“C’mon Spike, just hold still! I need this, and you can have all the gems you want after!”

Pinkie Pie’s hoof stopped an inch from knocking on the library’s door, and she blinked. She’d originally pronked over to Twilight’s Treebrary because nopony had seen her for about a week, and she wanted to make sure she was okay with some ‘You haven’t left your house in a week and you’re probably malnourished so eat these&

“15… 16…
17… Ah, 18.” The brown Unicorn knocked on the motel room door,
then waited. She could hear a television playing inside, and a bit of
movement after she knocked, but nothing immediate. Turning and
pulling her arms close in the bright green hoodie, she looked out
over the railing, at the light forest surrounding the buildings.
It was a very
normal-looking motel, really. Not a particularly large one, but it
didn’t really make sense for it to be. It was a ways off the
highway,

The wrench made a
solid metal ‘clank’ as Sundial dropped it on her workbench. She’d
been working on her latest device for the past four months, since
she’d had an incredibly exciting dream that inspired it. Stepping
back, she examined her creation.
Standing in the
center of her workshop was what could only be described as a
clockwork pegasus. Solid brass hooves hooked onto a complex leg
system, hooking into a camshaft in the body, while more supports
connected the ends to a spine and mor