Chapter 2, Part A: Dissonance

Morning dawned bright and clear. As he did every day when he got up, Gearhead went over to the dresser positioned where it would always be in shadow in the room. On it was a transparent ball within which was an egg sitting in a bed of snow. Gripping the top portion of the ball with his teeth, Gearhead twisted, and then lifted it free of the bottom half. He set the top down on the dresser, and then leaned in to carefully touch the egg with his cheek.

The egg was the sole surviving offspring of the Arctic Dragoness that had been trapped in the magma chamber of the mountain on which Canterlot was built. The dragoness had been near death when she had made Gearhead promise to take the egg or hatchling to her homeland, and to take care of her in the meantime. Gearhead did not know how the mother dragon was doing, however the cold frost shell still coating the dragon egg meant that it was doing fine. Satisfied, Gearhead replaced the lid and fixed himself some breakfast.

After breakfast, Gearhead went down to his laboratory. He had finished his analysis of the Dragonstone late the previous night, and then tried applying the dragonfiring technique he had learned from the analysis to an ingot of adamantine. Next, for comparison’s sake, he mixed fresh adamantine, using the dragonfiring process before the metal cooled. The result, which he was testing now, was that the metal he had dragonfired in the process of forging was far stronger than the stuff he had ‘fired retroactively.

Gearhead melted down the adamantine he had previously been preparing for the core turbine system prototype and replaced the ingots in their bin. He would use them for something else, but for this build he wanted to use the absolute strongest metal he had on hoof. That meant dragonfired adamantine, or at least the version of it he could produce. Of the sample Shadow Wright had given him, only three bars and the box containing the dragonfired ironwood remained. That was not nearly enough even for the core system’s frame, nevermind the rest of it.

Gearhead set the forge’s temperature higher and gathered the ores he needed to form the adamantine beside the Dragonstone ingots he had left. Then he got his armourer’s hammer, tongs, and vices and got to work.

Even with his geomancy it took two hours to properly prepare the amount of dragonfired adamantine Gearhead needed, but he worked patiently and persisted. Next he was ready to shape the metal, his blue-green energies racing from his hooves along his hammer as he went. Gearhead completely lost all track of time as he kept working, but he figured everything would be okay, what with him keeping the shop closed and locked up tight. ‘Lord’ Vines could call him naïve all he wanted, Gearhead was familiar with the way the world worked.

Suddenly something seemed to click, and Gearhead’s vision became crystal sharp, as though he had been looking through a plastic film the entire time before. His understandings of the minerals all around him seemed so much more complete than they had before. Caught up in the novelty of this sensation, Gearhead harnessed the sudden surge of magic that he felt at his hooves, and increased his working pace. He did not stop until he had a conical framework and a conical covered housing sitting on the cooling shelves nearby. While those pieces cooled and hardened, Gearhead set about the task of seating the gemstone rings into the frame, and then attaching the housing over top of everything. Finally came the harness system, complete with a gemstone condenser unit, which was called that because it was designed to collect, compress, and store the energy the core system would produce.

Gearhead was of a mind to begin putting the completed prototype through its paces, but he suddenly felt as though something was very unusual up above his head somewhere, and it seemed to press down on him. Curious, Gearhead went back up to the shop. When he went upstairs to grab his daggers, the view outside his window made him pause.

Pink clouds were racing all around the sky, raining some brown liquid down everywhere. Little forest critters suddenly had long legs, and were using them to speed all about the place. The most trouble seemed to be happening at Sweet Apple Acres, so Gearhead grabbed his hat and popped into his cyclic cart, which was smaller and faster than his wagon, and which had an enclosed top so he would not get rained on. He pedaled over to see if he could help Applejack and her family.

Gearhead arrived to see that Twilight and the others were already on the scene. Rainbow Dash was trying to chase the clouds down, and getting stuck by them in the process. Applejack was trying to cope with abnormally-large apples and the long-legged critters, which Fluttershy was trying to dissuade from eating Applejack’s fruit. As Gearhead dismounted from his cart, Twilight charged up a spell that would ‘fix everything.’ He came over, his hat’s brim extended and dripping, in time to see an impressive wave of light wash over everything. But nothing changed. “My failsafe spell failed!”

“Don’t worry, darling, I’m sure you’ll think of something,” Rarity said, giving Twilight her elaborate umbrella.

“Can’t you do something?” Spike asked Gearhead.

Gearhead looked up at the clouds, in the process getting a mouthful of chocolate milk. “Would you like me to change some of this rain into chocolate and milk? Because I doubt I could do anything except separate some of these things into their components.”

“Don’t you dare turn off this rain!” Pinkie Pie said, gorging herself.

“I guess that also precludes shooting the clouds down, even if magic blasts could hit them,” Gearhead said. “My options are rather limited.” He closed his eyes to shift focus, and looked again. He saw a white residual magic signature everywhere. “Now that is new.” He drew his dagger and had it change into the configuration he used to absorb external magic, but the opening between the split half-gear only absorbed some of the magic before it was full. Firing the energy back into the air to absorb more would not get the friends anywhere, and Gearhead was not certain it would be safe to absorb any of it into himself.

“I’ve got it!” Twilight said. “Rainbow Dash, could you corral the clouds in one corner of the sky?”

“Got it!” Dash immediately started to chase the clouds, herding them into one section of sky.

“Applejack, could you bring those high-strung clouds down to earth?”

“Absolutely,” Applejack took out her rope, made a lasso, and aced the throw, pulling the clouds down and securing them to a set of nearby posts.

Twilight, meanwhile, was whispering something to Fluttershy, who goaded the long-legged critters into eating the chocolate milk-filled cotton candy clouds, which irritated Pinkie Pie since she wanted to eat it. “See? There’s nothing we can’t accomplish if we stick together and do our part!”

Gearhead had been hovering a hoof over the energy he had collected. “It is bothersome that I cannot get a solid read on these energies, especially as it is as thick as milk in the air.”

“And if it’s this thick here…” Twilight said.

Which was when Spike spat out a letter from Princess Celestia. She read through it once then said, “We have to get to Canterlot right away!”

The others looked toward the castle on the mountain, which was visible from almost anywhere in Ponyville. The train was the fastest way up there, although it wound up the mountainside.

Twilight Sparkle led the others, bursting through the palace doors to Princess Celestia, who was clearly very distressed. “We came as soon as we heard,” Twilight said.

“Thank you all for coming,” Princess Celestia said. She was a tall, white Winged Unicorn, or Alicorn, with a stylized sun for her cutie mark and a flowing, ethereal mane and tail in stripes of blue, green, and pink. If the stories were all true, she was untold thousands of years old. She was also the older of two sisters, and responsible for raising and lowering the sun every day.

“Does this have something to do with the weird weather all over Equestria and my magic not working? Princess, what’s going on?” Twilight blurted.

“All in good time,” the Princess smiled. “In the past you have completed great services for the good of Equestria. I’m afraid I have to ask you to do so again.” She led them on a walking tour toward one of the palace’s higher towers. “An old enemy of mine I had thought defeated forever has returned. His name is Discord, and in the past he ruled absolutely over what is now Equestria. When Luna and I saw how miserable life was for Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns alike, we confronted Discord, and using the Elements of Harmony, we defeated him.”

“Why don’t you do it again?” Twilight asked.

“If only it was that simple, but the Elements are no longer attuned to Luna and me, so I must ask you six, who brought my sister back to me, to wield them to defeat Discord once more. If Discord isn’t defeated, he will reign in eternal chaos. I know this is a great task, and I have every faith in you to complete it. The fate of Equestria rests in your hooves.”

“Hang on you guys,” Pinkie Pie said, “eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain!”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “You can count on us, Your Highness.”

“This is Canterlot Tower. I had the Elements of Harmony stored here for safekeeping after your defeat of Nightmare Moon.” Conveniently, there was a stained glass window depicting the event, among other things. Gearhead examined them with interest. “This room is protected with a powerful spell only I can remove,” Princess Celestia continued. She inserted her horn into a hole in the door and charged it with her golden magic, which spread along engraved lines. Once her magic had reached the entire door, it opened, revealing a small room that contained a golden, bejewelled box.

“You can keep the Elements of Harmony,” Rarity said, overcome with emotion, “I’ll take that case!”

“The mission ahead of you is dangerous,” Princess Celestia said, levitating the case out of the room and toward the waiting ponies, “but you will be able to defeat Discord with these!” She opened the case.

It was empty.

And only Princess Celestia could open the door when it was sealed.

“Oh well,” Pinkie Pie said into the stunned silence. “If anypony needs me, I’ll be outside with a giant swizzle straw!”

Gearhead shifted his focus again. The white aura was extremely thick in the tower, but it was practically opaque around the open vault and the case, which Princess Celestia had dropped in her shock. Someone started to chortle, low and throaty.

“Ah, Celestia, did you miss me? I certainly missed you,” the voice said, although no source was visible. Not at first, anyway. It turned out to be the stained glass Discord, which startled Fluttershy.

“Discord! You won’t get away with this.”

“Ah, I forgot how tiresome you could be.”

“Hey! Nobody insults the Princess!” Rainbow Dash, brashly charging the window only to bash into it without hurting anyone but herself.

“Ah, you must be Rainbow Dash, famed for her loyalty.”

“That’s right! I’ll always be loyal to the Princess.”

“We’ll see about that. Here’s Fluttershy, whose element is Kindness, Rarity who embodies Generosity, and Pinkie Pie with my favourite element of all, Laughter.”

Pinkie couldn’t help going from a snort to full-out laughter when she saw Discord dancing on the stained glass Twilight’s head.

“You seem to know all our strengths,” Twilight said.

“Yes, and all your weaknesses too. But your element is the strongest and most elusive of all, Twilight Sparkle: Magic. On the other hand, I’ve no idea who this fellow is.” Discord smirked, his expression saying ‘must not be important.’ Gearhead merely smirked back.

“Enough stalling, Discord, what have you done with the Elements of Harmony?” Princess Celestia demanded.

“Oh, I’ve just borrowed them for a bit. You weren’t using them anyway.”

“Discord! Tell me where they are now.”

“Oh, very well, I’ll tell you. But I’ll only tell you my way.

“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!” Discord vanished.

“What d’ya think he meant by ‘twists and turns and end up back where you started?’” Applejack asked.

Twilight repeated ‘twists and turns’ as she moved to an open window. “I’ve got it: the Elements must be in the maze!”

“I shall investigate the other line,” Gearhead said. “Shall we meet back here or in the maze?”

“Sounds good to me,” Twilight said.

“Good luck, my little ponies,” Princess Celestia said.

Twilight and the others went down to the maze’s entrance. Gearhead galloped back to the train station, where the train itself was preparing to depart.

If I was Discord and I was speaking to any one of those six mares, it would probably be Twilight. He did single her out as the ‘most powerful,’ after all. She grew up here in Canterlot, but the Elements are clearly not here where they are supposed to be. Besides, Twilight now calls Ponyville and the library ‘home.’ So that is where I shall start. Gearhead boarded the train just before the doors closed. He showed his ticket to the conductor, and took a seat.

“No wings and no magic, that’s the second rule of our game,” Gearhead heard in Discord’s voice. There was a pause, and then he said, “Rule One is that everypony must play. Find your Elements and you win, but break the rules, I win, and Chaos rules forever. Good luck everypony!” The slight pressure Gearhead had felt lifted. So the game had started, and it seemed like time would be limited. Still, either Gearhead or the mares would get to the Elements, Gearhead felt confident. Those six were not ones to surrender, although if anypony out of them all cheated, he also figured it would be Pinkie Pie.

As soon as the train rolled into Ponyville, Gearhead raced off to the library. He found Spike asleep on the floor, curled around a mop. He nudged the baby dragon awake. “Whah? You’re not Twilight.”

“I know, however she does require a favour of you, provided my hunch is correct.”

“I’m at your service, at least by proxy. What’s up?”

“The lot of us are in a power game against an extremely powerful adversary, so I need you to think carefully. Spike, is there any book or item in here that would represent the beginning of Twilight’s friendships or adventures here in Ponyville?”

“Well, there wasn’t really anything in particular that got used during Twilight’s welcome party, but that was just before the Summer Sun Celebration. Nightmare Moon interrupted that one, and then they had to rush off and stop Nightmare from casting an eternal night over Equestria. Oh, that’s right: There was that book, The Elements of Harmony: a Reference Guide! After Pinkie Pie found it, I know exactly where it is.”

“Excellent. Could you retrieve it for me?”

“Will do!” Spike climbed a ladder and retrieved a thick volume. He brought it to a nearby reading pedestal and opened the cover while Gearhead walked over. The latter nudged a sheath of the pages to flip more closely to the middle of the book – and there they were in a cut-out recess of the book, a set of five necklaces and a tiara, all with a gemstone shaped like one of the cutie marks of each of the six friends set into them. “They’re here!” Spike said.

“Not so good that so much of the book was cut out, though. At least now I can take them back to the others, but I shall need a faster way to return to Canterlot than the train.”

“What’re you gonna do, magic yourself over?”

“There is a rule against magic, and flying. But I do not have to fly,” Gearhead said. “Please stay here and guard the library. Oh, and thank you for your help, Spike.”

“My pleasure!”

Gearhead made sure the Elements were still in the book before he closed it and placed it in one of his saddlebags, and then he was off at a gallop toward Gearhead’s Gadgets, leaving Spike alone again.

Despite the necessity to expedite his progress, Gearhead knew that if he messed up the count, he would end up in the wrong elevator shaft, and he did not want that. He set the clamp on the fourth car, turned around, and opened the door into his laboratory. Still concerned for the installation’s security, he closed the door and secured it.

Gearhead went to a small storage unit set into the north wall, which was also a dumbwaiter that would go straight up to his main workshop, in case he needed an item from the laboratory here and could not go down to get it, for whatever reason. Within the unit, he found the core turbine system prototype and the harness. He wheeled them out on their gantry until he had a couple meters to any wall.

Given the urgency of the situation and the need to get back to Twilight and the others before Discord did whatever damage he could to them, Gearhead placed the Fireheart Gemstone into a slot on the harness’s back that corresponded with another slot in the core prototype’s wide end. He grabbed some leggings that had adamantine scales sewn into them, and then strapped himself into the harness. Using a ratcheted wheel set to the side of the gantry, he lowered the core into place, and then twisted slightly in his harness until he heard the click of harness and core locking into place.

Leaning on the gantry, Gearhead pulled a hood that was attached to the neck of the harness into place on his head, and let its transparent visor slide into place in front of his eyes. The hood had dragonfired adamantine plating, and would double as a helmet while also improving Gearhead’s aerodynamics. He did not have any idea how badly an impact at speed might hurt, so he refused to take chances where he could avoid them. He adjusted the leggings, to which he had transferred his daggers, so they lined up with the harness, and then shifted his focus to the Fireheart Gemstone.

Energy surged from the gemstone into the first and largest ring of the core, which made it start to turn in its housing. This turned each subsequent ring in turn, until the seventh one, more a cone than a ring, was also turning. By then pinpricks of blue-green light were streaming from vent-like horizonal verniers set two-thirds down the housing and spreading all around the laboratory. The gemstone condenser on the harness’s chest slowly lit up as it filled with the pinprick energy, all packed in as tightly as possible. Gearhead could feel the whole unit begin to feel lighter as it powered up.

Wireframe displays came online on the inside of Gearhead’s visor, and it went translucent from the outside, so other ponies could not easily see the displays, but Gearhead could see them and through them perfectly. One display showed the seven rings of the core system, outlined in blue and rapidly filling from orange (the seventh ring) to green (the first ring). Another display showed the condenser, which had stored energy in the green zone. Gearhead had also included a map of Equestria that showed his position, which he could zoom in and out at a thought. He had topology, location names, and magic signatures displayed as a default. These displays would keep his head up, for the most part, allowing him to focus more on the physical objects ahead of him. He may as well call it a Heads-Up Display, or HUD.

When Ring Three was in green condition, Gearhead released the lines securing the core system to the gantry. Ordinarily he would feel the full weight of the pack on his back, but the assembled turbine was doing a significant portion of the heavy lifting now. Gearhead did an experimental hop, focusing on the concept of thrust and staring straight ahead – and found himself leaping toward the opposite wall. He thought of the impact, and blue-green lights flowed into his helmet and leggings even before the core quickly put a halt to his forward motion. It seemed the system worked well enough, but he would have to put it through the rest of its paces on the way to Canterlot. Gearhead grabbed the book from his saddlebag and transferred it to a pouch on his harness.

Gearhead used his geomancy to access a one-way elevator to the surface, coming up on the Ponyville side of the river that separated the town from the Everfree Forest. He took off in the direction of the train station, careful to keep to a loping motion and avoid flying, so he would not break the rules.

By the time Gearhead hit the tracks less than a minute later, he was getting the hang of his high-speed trot, and looked behind himself to see the blue-green trail of energy he was leaving behind. He wondered if he was getting a hint of what it was like for Rainbow Dash to fly, although he was careful to stay more or less grounded. Gearhead followed the route set out by the iron rails, and as his confidence rose, he picked up speed, leaving Ponyville further and further behind.

Soon Gearhead was approaching the mountain’s foothills. Here, the tracks wended back and forth on switchback turns in order to climb the mountain in a way that would allow the steam engines to make the climb. The only restriction Gearhead had was time. He turned at a right angle to the steep incline and the next level of tracks, and took an experimental leap. Landing on the outside curve of the tracks, Gearhead felt pleased that he had made it despite calculating on the conservative side. He adjusted his math as he aimed his next leap, and then jumped again. This time he landed in the middle of the tracks.

Going like this, Gearhead figured he had to be cutting minutes more off of his run. He wondered if he could make it two levels up if he pushed harder, but he did not want to correct his descent path in mid-air, which could be construed as flying, and break the rules. Besides, he did not want to land in the space a train might be using, or about to use. It was safer to take it tier by tier, and he would still arrive faster than if he had gone by train, even if the train left the station at Ponyville as soon as he boarded.

Once Gearhead was at the same altitude as Canterlot, his going became much simpler, as he could just gallop, allowing the core to add a little glide and a lot of speed to his every step. Gearhead realized that the City Guards probably would not recognize him in the harness and hood, but there was no way they could stop him anyway. He shouted a short “hi!” to them as he passed, and headed right for the palace.

Having found the Elements of Harmony himself, Gearhead knew that the mares could not have found them in the maze, so he angled for the hedge maze, and was surprised to see how absurdly large it had seemed to grow during his few hours away. Gearhead also knew he did not have the time to navigate through the maze properly, but he still could not break the rule against flying. As he approached the first hedge that divided the path, he jumped to land on top of it and get a look at the maze’s layout. While he was resting, he ejected the Fireheart Gemstone from the core through his harness and dropped it back into its pouch: the system had more than enough energy to run on its own, with each ring displaying blue.

Gearhead felt a slight tug from something in his harness. It was coming from his pouch! On a hunch, he shifted his focus to get a read on the magical signatures around him. There was that thick white residual signature, but he also now had bands of six colours weaving in and out. The bands wound all the way back into the pouch. They had to be coming from the Elements, which were resonating with their owners!

Gearhead turned to bear in the direction in which the most concentrated bands led, and resumed his leaping, high-speed progress.

“Well lookie here,” Applejack said, “Rainbow Dash’s abandoned us!”

“Now I know that’s a lie,” Twilight said, dumping the huge boulder from her back – Rarity was convinced it was a diamond, but somehow Twilight had gotten stuck carrying it. After they had been split up upon entering the maze, Twilight had rendezvoused with her friends one by one, only they were now behaving very strangely: Applejack was lying with almost every statement she made. Fluttershy was being exceedingly unkind, usually by hitting or laughing at her other friends, particularly Pinkie Pie, who could no longer take a joke. Rarity was being so deliriously greedy she thought the rock was a diamond. Twilight looked up, and was stunned to see Rainbow Dash was really flying away. Flying?

“Well, well, well,” Discord said, appearing in front of the remaining five friends. “It looks like someone’s broken the no wings no magic rule.” The labyrinth’s walls sunk into the ground one by one.

“Yes. You,” a familiar voice said. Everyone turned to see somepony clad all in black and white come to a sudden stop meters behind Twilight. The newcomer’s hood flipped back, pulling the visor he also wore onto his forehead. With those earth-tone colours, green eyes, and scars, this was unmistakably Gearhead.

“Pardon me?”

“Unfortunately not,” Gearhead said, approaching with confidence, while glancing cautiously at the others, who were staring at him but still acting unkindly to each other. “The first rule, ‘everypony must play,’ includes both you and me. The second rule, ‘no flying and no magic’ means that beyond the flying you are doing right now, whatever you did to make everypony so faded, and to make Miss Dash fly away – these actions disqualify you from your own game.”

“And what’re you gonna do about it? It’s my game, and I made the rules. Besides that, I am the Spirit of Disharmony and Deceit. Did you really expect me to follow any rules?”

Gearhead snorted. “You lost anyway, Discord.”

“Oh? How do you figure that?”

“Wait a minute,” Twilight said. “How did you expect us to find the Elements after you’ve taken away the maze?”

“You actually thought they were in the maze? How droll! I never said that,”

“Discord is correct, Miss Twilight. But as I was saying, he lost even without all of his cheating: Spike and I—“

“Enough of your analytics,” Discord suddenly appeared behind Gearhead and touched him on his head. The stallion was completely unprepared, and felt his vision and mind go fuzzy. “Now, as I was saying – yow!”

“Cease your prattling and foul cheating, Villain!” Gearhead called, unleashing another magical blast from a green-blue energy horn that had suddenly appeared on his forehead, while the strange cone on his back had stopped glowing.

“Okay, that’s just plain impossible,” Discord said, while Twilight’s jaw hung open.

“Perhaps thou think thy plot shall succeed, however despite thy prowess, I say thee neigh!” Gearhead unleashed a charged blast.

“Hey, they actually hurt a little, I think.”

“Oh, so? Rethinking thy strategy?”

“In a way,” Discord vanished and reappeared on Gearhead’s other side. “I’m thinking I liked you better before you got zap-happy.”

“That felt… strange,” Gearhead said, his colour and the function to his pack having returned, while his horn vanished.

“I’ll have to ask you to explain that some other time,” Discord said.

“Oh, it’s quite simple: seeing Miss Dash just flying away suggested to me that you were not affecting the others in a purely chaotic manner, but inverting the characteristics which you admitted you knew corresponds to their Elements. So when you tried the same on me, I focused on my being a scientific-minded pony, in the hopes that your magic would make me magically-minded.”

“Well, on that I must congratulate you, even if it should have been impossible. But then, it takes awhile to recognize one’s own handiwork. Let me guess: you couldn’t farm to save your life, right?”

“I am disturbed that you know that.”

“Oh, this is rich: I did that for the entertainment value, and a thousand years later it comes back to bite me in the tail! Well, catch up to me later and I’ll gladly tell you the rest. It’ll be a hoot!” Discord vanished.

“Now what?” Twilight asked. “And if the Elements aren’t here, where are they?”

“Oh, they are here now,” Gearhead fished in his pouch for the book with his tail, and dropped it to the ground between himself and the purple Unicorn. Twilight used her magic to turn the pages, and the necklaces and tiara were there. “I asked Spike to get the book for me.”

“You were in Ponyville? And you came back so quickly?”

“All courtesy of my newest device. Currently I call it the core turbine system. I shall come up with a better name later.” Suddenly it started raining and thundering.

“Chocolate milk?” Pinkie asked crankily. “I hate chocolate milk!”

“Right after we deal with Discord,” Twilight said, levitating the book containing the Elements with her magic. “C’mon, if he’s not in Canterlot anymore, he’s probably in Ponyville!”

The other mares looked like the last thing they wanted to do was follow Twilight, but she managed to coax them along. Gearhead brought up the rear to guard against stragglers and last-moment escape artists, despite the ability to go ahead and arrive in Ponyville well before the others: at this point, staying together was clearly more important. Next Chapter: 2B. Resonance Estimated time remaining: 14 Hours, 15 Minutes