Dust, dirt, steam, and the stench of metal filled the air of a large workshop that was on the edge of Ponyville, almost next to the Everfree Forest. Many ponies in town assumed the sound within the structure was the sound of a great beast or something more frightening. Nopony dared to ever approach it or take a peek inside. The building was already constructed similar to that of a rundown barn, adding more of a haunting presence.

Although, if a brave or curious filly investigated inside, they would not find a beast, ghost, or anything that would scare the faint of heart. Instead, they would find a barn full of machinery and contraptions that would boggle the mind and dazzle the eye, past the clouds of steam and dirt of course.

But who would create such creative inventions? Who would waste their life and time to make them?

It would be a pony responsible. Who was ambitious, quiet, nervous, and always messing his creations to utter failure. His name was Gadget Rust. An Earth Pony with dreams and goals and on one fateful day, he would meet a certain character that would make him wonder about the outside world.

“Alright… Come on! Twist all the way!” the earth pony said with goggles on his eyes, turning a bolt with his wrench and exhaling as it twisted in all the way. He wiped the sweat off his head and got back on his four hooves after standing on his back hooves.

“There! Done! Another astounding job well done!” he said with confidence in his voice. He trotted slowly to open a window, but only after passing a mirror and getting distracted.

He wiped the grime off the reflective glass on the mirror and got a good look at himself. His body was turquoise; his brown mane shaggy and dirty from all the days of working, his tail was long and covered in dirt, grease, and oil. He took off his goggles, looking at his green, sleepy eyes and trying to smile.

“Look whose making things progress. With your cutie mark motivating you ever since you were a little filly. If I remember correctly, it should be right here…” he said, turning his flank to the mirror to attempt to get a good look at his cutie mark.

His cutie mark was that of two cogs connected, with the tint of silver for the color. It was almost as if the cogs would start moving at any time if he looked at them long enough.

“Yep! Still there and always will be until the end of my days. Look at you, Gadget Rust. The most creative and hardworking inventor in all of Equestria. My father would be proud about what I have done!” He stated, getting back to the task at hand of opening the window in his workshop to air out the place.

Gadget Rust pushed open the window, causing them to accidentally slam against the wall on the outside, but it didn’t matter to him at the moment. Gadget Rust was enjoying the fresh oxygen and breathing it in slowly. The sun on Ponyville was bright as expected and he could see from a distance of various ponies walking around, most likely so busy with their day. Gadget Rust thought nothing of it and he shrugged.

“It’s too dangerous for me to go in that town anyway. I might be judged about my appearance and my interests. Nope! I enjoy staying here and busying myself with my dreams. ‘Better Safe than Sorry’ as my dad would say to me.” Gadget Rust lectured, nodding and smiling and looking at his recent invention that was in the middle of his house.

His new machine almost reached the roof and had a shape similar to that of a sewing machine, if it was ten times the size. Although instead of a needle at the end that stitched together various materials, it was a nozzle in place of the needle and was pointed to the ground. Gadget Rust trotted to the side of it and pushed down on a lever with his front hooves, giving it all his might.

The lever finally switched to the other side and his invention slowly started up with a loud vibration, almost shaking the walls of his workshop. The sound must have spread straight to Ponyville and possibly beyond. At least, that was Gadget Rust assumed. The machine was built for, as Gadget Rust intended, to clean ponies up within seconds, removing the trouble of filling up a tub and getting cleaned in there.

“Now… Let’s see if this works as planned.” Gadget Rust mumbled to himself with a grin, standing under the nozzle and looking up, closing his eyes. Unexpectedly, the soft stream of water he estimated turned into a powerful gush, being so strong that it pushed Gadget Rust to the ground before the hose connected to the back to supply the liquid disconnected, stopping it entirely. Gadget Rust slowly got back up and he shook his head, then his body, getting the water off. He was clean, but still soaking wet.

“Hmm… Looks like I still need to make some calculations. I’ll take this apart and check it over to make sure I built it right. Back to the drawing board if all else fails.” he said, trotting to the back of the machine and pushing the switch to the “Off” position, in order to stop it from making the loud noise.

Gadget Rust heard a knock on his door and he looked behind himself, caught off guard that somepony would actually check up on him. Could it be a pony with curiosity? Or possibly annoyance of the noise his creation had just done? The only way to find out what the answer could be, Gadget Rust had to open the door. He slowly approached it as he heard another knock.

“W-Who is it?” Gadget rust questioned in his best sweet and innocent tone he could muster. He gulped to himself and put his hoof on the barn door, pulling it open slowly to see a new face that made his eyes widen with surprise.

”Are you the one making that entire racket just a few moments ago?!” he heard the new visitor ask. Gadget Rust looked at the pony and he made sure to remember who it was. The pony was obviously a female with a purple body and a unicorn horn, which made Gadget Rust get distracted by it.

“What kind of part is that?” he wondered, staring at it before the female pony waved her hoof in front of his face, making him snap out of it and he went back to studying the rest of her. Her mane and tail were purple, with streaks of another shade of purple and pink complementing the color. The cutie mark she had on her flank resembled the stars Gadget Rust used to look up at every night, wondering if he could ever reach them. Suddenly, he was jolted out of his curious observation by a loud “Hey!” looking at her violet eyes.

“O-Oh umm… I apologize. W-What seems to be the problem?” Gadget Rust asked, giving a fake, big smile, trying to at least seem friendly to her, but it looked like it freaked the purple pony out.

“Were you the pony making all that noise? I was studying in my library, where suddenly, I heard this loud vibration that shook all my books off the shelf! I know for a fact that none of my friends were responsible, as they all wondered what it was as well, so I assume you did it since everypony was looking at the barn near the Everfree Forest. You even woke Spike up!” The stranger explained in a huff, which Gadget Rust began to break into a sweat, not wanting to look like a guilty filly.

“W-What? W-Why would I, a local inventor, even give myself the time to create something to make all that sound? T-That’s ridiculous.” Gadget Rust said, lying through his teeth and still giving the innocent smile. Although, she was not buying it and looked behind Gadget to see his latest work, putting two and two together and grinning, knowing she caught him in a blatant lie.

“Oh, then what’s that? Some sort of giant sewing machine to help you make giant clothes?” she asked, which made Gadget Rust grind his teeth and then sit down in a loss. He looked down at the ground and began digging his front hoof into the ground softly.

“Y-You got me. I-I’m sorry. I was just trying to make one of my many ideas work right. I was close this time, but I had a feeling there was going to be a consequence somehow…” Gadget Rust mumbled, which made her feel sorry for him and step inside, which surprised Gadget Rust by how curious she was. Maybe he found somepony who wasn’t afraid of him.

She smiled at him and said “I understand. Maybe if you told everypony what you were up to, I wouldn’t have come all the way here to get mad at you.”

He stood back up on his hooves with a smile and said in newfound confidence.

“T-Thank you. I do my best to try not to scare or frighten anypony with my work. In fact, you would actually be interested in this big… water dispenser. See, I devised a way so that somepony wouldn’t need the hassle of filling a tub to clean oneself. This will make the water shoot from the nozzle above and within seconds, you will be clean as a whistle, as you can clearly see. Except of course, the machine backfired and you’ll need a drain. T-That explains the mud under the nozzle. I’ll need to do some rework before it can be fully functional.” Gadget Rust explained, smiling at her.

“I see that. Very interesting, but you should really make it much quieter. Oh! I forgot. Since I just met you, I think it’s appropriate to tell you my name at least. I’m Twilight Sparkle. It’s nice to meet you.” She introduced herself with a soft smile and Gadget Rust bowed to her slightly in respect. It was nice to meet a new face in his workshop that didn’t peek in his window and gallop away in fear.

_____

As Twilight Sparkle and Gadget Rust were chatting away, another event was taking place deep in the Everfree Forest. Inside, a dark power was brewing within that contained negative emotions and absolute hatred. If anypony was to explore really hard and kept negative thoughts, they would discover a beast more frightening than a dragon. They would find an alicorn with incredible power. An alicorn named Eternal Rain…

“Curse her! Curse her! She believes she can banish me to the Everfree Forest? Never to return?! She does not know of my true strength!” The alicorn yelled, pacing around an opening, surrounded by dark and burnt trees, due to his power. His appearance was concealed with heavy armour, covering his hooves, flank, neck, and head. Accompanying the armour was a cloak that blanketed him, to define his dark, glowing ruby eyes.

“She thinks she can control me?!” Eternal Rain shouted, stamping his front hooves in anger, causing dark clouds to hover over him and rumble. Quickly, he made the clouds vanish and he inhaled deeply, and then exhale.

“Compose yourself, Eternal Rain. Time is your friend in this situation. You need to wait for the right moment and harness your power. Be patient and when somepony displays negative emotions strong enough, that is your time to strike and appear for all of those fools to see!” He said to himself, continuing to pace in a circle.

“Princess Celestia will regret imprisoning me and giving MY duties to her sister Luna. Of all the selections, she chooses her sister. A pure example of sisterly love to her, hah! Never thought I’d see the day that Celestia would appear soft and loving. When I spoke to her, she was cold, hated my company, and rejected my idea to change my name to ‘Prince Rain’ because of the lack of loyalty to her. I vowed on the day that I was put here, that I would break out and overthrow her. Then I will rule Canterlot and then Equestria. All I need is patience.” Eternal Rain spoke, looking up at the sky and grinning slowly.

_____

Gadget Rust blushed in embarrassment and looked at his various inventions as Twilight Sparkle viewed them all, admiring the parts put in and the very thought of creating them all. Every single attention to detail impressed her and tempted her to ask many questions.

“I-I’ve been doing this ever since I was a filly. I remember the day my dad handed me a toy that I had to assemble myself. It required a screwdriver and I enjoyed every step of the way, putting it together, taking it apart, putting different parts in different areas, and receiving outstanding, but bizarre results.” Gadget Rust said, smiling and looking at his many tools.

Twilight Sparkle looked on one of his many tables and picked up a sheet of blueprints, unrolled it and viewed it. She gave a perplexed expression for the plans that looked similar to some sort of cannon. Twilight was about to ask a question, but Gadget Rust noticed Twilight Sparkle holding the paper, which he immediately grabbed it from her hooves and put it in his mouth, trotting to a cupboard and stuffing it inside.

“That’s highly classified! You can’t just go around, snooping into other pony’s things!” Gadget Rust said in a frustrated tone, which Twilight Sparkle looked at him in an apologetic face and nodded. He exhaled deeply and he approached her, giving a pat and a small smile.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get angry at you. You’re a guest here and I should at least give rules for you entered my workshop.” he said, laughing it off slightly, but Twilight Sparkle wasn’t joining in.

“No… I’m the pony who should be sorry. I should just look, not touch.” Twilight Sparkle stated. Slowly, there was a feeling of uncomfortable awkwardness and they both tried to think of something to talk about.

An excuse came up in Twilight Sparkle’s head and she asked “Hey Gadget Rust! Since you’ve been inside this… house, maybe you should come to Ponyville with me. I’ll show you around and trust me, you’d be surprised with who you’ll meet and make some friends. Just give it one chance and I promise you won’t regret it.”

Gadget Rust froze in place at the suggestion and he began to think, but said “I-I’m sorry Twilight Sparkle. I cannot do that because… I mean look at me. I-I’m always busy and I’m dirty a-and…”

He stopped himself, not really coming up with better reasons. Twilight Sparkle looked sympathetic towards Gadget Rust and she trotted next to him, putting a hoof around him.

“Come on. It’s not that hard. We’ll do it together.” Twilight said, standing back on her four hooves and nodding to him. Gadget Rust gulped big and he slowly trotted towards the door, with Twilight Sparkle behind to make sure he wouldn’t chicken out at the last minute. He began to slow down in his tracks, but she pushed his flank towards outside, with Gadget Rust fighting back. His hooved began to drag on the ground as she pushed him forward and with one big final shove, both Twilight Sparkle and Gadget Rust were outside.

Twilight Sparkle sighed as Gadget Rust’s eyes squinted and blinked as the light temporarily blinded him. “See? It wasn’t that difficult. Now come on. We should get you cleaned up.” Twilight suggested, heading towards Ponyville, but stopping to look back at Gadget Rust, who was still looking at his surroundings. He dug his hooves in the soil, feeling the sunlight on himself and breathing in the fresh oxygen.

“I-It feels so… different. I can’t believe I’m outside. This isn’t a dream, I’m actually feeling the light and the air is much fresher…” Gadget Rust muttered to himself before looking up from the dirt and smiling wide. Gadget Rust neighed in accomplishment and embraced Twilight Sparkle a bit too tightly.

“Whoa! Okay, you’re kind of… squeezing me. Please let go.” Twilight Sparkled managed to say, which of course, Gadget Rust got the message and let go, Twilight Sparkle breathing in deeply and exhaling.

Gadget Rust kept the smile on his face and he suggested “S-So… Shall you take me to Ponyville? I-I know my mane and tail are a bit messy from not properly washing them, but y-you can explain it to them right? I-I wouldn’t have the confidence. I-I mean it’s nice I’m outside for the first time, b-but I can’t talk to strangers just yet.” Twilight Sparkle looked at Gadget Rust, before nodding with a big smile.

“Of course I’ll introduce you. I can understand what it’s like being nervous in front of new ponies. I almost had the same problem when I first came to Ponyville. They’re all nice and won’t berate you with questions, unless you really want them to.” Twilight Sparkle assured, gesturing Gadget Rust to follow along to Ponyville. Gadget Rust trotted next to her and approached Ponyville as newfound friends. Little did the two know, they were being watched.

_____

Eternal Rain observed Gadget Rust and Twilight Sparkle from the entrance of the Everfree Forest, grinning darkly to himself.

“So… I see that this inventor has quite a temper. I’ll have to keep my eye on him to feed off his emotions and make my entrance. Soon, I will rule Canterlot and all of Equestria with my power, making everypony kneel before me. Do you hear me Princess Celestia? I’m coming for you…” Eternal Rain said to himself, looking up at the sun and sinking back into the Everfree Forest with a deep, evil laugh.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2: The Pink Pony Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes