When the group arrived at the research chamber, they saw the rear half of Gale sticking out of the machine's access panel. "We're here," Soul Mage said.

"Yep," Gale said, backing out of the machine, "I heard you walk in. Everything's connected up again if you want to try it again Ash." As she replaced the access panel, Ashen Blaze noticed she was wearing a familiar-looking device on her head- like a telephone headset that covered a large portion of her head with a clear green screen positioned in front of one eye.

"I see you're borrowing PC," the grey unicorn said.

"I hope you don't mind," Gale said, "I wanted his input on how I can improve this thing. Besides, you haven't used him much lately, and he's made his annoyance about that very clear."

"Let me see him," Ash said, levitating the device off Gale's head and placing it on his own. "Now, where's that infinite computer patience of yours PC?" he asked, and then flinched as a response was blasted into his ear at an uncomfortable volume. "One moment," he said to his friends, and then left the room. He came back a few minutes later and put the computer back on Gale's head. "You can keep him," Ash told her, "he insists you're better qualified to use him at the moment." Gale smiled as text flashed across the eyepiece, apparently confirming the unicorn's words.

"Cool," she said, "Now, let's fire this thing up."

"Pay attention Twilight," Ash said as Gale started the machine up, "let me know if you feel anything weird." Twilight nodded and watched the gemstones flash. As the diamonds on the crown lit up, she felt a subtle shifting of something inside of her that she couldn't quite indentify or locate. Ash seemed to perk up slightly at the same time and began scraping a pattern on the floor with a piece of chalk he levitated from a nearby table. After finishing it, he tapped it as his horn began to glow. The pattern began glowing and a ball of light appeared above it. As Twilight watched, the light began morphing into various shapes: a rose, a horseshoe, a black gear, and finally split into seven lights in a rainbow of colors. "And that's about it," Ash said as the light faded away from his horn, "Not my most impressive display, but I didn't want to break anything."

"I thought it was pretty good," Twilight said, "rather like Rarity's light shows, on a smaller scale."

"You're too kind," Ash said modestly.

"Mind if I try something?" Twilight asked.

"By all means," Ash said, "Who better to test how this field affects natural unicorn magic than you?" Twilight smiled, and then began concentrating. Light began swirling around her, slowly at first but growing faster and faster until she was obscured from sight. After a few seconds, the light flared and then faded away, revealing that Twilight's mane had changed to a solid sky-blue color. "Now that's impressive," Ash said.

Twilight looked at her mane and blinked in surprise. "I was trying for gold and purple actually," she said, "I know I was doing it right, so how'd this happen?"

"Interesting," Ash said, taking a closer look at Twilight's mane, "Are you sure nothing felt… off while you were casting the spell?"

"Something felt odd when you turned that machine on," Twilight said, thinking, "and… yeah, I thought my magic was falling out of line a few times during the spell, so I tried to compensate." Ash nodded slowly.

"The local magic field's definitely being affected," he said, "It enhances my power but sets your off-balance." He turned to Gale. "If we're ever going to make this portable, we'll need to try and make the area of effect as small as possible."

"What about power?" Gale asked with a raised eyebrow, "You barely held off a half-strength Element Wheel earlier. Once that wouldn't have given you any pause."

"Do you honestly want me, me, at full power Gale?" Ashen Blaze asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Good point," the earth pony said, "portability comes first then. Mind if I turn this off now?" Ash nodded and Gale turned the machine off. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as the strange feeling inside her went away.

"How does that work anyway?" she asked, walking over to the machine.

"Take a look inside if you want," Gale said, opening the access panel again, "It's pretty much a bunch of crystals and gemstones linked together by wire."

"The idea is to mimic what the Gems did for me," Ash explained as Twilight stuck her head into the machine, "Gemstones are particularly good focal points for magical energy, so I've been trying to find a way to bounce magic through a series of them in a way that creates... waves you could call them, which interfere with and change the flow of energy in the immediate area into a pattern I can tap into. The problem is it takes a lot of gems and a large amount of stored magic power to kick-start the process."

"See that large diamond near the center?" Gale asked, "That's where the magic reserve is stored. It took us three days to charge it up and another week for me to find a way to direct leftover magic back into it to extend its lifespan, so to speak."

"That's amazing," Twilight said, pulling her head out and looking at Ash and Gale, "I've seen crystals used to hold spells before, but I've never heard of connecting a bunch together like this." The grey unicorn and brown earth pony both smiled proudly. Heart opened her mouth to make a comment, but a yawn came out instead.

"Oh my, sorry," she said, "I guess it's getting close to bed time."

"You're probably right," Ash said, suppressing a yawn of his own, "Sun's down, and I'm starting to feel the cost of that spell. Time for sleep"

"I'm still raring to go," Gale said, "I'm going to get busy on figuring out what I can afford to remove or shrink to make this thing smaller."

"Don't stay up too late," Heart said, "I'm going to put out the lights and lock our door in two hours, so if you don't want to sleep in the hall again..." Gale just waved a hoof at her, putting her full attention on the magic manipulator. Heart sighed and left the room, followed by Ash and the others.

"Say, aren't you going to fix your hair Twilight?" Soul asked as they walked.

"Huh?" Twilight asked, looking at her still-blue mane, "Oh, right. No, I made the spell temporary, so it should wear off during the night."

Most of the next morning was spent packing, making sure everything was going to keep for at least a week unsupervised, and general hustling around in preparation for the trip down to Ponyville, which required catching the eleven o'clock pega-shuttle. Only when the group met up at the shuttle dock with fifteen minutes to spare did they have a moment to talk. "Everypony ready?" Heart asked, dropping her saddlebags for the moment.

"Wouldn't be here if I wasn't," Ash said pragmatically, "I notice you don't have PC with you Gale. Did you pack him away? He's not fond of that"

"No," Gale said, "I left him behind." Seeing Ash's dumbstruck face, she continued, "Last night we figured out how to link him into the machine, giving him an inside look at the magic circuitry. He's currently figuring out how to talk to the thing and calculating potential upgrades and refinements. It'll probably take most of the week, so he won't be bored."

"That's good," Ash said, "A bored PC is a very, very annoying PC."

Soul rolled his eyes. "I'm always amazed that you were able to put up… with…" he trailed off as Twilight showed up and walked over to the group. "Twilight, your mane's still blue," Soul said, staring.

"That's not all," Heart said, pointing at the unicorn's hindquarters, "Your tail's starting to turn blue as well."

"I know," Twilight said with a sigh, "Princess Celestia didn't say anything about it when I showed up to ask to use her magic fire to send my letters, but I could tell she was trying not to laugh. I'll have to look up a reversal spell when I get home. I just hope Rarity doesn't see me before I can fix this; she'll either have fit or try to dye my hair. Or both."

"Sorry," Ash said," I honestly had no idea what the field manipulator would do to your spells."

"Don't worry about it," Twilight said with a smile, "Sometimes you have to take risks in order to learn." The conversation lapsed into a comfortable silence for several minutes.

"Say Twilight," Gale said, breaking the calm, "the boys told me you were interested in my adding machines."

"I am," Twilight said, intrigued.

"There's quite a demand for them," Gale said, as if to no pony in particular, "the company in charge of building them can't quite keep up, so if you were to order one you'd probably have to wait for months to get it."

"Oh, I see," Twilight said, slightly disappointed.

"However," Gale continued, "being the inventor and owner of the trademark, I have quite a bit of say in who sits where on the waiting list." Twilight's ears perked up slightly. "And, of course, I can have them build one for me free of charge."

"Could you… I mean, would you mind getting me one, please?" Twilight asked, almost begging as her eyes began shining, "It would make calculating for potions, astronomy, and so many other things so much easier."

"Well, I could," Gale said, "After all, you are a very good friend. However, I can't let you have it for free; I am entitled to a portion of the profits after all."

"How much?" Twilight asked, her excitement hardly dampened at all.

"Thirty-five bits," Gale said, holding out a hoof expectedly, "Right now if you please."

"Really?" Twilight asked, suddenly suspicious, "That seems… cheap."

"They do sell for a couple hundred normally," Gale said, "but most of that's eaten up in production costs, and I only see a portion of what's left over: thirty-five bits for each adding machine sold."

"Well, ok then," Twilight said, opening one of her saddlebags, "I didn't bring much money with me, but…" a bunch of coins levitated out of the bag and moved in front of Twilight's face. She counted them up in her head, and then smiled and dropped several onto Gale's hoof. "Thirty-five bits," she said.

"Thank you," Gale said, putting the money into her bag, "I'll send them a letter as soon as we get into Ponyville. They should have it to you by the end of the week, give or take a day." Twilight's cheers and thank-yous were quickly underscored by the sound of wings, heralding the arrival of the pega-shuttle. Except, this wasn't the usual pega-shuttle approaching the landing platform, rather it was a royal carriage pulled by a team of Celestia's personal pegasus charioteers, assisted with a little unicorn magic to make their load lighter.

"I guess that's for us," Soul said as the carriage opened and the pegasi looked their way, "I could get used to this royal treatment." Heart and Gale rolled their eyes as the five ponies got into the carriage.

When the carriage landed in the town square in Ponyville, it was met by a small group of ponies, five in all, and one baby dragon. The five passengers were greeted with a chorus of "welcome back," as they stepped out.

"Hello everyone," Heart said, smiling at the group, "It's nice to see you all again."

"How's the palace life treating you?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I think it's spoiling Soul here," Heart, giving her brother a playful push, "but I'm still holding strong." Dash chuckled as Soul gave Heart a sideways look.

As soon as Ash had moved away from the carriage, he found himself caught up in a hug from a white unicorn with a fancy purple mane. "Hello Rarity," he said with a longsuffering look on his face, "I take it you missed me."

"Of course I did darling," Rarity said, "I was starting to think you were-" she cut off with a gasp as she saw the last pony to exit the carriage. "Twilight Sparkle!" she exclaimed, "What have you done to your mane?"

"Spell mishap," Twilight said, self-consciously.

"I like it!" Pinkie Pie declared. Rainbow Dash and Applejack both looked like they were holding in laughter, but Dash seemed closer to bursting.

"It certainly is… unique," Fluttershy put in quietly.

"I simply cannot let that remain!" Rarity declared, releasing Ash. The grey unicorn heaved a sigh of relief as Rarity dragged a protesting Twilight toward the Carousel Boutique.

"You really don't have to do this," Twilight was saying, "I can probably fix it with a spell."

"I think they're gonna be late to the party," Applejack said with smirk.

"What party?" Gale asked. She laid on eyes on Pinkie, who was wearing a bigger smile than usual, and said, "Oh, right. Silly me."

"You know it!" Pinkie said, "Come on, we're all set up at Sugar Cube Corner!" She started moving away with her signature bounce as Ash shook his head sadly.

"Do we have to do this?" he asked.

"Lighten up," Heart said, "Pinkie parties are fun and you know it."

Luckily for Ash's peace of mind, the party was a small one- just the six Ponyville friends, Spike, and the four Order-naries, along with the Cakes who were in charge of the food, were invited. Things got off a relatively slow start until Rarity and Twilight finally showed up about an hour later. Twilight's mane was still very sky-blue, although well-styled, and Rarity was looking quite disheveled and frustrated. "This is absolutely infuriating," she complained to no pony in particular as she walked into the shop, "I tried all my dyes and none would stick for more than a few seconds."

"I'm really sorry Rarity," Twilight said, "I appreciate the effort though. Like I said, a simple spell should fix it."

"You might want to get to that soon," Ash said, "it's overtaken half your tail already." Rarity heaved a dramatic sigh and made her way over to the refreshments.

"How in Equestria'd you manage to bungle a spell like that anyway Twilight?" Applejack asked, "I don't know much about magic, I'll admit, but a color-change don't sound that complicated."

"Ashen Blaze there developed this machine that alters magic," Twilight said, "It's supposed to make him better at it, but it messed up my spell when I tried to cast it."

"All in the name of science of course," Ash said as everypony turned to look at him.

"What good is a machine that makes most unicorns bad at magic?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Not much, unless you use it around a unicorn you don't like I guess," Ash replied, "It does enhance my ability though. Gale and I are going to try and adjust it so it only affects me when we go back."

"You're helping him?" Fluttershy asked the brown earth pony, "That's nice of you."

"He'd be helpless without me," Gale said, "He can theorize about magic all day, but I wouldn't trust him to fix a broken door, let alone build a complex machine."

"Hey," Ash said, "I'm not that useless at detail work. I built PC you know."

"So you say," Soul said, "He was already operational when we met you."

"Hey now you two," Heart said, stepping between the two stallions, "This isn't a time for one of your ridiculous quip-battles. This is a party; let's try to have fun without the sarcasm."

"Whatever you say dear sister," Soul said, rolling his eyes.

"Yay!" Pinkie said, jumping up as high as she could, "All right everypony, you heard her, lets party!"