn’t have a gemstone dagger, right? You should have just run! It’s what I would’ve done.”

“I have this,” Gearhead nodded to the sheathed metal dagger lying on his dresser. Only with the most cursory glance could one mistake it for a dagger of power. “But that does not matter, as it would only have held off one wolf at a time. There are limits, and you are correct: I should have just run and cut my losses. I did not, and I apologize for worrying you.”

“No, it’s not… it’s not my place…” Fluttershy blushed and trailed off.

“Maybe it is, because you can see part of the shop from your cottage. You are my closest neighbour, so I should do what I can to avoid worrying you. Miss Zecora said that this should heal quickly. Also, since I was successful in gathering materials yesterday, I do not intend on going out again today.”

“But you will, in the future.”

“Yes, I will have to gather more materials periodically. It is as unavoidable for me as for any other businesspony, including Miss Applejack and Miss Rarity. And I think we can assume that nothing like the Diamond Dogs will make a try to grab for me.”

“I just don’t want to think about you, or any of my other… friends getting hurt,”

“I know, and I will be much more careful every other time I have to go out. I also will not go out or stay out so late. I promise. It is worth neither the complication nor worrying you to do so.”

“I… thank you.”

“Now, I know it is too late for breakfast, but would you like to join me for lunch?”

“Lunch? Oh my! I have to go meet Rarity. Sorry.”

“You do not have to apologise to me. In any case, I do not wish to make you late and cause you to have to apologise again to Miss Rarity.”

“Oh. Right.” And Fluttershy was gone. It is amazing, Gearhead thought, the effect some ponies have on you. Now he had a couple more promises he would have to keep.

After lunch, Gearhead started the day light by processing the materials he had gathered over the previous couple of days. He had few customers, and assured all of them that his wound was minor, and healing quickly. Among them was Zecora, who came both to check up on him and to examine his wares. While the zebra mainly followed the more traditional methods she had learned over the years, she also appreciated the value of innovation and invention. Thus she was quickly able to find some items that would help her in preparing and brewing her numerous potions.

Gearhead found it interesting that there was another pony who was similar to him, in that she could perform overt magic without a Unicorn’s horn. Unlike Gearhead, however, Zecora used her potions and herbal salves as catalysts for the changes she wanted to make. With proper preparation she could also perform numerous useful cantrips and simple slight-of-hoof tricks. Gearhead showed some of his own tricks in trade, and they talked further while he continued to process his woods and metals in the basement floor.

Like Gearhead, Zecora was interested in the ironwood and dragonfired alloy Shadow Wright had given him. Zecora had brought along some catalysts for testing, and the two of them put those to good use almost immediately. Gearhead further subjected samples of the wood and metal to other conditions, like extreme heat and extreme cold. They found that the metal could be shaped when heated to a molten state, but when shifted too quickly to cold, it shattered and could only be recovered through re-heating. The resulting metal was not as strong as it had been previously, so this was not something they repeated. They decided to call the alloy ‘adamantine,’ which was another word for ‘diamond,’ due to its hardness and edge.

Another item that Gearhead wanted to test was the gemstone daggers, as he had only developed the first one the previous day. As a new item, he was unaware of its strengths and weaknesses, and thus how to improve it – and yet he had allowed Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash to keep the ones he had made for them, together with Spike’s lance. Gearhead was tempted to try to create another dagger using adamantine, but since he did not yet know if he could replicate the metal, he decided to use it only sparingly, and at absolute need.

Instead, Gearhead used a full selection of gemstones from his stores to create a gemstone dagger for himself, using the same principles with which he had created the originals. This time, however, he was not rushed, and able to bring out the item’s utmost potential. This one was a curved, single-edge affair with half a gear for its crosspiece. The core and edges were diamond. The rest of the blade showed emerald, and the handle was amber chased with ruby threading.

Gearhead and Zecora examined the geargem dagger at length before putting it to the same stress and strength tests as the ironwood and adamantine. The dagger responded with extreme fluidity and speed to Gearhead’s mental prompts as he gave test swing after test swing, and more sluggishly to Zecora when she repeated the tests. Swinging the blade into a block of adamantine only cracked the blade when it was swung edge-on, and Gearhead was able to repair that crack perfectly. Certainly, Fluttershy’s fears would ease when she saw that Gearhead had a blade of his own.

Gearhead wanted to create gemstone daggers for the rest of his friends, but Zecora refused to give him permission, as his attending physician, to go out and gather more gems. She promised to go and collect some for him, in her rhyming way. Thus it was that she left him alone in his shop, and Gearhead realized that it was already evening, and dinner time. He cleaned up and headed up to see what he had available.

Finished with his dinner, Gearhead closed up shop and made sure everything was secure. Zecora was not back, and Gearhead did not expect her back for one or two days: the zebra had her own life to live, and probably more ponies to look after as the local herbalist and healer. Gearhead checked his injury, and was surprised to see that it was completely healed. The zebra from far off lands did excellent work.

On a whim, Gearhead took out the Fireheart Gemstone from its secret place, and stared into it, turning it over and over. He fell asleep with the image of it still in mind, even after he had locked the actual item back up.

Sometime later, the noise of a crowd in a frenzy started to reach Gearhead even as he worked in his shop. Wondering what was going on, he followed the sound into Ponyville proper. He was surprised to find a crowd of ordinary citizens pressed in tightly around something or somepony, and only with some creative manoeuvres could he see who it was, and was further surprised knowing how shy the pink-haired Pegasus was.

Thinking quickly, Gearhead first used Read to plot out an effective path, then he opened up a tunnel under Fluttershy, and another under Twilight who was being trampled by the crowd. The two mares tumbled down the holes, which quickly filled after them. They rolled with enough speed to pop out safely in the nearby alleyway that Gearhead was using. Using his anonymity and hoof signals, he escorted the pair to the library.

“What sort of mess did I miss being created in only a couple days?”

“Well, the fashion expert Photo Finish decided to scout Fluttershy as a model,” Twilight said.

“I have not been here long, but is that not an odd fit, given your personality, Fluttershy?”

“Oh how I hate being the center of attention,” Fluttershy mewled, still shaking. Gearhead could not help wanting to comfort her. “But I have to do it for Rarity’s sake!”

“If you are modeling outfits for Miss Rarity, then that makes more sense,” Gearhead said, but Fluttershy only cringed more. “You are not?”

“Well, that’s what we all thought would happen at first, but it seems Photo Finish only wanted Fluttershy.”

“There’s so much work involved in ‘shining across Equestria,’” Fluttershy moaned.

“Should you not simply quit since you dislike it so much? I mean, it would not be fair to continue without being able to put your all into your modeling anyway.”

“Actually, every time I’ve tried to ‘put my all’ into it, Photo Finish tells me “no!” or “wrong!” It’s like what she wants to see is to see me… shy.”

“Rarity asking you to model due to your grace makes sense. This, though, does not. You obviously do not enjoy it, and it makes you uncomfortable. Why not quit?”

“I don’t want to disappoint Rarity: she said I must. I must! I… must. Haven’t you ever done something you don’t like?”

“I cannot say I started out enjoying sales, but I do meet interesting ponies that way. Besides, I am the only one who can sell my gadgets, and I could never hire on anypony else to work with me when I did not know where I would be headed next, or when. A contract was always out of the question. But I have had years to acclimatize.”

“I didn’t know that,” Twilight said.

“Of course not. A salespony must sell his wares, and no matter what, the sales and not the construction is how I earn money. I have to do it, but that does not mean I will never end up liking it. In fact, it has allowed me to live quite comfortably.”

“That sounds good,” Fluttershy said.

“I have had time to adjust and get used to it, as I said. Sales also already somewhat suited me from the start – not that modelling does not suit you from a purely fashionable standpoint, but it is one of the worst fits for your conservative and shy personality. And that is something about which I should know quite a lot.”

“If you told Rarity how you feel, I’m sure she’d understand,” Twilight said.

“But I don’t want to risk disappointing her,”

“I know, and I promised not to tell her,”

“You too, Gearhead. She mustn’t know.”

“If that will make you happy,” Gearhead said, and the mares guided him through a Pinkie Promise. He thought it was even stranger than the promise itself, given the high probability that Rarity was not enjoying not being in the spotlight at the moment.

Only later would he learn the lengths to which Fluttershy and Twilight went to in order to try to get Photo Finish to drop Fluttershy as a model. Ironically it was Rarity herself who caused Twilight’s brilliant plan to go from success to failure, and it was only afterward that the truth came out. Twilight had been so confident her plan would work, Gearhead had left it entirely up to her, and since Fluttershy was in no physical danger, he left the Pegasus in the Unicorn’s care and got back to work. If Fluttershy was more confident, she would make a great model. But that was not the way she was, just as Gearhead was not a farmer. More was the pity, in both their cases. Next Chapter: 4. Lets Get... Political! Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 27 Minutes