I Am.

Canterlot: The Shining City.
Built on the side of Horn mountain in the middle of Equestria, anypony could see for miles if they looked out off the side. Some ponies say you can see all the way to Vanhoover if your eyes are good enough, or the Crystal Empire if you look north, or Manehatten if you look east. That changes from pony to pony, but the one city you can see is Ponyville. Now known as the City of Pleasure.
Canterlot stood high above Ponyville, covering the outside and inside of Horn mountain, leaving barely a square inch of it bare. As technology and magic grew, it became possible to burrow inside the rock or transform it for pony usage. A massive furnace fills the inside, providing heat and light for those inside, and providing power to the entire grid of Canterlot.
Skyscrapers and commercial buildings jut out from the sides, where ponies work, play, live, and die. Computers, screens, and electronics cover nearly every surface, and an increasingly in-depth network keeps ponies on all sides of Equestria connected. A pony from Appleloosa down south can keep in contact with a friend in the Crystal Empire instantly, chatting back and forth as though they were next to each other.
The home of the two sisters had been moved to the very peak of Horn mountain, with the castle now occupied by the embodiment of chaos; Discord. He’d transformed it into a massive entertainment plaza, and spent his days entertaining anypony who could pay. The sisters themselves lived inside a tower on the peak. They, and a few pegasi and some unicorns were the only ones who could survive that altitude without help. It afforded them isolation in their immortal lives. Something nopony who thought about it could blame them for. They oversaw the rising of the sun and moon as usual, but very rarely appeared in public.

It was probably for the best, as the city had grown far beyond the ability of a single monarch to rule over. Ponies were elected every few years and given jurisdiction over different sections of the massive city. One was in charge of the upper half of Canterlot, the second the lower half, and the third the interior of Horn mountain. They in turn had to delegate manufacture, justice, and all else required to run a city. Far too much for the two sisters to manage alone. They were still the rulers, and they could come down from on high whenever they wanted and have everypony obey them, but they never did.

________________________________________

Gear Grinder glared up at the aloof grey spires far above his home in Canterlot. The castle far above looked out of place as it was, framed by neon lights and advertisements for the latest horn and wing-growth pill. He flipped his visor down and the HUD popped up, telling him he was now four minutes late for his meeting at the subway station. He grunted and flicked his ears to control his computer. The cursor on the screen slid about, opening his favorite chat channel. The moment it opened, he smiled as his online friends greeted him.
“Shouldn’t you be at work, Spider?” His friend Chain Gang said.
Spider Web was the name he used online in all the games, chat rooms, and anything else he used. His friend Chain Gang wasn’t likely named Chain Gang, but that’s what everypony called him. Gear Grinder didn’t know his real name. He didn’t know anypony’s real name on here.
Gear’s eyes flicked back and forth as he typed out his response. “I’ve been sent down to Ponyville today to fetch some materials. They expect it to take all day, so I don’t have to be anywhere immediately. My companion is gonna be upset, though.”

“Aw, damn! Ponyville? I’ve heard about that place. Is it true they cater to every fetish imaginable?” Another pony typed out. This fellow’s name was Ball Buster. He talked like somepony who hadn’t been very far from home in his life. Gear had always guessed the guy lived on the southern half of Equestria. Appleloosa was still far behind in tech and news.
Gear chuckled quietly as he stepped out of his apartment. He swiped his keycard to lock the door and headed down the hall toward the elevator. He passed by several ponies lying about the hallway in various intoxicated states. He didn’t live in a very upscale part of Canterlot. There was an unspoken agreement that unicorns lived higher up the mountain, and earth ponies and pegasi lived lower.
Technology had worked to bridge that divide, but while technology allowed earth ponies and pegasi to gain some hoof-hold in being equal to the sheer power that some unicorns could wield, unicorns had worked to keep themselves ahead, combining magic and technology to create even stranger and unusual things only they could use.
Things like teleportation chambers that held a charge and used the unicorn’s own magic to function. The pony didn’t even need to know the spell, they just needed to allow the capsule to charge off your own horn, and then *poof!* there you were at your desired destination. An earth pony or a pegasus could use it if they were accompanied by a unicorn, but not otherwise. They still had to rely on public transportation like the subway or the sky-tram, or in the case of pegasi; their own wings.
Earth ponies got the worst of it, being unable to fly or use magic. Their strength was a boon, but more often than not, it was just an excuse for unicorns to pay them to do grunt work they didn’t want to do themselves.

Gears eyes typed out his response in the visor. “Yes, Balls.” (Everypony in the chat just called him Balls). “But there’s a price for everything, and it’s not always a price you should be willing to pay.”
Gear Grinder walked past an earth pony who was holding a smoking stick of some drug in his hoof. Well… it wasn’t a hoof, it was a prosthetic, but he only had one instead of the usual two. It looked like a horrifying metal claw-thing that had been attached to his leg in place of his hoof.
It wasn’t an unusual thing to see in the poorer areas. To help bridge the gap, some earth ponies and pegasi had relied on physical augments. For Gear Grinder, they were horrifying to look at. They weren’t a hoof, and having some spider-like appendage at the end of your leg was… unsettling for him.
When used, they worked like a griffin’s claw. It gave him digits to use so he could perform fine manipulation tasks that couldn’t be done with just a mouth. It gave him the opportunity to find employment outside of the typical drudge-work like moving, lifting, pushing, pulling, and trotting that most earth ponies in the city performed. This pony looked to have only been able to afford one augment, and was not doing so well for himself. He could probably still find work that was higher-paying than most earth ponies got, but not while he was addicted to some drug.
Pegasi were better off since they could manipulate the weather, but technology and magic still one-upped them there. Unicorns could manipulate the weather as well given enough magic, and they could walk on clouds if they knew the right spell, so with the advent of all this techmancy as the unicorns called it, pegasi were fighting them for jobs, and education and skill were the deciding factors. Competition was fierce, and had frequently resulted in murder or death.

Gear Grinder stepped out of the elevator and straight into the choked streets of Lower Canterlot. There was no lobby to his apartment, as it was just one of the vertical monoliths that covered the place. Ponies were everywhere here, and they all wanted a piece of the big Canterlot pie.
The smell of food and pollution wafted into his nose and he stopped to buy a kebab of falafel from his favourite food cart with a name he’d never been able to read. He just called it ‘Curry’s’ after the earth pony owner. The food was greasy, but it always smelled good and hadn’t killed him yet. From behind the counter, Curry nodded to Gear, and Gear nodded back.
They’d met many a time as Gear passed by on his way to work and bought a quick bite to eat. Curry had an exotic look to him, and Gear suspected he was probably from Saddle Arabia. Despite having met many times, and even having a few chats, the topic had never come up. Gear suspected he had come overseas hoping to make it big in Canterlot where all the ponies gathered, then Curry got here and discovered it wasn’t that easy if you weren’t a unicorn graduated from Celestia’s school. Having discovered that, he had just resorted to selling his ‘exotic’ foods to ponies who were interested or wanted a taste of home.
He made a decent living, judging by the decorations and defenses for his shop he’d set up, but it probably wasn’t everything he imagined it was going to be. Gear figured that it was a lot of hard work with very little reward. Gear had managed to get a job in the
Gear Grinder walked down the sidewalk of the narrow switchback road leading down from the apartments to the commercial district. For the area Gear lived, it was mostly alcohol, clothes, and a single inordinately expensive food mart. Hence why Gear usually bought food from Curry. He shopped elsewhere when he could.

Like today. He’d worn his largest set of saddle bags so that he could buy some things from Ponyville while he was down there. If he still had bits or room left over when he was done, he was going to stop by one of the supermarkets on his way back through Canterlot.
Right now, though, he needed to hurry. His visor told him he was now fifteen minutes late for his meeting. He broke into a trot, weaving in and out of the crowd as he wound his way down into the mountain to the subway station.
“Hey guys, going into the mountain. If I lose connection, you know what happened. I’ll be back online when the subway’s out,” Gear typed to the chat.
“No worries, Spider. There’s not much going on in here other than me kicking Balls’ flank at Equestrian Warriors,” Chain Gang said.
“Constantly spamming Dragon’s fireball attack is bullshit and you know it,” Ball Buster retorted.
“I can beat you with Steely Gaze if you’re gonna bitch about it,” Chain Gang said.
“Try it, then! Nopony can get through Thunderfury’s lightning wall without a projectile attack!” Ball Buster boasted.
“Gonna make you eat those words, Balls,”
The typing stopped as the two focused their attention on the game. It was a fighting game they frequently played together. Chain Gang was the best at it, but Spider, as Gear called himself online, was getting better. Living in such squalor as he did, his online gaming was the sole escape he had from the bleak existence he was living.
His job was hard, but it paid well, and if he continued living such a stark life outside of work, enjoying nothing but his online entertainment, he would eventually be able to afford an apartment in a better part of town. That was the goal, anyway.

He didn’t know if it would ever happen, but he was going to keep working, and he was going to keep trying. Things were steady for now. He had a good job, he had acceptable living conditions and there was a solid lock on his door. He had his goggles for the net, and they were probably the most expensive thing he owned, including his apartment’s rent. He didn’t have to look at the place he lived. He could just go to work, do what was needed, and come home.
Gear Grinder sighed as his goggles lost connection inside the tunnel and tilted them up onto his forehead. The train had to make its way down the interior of Horn mountain before it would exit into Ponyville. Wireless didn’t work in here unless you had one of those magic-powered antennae, but those were expensive. He couldn’t get one right now.
He waited on the platform until the train came along, and climbed on amidst dozens of other ponies. He couldn’t find a seat at this hour, so he stood, swaying in the aisle as the train hovered its way down the track through Inner Canterlot. He’d arrive at Ponyville Station soon, and then work would begin.

Chapter 2

Amperage waited at Pony-Can station impatiently. He understood that earth ponies had to walk everywhere, but Gear Grinder was half an hour late! Traffic couldn’t have possibly been that bad, and the trains were impeccable. There was no announcement that they’d been delayed for any reason. No pony had thrown themselves in front of one yet, so what was taking him?
He looked around at the motley crew occupying the station. They were made up of lizards, fish, buffalo, minotaurs, and many others. A sign of living in Ponyville. The name still stuck all these years later, but it was decidedly not a village any longer.

It had grown quickly some years after the princess of friendship ascended. The creation of her castle had drawn ponies in at first, as they wanted to take advantage of the proximity to a new seat of power. Soon after the ponies came in, other creatures wanted to move in. Zebras, goats, donkeys, minotaurs. They had been welcomed by the princess, but hearing about how welcoming she had been had drawn other creatures from the south. Creatures without hooves.
They say Ponyville used to be more about friendship, and ostensibly that’s still true, but Ponyville sought to welcome literally everypony that came. Griffins, minotaurs, arimaspi, buffalos, yaks. Everypony who went to Ponyville was welcomed, and it wasn’t long before it contained the widest range of cultures in all of Equestria. That meant that every culture wanted to have the comforts of home, and in an effort to be more welcoming, the princess of friendship helped them make it happen. Now it was a sprawling metropolis covering much of the lower countryside around Horn mountain, but it’s not quite as welcoming as it used to be.Everypony is still welcome, but it’s not as safe as a pony would want.
Ponies, being smaller than many of the other creatures in and especially outside Equestria, are easy targets for bigger creatures like minotaurs or the fish-folk from the south. Pegasi can fly, but griffins are bigger and more vicious, and if you aren’t a powerful unicorn, your magic isn’t quite enough to protect you from anypony wishing to do you ill. The princess tried to quell such habits early on, because friendship is about not taking advantage of your fellow creatures, but as it grew it became impossible for her to police everything. She and the other elements of harmony tried, but it grew too big too quickly.

A police force was created, of course, and they were everywhere, but then the princess of friendship found out she couldn’t police the police, and corruption became the name of the game. Bribery, abuse of power, you name it, it began happening. Now Ponyville was known as the City of Pleasure. Anything you wanted, you could get if you knew the right pony.
“Or creature, as the case may be,” Amperage muttered to himself. He ruffled his wings impatiently, then sighed gratefully as the train pulled up.
He raised a wing and flipped his visor down. The HUD popped up and he hunted the crowd disembarking for the ID of Gear’s visor. A targeting reticle appeared and scanned the crowd, then zoomed in on a pony pushing through the crowd, labeling him as ‘Spider Web’, Gear’s online name. Amperage flapped his wings and floated above the crowd, flying over to Gear. He floated above him and clapped his hooves.
“Gear! You’re bloody late!” Amperage yelled above the crowd.
Gear looked up, then stumbled as ponies behind him pushed him onward. He didn’t respond, but pointed further ahead to an empty section of the train platform. Amperage flew over to it and waited as Gear shoved through the crowd.
“I know I’m late. You can clearly see why.” Gear gestured to the packed platform.
“It shouldn’t have taken you quite this long to get here. We’re forty-five minutes behind schedule.” Amperage pointed to his visor, which displayed the time on the front for Gear to see.
“Well, whatever. Are you ready to go? I got my saddlebags. That’s why I’m here, right? To carry stuff? I just hope it isn’t too much. I wanted to buy some groceries from Ponyville,” Gear said.
“That is why you’re here, yes. I can’t fly while carrying everything, that’s why I volunteered you. I figured you could get out of your apartment and the station once in a while, eh?” Amperage punched Gear in the shoulder with a smile.

Amperage had worked with Gear Grinder for a while, and he’d noticed that the other stallion rarely left his home. Amperage was a bit of a social butterfly himself, so when there were work parties, vacations, nights out, and anything like that, Gear Grinder was conspicuously absent. So, in an effort to give the poor stallion some much-needed socializing, he’d go out of his way to make opportunities for the other pony to get out and see the city.
“Ugh,” Gear Grinder groaned. “Should have known it wasn’t just chance that we ended up together.”
“Aw, you say that like it’s a punishment to work with me.” Amperage smiled wide.
“It’s not on the top of my list of fun things to do.”
“Hey, c’mon. I did this as a favor for you. I don’t expect anything in return, but surely you can enjoy getting out of the power plant?”
Gear sighed and flipped his goggles down over his eyes now that he had connection again. “Yeah, I do. Sorry. Don’t mean to sound ungrateful.”
“Nah, dude. I get it. I do.” Amperage bumped into Gear’s side and grinned. “Getting out and about isn’t your thing. But this is work. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me if you want to get paid! Could be worse, right?”
“Yeah, it could be worse. Thanks, Amp.”
“Excellent! Now, this is a fully reimbursed trip down to Ponyville. Travel and food are all paid for, but luxury items are not. Keep your receipts, and let’s pick up some fun stuff, eh? And remember…”
“No separating from your partner. I know. I’ve been sent down before.”
“There ya go! But we’re covered for the whole day, so let’s make the most of it, yeah?” Amperage fluttered his wings in excitement. “Anything in particular you wanted to see?”
Gear Grinder thought about it for a moment. “Well, besides some of the cheaper and exotic foods they have down here, I wanted to find that electronics store. Do you know the one I mean? What was the name…”

Amperage’s face lit up. “Eternal lights! Yeah, I know the one! You can see it glowing at night. The place is lit up like a Hearthswarming tree.”
“You’ve never been?”
“Never wanted to. I use the net for information and the occasional bit of Dirtville on Muzzlebook. Most ponies talk about Eternal Lights as ‘the’ gaming store in Ponyville, but gaming isn’t my thing.”
“That makes sense. I haven’t been because it’s expensive. You can see the prices online and they’re out of reach, but I wanted to see if they had a techmantic antenna I could buy. That way I can use my goggles inside Mount Horn.”
“Ohhhh, that’d be cool. Maybe I’ll get one too. Then I could check Muzzlebook while at work!”
“That’s part of the reason I want one so much. In Canterlot you have to go to the upper levels to find stores that sell them, and they always charge more to earth ponies. I stopped going up there when I found that out.”
“Ah, yeah. Shit sucks.” Amperage’s ears flicked as he clicked about his own visor. The sensors attached to his ears picked up the motions and Gear could see the cursor moving about his HUD. “Alright then. You want to pick up the supplies before or after our shopping spree?”
“That depends on what you want to do, if anything. I just want to shop for food and the techmantic antenna. Depending on distance, that should be done in a couple hours.”
“I don’t need anything. I can fly down here whenever I want, remember?” Amperage flapped his wings for emphasis.
“Right. Rub it in, why don’t you?”
“Hahaha!” Amperage put a hoof over Gear’s withers “Not trying to rub anything in, dude. Just making a point. Maybe I’ll help you with groceries sometime, eh? As payment, maybe we can hang out?”

Gear looked at Amperage in confusion. “And do what?”
“Hey, I dunno, maybe play some of those games you like so much?”
“…I’ll think about it.”
“That’s all I can ask for!” Amperage flicked his ears some more. “So, groceries?”
“Yeah, let me pull up the directions.”
Gear’s ears flicked about and his eyes darted to and fro inside his goggles. He clicked through several maps until he found one he liked, and with a flick of an ear, he sent it over to Amperage, who looked it over.
“Ahhh, yeah. I know these landmarks. Doing it by hoof will be very different, but I think I can find the way. Come on, Gear!” Amperage made sure Gear Grinder was following him and led the way off the station platform and into Ponyville.
The station they were at was at the base of Horn mountain, and was the only train connection between Ponyville and Canterlot. Being in such a position, it saw a lot of traffic, and the train was huge to match the need for business. The morning and evening rush saw ponies leaving Canterlot and going to Ponyville to work, then it saw those same ponies at the end of the day leaving Ponyville and heading back up to the safety of Canterlot. It was mostly earth ponies, of course. Unicorns and pegasi either didn’t need to leave Canterlot in the case of the unicorns, or could just fly down in the case of the pegasi.
During the rest of the day, it saw the occasional use by non-pony folk. The rest of the creatures who weren’t welcome in Canterlot still had business to do there. Many of the employed ponies who could get about the city with ease and safety, and likewise ponies would call on the creatures from below to help them do business in Ponyville. It was a neat and tidy symbiotic relationship.

In Gear Grinder and Amperage’s case, the power station just didn’t want to be seen employing such creatures, and sent a duo of ponies down to Ponyville to fetch supplies they needed that they could get for much less than by dealing with the unicorns above. All it took was sending a couple ponies deep into the lion’s den.
Amperage looked about the streets as the two of them walked, and saw why it was considered so dangerous. The two of them were dwarfed by nearly every creature around them. All manner of beasts, reptilian, mammalian, and avian were everywhere, and all of them stood taller than the two ponies.
“You’ve been down here before, right?” Gear Grinder asked.
“Yeah…” Amperage was distracted, trying to pick between two roads.
“How come they don’t send a unicorn in the team?” Gear asked. “I feel… exposed. I’m not even the strongest earth pony at the power station. What am I supposed to do if we get attacked?”
“Get captured, but don’t get captured with the supplies.”
“That’s not very funny.”
“It’s not supposed to be. They really don’t care what happens to you.”
“It feels that way.”
“Well, let me put it this way: Do you have family in Canterlot?”
“No. They all live in Vanhoover or Baltimare.”
“No foals or special somepony?”
“No.”
“They you’re incredibly disposable.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Sorry, dude. S’just how work sees it.”
“Well at least I’m out of the power station!” Gear forced a smile.
Amperage clapped him on the back. “That’s the spirit! Now let me concentrate on where we’re going. I might need to fly up and get a pegasi-view of the streets.”
“What? Don’t leave me down here alone!”
“It’s just for a second. I need to get my bearings. Now don’t move.” Amperage spread his wings and leaped into the air. He flew up in tight circles to ensure he didn’t move far from his take-off point, and kept the reticle in his HUD trained on Gear.

He spun about in the air, trying to find the buildings that matched the pegasi-view of the city. The path it was asking them to take to the nearest pony-friendly grocery was through some questionable streets, but he was trying to find some that were going to end up near Eternal Lights. That way they’d be able to hit two pegasi with one rock.
Amperage double-checked the path one more time, then nodded to himself and swooped back down to rejoin Gear Grinder. He found the poor earth pony waylaid by a smaller cat-creature who had his large coat open to show off unicorn horns. Gear was not amused.
“Okay, first off, that is disgusting. Second, that’s not even how a unicorn horn works. You can’t just glue it on your forehead and have it work. Now get the hell away from me before I call the police for trafficking body parts,” Gear Grinder said, shooing the cat away with a hoof.
Upon seeing Amperage landing nearby, the cat creature closed his jacket and scuttled off.
“Making friends already, eh?” Amperage trotted over.
“It is the City of Friendship.”
“City of Pleasure to anypony who really knows it.”
“I hear it’s not as bad as all this near the Castle. The princess really keeps things under control over there. Regimenting most things with a bit of an iron hoof.”
“Where’d you hear that?”
“The net.”
“Ah.”
“Well, you got the path?”
“Yeah. Follow me.”
The two turned down a street lined with small shops and smaller homes on either side. Children of all ages and sizes played in the streets, and some probably weren’t playing at all but just wanted you to believe they were. Amperage kept a hoof on his bits and kept most creatures away with his wings. Gear Grinder wasn’t worried about his saddlebags because he had nothing in them yet, but he kept his bit-pouch around his neck and a sidelong eye on anypony around him. Otherwise he stayed tight on Amperage’s tail.

“I think we’re almost there,” Amperage said.
“Good.” Gear responded.
Amperage looked behind himself at Gear, and noticed the pony’s eyes weren’t fully on the path ahead of him. It looked like he was reading or writing something in his goggles. It was about what Amperage had come to expect about the stallion.
He didn’t bug him about it. He led the way, making sure Gear was following him the whole time, and waved a happy hoof at the store when they had arrived. “Here we are, Gear. One of the few shops that sells only pony-friendly food! Fruits, vegetables, and grains abound! Without a single carcass in sight!”
The store had a friendly and colorful sign out front, and was much smaller in size than its neighbors. Compared to the other streets they had traveled down, there was a significantly larger population of ponies around the store. Earth ponies and pegasi were coming and going. Usually in pairs, but there was the occasional lone pony. Not a single unicorn, though.
“Oh, I didn’t need it to be strictly pony-friendly. I’m not squeamish about meat, but thank you, Amp.”
“Anything to make my new bud’s trip down to Ponyville that much more pleasant,” Amperage said. “In addition, it’s not that far from Eternal Lights, either, so I had an ulterior motive for picking this.”
Gear visibly brightened at mention of the electronics store. “Oh! That’s fantastic! I’ll hurry and get groceries. Then we can head over there!”
“I’ll wait out here,” Amperage said with a smile. He took up a position outside the front of the store while Gear Grinder went inside.
Amperage waited patiently for his friend. He pony-watched while idling outside the store. Pegasi flew down from above, one of which he recognized. He nodded hello and got a nod back, but he didn’t know them well enough to strike up conversation. But then he noticed a pony across the street watching him.

It was a lone pony. A unicorn mare, of all things, but that wasn’t the only thing that made her stand out. Her clothes looked hoof-woven, with obvious and poor stitching, and she was wearing a lot of them, as well as a large straw hat. She also appeared to have no headset, goggles, or other augments that were visible. It made her look out of place among the myriad electronics, cables, and concrete surrounding them. Either she’d done a damn good job hiding them in her clothes and hat, or she had none. Amperage wasn’t sure which was stranger.
It began to unnerve him. She was just standing there, watching him appraise her and her clothes. She didn’t waver in her gaze, and Amperage couldn’t bring himself to stare back. He glanced at her eyes, but he found himself unable to hold her gaze. Her eyes were a bright and sunshiny yellow, and he wasn’t able to stare at her the same way she stared back at him.
He tried to pay attention to anything else, but she wasn’t leaving, and she didn’t appear to be shopping. It was like she was there just to look at him. He looked around, but there was nopony else standing in her gaze but him. Tentatively, he waved at her and gave an awkward smile. To his surprise, she waved back. He pointed at himself, and she nodded.
Just then, Gear Grinder walked back out of the store. “Alright then. Got a good amount of produce much cheaper than you can get in Canterlot. It’s criminal how little they charge down here. I’m just glad it’s not actually illegal.” Gear stopped as he noticed Amperage glancing across the small street.
“She’s been watching me for almost the whole time you’ve been in there, dude,” Amperage said. “It’s been a little weird. I even waved to her and she waved back.”
“Yeah, and? Did you talk to her?”
“Not yet. You think I should?”

“I’m actually surprised you haven’t yet. Aren’t you the one who tries to get me to go out and talk to ponies all the time?”
“Yeah, but this is different. Her stare is… kind of unnerving.”
“She’s just looking. Maybe she’s got a thing for pegasi, or your wings are just the right size, or your color sets her off in just that kind of way. I don’t know.”
“Yeah, you’re right. It’s just… those eyes. Have you looked at them?” Amperage gestured with a hoof at the mare across the way.
Gear looked over at the mare, and she glanced at him, but then looked right back at Amperage. Gear did cluck his tongue in amazement, though. “Wow. They’re intense, you’re right. But she really seems interested in only you. I really think you should go say hello, at the very least.” Gear punched Amperage in the shoulder.
“Yeah, okay. I think I will!” Amperage puffed up his chest, and ruffled his wings. “Here I go!”
“Good luck!”
Amperage crossed the street, ducking under some of the creatures going about their business, and fluttering over one of the huge electric cycles that puttered down the roads. He alighted on the road just in front of the mare and cleared his throat.
“Hello there,” the mare spoke first, throwing him off. Her voice was deep, but she spoke in a clipped manner, without wasting time.
Amperage gawped for a moment before he could speak. “Uh… hey! I saw you watching me and thought I’d come say hello.”
“I was wondering if you’d take the hint or not. You really must thank your friend there for giving you the push you needed.” She gestured across the road to Gear.
“Hahaha. He’s not quite a friend yet. I’m working on that. He doesn’t get out much, but we’re down here for work. Speaking of, I really can’t stay and chat for a long time. My name’s Amperage. Pleased to meet you.” Amperage stuck out a hoof.

She reached up and took his hoof. “I am Nom de Guerre, but you may call me Guerre. It is a pleasure indeed, Amperage.”
Amperage felt an electric charge go up his spine when she spoke his name. Hearing her say it just made him feel tingly all over. This mare was something else, and she was interested in him! He couldn’t believe his luck!
He smiled at her and sighed. “So, Guerre…” Amperage savored the sound of her name.  “Since I can’t stay, is there any way I might contact you? I noticed you don’t have any tech. Are you purely techmantic?”
“Oh, not at all. I do not use any tech whatsoever. I find it distracts me from the here and now.”
“A reasonable way of looking at it. My co-worker over there spends most of his time online, but he seems happy,” Amperage said. “So, is there any way we can meet again? I’d love to get to know you better.”
“Yes, of course there is.” Guerre levitated a card out of one of the pockets of her coat. “Call this number if you wish to contact me. It is where I live. They will relay the message and I can call you back.”
Amperage took the card out of the air. It was a business card for a bakery called ‘Loafers’, with Nom de Guerre’s name written in a beautiful flowing script on the back. Amperage looked up at Guerre and grinned wide. “Sweet! Thanks very much, Guerre! I’ll contact you tonight! I promise!”
“I look forward to it, Amperage.”
Amperage felt that delightful chill go up his back again as his name spilled from her lips, and he grinned even harder. He waved goodbye to Guerre and flew back across the road, doing a happy spin before landing next to Gear.

“Went well, then?” Gear asked.
“Dude, it went awesome! She’s totally into me, and I got her number!” Amperage excitedly shook the business card under Gear’s nose.
“Nice! What’s her name?”
Amperage grinned. “Nom de Guerre.”
“Nom de Gwhere? Isn’t that Prench?”
Amperage shrugged. “Hey, I dunno, but that’s what she said her name was.” He suddenly looked worried. “You don’t think she gave me a fake name and number did she?” Amperage looked back across the street, but the mare was gone. Only the creatures hurrying up and down the street remained.
“No, no. Not at all. I just said I thought it was Prench. I don’t actually know Prench,” Gear said. “Anyway, let’s get to Eternal Lights. We’re still on a schedule you know.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Amperage looked at where Nom de Guerre had been standing one last time, tucked the business card into his shirt, and gave a happy little hop, fluttering his wings. “This way, this way!”

Chapter 3

They had limited time for shopping, but Gear Grinder was intent on making the most of it. Despite Amperage’s insistence that he could call and ask for help getting down to Ponyville anytime, he still didn’t feel comfortable around all these huge creatures that seemed to dominate the city. He was sure their presence was good for business and trade, and the economical benefits of having such a diverse population were surely impressive, but it didn’t make a pony feel very safe. Especially when pony body parts were such hot commodities for so many of them.
That said, Eternal Lights was almost enough to make him want to come back. The place was both an electronic shop and an arcade built into a what was probably once an office building. It filled ten stories, with only the first two selling tech. The other eight were dedicated to arcade machines, and it was glorious.

The latest machine for Equestrian Warriors was there, and there was the Luna-vision pod machine for Changeling’s Adventure. Gear had never had the opportunity to play that before. It was supposed to make you feel like you were actually a completely new pony. They said it only used tech, but Gear was certain some techmancy went into it, because you only found it on the upper levels of Canterlot.
Sadly, despite Gear wanting to spend time playing the games, they couldn’t stay. They had his antenna, so he bought one, and Amperage got one too, then they were on their way, with Gear giving the store one last sad look as they left.
“Hey, dude. Don’t look so glum. You got your antenna, and remember my offer: We can come down any time you like. Within reason, of course,” Amperage hastily amended. “I’m not bringing you down here every second day just to play Equestrian Warriors.”
“Well gee, now you’ve gone and lied to me,” Gear said sarcastically. “That’s not really anytime then, is it?”
“You got me. I’m a filthy liar. I only tell fibs.”
“Damn right.”
Amperage chuckles, then his ears flick as he pulls up the map on his HUD. “Let me just find out where we’re going for work. I’ll be right back down after I’ve gotten my bearings, then we’ll be on our way back home.”
“I’ll wait here.”
“Okay. Shouldn’t be too far away. Just a few streets. It might even end up being closer to the station if this is correct. Be right back!” Amperage leaped into the air and flew upward in lazy circles. He’d made it halfway up Eternal Lights’ façade when there was a loud *SQUAAAAWK!* and a griffin crashed into him!
“Amp!” Gear yelled in alarm.
The griffin clawed at him, screeching and howling, and Amperage was just trying to hold him off, wings flapping wildly. Feathers filled the air as the two lashed out at each other while Gear was helpless to only watch from the ground.

After several more seconds of fighting, the griffin ripped Amperage’s saddlebags off him, and dove out of sight, leaving Amperage dazed and confused. Holding his head, he floated down to Gear, who rushed up to him.
“Are you okay?” Gear asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little bit scratched up. He got my saddlebags and that was all,” Amperage said, dabbing at his face with a hoof. He looked up at Gear Grinder. “How’s my face look?”
Gear gave him a once-over and smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Not too bad. A lot of scratches, but I don’t think anything will need stitches. What did you have in your bags?”
“Just the rest of my bits and a set of shoes. Thanks for carrying my antenna, by the way. That was lucky.”
“That’s literally why I’m here. To carry your stuff.”
“Heh, yeah.”
“Also; why do you have a set of shoes in your bag?”
“Just in case.”
“Just in case what?”
Amperage just shrugged. He blinked as a drop of blood dripped past his eye. “I never found out.”
“Luna’s ass, dude. You look like you lost a fight with a cat.”
“I literally just did.”
“Heh. You’re right. Let’s get you patched up. Eternal Lights should have a first-aid kit.” Gear pulled his friend back inside the arcade.

The two stallions got Amperage some bandages, then finished their errand for work. They parted ways at the Pony-Can station, with only a little arguing.
“Are you sure you can fly home alright? Your eye looks swollen.”
“Yeah. It’s nothing I haven’t flown with before. I know a doc in Cloudsdale who can take a look at it. He specializes in griffin-caused injuries.”
“There’s a specialty for that?”
“In today’s Ponyville, there’s a specialty for most things.”
“Understandable,” Gear said as the train pulled in. “I’ll drop the supplies off, then contact you online when I’m home safe. Good luck, Amp.”
“Thanks, Gear. I’ll need to submit an on-the-job injury report, but I’ll catch you online. Later!”

“Hah, no worries. This was work-related, so I get fully reimbursed. I’ll need to submit an on-the-job injury report, but I’ll catch you online later!” He waved a hoof, then took off into the sky, leaving Gear waiting for the train.

Gear didn’t have long to wait. Soon after Amperage flew away, the great steel beast hove into the station. It’s neon trim giving it a ghostly pallor in the dim evening light. Gear Grinder stepped through the doors into the train, found himself a seat and flipped down his goggles to check with his friends before the train got inside the mountain.
Gear could see that Balls had left for the night, but Chain Gang was still there. “Hey, guys. Day’s just about over. Just gotta drop some stuff off at work.”
There were a bunch of scattered hellos, and the occasional ‘good work’ here and there. Chain Gang didn’t respond immediately, but a pony by the name of Laugh Track popped in with his usual flair.
“Runnin’ outta supplies at the power station makes it sound like they should… ‘charge’ more for their services, huh? ;D” Laugh Track said.
Most of the chat groaned and emoted themselves throwing fruit, which just made Laugh Track smile harder.
“:DDDDDD”
Gear left it alone and didn’t say anything. He was just waiting for the action to die down a little before he threw a huge damper on the mood. The back and forth continued, with Laugh Track continuing the barrage of puns until one of the mods kicked him from the room. He hopped back in immediately.
“Removed from the room after only five puns. Was that a record?”
“No, the fewest pun record was with three,” one of the moderators of the chat room said. He went by the name of Large Hat.
“Are you sure?” Laugh Track said.
“I’m positive.”
“:D”

It took him a minute, but eventually Large Hat understood. “Luna’s ass,” he said, then removed himself from the room, only to jump right back in.
Gear chuckled, which got him some strange looks from some of the ponies around him on the train. They all turned away and paid him no more mind when they figured out he was on his goggles. It was a pretty commonplace sight, it was just the noise. Most ponies still tried to avoid laughing out loud.
“So, my day was an adventure. My pegasus co-worker got mugged while we were down in Ponyville. Lost his saddlebags and got his face all scratched up by a griffin,” Gear said in the chat.
“Woah, no shit?” Laugh Track said.
“No shit. He was flying up to check our location and a griffin just swooped out of nowhere and attacked him. It was probably like, twice his size.”
“Wow. That’s really something else. Was this your first time down in Ponyville, Spider?” Large Hat asked.
“Mine, yes. I was only sent at my co-worker’s request, and because I’m an earth pony. I literally only went to carry things. That, and work requires two ponies to go down to Ponyville together. Safety reasons.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Large Hat said.
“Oh, hey Spider! That sounds like quite the adventure. Were your co-worker’s injuries bad?” Chain Gang had started paying attention to his goggles again.
“No, he said they were mostly superficial, but they were all scratches to his face. It looked really nasty, though. Blood was dripping into his eyes and everything. He didn’t even really seem fazed, like this was normal.”
“Wow. Your co-worker sounds like a badass,” Chain Gang said.
“He’s okay. We never really talked much, but he really wanted to hang out, be it online or off, so if he and I end up playing games I’ll probably invite him to the chat.”

“Is he good at games?” Laugh Track asked.
“I have no idea. I barely know the guy. He’s probably better at Equestrian Warriors than Balls, though. Everypony is.”
“Awwww, poor guy isn’t even here to defend himself,” Chain Gang said. “I’ll tell you that he’s really working on Thunderfury’s defensive game. He almost kept me away with that lightning wall …almost.”
“Well, that’s neither here nor there until I talk to him tomorrow.” Gear Grinder rummaged in his bag for his new antenna. The train was coming up on the mountain, and now was the perfect time to test it. He found it nestled in a safe corner of a pocket next the miscellaneous parts that dominated his saddlebags. He also found Amperage’s antenna. He’d forgotten to give it to him before he left.
Gear rubbed a hoof over his face. Amperage had probably done this on purpose. Asking him to hold it, then forgetting it on purpose just so that he’d have an excuse to call on him again. It was a very clever ploy.
Gear’s eyes turned back to his HUD. “Ugh. In all the excitement, I ended up taking my co-worker’s new techmantic antenna. Now I’m going to have to contact him and give it back to him. I think he did it on purpose.”
“Oh! I’ve heard of those! They’re expensive as fuck. Where’d you get it?” Laugh Track asked.
“Eternal Lights, down in Ponyville. I was saving up anyway, so I thought I’d see if they had one. Half the price of the ones in Upper Canterlot.”
“Daaaaaayum. That really boosts my signal. :D I’ll have to go sometime.”
“Ahhh, Upper Canterlot. Why you gotta hate me because I don’t have a penis in the middle of my forehead?”
“Hey, not everypony up here is an asshole,” Large Hat said.
“You’re a bit of an asshole,” Laugh Track retorted.

“What, really?” Large Hat said.
Everypony in the chat gave an “Ehhhh” or a “Hmmm”.
“Seriously? Am I that bad?”
“We’re just pullin’ your leg, Hat. Don’t worry so much,” Gear said. “You’re the least stuck-up unicorn I know.”
“Other than your boss, aren’t I the only unicorn you know?”
“Yes.”
“Great. Really means a lot, :/” Large Hat typed out.
“You’re fine. Don’t get your socks bunched up. But you’ll have to forgive me while I set up my new antenna. Entering the mountains now.”
“Good luck, Spider,” Chain Gang said.
“Good luck ‘boosting your signal’ in public ;),” Laugh Track said.
Gear took off his goggles so that he could see what he was doing with the antenna. Being a piece of techmancy, it had strange parts that he didn’t recognize, and couldn’t guess the function of. He pulled out the instructions and began reading through them, trying familiarize himself with what each section did.
The antenna wasn’t huge. It fit into a slot that was on every piece of head-tech and could be expanded or retracted so it would activate or not. It used either electricity or magic, depending on which one the pony using it had available to them, and would connect to the nearest wireless signal, riding ambient magic or ley lines, regardless if you were a unicorn or not.
Despite his familiarity with a lot of tech and other machines, Gear could not fathom how it worked. He’d been using tech and working with it all his life, but techmancy was something unique to unicorns. It made him more than a little jealous.
Gear fit the antenna into the slot on his goggles, then fastened it in with the provided latch and plug. It shouldn’t fall off no matter how hard he jostled it, and the plug ensured he could make it extend or retract with the in-tech interface. Once he was satisfied it was in, he slid the goggles back over his eyes and turned it all back on just as the train entered the mountain.

The setting sun disappeared, and the inner lights on the train clicked on as they sensed the darkness. Gear stared at the stone walls outside the train as he watched the chat log go by in front of him. They were talking about modding the game Yaket. Laugh Track was all about the more risqué mods and making flanks as big and round as possible, while Large Hat preferred mods that improved immersion and Chain Gang liked difficulty mods. Gear ignored them for now. He had no opinion on modding, nor the game Yaket.
He turned to the window and stared at the passing stone. It wouldn’t be long before the stone walls would disappear and they would enter the power station.
A marvel of unicorn, earth pony, and pegasi combined engineering; the power station collected heat energy from far below Horn Mountain. Sensors had been drilled into the ground until they struck magma and, using unicorn magic to prevent them from melting, they collected the heat energy in multitudes of heat-resistant cables devised by pegasi to collect lightning. The cables themselves were the size of the train Gear was riding in, and had been smithed to the pegasi specifications and transported and set in place by earth ponies. The whole station had been created right before the division of the races had happened, and was the last great thing they all had created working together. It had lasted hundreds of years, and was predicted to last hundreds more with proper upkeep.
Gear’s job at the power station was nothing so glamorous as those who had created it. His job was mostly fetching things for others, with the occasional bit of cleaning and heavy lifting. He had no illusions about his position though. He was disposable and he knew it. Hence why he never said no to anything; like going down to somewhere as dangerous as Ponyville.

The train roared across the suspended rails, passing over gaping holes drilled into the stone below. Remnants of the unicorn drilling project, some of the holes had gone nowhere, or they hadn’t struck magma like they thought. The huge pits inside the mountain’s core had been left behind and never filled in.
The air conditioning in the train clicked on as the ambient temperature rose. Gear could see short sections of the superheated cables, excess waves of heat shimmering off them and being dispersed into the stone nearby. The cables and their sensors came up from below and into the collection area, where the heat was converted into power in areas Gear wasn’t allowed to go. Then all that power went out to power all of Canterlot; upper, central, and lower, with excess power stored for emergencies.
The train pulled into the station, and Gear and a several other ponies got off. Co-workers, most of them. He’d seen them in passing, but like with Amperage, Gear never spoke to any of them. He didn’t know what he would say if it didn’t have to do with work, and since many of them were unicorns, he didn’t even have to work with them. He’d just deliver things to them, then leave.
Gear trotted through the station, all the way up the tunnel to the building, swiped his keycard and stepped inside the building proper. The cool air of the interior washed over him and he sighed gratefully. It wasn’t uncomfortable outside the building, but it was stifling. It felt thick, and it wasn’t pleasant, no matter how much pegasi and unicorn magic attempted to regulate it. Gear quickly ran to the quartermaster and delivered the materials. He said nothing to the quartermaster and she said nothing back. They just exchanged paperwork, then Gear left. He went straight back to the train station, out into the stifling heat, and got to wait again. He sighed, then flipped his visor down and went back to the chat.

“Turned all the supplies in at work, and now I get to go home. Full day’s pay, and all I had to do was carry some stuff. I even got to hang out at an awesome arcade during work. Good stuff,” Gear said in the chat.
“Nice work, Spider. You got your antenna working, then?” Chain Gang said.
“Yep! Works like a charm. This is going to make those dreary days walking back and forth across the station much more fun.”
“You think you’re gonna go hang out with that co-worker you mentioned?”
Gear didn’t type anything for a moment as he thought it over. “I guess I will. I have to return his antenna to him since he left it with me. I might as well make a day of it.”
“That’s the spirit! I don’t think it’ll be as bad as you imagine.”
“You’re probably right. But mentioning that, I should send him a message. I told him I’d let him know when I dropped everything off and got home.”
Gear flicked away the chat screen, relegating it to the ‘most-used’ icons on the side of his HUD, then pulled open one of the more common messengers most ponies used. Gear and his online friends avoided it because it was cluttered with ads and the like, but Gear kept it for work-related messages. His Boss was on there if anypony needed him, so Gear made sure to keep his profile as sterile as possible: No incriminating evidence there!
He flicked through the names until he found the one he was looking for: Amperage. Pegasus pony. Works at Canterlot Power Station. Not in a relationship—and with a profile pic of him making a duck face. Classy stuff, Amperage.
Gear sent him a friend request and a message. “Hey Amp. This is Gear Grinder from work. I have your antenna still and I need to deliver it to you. I guess we could—” Gear stopped, confused.

What did normal ponies even do when they hung out? Did they go drinking? Dancing? (Could two stallions go dancing without it seeming too strange?) Gear had no idea what ponies who didn’t share his interests did with their evenings. His evenings usually consisted of finishing work, coming home, and playing games with his friends online. He had no idea what Amperage might enjoy doing. But, Amperage did say he’d try to play some games.
“—hang out?” Gear finished, then hit send. He’d deal with the interpretation of it later. That was too much to deal with at the moment.
The train pulled in through the tunnel, and Gear climbed aboard. He looked for a seat but the only one available was one between an elderly pegasus mare and a tech’d out earth pony. The elderly mare wasn’t a problem, but Gear was still weirded out by body-tech. He opted to stand instead.
The older mare scooted over a little bit and motioned to the seat, but Gear shook his head. His eyes wandered involuntarily to the earth pony and whatever the augment in his chest was supposed to do. He lingered just too long, and the pony caught him staring. The earth pony looked at the mare next to him, motioning for Gear to take a seat, then he looked back at Gear and smirked.
The earth pony pulled back what little his shirt covered, and made a show of inhaling. He inhaled far longer than would have been normal for a pony, and he just kept going. Gear looked away, but he could still hear the pony loudly breathing in. The augment in his chest started making a whirring noise as it started doing something, then the breathing stopped. Gear refused to look, but that whirring noise kept going. Whatever that pony’s chest tech was supposed to do had something to do with breathing regulation, and Gear found that creepy.

Gear waited, but no exhalation was forthcoming. He kept his eyes firmly locked on the passing buildings, interspersed with tunnels through both rock and buildings as the subway sped on its way through lower Canterlot. His stop was coming up soon, and he just wanted off the train and away from that unnatural behavior.
“Guys, there’s this pony on the subway with some sort of lung augment. It covers his whole chest, and he caught me looking, then breathed in—and he just kept breathing in! Now he’s holding his breath while staring at me!” Gear said.
“Oh, yeah,” Large Hat said. “It’s for divers and miners, mostly. They can just take an entire tank’s worth of air with them, without having to carry it. They don’t even need to breath for long periods of time! Useful stuff.”
“It’s creeping me out!”
“Spider, I know you don’t like augments, but they’re everywhere. You really need to get over it. They’re perfectly normal.”
Just then, Gear felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw the augmented earth pony just behind him, chest proudly on display with the dials all maxed out.
Gear jumped in surprise. “Gahhhhh!”
“fddddddddddddtsbsdajjjjjj” Gear typed out on his keyboard.
Ponies on the subway turned to look at Gear, who was clutching his chest and gasping for breath. The large earth pony chuckled and began exhaling. The whirring noise stopped, and he held out a hoof to Gear. Gear ignored it and pulled himself up, grumbling.
“Sorry ‘bout that, mate. Just showin’ off, didn’t mean to scare ya,” the stallion said.
“Well, you don’t need to flaunt it all over the place like that,” Gear said.
“Sorry, mate. Though you were ‘mirin.”
“Well I wasn’t!” Gear snapped.
“Alright, mate. I’ll leave ya to yer prejudice. It helps me keep my job, and I can’t really hide it. No sense being ashamed of it.” The stallion returned to his seat.

Gear just stared out the window until his stop arrived. He ignored the many looks and the muttering of ponies around him, even from the old mare who’d offered him a seat. When his stop arrived he hurried off the train and trotted out of the station. He hurried home, not stopping to get anything from Curry’s place, and locked himself inside his apartment.
He heated some water and made himself instant noodles, then sat down in his favorite and only chair, then focused back on his goggles. “I’m home.”
“You alright, Spider? You mashed out nonsense then went silent for a while there,” Large Hat asked.
“I’m fine. Let’s just play something. I need to get my mind off things.”
“Fair enough. Equestrian Warriors awaits!”
The sound of the game drowned out the noises from the rest of the apartment, and the night grew longer.

Chapter 4

Amperage trotted out of the doctor’s office in Cloudsdale with a wave behind him. The nurse waved goodbye, and he took off into the evening sky. He gingerly touched the bandages the doctor had patched him up with, and felt a stinging sensation. The wounds had been disinfected, and only one of the scratches needed sealed shut, but the disinfectant still stung a bit. The doc said he was lucky his eye hadn’t been hit, and with any luck, it wouldn’t leave a scar. Amperage wouldn’t have minded if that one scarred, as he thought it might add to his rugged good looks. But still, he was fine, and he hadn’t gone blind. Thank Celestia for that!
Amperage dug around in his coat and pulled out the business card. He smiled to himself and did a roll in the air happily. He’d gotten a mare’s number! A unicorn mare no less! He’d probably hear it from some of the guys, but hot damn if he wasn’t happier than a rat in garbage!
He knew all about the neat things a unicorn could do in the bedroom, but he’d never had the opportunity to experience it. A unicorn that was adept with their magic could make all sorts of fun things happen, and stimulate any part of the body without their hooves. They could literally touch you all over!
Amperage kicked his legs in the air in excitement. He really couldn’t blow it. He’d have to play off his injuries when they met, maybe pretend it was a rougher encounter than it had been. But he was lucky to have not lost an eye, that might be enough to impress her.
He flipped the card over and looked at the name: Nom de Guerre. That was such a strange name. Gear said it might be Prench, but Amperage didn’t know. He also didn’t care.

Amperage flew home and alighted on his perch. As a pegasus he had access to the cliff-side or top-floor towers. They were reserved around Middle Canterlot for pegasi exclusively so that they had places easy to take off from. So many pegasi worked in Cloudsdale as worked in Canterlot that it had become a necessity, so it was an unspoken agreement among realtors to sell them to pegasi.
Amperage unlocked the door and went inside. He held onto the business card and tossed his coat to the side, then flipped his goggles down over his eyes. He winced as they pressed on his wounds, but it went away quickly enough.
He filled out his work-related injury form, complete with the doctor’s information so they could verify it. As soon as he was done, his closed those windows and brought up the phone.
He looked at the card again: Loafer’s Bakery. Owner by the name of Six-Grain. Nom de Guerre said she was staying there. Did that mean she might be leaving soon? He hoped not. He could at least bring it up with her, but he said he would call tonight, so he would do that. Amperage dialed in the number, then hit send. He leaned back onto his beanbag chair and waited.
Eventually, a deep stallion’s voice answered the phone. “Loafer’s Bakery: We always rise to the occasion. What can I do for you?”
“Hello, my name is Amperage. I was given this number by a mare named Nom de Guerre? She said she was staying at your location.”
“Hmm? I’m not sure what you—” the timbre of the stallion’s voice suddenly changed “—Oh! Nom de Guerre! Of course, of course! She’s right here.”
There was a fumbling sound as the stallion removed the phone from his ear, then nothing until Amperage heard a mare’s voice on the line.

“Hello, Amperage.” Her voice dropped with sensuality, and Amperage couldn’t help but shiver as she spoke his name.
“Hey, Guerre! It’s alright if I call you Guerre, isn’t it? I said I’d call tonight. I had to stop by the doctor’s office and fill out some paperwork, but I’m finally home! It’s been an exciting day. How are you?”
“I’m doing quite well, thank you. You may call me Guerre if you like, but I do not wish to engage in small talk. I must meet with you as soon as possible. Where do you live?”
Amperage sat up. Was this really happening? Did he really luck out so quickly? All the other one-night stands he’d had were always playing coy and hard-to-get, or they wanted him to buy them drinks and shit. They were never so straightforward.
“Uh… sure! Tonight?”
“Yes, tonight.”
“Well, I can come pick you up if you don’t mind being carried. It’d be quicker than the subway ride up here.”
“That will do. My dignity is not so fragile that I cannot be carried.”
“Well, great! I can find Loafer’s place and be down there within a half hour. Will you be ready?”
“Yes, of course. I am ready right now. I knew you would be calling.”
She was that excited to see him? This was getting better and better. “Sure, I’ll be down right away, then! See you soon!”
“See you soon, Amperage.” She emphasized his name and he shivered again. Damn her voice was sexy!
Amperage hung up and dashed into the bathroom. He gave himself a once-over with some deodorant, rinsed his face and hooves, then looked at what clothes he might wear. He immediately just tossed them back in the closet and dashed out the door. If tonight went the way he wanted, he wouldn’t need clothes!

Amperage locked the door behind him, then dove off his balcony and began gliding down to Ponyville. While he flew, he pulled up a map of Ponyville in his HUD and looked for Loafer’s Bakery. It was pretty unpopular, which made him question why a mare as pretty as Guerre would be staying there. Maybe the rent was cheap? It was even in a pretty nasty part of town. There was a related story that showed several ponies had gone missing in that area over the past month or two. At least it wasn’t too far away from Eternal Lights and the grocery store Gear and he had stopped at. That made it passingly familiar.
Come to think of it, Amperage thought, she did seem a little bit too eager to come to his place. Maybe she was playing him? The thought was worrisome, but as long as he played it safe, checked for weapons, and double-checked things to make sure he wasn’t going to be robbed blind if she did try to take advantage, he should be fine. He should let somepony know what was going on, though.
Amperage pulled up his messenger and logged on to Buzzbook: The online messenger service everypony used. He immediately saw a message from his boss claiming that his medical claim was bunk. He was expecting that, but he’d played this game many a time and he was ready. He’d deal with that tomorrow, though. Tonight was for mares.
Amperage decided against letting his boss know he was going to get laid, and looked at his other messages. To his surprise, he found one from Gear Grinder. He hadn’t expected the stallion to bother messaging him, as the stallion was too uptight. But it looked like he had an extra reason: Amperage had forgotten his techmantic antenna.
Amperage grinned. It had—of course—been a plot to get him to contact him, but he thought he was going to have to make the first move.

Amperage sent a message back: “Hey, yeah! Thanks for holding onto it for me! At least it wasn’t stolen. I’ll send you a message when I can come pick it up, but tonight, I need to let you know: I’m meeting that unicorn mare. The one from Ponyville? She totally wants to jump my bones, dude. She’s coming to my place, so if I’m dead or robbed, I need you to call the police on her, okay? I’ll message you in the morning. If I don’t, I’m probably dead. But at least I got laid!” He added a small picture of an excited pony at the end, then sent it.
Gear would take things seriously. They were new friends, after all. The main thing was that somepony knew he was alive right now, and what was going to be happening. That was the last bit of peace of mind he needed. Now he could get lucky without a care in the world. Amperage flipped up his goggles and swooped down to the place marked by his HUD.
He smelled it before he landed, and it only took a little bit of searching to find the bakery once he’d caught the scent. It was a small place, with a single smokestack and no seats. It looked like the owner lived in a small corner of a larger building, with his entire livelihood on the bottom floor, and his living space above. He wasn’t sure where one building ended and the shop began, but it probably wasn’t very impressive.
Amperage walked up and rapped on the counter. “Excuse me, I’m here to see Nom de Guerre? She lives here.”
The scarred and ugly pony at the counter responded in that deep voice he remembered from the phone. “Ah! Yes, yes. Guerre is upstairs. I will fetch her for you.”
The pony disappeared, and came back down with the green unicorn with the orange mane he remembered from the grocery store.

“Greetings… ‘Amperage’.” She reached out and took his hoof in hers. He felt a chill travel down his spine at her voice and touch, and he wanted nothing more than to hear her speak his name again.
“Hello, Guerre. I, uh…” Amperage lost himself briefly in her impossibly bright yellow eyes. He struggled to continue speaking. “Are you ready to go?”
“Of course, I just need to say goodbye.” She turned to the bakery owner. “Well, I’m leaving now, Six-Grain.”
Six-Grain looked up from the dough he was kneading and his angry face broke into a smile. “Farewell, Nom de Guerre. It was a pleasure having you here.”
“It was indeed. Thank you very much for the food and lodging. But be careful with your work. I worry you might one day—” she paused “—‘work yourself to death, Six-Grain’.” Nom de Guerre turned away from him and looked back up at Amperage. “Let’s go. I don’t want to stay down here in this cesspit any longer.
Amperage listened to the exchange, and briefly wondered why Six-Grain was working so hard so late at night. The sun was below the horizon, and the last light was disappearing. It didn’t make sense to be baking anything fresh when most ponies would be in bed.
Nom de Guerre touched his withers and all thoughts except getting her back to his place left his mind. “Of course! As my lady wishes!” He lifted her up, and she smiled a small smile, then put a hoof on her straw hat to hold it in place, and Amperage jumped into the air.He flew upward in a lazy spiral, then aimed for home.
He’d get her home, and they would… they would… what was he going to do with her? He couldn’t quite figure it out. But when his balcony came into view and he landed, Guerre pulled his key out and unlocked the place herself. She’d let him know what he would do. He knew it.

Chapter 5

Gear woke up in his bed with his goggles still on and the main menu of Equestrian Warriors in front of his eyes. He’d fallen asleep playing games again, but it was not a new experience.
He groaned and rolled out of bed, sliding the goggles off. He went to the bathroom, grabbed a drink of water, showered, and came back out only to slip the goggles right back on. He began checking his morning messages while he got breakfast and prepared for work.
There weren’t many messages from anypony besides the ones from work, but while he was checking Buzzbook to see what was going on with his boss he saw he had a message.
“Oh, yeah. Amperage wanted to hang out,” Gear remembered. He pulled up the message and read it, chuckling to himself. “If he dies. I sincerely hope his one-night stand isn’t that bad, but damn if he isn’t taking a risk.”
Gear opened up his private chat to see who was online and share the latest info with his friends. “Morning guys, guess what?”
“What’s up?” Chain Gang said.
“Morning, Gear. How’s things?” Balls said.
“Well Balls, you might have missed out on the news, but a co-worker wanted me to hang out with him, and just last night he got himself a one-night stand with a unicorn mare we ran into in Ponyville. He left me a message warning me ‘just in case’ things went bad with it,” Gear explained.
“Well, at least he trusts you,” Chain Gang said.
“That’s crazy, he literally just met her and he’s gonna sleep with her?” Balls said. “That’s risky.”
“Strange words coming from the pony who’s all about weird sex,” Chain Gang said.
“Weird sex is fine, but practice safe sex. One-night stands on the spur of the moment are extraordinarily unsafe. And from Ponyville of all places? Eesh. I like their stance on sex, but damn that’s just asking for it.”

“Yeah. He told me if he didn’t contact me this morning that I should call the police. I’ve gotten no new messages since I woke up. How long do you think I should wait?”
“Does he work the same shift as you?” Chain Gang asked.
“Little bit later, but yeah.”
“Go meet him at his place and travel to work together. Be ready to call the police if he doesn’t answer the door.”
“Yeah, he could be left tied up in the room in a gimp suit,” Balls said.
“Balls!”
“Hey! Who knows what your friend is into! That may be his thing!”
“Okay, you do have a point. But if I’m going to meet him, I’ll have to head out now. Going up to his place is probably going to make me late for work.”
“Good luck, Gear. I hope your friend is okay,” Chain Gang said.
“So do I. He seemed nice enough. I’d hate for his enthusiasm to get him in trouble.” Gear flicked his ears and slid the chat out of view. He pulled up Buzzbook and checked his messages.
Still nothing from Amperage, but at least he could find the stallion’s address. It was disturbing how easy it was for anypony to track anypony else with this technology. Gear didn’t leave any of his personal info on Buzzbook except his name. He kept all of that as secret as he possibly could. He didn’t have much, but what he had he wanted to keep safe, and having his home address publicly listed was the opposite way to do that.
Gear sighed as he looked up directions to Amperage’s place. It was really out of the way, but he felt responsible for Amperage’s well-being, seeing as how he had encouraged him to talk to the mare in the first place. This would only be the second time he had ever been late to work, so he felt he could take the risk.

He put on his saddlebags, made sure Amperage’s antenna was still in there, then stepped out the door. He locked it, wandered past all the ponies in the halls, and took the elevator down to the street.
The smell of the city hit him again: That scent of ozone, garbage, and pollution filling the air as thickly as the cables running overhead. The morning sun’s light was muted by both, but there was an almost imperceptible smell of rain coming soon. He never checked the weather forecast, but the pegasi might have a storm in the works. It didn’t matter to him because he couldn’t avoid going out anyway. If they made it rain they made it rain. He’d just have to put up with it.
Gear walked to the station and climbed aboard. He was going further up Canterlot than he usually did, all the way to pegasus territory. He hoped they’d let him into the building. He at least had a name to give the front desk, if Amperage’s apartment was as good as most pegasi.
He had tried to find more information about the place, but all he could get was an address. At the very least, he knew that it was one of the buildings where the top floors were kept exclusively for pegasus ponies. Earth ponies could look, but they could never rent or buy. Not unless they were exceedingly wealthy.
He stepped off the train at a station higher up Horn Mountain. It wasn’t unfamiliar to him. He’d come shopping here sometimes when he’d first gotten his job at the power station. He had stopped when the pegasi had become unwelcoming. It wasn’t as bad as the unicorns in Upper Canterlot, but the racial divide was still present in pegasi as well.

Gear wandered through the lofty streets and air-based shops, gawping at the pegasi flying to and fro. It was still really interesting to see the pegasi being able to make use of such high locations as regular day-to-day things. Gear could see grocery stores and clothing shops, all only accessible by flight, built into the walls of buildings. It was neat and tidy, and cleared up the streets, but wow was the sky busy! Gear walked almost alone down the streets, passing by only the occasional earth pony and the few invalid or too young pegasus ponies.
He followed his ground-based directions to the apartment Amperage lived in and entered the lobby. There was nopony at the desk down here—only a sign that said: Buzz desired number. There was a panel of buttons nearby on the wall, and one of the digital names read: Amperage. Gear pushed the button and waited.
There was no response at first, so he pushed it again. When still nothing came after a wait, he mashed it several times. Holding it slightly each time to draw out whatever sound happened in the apartment far above.
There was finally a sound, then a thumping noise came through the speakers, followed by a mare’s voice. “Yes, how can I help you?”
“You must be Nom de Guerre. This is Gear Grinder. Look, I hate to interrupt your lovely morning cuddles, but I’m Amperage’s co-worker, and he’s late for work. Tell him to get down here.”
“Oh, how terrible! I will tell him right away!”
Gear Grinder could hear the sound of hoofsteps, and then the mare’s voice again from further away. She had left the speaker on accidentally and Gear could hear her talking to Amperage.
“Amperage, you did not tell me you had work so early this morning. Your co-worker has come to pick you up. Please do not get in trouble on my account. I will be here when you return. ‘Go work hard, then come right back home as soon as work is done’”

Gear could hear Amperage mumble something in response. There was the sound of fumbling, walking, then a gasp and a hoof slammed into the speaker, and Gear couldn’t hear anything more. He waited a bit longer, and finally Amperage emerged from the elevator nearby.
Gear waited patiently as Amperage stumbled up to him and gave him a sleepy salute. “Mornin’, Gear. Howzit?”
“I’m… doing okay. How about you?” Gear held the door to the apartment lobby open for amperage.
“M’good.”
“Well you look like shit. Your shirt’s even on inside-out. Was your night really that exciting?”
Amperage smiled stupidly and chuckled.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Gear led the way toward the subway station, Amperage following behind. Amperage didn’t fix his shirt, but he followed along, swaying as he went. “Are you sure you’re okay? You can barely walk.”
“Hm?” Amperage turned quickly to look, his goggles almost flying off his head. “Oh, yeah. She says I’ll feel fine when I get to work, then I have to come right back home afterward.”
“Hmmm… and you’re actually going to do what she says? I thought you wanted to hang out.”
“Oh, I do, but I should do what she says. She can’t leave without me being there to let her back in.”
“She’s staying at your place?”
“Yeah, just for a little while. She’s not from Canterlot. Or Ponyville.”
“Wow. Where’s she from?”
Amperage thought for a moment. “You know, I don’t think she said.”
“That… seems awfully suspicious, Amp.”
“Oh, it’s fine. I was worried she’d steal stuff and take off, but she didn’t. She could have! But she didn’t. I think that says a lot.”
“Well, okay. But don’t let her control your life or take advantage of you. That’s not the carefree Amperage I barely know.”
“Hah! Yeah.” Amperage lifted a hoof and adjusted his goggles, then he whipped around and pointed at Gear. “Oh, yeah! She wanted to meet you!”

“What?”
“Guerre! She wanted me to bring you home after work! You need to come!”
“So quickly? What about you two? Don’t you want… y’know?” Gear thrust his hips a little bit as they climbed on the train.
“Nah. We can do that whenever. She needs to see you.”
“Well, I guess I can. If you don’t think it will cut into our ‘guy’s hangout time.’”
“Yeah! That’s the spirit! I got drinks at home, too! It won’t be a bore.”
Gear took a seat and watched Amperage become more and more animated and lively the closer they got to work. When they arrived, true to Guerre’s word, Amperage was back to his old self. He was hyper and outgoing, and made a point to stick close to Gear during the work day, always requesting him for petty things that he really didn’t need help with.
Gear didn’t mind. At least he was helping somepony who was interested in him as a pony and not merely as a strong back that could carry things. He helped him out and tried to keep himself near Amperage wherever he was working. He had to admit, knowing somepony at work made the job a lot quicker. Well… knowing somepony who didn’t treat him like a pack mule.
For his part, Amperage spent much of the day with Gear gushing about his new marefriend. He couldn’t stop talking about how attractive she was, and how he barely remembered any of what had happened last night it was so good. But, because he woke up absolutely exhausted, it had to have been incredible!
As the day drew to a close and they got ready to go, Gear stuck close to Amperage as they left the power station and walked back down to the subway.
“Couldn’t you just fly home?” Gear asked.
“I could, but then I’d be leaving my new bud to find his way to my place alone! That’s tacky.”

“Well, I appreciate it. But again, are you sure I won’t be imposing?”
“Nah. She’s the one who insisted you come. It has to happen.”
Gear gave Amperage a confused look. “’Has to happen?’ Why?”
Amperage just shrugged. “I don’t know, but she insisted.” He poked Gear in the side and grinned. “Maybe we can double-team her, eh?”
Gear backed away from Amperage and cringed. “I’m… really not comfortable doing that sort of thing, Amp.”
Amperage lifted a hoof in a placating gesture. “Alright, alright. Just saying.” He smiled and waggled his eyebrows. “She’s pretty amazing.”
“I believe you, but all I’ll do is come say hello and hang out for a little while. Please don’t make it weird.”
“I respect that. Nothing weird.” Amperage swiped a hoof across his chest in an ‘X’.
The two stallions boarded the subway train and rode it up to Middle Canterlot. They stepped off the train and, true to his word, Amperage stuck with Gear on hoof despite the looks they got from some of the older pegasi ponies.
It wasn’t normal to see an earth pony and a pegasus spending time together in Middle Canterlot. Lower Canterlot was filled with amenities everypony could access, earth, pegasus, and unicorn alike. Middle Canterlot was filled with pegasus-only facilities, so there wasn’t much reason for an earth pony to be here.
Amperage, for his part, didn’t seem bothered. He ignored all the looks they were getting and just talked about his new marefriend and how excited she would be to see Gear. Gear, however, kept his head low to the ground and his goggles on, talking to his friends online while trying not to feel out of place.
“I can’t believe I’m fucking doing this. This was the worst fucking idea. They’re all fucking staring at me. I don’t fucking belong up here.” Gear said to the chat.
“Spider, if you’re not comfortable there, you can go. Don’t feel obligated to stay,” Large Hat said.

“No, I promised I’d hang out, and I do need to try. I was just… hoping I wouldn’t have to do it in Middle Canterlot.”
“Well, if you’re committed, then do it. Best of luck, Spider,” Large Hat said.
“Thanks.”
Gear felt a hoof across his withers and Amperage pushed his face right up next to Gear’s. “You ready, Gear? She’s waiting just upstairs for both of us! It’s gonna be amazing, I can promise you that! That voice, those eyes, that mane!” Amperage sighed happily.
A little too happily. The way he had been talking about her all day had just seemed smitten at first, but now it was beginning to creep Gear out. It had slowly gone from smitten to obsessed the closer they got to his apartment. Amperage had stopped talking about what they could do while hanging out and the alcohol and instead had just begun talking about Guerre instead. ‘Guerre this. Guerre that. Guerre was beautiful. Guerre was pretty. Guerre was smart. Guerre wanted this thing or wanted to do that.’ It had devolved into nothing more than Guerre, and that worried Gear.
They walked up to the apartment building and Amperage swiped his keycard to open the elevator. They stepped inside it and Amperage went strangely silent as they rode up. They stepped out on Amperage’s floor and walked to the front door, where Amperage turned and looked at Gear with wide eyes. “I hope you love her as much as I do. She needs it.”
“Uh… I can’t promise that I’ll love her as much as you, but I’ll talk to her.”
Amperage nodded solemnly, then swiped the keycard and the door slid open. Inside, the apartment was about what you would expect from a bachelor. Guerre had only just begun staying with him, so there was a pile of dirty dishes on the counter in the kitchen Gear could see. The living room, which was not very big, contained a screen on one wall and a Sleighstation 5 with a pile of buckball games, and a single occupied beanbag chair.

Guerre pulled herself to standing when she saw the two of them enter the apartment. She had removed the straw hat she had been wearing the last time Gear saw her, and was only wearing her patchwork cloak. Her green fur was freshly washed and still looked damp, and her wet orange mane still clung to her face and neck in places. Her yellow eyes passed right over Amperage and went straight to Gear’s, and she just stared at him.
Gear looked away from her and lowered his head. She was beautiful, true, but he really had no idea how to talk to mares, and she was living with Amperage. He wasn’t going to try anything with his new friend’s brand new marefriend.
“Hello, sweetie! I brought my friend Gear Grinder and we came right home, just like you asked!” Amperage trotted up to her and leaned in for a kiss. Guerre deftly turned her head and accepted it on the cheek without looking away from Gear Grinder.
“Why, thank you, dear. Now, Amperage, your apartment is filthy. ‘Clean the apartment immediately’ while I talk to your friend,” Guerre said, without looking at him.
“Yes, ma’am!” Amperage said and began cleaning without stopping to eat, drink, or even take off his working clothes.
Gear watched all this with confusion, but Guerre swiftly approached him and took his hoof. She reached out and lifted his chin with a hoof, and he swallowed hard. She looked into his eyes with her sun-yellow gaze, and he felt like he could just disappear in them.
“Now, Gear Grinder, what can you do for me?” Guerre said.
Gear didn’t know what to say. Was she coming on to him? Right in front of Amperage? This was really too much, and it was making him really uncomfortable. “Uh… nothing? I just work at the power station.”

Guerre frowned. The creased line of her disapproving mouth marring her beautiful visage. “Nothing at all, Gear Grinder?” She squeezed his hoof between hers harder than before. She looked like she was expecting something from him. Gear tugged his hoof away and stepped back. Her golden eyes followed him and her frown deepened.
“Look, you seem nice, but I’ve barely met you!”
“Gear Grinder! Will you help me or not?” She yelled.
“Holy shit, no!” Gear Grinder backed up until his flank hit the front door. Guerre was staring at him. Her frown was gone, replaced with an appraising look. He could have sworn she looked surprised, but he was more interested in getting her away from him. “Amperage, how about those drinks? Like, now?”
“Yes, Amperage… ‘stop cleaning and bring out some drinks,’ if you would,” Guerre said.
She was now watching him with an appraising look, as though she was measuring him for some reason. Amperage slipped past her and into the kitchen, and began hunting through cupboards.
“Alright then, you two. Guerre, the fanciest alcohol I have is a bottle of wine from Upper Canterlot. Won it at a company picnic a few years ago. Will that do?”
“Yes, that will be fine, thank you.”
“Gear, I got a case of beer if you want to join me in that. Else I got whiskey. Straight.”
Thankful for something other than Guerre to focus on, Gear latched onto Amperage and his alcohol like a life preserver. “Yes, beer’s good. Thank you. Do you have something to watch or do while we drink? Uh…” Gear couldn’t think of what average ponies did while drinking. “…like a game or something?”
“Oh, sure! I have every Buckball game from the past few years. We can play that if you like,” Amperage said.
Gear opened his mouth to agree, but Guerre interrupted him.
“No, we should talk and get to know each other better.” Guerre looked at Gear. “We can’t do that while playing games.”

Gear would have disagreed, but something about the way she said it made him keep his mouth shut. She held all the cards in whatever game they were playing, and he had no idea what the rules might be.
Amperage poured everypony a glass of their drink of choice and led the way to the living room with the bottles. He offered the beanbag seat to Guerre and sat down on the floor next to her. Gear was left standing awkwardly off to one side.
Guerre was the first to speak, without even taking a sip of her wine. “So tell me Gear; what is it you do at the power station?”
Gear took a swig of the beer and clenched his teeth to avoid gagging at the taste. This was far more bitter than the usual stuff he drank. He avoided looking at Guerre and her glowing eyes, and thought carefully about his answer before speaking. “I am a member of the supply team. We deliver and move materials throughout the facility, and perform basic upkeep and repairs.”
“Ah, so you’re a janitor and a grunt,” Guerre said derisively.
Gear opened his mouth to defend himself, but Amperage spoke up in his defense. “Nah, Guerre. Gear has that earth pony strength, you know? Unicorns can’t lift that heavy stuff unless they’re super powerful, and pegasi? Hah! Forget it!”
Guerre sneered. “Weak unicorns can’t lift it, you mean.”
“Sure, I mean, not every unicorn can be as powerful as you, I’m sure,” Amperage said.
“I just do what I’m told. Unicorns can’t do it, so it lets me keep my job. I don’t question things, I just move things,” Gear said.
“How very… obedient.” Guerre looked at Gear and sipped at her wine. She watched him over the top of the glass, her eyes twinkling. “With a name like ‘Gear Grinder’, one might think you didn’t fit so neatly into the cogs of the power station’s machine.”

“My name has nothing to do with how I behave. There used to be an earth pony named Candyfloss working at the power station,” Gear said, trying to defend himself.
“’Used to be’?” Guerre asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Well… she got let go.” Guerre keeps her eyebrow raised until Gear continues. “Beeeecause she was always eating candy on the job.”
“Sounds like her name described her well enough. A candy-coated mare living a candy-coated life in a bleak and sweet-less power station,” Guerre caught Gear’s eyes again. Her sun-yellow gaze boring into his soul. “So, what does Gear Grinder find so rough and awful about his job? Does he feel trapped in an endless rotation of work, sleep, and rest, shrieking with every turn of the sun and moon? Tell me GEAR GRINDER, ‘what does your name mean to you?’” Guerre leaned forward in her seat, free forehoof gripping the loose cloth tightly.
Gear was sweating. This had gone from a casual night of drinking and conversation to an interrogation. Amperage was smiling stupidly next to Guerre, and Guerre was trying to bore a hole through Gear’s head with her eyes. He felt trapped, and heavy. It was like the ceiling was coming down and trying to crush him underneath it, and Guerre was the only pony who could help him.
Gear chanced a look in her direction, and saw that Guerre was holding out a hoof toward him. Her eyes glowed under the shadow of the ceiling that was hanging over Gear’s head, and her orange mane was lit from behind by some phantom light. Gear could see her mouth moving but he couldn’t hear anything beyond the pounding of his pulse in his ears. He dropped his beer and clutched at his chest as it pounded against his rib cage. It was like it was trying to escape its confines and go to Guerre. Guerre could fix it.
Guerre could fix everything if he’d just take her hoof.

Gear was hyperventilating on the floor, clutching at his chest. He could feel sweat pouring off him and watched it drip in slow-motion to the floor. He looked up at Guerre and her outstretched hoof, and stumbled away. He stepped on the fallen beer can, the forgotten beverage spilling out onto the wooden floor. He could hear yelling behind him, but he struggled to the door, fumbled with the handle, and fell out of the apartment into the hallway. He pulled the door shut behind him and walked as quickly as his confused legs could carry him to the elevator.
As distance between him and Guerre increased, the oppressive darkness at the edge of his vision faded. The fog was lifting from his mind and he could almost think clearly.
Was everything caused by Guerre? Was it her presence alone that was doing it or was it something else? Was it a spell? Gear didn’t know anything except a few things he had read about magic. But he knew who he could turn to: He pulled open the chat window to speak to his friends.
“Guys, I hate to interrupt, but I need some advice.”
“What’s up, Spider?” Chain Gang said.
“So, I told you guys I was going to meet with my co-worker Amperage today, right?”
“Yeah, you did. Was it a ‘charged’ evening?” Laugh Track said.
“Cute, but no. Amperage met with a unicorn we met in Ponyville, and supposedly slept with her. Today he was acting really weird.”
“How weird?”
“Did he have that regretful itch?”
“No, he was treating her like a princess. Which is odd, because although I’ve only known him personally for a very short time, that doesn’t seem like the kind of thing he would do.”
“Stallions treat other stallions different than they’d treat a mare, Spider. That’s pretty normal.”

“No, I know that, but this was really weird. He went to kiss her and she turned away, then she told him to clean the house and he did it! Without even an argument! His own apartment, after he was denied a kiss!”
“Some ponies don’t know when they’re being taken advantage of. It’s sad, but it happens. Happened to me and I didn’t know until years later,” Laugh Track said, with an unusually somber tone.
“I’d accept that, but this is when it gets weird, okay?” The elevator hit the bottom floor and Gear stepped out and back into the streets. “She was… trying to get me to tell her what I could do for her. Like she was… I don’t know… expecting me to listen to her.”
“Sounds like a typical mare. Nyuk nyuk!”
“No, Laugh Track, this wasn’t nagging, this was ‘commanding’. She was trying to command me, like she expected it.”
“Still seems pretty typical to me.”
“Okay, well anyway, she kept trying to order me around, and I started hyperventilating. Is there some kind of unicorn magic that makes ponies obey you? Can unicorns do that? Is Large Hat here?”
“No, he had to go meet somepony. Don’t know when he’ll be back,” Chain Gang said.
“Alright. I guess I’ll send him a message and catch him later. Neither of you know of any unicorn magic that does that?”
“None at all. Sorry, Spider.”
“Yeah, we’re not ‘horny’ enough to know about magic.”
“Heh. Thanks, guys. The whole situation felt wrong to me. I want to know that Amperage is going to be okay.”
“Well, good on you for caring. That’s important. I think he’s just lovestruck. It should wear off with time. Just be there when it all comes back to bite him in the flank.”

“Yeah. Thanks guys. I’m gonna go get something to eat and head home. I need a rest.”
“You’ve earned it. You tried socializing and it went poorly. Not every time can be successful.”
“You win some, other times you almost get your mind taken over by a sexy mare!”
“I don’t think that’s helping, Laugh Track.”
“¯\_(ツ)_/¯”
“Later, guys.” Gear Grinder flipped up his visor and continued his walk down the street, looking back over his shoulder at the apartment he had just left where his new friend Amperage was possibly being held prisoner by a unicorn.
If there was a spell like that in a unicorn’s arsenal, he was sure more unicorns would have used it. If the spell was unique to Guerre, then that made her that much more dangerous. He knew most unicorns could learn all spells, but not all unicorns could cast them because they just weren’t powerful enough or clever enough with their magic. The way the comparison had been made when he had first heard about it was like anypony learning to juggle. Sure, all ponies had the potential to learn how to juggle, but not all could accomplish the feat with their hooves due to lack of interest or simple lack of skill.
As Gear understood it, though, if a spell was unique to one unicorn, then that meant that unicorn had a monopoly on knowledge of how the spell worked. And if she was the only one who knew how to cast the spell, she might be the only pony who could undo its effects. To Gear, that sounded dangerous. It’s like being the only pony with an antidote and not sharing it. Many ponies could get poisoned, and only one could cure the rest. That was a worrisome possibility.

Gear made it to the station, boarded the train, and just leaned back in the seat as the train rocked gently on its way back down the mountain. He heard the theme song from Yaket playing in his earphones, and flipped his visor down. He’d gotten a message from somepony on Buzzbook. Gear opened the message and was surprised to see it was from Amperage.
“Hey, dude! I just noticed you were gone! Sorry if it wasn’t super fun. I guess I drank too much too quickly. Guerre says I was acting up, so I’m sorry about that. I guess having a mare around really makes me act funny. If you want, I’d like to take you out to the bar after work sometime this week. Just us stallions. Let me know if you’re up for it! My treat! Sorry again if I was acting up. Hope that doesn’t ruin our friendship.”
Gear flipped his goggles back up and sighed. He didn’t want to blame Amperage for what happened, but he didn’t know how much of his behavior had to do with Guerre, and how much was Amperage himself. There was admittedly very little Gear knew about Amperage himself outside of work. He didn’t know Amperage in his personal life, so maybe that really was how Amperage behaved. Maybe he really did want to be a servant to a mare and Guerre was just giving him that excuse.
It seemed so off from what he had gotten to know on their outing, though. Amperage invited Gear out to the job specifically to get to know him, and had nothing but good things to talk about, was interested in getting to know him, and was a friendly, amiable pony. He did not give off an air of a pony who was easy to push around.
Gear didn’t know what he was going to do, but he certainly wasn’t going to deal with it right now. He laid a hoof over his eyes and rested, listening to the stops pass by. He’d deal with it tomorrow.

Amperage sent his message on Buzzbook to Gear and hoped the stallion read it. He wasn’t sure what had come over him, but his head felt fuzzy, like he was drunk, but his vision wasn’t swimming. Guerre was in the other room and she was mad, so he had retreated to his bedroom where he had collected himself and realized his new friend was gone. He had tried to ask Guerre what had happened, since he didn’t remember him leaving, but she had just smiled a strange smile and told him to finish cleaning up, so he had.
It was strange; whenever she was around, he wanted nothing more than to please her, and have her look at him with a smile. He wanted so desperately to see her happy with him, but when she was gone, he felt more like himself, and wanted to drink beer, play sports, and hang out with friends.
Friends who he had driven off.
He regretted his behavior. He didn’t know what had set Gear off, but Guerre had said he was drinking too much and laughing too loud. She said Gear had begun shrinking in on himself the louder Amperage got, until it had just been too much for him, and he’d run off home, leaving Amperage and her alone to drink.
She had quieted down, and was no longer talking to herself, so Amperage ventured a question. “Hey, Guerre. I want to—”
“Sssst!” She held up a hoof to signal him to silence.
Amperage obeyed without thinking. The thought crossed his mind that he wouldn’t shut up if it were any other pony, just her, but then she stood up and turned around and all thought left him. “Either that stallion friend of yours is different, or my magic is slipping. ‘Bring me another earth pony.’ Testing must be done.”
Amperage nodded.

Chapter 6

Olivebloom puttered about her apartment in Lower Canterlot, not paying attention to the buzzer going off in her kitchen until she sniffed the air and smelled smoke.
“Duwah! Muh cinnymin rolls!” She tried to dash into the kitchen, but when she reached the edge of her living room, the cable connecting her glasses to her desktop rig yanked on her face and she twisted. Her glasses flew off her face and she stumbled sideways. When she collected herself, she scrambled about looking for them, and when she had them she unplugged them from the rig, put them back on her face crooked, and scrambled for the kitchen.
Olivebloom opened the oven and pulled out the pan, dropping it on the counter as smoke billowed off it. She coughed and waved a hoof half-heartedly, but she could already tell this batch was a lost cause.
“Muh cinnymins…” she sniffed as she stared at the husks of what should have been her pre- and post-dinner treats, and sadly scraped them off the pan and into a plastic bag. Olivebloom took the sack and stepped out into the hallway, aiming for the disposal chute.
“Hey, Olive. Another botched snack?”
Olivebloom looked up to see her neighbor, Gear Grinder. His goggles were on his forehead instead of in front of his eyes, and he was actually speaking instead of walking quietly by. Both those things were unusual.
“Ye,” she mumbled sadly.
“Can I have one?” He held out a hoof.
He was really acting odd. He rarely spoke to anypony, and he never went anywhere without his goggles on. They knew each other because they were both into tech, and they’d talked online occasionally about it, but those occasions were more when he needed help with something.
“Uh, okay? They’re burnt.”
“It’s the thought that counts. I need to know the thought counts sometimes.”

Olivebloom held open the bag and allowed Gear to take a burnt cinnamon roll from it. He took a bite, grimaced, then put it back in the bag.
“I warned you.”
“It was the thought that counted.”
Olivebloom smiled sadly. “If it was the thought that counted, they wouldn’t be burnt.”
“I guess you’re right.”
Olive opened the garbage chute and tossed them down. They clattered against the metal walls of the hold until she shut the hatch. “We never talk this much about non-computing stuff, Gear, and you never go outside without your goggles on. Somethin’s up witchoo.”
“Yeah. I guess it’s pretty obvious. Do you have time to chat?”
“For a lil’ bit, I guess. Olive’s got work to do, though.”
“Alright.”
Olivebloom led Gear back to her apartment and shut the door behind Gear. “Do you want some coffee?”
“It’s like, nine o’clock.”
Olivebloom shrugged and started some coffee boiling, then sat down in her swivel chair and spun it around until she was looking at Gear. “So, what’s on your mind?”
“Well, I recently started talking to a co-worker and he invited me out to his place to ‘hang out’ as your average pony might.”
“Yeah. Sounds normal.”
“Okay, so I go, but I find out that he has this unicorn mare we literally just met yesterday living at his place now.”
“Maybe that’s just how your new friend likes his ladies?”
“That’s the thing, I don’t know, but he wasn’t acting at home like he does at work.”
“That also sounds pretty normal.”
“It’s normal for a pony who’s confident and self-assured at work to become a sycophantic shell of themselves around a mare?”
Olivebloom spun her chair around and nodded. “Lots of ponies change themselves in private and public. It’s ‘sike-o-loggy’.”
“Psychology.”

“Yus.” Olive’s ears flicked as she flipped through the internet looking for something. “Ah! Here you go.” Her ears flicked sideways and a page disappeared from her glasses and appeared in Gear’s HUD. “Sike-o-loggy of identity. Id, Ego, and Super-ego. Your friend is exemplifying a superego that he believes should be present while at work, and when he returns home, he is either putting forth a new super-ego, or this is actually his ego, depending on how comfortable he feels. I would believe it to be the former. Either way, it is normal, no matter how much you may not like it.”
“He was doing whatever he asked, no matter how petty or nasty it seemed.”
Olive shrugged. “Maybe he enjoys that?”
Gear’s lip curled in disgust.
“You’re not him. You don’t know. I’m just saying!”
“It’s just… I feel like she has him under some sort of spell, and she tried to get me as well. While I was there she was talking funny and I had some sort of…” Gear waved a hoof and struggled to find the word. “It felt like she was attacking me. Magically!”
“She’s a unicorn?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, well then yeah, that’s entirely possible. Don’t know what you can do about that, though.” Olive chewed on her hoof idly.
“Do you know much about unicorn magic?”
“Nope! Beyond the colored aura of their horns. Was this unicorn’s horn glowing at the time?”
Gear stopped and thought back to what had happened. His eyes widened as realization hit him. “No… no it wasn’t.”
“There, you see? You’re just upset that your new friend likes being ordered around.”
“It just didn’t seem like him.”
“It’s a side of him you didn’t know about. Nothing to be ashamed of. Has he stopped talking to you?”
“No, he wants to hang out again.”
“See? No big deal. Just don’t go to his house again.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. She just… she kept talking to me instead of Amperage and kept repeating my name and asking me things. It felt like she was coming on to me.”
“Maybe she was. Some ponies are into that, too.”
“Sweet Celestia that’s weird.”
Olive shrugged and stood up to go get her coffee. She poured a large mug of it and brought it back to her desk. “Ponies are weird. It takes all kinds.” She sipped the coffee and gasped as it burned her tongue. “But enough of that. I see you got a techmantic antenna!”
Gear reached up and tapped his goggles. “Oh, yeah. Got it down in Ponyville yesterday with Amperage.” Gear’s eyes widened. “Aw, Luna’s ass! I forgot to give Amperage his antenna again!”
“Heehee! Guess you have an excuse to visit him again. Just remember not to go to his house.”
“Yeah, you’re right. It’s not him I dislike, it’s Guerre.”
“Guerre?”
“That’s his marefriend’s name. Nom de Guerre.”
“I think that’s Prench.”
“That’s what I said, too. I don’t know what it means.”
Olive gave him a disdainful look and her ears flicked. Her eyes unfocused from Gear and looked at her HUD as she flipped through pages of the internet and she started typing something out. A page popped up and she cleared her throat. “Nom de guerre. Literally: War name. A name under which somepony assumes some other enterprise such as writing or acting.”
“Huh. Neat.”
“You have your goggles with you at all times of the day, and you didn’t think to look it up?”
Gear shrugged helplessly.
Olive rolled her eyes. “Did you manage to see her cutie mark? Do you know what she does for a living?”
“No. She always has on this patchwork cloak covering her flank. If Amperage has seen it he hasn’t mentioned it, and I haven’t really talked to her at all. Only Amperage might know.”

“So, you’re worried a unicorn is brainwashing your new friend, tried to brainwash you, and has some sinister plot you aren’t even aware of?”
Gear shifted back and forth on his hooves and looked down. “Well when you put it like that it sounds crazy.”
“Gear.” Olivebloom spun in her chair and sipped her coffee. “Gear, Gear, Geary-gear. You’re upset your new friend is acting funny, and so you blame the new pony. It’s a classic mistake.”
“So, you don’t think she’s doing anything?”
Olivebloom wiggles in her seat. “Ohhhh, I never said that. But you gotta find more proof, first! And remember you’re wearing internet on your head!” She stands up and walks over to Gear, then flicks one of his ears. “If you have questions; use it! Seriously!”
Gear shoves her hoof away and realigns his ear-sensors. “I know, I know!”
“You clearly don’t, or you’d check online for answers instead of coming to lil’ ol’ Olivebloom.”
“But you still helped me.”
“Pffffft! I looked everything up online while we were talking.”
Gear looked at her askance, waiting for the punchline.
Olivebloom stared back with a smile on her face and her eyes wide. She sipped her coffee.
“Seriously?”
“Yep!”
“Well, whatever. You helped me out, so thanks.”
“Y’welcome!” Olivebloom sipped her coffee and smiled. “Did you need any other information?”
“No, I think I’m good. Thank you, Olive.”
“Happy to help. I’ll bring over some cinnabuns when I make them properly and they’re not burned.”
“Hah, thanks. I look forward to it. Later, Olive.
“Buh-bye!”
Gear left Olive’s apartment, and Olive slid in the electronic lock with a twitch of her ear. She turned back to her rig and plugged her glasses back in. Some of what Gear had said had been a little strange. Magic without a horn glow was odd, but not unheard of. Historically it was either utterly benign but weak, or it was horrendously powerful and terribly dangerous. This bore investigating.

Olive leaned back in her chair and swiveled back and forth as her ears wiggled her through the internet. She opened up pages of information about unicorn magic, and pages about non-unicorn magic. Of the two, the latter was much smaller. There seemed to be a dearth of information on non-unicorn magic, with zebras getting a small blurb about their alchemy, such as that used by Twilight Sparkle’s zebra friend Zecora, and the rest being magic-like effects from plants and artifacts.
Olive sighed sadly, scrolling through page after page of unicorn effects and spells and links to ‘how-to’ videos for unicorns on Ponyview. She eventually struck gold when she found a small excerpt on witches: “Although witches and wizards are typically unicorns, alchemists such as Zecora the zebra and Mage Meadowbrook the earth pony exist. While both used alchemy for many of their miraculous feats, Mage Meadowbrook had eight enchanted items. Where she got these items and how they were enchanted is, as-of-yet, unknown.”
Olive sipped her now cold coffee and grimaced. She placed it on her desk next to four other mugs of half-finished coffee and went back to reading.
Magic that didn’t need a horn existed. This was not in question, but having a spell that could be activated would be quite a feat. It would remove any doubt about the unicorn being the cause of it if her horn wasn’t glowing, and she instead was using activated magic. But what would be the activation?
Olive needed more information about this ‘Guerre’. Her name alone was sending up red flags. Who names their foal literally ‘pseudonym’? “This is our daughter: Not Really Her Name!” Olive chuckled at her own joke.
“What was Gear’s friend’s name? Oh yeah! Amperage” Olive typed in Amperage into Buzzbook and hunted him down. She got a few, but stopped at the one that said he worked at the power station.

“Amperage… works at the power station. Not private… recently friended Gear Grinder… a-ha! In a relationship just yesterday!” Olive unplugged her goggles, spun her chair in a few celebratory circles, and tottered dizzily off to the kitchen. “This calls for some celebratory brownies!” While Olive prepared the brownie batter, she stalked Amperage’s information on Buzzbook.
Amperage had been a regular poster on Buzzbook, and wasn’t interested in keeping any of his information private. He was an outgoing sort, and not willing to take crap from anypony. A far cry from the description Gear had given of his behavior today. Olive hunted through it, looking for something specific, though. She wanted to know how he had behaved in previous relationships.
She found it, eventually. Several years back, Amperage had been in a relationship with a mare named Buttery Pat. Unlike the descriptions Gear had given of Amperage, according to his Buzzbook feed at the time, Amperage had been the one to break off from his marefriend. She was, in his own words: “Controlling and manipulative. Wouldn’t let me hang out with my friends without checking in every half-hour. The sex was great, and she’d always make me snacks, but she expected to be able to run my life. I wasn’t gonna have that.”
Olive dipped her hoof in the brownie batter and took a slow lick. It sounded like Amperage was indeed a confident and self-assured stallion. He lived by machismo and chutzpah, and wasn’t going to let anypony take away his freedom. So why had he allowed Guerre to do so?
Gear was right! Something was fucky. Olive sent Amperage a friend request. She’d have a little talk with him when she thought it might be safe and try to get inside his head a lil’ bit more. All of it sounded really quite juicy.

Chapter 7

The morning sun peeked through the curtains and across Gear’s chest. It slowly creeped up his body until it hit his goggles, and he squinted to try to minimize the discomfort. It was a losing battle, and when he shifted to the side to try to avoid it, he fell out of his chair with a *thud*.
He scrambled to his hooves and looked around, goggles askew on his face. When he figured out where he was, he sighed a rubbed his eyes, pushing his goggles up to his forehead. Grumbling to himself, he pushed the lone chair in his bare living room off to the side and tottered off to the kitchen. He started a pot of coffee and brought his goggles down to check his messages.
He opened his chat room and checked in on his friends. Chain Gang—who was almost always there—and Balls were chatting while playing more Equestrian Warriors. It didn’t appear to be going well for Balls, despite all his trash talk. Gear smiled to himself as they went back and forth over who was being cheap, but didn’t say anything. Chain said good morning, but Gear didn’t respond. His conversation with Olivebloom the night before, and his encounter with Amperage and Guerre had left a sour taste in his mouth, and he needed some time to himself.
He saw a private message blinking in the corner of his chat, and opened it. It was from Olive, who named herself ‘Special Cinnymin’ online. “Hey Spider. I was interested in what you said and did some stalking. I’ve been investigating Amperage, and I have to agree; Your description of his behavior at home and the behavior that he’s recorded on Buzzbook are very different. I’m sending him a message and I’m going to see just how different. I’ll keep you updated!  P.S: I’ve made some brownies. I’ll bring them over tonight.”

Gear nodded and smiled. She wasn’t the best hostess, and she rarely left home, but Olive was good at everything online. If anypony was going to discover stuff about weird magic, it would be her.
Gear had a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and put on his saddlebags. He double-checked his goggles and new antenna, and made his way to work.

Work kept him away from Amperage for most of it, but the few times he did see him, Amperage seemed like his old self. He was upbeat, interested in Gear’s day, and even shared some lunch he’d bought. There was no sign of the sycophantic pony that had kowtowed to Guerre’s every whim. It sent Gear mixed messages, and left him with nothing more than what he’d started with. Amperage seemed like Amperage, and only changed when around Guerre.
Interestingly, Gear noticed that Amperage didn’t bring her up at all, and instead talked about a new pony he’d met at the bar last night.
The pony he’d met was another earth pony, and they’d hit it off pretty well, according to Amperage. He was into buckball, and his favorite team were the Minotaurs, and Amperage and he were going to hang out at his place tonight. Amperage was excited, but it kind of hurt Gear to hear that he had been replaced so quickly and so casually. He left work sad and—if he admitted it to himself—kind of depressed. He’d finally made a friend at work, only to lose him in a single day.
Gear trudged home, head low and without saying goodbye to Amperage. The train ride was somber, and quiet, save for the tech-heads that crowded on at one stop. Gear stepped off after they came on, and decided to walk the rest of the way home. They jeered at him, and one made a rude gesture, but he ignored it all and kept walking.

At his apartment, he was greeted by Olive when he stepped off the elevator, her nose up in his face.
“Sweet Celestia!” Gear jumped back, clutching at his chest, and the doors almost closed on him. “How did you know, and what are you doing here, Olive?”
“I maked brownies.” She held out a tray with two brownies on it.
“Gee, thanks.” Gear picked one up off the tray with a wry smile.
“As for the second question; I tracked you.”
“You can do that?”
“It’s easy if you know how.”
“Well alright. But I’m assuming you didn’t come out here just to give me two brownies.”
Olive stumbled over a pony sleeping on the floor of the hall and almost dropped the remaining brownie, but snapped it up with her teeth and faceplanted on the floor. She picked herself up quickly and dusted off, then looked at Gear with all seriousness on her face. “Amperage has made a new friend!”
“Ugh, don’t remind me.”
Olive unlocked her apartment and motioned Gear inside. “But this is important! Look!” Olive’s ears wiggled and Gear had a picture pop up in his HUD.
The picture showed an earth pony, strong of build and bulky, as earth ponies were, but not overly so. He wore goggles, as most ponies these days did, with the requisite ear-joys to control it. He had a single tech implant, replacing his lower jaw with tech Gear couldn’t begin to guess the function of. All-in-all, though, he looked pretty average.
“I don’t get it. It’s an earth pony. And what in Twilight’s name is that tech on his face supposed to do?”
Olive shrugged and started making mixing something that she had prepped in a bowl on the counter. It smelled sweet. “I don’t know, but he has suddenly made a new friend who is an earth pony, a day after you refused to obey Guerre. Doesn’t that seem odd?”

“I guess so, but he propositioned a threesome with Guerre if I hung out. Maybe he’s just really desperate for that?”
“It’s possible, buuuuuut—!” Olive’s ears flicked as she looked over at Gear, and a picture popped up on his screen. A small excerpt from a conversation Amperage had posted on his Buzzbook some years ago.
It read:
“So, you want another stallion in the bedroom, which I don’t want, but I suggest another mare sometime to make it fair, and now I’m a bad guy for suggesting it?” Amperage was saying to a mare with a blacked-out name.
“I don’t want you having sex with another mare while we’re together!” the mare said.
“And I don’t want you having sex with another stallion. How is this different?”
“Because you’re being controlling!”
“And you aren’t?”
A caption at the bottom of the pic read: ‘Double standards. Double standards everywhere.’
Olive dipped a hoof in the mix on the counter and tasted it, then started pouring it into a cake pan. “This was only a couple of years ago. Amperage has since seemed to completely change his behavior, aaaand—!” Olive’s ears flicked again, and a pic of a recent conversation between her and Amperage appears.
It read:
“If you’re up for it, we would love to have you for some fun,” Amperage was saying.
“I’m not sure. You’re positive your mare friend wouldn’t mind?” Olive said.
“Not at all. It was her idea, in fact. She’s been looking for an extra partner.”
“Why me, then? We’ve barely talked.”
“She really has a thing for earth ponies.”
“Why earth ponies? That’s weird.”
“I don’t question it. I just go along with whatever she wants.”
Gear looked at Olive, eyes wide. “You’ve been talking to him about engaging in a threesome?”

“It was the easiest way to gauge the changes in his personality. He’s changed a lot since a couple years ago. Almost every aspect of his personality that you claim to have experienced: Independence, self-assuredness, loyalty, and demeanor, have all changed. He still seems confident in himself, but he brings up Guerre and her requests a lot. They aren’t his desires. He’s doing everything for her, and lets everypony know it.” Olive slid the cake into the oven, and started making the icing sugar.
Gear started pacing back and, walking up and down the short length of the entryway. “I don’t get it. This is unnatural. To have such a shift in personality is… is…”
“Impossible?”
“I would say that, yes, but he seems to have done it.”
“I did some research, and for a pony to shift so much, they would have to experience something incredibly traumatic, suffer an injury to the head so much that it shifts the chemicals in their brain, oooooor—?”
“…magic?”
“Bingo! I suspect ‘foul play’.” Olive waves her icing sugar-coated hooves at him and wiggles them.
“We need to take this to the police.”
“Did you really just say that?” Olive *paffs* Gear on the nose with a powdery hoof, leaving a patch of sweet-smelling white on his muzzle. “What would you say? How would you prove it? What could they even do? You gotsta get some proof!”
“Seriously? How and what? What proof could you even get for something like this?”
“Well, the name of the spell would be useful. There are lists of spells and instructions on how to cast and counter them on the net, but a lot of mental control spells are necessarily kept unknown. Only the counter is available. For protection, of course.” Olive flicked her ears and a wiki page filled with names and counters to spells pops up in Gear’s HUD.

“Okay, that’s great and all, but I didn’t see her horn glowing.”
Olive whipped around with the hoof holding the mixing spoon, splattering icing over Gear’s work shirt. “Exactly! That means, if you look at the bottom, you can see it is one of the ‘illegal’ spells. And I quote: ‘any mental enhancement cast without the use of a horn and notarized consent is illegal and subject to the full force of the law’.”
“So… we find out what the spell is, we can then counter it, and get Amperage to confess to the police.”
“Mmhmm.” Olive’s mouth is full of icing, but she nods vigorously.
“How do we find out.”
“I don’t know!”
“Then… what do we do?”
“Watch him for now. Try to talk to him. I will keep an eye on this pony he has befriended.”
“What do you think is going to happen?”
“If what I suspect is happening, then that pony will also begin to act funny. If not, maybe there’s nothing to worry about.”
“You think Guerre was trying something on me?”
“I highly suspect it.”
Gear thinks for a moment. “What would she even be doing?”
Olive shrugs.
“I’m not a unicorn. I don’t know magic. I only know what I find on the internet.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to Amperage.”
“Try to find out if he calls Guerre anything else, by the way. I don’t think that’s her real name.”
“Because it’s literally ‘pseudonym’, yeah. You mentioned that.”
“That’s not a pony-like name. I think she’s hiding something.”
“In this city, who isn’t?”
“Politicians.”
Gear looked at Olive, waiting for the joke. She just hummed and mixed her icing, of which there was much less than there had been a few minutes ago. Most of it seemed to be on her face. She looked up at him and smiled.
“What? If everypony knows all your secrets, they can’t be used against you anymore. ‘tis science!”

“I… guess that’s possibly true, but it doesn’t make our job any easier.”
“Nope, but I know you’re up to the task!” Olive held out the whisk to gear. He took it and licked it thoughtfully, waiting for the cake to finish.
The two of them moved on to talking about other topics. Casual things like the programs they used, games they played. Olive talked about some programming she’d performed and Gear talked about how work was going at the power station; Weird things he’d carried and jokes played on others in the break room. It was casual fare, and they parted ways for the night with a smile and a slice of cake, knowing tomorrow would bring a lot more questions to their door.

Chapter 8

The next days were calm, but confusing. Gear went to work, and while there he saw Amperage. Amperage was congenial and pleased to see him, and even wanted to make plans to hang out at a bar sometime; none of which ever came to fruition.
Once Amperage left work, he quickly turned back into that other pony he had encountered the day after they had ‘officially’ become friends. When work ended, he waffled in his invitations, mentioning how ‘Guerre didn’t want him out late’ and ‘Guerre wanted to know who he was with’ and ‘Guerre still doesn’t know if she likes me hanging out with you or not’.
Those comments were strange enough, but Olive’s reports on the earth pony Gear had invited to come hang out were delivering nothing. The earth pony was acting true to the form he expressed on Buzzbook. The only new and interesting thing was that he kept going to visit Amperage more often. At least twice during the week, following his initial visit to Amperage’s apartment, the stallion went to visit again.

At first it was assumed that the threesome was so good they wanted to continue. That would have been the logical explanation, but Amperage added four more friends during the course of the week, all of whom he invited to his place, and all of whom were earth ponies.
Olive was invited as well, so that would be five, but she never actually followed through on the invitation, instead baiting Amperage on with promises of coming, but claiming to be too busy to go. It was working so far, and he kept volunteering more information on the others who have come by, and how they’ve all been stallions and it would be ‘real nice if I could have a mare come by’.
Amperage was taking to his new lifestyle with a gusto that was equal parts alarming and a little bit crazy. Gear couldn’t quite wrap his head around how or why it came to this, but with the frequency Amperage kept talking about Guerre, it had to be her that was the cause, but there were so few ways to figure out how. The only real option left looked increasingly like it was going to require Gear or Olive to actually go visit Guerre, which neither of them wanted to do. If their suspicions were correct, then it was dangerous, but if their suspicions were wrong, then they would have agreed to a threesome, and neither Gear nor Olive were really keen on that.
By the time a full week had passed, they were no closer to figuring out what—if any—magic was being used on all the visiting ponies. All Olive had was a growing list of ponies Amperage had invited, and all Gear had was a confusing set of invitations to go drinking that were never followed through on.

All that changed one morning when Gear got to work and Amperage was there to meet him. He looked exhausted, and he yanked Gear aside and mumbled into his ear. “Don’t let me go home, Gear.”
“What?”
“Don’t let me go home, please!” He looked at Gear with a desperate look in his eyes.
“Why not?”
“Gear, please, promise me! I don’t know what happened at home! I remember work, and I thought it was just me going out drinking all night with these new friends I have on Buzzbook, but I don’t remember anything after work! Don’t let me go home!”
“Uh, sure. Should I like, take you to my place?”
Amperage’s eyes flicked left and right, as if he was searching for something. He looked back at Gear in fear, as though he were being hunted. “I will probably say any number of things. I will probably make excuses and fight back, but please don’t let me go home!”
“I’ll… try my best, I guess?”
Amperage sighed. “I guess that’s all I can expect. Thank you, Gear. I should… get to work.”Amperage plodded away, leaving a confused and worried Gear preparing for work.
As Gear got ready to start his day, he sent a message to Olivebloom. “Hey, Olive. Amperage talked to me this morning, but this time he seemed worried. He says he doesn’t remember the hours outside of work this past week. Says they’re all blank and he doesn’t remember a thing.”
A response came back almost instantly. “Really? Did he explain what he thinks is the cause?”
“All he said was that he remembers work, doesn’t remember outside of work, but he had suspected he was out getting drunk with all the new friends he has.”
“Well he’s suspecting something is wrong. Maybe work is the only place he remembers because Guerre ordered him to ‘act normal’ or something.”

“Can mind-affecting magic do that?”
“I have no idea. I imagine it could. I’ll check up on the other friends he has on Buzzbook and get back to you.”
“Alright.”
Gear went back to his work, and made as many excuses as he could to go visit Amperage. They didn’t get many opportunities to talk, but whenever Gear got a glimpse of Amperage’s face, he looked confused and tired. Like he was trying to sort something out in his head but it kept eluding his grasp. He would space out for a minute or so, mutter something, then shake his head angrily. From his actions, Amperage knew something was wrong, but couldn’t figure out what, and it was driving him crazy.
Gear tried to talk to him, but Amperage was on the verge of panic. “Amp, what’s going on? What are you so worried about?
“Dude, I don’t remember what I had for breakfast. It was only six hours ago. I usually have a bagel, but I don’t remember. It might have been a bagel? The fact that I’m not sure worries me.”
“That… is strange, yes.”
“I mean, from that alone I have a lot to be worried about! Am I ill? Am I losing my mind? Am I cursed? Am I just forgetful? I don’t know! I mean, I remember asking you if you wanted to go to the bar during this week. I asked you that while we were here, at work, but did we ever go to the bar?”
“No, Amp. We didn’t.”
“See?! I’m forgetting something important, and I don’t know what it is.”
“Amperage! Stop talking and get your ass up here! We need you!” One of the other pegasi yelled.
“Okay, I gotta go. I haven’t forgotten my job, thank Celestia.” He turned to go but whipped back around one more time. “Remember: Don’t let me go home! No matter what!”
Gear nodded.
Amperage visibly relaxed, then spread his wings and flew up to help.

Gear left the area, trotting to another part of the power plant at an easy pace. He wasn’t hurried, and none of his deliveries were late. Despite hating his job, he was good at it, and it showed. He finished his deliveries on time, found time for detours to see Amperage, and even managed to fit in time to chat with Olive while he puttered to and fro.
Olive, in her attempts to find more about the ponies Amperage was inviting to his place, had found that a lot of the other ponies were putting their complaints online. They were complaining of forgetfulness, drowsiness, irritability, and aches. A lot of them had tech installed, like the earth pony with the tech-jaw, and he was claiming that it was hurting him lately, like it had felt when he first had it installed.
“I don’t know how many of them he actually has invited, Gear. All I have are recent friends on Buzzbook, and not all of them appear to have the same complaints, so some may not yet have gone over, or they may not all be experiencing the same problems. Some may not have Buzzbook accounts, and could be entirely offline. How many earth ponies do you work with?”
“A lot.”
“Do you think he invited any of them over?”
“I guess he would have. I guess he’s friend with a lot of the guys at work.”
“Okay, well keep an eye on them and him and let me know how it goes.”
“Alright, Olive. Thanks for doing that research.”
Gear continued working, keeping an eye on Amperage whenever he could. When he got sent to the furthest parts of the power station he would gallop so he could run back and check on Amperage. Sometimes Amperage’s group would finish early and Gear didn’t really want him to escape the station without him.

Finally, Gear made his last delivery and raced back to Amperage’s area to meet him at the lockers. He was nothing if not a pony of his word, and if Amperage wanted him to drag him away from his own house, he would try his damndest to do it.
Gear found Amperage at his locker, but when he approached, he saw that Amperage was looking far more cheerful and chipper than he had been for the rest of the day. He approached warily, unsure if Amperage was feeling better or if he was no longer in control of himself.
“Hey… Amp. How’s it going?”
“Oh, gee, Gear Grinder. I’m feeling just swell, how’s about yourself?”
“Doing good, yeah…” Gear scratched his neck. “So, how about that hanging out we were going to do?”
“We were going to hang out?”
“Yeah, you invited me to go drinking after work, and you’ve been putting it off for a while. I wanted to take you up on that offer and go out to the bar like you said we would.”
Amperage looked alarmed. “Oh… well I’d really like to, but I can’t. I promised Guerre I’d come straight home. We have a guest coming over, you know.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you do. But you promised me we’d hang out last week.”
“Yeah, and I’d love to hang out, Gear Grinder, but why don’t you come back to my place instead? Guerre would love to see you again.”
“Last time we were at your place I didn’t get the impression Guerre liked me that much. It was uncomfortable for me. I want to hang out with you, not Guerre.”
“Well I really can’t. I promised Guerre. Why not tomorrow?”
“Because that’s what you kept saying the past week. Today’s the fifth tomorrow in a row. It’s time to follow through!” Gear put on his toughest face, but this was getting uncomfortable for him. He was starting to make a scene, and ponies were watching.

But it looked like it was having some effect. Amperage was beginning to look unsure of himself. His desire to be a good friend was getting to him, even if he didn’t rightly remember saying any of those things or making more than the one promise. He looked around at the ponies staring, then back at Gear. He sighed and rubbed his face with a hoof. “Okay, let’s talk outside, then.”
Gear waited, staying close to Amperage but keeping his mouth shut. He couldn’t give him the opportunity to fly away, or he’d lose him. Staying near him would give him a chance to tackle him if he tried.
When they finally made it outside Gear was tensed up and ready to jump. A good thing, too, because the moment they were at the train platform, Amperage turned to Gear with an apologetic look.
“Sorry, Gear. Guerre wants me home. If you’d just come over, we could hang out. Let me know when you want to!” And jumped into the air.
Gear was ready! He jumped after Amperage and grabbed onto him, wrestling with his wings and pinning them down. Amperage squawked in surprise and fell to the platform, unable to maintain lift. He squirmed and slithered, trying to get away, but Gear’s earth pony strength gave him an edge, and his grip was iron. One he figured out he wasn’t going to get away, Amperage turned and started swatting at Gear’s face, trying to get him to let go.
“What in Tartarus is wrong with you? Let go of me!”
Ponies on the platform were confused and moving closer, but Gear was just holding on, not hitting him. “You promised we’d hang out, and you keep ditchin’! Either give me a good reason, or follow through!”
“Guerre wouldn’t want me to! I told you!”
“This was before you even met Guerre! Are we done being friends, then? Is she that much more important?”

“Yes! Yes, she is! I hate you! We were never friends! Leave me alone!”
“Okay, now I know you’re not thinking straight.” Gear turned to his co-workers that were surrounding the two of them. “Would Amp ever say something like that?” Most of them shook their heads. “That’s what I thought. C’mon, Amp, we’re going to the bar. Any one of the rest of you can come too.”
Two other earth ponies, who had been grinning at the whole thing, came forward and helped Gear pick up Amperage. They held his wings against his sides to stop him from flying, and kept close to his sides to stop him from smacking anypony and getting away.
“You’re buyin’?” One of the two asked Gear.
“Yeah, I’ll buy. If only for the opportunity to sit down and have a chat with my ‘friend’ here.”
“Cool.”
Amperage went silent as they boarded the train, almost sulking as it rocked along down the tracks. Gear and one of the other two sat close to Amperage, holding tight to his legs to make sure he didn’t try to run for it in the crowd. The third earth pony stood in front of Amp’s seat to make sure he couldn’t stand up. They got some strange looks, but nopony seemed interested in meddling in their affairs. Three earth ponies surrounding a pegasus was just a bit more than anypony wanted to chew on. It could be a mob hit for all they knew, and they wanted no part of it.
Eventually Amp spoke up. “Why are you doing this, Gear?”
“Because you told me to.”
“When did I tell you to kidnap me to a bar?”
“This morning. You even said you’d forget, and to not take your crap and let you go home.”
“Why would I say something like that?”

“Beats me, but you demanded and insisted that I listen to you, so here we are.”
“I’ll just go home once we’re done at the bar.”
“Hopefully I’ll have more answers by then.”
“And what are you two getting out of this?”
“Free drinks,” the first pony said.
“I just wanted to rough up a pegasus,” the second pony said.
Gear glared at the pony at first, then shrugged. If that was what got him help, that would be enough. He just needed Amperage to be kept away from home for a while.
They filed off the train when it arrived at the destination Gear had picked out on his goggles. It wasn’t too far from his place, so he could take Amperage there if the bar time wasn’t enough. He passed by the bar every day, but he’d only gone inside once. It was called ‘Negative Bills’ and the owner was a happy-go-lucky sort of pony who didn’t quite seem to understand how a bar was supposed to be run, but still managed to make enough money to pay the rent. That might have been the intent of the name, but Gear had no idea.
The three earth ponies dragged Amperage inside, sat him down at the bar and gear took the seat next to him. The other earth ponies waited, flanking Amperage, and the bartender approached.
“Hey there. What can I get for y’all?” The turquoise bartender asked the quartet.
“I’ll have a beer. Something light. My friend here—” Gear motioned to Amperage “—will have something strong.”
“I’ll have a black stallion,” one of the earth ponies said.
“Whiskey on the rocks for me,” The other said.
“Comin’ right up, folks. What’s the occasion?”
“My friend here promised me a night out a week ago. He’s been making excuses, so I’m holding him to his promise. Despite that, I’m still buying, though.”

“Hahaha! Refusing to hang out, eh? Sounds like somepony’s got himself a mare, did I guess right?” The bartender said.
“You did. I think she’s bad for him, so we came to talk about it, am I right, Amp?”
Amperage just pursed his lips and turned away in a huff.
“Ahhh, he’ll drink in a bit. He always went to every work outing, so I know he likes to drink.”
The bartender brought out their drinks and they all took to drinking. True to his expectations, Amperage did grab the proffered drink and chugged it. It was a promising start, so Gear bought him another one. When the drink was brought out, Gear pushed it toward Amperage with a smile.
“Not gonna pass up a free drink, are you?”
“I see what you’re trying to do, and I’m not stupid. I’m not going to get drunk enough to tell you anything.”
“Well, I guess we’re going to be here for a while, then.” Gear looked at the two earth stallions. “How much time do you guys have?”
“If you’re buyin’, I got all night long.”
“Mama always told me to accept anything somepony wanted to give me. I can deal with what it is afterward. In this case, since it’s alcohol, I’ll hang out till you’re done.”
Gear looked back to Amperage. “Well, if we’re going to be here a while, you might as well enjoy yourself. Not to mention; you don’t want to be shown up by earth ponies do you? I mean, I don’t even drink that often. I don’t know if I can hold my liquor.”
The bartender chimed in. “Ohh, a contest, is it?” He reached behind himself and pulled out a small metal box. “20 bits. I provide the drinks free of charge past that, and the winner takes half the w, whaddya say?”

Gear looked around the bar. It was packed with almost entirely earth ponies, crowding around the tech-tables playing games, smoking in corners, listening to music. The lights were dim, with only the glow of LEDs and the bar itself illuminating the room. They’d get a lot of attention if he were to start a contest. Did he want that?
Gear looked back at Amperage; sullen and silent. He was staring down at the empty glass in front of him, unwilling to look at Gear or the other ponies flanking him. This wasn’t the gear he’d seen at work for years. Something was wrong.
“Yes. Let’s do it.”
The bartender let out a whoop, then turned and smacked a button on the counter. A buzzer went off and the bartender’s ears flicked as he filled in a neon table that slid out of the ceiling.
“Alright, mares and gentlecolts, we got ourselves a competition going on over here! I don’t know what their business is, but they got themselves in some sort of argument and they’re settling it the old-fashioned way: By seeing who gets stinking drunk first!” The bartender turned back to the four of them. “All four of you taking part? I’ll need names.”
Gear looked to the other two earth ponies and they nodded. “Yeah, all four of us. I’m Gear Grinder, my erstwhile friend here is Amperage.” Gear shook the sullen pegasus with a hoof.
“I’m Truncheon.”
“My name’s Crack.”
The scoreboard filled in overhead as it traveled about the room, sliding along a track in the ceiling. The bartender’s voice filled the room as he announced their names. “Alright, this is your bartender, Double Digit, announcing that we have ourselves, down here in Lower Canterlot at Negative Bills, an honest-to-goodness pegasus engaging in a drinking competition with three earth ponies to settle an argument. Who knows what’s up, but they aren’t sharing. We just get to watch ‘em have it out.”

Gear leaned on the counter and breathed, trying to calm down. This was getting to be a bit much, but Amperage had begged him to help. If this was what he had to do, he would do it. Maybe the alcohol would help break whatever spell Guerre had on him. Or maybe it would make it worse. He had no idea, but here he was.
Double Digit’s booming voice announced their names. “So first we have the de facto leader of their little group: Gear Grinder! Solid-looking fella, but average in every way. No tech on him, so he’s running with a regular stomach. Also says he doesn’t drink much, and order nothing but beer. Not the best chances, but he’s gonna give it his all, because of his pegasus friend: Amperage!” Double Digit jumped up on the counter and leaned low over the crowd. “We’re airing private matters here, but that’s what you get for signing on to the game. Amperage is apparently the cause of this little spat. A lover’s quarrel? A friendly argument? A matter of respect? Who knows! He’s the one who drinks a lot, and is the reason they’re here. He has better chances of winning, I say, but he’s up against three earth ponies! Which brings us to the last two: Truncheon, who has throat tech. Apparently a singer? Maybe you can give us a performance later, Truncheon, but that tech won’t help you with your drinking. For that, you need what Crack has; stomach tech! Used for drugs, apparently, Crack has many vices, but he’s prepared for all of them. Lungs, stomach, and liver! He’s the best bet to win, but the lowest payout. Place your bets, folks! And then we’ll get started!”
“This is far more than I was ready for. You better be worth it, Amp. I’m embarrassed, and nervous as hell.”

“Don’t be nervous,” Double Digit said as he placed four shots on the counter in front of the group. “If you put your all into this game, you’ll be too drunk by the end of it to feel nervous, and you probably won’t remember this in the morning! Just drink, and try to forget about all” —Double Digit leaned over the counter with a grin— “the ponies watching you and judging you.”
Gear looked down at the glass in front of him, then turned to look at the others next to him. Amperage was glaring in his direction, but he’d picked up the glass and was waiting for Gear. Truncheon and Crack were smiling wide, and lifted their glasses in Gear’s direction.
“Okay then. For you, Amp. And for seeing you be yourself again.” Gear lifted the glass toward Amp, who did not reciprocate, and all four drank their first shot.
Double Digit replaced their glasses and they continued drinking, with brief periods of rest in between. Gear saw the bets rise higher and higher as they got into it, until Double Digit froze the betting pool. The four of them kept going, but Gear had never been confident in his chances to win, and those chances dropped as the drinking continued.
Crack appeared to be doing fine. He was standing tall and did not rely on either his chair or the bar to steady himself. Truncheon seemed to be having more difficulty, and was leaning on the bar. Amperage looked as sullen as ever, but Gear was troubled. He wasn’t used to alcohol in these quantities, and his vision was already swimming. The crowd was loving it, though, and Amperage was drinking. Those were the main things, that Amperage be shown life away from Guerre. Reminded, as it were.

The drinking went on, and Gear bowed out early. He could no longer sit up straight, and his vision was all over the place. He felt like he was going to vomit, and he didn’t want to add that to his list of embarrassments tonight. He drank his last shot, laid his head down on the counter, and waved a hoof in surrender.
“And we have the first one out! Gear Grinder, who was the least likely to win, has given up already! Later than I had expected, but still the first one out. Give him a round of applause, folks. He tried. We can applaud that.”
There were a few boos, but they did applaud his effort. Gear barely recognized it, and instead focused on not puking all over the counter. His eyes wavered over to Amperage, who he noticed had started smiling while he was drinking. He laughed along with Truncheon and Crack, and was giving as good as he got with the friendly jibes they were aiming at the ‘flimsy pegasus’.
“You held on longer than your friend, there. That’s pretty impressive. Takes a lot to outdrink an earth pony,” Truncheon said.
“Aw, poor Gear doesn’t drink. He’s not used to it, so he wasn’t going to win anyway. He tried, though. That he did,” said Amperage in response.
“Well, no matter what, I’m still taking home that prize-money.” Crack slapped himself in the stomach.
“Everypony here is expecting you to take home the prize.  I just wanted free drinks,”  laughed Truncheon.
“I’m just here because… because…” Amperage lowered his next shot and thought for a moment, then his eyes widened and he looked down at Gear, who smiled weakly up at him. “…because I asked Gear to keep me away from home.” Amperage looked around the room at the partying ponies, cheering him on in his drinking. He looked down at Gear and at the other two, then placed his glass on the counter. “I forfeit.”

“What? You can’t quit now, I got bits ridin’ on you, dude!” somepony in the crowd said.
“I’m sorry. I have to talk about something important with my friend, here.” Amperage picked Gear up off his stool. “Do you have something that’ll sober him up?” he asked Double Digit.
“Well, I got coffee and water. Best I can offer. Your friend Gear really doesn’t know how to drink.” Double Digit poured a cup of coffee and a glass of water and passed them to Amperage.
“I know. He hates bars. He only came here because of me. I was… a terrible friend.”
“Well, I hope you two sort it out. You brought some action to the place tonight, and those two are still going at it.” Double Digit tilted his head at Truncheon and Crack, who were still taking shots. “So best of luck to you two. I gotta get back into the action.”
Double Digit left the two of them behind and Amperage dragged Gear to the opposite side of the bar from the shouting crowd. The scoreboard showed Truncheon and Crack had more than doubled Gear Grinder’s score and were close to doubling Amperage’s. The crowd was loving it.
Amperage force-fed Gear some of the coffee and water, and was slapping him to try to wake him up. “C’mon, Gear. I need you sober enough to listen to what I’m about to say. This is important!”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m here. I’m okay. I’m good. What’s up? You done sulking like a little baby bird? You… you ass-baby bird.”
“I’m not sure what that means, but I’m assuming it was an insult. How many feathers am I holding up?” Amperage held up three feathers in Gear’s face and shook him.
“Three.”
“Perfect. You’ll remember some of this.”

Amperage splashed some of the water in the glass onto Gear’s face. Gear sputtered and flapped a hoof weakly, but his eyes looked clearer afterward. Amperage grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes.
“Guerre is controlling me somehow. You’ve helped me disobey her orders, and that should give me a little bit of time, but she’ll come for me. She knows me. She knows more about me than I do, and that shouldn’t happen!” Amperage shook Gear Grinder as he spoke, eyes never leaving his. “She’s been forcing me to bring her other earth ponies, and she’s experimenting on them, too! She’s trying to figure something out! Something you already did, whether you know it or not! She’ll come for you once she has it, and then who knows what will happen! Do you get it?!”
Gear Grinder gulped and shook his head. “Not… not really, dude. What the hell do I know that a unicorn wouldn’t know?”
“She thinks you have something, so you need to be careful. She wants something from you.”
A harsh alto voice cut over the cheering of the crowd. “Amperage! Come!”
Amperage’s face twisted, and his look of panic twisted away, becoming complacent. “Something… about… your name.” Amperage let go of Gear, smiling stupidly, and trotted off through the crowd.
Gear was still confused. The coffee and water had woken him up a bit, but he was still trying to understand what Amperage had been talking about. Gear had something others didn’t have and Guerre wanted it? He couldn’t imagine what. He had that limited-edition action figure that came with Equestrian Warriors 3, but that didn’t seem like the kind of thing Guerre would want. Gear’s head was filled with questions, and the world was doing nothing to help him figure this out, with the way it was swaying to and fro. He tried to stumble into the bathroom, but was interrupted by a hoof grabbing him by the mane.

“Ack!”
Gear was yanked backward. He fell, but was caught by several hooves and placed upright. He swayed, and belched, but he kept his lunch down. Slowly the form of Guerre, now wearing much more expensive clothes, walked up to him. He was surrounded by earth ponies on all sides except in front of him. Mares and stallions, all with that same gormless look on their faces, were boxing him in.
“Uh… hello, Guerre.”
“Hello, ‘Gear Grinder’,” she said. He didn’t like the way she emphasized it.
“Amp told me you’d be coming. He’s *burp* not enjoying himself with you around.”
Guerre laughed. It was a light and merry sound, despite the situation. “Oh, come now. You really think this face is not enjoying himself?” Guerre grabbed Amperage’s chin with her magic and shook his head. His expression didn’t change, he just kept staring and smiling.
“Not really, no.”
Guerre’s smile disappeared in an instant. She looked at Amperage. “Amperage. ‘Enjoy yourself.’” Amperage looked slightly less happy, but went to the bar and got himself a drink. Gear watched, and noticed him talking to Double Digit, who waved to somepony Gear couldn’t see.
“There. Now he has to enjoy himself.”
“That doesn’t seem very fun.”
“You’re not very fun yourself, ‘Gear Grinder’. You know, I don’t think that’s actually your name.”
Something clicked in Gear’s mind. “Ohhhhh! That’s how you control them, isn’t it? That’s why you keep saying everypony’s name ahead of the command!”
“I always assume it would be obvious, but no. It never is. I’m impressed you figured it out.”
“I didn’t. Amp told me in his brief moment out of your control.”
“What a bad pony he is. I think discipline will be in order when we get home.”
A burly pony wearing neon-outlined sunglasses and with two tech-augmented hooves sauntered up to the group and pushed through the crowd surrounding Gear. “We got a problem here?”

“Do we have a problem, ‘Gear Grinder’?” Guerre enunciated. Gear still didn’t like the way she kept saying his name.
Gear sighed. She wouldn’t let up, and if it wasn’t here, it would be elsewhere. “No, we don’t.”
“Alright, but if I find anypony bleeding out in the bathrooms or in the alley later on, I’m comin’ for you, missy.” He glared at Guerre.
“There will be no such thing… I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”
“I didn’t give you one.” He turned away and plodded back to his post at the front door.
“Ponies these days. Some of them have no idea how important a name is, and others are too protective of them for no reason. While it saved him this time, I don’t know if he is the former or the latter. What do you think, ‘Gear Grinder’?”
“I think Amp said you want something from me, but I have no idea what. I’m not special.”
“No, you’re right about that, but you’re so ‘not special’ that you’re doing something other ponies aren’t, and it is protecting you from my magic.” Guerre swayed closer to Gear. Her green fur smelled of some fancy herbs he didn’t know the name of and her orange mane tickled his cheek. “What’s your real name, Gear Grinder? I checked on that fancy ‘internet’ Amperage and the others told me about, and everywhere I found you had your name listed as Gear Grinder. Your identification number was even attached to the name Gear Grinder. Your work records list you as Gear Grinder as well, so how is you’ve fooled so many ponies with this?” She leaned closer, her lips brushing against his, and her breath hot on his face. It smelled of mint and strawberries, and her lips were incredibly soft. “I suspect something about you is more than meets the eye, and if you’re like me and simply playing dumb, well…” She gripped his neck with her magic and squeezed. “I’ll find out.”

Gear choked, and tried to cough. “I don’t think I could hide a horn that well,” he rasped.
“Oh, you act so innocent. It’s really quite adorable.” Her laugh tinkled lightly. “Let me show you exactly what I mean when I say that.”
Guerre turned away from Gear and looked at Amperage. “What is the bartender’s name?”
Amperage answered without hesitation. “Double Digit.”
Guerre grinned and looked back to Gear, her teeth clean and white. “Now watch, ‘Gear Grinder’, and you’ll see what I mean.”
Guerre sashayed toward the bar and Double Digit turned to look at his new customer. Gear could see them talking, and then Double Digit’s expression changed to that gormless look the others had. Guerre did most of the talking after that, with Double Digit nodding and giving short answers. His ears flicked and he went behind the counter and pulled out a piece of paper, then passed it to Guerre.
She turned back to look at Gear Grinder, and smiled a small smile. She cleared her throat, and began announcing names. “Attention, bar patrons!” The assembled crowd who were gathered around Truncheon and Crack didn’t turn to look, but Double Digit got their attention by turning off the music and turning on the lights. The scoreboard retreated into the ceiling, and he stopped refilling the shots. Instead he just stood across the bar from Guerre. It took a moment, but once everyone noticed the game wasn’t going to continue, they turned to look at Double Digit and the mare next to him.
“Now that I have your attention, if you could all please listen to what I have to say I would dearly appreciate it.” Guerre smiled.
“Well, if you’re interrupting the game, you better have a damn good reason. What in Tartarus do you want?” somepony demanded.

“Well, I have a list here of all the ponies taking part in tonight’s events, and some questions have been raised regarding payment. We just need to be sure it is all in order.”
“Double Digit doesn’t make those kinda mistakes. So somethin’ else is up. Who are you, then? What’s a unicorn doing down here in a Lower Canterlot bar to begin with?”
“I?” Guerre simply smiled “I am Nom de Guerre. I simply seek a little help. Who are you? Are you on the list?”
“O’ course I am. Name’s Pillbox, and I had my money on Truncheon, who was winning, by the way.”
“Well then, ‘Pillbox’, welcome to the club.” Pillbox’s face went slack, and he visibly relaxed. “Now, let’s double-check the rest of you.”
Guerre went down the list of names, and one by one the ponies in the crowd began to stare at her in admiration. Gear Grinder could only watch in horrified fascination as every single one of them, to a pony, fell under her sway. Nopony seemed to understand what was happening, and so did nothing as she called out to all of them. When she was done, the expressions on nearly all of the ponies in the bar were the same.
“Is there anypony here whose name I did not call?” Guerre asked.
Nopony raise their hoof, but a couple ponies were walking toward the exit.
“Ah, hold on there, you two. What are yout names?”
“Get bent, old maid. We were just here to drink and have fun, and you totally ruined the atmosphere.”
“Yeah! We’re gone!”
“Double Digit, dear, stop them.”
Double Digit motioned to the bouncer, who looked confused, but blocked the door.
“What’s goin’ on, boss. Why am I stopping them?” The large stallion looked at Double Digit in confusion.
“Oh, dear. What is your bouncer’s name?”
“Engine.”
“Engine! Bring them here!”

Engine reached out with one tech-hoof. It split into two and gave him a large metal claw with which he picked up the two mares. They struggled, but couldn’t break free from the cold, unfeeling limb. He brought them to Guerre, who motioned for him to follow her. She brought them over to Gear, and smiled at him.
“You see, Gear, this is how things are supposed to work. I learn the pony’s name, I call it, and they do as I say. But you, you’re not interested in anything I have to say. Thus, the answer is that you have not told anypony your real name. It is the only possible explanation.”
“You’ve already done your research. My name is Gear Grinder, and you know that.”
“Oh, but that can’t possibly be all there is to it. So, let me show you what happens.” Guerre looked to the crowd and points at Crack. “Crack, come here!” He trotted over, smiling. “I’ve been learning about this place, and I have discovered that there are these delightful creations you call ‘tech’, that ponies put in their bodies. I don’t think many ponies realize what these things are capable of when infused with a little magic. Let’s have a little look, here.”
Guerre’s horn lit up for the first time. It was orange, like her mane, and she enveloped Crack in her spell. The glow focused on his stomach, where he had said his tech was, and Crack started to retch. He gagged, his body convulsing, and a horrid sound not unlike a lopsided washing machine began.
“Engine, lower them, please.”
Engine lowered the two ponies to in front of Crack, who was starting to drool. Steam was starting to issue from his nostrils and mouth as something was happening to the contents of his stomach. The alcohol he had drunk gushing up out of his throat with every heave. With a *KER-CHUNG* Crack vomited over the two ponies, and a hissing sound filled the room.

The two ponies Crack had upchucked on were just disgusted at first. Covered in unmetabolized alcohol and whatever else Crack had inside his stomach, but then they started to itch. Smoke began to issue from their fur, an acrid smell filling the air, and their clothes started to dissolve. Their fur started to slough off in patches, and they began screaming as their skin slid off in patches. The acid from Crack’s stomach ate away at their flesh, burning through muscle and sinew until their bodies were half gone. Gear tried to turn away, but his head was forced back by Guerre’s magic, and his eyelids pried open when he tried to close them.
“This is merely a small sample of what these strange devices you use can do. Many of them are very brutish in function, but with a little creativity and some modifications, you can do amazing things with even just a metal jaw.” Guerre waved. “Truncheon, come here.
“Would you like to see?”
Gear shook his head, horrified. “Fuck, no!”
“Well, then you can run along home, Gear Grinder. I’m sure I’ll find you again. I know the area you live in now, and maybe I’ll even pay a visit to your job. After all, the workers seem to be such friendly ponies.” Guerre patted Truncheon on his metal jaw. “Release him.”
The ponies holding Gear let go, and he fell to the floor. He almost touched the puddle of viscera and entrails that was all that was left of the two ponies who had tried to leave. He stumbled to his hooves, almost sober but still a little tipsy. He lifted a hoof to walk toward the door, but was pushed toward it by somepony. He didn’t have time to pull himself together, as he was then shoved by somepony else, then again. He was pushed through the bar by all the ponies Guerre had under her control, until he was finally ejected out the front door.

He fell to the ground, and scrambled to get back up, then looked back at the building. Guerre was standing in the doorway, looking imperiously down at him.
“Run home, Gear Grinder. Whatever secrets you hold, I will find them. Seeing as how you are the only pony who is unaffected, you will be the focus of my attention for some time. Why, I think I’ll pay a little visit to your workplace. It’s important isn’t it? The power station for all of Canterlot? Let’s hope nothing bad happens!” She laughed and went back inside, slamming the door in Gear’s face.
Gear shook himself and carefully brought his hooves to bear. He walked home, slowly, trying to think of something he could do to forestall the inevitable crisis that would occur when Guerre went to the power station. He tried to wrack his brain for a way to accuse Guerre of anything, to get her locked up and arrested or stopped! She’d just murdered two ponies for Celestia’s sake! Nopony who witnessed it would accuse her, either! It would be him versus an entire crowd!
Gear’s body shook as he walked toward home, replaying the incident in his mind. He had no idea what to think about it. Tech being used for such horrifying purposes. Was that a thing Guerre had invented on her own upon seeing it, or did ponies actually do those sorts of things with their tech? Was a jaw to replace teeth used as a weapon? Were the claws used like a griffin would use them; to slash and hurt? It must happen. It was sadly logical. What else could she do, though? With an army of tech-enhanced ponies obeying her every whim, she would be incredibly dangerous!
Gear flipped down his goggles and logged into the chat. Chain Gang and Balls were arguing about Equestrian Warriors again, but Gear ignored them and typed his message, interrupting their conversation. “Guys, I got a big problem. Huge.”

“That’s what she said,” Balls immediately wrote.
“So, you know Amperage, the pony who wanted to hang out with me?”
“Yeah. You said he was overbearing, but a good fellow,” said Chain Gang.
“Well this is gonna sound completely crazy, but I swear it’s the truth: He’s been enslaved by a unicorn using non-horn magic, and when we went to the bar to hang out, she tracked him, enslaved the entire bar, and is planning to enslave the power station.”
“Uh… Spider, are you drunk?” Balls asked.
“Tipsy, but not drunk. You sober up quick when you see two ponies get dissolved before your eyes.”
“Dissolved?” asked Chain Gang.
“She used some unicorn spell to change the function of this guy’s stomach-tech. He vomited pure acid onto two ponies on the unicorn’s command. No hesitation.”
“You’re serious,” said Chaing Gang.
“Sure as shit.”
“Can you report this?” Balls asked.
“To whom? Anypony I report it to will investigate, but the unicorn, Guerre, just needs to figure out their name and they’ll be enslaved too!”
“She needs their name?” Chain Gang said.
“That’s all she needs.”
“Wait, wait, wait. Then how do we know you aren’t enslaved?”
Gear started typing his argument, but realized he had nothing he could say that would convince them. Come to think of it, he didn’t know if he was enslaved. Would he know? Guerre had just thrown him out of the bar and told him to go home, and he was going home. He was literally doing exactly what she told him to do.
“I…uh… I don’t know. I can’t tell you I’m not. I don’t think I am, but I’m going home, which is what she told me to do. You don’t think I’m enslaved and was told to not act like it, do you?”
“It’s possible, Spider. Be careful, I guess. We can’t really do much to help from here. Maybe Large Hat could. I’ll message him,” Chain Gang said.

Gear closed the messenger for now, relegating it to the side bar as he plodded down the streets. He went over the awful events in his mind, shivering every time the vision of the melting ponies came unbidden to his mind. Instead, he tried to focus on what Guerre had said to him, and how he could test it.
She had told him “Go home, Gear.” And he was heading home. So, if he didn’t go home, then he would be proving her wrong. He didn’t feel like he was under any sort of spell, but Amperage hadn’t thought he was, either. Amperage probably wouldn’t get another chance like the one he’d had again. Guerre would be more careful about the wording of her commands in the future, and she could just track down any lost pony, so nopony would escape her clutches any more.
The worst part of it all was that Guerre was learning. She had mentioned she didn’t know much about all this technology. She wasn’t familiar with body-tech or even regular tech, but if she’d barely had a few days to look at body-tech and could already manipulate it like that, then it was only a matter of time before she was familiar enough with the power station to make it to any number of things. Gear could only hope she didn’t want to destroy Canterlot, because blowing up the power station would probably bring down the entire mountain, not to mention Canterlot. Even if some of it survived, they would be out of power, without communication, and thousands would die.
Gear wracked his brain for some solution or plan, and wandered up the steps to the elevator and to his floor. He was outside his door before he knew it, then jumped back in alarm.
“Shit! I came home! Does standing at my door count as coming home? Luna’s ass, there’s really no way to know now, is there?” Gear stamped a hoof, then stomped angrily over to Olive’s apartment.

He pounded on the door and waited. There was a scrambling, a yelp, the sound of metal clattering, then a muffled cry of sadness and hoofsteps came to the door. Olive opened it a moment later, chewing on something.
“Oh, hey, Gear! Floor-cupcake?” She held out a cupcake, with icing smeared down the side of the paper and over Olive’s hoof.
Gear shook his head. “No, thanks. I need to talk, do you have a moment? Bad things are happening.”
“Of course! Come in.” She stepped to the side to let him in, and shut the door behind him. “So, what is up? Olive’s a-busy, so I don’t have a lotta time.”
Gear could see the mess of cupcakes laying on the floor in the kitchen, which was probably the source of all the noise. “Well, it’s about Guerre.”
“Ohhhh, I should have expected.” Olive went to clean up the cupcakes and just picked them up and put them on the counter, stepping in the icing as though it weren’t there. “What about her? Did you find out anything new?”
Gear told her about the events of the day after they had talked. How Amperage had tried to go home, but Gear had stopped him, and all about the events of the Bar. He got to the part with Crack and his acid-vomit and had to steady himself as the picture of the melted bodies came to mind. “It’s… uh… much worse than we thought. Now she has all these ponies who work at the power station, she said she’s going there next. I don’t know what she wants to do, but it’s probably really bad.”
Olive was sitting in the kitchen, cupcakes and icing forgotten. She bit her lip in thought, then her ears started flicking and her goggles became active. “So, she knows about tech now, and can change it? If she’s going to the power station it’s much worse than that. She could learn a lot REALLY quickly.”


“That’s what I thought, but I don’t know what her goals are. She’s interested in me because I can’t be hypnotized or charmed or whatever, but I don’t know if I am and she’s just using me for some reason. How would you tell? I mean, she told me to go home, and I went.”
Olive gave Gear a flat look. “Gear, ponies go home all the time. It’s their ‘home’ for a reason. I think you’re reading too much into it. Besides, aren’t you planning on stopping her somehow?”
“I want to, yes.”
“Then that’s probably not a command she would have given you. The rest of her crowd is with her, and she doesn’t seem interested in letting them go, so if you were under her sway, you’d be with her.”
“I guess.”
“No guesses. This is science! Now, eat this cupcake.” She passed him a cupcake with sugar googly-eyes on top.
“Uh, why?”
“Because you’re too uptight, and a googly-cupcake always helps with seriousness.”
Gear took a slow bite, and had to admit the googly-eyes almost made him giggle.
Olive nodded solemnly and her eyes focused back on her HUD. “So, if you were a pony who could control other ponies with their names, what would be your target at the power station?’
“The employee logs?”
“Right, so, does the power station keep a paper copy?”
“Yeah. But not on site. It’s in the—”
“File storage, down in Ponyville. Found it. Looks like any pony working at the power station can request information. It’s kept there for obvious reasons. They don’t want to lose all their information in the event of a meltdown.”
“But wouldn’t Guerre know about that? I mean, Amperage knows about it.”
“Sure, but she’s dealing with a crowd for protection while she travels. You are a lone pony. You get down there, get those papers and steal them, then let lil’ Olive work some magic.”

Gear gaped at her. “Steal them?!”
“Well sure, we can’t leave them there because she’ll surely get them from whoever guards the place, so our only option is to make sure they aren’t there anymore,” Olive said matter-of-factly.
Gear sputtered. “How am I supposed to steal them? I can’t just walk in there and ask them to give the documents to me, then walk out.”
“Have you tried?”
“No!”
“Then you don’t know that. You’ll think of something, I’m sure.” Olive licked icing off one of her hooves and watched her HUD, flicking through page after page of information. “Good luck!”
Gear turned away and left Olive’s house. His mind was awhirl with different possible ways to steal the paper employee register from the records house. It wasn’t the most secure place, of course, because most of the information was saved online, and that was secured in multiple ways, and accessible only to a few with the necessary security bypass, but stealing from the records house wasn’t going to be easy.
________________________________________
Gear found the place down in Ponyville easily. It was linked on the company’s website, even if it was linked much deeper than most things. Nopony used paper information these days except as a last resort for security. Papers couldn’t be modified, and if there was any dispute about anything, paper was brought in as evidence. Still, though, the place was made of stone and metal, and the massive iron door hammered home the reminder that this was the last bastion of the documents used by someplace important. Gear knocked on the door, and waited.
A camera above the door swiveled in his direction, and a speaker boomed out a single word: “What?”
“Uh, hi. I work for the power station in Canterlot and they sent me to check the pony registry of employees.” He’d rehearsed this a lot in the train, and was prepared with a single script. He didn’t know what he’d do if it failed.

“What information about the employee registry do you need?”
This was the question he wanted! “I need to compare the registry to the electronic documents for accuracy.
“As you wish. I will need your employee identification.”
Gear hesitated. If he gave the pony his identification, then they would know he was the one who took them, and he would be out of a job. On the other hoof, if he didn’t take them, who knows what Guerre could get up to with such a huge list of names? Everypony who worked at the power station would be vulnerable. Taking the papers would only hold her off for a short time until she got into the power station itself and named everyone inside. It wouldn’t even be long if she had Amperage, Truncheon, and Crack. Still, Gear needed to make it as hard for her as he possibly could, and if that meant he was going to be getting into trouble, so be it. This was bigger than his job.
Gear pulled his employee card out of his saddlebags and placed it in the slot on the door. The slot closed, and then nothing for a few minutes. Gear shuffled awkwardly in place, waiting. He looked around the streets, worrying he would see Guerre and her crowd barreling down the street.
There was the sound of a deadbolt being slid open, and the door swung out to reveal a small unicorn wearing glasses. He held the door open and motioned Gear inside, then slammed the door shut behind him and slid the bolt home.
“The employee register is on the table over there.” He pointed a hoof at a clean metal table next to a wall. “Please do not touch anything else, and let me know when you are done. I will be sending a message to your supervisor letting them know you came by. If you have any questions, let me know.”

“Thank you.” Gear walked over to the table and looked down at the documents.
It was a thick sheaf of paper, and didn’t just detail the ponies that were currently working there, but the ponies who had worked at the power station over the years. It looked like it went back ten years, which was impressive, but dangerous, if Guerre ever got her hooves on it.
Visions of Guerre accessing a city loudspeaker and announcing names over it flashed through Gear’s mind. Could she enchant somepony by just saying their name or did she had to be there next to them? If her voice was all that was needed, it would be awful, and those visions would be frighteningly easy to manage. He was in the dark and running blind. He needed some help, and he needed it soon. He didn’t even know how he was going to get these documents out of here.
Gear was agonizing over the document, idly flipping through them, when he got a message. Somepony had mentioned him in the chat room. His ears flicked and he brought the chat up in his HUD. Large Hat was online and had answered his summons.
“Hey, Spider. Hear you’re having unicorn trouble?”
“Hat! Thank Celestia. Look, have you ever heard of a spell that doesn’t use the horn but enchants ponies to do what you say?”
“There’s myths about such things, yeah. I’m reading through the chat history, but all in all I’d expected such stories to be nothing but stories. How dangerous is this? She has a crowd of ponies following her now?”
“Yeah. She enchants them with names, so I’m down here in the registry for the power station trying to remove paper records. She’s not up-to-date on the internet just yet.”
“Good plan.”
“I don’t know how to get these papers out of here, though.”
“Bad plan.”

“I know it’s a bad plan. I didn’t properly think it through, but if we don’t want everypony in charge of making sure the mountain doesn’t explode being controlled by some crazy unicorn, I need to get these out of here.”
“Do you know she’s going to come down there to get the records?”
“She has several of the workers enchanted already. They’d tell her anything she asks. They can’t help it.”
“And going straight into the facility would nearly be an act of war.”
“Yeah. She can’t afford to do that yet,” Gear wrote. “…yet. It won’t be long before she can. Once she has the damn thing hostage, everypony will be begging to acquiesce to her demands, whatever they may be.”
“Is the control permanent once she names them?”
“Not… really? I broke Amperage out of control for a short while before she found him again. All he had to do was hear her once and he was back under her hoof.”
“So then I see a problem with her plan.”
“What’s that?”
“She’ll have to name everypony on the list, and for them to be affected by it, they’ll have to hear her voice, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“So where’s she gonna have to go to do that?”
“She’ll need to access the loudspeakers in the power plant to make sure they hear her.”
“If she’s not familiar with technology yet, then she can’t do it remotely using any of the identities she has control over. She’ll need to walk there, and you can bet that’s the first place she’ll go.”
“That’s true, I guess, what are you suggesting I–” Gear was interrupted by a pounding on the metal door at the front of the building. It was not a quiet knock, nor was it an urgent pounding. This was a crashing, violent, trying-to-break-the-door-down pounding.

“–shit, they’re here. Gotta run!” Gear finished. He barely saw the “Good luck, Spider.” Before he tilted his visor up to look around the building.
The pony who had allowed Gear in was muttering as he walked toward the door. “Keep your bloody socks on! I’m coming! Luna’s ass I’m popular today.”
“Don’t open that door!” Gear shouted.
“What?” the pony asked.
“Don’t open it! You won’t believe me but you do not want to let those ponies in!”
The pony frowned at Gear. “It’s my job to watch the records, record more of them, and make sure they don’t get stolen or damaged. I have to answer the door, son.”
“Okay, there is a unicorn out there who is taking over pony’s minds when she learns their name. She has brought an army to try to get into the power station, which is why she is after the same documents I came for.”
“Son, are you saying you lied to me to look at official documents?”
Gear grit his teeth and whined. “No, I lied to you because I need to keep these documents—” Gear shook the book in his hoof. “—away from that pony outside!”
The pony huffed. “Well, you can bet you’ll be out of a job after this! I’m reporting this straight to your supervisor! Lying to access official documents… pfah! The nerve!”
He trotted closer to the door, but stopped when a huge impact shook the building.
“What the devil?” the pony said.
The impact came again, then stopped. There was a sizzling sound, and then the impact came once more. This time, the door buckled just a bit, bending inward.
“What the hay are they doing out there? Are they… really after that information?”
“I told you! She’ll do anything to get it! Is there another exit?”
“What?”
“Is there another exit? We need to go, now!”


“Uh…” the pony’s eyes flickered around the building. “Over there? I think?”
“You think? You don’t know?”
The banging continued, and the door was bending slowly but surely inward. “I’ve never needed to use it! I think it’s covered by one of the shelves!”
Gear ran through the aisles of paper, ledger still held firmly in his hoof. He came up to one of the shelves and pulled it down, heedless of the mess it was going to make.
“Hey!”
“Our lives are in danger, as well as all of Canterlot! You can get me fired later!”
There was no door behind the first shelf, or the second, but the third had an emergency exit hidden behind it. Gear pushed on the handle, but the door was jammed against something.
“You seriously blocked this door on both sides?”
“Who cares about paper documents anymore? It didn’t seem to matter!”
“Well now you know what happens when you don’t care about safety *grunt* regulations.” Gear threw himself on the door. Whatever was outside was heavy, but it was moving bit by bit.
He risked a glance back at the front door, and could see the light of outside spilling in through the warped metal. It looked like they had used Crack’s stomach tech again to create some more acid to try and weaken it. It hadn’t worked too well, but it was still some amount of help against the sturdy metal door.
“They’re heading out the back! Somepony get around there and stop them!” one of the invading ponies yelled.
“They’re coming through! Hurry up!”
Gear grunted as his shoulder impacted the door again. “I’m trying! You could help, you know!”
“I’m a bookkeeper! My skills don’t lie in forcing doors open! Not even my telekinesis is strong enough for that. Why do you think I’m a bookkeeper?”

“Fine! But you could at least throw your body against this for the extra weight!”
The bookkeeper obliged him and pushed up next to Gear. With their combined body weight they were able to push the stack of empty crates out of the way enough that they could fit through the crack and escape to the alley behind the building. They got out the door and were scrambling away when a brick was thrown at them from above.
“They’re back here! Head them off on their way to the station!” A voice yelled.
Gear scrambled past the bookkeeper and hurried for the alleys and back paths of Ponyville. Guerre had pegasi in her group, and if he wanted to lose them, he was going to have to get under the cover of the maze-like corridors that made up the lower cities.
“Wait!” yelled the bookkeeper as he tried to keep up. “Why are they doing this?”
“Not they, her! And I don’t know what her ultimate goal is! She wants the power station, and that’s enough reason to stop her!”
They could see Guerre’s army following them along the main road as they galloped through the alleys. Many of the crowd were flying along, and there was one augmented pony leaping along the rooftops. Gear couldn’t see Guerre anywhere in the morass of ponies, but he knew she wouldn’t be far. She wanted him, and she wanted the book. He was the only pony he knew of who could stop her.
“There’s so many of them!” the panicked bookkeeper squealed. “What have you brought to me? I just wanted to work in peace!”
“They were coming for you anyway! I just got there first! Now shut up and keep running unless you want to join them!” Gear leaped through an open window and crashed through somepony’s house, smashing open a screen door on the other side. The bookkeeper gamely kept up, huffing and puffing behind him.

“Are you mad?” the smaller unicorn yelled.
“Maybe a little, but mostly I’m trying to survive! If that means I have to be crazy to do it, so be it!” Gear crashed through another door, eliciting some squawks of protest as he did.
They ran through, under, and around buildings, with the jeering and hollering crowd behind them. He could see pegasi police coming out in force to try to do something about the riotous parade, but he wasn’t going to expect them to stop them. They’d need more. They would need magic.
“Hey you!” Gear panted as he shouted behind him. “You’re a unicorn, right?”
The bookkeeper was clearly out of shape. And struggled to answer. “Y-yeah.”
Gear tilted his head in the direction of an upcoming teleporter set at the base of Horn Mountain. “I need you to head to Upper Canterlot!”
The poor unicorn looked at him, confused. Gear waved the book of names and tilted his head at the teleporter again.
“Unicorns only! Please!”
The bookkeeper nodded and took the ledger from Gear’s hooves. Gear slowed down to watch the unicorn’s back as they galloped toward it, but going through houses and other buildings had given them some leeway. There were several pegasi that were not police flying around, so they only had seconds before they were spotted, but that should have been enough.
There was a faraway grinding sound and a loud springing sound. Gear knew augment noises when he heard them, and leaped forward, tackling the unicorn to the side. They tumbled for a moment, and a loud *SLAM* sounded. There was a whoosh of hot air and dust blew into Gear’s eyes. He dropped his goggles and looked at the point of impact.
The pony that had been leaping from rooftop to rooftop stood nearby, augmented legs releasing the buildup of heat from their use. He was covered in tattoos and had the same crazy stare as any other pony Guerre had control of.

“Oooooo, it’s time to kick it up a notch!” the tattooed pony yelled as the dust cleared. “I got a leg up on ‘em over here!”
Gear jumped to his hooves and picked up the bookkeeper, pushing him toward the teleporter. “Go, go! I’ll handle this!”
The tattooed pony leapt easily over the two to block the teleporter. “Nah, dude. I need that book. We’re not after you or your lame pal, there. We just want the book. Gimme.”
Gear could hear a trickling sound as the bookkeeper wet himself. He was terrified, and it showed. His tail was between his legs, his ears were back, and he was starting to lower himself to the ground in a cower.
Gear pushed him to the side and tackled the mohawked pony blocking the path. He knocked the pony to the ground and yelled at the bookkeeper. “Just go! Go! Get away from here! Save yourself!”
 The bookkeeper didn’t need to be told twice to sacrifice Gear. He scurried past and into the booth just as the augmented pony’s leg-hydraulics kicked in to shove Gear away.
“Luna’s ass, you got guts for a useless piece o’ flesh, dude,” he said. He stood up and pointed a hoof at the teleporter. “Always wanted to try this one!” There was a *fwooosh* sound and his hoof flew off the end of his foreleg. The bookkeeper’s horn flashed and he disappeared just as the hoof impacted the booth. It tore through the flimsy plastic shell and off into the distance. “Yee-haw, that was awesome! But shit, he got away!”
Gear took advantage of the pony’s distraction to deliver a double-hoofed kick to his head. The pony sprawled out on the ground, down for the count.
“Looks like… you’ll have to hoof it to catch up?” Gear shrugged, panting, then started running. He had a long climb up Canterlot mountain, and they seemed ready to dog his hoofsteps the entire way.

________________________________________

Meanwhile, Olivebloom was studying the internet with intense interest. She was looking for something, though she wasn’t sure what, exactly. She needed to find names or reasons for names, and that was a long and in-depth process. She had come across studies about consciousness in ponies and other creatures. She had come across in-depth research that discussed the purpose of names and their function in society, but she had found precious little that made sense about names and magical influence.
Olive spun her chair about, then pushed off her desk. The chair she was in spun and swiveled as it sped across the floor. It bumped into the far wall and she grabbed a cupcake off the nearby table, then pushed back toward her desk. It spun and wobbled, but she landed expertly right back where she started. She licked at the cupcake’s frosting as her ears and eyes flicked about, looking through the information in front of her.
“Nah. Nope. Noper. Negatory. Uh-uh,” she muttered to herself.
“None of this is any good. Did nopony seriously do research on names and magic? Seems like a thing that would matter to somepony at some point!”
Her ears continue flipping as she scoffs the cupcake. She goes through page after page, faster than the pony eye can read. Things were highlighted as some program she made scanned documents one after the other, hunting for some specific keyword she had been looking for.
She idly licked the icing off her hoof and hunted for Gear’s information online. She had been meaning to try and figure out where he went and who he talked to. Just to spy, of course. It wasn’t like she was just trying to get to know him better. He had secrets, and she wanted to know then. Nothing personal, just business.

She went through his personal information and looked around for names. She had contacted him on that network once before, and so she assumed that was where he spent most of his time. Her ears twitched and… she found it! Some private channel with a small group of ponies from all over the city. Mostly Lower Canterlot, but one who looked like he lived in Upper Canterlot. A single Unicorn in the group.
“Oooo, Gear, you got friends in literally high places. I wonder what that pony is like! Large Hat? Let’s have a chat!”
She sent him a private “Hello! I’m Spider’s friend! I’d like to talk!” message, swallowed the last of her cupcake, and waited.
She didn’t have to wait long. He was online, and he was curious. “Baited like a hook! …I mean fish. I mean a worm.” She thought for a moment, getting icing on her cheek. “Nevermind.”
The message read: “Hello there… Cuppycake, is it? You’re Spider’s friend? He hasn’t ever mentioned you or invited you to the chat.”
“I can’t imagine he would have. I’m too busy. But I’m contacting you for some questions. Do you have time to answer a few?”
“I suppose I’m not too busy. What do you have to ask?”
“Has Spider told you anything about what he’s been researchin’?”
There was a long delay before the next response. That was a good sign for Olive. She nodded and smiled to herself. She kicked off her desk and grabbed two more cupcakes before rolling back. She scoffed one immediately, then picked the icing off the other one slowly.
When it finally came, it was short. “A little. I don’t know much, but he’s in trouble, I think.”
“Wait, trouble?” Olive sat up straight as her ears flicked out the letters. “What kind of trouble?”
“He’s in the document storage house for the power station in Ponyville.”

“Ohhh, he got them! Do you know where he is now?”
“Unfortunately not. Last I heard he was stuck inside the building with the ledger.”
“He’s a smart stallion. He’ll figure it out. I’ll send him a message after this. But for you, my question.”
“Shoot.”
“Why are the names so important?”
“The names?”
“Yeah. Why’s she want ‘em?”
“She? Oh! Guerre, you mean.”
“Yeah. She’s after them to control ponies, but the ultimate goal is confusing.”
“Well, once she has the factory, she’ll own Canterlot.”
“Aye. So then why the names? Spider isn’t affected by them, if you didn’t know that, but if names are so important, why is there so little information on how Guerre is doing it?”
“No documentation of name-magic.”
“I haven’t found much at all.”
“The only conclusion I can come to is that it was something forbidden, and she’s the last one to know it.”
“Spider says she does it without using her horn, though. I think she’s the only pony who can do it at all.”
“So how would you stop something like that?”
“…a name?” Large Hat finally said.
“Bingo!” Olive celebrated by herself by eating the other cupcake, squeezing icing all over her cheeks as she shoved it in her mouth.
“You want to figure out her name.”
“Since it isn’t unicorn magic, which I have just now read extensively on so I am clearly an expert, it is exclusive to the individual. If other ponies names grant her control over them, then if you figure out her real name, you own her!”
“How would you find her name, though?”
“I have no idea!”
“That doesn’t help much, Cuppycake.”
“No, it does not.”
“Well, I’ll go through my sources and see what I can find. Stay in touch, Cuppycake. Contact Spider and see how he’s doing.”
“Will do, Hatty McHatterson!”

________________________________________

Gear was struggling up a wall in somepony’s yard when he heard the blip. Somepony online had contacted him and he had a message. He didn’t really want to stop and check it, but it could be Olive or Large Hat. He didn’t know what they might have that would help in his current situation, but anything different would be a welcome change. Any other ideas would be fantastic. He flicked his ears and opened the message. It was Olive.
“New problem, who dis?”
“success but now trouble” He didn’t bother with punctuation. He was a little busy hiding in a house. Panic was starting to build and ponies were rushing out and about through the streets. He couldn’t tell who was a thrall and who wasn’t.
Gear was almost trampled as a crowd of earth ponies stampeded past his hiding spot. At this point it didn’t matter who was or was not a thrall, as all of them could care less about him. Guerre couldn’t convert him, but she didn’t seem to want him dead. The thralls, if they behaved properly, would just deliver him to her if they grabbed him, or they would follow him to the ledger.
He chuckled to himself as he got another message from Olive. He didn’t know where the ledger even was at this point, so it was useless to try. They’d have better chance of finding it first, since the pegasi she had, like Amperage, could just fly to Upper Canterlot and look. What good was an earth pony that couldn’t be converted to her cause?
“Oh noooo, are you dead? Please don’t be dead.”
“not dead being chased ledger in upper canterlot”
“You’re being chased by a ledger in Upper Canterlot?”
Gear groaned and climbed over a broken barricade some ponies had built and lost almost immediately. He slipped into an alley and climbed on top of a garbage bin before jumping up to a fire escape.

“I’m fine. The ledger is in Upper Canterlot with the unicorn who worked at the place. They broke in, destroyed a lot, and are now causing riots in Lower Canterlot.”
“Ohhh, is that what that noise is? I haven’t looked outside. They haven’t knocked the power out yet, thank Celestia.”
“Olive, now is not the time. Have you found anything out?”
“Oh! Right! Yes! Cupcakes are best iced. Otherwise they’re just muffins.”
“Olive!”
“Right, right. The magic thing. What I’ve discovered is that if she has this ability, and her horn doesn’t light up, it’s just hers. Buuuut, I was talking to your friend Large Hat, and he suggested that if names are power for her, then you need to figure out her name!”
“Her name? It’s Nom de Guerre.”
“That’s Prench, Gear. It just means ‘pen name’. That’s not her real name.”
“I figured. But then how am I supposed to figure out her name?”
“I’m still looking through databases for witches, wizards, unicorns, and other such stuff looking for other historical occurrences of such things. If I find anything, I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks, Olive. If I ever don’t respond within five minutes, I’m probably dead.”
“Don’t be dead, Gear. That’s bad.”
“If I do die, you’re the only one who knows what’s going on besides me and Large Hat. It’s up to you to stop her somehow.”
“Oh, I can’t do that. I’m baking!”
“Olive!”
“All right! All right! I’ll stop the wicked witch for you. Geeze.”
“Tell Large Hat to try to find that bookkeeper, okay? We’ll want to know where the ledger is, ASAP.”
“Will do! -u-7”
Gear minimized the chat window and looked around him. He was thankfully still alone, but the day was dragging on, and most of Guerre’s army was probably past him, climbing the long way up the mountain to Upper Canterlot.

Gear took a look both ways down the alley, then climbed further up the fire escape. He had only intended to use it as a safe space from possible crowds, but the buildings were all so close together, he might be able to use it as a sort of road to get through the place. At the very least, he could check for pegasi.
When he reached the top, he looked around quickly, searching for anything that might be dangerous or threatening. There were plenty of pegasi, but thankfully most of the ones he saw were police. They were swooping and diving, gathering up ponies that were acting out in some way or attacking them. Many of them were augmented in one way or another, with powered wings, magical wings, or even a single earth pony with added wings.
That was one thing he never understood. You’re an earth pony. Why would you want wings? From what he’d heard of the procedure, they either had to give you wings so big they made flying awkward, or, like this pony, they had to remove some bone from you to make you light enough to fly. Neither one sounded like a good option. He’d wait until they refined the process enough to not have to deal with either problem.
This fakesi, as they were called, looked to be in charge though. The size of his wings meant he had had bone removed, but he looked important, and dangerous. He was ordering around other ponies, and looked to be in charge of clearing the rooftops. It looked to be a tough job, because the roofs were swarming with ponies, just like the sky was swarming with pegasi. It was a popular spot, and always the first one to be cleared so the police could work unmolested. Unfortunately, Gear had been spotted. He dove back down the fire escape as two police ponies flew toward him. He just hoped they weren’t interested in chasing him very far. Unfortunately, now he’d have to stay below.

Gear scrambled down the fire escape, headed for the street. He reached the alley and tried to run further up the city, when the two police landed on either side of him.
“What are you doing skulking about on the roofs, citizen? Didn’t you hear the alarms?” they asked.
Gear had heard the alarms, but he’d had to ignore them. Staying inside was the last thing he wanted to do, and riots became worse when ponies were told to stay inside. Some just wanted an excuse to create havoc, and that was a perfect opportunity for it.
“Yes, I heard, but I’m trying to get home to my family.”
“Does your family live on the rooftops? You know they’re forbidden during a riot.”
“I know, but the streets are unsafe.”
“So are the streets, copper!” A familiar voice said.
“But thanks for finding him for us!” Another familiar voice said, and Crack and Truncheon crept out of the alleyway nearby, and advanced on Gear and the two officers.
“Oh, shit.”
“These two ponies been chasing you, partner?” an officer asked Gear.
“Yes, but please, just fly me away and let’s get out of here, quickly!”
One officer removed his baton from his saddle and held it in his teeth. “I can’t abide lawbreakers or muggers. What business do you have with this pony, folks?”
“We’re here to take him to Guerre. She demands it,” Truncheon said, as Crack started gagging.
“Please! We need to go, now!” Gear pleaded, pulling on an officer’s tail.
The officer advanced on Crack, wary, but getting closer. “Are you okay, sir? You sound like you’re gonna be sick.”
Crack vomited. The acid from his stomach was poorly-aimed, and the officer stepped aside from most of it, but it nicked his wing. He looked disgusted at first, but then he felt and heard the sizzling of a few of his feathers.

“Oh, sweet Celestia! Oh, my wing! Why does it hurt? By Luna’s ass, what are you doing?” the officer was wiping his wing in the dirt, trying to get the acid off.
Gear looked at Crack, who looked emaciated. His teeth were falling apart, and one had come out of his mouth during his latest puke. He was smiling, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Puking vomit that could melt another pony’s flesh off didn’t help you when it was only your stomach that was made of metal. His lips were cracked and bleeding, and Gear didn’t think he could manage many more of those.
The other officer, much to his credit, took the initiative with Truncheon, trotting forward to attack the stallion before he could bring his own strength to bear and help Crack. Truncheon was built much more solid than a pegasus pony, however, and his sheer size was an advantage compared to the officer’s training and agility. He took several hits to the face and shrugged them off, while Gear tried to help the other officer. Finally, Truncheon took a swing, and the officer grabbed him by the leg, twisted it around, and threw him to the ground.
“Gedda fug up, Trunshin,” Crack slurred out. His mouth was not in very good condition.
Truncheon’s throat make clicking noises, and Gear dashed back down the alley nearby, climbing up the fire escape once more. Anything was better than being nearby when Truncheon let loose. He was a singer, if Gear remembered correctly, and if Gear was right…
A rumbling bass echoed out through the streets. Buildings vibrated, and Gear could feel the sound in his gut, and in his head. He felt a headache begin, stabbing behind his eyes as it thrummed through his body and brain.

He chanced a look back down, and could see Crack and the two officers on the ground, clutching their own heads. Crack looked to be bleeding, but from his vantage point, Gear couldn’t tell if it was from his mouth or from his ears. Gear kept his ears covered and waited for it to end. When it finally did, he shook his head to clear it, looked down to see Truncheon as the last one standing, and began climbing further up.
When he reached the top, he was greeted by more police pegasi. They pulled him up over the ledge and threw him to the floor, then looked down at the street. “What happened down there, huh? Care to explain?”
“That would take far too long to explain, and we don’t have that kind of time!” Gear winced as the officer hit him in the side.
“Two officers are down and we catch you fleeing the scene of the crime. What happened down there?”
“A pony yelled really loud and hurt them! He’s still after me!”
“After you? Why would he be after you?”
There was an explosion somewhere off in the distance, sirens started somewhere else, and a screeching sound began in another direction entirely. A thick cloud of smoke could be seen billowing up in yet another direction, and then the building they were all standing on began to shake from a screeching sound below.
“Oh my Celestia, she’s getting desperate!” Gear said in fear.
“What? Who’s getting desperate?”
The building began to shake harder, and it began falling to the side. The pegasi officers thankfully picked him up and began to fly, holding Gear above the mess as it fell to the ground in a great cloud of dust.
The officer holding Gear gave him a grim look. “I think you’re going to have to explain some stuff, boy.”
“If you get me to safety, gladly.”

“Gentlecolts, we got us a full-scale attack on the city! Be it some terrorist cell or a monster or some sort of disease, we need to get it under control! Where’s the captain?” one guard yelled over the noise.
“Captain Cliff? He’s off reporting to the group at the front. There’s a huge crowd running toward Middle Canterlot and we’re trying to head them off, but it seems to be gathering ponies as it goes,” another officer said.
“Don’t say his name!” Gear yelled. He received a kick for his words.
“Quiet! Until we know why they were after you, you remain silent!”
“No, you don’t under—"
“Quiet, I said!” and he kicked Gear again.
He was at their mercy, and he let them carry him as they ignored Truncheon and flew off in the direction of the majority of the violence. There was a lot of shouting, screaming, and mechanical noises of all types. Unicorn officers were now out in force. Pegasus and fakesus ponies were flapping about, relaying locations of the worst of the mess, and keeping non-official pegasi out of the skies.
They were not kind about it. They wielded hooves, clubs, and even tasers with ruthless abandon. There were unconscious ponies littering the streets below, and Gear was sure some of them had fallen from great heights, as the pools of blood around them were too big to be anything but.
“Captain Cliff! Captain Cliff? Where’s the Captain?”
“He’s not here, sir. It’s just us with the unicorns holding back a mob, and doing a shit job of it. We don’t know what these ponies are running on, but they are not holding back, and they have some serious hardware.”
“For Celestia’s sake, this is embarrassing. We’re going to have to call in the P.U.L.L. squad aren’t we?”

“Sir, I think we can stop them if we just—” he stopped talking and held a hoof up to his ear. “Yes, sir. We’re on it, sir.” He turned to the group and shouted. “We have word of a bigger group down in Ponyville marching on the city! P.U.L.L. will deal with this, Captain Cliff says they’re on their way, but we have to get down there and stop more from coming in!
Gear looks confused for a moment. Another group coming from Ponyville? Had Guerre left some behind in case Gear himself doubled back? There would be no point. The ledger had gone to Upper Canterlot, which meant–.
“No! There’s no crowd in Ponyville! They’re getting you to leave them behind! It’s a trick!” Gear shouted. They hit him as he spoke, but he yelled, trying to get them to listen.
“For Celestia’s sake, leave off! What should we do with this guy? One of the rioters was after him.”
“Who cares. They can have him. Drop him.”
Gear looked down. He was at least twenty stories up. “Not here!” They wouldn’t!
They did.
The pegasi dropped Gear, and he screamed as they flew away, leaving him to his fate. Gear looked desperately for anything to grab on to as he fell, reaching out for windows, powerlines, clotheslines, and anything else, but they were all too far away. He could see the ground coming up to meet him and he covered his eyes.
As he fell, he suddenly felt the rush of wind slow, until it stopped entirely. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around. He could see the glow of magic around him, an orange glow, and with a sinking feeling, he realized he probably knew who it was. He waited as he was turned and floated through the air until he was finally facing Guerre.

She smiled sweetly at him, the fakesus Captain Cliff next to her inside one of the buildings. “Hello, Gear Grinder. Still not listening to me, are you?”
Gear sighed. “Hello, Guerre. Stealing the police, are you?”
“He was getting in the way. You understand.”
“Yeah, I’d have done it too.”
“We understand each other, then. Good.”
“As much as I hate to admit it, yes. We’re very much alike.”
Guerre gasped and smiled. “You admit it! That’s so unlike you.”
“It’s tough to admit, but I get it. We both have a big secret, don’t we? Yours is your name.” Gear let the barest hint of a smile touch his lips.
Guerre’s smile disappeared and she let go of Gear for a brief moment, letting him drop a few inches. He yelped, and she allowed herself a smile again. “Yes, I suppose we both do, but I’m in control here. I control everything I know the name of, and once I find why you’re immune, that’s all I’ll need.”
“Would your hidden name allow me to control you?”
Guerre laughed, a sharp, angry cackle that stopped as quickly as it had begun. “Just throwing out the big questions, are we? Remember your position. I could have you killed with a single word.”
“Why don’t you?”
“We’ve been over this: Because I want to understand you as an anomaly. I would be a poor student of magic if I didn’t pursue it.”
“So you admit you were a student of magic?” Gear’s ears twitch as he sends a message, hoping Guerre didn’t understand the goggles yet.
“Come along, we have a mob to catch up to. Cliff, see that he follows.”
“Yes ma’am!” Cliff said, obediently.
“And yes, of course I was a student of magic. How else would I know so much about magic and machines?”
“But aren’t you old?”
Guerre turned and gave Gear a flat look.

“It’s rude to ask a mare her age.”
“Sorry, you just don’t… seem to up-to-date on all the tech of the day.”
Guerre sighed. “Yes, I’m old.”
“How old?”
“Don’t push it.”
Gear followed, confused. “Then what are you trying to do here?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Take over the city.”
Gear wasn’t sure what to make of such a frank response. “Just… take over the city entirely? So I was right and there isn’t actually some nefarious plan you had in mind to enslave the minds of all ponykind?”
“What? Oh, no, that’s after I control the city, and the power station is clearly the best way to do that.”
Gear wasn’t sure what to make of this. She was being perfectly frank, was actually doing what he thought she was doing, for the reasons she was doing it, and wasn’t beating around the bush about it.
He felt kind of vindicated knowing he had been right this whole time and not acting crazy, but it wasn’t any more comfortable. He knew what she was trying to do, and he had to figure out how to stop her. He needed her name, but to find that out he had to have more information about her.
“You get all that, Olive?” he typed out in his goggles.
“Yep! Thanks for the camera feed. We’ll see how long it lasts with the riots. I’ll listen and see what I can find ou- oh no my donuts!” There was a scurrying sound, then a fire alarm, but Gear couldn’t keep listening. He turned his attention back to Guerre.
“So, if I guess your hidden name, I can stop you? Like that story about the pony that could spin straw into gold?”
“Gear, that’s so quaint. I haven’t done that in centuries!”
“Sooo… Rumpelstiltskin?”

Guerre laughed. It was a beautiful laugh, musical and pleasant. But that just seemed to make it all the more sinister. “Gear, please. I was joking. Why would I weave straw into gold when I could just get somepony to do it for me?”
“Fair point. How about, one of the elements of harmony? Pinkie Pie? Applejack? Fluttershy? Rarity? Rainbow Dash?”
“No, Gear. Stop that. I have limited patience, and you are testing it already.”
“Well, why not kill me then?”
“Do you want me to?”
“No.”
“Then don’t push your luck. I don’t need to study you, you know. But as a weakness in my magic, I want to.”
Gear kept his mouth shut as they descended the apartment building. Eventually they came out onto the street and followed the path of destruction the rioters had left. There were pony bodies everywhere, many of them were still breathing, but a lot were also dead. Gear thought about stopping to help, but after he stopped at the first one and Guerre left him behind, he thought it best to stay close. She’d try to keep him alive, hopefully.
Olive finally came back, typing at him in the chat. “What I miss?”
“Not much. She isn’t one of the elements of harmony, and she isn’t Rumpelstiltskin.”
“Oooo, good guess! I didn’t even think about that! I’ll look into ponies from some centuries past. See if I can find schools that talk about names.”
“You do that.” Gear typed out. He watched Guerre as she ordered some ponies around, telling them to go this way and that to hunt down the ledger.
As he stayed near her, he saw two ponies come running up. One was that ridiculous punk with the leg augments. The other had augments covering much of her face and neck, a disgusting sight to Gear, who now had even more reason to fear them with Guerre’s strange magic. She snapped at them about something he couldn’t quite make out, then she looked at Captain Cliff, and the two ponies.

Guerre started mumbling something in some strange language, and her horn began to glow. Curious, Gear moved closer, but balked when he saw the three ponies move closer together. Their augments began to glow with magic, and her voice picked up.
“Olive, what language is that?”
“Not sure! Searching!”
“What is she doing?”
“Don’t know! Keep watching!”
The pony’s augments glowed, twisted, and went white hot. He could smell burning fur and flesh as the augments grew wires and the metal making them twisted. The mare’s augmented eyes pulled out of her face, pulling the muscles with it. Her skull opened up to allow more metal to grow and twist, then insert itself into her skull.
Captain Cliff’s wings pulled his spine out of his back, bringing his scapula with them. His lower half was severed from the rest of him, falling to the street, but he didn’t make a sound. There was a scream, but Gear realized that was himself. The jumping pony’s legs were all ripped from his torso. He was left there, uncomplaining, laying on the ground. Cliff’s head was severed, and the mare’s augmented head was pulled away and attached to cliff’s body, along with the extra legs.
Flesh and metal fused together with a horrifying smell of sizzling meat, burning fur, and ozone. The smoke and steam that arose from the unholy union before him resulted in a chimera with eight legs, giant metal wings, and a horrifying metal face with three eyes. It opened its mouth and belched blood, bile, and smoke, unleashing a cry that sounded like pain and anger all at once.
Guerre turned around and smiled a crazy, wide-eyed smile at Gear. “Behold! The pony of legend! The messenger of Woden himself! Sleipnir! Capable of traversing the heavens in a single night! If anypony can find that ledger, it will be him!”

Gear gawped at the monstrosity she’d built. It was bleeding yellowish fluid from some of its joints, and Gear wasn’t sure if that was going to stop or if it was even supposed to happen. It spread its massive wings and flapped. The sound of metal creaking could be heard, and Guerre’s horn glowed, covering it in an aura of magic as it tried to take off. The creak of metal groaning could be heard and the wings grew larger still.
Sleipnir finally took off, its eight legs pumping as it galloped against the air as it poured all its energy into flying. It kicked at some of the buildings to gain height, until it cleared most of the rooftops and flew up, up and away, higher up the mountain. Guerre turned to look at Gear again as Sleipnir rose out of sight.
“There! A sample of the magic I possess using your fancy technology. The augments you ponies seem to put so much stock in are easy to manipulate, even so far as creating something out of your pointless parts!”
“That’s… monstrous!”
“It’s amazing, you mean. Your magic is really no match for mine. I’ll be sure to teach some of the unicorns something more useful than just telekinesis, that’s for sure.”
Gear’s ears twitched as he sent a message to Olive. “Did you figure out what language that was she was speaking?”
“I’m looking right now. It’s some variant of Old Ponish, but I’m trying to figure out which one. You’ll have to give me more time. Once I can figure that out, I can check old school for any information, and narrow my search.”
“Well, hurry. We have a giant mechanical monster of unknown power heading to Upper Canterlot!”
“I am aware, I saw. I also puked up my donuts because of it. Anything that makes me lose sweets is awful.”

“Whatever gets you working harder on it is fine with me…” Gear mumbled.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just let me know what you’ve got when you figure it out.”
Olive went silent, hopefully to continue working on what language Guerre was speaking. Gear was following her as she continued, leaving just the two of them walking up the broken streets of Lower Canterlot.
They were mostly alone, with Gear just a few steps behind Guerre. It seemed so easy to just attack her and kill her right then and there. He could hear hoofsteps down side streets, and the screaming from up ahead was loud and chaotic, but Guerre and he were unmolested. He could attack her here, but he was reminded of how great the power difference was between an earth pony and a unicorn, especially one as powerful as Guerre. She was right that she could have him killed or kill him herself in a single word. She could rip him apart, put him back together again as some other mythological beast. He didn’t want that.
“You’re smarter than you look, Gear,” she said after some silence.
“Huh?”
“Just us, all alone, me trying to take over the city. You trying to save it. I’d have expected an attack by now.”
“You’re a unicorn, I’m an earth pony. Not much of a contest.”
“Oooo, you are smarter than you look! I’m impressed!”
“What’s so smart about not attacking a unicorn?”
“A lot of ponies would take the chance, hoping to catch me off guard, just for a chance, no matter how slim, of saving the city. Not you, though.”
“Nope, not me.”
“Which means you’re waiting for something. You’re not stupid, but you’re not idle, either. What are you doing and how are you doing it?” She walked up and jabbed him in the chest with a hoof.

Gear put up a hoof and feigned ignorance. “I’m not doing anything! I’m alone here!”
“Yes, you’re alone, but you’re not helpless. This technology should have given rise to some sort of long-distance communication, so I’m assuming you are talking with somepony else.” Guerre looked him over, scanning the items he was wearing, trying to decide which one of them were the long-distance communication she was looking for. “I remember the devices that allowed ponies to communicate over long distances, so where is yours?”
“What? I don’t… have one?”
“There were big in my time, but they got smaller over the years before I disappeared. It would make sense for them to be smaller still now that I see metal body parts. Technology marches ever onward.” She lit her horn and ripped open his saddlebags, poring through them for anything that might be the device she was hunting.
“Hey!”
“Hush, Gear. I want to study you yet, but you’re not immune. I could slice your legs off and carry you, it would just be annoying.”
Gear kept his mouth shut, letting her hunt through his bags. She eventually tore them off him entirely and tossed the contents aside. He lamented the loss of several books and other tech, but kept quiet.
Eventually, she got to his goggles. “These are glasses. Do you need these to see?”
Gear began to panic. “Uh, yes?”
“Change your name!” He typed out in the chat.
“Olive changed her nickname to Gummydrop and began spamming ASCII art of adorable cats in strange poses, moving the chat log up until their names were both missing.
Sure enough, Gear’s ears kept twitching even as Guerre pulled the goggles off his head and placed them over her own. She stared at it, reading the pictures and names, confused as to what was going on. “What are these symbols and names? Gummydrop? Spider Web?”
Gear felt a tugging at his heart when she said Spider Web, and cold fear hit him as the realization hit him. That was his real name!

Guerre fiddled with the goggles, putting them on her head and trying to use her horn to make it function. She pulled and prodded at the screen and other parts, and even ended up snapping off the antenna Gear had just bought. He winced, but she kept on prodding and poking.
“I don’t think that was supposed to do that, and I would love to learn more about it, but I will assume this was the thing you were communicating through. In hindsight, that was my fault for not paying attention, but it won’t happen again.” The aura of Guerre’s magic appeared over the goggles, and there was a *crack*, and a fracture appeared in the lenses.
“No, stop!” Gear leaped at her. She froze him with her magic, forcing him to watch as she crushed his goggles. She dropped the broken pieces to the ground and stepped on them, grinding them underhoof.
 “I’ll take your reaction to mean I was right. I don’t know who your friends were, but I want their names, Gear.”
Gear tried to shake his head, but her magic held him fast. He couldn’t open his mouth to speak, so he just grunted a negative response.
“Oh, come on, Gear. I just need a few names and locations, is that so hard?” She pouted at him.
Gear grunted again, furrowing his brow.
“Such a pity. You like your friends far too much. Well, both Gummydrop and Spider Web will be found eventually. Then you’ll tell me, yes?”
Gear felt that tugging on his heart again as she said his online name, and he grunted in the affirmative this time, despite himself.
Guerre gaped. “Wait, that was a yes?”
Gear grunted affirmative again. Guerre just stared at him, confused.
“Is this some sort of joke to you?”
Gear grunted a negative, unable to stop himself from responding.

Guerre’s eyes widened. “I… I got you? When did I charm you?” She let him out of her magic and grabbed his face with her hooves. “Tell me what it was! Now!”
The words fell out of him, and he was helpless to resist, just spewing all his secrets. “I don’t identify with my name in real life. Gear Grinder is just identification, like an ID number or a birthdate or fingerprint. The name I truly feel attached to is the one I use online: Spider Web.”
Guerre stared at him, furrowing her brow. “Online, like that thing I saw in those goggles? There’s information on there?”
“Yes.”
Guerre smiled. Small at first, but it grew as she realized what she now had. She laughed, a beautiful, merry tinkling sound, like silver church bells ringing in his ears.
Gear loved the sound of it.
“Come with me, Gear. We are going to talk, and you are going to tell me every little thing I need to know about this internet, and how I can get more names from it. I suspect this is going to make my job so much easier.”
Gear nodded dumbly, marching after her as she walked.
________________________________________
Olivebloom was stuck in her room, going back over the feed she had picked up from Gear’s goggles before they were shattered. Guerre had gotten Gear’s online name, and hers as well. She’d crushed them before she understood them, but there was still the possibility that Olive had been found out! That meant she could be captured as well, and then Guerre would make her do terrible things!
Like manual labor!
Olive squeaked in terror and shoved another donut in her mouth. She had to figure things out, and she had to figure them out fast! Before she was charmed into becoming a working slave!

She pored over the video, looking at the part where Guerre had begun creating Sleipnir. She had been mumbling some sort of language Olive didn’t recognize, and that was probably the key to this whole mess.
Her first choice had been assuming it was the northern version of Old Ponish. Since she had mentioned Woden and Sleipnir, it was a good guess, but it hadn’t matched when put through recognition software. She tried others from that area, and finally got a hit on the Marelish version of Old Ponish.
Olive tapped her chin as she thought about what use this would be. She honestly didn’t know, and she had no one to ask except for Large Hat. Trouble was, he was in trouble, because he wasn’t answering. She couldn’t blame him, the entirety of Canterlot was in an uproar, with the military and the police out in force to get ponies back into their homes and quit rioting. Their demands weren’t very effective.
Olive ate a donut, then looked behind her at the door. She could go outside, but she didn’t know what purpose that would serve. She needed help, and Gear needed help, but what help could she be if she went down there unarmed?
Olive ate another donut and turned back to her setup of screens. Her ears flicked and eyes moved as the cursor flew across the screen. She hunted through information about Marelish, looking for references to tales of a pony that might charm people by their names.
After some time of looking through myths and stories, she finally found one, referencing a creature that could cause a pony to love them irrevocably, just by saying their name. It was old, and it said that just calling the creature by its name would be enough to break their magic, but their was no mention of what that name might be. Olive was still stumped.

“She has a name. Everypony has a name. I just need to figure it out! Unless Gear already has it figured out.” She dabbed a donut creme-covered hoof on her chin. “But he can’t say it, because he’s befuddled.”
She stood up out of her chair and paced back and forth. She flicked through some of the information she had up. She closed useless windows and scrolled through some of them, looking for anything she might have missed. She couldn’t find anything useful, and grunted in frustration, then ate another donut.
“Okay! I need to tell other ponies!”
She pulled up the chat system and looked for Large Hat. She pulled open the chat window and belted out a quick sentence, “Gear is captured. Figured out secret. Gotta yell her name in Marelish. Don’t ask why. Old Ponish, Marelish dialect, say her name. Gonna go find Gear. Tell everypony! I might die!” Olive stopped after typing that last sentence.
She might die.
She couldn’t leave any donuts uneaten!
Olive pulled out a saddlebag and shoved her donuts in it, then opened her door. She blew a kiss at her desk, with its myriad monitors, and slipped outside, locking the door. She munched on a donut as she went for the elevator, only to find it out of order.
“Uuuuugh. Stairs.” Olive went for the stairs instead, climbing down them as she chewed on her surplus of donuts.
When she broke out into the streets, she was unsurprised to find a crowd of ponies running about screaming about whatever. Some of them were attacking other ponies, and others yet were demanding names. The ones demanding names were very robotic about it, and a little unsettling to look at. Some of them had augments, but their augments were… unnatural. They were pulsing and shifting, and some were leaking fluids a bit too much.

Olive wanted to come up with a witty line as she stared around the streets, but she was frozen in place.
Outside.
Olive usually got things delivered. She worked entirely online, programming, building web sites, search engines, programs, what-have-you. All of it came to her. All she wanted was her little apartment, her desk, and her sweets. But now, to help a pony she knew, she was being forced outside, into the worst riot the city had ever seen!
Olive turned around, planting her head into the side of the building while she panted in panic. Too many ponies! Too many angry ponies! Too many angry ponies that were brainwashed!
“Oh, Celestia. I can’t stop now! Gear needs me!” She turned around, stuck a donut in her face… and marched three steps before she had to turn around and go back. She was panting. Staring through her goggles at the wall. Her legs were shaking as she struggled to keep herself steady and upright, and not just dash back inside the building. Her ears flicked as she looked up information about agoraphobia, trying to read how to deal with it. Olive was interrupted when a hoof roughly pushed her sideways. She staggered, catching herself and looking out through the goggled at the pony.
“What is your name!” the pony demanded. It wasn’t a question.
“Uhhh… uhhh… uhhh…!” Olive couldn’t answer. Gear Grinder was one thing, and the mailpony was another, but usually she was addressed at the doorway of her home! She could retreat! This was entirely different and terrifying!
Olive’s mind went blank, and she reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a donut. She shoved it into her own face, then pulled out another and shoved it into the pony’s face. The pony mumbled through it, then looked confused. Olive took that opportunity to dash away, leaving the pony behind as she galloped down the streets to where Gear had last been.

As she ran, she saw monstrosities that shouldn’t exist lining the streets. Some were trying to keep up with the crowd working its way up to Upper Canterlot. Others were struggling to survive, and some were actively trying to attack everypony they saw.
One pony has a pipe going from his head to his chest. Whatever purpose it served before, it was now a cruel mockery of that. The edges of his skin were an angry red, seeping white pus. Another pony she ran past was missing all four legs, and instead had a sort of tread on his lower body, propelling him along the ground. He tried to bite her legs, but Olive was too quick. She rounded a corner between two buildings and saw a pony with huge, robotic eyes staring at her. The pony didn’t do anything but sit there, but it kept its gaze on Olive the entire time.
The landscape of Lower Canterlot had become a nightmare, and Olive was terrified, but she kept shoving donuts in her mouth until she ran out. It happened a lot sooner than she had expected. When she was out, she whimpered and shuffled into a corner, the eyeful pony following her and watching, just watching.
She tried to ignore it and turned her attention to her goggles. She checked the location where Gear was last known to be and checked her map. The wireless was working wonderfully out here. Even better now that everypony was under attack and wasn’t online, but that suited Olive. She stared at the HUD, covering her eyes and the eyeful pony to figure out where she needed to go.
She figured out where she was headed, then lowered her hoof. She screamed as the eyeful pony was right next to her. She punched it in one of its giant augmented eyes and bolted.
“Aaaaaaaaagh! Gear, you better know her name! I am never coming outside again!”

Olive ran. Through street after street of shambling, kicking, bleeding, ticking, leaking, whirring and screeching horrors. She ran out of donuts quickly, eating to calm her nerves, then went from sprinting to merely shuffling from street to street. She had to make a few detours when she encountered a few smaller crowds, fighting each other in the streets. Sometimes it was normal ponies against the mind-controlled ones. Sometimes it was normal against monstrous augmented ponies, and sometimes it was normal ponies against more normal ponies, only fighting because it seemed to be the thing to do.
She didn’t have to fight off very many after the eyeful thing. One of them tried to pursue her, but it was nothing more than a digestive system. One long augmented intestine that struggled forward like a terrifying worm, openings at both ends grasping at the air as it left a trail of bile and viscera behind it. Olive outran the nasty thing the first time, and kicked to pieces a long-legged pony with blades for limbs. It was much more fragile than she had assumed when it chased her down, and had fallen apart with a simple buck.
Eventually, she reached the spot she had last seen in Gear’s goggles. She peeked out of her hiding place, looking for any sign of the two ponies. Guerre or Gear. She saw nothing, but found most of the entrails left behind by her combining the augments of the three ponies she had acquired. She nearly puked, but Olive couldn’t allow herself to waste donuts like that. Instead, she occupied herself by searching around the site for Gear’s goggles. She had been tracking them by the built-in GPS, which was thankfully functioning somewhat, and had made her search a lot easier.

Unfortunately, when she found it, she could make no use of any part of it. Guerre had destroyed most of it to a point where it was bits of plastic and metal all squished together and crushed.
“Aw, poor Gear. I’ll get him a new one for his birthday. Or his unbirthday. Whichever comes first.”
She looked around for some indication of where they had gone. The goggles had been dumped uphill from the bodies, and Gear had mentioned Upper Canterlot, so she assumed they must be up that direction somewhere. She tossed the remains of the goggles to the ground and puffed up the hill, sweating and panting as she went.
“Gear… when you’re fine… I am… going to murder you.”
There was a *beep* in Olive’s goggles, and she focused on the HUD for a moment while she puffed up the hill. It was Large Hat, sending her a message. She flicked it open with an ear movement.
“Hello, Cuppycake. That’s weird to say that, but I hope you’re still alive out there. I’ve located what I think is Gear and Guerre. Something is going on at the entrance to Upper Canterlot, and some metal beast is trying to destroy a building. I need you to hurry. I’ve already called Ball Buster, Chain Gang, and Laugh Track. Hopefully they’re okay and will meet us there.”
“I don’t know who those are, but I hope they’re capable. There’s monsters out here,” Olive wrote.
“I know. I’m staring at the one breaking down the gates.”
“You told the rest how this works?”
“Yes. We’re trying to find her name.”
“I have no ideas. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I find them. I just know I can’t sit idly by while Gear is in trouble. He’s my only real friend.”

“For many of us, too. We’re all we’ve got outside of work, and that’s important.”
“So what will happen?”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
“Okay. I’ll trust you there. You’d know Gear better than I would.”
“We can only hope.”
Large Hat didn’t say anything further, and Olive was too exhausted to bother trying to keep the conversation going. She had to abandon the main street and sneak up alleys, squeezing her chubby body through small gates and passages filled with debris, and the effort was taking up most of her attention.
She hit Middle Canterlot, the level of the mountain filled with more expensive pony’s bodies. The corpses were wearing different clothes, better-looking goggles, and there were more unicorns among them. There were scorch marks on more of the area, and chunks of rock tossed about, meaning that the police force had been trying a bit harder to stop the encroaching army. They hadn’t succeeded, because it was easy for Guerre to steal their names, and she had kept much of the force for herself.
She could hear somewhere up ahead a huge clamor, and Olive knew by the abandoned Middle Canterlot streets, save for the blood and gore left behind that Guerre had taken much of the augments and attached them to her giant Sleipnir. The beast could be seen from far away, slamming at the forcefield encompassing Upper Canterlot, and Olive could tell the magic was beginning to fail. Cracks had appeared in the shell, and while they were healing themselves, it was only a matter of time. This was a war of attrition Guerre would eventually win as she fed more and more augments into the beast. It was spewing acid, shooting sonic blasts, bucking with all its might, and even blowing fire. It was monstrous, and there would be not stopping it without the Princesses coming down from on high, and that hadn’t happened for centuries.

Olive couldn’t bring herself to get any closer to the thing. It was huge, and every inch of it seemed to flail wildly. There was flesh patched over some parts, and steam rising from it as the heat of its size and machinery clicked, banged, and hissed.
There was a crowd gathered around it. All ponies that had been enthralled by Guerre, Olive imagined, along with some police, military, and others. The ponies were hurling themselves into the military’s line of fire to protect Sleipnir and Guerre, getting themselves hurt, killed, or added to the great beast. Some military ponies were becoming enslaved as Guerre discovered their names through those of family members or other means. It was horrifying how quickly she could get the information. She must have learned something about the internet, Olive imagined.
There was a squealing sound and somepony’s voice came over the city’s loudspeaker system. There was one set up at the borders of every portion of Canterlot, ensuring ponies didn’t get too out of hoof because they didn’t know why it was taking so long. Security measures, of course.
“Uh, hello? Is this thing on? It is? Fantastic!” somepony said through the speakers. “Attention, Nom de Guerre. We have a friend you have captured that we would like back. That is, if he hasn’t been glued onto your death-machine. In either case, we know you’re from the Marelish isles and we’re going to start reading off common names from the era we’ve determined you must be from until we find yours. Give us our friend, and we’ll stop.”
Olive smiled as the voice started reading off some Marelish names. She was sure they were butchering the pronunciation beyond belief, but they were trying. It even got a reaction from Guerre, because the ponies gathered around her and her creation were scrambling to break the speakers, and the other buildings nearby.

Their distraction had given the police a bit of an edge, and they began making a small amount of headway through the crowd. The pegasus police were a bit understaffed, but they were giving it their best effort, given the strange circumstances.
Olive heard a blip and looked at her goggles. She’d gotten a message from Large Hat, apparently. She flicked open the messenger and glanced over the message as the ground shook underneath her.
“Cuppycake, you can hear the loudspeaker, yeah?”
“Yes, I can. Is your plan to just run through every single name until you pick the right one?”
“That’s the best we got at the moment. If it doesn’t work, well… we might have to start making up names. Can you see Gear from where you are?”
“No, I’m… kind of hiding.”
“Well, if you can’t bring yourself to get out of there, we’ll do what we can. I’m inside the shield, but there’s others I hope are okay that can have a look. Is there a lot of damage out there?”
“Yeah. Ponies are going crazy, destroying everything they can get their hooves on. I think Guerre is asking them to find the loudspeakers.”
“It’ll be pretty hard to find all of them, but they can try. Until then, she gets to worry.”
“I don’t know that she’s very worried.”
“She wouldn’t be destroying the loudspeakers if she weren’t. Her name might be perfectly average for the time. If we hit it, we win.”
“There’s nothing else you can think of to get her name?”
“Not unless you can think of any parameters we missed. We searched for common pony names of the day you mentioned she might be from, and went with that.”
“I feel like that’s not quite enough. There should be more involved in naming somepony that can… disappear for so long then come back centuries later.”

“She’s a unicorn. Starswirl the Bearded did it.”
“He was an amazing wizard, not a… nasty witch of names.”
Olive was interrupted when the crowd came hunting toward her building for one of the loudspeakers as more butchered names were listed off. She yelped and scrambled away down the side streets, hoping they wouldn’t follow.
There was no yelling for a hunt on the stranger, and they seemed busy with the police, but they swarmed inside the building, aiming to shut down the power and destroy the loudspeaker attached to the building.
Olive was forced to puff her way further up the hill, abandoning that building in favor of the ransacked one next to the barrier. Sleipnir was causing the shell to shake, and she hoped it maintained enough structure to do so while she had to hide here.
From her current vantage point, with the crowds pulled away to smash things, she could see Guerre standing a short distance from the screeching machine monstrosity. She wasn’t looking at her creation as it spewed oil and blood, and was instead focused on Gear Grinder, who she had kept near her. Olive could see him staring blankly at her, nodding and saying something back.
“Oh, no. He really was captured,” Olive typed to Large Hat.
“That’s what we figured. He was a prisoner if not enchanted. She figured out what was stopping her from enchanting him and that was that. Now she has our online names, and if she knows the internet by now, then she’ll have our real names easily enough. We need to hurry up.”
After a moment, the voice reading out the names over the loudspeaker started picking up speed, reading them one by one without stopping for any sort of reaction. The names were poorly pronounced, and he had to go over some multiple times to test out different pronunciations.

Olive watched closely as Guerred continued her attack on the barrier. She watched for some hint of something happening with the attack, but was rewarded with nothing. There was no reaction as the list of names went on.
“I think we’re going to have to do something, Olive,” Large Hat wrote.
“What can we even do? What guarantee do we have that Gear will have any information useful to us when we get him back?”
“We don’t, but it’s better than nothing.”
“Ohhhh, I think we could think of something that doesn’t involve the few of us attacking a unicorn powerful enough to enslave an entire city.”
“We just need to get Gear away and break her hold on him. Ball Buster will go first, followed by Chain Gang. Laugh Track is the one reading the names, and I’ll be waiting in the wings with spells if necessary. Only dive in if you think you can help Gear, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Good. We’re going in.”
Olive moved the window out of the way and looked out at Guerre. “Ohhh, no. Here we go.” She hunkered down in her spot behind a garbage bin and watched, waiting for an opportunity.
As she watched, she saw a pegasus flying down amongst the crowded sky. The figure broke away from the crowd, was joined by a second figure, and they dove down toward Guerre, silent bullets out of the air.
There was a flash when he got closer, and he was thrown to the side, crashing into a building. But from behind him came the second pegasus, swooping down toward Guerre. She raised a barrier, but the pony turned at the last moment and grabbed Gear Grinder. Gear hung limp in his grip, until Guerre yelled at him. “Fight back, Spider Web! Do everything in your power to get back to me! I need your internet knowledge!”

Gear Grinder, or Spider Web, as his ‘real name’ seemed to be, began struggling in the pony’s grip. He swung his head wildly about as he tried to break out of his grip. The pegasus couldn’t hold him up as he swung his weight back and forth, and after a moment, they swerved toward Olive’s position, tumbling into the dirt. Gear was up and on his hooves almost immediately, he was getting ready to dash back to Guerre when Olive tackled him. Her chubby bulk whomped into his side and took them both down to the ground once more, Olive on top of him.
Olive shoved a hoof in his face, and glared. She opened her mouth, but suddenly found herself unable to speak. Nor could she move. She was frozen in place by magic. Her eyes rolled over to try to look at Guerre, but the position was wrong. Above the slamming of Sleipnir against the barrier, she heard the low and beautiful voice of Guerre, coming from behind her.
“Ah, the stupid ponies that are seeking to free little Spider Web from me, hmm? Cute.” She looked down at Gear Grinder and growled. “Spider Web, what are these pony’s names?”
Olive couldn’t see, but she imagined both of the pegasi were taken as well, held in Guerre’s magic.
“I don’t know any of them except for the earth pony,” Gear said.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I have lots of friends online, but I have never seen them face-to-face.”
Guerre made a frustrated sound, and Olive let out a quiet chuckle.
“Fine. What is the fat earth pony’s name?”
“That is—” Olive looked down in Gear’s eyes with a pleading look. Gear hesitated a moment, blinked, then continued. “—Cuppycake. Her name is Cuppycake,” Gear said.

“Well then, Cuppycake. I want to know what your skills are, besides being fat, and how you can help me. And also if you know these two idiots.” Olive was released from the spells and balanced herself on her hooves. She crawled off Gear and let him stand up, then sat in front of Guerre, glowering.
“Hmmm… I don’t think that worked, but it’s not like she can do anything. She’s an earth pony. Does she have any other names you know of, Spider Web?”
“Gummydrop.”
“Does Gummydrop do anything?”
Olive stuck out her tongue.
“What? What other names?”
“Cinnymin.”
“Cinnymin, then?”
Olive blew a raspberry.
“What is wrong with you ponies? Spider Web, this obese pony has one damned name that she values above all others, you useless mud horse, what is it! Tell me!”
“Do-nutty.”
“What in Celestia’s sunshiney flank are you doing? She doesn’t have that many names!”
Olive moved her head back and forth, blowing a short raspberry every time her head got to the end of the motion. *Thbpt!* *Thbpt!* *Thbpt!* *Thbpt!* *Thbpt!*
“Graaaaahhh!” Guerre yelled.
She leaned forward, pointing her horn toward Olive, but Gear reached out and punched it, knocking the unicorn to the ground. He marched toward her and stomped a hoof down on it, preventing her from casting anything.
“What?” Guerre said.
“What my friend Olive taught me right now, is that you don’t have to attach so much importance to a single name. She changes it almost constantly, but I always know it’s her. I know her by the way she types online, the words she uses, and even how fast she can respond to a message. The same thing goes for the rest of my friends. I know them by their behavior, not just their name. I thought I had to be named online if I wanted anypony to remember me, and while it helps, there’s more to it than that. I’m still me, with or without the name.

Guerre narrowed her eyes and growled. She opened her mouth to shout, “Co—”
Gear punched her in the mouth. Blood flecked her lips, and her eyes rolled. He punched her again, then began stamping her mouth into the ground. He reared up and Olive looked away as he began stamping her head into the ground.
“Hundreds, if not thousands, dead because you wanted to feel powerful! What in Celestia’s name possesses a pony to want that! What would you even do with a kingdom like that! You’d kill so many just to satisfy your own ego? Why? Why? Why?!” Gear was pulled back from the ruins of her head by the two pegasi. He kicked his rear hooves at the bloody mess, scraping on the stone ground.
Olive peeked out from behind her hooves, gagged, and covered them again. “Is… is she dead?”
One of the pegasi retched. “Nopony could survive something like that.”
“She’s a witch though, isn’t she? I mean, she came… back to life, or something?” The thin pegasus said.
Gear chuckled. “Like I just told her. I recognize the way you guys speak. Chain Gang and Ball Buster, right?”
The larger pegasus laughed. “Right as rain, Spider.” He looked over at Olive. “And who’s this who came to help? Is this the Cuppycake Large Hat mentioned?”
Olive said nothing but waggled a hoof a little bit in their direction.
“Yeah. That’s my friend Olive. She lives next door and we talk sometimes,” Gear said.
“In real life and everything?” Ball Buster said.
Gear nodded.
“Well, I’m impressed. Didn’t take you for the type to talk in real life,” Chain Gang said.
“Not often. Olive makes baked goods sometimes and need help eating them.”
Olive looked over at the noisy thing that was still working. She waved a hoof at the group. “Um, guys? Hate to interrupt, but why hasn’t Sleipnir stopped?” Olive pointed at the giant flesh-and-metal beast.

Chain Gang stared up at the monster battering the shell on Upper Canterlot. “It’s been built. It needs to be taken down. Now that her control is broken, we should be able to muster the right type of force to—”
“Sweet Celestia’s mercy!” Ball Buster shouted.
Olive followed Ball’s hoof and looked down at Guerre, who was now struggling to get up. The others were dumbstruck, but Olive leaped on top of her and flattened her, poking at Guerre’s horn to stop her from casting.
“Get off me you disgusting, greasy manatee!” Guerre said.
“Wh-what do we do?” Ball Buster asked.
Gear’s face was flat. “We still need to figure out her name, or she’ll just keep coming back. We have to cut it off at the source or she’ll never stop.”
“You weasels can’t possibly hope to stop me! Kill me if you want, I’ll keep coming back! Imprison me and I’ll break out eventually! You’ll never figure out my name you hoof-licking, cud-munching, hornless—!” Gear walked over and punched her in the face again, interrupting her continued rant.
Olive huffed and continued sitting on top of Guerre. “Geeze. With a cruel tongue like that, it’s no wonder you have to force ponies to be your friends,” Olive said.
Guerre said nothing, but remained still for a moment longer than Gear would have expected, her eyes twitched up at Olive for the smallest moment.
“Olive, may I borrow your goggles? I need to look something up.”
Olive clutched her headset for a moment, looking shocked, but pulled it off and held it out to Gear. Guerre chose that moment to struggle underneath Olive. She pushed and shifted, swinging her hooves at the headset. She glared at Gear and screeched at the top of her lungs, “Sleipnir! I command you to help me!”
Sleipnir turned from the barrier and marched toward them four of them, nostrils spewing steam and mouth belching fire and boiling blood. Gear grabbed the headset and bolted as he jammed it on his head.

“Run, ponies! Save Olive! I’ll handle Guerre!”
Sleipnir thundered across the street toward them. It pushed aside a building, crumbling the structure’s walls as it moved toward them. Gear ran down some alleys, and Olive was picked up, carried into the sky above it.
Sleipnir reached down and picked up Guerre in its teeth, then set her on its back. Guerre and Sleipnir broke down buildings, while Guerre fired lasers from her horn, blowing holes in everything in a wild, screeching rage.
“Kill him! Kill Gear Grinder! Kill Spider Web! Kill him now!”
Olive could only watch helplessly as the buildings were destroyed, toppling like dominoes onto each other as she was flown higher and higher. There was lightning, smoke, fire, and even molten stone as buildings were boiled to their death in Guerre’s mad rage to reach Gear Grinder.
Suddenly, above the sound of destruction, a familiar voice sounded over the loudspeakers. The volume was as high as it would go, and there was a squealing sound, then Gear’s Voice spoke out.
“I name you, awful creature that you are: Teanga éadrócaireach. Begone from this place and all others, and may your cruel tongue never again spite us with its presence.”
There was silence down below. Sleipnir stopped moving, and Olive thought she saw a figure fall from the flesh-beast’s back. Moments later, the creature itself began crumbling apart. Metal that should never have been attached to metal slipped from the magical bonds that kept them together, flesh sloughing off and boiling fluids were squeezed out from between binding splints, until there was nothing but a hot, bubbling mess, covering the ground and sliding down the street.
The crowd of ponies all around looked around themselves, confused and bewildered at where they found themselves. They looked around, and soon a wailing cry of sadness and regret filled the air as ponies realized what they had done.

“I think it’s over,” Chain Gang said. Ball Buster nodded and they began flying back down, carrying Olive with them.
They found a clean spot and landed, looking around for Gear Grinder. The rubble of the buildings and Sleipnir blocked much of the area they had planned to look, but Ball Buster offered to hunt him down while Chain Gang stayed to watch Olive.
“I think he noticed something you didn’t when you said that, Cuppycake,” Chain Gang said.
“It was an accident, if so. She just kept calling me fat.”
“Well, it was a happy accident. It seems to have given Gear the information he needed.”
Olive shook her head with a wry smile. “Throwing all his cards in on a hope and a prayer.”
Chain Gang shrugged. “If it works, why question it?”
“I guess you’re right.” Olive looked at the mess of metal and viscera. She was worried, but Gear had managed to connect to the loudspeakers to shout out her name, so he was alive, even if he had been injured.
Her fears were allayed when Ball Buster came flying back up and over the ruins, carrying Gear Grinder with him. They landed heavily nearby and Chain Gang and Olive both ran over to give the two a hug. Everypony was all smiles.
The barrier to Upper Canterlot came down, and a swarm of unicorns came piling out, ambulances and other vehicles spilled out of the gates, rushing to help the ponies in need.
Two ponies came out with them, a unicorn, and an earth pony, hurrying toward Gear Grinder and the rest of his friends.
Gear Grinder looked at the two with a grin. “Laugh Track and Large Hat, then?”
The unicorn grinned. “You’d guess right, Spider. It’s good to finally see you.”
“You too, guys. Never seen you before in my life, but at least I know we’re old friends.”

When the panic died down and the emergency vehicles had passed through, traveling down the mountainside. Gear Grinder and his friends had been ushered into a tent to sleep for the night. There was silence all around, and they had all waited while the ponies cleared up the mess left by Sleipnir.
They searched through it all for a body, but had found nothing. He didn’t know how Guerre’s magic worked, but he had been hoping there would be something left of her to quiet his fears that she had survived. It was a faint hope, but a hope nonetheless. Magic was a fickle thing.
“Tawn-guh oh-droh-ka-rock,” he said out loud. “Cruel tongue. A fitting name for you.”
Olive snorted nearby, already fast asleep with her damaged goggles back on her head. Her ears twitched, and the HUD appeared to be doing something. He wouldn’t be surprised if she browsed the web or programmed in her sleep, but he didn’t ask.
He rolled over, curling up under the itchy blanket provided and tried to sleep, but images of Guerre rolled through his mind. Her pleasant voice, her beautiful mane, and her supple curves still called to him.
As she had fallen from Sleipnir’s back, she had given one last command, and only he had heard it: “You’ll find me again, Gear Grinder. Whether you want to or not, you will search for me again.” Then she had died.
He hadn’t been compelled to follow it, and ignored it, but without a body, he wasn’t so sure. He worried.
He worried until he fell asleep, the phantom ringing of her sweet alto in his ears, accompanied only by the mumble next to him of all his friends, drowning her out.
For now.

The End.