So there The Forgemaster was, enjoying a day off. Well, it wasn't exactly a day off, more like an 'I'm not working today Shining Armor, now piss off!' day, but the principle was the same. Of course, that meant finding something non-work related to do, and that in itself was a challenge. He still didn't quite have enough Adamantium to make a nice sword/shield combo, he had used quite a bit of his stash making a large suit of armor, so that was out, and he certainly wasn't about to go through the laborious task of making more, far too labor intensive for a 'day off'.

And so, he figured, why not make a catapult?

Not one of those tiny, pussy catapults that you have to build for high school physics class. This was a real, life sized, throw-shit-at-your-castle-'cause-fuck-you catapult. To be specific, it was a Mangonel-style catapult, complete with arm, wheels, and gears.

And he was merrily doing so, blissfully unaware of the hustle and bustle in nearby Ponyville. He may be crazy, but he was far from stupid. What use is there in building a catapult in a town if you're just going to have to move the catapult out of the town to fire it? The Forgemaster deduced none, and built it on a nearby hill. Simba had helped earlier, and then flew off on his awesome wings to go bother someone, preferably Twilight.

Simba, on the 10th day of being altered, was forced to go to the vet, or the closest possible medium. Therefore, Fluttershy was approved. The Forgemaster took Tank along, under absolutely zero threat from any anti-monochromatic pegasi, to see how well he was adapting to his bionic helicopter blades. After a brief visit, both were given clean bills of health, and one small bill. All in all, Simba was fine, his magic was developing properly, his wings had grown out a tad more, he was now much larger than before, he'd probably live to see his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grand kits, and he had successfully lived from an accidental crossbow discharge, courtesy of both an all-too-curious lavender unicorn and some regenerative abilities. The Forgemaster gave Simba leathery, dragon-like wings with some DNA from Spike, magic from Celestia, (The Forgemaster sometimes giggles at the thought of Simba raising the sun), the size came from some… boosted growth hormone The Forgemaster found buried in Simba's own DNA, and finally; the age reducing benefits of gene therapy with a smidge of magic. All of everypony was happy, Simba was delighted, and that's the story of how Equestria was made.

Of course, his fun time was ruined… that seems to happen a lot with The Forgemaster and the ponies.

"What the hay are you doing?" a familiar voice asked from behind him.

Not even looking up from where he was oiling the mechanisms and gears, The Forgemaster replied, "As if it were not blindingly obvious?"

"You're building a catapult!" Twilight shrieked.

The Forgemaster looked over his creation with a trained eye, making a great show of looking at every single piece, before asking, "Am I?"

Twilight groaned, facehoofed, and then said, "Are you off your rocker?"

"Why yes, yes I am insane. Thank you for noticing." The Forgemaster replied with a small grin.

"And how's that working out for you, suffering from a severe case of insanity?"

"Trust me when I say, I do not suffer from insanity, I enjoy every moment of it!"

"Ugh, Princess Celestia's gonna be here soon, you can't build a catapult now of all times!"

"And why not?" he asked, completely serious.

"Because Princess Celestia's going to arrive tomorrow!" she answered.

"Oh, Tia's coming, why didn't you say so?" he smiled.

Twilight facehoofed.

Oh how he loved to mess with Twilight, it was more fun than sex! Well... sometimes, like now for instance, unless Dash was... never mind. Thankfully, with the last of the gears and firing mechanisms all oiled up and ready to go, The Forgemaster was done making a catapult. All that's left is to double check everything.

"How can you be this sane and still be alive?" Twilight asked with all seriousness.

"'Only the insane have strength enough to prosper. Only those who prosper may truly judge what is sane.'" The Forgemaster quoted.

Twilight paused and tried her damnest to figure out the meaning of the saying.

After a few moments, she came up with, "I'm not even going to try." A smart move, to be perfectly honest.

And so, The Forgemaster tinkered on in silence, content in double checking the entire machine to make sure everything was perfect. But he was interrupted by something, an annoying sound.

A chirping, of all things, was coming from Twilight.

The Forgemaster looked over his shoulder at Twilight and said, "Come again?"

A flustered Twilight replied, "That wasn't me!"

And then, 2 tiny orbs, 1 yellow and 1 blue, with wings flew out of Twilight's mane and hovered in place between them. They then chirped some more.

The Forgemaster, intrigued, asked, "What the fuck are those… and what were they doing in your hair!? Oh gods, you'll probably need a special shampoo to get rid of them, too." He face palmed, shaking his head.

The fuzz ball came over to the Forgemaster and tried to get on his good side with some senseless cuddling; this led The Forgemaster to laugh and say, "HAHAHA! You are so small, it is funny to me." The Forgemaster's eyes suddenly narrowed in anger, "But nothing can top Fluttershy, and you trying to top her makes me want to kill you. Kill it! Kill it with fire, damnit, with fire!"

A small fire appeared in front of The Forgemaster's palm, about to be launched at the offending flying ball of fuzz.

"No! Don't kill them, "Twilight yelled, intent on saving a tiny fuzz ball's life, "We don't know what they are, Fluttershy brought a few to Sugarcube Corner and I took one, but there was only that one when I left Sugarcube Corner, and neither of the other 2 were blue… Pinkie called them Parasprites, I think."

The Forgemaster nodded, "Pinkie would know of these things."

Twilight shook her head, remembering Pinkie ramble about getting a trombone, and therefore dismissing any possibility that Pinkie was right, she said, "Well, it doesn't matter what they are. You're helping set up for the princess' arrival, got that?"

The Forgemaster crossed his hands over his chest, "And why should I?"

"Because if you don't then I'll tell Princess Celestia." Twilight said with a sly grin.

The Forgemaster shook his head no, "First off; tattle-taleing is for pussies. Second; Celly won't give 2 royally fragrant shits about that. Thirdly, I have a catapult, your argument is invalid."

Twilight frowned and then thought for a moment, she smirked and said, "I'll tell Dash on you."

"She'd probably do the same thing I've been doing… if she knew how to make a catapult, Isuppose." He scratched his chin, inadvertently spreading some gunk over himself and not caring.

"What'll make you help!?" Twilight screamed.

"You always could've asked." The Forgemaster suggested.

"But I did!" she yelled.

"No, you ordered me, but since I'm feeling generous… you will now have to get down on your knees, bow before your Duke, and beg."

Twilight frowned, her instincts immediately telling her to tell The Forgemaster to 'buck off', but her curiosity overcame her, "Duke?"

"Yeah, Tia gave me a title, I've been keeping it under wraps, don't want all you silly ponies bowing every time you see me. Now, come on, where's the begging?"

Twilight groaned, rolled her eyes, bowed to the 'Duke' and said, in the most mocking and sarcastic way possible, "Oh great and glorious Duke, won't you please help the poor citizens of Ponyville?"

The Forgemaster put a hand to his chin in thought, and appeared to think quite deeply on the subject, before saying, "I'll consider it." In a very serious tone.

"Really?" she asked in the same tone as earlier.

"Hey, I'm a man of my word, unless I happen to be lying when I give my word… Well, where to next, serf!?"

Twilight frowned at the 'serf' comment, but didn't bother correcting him. With the mood that he is obviously in, she couldn't expect anything to change at all, or him being remotely serious about it.

"I was going to head down to Rarity's place next…"

"Great!" The Forgemaster yelled.

He pushed the catapult so that it aimed towards Ponyville, cranked back the gears that would put tension on the straps, aimed down the arm while looking for the Boutique, licked a finger and held it up for the windage, and altered his aim accordingly. After such ministrations, he hopped onto the arm of the catapult and stood where anything that would be thrown by the catapult would rest.

Twilight's eyes widened as she saw what he was about to do.

"You're mad!" she screamed.

"Thank goodness for that because if I wasn't this would probably never work." He replied, and without further ado, pulled on the appropriate rope and launched himself towards his target.

The Forgemaster's aim was spot-on, thankfully. As The Forgemaster hurtled through the air towards an ever nearing Carousel Boutique, he had exactly 3 things on his mind. Firstly was; 'Woooo!' Secondly was; 'I do technically have wings…' and his third was; 'Fuck that'.

So there he was, flying without the aid of wings and completely fine with not using them.

A truly expert shot it was, perfectly on target. He impacted the target at a bone-crushing velocity but due to some last-second magic dickery, it was merely a jarring impact; certainly not good for the joints, but he didn't break a bone. That certainly couldn't be said for one of the large windows that surround the first floor of Carousel Boutique. Well, I suppose it could be said seeing as how windows don't have bones, nevertheless; the window was shattered and the 2 occupants thoroughly scared shitless.

The Forgemaster waited for the dust to settle, and his eardrums to stop convulsing from the dual screech they endured, by calmly sitting in the rather large pile of debris that he had made. Once all dust was properly on the ground, The Forgemaster blinked owlishly at the 2 mares in the room, or rather, specifically the one blue pegasus mare in the room.

Said mare seemed to be wearing a strange Victorian-era wig/suit combo with horseshoes that appeared to be made out of bronze.

Shaking his head, The Forgemaster said, "Dashie, if this is some kind of new kink, I don't get it. Although, what I said about you being able to pull off any outfit is ringing truer and truer as time goes by." He smiled, giggling to himself.

While Rainbow giggled to herself, Rarity put her hood down and said, "Forgemaster, why did you crash through my window?" in that icy tone that belied civility but hid pure evil.

"Well there is this thing called gravity and for the life of me I couldn't stop it." He said, smiling idiotically.

"You have wings, Forgemaster dear; you could at least try to lie properly if you are going to lie."

The Forgemaster groaned, "Fine." He crossed his arms over his chest and said, "Twilight asked me to help her about town and she said she'd be here next."

Rarity raised a brow, "And how does that little task have you crashing through my windows?"

"Sorry okay? I'll pay for the damages." The Forgemaster said.

Rarity smiled, "That's all well and good Forgemaster, but I'd still like to know the 'why'."

"A catapult." The Forgemaster grumbled.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't quite hear?" Rarity lifted a hoof to her ear for emphasis.

"A catapult!" The Forgemaster said much louder and clearer this time.

Then Rarity laughed, "Fine, fine, so long as you're paying: I've no problems with you having your fun, even if it's a tad childish for a thousand-year old to do. But please try to keep your catapult pointed away from my Boutique, wait; scratch that, for the good of all Ponyville: please keep the catapult pointed away from Ponyville at all."

"Really a catapult!?" Rainbow yelled, "Can I see it, can I, can I, can I, please!?" Rainbow as practically, and literally, bouncing with joy on the pedestal.

"Yes Dashie, just so long as you don't kill someone with it." The Forgemaster rolled his eyes.

"But after you are finished with this outfit." Rarity chimed in.

Rainbow groaned loudly and said, "F~ine."

Rainbow stood and let Rarity work over her, adjusting the outfit as she saw fit. For his part, The Forgemaster was taking great advantage of Rainbow not being able to move by making rude gestures, comments, and faces. The most Rainbow could do back was glare, and even that wasn't terribly much. Eventually, Rainbow Dash gave into her more base pegasus/avian instincts and stared to walk in place.

Rarity eventually had enough, "Stand still, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow groaned, "Ugh, I caaan't, " Rainbow tried to fly away, but Rarity held her in place with a hoof on her tail, "I need to flyyy. This is waaay too boring for me."

"Do you want to look nice for Princess Celestia or not?" Rarity replied.

Rainbow slumped to her flank, defeated.

Just then, by some miracle of Twilight not teleporting even though she could, Twilight walked through the door.

"Forgemaster, I've had it up to here with you." Twilight raised a hoof to get the point across of just how high he had gone. "I had to run all the way from that Celestia-damned hill you left me on!"

The Forgemaster raised a brow, "Why didn't you just teleport?"

This had apparently never crossed her mind. Her eyes widened comically and she started hammering her head into the floor, muttering all the while, "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid."

She was ignored by The Forgemaster, ignored in favor of work by Rarity, and lightly chuckled at by Rainbow.

Twilight slowly raised her miraculously non-injured head and cast a gloomy eye about the room. Said eye immediately brightened upon seeing the pony-quins with apparently amazing outfits on.

"Wow, Rarity, "Twilight said, awe evident in her voice, "Those outfits are gorgeous."

Rarity laughed, flattered, "Thank you Twilight. Nice to know someone appreciates my talents."

"Ugh, "Rainbow put her hooves over her eyes and pulled on them, "Sooo boooring."

The Forgemaster laughed, "We could always be doing something… more interesting… at my place, Dashie…"

Rainbow's reply was cut off by a series of chirps from Twilight… again.

Rarity and Rainbow moved closer, Rainbow asked, "What's that sound Twilight?"

From her mane, 3 of those tiny annoying fuzz balls popped. A new pink one and the yellow and blue one from earlier.

"Wow, what are they?" Rainbow asked.

"The better question is, where did they come from? I only had two a minute ago." Twilight replied.

"Uh, I'll take one." Rainbow grabbed the yellow one.

"Me too, "Rarity said, "They're perfect."

Rarity grabbed the blue one for her own nefarious purposes.

The Forgemaster shook his head at the ponies and was about to speak, when suddenly: Pinkie Pie.

"Does anypony know where I can find an accordion?" she asked, slamming open the door, sadly, she was promptly ignored.

Dissatisfied with the lack of a response, Pinkie said, "Girls! Hello! This is important!"

"Pinkie, while I point out that I am male, if you really need an accordion, I think I have one in my upstairs closet. I admit, it was an impulse buy, but come on!"

"Really!? Thank you so much, Forgey!" Pinkie yelled, and then promptly fled, presumably to go fetch the accordion.

The Forgemaster watched her go, and then turned his head back to where the other 3 mares were ogling their new fuzz balls.

The Forgemaster decided to make his displeasure known, to one of them, at least, "Dashie, didn't you just get a new pet last week?" he asked in a deceptively calm voice.

Rainbow froze in the middle of cuddling with the Parasprite, "I- uh." She stammered.

"I thought that you prized loyalty above all else." He continued.

The others had started to watch the proceedings.

"I do, but…" Rainbow started.

"Didn't Tank become your new companion no more than a week ago?" he raised a brow.

Rainbow didn't respond. Instead, a shamed look spread across her face. She then threw the Parasprite away and took off the outfit.

"You're right Forgey, I better go find Tank." She said.

"I think he and Simba went exploring with Winona. Try around the orchard."

Nodding her thanks, Rainbow quickly flew out of the hole that he had earlier made.

wWwWwWw

The rest of that day went rather swimmingly. The Forgemaster was dragged about town by Twilight, either helping or hindering as he saw fit. Eventually, Twilight and Spike retired to the library to do their own share of the preparing. The Forgemaster followed out of principle, and didn't help them at all when the cleaned. In fact, all he did was sit there and read a book; one of the newer ones that had come out recently. Some mare named Daring Doo that tried to take glory away from Indiana.

So there he sat, reading a book while Spike and Twilight just finished cleaning.

He looked up from his book for the first time since he opened it and looked about the room.

He whistled, "Dang Twilight, this place is literally gleaming. I didn't think wood could gleam."

"Why, thank you, Forgey." She replied.

He eyed her warily, "You sure you don't have a case of OCD?"

She smiled slyly, "I have CDO, it's like OCD only the letters are in order." She grew a furious snarl on her face, "As they should be!" she yelled.

"Whoa, easy, Twi." He raised a placating hand.

"So it's 'Twi' now?" she asked.

"Nope, one time deal."

The 2 were silent for a few moments, and then Twilight asked, "Do you have any mental quirks?"

"Oh how subtle." He growled out, and then shook his head, "Some doctor tried to diagnose me with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, told him to piss off and mind his own business."

"…That isn't a proper thing to say to a doctor that's just trying to help…" she offered.

"Makes no difference to me. Last I heard: he died from a popped blood vessel in his brain. Poor bastard got himself a stroke, it was caused by stress, or so I'm told." He chuckled, "Kind of ironic."

He sighed and stood, he threw the book towards Twilight who caught it with her magic.

He walked out the door and parted with Twilight saying, "Have a good night, yah Sparkly bastard."

Twilight shook her head as she turned out the lights.

wWwWwWw

When The Forgemaster awoke the next morning, he took one look out the window and decided to stay indoors for the day. He had a bad feeling about those fuzz balls from the start and now he was proven correct. One look out the window at the swarms upon swarms of Parasprites was enough to convince him to stay put and not open his doors to let the little shits in.

He went through his morning routine, getting dressed, taking a shower, cooking food for himself and Simba, Rainbow had elected to stay at her house last night. She said that she missed the feeling of sleeping on clouds

After that, he poured himself a glass of some whiskey he himself had brewed in his expansive basement. While it normally wouldn't taste very good, a few magical runes and the problem was solved. If you can think it; you can put it into a rune. Whether or not it works depends on 2 things; the maker's power and the maker's skill in making runes. You could be powerful enough to raise and lower the sun each day, but if you had no experience with magical rune craft then you are bound to fail. In this instance, a small time accelerating rune at the base of an oak barrel was enough to ensure a smooth whiskey after a single month, rather than years.

He got a chair, put it in front of a window, and watched.

The swarms of Parasprites ebbed and flowed through the streets that he could see out his window. Eventually, the swarms died down, the reason quickly became apparent when a large… ball, for lack of a better word, of Parasprites was rolled down the path in front of his house, escorted by Twilight and friend sans Pinkie, and was flung into the Everfree Forest.

The ponies seemed to think that it was safe, but The Forgemaster was nothing if not cautious. The Parasprites could easily just fly back to Ponyville, it wouldn't be that hard. So he watched, and he waited. Eventually, a miniature tornado appeared in the distance, near Fluttershy's house to be exact. He could only just barely see it through the trees.

After a few minutes, the tornado destabilized and it started… raining… Parasprites?

Yep, that's what it was alright… raining Parasprites… confusing.

The Forgemaster watched wondering at the amount of work he's going to have to do. Technically, by law, he is supposed to help these poor ponies, preferably in the form of rebuilding and restocking of food supplies. That's what he'll do, go out of his way and spend his own vast amounts of money to buy food for all Ponyville; it'll get him on their good side and it won' technically hurt him at all.

Soon enough, the Parasprite horde began to eat all of the food Ponyville had to offer.

He'd have to arrange payment, caravans, protection for food merchants, new stores, new stalls… ugh; it's going to be busy after this.

After a few minutes of watching, The Forgemaster both felt and saw a spell being cast upon the Parasprites. He closed his eyes and focused on listening to the 'tune' of the magic.

'Hmm, a reversal spell… somehow I don't think that's going to work very well.' The Forgemaster thought.

Sure enough, the various swarms he could see from his vantage point began to stop eating food. Shortly thereafter, they began devouring the actual building of Ponyville.

'Ugh, called it.' He thought.

You'd figure that for as long as Twilight had been using magic she'd know that magic was finicky. You have to be incredibly specific or the spell won't work, won't work in the way you had envisioned, or blow up in your face. In this particular instance, Twilight used a reversal spell on an entire species of pest. The spell had no idea what to do, it's not s living, thinking thing. It is a tool, it was commanded, and it did what it was supposed to do. There were multiple targets, as it were, it could have taken their wings and made them walk, it could have made them stop eating altogether, it could have made them monstrous in size, it might have made them carnivores, and really it could have reversed any facet of the Parasprite identity. Apparently, it chose to change the 'eat food' part to 'eat anything that isn't food'.

When the hordes and swarms started eating building, he knew that he had to help. Replacing the food of an entire town took money, replacing the building of an entire town took a whole lot more money, time, effort, amongst other things.

He finished his glass and stepped outside. The little buggers were everywhere, gnawing and biting everything that didn't move. The things tried to eat his own house, the key word being tried, the anti-thief electrical shock system, or ATESS for short, shocked anything that touched his house. All of the signs were up, so ponies didn't touch it, but the Parasprites couldn't read and were subsequently shocked, knocked out, and fell into the gator pit. Okay, I was lying about the gator pit, but the more The Forgemaster looks at them, the more he wants one.

The Forgemaster racked his neck and sighed; there were many ways he could do this. Fire, water, and air would be the easiest. Blow high speed winds at the creatures and force them away, use water to essentially do the same, or use fire to burn them all to a crisp. He quickly discarded fire, he couldn't burn the town down after all, he then dismissed water too, seeing as how there wasn't an overly large supply of water nearby.

He looked left down the street and saw a swarm of Parasprites eating and a few ponies running about in fear, he raised his hand and formed his fingers into a child-like interpretation of a gun. When he 'shot', a gale-force wind swept down that street, it blew the Parasprites and some smaller debris over the horizon. He looked right down the street and did the same before putting both his hands together in front and looked forward down the main street in Ponyville and pushed again.

The immediate area was clear of Parasprite, so he moved to the next, and the next, and the next blowing Parasprites into the distance as he went. He heard music in the distance and it was slowly getting closer.

His rampage finally stopped when Pinkie Pie crossed his path, playing a multitude of instruments and leading a profession of Parasprites. At the end, the other 5 mares were following.

After blinking at the strange sight numerous times, The Forgemaster snapped out of it and followed along with the others.

He spotted Tia's chariot in the distance, he had to wait a solid 10 seconds for Twilight to say, "Look!"

Apparently, he had amazing vision.

All of the tiny ponies rushed ahead to greet their princess, but The Forgemaster just meandered forward a little faster. He arrived at approximated the same time that Tia's chariot, a rather ostentatious affair, to be honest.

Celestia jumped off of her chariot, and the 5 ponies bowed in her presence. The Forgemaster waved like a fool, and smiled in a similar way.

The Forgemaster noticed Rainbow's eyes narrow when Rarity bowed in front of her, perhaps she saw something a little… private?

(A/N – seriously, go to Youtube and look at the episode at 18:44, pause it at 18:45, you'll see what I mean.)

"Twilight Sparkle, my prized pupil." Celestia said.

"Hello, princess." Twilight replied.

"Hey, there are others here to you know, it's rude to ignore us in favor of Sparkly here." The Forgemaster said, mock indignantly.

Celestia smiled, seeing The Forgemaster's game, "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, greetings Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Forgemaster… but where is Pinkie Pie?"

A sudden cymbal crash announced her arrival; it made all of the ponies cringe.

Pinkie walked by with the instruments all across her body blaring noise as loudly as possible, how she managed to carry a tune, which she did, was astounding. Celestia stared, wide-eyed at the spectacle. It was such a rare occurrence that The Forgemaster took a picture quickly before it went away.

Twilight walked up in an attempt to distract her princess, "So... how's the trip? Get much traffic?"

…It failed.

Celestia asked, "Ah, what is this?" One of the Parasprites landed on her wing, causing her to laugh and raise it up, "Oh ho ho, these creatures are adorable."

Rainbow muttered, "They're not that adorable."

"I'm terribly honored that you and the good citizens of Ponyville have organized a parade in honor of my visit." Celestia declared.

"Parade?" Twilight asked, her head literally made a 'ping' sound as she got an idea, "Oh. Yes, the parade."

The Forgemaster butted in, "Yo Tia, it ain't a parade. These things are pests; they ate most of the food in Ponyville and quite a few buildings."

Celestia affixed her eye on The Forgemaster and asked, "Ate?"

"Yep, little bastard will eat anything. Well, before they just ate food, now they eat anything but food."

As Celestia raised a brow, Twilight tried to hide, for a good reason, Celestia is a goddess of the sun and subsequently had a temper that could burn a fucking sun until it died! However, Twilight had decided earlier to get close to the princess so failed to hide completely.

"Oh really?" she asked.

"Yep! Apparently, they like music. Pinkie over there is doing her best to rid the town of Parasprites. I think I'll give her a medal, can I make it out of Parasprite carcasses!?"

"No, Forgemaster, you may give her a medal made out of metal." She giggled at her own pun.

"Unfortunately, this visit is going to have to wait for another time. I'm afraid an emergency has come up in Fillydelphia. Apparently there's been some sort of infestation." Celestia said.

"An infestation?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, a swarm of incredibly bothersome creatures has invaded the poor town. It's probably a swarm of these… Parasprites, if I've read my reports correctly." Celestia explained, "I'm sorry Twilight, to have to put you all through so much trouble." She added.

"Trouble?" Twilight laughed, "What trouble?"

Celestia had one hood in her chariot when she asked, "Before I have to go, would you care to give me your latest report on the magic of friendship in person?"

"My... report?" Twilight asked, confused.

"Don't want to be tardy." The Forgemaster added, Twilight's eyes widened.

"Haven't you learned anything about friendship?" Celestia asked.

The Forgemaster made a gagging motion towards the 4 pegasus guards pulling Celestia's chariot, making exactly 1 smile, the rest remained stoic as their training dictated.

Twilight watched Pinkie for a few moments, said pink mare was standing at the front of the Everfree and directing the swarm back from whence they came.

"Actually, I have. I've learned that sometimes the solution to your problems can come from where you least expect it."

The Forgemaster nodded, saying, "Use any tools for victory. Even sandals."

The others stared blankly at him, incredibly confused by his sudden life-lesson.

He explained, "Stopped an invasion once, used a sandal."

The others shook their heads and put tat down on the 'shit Forgey says' list, that I'm sure they have somewhere.

Twilight started again, still noticeably confused, "It's a good idea to stop and listen to your friends' opinions and perspectives, "Pinkie's cymbal crashed, "Even when they don't always seem to make sense."

Celestia smiled, "I'm so proud of you, Twilight Sparkle, and I'm very impressed with your friends as well. It sounds like you're all learning so much from each other."

While Twilight was thanking the princess, she was overshadowed by The Forgemaster saying rather loudly, "Haven't learned a damn thing."

Celestia decided that now would be an opportune time to leave, and did so. The others stared blankly at The Forgemaster, evidently wanting an explanation to his earlier remark, but he ignored them and walked over to Pinkie.

The others followed after him and as soon as the last Parasprite was inside the Everfree, Pinkie stopped playing and asked, "Hey, what happened to the princess?"

"Emergency in Fillydelphia." Twilight explained.

"Some sort of infestation." Rainbow added, smirking.

"Oh no!" Pinkie exclaimed, "Have they got Parasprites too? Well, have tuba, will travel."

Pinkie blew once more into the tube as Twilight said, "I think the princess can handle it."

"So you knew what those critters were all along, huh Pinkie Pie?" Applejack said.

"Well DUH, why do you think I was so frantic to get my hooves on all these instruments?" She asked, "I tried to tell you."

"We know Pinkie Pie, and we're sorry we didn't listen." Twilight apologized.

The others apologized as well, but then The Forgemaster said.

"Speak for yourself, little ponies, who do you think supplied the accordion?" he pointed towards the instrument in question.

"You're a great friend, even if we don't always understand you." Twilight said.

Pinkie's grin was extra large, "Thanks guys, you're all great friends too, even when I don't understand me."

"You saved my reputation with Princess Celestia, and more importantly, you saved Ponyville."

They looked at Ponyville and noticed all of the decrepit and destroyed buildings.

"Or not." Twilight finished.

The Forgemaster sighed and shook his head, "I'll go call some repair stallions and carpenters."

He walked towards his house, the only perfectly untouched building in all Ponyville.

He had some letters to write.