As Twilight and Gear headed downstairs, with the mare quickly wiping her face clean and muttering how Gear wasn’t allowed to be dirty, no not when she was working, they saw that Note Taker had left her desk and there was a large gathering near some tables inside the workshop.

“Oi, Lughead, what’s going on here?” Gear bellowed out, causing most of her much larger workers to scatter, leaving the biggest Earth Pony to turn to face her, while Spliced, Starlight and Spike were all huddled around the table.

“Just workin’ on this here mare’s design,” the pony said, tipping his head to her. “Really fancy like; almost as good as one of yous electronic gizmos. Don’t have the same watz level you need for ya high toys, but wes think we got the detection thaumicological array working-”

“Thaumatical,” Spliced and Starlight corrected simultaneously, before looking at each other.

“Yeah yeah,” he scoffed, rolling his eyes at the mares. “Tha doohicky watzit that detects magic.”

“I like him,” Spike commented.

“Wes are start ta do them tests, Gear Shaft, but wes waiting for ya.”

“Wait,” Twilight interrupted. “You two named it that? Why not just call it a thaumometer? It’s shorter and still descriptive.”

“Actually, we haven’t named it yet,” Starlight admitted.

“Ladies, can we please gets back ta tha demo?” Lughead asked them, with everyone falling silent before he pulled some very thick and elboarate safety gear on himself while Gear brought out what looked like a blast shield from the side.

“By the way, what do you produce here?” Twilight asked as she saw the rest of the worker get behind some protective barrier with alarming ease to their movements.

“‘’ridgators,” Gear said as she added in a roof to their protective structure. “Among other little things.”

“And explosions,” Lughead snarked. “Lots of explosions.”

“Oi, be a good expendable dolt and do that there test, alright?” Gear snapped playfully at him, with Lughead snorting but nodding his head as he placed some of his fur on the glass screen so that the device could scan it. There was an audible surge of energy going through the device with a lot of Gear’s employees ducking preemptively and Twilight preparing both a teleport and shield spell.

There was a loud rumble in the room before the machine began to emit a series of loud noises which made Spliced smile as she moved from the safety of the blast shields and made her way to the machine to read what it was displaying.

“It seems to be working; it’s displaying where Lughe-” before Spliced could finish her sentence, there was a loud BANG and a large section of the machine flew outwards towards Lughead only for Spliced to leap in the way.

“Holy Celestia’s flaming tits on a cracker!” Lughead swore as he took a step back from the mare that now had a large piece of metal sticking out of her face, spraying blood all over the table.

“Spliced!” Twilight wasn’t sure who shouted it, herself, Starlight, Spike or some other pony but everypony was racing towards her to see what could be done.

Standing over the mare that was unmoving on the floor, Twilight snapped a shield in front of Spike’s face to block his view of Spliced who now had a large piece of shrapnel sticking out of her left eye.

“Oh by Luna’s sparkly asscrack hair, I-” Lughead began to ramble when Spliced let out a loud groan.

“I’ve got a splitting headache and I can’t see anything,” the mare said as she sat upright, causing everypony not used to the fact that she could shake this sort of thing off or that she could come back to life to let out cries of surprise and terror. “Twilight, you here?”

“Er, yes I am Spliced,” Twilight said delicactly, feeling very unsure of herself at this moment.

“Good, two questions and a request,” she said as she turned her head to Twilight causing even more of the stallions around them to let out high-pitched cries. “Is there something in my eye and is Lughead okay?”

“Er, yes, yes to both,” Twilight said, nodding her head.

“Good,” Spliced said with a smile before tilting her head, causing a line of blood to land directly between Twilight’s eyes, with the mare whimpering. “Can you please remove whatever’s in my eye so I can kill myself?”

“You know, it’s really disturbing how quickly you resort to that solution to all your problems,” Twilight noted as she used her magic to grab the sheet of metal and started to tug on it.

“I blame my captors for the conditioning,” Spliced replied with a pained grunt. “It’d hurt less if you just pulled it out quickly…”

“I’m trying, but it’s really wedged in there,” Twilight stated as she kept tugging. “I think it might have gotten as far back as the bone…”

“Great,” Spliced grumbled and rolled her eyes before letting out a pained groan as it caused the metal shard in her face to dig around her brain.

“Oi, Lughead, stallion up and help her,” Gear said, causing the pony to look at the mare that saved him, then at his boss and back at the still bleeding mare.

“Um, sure thing, miss Shaft,” Lughead said as he walked back to her and grabbed the metal and began to pull. “I ain’t hurting you, am I Miss Genome?”

“Yes, but it’d hurt less if you’d just pull it out quickly.”

With a mighty heave, Lughead suddenly yanked on the shard with all of his strength, pulling it and part of the jellied eyeball out of Spliced’s head with the mare falling backwards to the floor before sitting upright.

“Ow… And thanks,” she said, rubbing her left eye before shaking her head. “Okay, I think I know what went wrong, so I can now fix-”

“Wait, you’re going back ta work?” Lughead asked, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Shouldn’t ya rest or somethin’?”

“I’ll rest when I’m dead… Oh wait - I won’t.” Spliced said with a frown on her face that had a hint of a grin

“Not funny, Spliced,” Twilight grumbled to the snickering of Starlight, Spike and a few other ponies behind her. “In all honesty, you should take some time to take a step back.”

“I’m perfectly okay to work,” Spliced protested.

“Hey!” Lughead started angrily. “Dis ain’t no laughing matter! Yous is hurt and you should see a doctor!”

“For what, my inability to die?” Spliced shook her head. “There’s nothing I could do to stop it and besides, it’s useful enough, like being in the way when something does blow up.”

“And Is grateful for yous saving mes there but come on, ya just died once-”

“Twice, actually, you scrambled my brains when you pulled that shard out,” Spliced added.

“I don’t even want to know how you know what that feels like,” Twilight said.

“She’s right,” Gear added. “About how you know what that feels like and about taking a break; I need to shut down and get this place cleaned anyways due to all the blood and exploded parts around.”

With a grunt, Spliced stood up and gave them a narrowed look with Gear shaking her head.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “But I can promise, my condition means the worst problem I get left with after dying and reviving is a bit of a headache, and even that doesn’t last too long.”

“Right,” Gear tilted her head at Spliced before waving her hoof to signal everypony out of the room, with the assembly lines shutting down and ponies leaving the workplace with a few ponies in cleaning gear coming out to take of the mess. “I’ll mail you the parts for your device once we’re done fine tuning it, okay?”

“Fair enough,” Spliced said, with Twilight directing her out of the room.

“Come on, we’ll all go visit Rarity,” Twilight said, trying to move the subject to something more controllable. “You’ll get to meet Coco Pommel - she’s head salespony at Rarity’s shop here.”

Spliced nodded. “Hopefully I’ll make a better impression at this boutique than at her one in Ponyville.”

“I don’t think I’ve met her either,” Starlight commented as she and Spike walked up to them. “I was minding the castle when you and the others were up here for the grand opening, after all.”

“She’s a sweetheart,” Twilight told them. “Shy, soft-spoken…”

“And doing much better with her life after she met Rarity for the first time,” Spike remarked. “If anypony deserved to be freaked out by seeing what you’re capable of surviving, it was her old boss.”

“Spike!” Twilight gave him an indignant look as they headed for the door.

“What? Suri was a dirty, rotten thief!”

Spliced watched the two squabble good-naturedly as they headed out, and shook her head in amusement. Starlight, who was standing next to her, made a small noise, catching her attention but before she could ask what the pink mare wanted, there was a hoof placed on her shoulder. Looking to the side, she saw that Lughead was smiling at her. “By the ways, I didn’t thank ya for saving me there,” he said, holding out his hoof to her.“I owe ya my life, thanks ta ya.”

“I-I,” Spliced stuttered, caught off guard by his warm words. “I just did what anypony would do?” Before she knew what was happening there were other factory workers thanking her and Spliced found herself smiling back at them and enjoying this sudden pleasant feeling.

Finally, she was able to extract herself from the workers to find Twilight and Spliced smiling at her. “You done there?” Starlight asked playfully and Spliced found herself snorting and nodding her head in agreement.

“Yes, I think so,” Spliced said as they left the factory before looking at Twilight. “This Coco, from what you said, reminds me of somepony... is she like Fluttershy?”

“Kind of,” Twilight said. “Demeanor-wise, at least. They don’t have the same interest in animals, but they’re both shy, soft-spoken… Coco’s a nice mare.”

“That works for me,” Spliced said. “I wouldn’t want to alarm her or anything considering… you know.”

“Good.” Starlight sighed. “Now, I will admit, I agree with Spike on what he said about Suri - I never met her myself, this was back before I met Twilight and the others - but he and Rarity have mentioned her to me since then.”

Spliced nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind if I ever run into her.”

Some time later, the four had arrived at Rarity For You, and Spliced and Starlight had been formally introduced to Coco. Spliced was glad to see that her instincts had been right; the smaller mare did remind her a lot of Fluttershy in terms of her demeanor, and their first meeting had gone smoothly. Of course, there was the slight issue of both Rarity and her employee trying to get Spliced to agree to trying on a new outfit; while she didn't see the benefit, she was starting to weaken on the reluctance and both of them could see it and continued to work away at her resolve, while Starlight observed the entire event with a smirk on her face.

Luckily, neither of them had forgotten their manners this time and kept civil and the rest of the day passed quietly and smoothly beyond a sudden message arriving from the Crystal Empire asking for Spike to come help with translations for Snöflinga again as Sunburst was apparently hitting a wall as far as he could teach the windigo the modern language. Spike had immediately responded that he would be there on the double and both Rarity and Coco had praised the young dragon for his actions, Spike preening at their words but reacting as Spliced hoped he would: with humbleness befitting his maturing age and Twilight’s own parental influences. While Twilight and Rarity walked with Spike to the train station, the three left behind began to prepare supper which, unfortunately for Spliced, was spaghetti today.

Despite that, Spliced managed to keep her disgust in check and was in the midst of making the sauce when Coco caught her attention by coughing.

“Yes?” she asked, turning her head to look at the earth pony.

"I’m sorry, but I’m curious how Twilight knew Miss Shaft," Coco said softly. "I wasn’t even aware that her highness knew Miss Shaft."

“Well,” Starlight said a bit hesitant, the pasta she was preparing hovering over the sink, giving Spliced a worried look. “She didn’t know her beforehoof, per se, but I’m fairly sure that she was introduced by Princess Celestia and-”

“Starlight, am I correct to believe that this whole meeting between Twilight and Gear Shaft was both a happy coincidence as well as some sort of top secret government business?”

“Er, um…” Starlight’s stammering told Spliced all that she needed to know with the alicorn shaking her head.

“Then that’s all you need to say,” Spliced said as she turned her attention back to the meal.

“You’re not curious?” Starlight asked her.

“Of course I am, but it’s not my business to know Twilight’s princessly duties,” Spliced replied. “If she trusts you enough to tell you what’s really going on, then that’s fine.”

“Oh,” Starlight said with a blush on her face before she started to laugh. “I was kinda on edge, expecting you to poke and prod because the whole situation was a bit fishy.”

“Considering the last time I got involved with governmental business resulted in certain circumstances for me, I’m not too eager to repeat that mistake,” Spliced said.

“Right,” Starlight said with Coco frowning at her word choice but Spliced wasn’t about to go into greater details about her inability to die - she didn’t want to disturb the shorter mare, nice as she was, and from past experience, she was certain that the details would upset Coco badly.

Looking away and tilting her head to the side, Starlight peered out into the shop’s workroom and turned to face the shorter mare. “Is that your Nightmare Night costume in there?”

“Oh yes, it is,” Coco said. “I’m almost done - I’ve had to work on it between handling orders for all the different customers, but it’s going well. I just need to add a few finishing touches.”

“Excuse me, but what’s Nightmare Night?” Spliced asked.

“Oh it’s a nice little festival where the foals dress up in costume and go to their neighbours for candy and other treats, with most towns having small festivals that’s meant to scare them in a playful way,” Starlight said. “While Celestia has the Summer Sun festival - that’s the summer solstice, by the way - Nightmare Night is more or less Luna’s own festival to enjoy being with everypony.” She looked a little thoughtful. “I think I’ve read something about a few other parts of the world having their own equivalent too, but they’re more based on the idea that it’s the night when the barrier between the worlds of the living and dead are weakest, allowing friendly spirits to visit the living and some… creepier ones to come out and cause trouble. But we’re not sure how accurate either part is.”

Coco nodded. “I think I’ve heard some stories about spirits coming back too… mostly foal’s tales, but some ponies I’ve met take them very seriously.”

Starlight had a faint smile on her face. “The only self-proclaimed spirit I’ve ever run into myself was Discord, and he… well, he is what he is. Though one of Twilight’s favorite stories involves this mare who met three spirits in the middle of winter…” She tapped her hoof on her chin. “Actually, given what we just learned recently, I kind of have to wonder how accurate that one was.”

“What do you mean?” Coco asked.

“Well, in the story, one of the spirits predicted the return of the windigos, and we… er… sort of found out about a living one who’d been buried in the ice up North?” Seeing Coco’s eyes widening, Starlight raised a hoof. “He’s okay. Kind of a cranky kid, but okay - he’s not going to go out deliberately spreading trouble like the ones in the legends did. He and Spike certainly get along well enough, and little Flurry Heart seemed to like him.”

“From what Rarity told me, she seems to like everypony,” Coco said with a happy sigh before she looked at Spliced. “Is the festival like the ones where you’re from, Miss Genome?”

“Hmm,” Spliced hummed to herself as she leaned against the counter, idly watching the sauce cook. “It is somewhat similar to what it is,” Spliced whispered or was under her breath. “But back home, those nights of festivities are usually reserved for those mega city blocks that can offered to host such things. Usually happens on either the very high, rich floors or the poor, interconnected families on the bottom.”

Coco blinked owlishly at what she said and Spliced was suddenly aware of the fact that she had just revealed was not something typical in this world. “Sorry,” she apologized. “Very long story. Oh, and Starlight?”

“Yes?” Starlight asked with a raised eyebrow.

“What’s the name of that story you mentioned, because I may want to take a look at it at some point, especially if it mentions windigos.”

“A Hearth's Warming Tale,” Starlight replied. “It’s really more of a foal’s story set around this one Hearth’s Warming Eve, after Equestria’s been around for several centuries, but apparently Twilight loves it.”

“I remember that one!” Coco beamed. “I loved it when I was a little filly too…”

“Will that one need to be revised as well?” Spliced asked.

“Um… probably not,” Starlight said. “It doesn’t involve the founding itself - it’s about these ponies celebrating Hearth’s Warming, but one of them thinks it’s a big waste of time and even wants to abolish it entirely, until they get visited by these three spirits. Two of them show her the positive side of things… and then this last one points out that without Hearth’s Warming celebrations spreading so much positive emotion and good will around Equestria, the windigos will be able to return and freeze the country and everypony in it again. Pretty accurate depiction of Equestria and its beliefs at the time, I’d say.”

Coco frowned and tilted her head towards Spliced. “What do you mean by revised?”

“According to what Snöflinga, the windigo, told us, the actual history of Equestria’s founding and what led up to it is vastly different,” Starlight said before looking at Spliced. “Although there is a gap of time he didn’t speak of, since he was frozen in ice at that point.”

“And even I could tell he wasn’t telling everything about the three founders who actually lit the Fires of Friendship,” Spliced said. “He had very positive things to say about that trio, mind, but I’m sure there was more to it.”

“Excuse me, but how different?” Coco asked.

“Well…” Starlight looked a bit uncomfortable.

“Apparently, Puddinghead, Platinum and Hurricane were, as one of my old classmates would say, ‘big fat jerks’,” Spliced said. “Much worse than the stories portray them.”

“Really?” Coco asked with wide eyes.

“Really; I doubt any foal will want to be them for Nightmare Night anymore, or any parent will let them dress up as them.” Starlight grimaced at the memories of what Snöflinga had revealed about the three leaders. “Cookie, Pansy and Clover, on the other hoof, are likely to get a surge in popularity; especially with fillies that want a stronger role model, colts that admire pirates and foals that have had trouble finding their special talents respectively.” She suddenly looked thoughtful. “Actually, if we’d found out about this a few years ago, I just know a certain trio would all be wanting to dress up as Clover - I wasn’t living in Ponyville then, but after I came to live with Twilight, I heard a lot of stories about the things those girls got up to while trying to earn their marks. And especially about all the tree sap...”

“Really?” Spliced asked, momentarily wondering about the tree sap remark. “I think I know who you mean, and while they did tell me about how they got their marks I don’t remember them mentioning having a lot of trouble with it...”

“Well, it’s true,” Starlight told her. “From what I’ve been told, it was their long experiences trying to get theirs in the first place that helped them learn enough to help others with their marks.”

“That would make a lot of sense,” Spliced said. “At any rate, I’m glad their efforts paid off.”

“So are we all,” Starlight replied. Then she looked at Coco. “For the record, we’re talking about Rarity’s little sister and her friends,” she explained. “I’m not sure how much you’ve heard about them, but…”

Coco nodded. “Rarity’s had a lot to say about them too,” she said. “And a lot of tree sap, apparently. And how if I ever meet Sweetie Belle, don’t let her fix breakfast.”

“Dare I ask?” Spliced asked.

“She burned juice and liquified toast.”

“EEURGH!” Spliced shuddered. “And I thought the food back in my old place was bad… at least there it was mostly just bland and non-varietal. But… how do you liquify toast‽”

“You’re the scientist, Spliced,” Starlight smirked. “You’d know better than either of us. She has improved a bit, by the way, but Rarity still prefers to keep her out of the kitchen. Less chance of setting it on fire that way.”

Spliced shuddered again. “Still… and I thought Discord in a bad mood was scary, but this takes the cake.”

Coco blinked. “Cake? Where?”

Spliced gave her a look and was about to say something, when she heard a hoofstep behind her, and then a voice.

“Yes, her cooking is scary,” the voice said, and the trio looked to see an amused-looking Rarity, Twilight coming up beside her. “I love my little sister dearly, but even at her best, I would rather she not try making anything that’s meant to be edible, especially without adult supervision. Or Spike, since he is quite the gourmet himself.”

“I’ll second that last remark,” Spliced told her. “He’s better than a lot of the professionals I’d gotten food from back home.”

“I’ve always eaten well with Spike taking care of the meals,” Twilight said with a smile on her face before she chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. “I’m still learning the basics myself right now, but it’s kinda embarrassing that my son is so much better than me.”

“Well darling, perfection comes with time and I’m sure you will become a better cook if you do it more often,” Rarity said as she walked over to the stove, and with a levitating spoon, tasted the sauce with a smile. “Mm, this is good Spliced.”

Spliced felt her face flush at this and mumbled her thanks.

There was light chuckling at her blushing before all of them worked to finish supper, finally sitting down to enjoy it with a nice red wine. After that, Spliced finally relented and agreed to model for Coco and Rarity for a possible dress before they prepared to go to bed.