It was with great difficulty and an even greater amount of bickering that the remaining six friends approached Ponyville. “Come on,” Twilight said, exasperated. “Can’t we all just please, please, please get to the library so we can plan how to look for Discord and be done with all of this?”

Each of the other four mares continued to gripe sarcastically, and Gearhead watched, stunned, as they each turned grey. Looking at Twilight’s lack of reaction, he wondered if it was something he could see because he could see magic auras, or if it was something else.

Gearhead’s thoughts were interrupted when the sun suddenly vanished below the horizon, casting the land into night. It was so dark the ponies could not see the path on which they strode, so when the texture changed, they were all caught off guard. Twilight fell to her stomach. Applejack also lost all traction and started to slide, moving frantically to try to regain control. “Wow. I can see so much better now. I meant to do that,” she said, slipping and falling. Gearhead was using his core system to hover in place every time he lost his traction enough that he would have fallen.

The sun came back up, and everypony could see again. “Discord has turned our dirt roads into soap!” Twilight said. She had gotten back up, but now she was stunned.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Discord seemed to extend himself from beside Twilight as he lifted her into the air. “This is the new and improved Ponyville. Just imagine it: the Chaos Capital of the World!” The Draconequus said in awed tones.

Night chose that moment to fall again. Twilight squinted. “I can’t see anything; it’s too dark.”

Discord dropped Twilight back to the road, which was still made of soap. “Well, just wait awhile and you’ll see it in the beautiful light of day. Or not.” Then he vanished again.

“Ponyville, the chaos capital of the world? Not if I have anything to say about it!” Twilight proclaimed.

“Don’t worry, you don’t,” Fluttershy snickered as she slid past. Twilight turned more, to see Pinkie skating, pretty much as she had during the Winter Wrap-Up, on the soap.

“This may look like fun, but it’s not!”

Twilight sighed in exasperation again. “Can we please just move on?”

“Discord obviously wants us here for this,” Gearhead said. “In that case, it should be really easy to find him. Why not head for the town square directly?”

“Why, so you can steal my Tom?” Rarity asked.

“Tom?” Twilight asked.

“My gorgeous hunk of a diamond, of course!”

“Miss Rarity,” Gearhead said. “You recall what my ability is, correct?”

“Yes! And you’re not getting your hooves on my Tom, you hear me? He’s mine, all mine!”

“Do you not want ‘him’ to be smaller and easier to carry, at least?”

Rarity looked Gearhead over suspiciously. “You’ll just break him to pieces!”

“Do you really believe I can break a diamond?”

“Well…”

In that instant of hesitation, Gearhead drew his carbon-steel dagger and threw it into a precise spot on ‘Tom.’ The blade went in with a loud ‘thunk!’ disappearing into the boulder even past the pommel. Then cracks began to radiate outward in all directions, and Rarity’s supposed diamond shattered, leaving a pile of rubble and the unmarked dagger.

“Wha? You? Tom!”

“Miss Rarity, do you truly believe such an ordinary tool as this could possibly shatter a real diamond?” Gearhead hovered over, again staying near the ground, to pick up his dagger, only Fluttershy swooped by and grabbed it first.

“Fluttershy, give that back!” Twilight called.

“No,” the Pegasus merely zipped away, toward the library, with the dagger in her mouth.

“Onward, then,” Gearhead said, returning past Rarity, who snapped out of her stunned state enough to follow along silently. The stallion steered Twilight to continue on toward the town square, as he had suggested earlier. As he had privately predicted, Fluttershy flew back to the struggling group to continue to torment them.

“Hold on,” Twilight said as they were coming to the square. She looked at the book that held the Elements, and around at her reversed friends. Nodding, she opened the book and started putting necklaces on ponies.

“Are you certain?” Gearhead asked. “They are not exactly themselves, and we are missing Rainbow Dash.”

“If there’s any chance we can end this now, I say that’s what we do,” Twilight said.

“If that is your decision, Twilight Sparkle, then I shall support you.”

“You’ll do better than that,” Twilight put the Element of Loyalty around Gearhead’s neck, and he felt a slight jolt. “Alright everypony, lets get this done and get out of here!”

The other mares cheered half-heartedly, but followed anyway. They entered the square to find that Discord had set himself up on a throne at the top of a checkered hill. As he watched pigs fly, he filled a glass with chocolate milk (it filled from the top), then drank the glass and threw away the empty milk, which exploded forcefully behind him.

“I see you’ve found the Elements of Harmony,” Discord said.

“That’s right, Discord. We’re here to put an end to your shenanigans!”

“I’m ready to face the music. Fire when ready,” Discord said, putting on some oversized sunglasses and waving an archery target in front of his belly.

“Everyone, positions! Now!” That last was in response to the groaning from Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. Rarity stepped into line looking like she was pondering something, and Gearhead took the position that the others left open.

“Oh, hang on, everypony.” Discord snapped his fingers, and Gearhead suddenly felt a little smaller. The others turned and stared at him.

“What is it?” Gearhead asked in a higher-pitched, honeyed voice. “Oh please do not tell me: I am a mare.” Pinkie Pie actually giggled, but Fluttershy was louder in her snickering.

“Trust me, it’s an improvement,” Applejack said.

“What did you expect would change, Discord? That I would crumble under the weight of my pack? Sorry, but it is doing much of the heavy lifting. Besides, I am not as weak as I may seem. So in this at least, it does not matter whether I am a stallion or a mare.”

“Very well. You may resume firing.” As Discord watched, interested but clearly not worried, the Elements all began to glow, although most of them did so faintly. Rarity’s and Gearhead’s were slightly brighter. Gearhead snapped her visor and hood back into place so she could call on the core for a boost, using the energy to shrink her harness and leggings to fit more snugly.

[Additional Artefact detected. Identifying…] The text popped up on the HUD.

[Element of Loyalty (Omicron-level) connected.]

[Temporary user: Verdant Gearhead accepted.]

[Element functions now available.] The Element of Loyalty ramped up to a luminosity that nearly matched Twilight’s Element of Magic, a wave of sound accompanying it. Twilight opened her eyes wide, but only a weak wave of energy expanded outward, barely pushing Discord at all. Everypony except for Gearhead got dropped back to the ground, and she quickly landed.

“Why didn’t it work?” Twilight asked.

“Mine’s working,” Applejack said. “Something must be wrong with yours.”

“I hate the Elements of Harmony!” Pinkie Pie said.

Fluttershy took hers off and threw it on the ground. “Good riddance,” she said and flew off. Rarity looked like she wanted to claim it, but Gearhead was standing in her way, looking directly at Discord.

“This is all your fault,” Pinkie Pie said.

Twilight turned on her. “Who are you talking to?”

“Any of you. All of you!” One by one the other mares stormed off, leaving a confused Rarity, an exasperated Twilight, and a curious Gearhead.

“Congratulations, Twilight Sparkle, harmony in Equestria is officially dead. Discord rules, Celestia drools.”

“Do you not have something else to say?” Gearhead asked.

“You still want to know, do you?”

“It would not actually matter to me whether or not you explained your earlier comments in regards to farming ponies who cannot farm, however it would fill in some gaps, I imagine.”

“It’s simple enough, and since you’re fairly interesting, I’ll tell. See, when I ruled I kept looking for various ways to entertain myself. I decided to take the Earth Pony family with the most pride in its abilities and twist things a bit, but at the same time I still wanted some good food. That’s why it’s only once a generation. What I did, you see, was to take a bit of Pegasus and a bit of Unicorn. I turned it inside out, upside down, and backwards and then put it right into your family’s little genes. That way, even those who inherited those bits wouldn’t be able to use Pegasus or Unicorn magic properly – what fun would that possibly be?

“I also saw some fairly entertaining drama when the first backwards pony was born, but then the Patriarch of the time did something I couldn’t predict and can’t forgive: he curbed the drama, and by putting forth a motion! Normally that kind of thing wouldn’t have worried me, since motions usually take months, years, or even decades to pass through Council. But this guy goes and pushes it through in a week. The nerve!”

Gearhead grinned. “I would expect nothing less from a Patriarch of the Verdant, but this is great: I never thought of myself as anything more than an Earth Pony who could not do what an Earth Pony should be able to do. Now I know that I have something of all three pony tribes, and now it all fits together perfectly – although I suppose it always did, I just did not know about it.

“Thank you, Discord, for what you did. Now I can stand against you.”

“Well, that’s a fine way to thank me, not that it matters at this point.”

“It is more interesting this way, but I doubt it is truly over,” Gearhead said.

“Oh, but it is: the Elements of Harmony are the only things capable of sealing me away again, and you can’t even use them. I’m free to wreak whatever chaos I wish, and not even Celestia can stop me! So if you’ll excuse me…” Discord vanished.

“What now?” Rarity asked.

“Regroup and plan,” Gearhead said.

“What ‘group?’” Twilight asked, tears in her eyes. “The others are all gone!”

“Absent, not gone. There is a difference. Just as with me, there must be a way to restore everyone.”

“But I don’t know what it is,” Twilight wailed.

“Please do not lose hope, Twilight Sparkle. Rest and the answer will come. Miss Rarity and I shall keep watch.”

Rarity and Gearhead followed Twilight, who had grabbed the Element of Kindness, into the Golden Oak Library. Sighing, Twilight climbed the stairs to her room. Spike woke up from his nap. He watched Twilight going up, and then looked across at the others. “What happened? Where’s everyone else? Why does Rarity look so faded, and… are you a mare?”

In exchanging glances with Rarity, Gearhead noticed that she had regained some of her colour, although not all of it. “Yes, Discord turned me into a mare. It is temporary, but not something that should bother anypony, since I am still me.” She put the core into Standby Mode and sat it down on a study carol before coming out of the harness. Gearhead’s muscles were sore, so she proceeded to stretch, realizing how long she had been wearing the core system. “Discord turned everypony into the opposite of her Element. Now we must wait for Twilight to come up with a way to bring them all back.”

“They’re all their reverse? Even Rarity?” Spike’s fear was clear on his face.

“Miss Rarity is actually doing the best out of all of them: the others are grey, where she has reverted to just being faded.”

“Grey? Faded?! Well, I’d never! Such a thing will simply not do. We must defeat Discord, if for no other reason than to avoid the many crimes against fashion that would result otherwise!”

“Glad to see you’ve still got your priorities,” Spike said. He started to climb up the stairs, and stumbled midway up.

“Are you okay?” Gearhead took a couple of steps after him.

“No, I’m fine. Just a... stomach-ache.” And the dragon had gone up.

Gearhead looked back at Rarity. “Don’t look at me. I only know that he gets like that when he eats too much ice cream, and I don’t think he’s had any ice cream.”

“Then we wait,” Gearhead said, taking out a spellbook primer. “I wonder, now that I know I have Unicorn blood, if I could cast spells any differently than before.” Intrigued, Rarity joined her. Gearhead kept a good watch on Rarity in case she reverted to previous form, but apparently she was too disturbed by the shattering of her ‘diamond’ and the prospect of turning grey to try anything.

Gearhead and Rarity looked up when they heard Twilight’s voice raised, not in frustration or anger but in elation. Gearhead dropped the book she had been working with, and together she and Rarity started toward the stairs, but Twilight was already charging down at them. “I’ve got it! What Discord attacked first was our friendship, so we have to show the others that our friendship is what’s worth fighting for!”

“Alright,” Gearhead said. “That means it is time for me to suit back up.”

“Our friendship’s worth fighting for? That’s what’ll beat Discord?” Rarity asked.

“By its very nature, yes. I would have missed it if Princess Celestia didn’t start sending all the letters I wrote her about the lessons I learned since coming here. Rarity, you taught me lots of lessons about friendship too.”

“I did?”

“Let me show you,” Twilight touched her horn, lit up with her magic aura, to Rarity’s forehead below her own horn. Rarity shuddered, closing her eyes, but her full colour returned.

“Oh my! I see it now too, but Twilight?”

“Yes, Rarity?”

“Let us never speak of ‘Tom’ again.”

“I am ready,” Gearhead said, her hood still off of her head. “Who shall be next?”

“Applejack!” Twilight called from the entryway to Sweet Apple Acres. “We’re here to fight for our friendship.” The  Unicorn was flanked on her left by Gearhead and on her right by Rarity.

“Great, where were you when I was fightin’ off Discord?”

“You can stop telling ties, Applejack. I know this isn’t the real you.” Twilight led a quick march right up to the grey Earth Pony. Applejack tried to back away, but suddenly Gearhead was right behind her, and Rarity was getting into position to her right. Twilight tackled her, bearing the larger pony to the ground. “I can help you remember,” Twilight said, touching her horn to Applejack’s forehead to spread the memory spell. Like Rarity, Applejack shuddered and closed her eyes, but she went straight from grey to full-colour, completely restored.

“I’m sorry, Twilight. I saw a vision of us feuding and fighting and I couldn’t stand up to the truth, so I started lying. Can you ever forgive me?”

“I already have. Now lets go save Fluttershy!”

The first time Applejack tried to lasso Fluttershy, the Pegasus batted her rope aside with one of her wings, but the second time Gearhead pinned her personally, coming in from her left while both of them were airborne. It had certainly been a surprise, considering nopony had seen Gearhead in full flight until now. “What can I say?” Gearhead said once Fluttershy was restored to her true self. “I am part Pegasus. This is now part of what I bring to the group.”

"What do I bring?"

"Unfailing kindness and a calming influence. Like my sister."

"Thank you," Fluttershy said, blushing.

From there, pinning Pinkie Pie was easy, but nopony had seen any sign of Rainbow Dash. “Isn’t that her right over there?” Pinkie Pie indicated a nearby cloud. Sure enough, the others spotted a faded rainbow-coloured mane.

“Rainbow Dash! We could really use your help to defeat Discord.” Twilight said.

“No way! Have you seen Ponyville? It’s a mess! I’m staying right here in Cloudsdale where everything’s awesome.”

“How in the wide, wide world of Equestria could she possibly believe that little patch of cloud is Cloudsdale?” Rarity asked.

“The same way Discord made you believe a giant rock was a diamond?” Applejack said.

“I thought we agreed never to speak of that again,”

“We all have something embarrassing we don’t want to be reminded of,” Fluttershy said, “but it would be kinder to just move past it and get back to what’s important.”

“I wish to forget the way I was speaking when I was turned magic,” Gearhead said. “Or am I living through my Noodle Incident right now?”

“You have noodles?” Pinkie Pie said.

“Not today. Lets just get Miss Dash, shall we?”

They got the Sparkle Balloon so the landbound ponies could get up to altitude. Applejack was perched on top of the balloon, ready to lasso Dash, while Fluttershy and Gearhead moved in slowly to corner their target. The former was coming in from behind, while Gearhead moved first across Dash’s left to get her attention. She saw Fluttershy rear up behind Dash menacingly, but then Fluttershy tapped the latter. “Excuse me, would you mind terribly if I held you down against your will for a little while?”

“Nice try!” Dash grabbed her cloud and motored off. Gearhead took off after her, while Applejack threw out a loop for Fluttershy to use as a line to pull the balloon. When they started to pull too far away from the balloon, Gearhead dropped back and turned to jet back. The core system allowed her to turn and change direction more quickly than a regular Pegasus, but even then Dash was one of the fastest flyers in Equestria.

“She’s coming back!” Twilight tossed a line up to Applejack, who readied her throw. Gearhead turned around to face Dash’s incoming charge. Inspiration came just a little faster, and Gearhead performed a vertical roll so the end of the core’s cone faced Dash, and sprayed a screen of particle energy in her face. Disoriented, Dash went into a wild spiral, and when she began to pull out of that, Applejack successfully caught her in the lasso. Unfortunately, the other end was not tied to the balloon, but it caught around Pinkie’s and Rarity’s hooves, dragging them out of the basket. This slowed Rainbow Dash with their weight, and annoyed her with Rarity’s complaint.

While Twilight coaxed more speed out of Fluttershy by reminding her what was at stake here, Gearhead flew ahead of Dash and looped back, so they were playing chicken. Dash could not pull a course correction fast enough to evade Gearhead with two mares weighing her down. She started to hesitate, and then Applejack roped her. The mares brought their friend down to earth, and then Twilight used her memory spell.

Catching Rainbow Dash up to speed only took a few moments, although she did a double-take and then exploded into laughter when she saw that Gearhead was a mare. “I can’t believe that Discord turned us against each other by making us the opposite of our elements, and you he turned into a girl!”

“Yes, well, turning me magic did not turn out so hot for him, believe you me. And I do not have an element to reverse.”

“In any case, now we’re back together and we have exactly what Discord fears. We’ll have to keep him from counterattacking us,” Twilight said.

“You can leave that to me,” Gearhead said. “I have been looking at Discord’s magic signature this whole time, and I believe I have come to understand it enough to be able to use it in battle. And I am sure he will get a kick out of being attacked with his own power, which means he will stay interested in fighting me.”

“Okay. Then we’ll get into position and activate our Elements.”

“And if I am in position, I can provide a boost.”

“No, I think fighting Discord one-on-one as a distraction should be more than enough.”

As Discord was watching the chaos unfold all around him, Gearhead came swooping in from his left, geargem dagger in mouth and charged with a Light Javelin. She let loose, and Discord turned to look. Seeing the incoming strike, he took out a large frying pan and caught the shot, turning the projectile into an omelette. “Hmm, this’ll definitely be delicious,” he said.

Gearhead allowed the blade to close as she set up for another pass. If a single powerful blast can be countered like that, what about multiple smaller blasts? She opened fire with the blade arrows, cycling through Fire, Lightning, and Light. Discord blocked some of them, and when others made an impact, he made himself look sunburned. “Hey, that smarts!” He pulled off his skin like he was a snake shedding its own skin, to reveal another perfect skin underneath.

If blasts do not work, how about a physical charge? Gearhead came about and, for the first time, charged at her target with the intent to cut into him. Discord raised one claw, caught the blade, and wrested it from Gearhead’s grip. “You could really hurt someone with this,” he said, pointing to it. “Better to… play nice?” When the blade would not change, Discord merely threw the sword over his shoulder.

Discord looked back at Gearhead, standing five meters directly in front of him, and noticed that ahe had sprouted a horn made of blue-green energy. “Mea virga,” she called in sing-song, and the discarded sword flew right back to her, so she could handle it with her tail.

Gearhead had been studying magic theory for years, even before he had left Verdant Fields and Hoofington for the first time. He had been intrigued by the relationship between music and magic, but lacked a voice even close to Big Sister Ivy’s, so had never felt like he could ever pull it off. Now, though, Gearhead’s female voice was melodic, and she felt like giving spellsinging a chance – especially if it allowed her to supercharge her spells.

“Aperite portas quonium tempor elit. Inveniet tua potential,” she sang, and felt a thrill as magic energies began to flow through her, and back out to the sword. She had indeed ‘opened the gate’ and ‘made a temporary connection.’ She continued, the melody coming to her and flowing through her. “Veni unidecim Spiritus Luminent. Consinnant sagittas meas comblebo. Percusserit me inimicus. Undecim Magica Sagitta Lucis!” As Gearhead sang, a magic circle in her signature colours appeared in front of her upraised sword and hoof. Eleven points of light appeared on the outer ring, strengthening as they coalesced. Then, as she reached the final line of the spell, the light arrows raced off toward their target, a waiting Discord.

Gearhead took off into full flight again, but watched her Magic Arrows closely. As they were getting close enough for Discord to block with his pockmarked frying pan, she took hold of them and steered them sharply around the blocking shield. Most of them still did not hit, but Gearhead was certain that Discord was stinging from the experience in a whole other way.

Gearhead picked up speed, looping and spiralling to avoid Discord’s counterattacks and to avoid his grasp as he reached out toward her magically. Gearhead could no longer slow down enough to take the time to cast her spells, but she could still loose blasts from her sword using Discord’s own energy. Staying ahead became more and more difficult as Discord focused more and more of his power on capturing her. Gearhead kept pushing the core system harder and harder.

[/!\ Warning /!\: Normal operations limit breached.]

[Burst Mode activated.]

The verniers that acted as directional vents on the outside of the casing opened up as wide as they would go, and the seven rings began to spin as fast as they could, each in the opposite direction from the one next to it. The energy thrown from the core formed a ball that had a ring following it behind Gearhead, and she felt her speed increase exponentially. The HUD showed a timer, and Ring Seven turned back to green. Thinking she had plenty of time, Gearhead continued to push the core and continued to return fire on Discord, whose efforts were so far behind her it was actually kind of funny.

Suddenly an alarm went off even as Gearhead was starting to push Discord back. She focused on the display and saw that Rings Four through Seven were red or dark red. Rings Two and Three were in the orange, and only Ring One was still green.

[/!\ Warning /!\: System overload underway.] The timer showed a matter of seconds. Gearhead tried to back out of Burst Mode, but the system had stopped responding to her commands, both verbal and by eye-based prompts. Gearhead turned toward the closest isolated area and went immediately to her highest speed to get there before the worst could happen. She left just as the others had finished getting into position.

Gearhead found a landing spot that was as close to ideal as she could make it, and dove for it, deploying an energy shield both for protection in the high-speed landing and to bleed off some of the energy the core was still generating. Her landing raised a dust cloud and created a crater, but Gearhead did not have any time to admire her handiwork. She ejected the core from the harness and lay down on top of it, trying to cover it as best she could. The timer was in the final three second when she closed her eyes, and then there was a bright flash of blue-green light, and undeniable warmth.

Twilight knew they could not afford to be distracted at the crucial moment. “Formation!” The others leaped in, but somepony was missing. “Pinkie?”

“Hang on,” she said around a mouthful of chocolate milk. “Okay, I’m good!” She jumped into her spot, growling full-out at Discord.

“Back for more?” Discord sniffed.

“That’s right, and you couldn’t destroy our friendship!” Which was when a massive tower of energy climbed into the sky from the direction they had all last seen Gearhead flying.

“Oh, what a shame. And I was just thinking that he-she was getting interesting,” Discord said. “You win some, you win some, I guess.”

“Oh no!”

“He can’t be --!”

“You can’t mean..?”

“In whatever form, I can assure you I’d recognize an explosion anywhere. It is one of my favourite forms of Chaos, after all. See for yourself -- there’s no way anypony short of Celestia or myself could survive that.” The tower began to fade.

“You’ll pay for making him push that hard!” Twilight said.

“You… hurt… my… friend!” Fluttershy railed.

“Oh, come now, it was his-her mistake, after all. I didn’t do anything besides play the target.”

“Oh, you’re still going back where you belong,” Twilight said. “Only now we have another reason to do it. Gearhead was a friend, and now… well, lets just say that we’re angrier than before!”

Discord merely looked annoyed. “Fine, avenge your so-called friend. But make it quick. I’m missing some very good Chaos here.”

The six friends firmed up their formation.

“On second thought, I think I’ll be taking those Elements,” Discord said as they started to charge up. He reached out and grabbed the Element of Honesty with his magic, dragging Applejack along with it. He lifted his talon and grabbed everypony else except for Twilight. Twilight focused, and teleported into the middle of the floating formation and then expanded a protective bubble around her friends before floating them back down to the checkered ground – and where her bubble touched the ground directly, it was returned to normal.

“You can’t win, Discord, because our friendship makes us stronger than ever!” Twilight said.

“You’re beginning to bore me, but if it’ll make you feel better, fine. Take your best shot, but lets be done with it!” Discord went to sit back down on his throne when a Fire Javelin shot in from over and behind the ponies, exploding and melting the high-backed chair.

Gearhead landed with force between the mares and Discord. His scars were healed, he had a blue-green steak in his mane and tail, and yes, he had reverted to his normal stallion form. “Any report of my demise has been exaggerated,” he said in a soft voice which, somehow, carried to everyone anyway.

“How? We all saw that light. Didn’t your thingy explode?”

“With the only type of explosion for which I was unprepared, Miss Dash: the type that does not harm whoever is caught in it. Which, come to think of it, is much of what I was going for with this build.”

Gearhead felt a slight heat all around him, and let out a breath he had not realized he had been holding in the first place. He could not help thinking that he would not be breathing if he was dead, or if he was dead that meant the newly-dead could breathe because it was habit. He did not remember any sensation of being lifted or thrown anywhere by the explosion, which was also curious. So was the fact that he could feel the curve and bulge of the core underneath his harness. Gearhead dared to open his eyes.

He was lying on top of the core, surrounded by the pinprick energies that it had released. Gearhead could only surmise that the sheer concentration of light particles had pushed Discord’s enchantment over him out of his body, reverting to his natural stallion form. Fortunately, checking his hooves, Gearhead realized he still had his geomancy, and now also his magic, although he might not spellsing again.

Gearhead inspected the core, visually as well as getting a Read. He could not find any evidence of melting or burning on the casing, however he could see the disk-like rings had been fused together. He was not getting a reading on his visor, but he decided to take a chance and reattach the core anyway, and did so by rolling into his back and then twisting with his whole body.

With the core attached, Gearhead switched to the power supply stored in the condenser in the harness’s chest, and set it up to flush the core’s rings with the stored particles. When the HUD showed that all was ready, he executed the command. Light swirled around him, until the particles were spent.

The HUD showed Rings Six and Seven in black, irreparable or irrecoverable. Rings Four and Five were in red, for significant damage but still operational in an emergency. Ring Three was orange. Rings One and Two were the only ones in green. Gearhead released the link between Rings Five and Six and between Three through Five. Now, only Rings One through Three would turn and generate power, but at least he still had them. Gearhead used the small supply of reserve energy to kick-start the system again, and was relieved to see the HUD showing that the energy flow was still nominal, and the condenser was recharging.

Gearhead did not have time to wait for the recharge to complete. He took off immediately, and headed somewhat sluggishly back toward Discord and the others.

“We’re all just so glad you’re okay,” Fluttershy said.

“As are you,” Gearhead said.

Discord summoned another throne and sat down, chin in paw. “As interesting as all that is, do you think we could finally get on with this?”

“Oh yes, we have unfinished business here,” Gearhead said. “You turned me into a mare, did you not? Now let us see what we can turn you into, shall we?”

“Thrill me,” Discord said dismissively.

Twilight rolled her eyes, and then fell into focus. The Elements charged and Gearhead, sword again in mouth, joined the formation as well, pushing the core only as far as it could go. The different Elements began to project their own energies, boxing Discord in and puzzling him. Then a massive double-rainbow shot out from the mares, shooting up and enveloping Discord.

He turned to stone and crashed to the ground.

The Elements were not done. The double-rainbow formed a dome which, when closed over the ground, reverted everything else back to normal. The mares looked around, exhausted but satisfied that they were all okay.

“That is the most amazing magic I have ever seen,” Gearhead said, his crystal clarity having faded back to normal.

“More amazing than being turned into a mare?” Pinkie asked.

“And let us never speak of that again,” Gearhead said.

Days later, the friends returned to Canterlot for an awards ceremony in the Throne Room up at Canterlot Castle. Gearhead had specially requested that his part in the fight against Discord be whitewashed over, so he neither joined the others on the dais, nor was his likeness shown on the stained glass window showing the friends sealing Discord in stone.

Gearhead preferred it that way, and in any case, his friends joked that they did not know which of Gearhead’s forms would have had to be used on the window. He was still a Black Sheep. It was just as important a part of who he was as everything else, because it was a reflection of him being able to do amazing things – for somepony who was supposed to be an ordinary Earth Pony. Next Chapter: 3. Old Tricks Estimated time remaining: 13 Hours, 52 Minutes