A New Breed: Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"The show must go on"

            "You requested my presence?"

            Luna turned from where she had been contemplating the view from her office window, her head dipping slightly to her guest, "I'm sorry, Thunderhooves, but I must be the bearer of bad news."

            "He passed," the bison stated, already knowing. The Princess responded with a slow nod.

            "If there is anything you need…" she started.

            "There is only one thing I require, Princess," he sighed, "I must ask you to call a replacement to fill my spot in the ranks. I must leave immediately to tend to my family, and bear the mantle my father has left to me."

            "Very well," Luna said softly, "I will arrange a chariot to take you home, Chief Thunderhooves."

            Thunderhooves smiled sadly, "You have my deepest thanks, Princess Luna. I will insure the Celebration of the Winter Equinox burns brighter than ever before, so that my people may honor your nightly journey across the sky."

            "I would be happier if you just stayed in touch," Luna answered.

            Clockwork closed her eyes, letting the robotic arms finish assembling the armour about her. It was a strange feeling, almost claustrophobic, to feel herself encased piece by piece in metal. Technically the inside was padded, but until the entire armour was assembled, she couldn't power it up. It might as well be a comfortable sarcophagus rather then a powersuit in those moments.

            Green lights skimmed across her sight as the boot-up sequence began. One by one the displays flickered to life: Power levels, status, targeting HUD, stress levels, among others. Clockwork grinned at them, reminding her of some sort of futuristic game, the holographic displays seeming so alien and artificial hovering in the darkness before her. Finally the visor itself flickered to life, and she could see a display of what her helm was facing.

            "I'm up and running Mai," she said over the microphone, eyes skimming over the system checks in progress.

            "Very good, ma'am," Mai answered, "All tests confirm systems are at optimal performance."

            "All lights are green in here," Clockwork said and flexed a leg, finding it easy to move now. She took a few steps forward, taking a moment to get used to the mechanically assisted motions, as the AI drew away the heavy cables that had been attached to the unit.

            "It took longer then you initially anticipated, ma'am," the AI noted, "But I do believe you have achieved a superior system to your previous 'Warpony' design."

            "That's it, keep on flattering me," Clockwork teased, "One day my ego will be as big as Ultrapony's"

            "I doubt anypony could manage that feat, save Ultrapony himself, ma'am."

            The mare chuckled softly and spent a moment to double-check the systems. Once she had the inspiration, everything else just seemed to flow, and the piece de resistance was the newly crafted helm. While it could be said to look raptor-like, Equestria was never home to dinosaurs, so Clockwork considered it a "creative" interpretation of a dragon head. It was easily twice as long as her head inside, which she found that gave her plenty of room to reinforce the tip and add a more comprehensive display suite then originally planned, including true three-dimensional vision from the "eyes". The helm sloped in a narrow triangle, with a pair of recessed eyes glowing a bright blue-white. In a final surge of creativity, Clockwork even included a "mouth".

            The armour itself was sleek, a far cry from where it first started, and had changed from steel to a gold plating to help resist icing in higher altitudes. Over this she had used a deep emerald color for a majority of the plating, but some areas of black showed through where the rubber padding between joints couldn't be hidden entirely. With the blue-white glow of the virtual light wings and plasma ejectors, she gave every bit the image of a four legged mechanized dragonfly.

            With just a few motions, she triggered the wings and began to hover, adjusting her weight to move in a slow circle about the lab. Everything had to be triggered by subtle motions of her hooves, head, and back. She'd been intimidated by it when she truly dug into how many hundreds of commands the Warpony armour had encoded into it, but in practice she found it much easier, so many of the commands were just motions that came naturally.

            "Looks like 'Dragonfly' is ready for her grand entrance," Clockwork grinned, "Open the launch entrance, I'm going to fly up."

            "Very good, ma'am," Mai intoned. Several panels on the wall folded back and away, revealing a large hatch, which itself started to slide open, "I look forward to seeing how your first true 'session' with the armour goes."

            "Hope I don't embarrass myself." She grinned, and offered a wave of the hoof before kicking on the plasma ejectors and steering herself from the lab. There was a moment of vertigo as she looked down, the lab floor transitioning away from her hooves as she hovered through the exit, leaving her to look down the side of The Canterlot Cliffs for miles and miles to the valley below. Clockwork pulled back sharply, her engines flaring brightly before propelling her upwards along the side of the cliff.

            She arced gracefully up over the edge of the terrace, then leveled off over the practice field they had been using. Her sensors were able to pick out Ironjaw and Tome at range, with Ultrapony flying in from the other side. Playfully, she pushed the suit a little more, "racing" Ultrapony to the field. While he hardly had a sporting chance, she was content to beat him there, flaring her jets and wings to land in the line-up by Ironjaw.

            "Ah! Hello, Little Key! Or should I call you 'Dragonfly' now, ya?" the loud metal pony laughed.

            "What can I say, you two had a great idea," Clockwork answered, ignoring the glare from Ultrapony as he landed, "Any idea where Thunderhooves is? He deserves credit too. Between the two of you, I had enough ideas to finish."

            "At least until it burns out again," Ultrapony sneered.

            "I handled that problem."

            "Oh? How did you do that?"

            "It wasn't too hard. Once I realized I wasn't going to get any air to the engines at high speeds, I altered the systems a bit," Clockwork happily explained, "I made the system air-tight, with a self-replenishing rebreather system to extend the time I can last in an airless environment. As for the burnout, it just required that I adjust the system. The engines no longer use a true ram-jet style plasma chamber, but instead use virtual light to supplement power systems as needed. It all works perfectly with the plasma ejectors I've grown fond of, and every time we're in the sunlight the wings can double as solar collectors to further lengthen the operational time."

            "Now say that in Equestrian?" Ultrapony asked, his eyes derped from trying to take in all that information.

            "If Tome follows well enough," the unicorn offered, to Clockwork's surprise, "She could last a long time without breathable air, the engines will not burn out from the same cause as before, and the batteries will recharge from solar power when available."

            "That's… correct," a shocked Clockwork confirmed.

            Tome offered a conspiratorial wink, "Unlike these brutes, Tome is smart enough to read up on some of the basics. While the read was outside Tome's preferred discourse, she did find it useful to interpret some of your more… wordy answers."

            "I'm impressed you would go through that trouble."

            "Tome likes to know what is going on. She has not lived this long by simply resting on her laurels," She answered, her nose going back up in the air, but Clockwork couldn't help but wonder at her smile. Maybe there was more to this pony then just her haughty attitude? But what about her previous sarcasm at her expense?

            "It looks like almost everypony is here," Luna's effusive voice interrupted Clockwork's mental musings, and she turned to see the Goddess trotting onto the field, stretching her wings a little as she came up before them.

            "Galaxi will be joining us shortly," the Princess began, "But there is some important news I need to pass along. Sadly, Thunderhooves is no longer with the team. As of this morning he has left."

            "What?!?" Clockwork cried out.

            "Can you tell us why?" Ironjaw asked more reasonably. Clockwork groaned inwardly, she actually made Ironjaw look reasonable and RESERVED?!? She must be slipping.

            "His father, the aged Chief Thunderhooves, passed away late last night." Luna answered sadly, "This means the mantle passes on to him from his father. Thus Thunderhooves has left to take the leadership of his tribe in hoof, and to see his father off on his 'final voyage'. He left two hours ago on a chariot bound for Appleloosa."

            Clockwork sat down, stunned. She had never expected Thunderhooves to be the first one to leave this group. She figured it would be either herself for failing to get the armour running soon enough, or Ultrapony for pissing off the wrong mare. Maybe Tome for her attitude as a long-shot, but not Thunderhooves! She hadn't gotten to show him the armour he inspired yet…

            Clockwork shook her head to stave off the selfishness of that last thought, and forced herself to refocus on the conversation already going on. She vaguely heard Ultrapony ask a question, but only returned from her own thoughts in time to hear the answer.

            "…not decided who will take his place as your second, Ultrapony," Luna was saying, "Right now I am more concerned about getting the next individual here. Fortunately it should be rather quick, as his replacement was notified within the hour of Thunderhooves' resignation. She should be here shortly, Galaxi is waiting for her to arrive to escort her here."

            "What do we know about our new teammate?" Clockwork asked, jumping on the question she could see in Ultrapony's eyes.

            "We know she has a pair of gifts," the Princess answered, "One of which is an enhanced version of unicorn teleportation, which is why neither my sister or myself were needed for transportation. In her case, it's honed to deadly precision, along with a startling speed and minimal focus required for line of sight teleportation. Secondly…"

            "Secondly, Flourish is HERE!" cried an unknown unicorn, and a sound like a sucking wind followed by an explosion of sweet smelling pink smoke heralded the strange pony's entrance. The dark-grey pony in question had a mane streaked with pink and purple in alternating stripes, and wore a rather impractical looking outfit that reminded Clockwork of dancer from ages long past, a white blousy top with puffed sleeves and a billowing loose lavender skirt. Her form twisted with a surprising amount of agility, her skirt flaring just high enough that Clockwork could make out her cutie-mark, a symbol of a long thin rapier with pink cloud behind it. Galaxi was still by the entrance to the field, Clockwork noticed, looking at an empty space and a few wisps of pink smoke. Then, just like that, the newcomer was gone again, vanishing in another sweet smelling pink cloud.

            "Let's see… You must be Ultrapony," the newcomer said, appearing in that same sweet smelling cloud right before the pegasus, then vanished again. She appeared before Ironjaw this time.

            "I've heard of you, you're Ironjaw!" she cried happily, "We'll have to go out drinking one night!"

            "Ya!" was all Ironjaw got out before she vanished again. This time she appeared by Clockwork, who recoiled a step from the energetic newcomer.

            "Well, well… a Powersuit? I'd only heard of Warpony, and you look more like a bug to me," she chuckled.

            "I er…" Clockwork stammered, "Warpony was my brother… and my previous design."

            "You must be a lot smaller then he was," she winked, and vanished again to appear before Tome. The haughty unicorn didn't even answer as Flourish tried to talk to her. Instead of paying attention to the banter, Clockwork looked to Galaxi as she plopped herself down by the armoured pony.

            "Looks like your escort has a mind of her own," she gently teased Galaxi.

            The psychic mare looked back with an oddly exhausted expression, "You have no idea."

            "And YOU!" Flourish crowed, appearing in front of Galaxi, who watched her tiredly, "Wait, I already met you." Flourish giggled and vanished in a puff of pink smoke before re-joining Luna in the front of the field.

            "Are you done?" the alicorn asked with a bemused grin.

            "Hmmmm…" Flourish seemed to consider, rubbing her chin with a hoof, "Yes, I think so. For now. Maybe. I'll decide later."

            Luna cleared her throat, "Well, since you're here Flourish, and you've made it clear how capably you can teleport, why don't you show the team what else you can do."

            Flourish gave a light bow, then bounced back away from Luna. For a moment her horn began to glow, a bright pink glow extending from it. It took Clockwork several seconds to realize the shape was not the usual for a unicorn, instead of an amorphous glow about the horn, she had a thin length easily four times as long as her horn. Flourish brandished that length as if she were doing some sort of elegant sword-play, until she was finally presented with a target, which the length from her horn bisected easily. Luna provided additional illusory targets for her, and the mare began what seemed like a dance to Clockwork.

            Between acrobatic flips and spins and the sweet odor of her teleports, Flourish sent the rapier-like glow of her horn through every target within seconds. With one final pirouette, she vanished again, reappearing beside Luna with a wide smile, and took a long bow like a show-pony. Clockwork almost didn't hear the soft explicative from Tome, dismissing the showpony-like antics of the newcomer, over the loud response from Ironjaw and Ultrapony stomping their hooves like colts at the circus.

            "Very good, Flourish," Luna injected smoothly, quieting the applause, "I will ensure you are brought up to speed this afternoon, and then give you a chance to settle in and meet your teammates." Flourish bowed again, and "poofed" away, joining the line-up of ponies facing the Princess.

            "Now then, Clockwork," Luna continued, drawing the armoured mare's gaze, "It seems you finally completed your armour. Should I assume you designed an appropriate call-sign for yourself to go with it?"

            "Of course Princess. Thunderhooves actually suggested it, and I was hoping that I'd be able to thank him for the inspiration," Clockwork noted sadly, "I have chosen to use the name 'Dragonfly'."

            "Very fitting," the Princess smiled, "Are you ready to show us what it can do? I promise I won't ask you to try another Rainboom."

            "I actually prepared for a Rainboom this time, Princess," Clockwork shot back, smiling under her helmet, "I promise, no burnout."

            "I know, which is why I'm going to give you a different test."

            The words were barely out of the Princess' mouth when the first illusion of an Imp leapt at her. The world seemed to slow down around Clockwork, her eyes widening under the helm as they drank in the Imp, panic and fear grasping her heart with icy talons. She knew it was an illusion on some level, but she couldn't convince the rest of her mind to disbelieve it. She only saw the beak full of razor sharp teeth, deep set eyes glowing with a baleful light, and leathery wings that momentarily blotted out the morning sun. Stars chased their way across it's skin, glittering with all the coldness of diamonds, even as razor sharp talons traced an arc through the air towards her. All Clockwork could do was stare at her doom like a deer caught in the beam of a spotlight.

            "Move!"

            It was a simple word, but it boomed inside her head, and with it the world snapped back into focus. Time resumed it's normal flow as Clockwork launched herself with the ejectors on each hoof, her wings coming online to keep her hovering once she was in the air. The illusory Imp roared at her in frustration… but Clockwork responded with a shot from each of her fore-hooves. One shot went wide, but the other caught the illusion dead on, dissipating it.

            In that brief second, Clockwork felt relief wash over her. She hoped that it would be the only Illusion the Princess summoned, confidence in her ability to handle another shaken to the core. Her breath fluttered like a butterfly in her chest, her hooves trembled, and her heartbeat pounded in her ears. She heard voices from the others below, but the meanings didn't register on her still stunned mind, only able to stare at the scorch marks her weapons left on the ground. She didn't so much as move until an alarm in the helm warned her of a pair of new targets closing fast.

            Clockwork triggered her jets clumsily, as if all her practice with Mai on the suit controls never occurred, and she sent herself into a spin. It had the benefit of showing her both targets closing in on her, but also managed to make her dizzy and nauseas. She wasted far too much power with her hoof blasters, tracing an arc in the air through each of the targets, each of them dissipating under the blue-white fire of her plasma generators.

            Clockwork flared the wings to steady herself, her head twisting back and forth to try and see any more targets. The Princess didn't disappoint, as a quartet of Imps launched into the air in a loose circle about her. Feeling clumsy and slow, Clockwork rolled the armour as she tried to avoid the first attack, and fired one of her rear hoof ejectors at an Imp behind her. She saw the blip disappear as she re-oriented herself, and fired a wild shot at the retreating Imp, missing completely.

            Clockwork let her altitude drop, dodging another attack on her as she swung about in a half-circle, firing a pair of shots at the retreating Imp. One caught and dissipated the illusory Imp even as Clockwork saw the final two make concurrent dives at her position in the HUD.

            For a brief moment, Clockwork's mind blanked completely. Then instinct took over, and all at once she bucked her rear hooves, splaying them widely in mid-air to catch each Imp square in the beak as they dove at her. The blue-white plasma ejectors fired needlessly through what were their illusory heads, already dissipating from where her armoured hooves had struck them.

            Clockwork hovered there for several moments, her head twisting as she looked for more targets, and trying to calm her wildly beating heart. When she saw no new Imps, she let her altitude drop, flaring her hooves before landing on the ground. She felt like she'd just ran 20 miles with the armour on her back, her body still trembling with exertion and fear.

            "Well done, Dragonfly," Princess Luna said with a warm smile.

            Clockwork still felt numb while she sat in the cafeteria, her tray mostly ignored as she stared at some undetermined point in the distance. Not that her Spinach Burger was all that good anyway, there wasn't enough ketchup in the world to hide the bitter aftertaste, but her mind wasn't on the food. Instead, her mind kept replaying the events of her suit's "test" over and over again like a broken recorder. She could see her every mistake, both from power conservation and tactical standpoints, but she couldn't reconcile it with what she had felt at the moment.

            She'd only felt panic. It had overwhelmed her and driven all thought from her mind. She couldn't even scream in those first moments, only watch what would have been her death lunge at her, had it not been just an illusion. It didn't matter that she had all the power of her armour at her hooves, just a twitch would have eliminated the first Imp before it even got close to her. Instead she acted like a foal, ready to scream and run away.

            If it hadn't been for that voice in her head, she might have.

            "Equestria to Clockwork," a voice teased from the side, and Clockwork snapped back from her thoughts, looking over at Galaxi as she sat down next to her with a tray of food.

            "You don't want to eat that," she told her helpfully, right before Galaxi took a bite of her spinach burger. Her face made Clockwork giggle as the burger found itself dropped with a decidedly unappetizing splat on the tray.

            "UGH! I thought spinach burgers were supposed to be GOOD! How can ponies eat these?!?"

            "They don't," Clockwork said, nudging her own burger with a hoof, "The cook doesn't know how to make them right. Probably too used to all those fancy palace dinners to make something as 'common' as a burger."

            Galaxi made another face and sighed a little, "Well hay, I wanted to try one."

            "If we get the chance, we'll try one in town or something," Clockwork said, "Before I forget, thank you."

            Galaxi blinked, "For what?"

            "Snapping me out of my stupor on the field. I went into a blind panic when the Princess did that illusion. If it weren't for your voice in my head, I'd have run off like a scared filly."

            Galaxi shook her head, "I didn't say or do anything. The Princess warned me not to interfere in any way. I… I could feel you panic. I thought for sure you were going to bolt after all that work on your armour. Then you just snapped into action… It wasn't pretty, but everypony chalked it up to inexperience with the new suit."

            "Wait, it wasn't you?" Clockwork blinked, "Then… then who?"

            Galaxi just smiled, "You did it yourself. It was your own voice, or didn't you notice that? It was so loud I thought you'd said it out loud initially. You shocked yourself awake and acted. You just need some practice, and maybe a chance at some real Imps, to get a feel for things."

            "I… Really? I… wow…" was all Clockwork could think to say.

            "You're just inexperienced," Galaxi said comfortingly, "You never fought the Imps before?"

            "No. I was the one coordinating from control," she admitted, "They liked me on the comms because I could stay calm in nearly any situation. Even in the midst of that full assault on the station, I was coordinating a half-dozen different teams and still trying to raise my brother and Lady Sparkle. But being face to face with them…"

            "It's a lot different," Galaxi agreed, "I've done some illusory battles thanks to the Princess summoning some for me to test my own abilities against. While my telekinesis is strong, it functions better defensively then offensively. But like you, I've never fought a real imp before. Is that why you keep expecting Luna to replace you?"

            Clockwork lowered her head slightly, "Probably. I was a coordinator, not a front line fighter. I keep thinking that I'm just keeping a seat warm, that any day I'm going to be packed up and shipped out. I didn't earn this seat, my brother did. I'm just the side-kick."

            "That's Ultrapony talking."

            "He may be an ass, but he has a point. I'm inexperienced."

            "Then you know what to do," Galaxi pointed out.

            "I do?"

            Galaxi smiled, "You ask the Princess to help you out and get more practice on your own. You don't have to wait for her to summon everypony together for a group practice. You can practice on your own."

            "I… I don't want to impose," Clockwork answered, but it sounded like a weak excuse, even to her.

            "Like she wouldn't leap at the chance?" Galaxi asked, pushing her tray away, "She invited you onto the team. She wants to help you get better."

            "Well… yeah, you're right," Clockwork agreed firmly, slapping the table with her hoof, "I'll go do that right now."

            "No, not right now," Galaxi said with a half-smile.

            "Huh?" came the answer, Clockwork's burst of enthusiasm popped like a balloon.

            Galaxi nodded, "The Princess has some official duties this afternoon, and she wants to get Flourish up to speed. That's why she gave us all the afternoon and evening off."

            "Well… I suppose that makes sense," Clockwork considered, glancing to the side as she saw Tome sidle up to the cafeteria line, and promptly turn her nose up at the burgers. "Maybe we should get out of the palace then, go get a real burger in town."

            Galaxi smiled, "I was hoping you'd say that. Maybe even do another Spa Day. A good pampering might help you relax… and celebrate getting your armour finished."

            "Did Tome hear somepony mention a Spa Day?" Clockwork flattened her ears in annoyance as Tome abandoned her tray at the line and trotted over.

            "Well, yes," Galaxi offered innocently, "Figured it'd be a good idea to celebrate Clockwork finally getting her armour up and running at full."

            "Tome hasn't had a good hooficure in ages," the blue unicorn sighed, "Please let her come with you? Perhaps can make it a girl's night out?"

            "Wouldn't we need Flourish for that?" Clockwork tried.

            Tome bristled at the name, but hid it quickly, "If you insist, Tome could… tolerate her addition."

            "She's busy tonight, remember?" Galaxi offered helpfully, "The Princess is bringing her up to speed."

            "Excellent!!" Tome cried all too happily, "Then just the three of us!"

            "Well…" Clockwork hedged.

            "I don't know…" Galaxi said uncertainly.

            "It's settled then!" Tome grinned, and began to usher the other mares from the cafeteria, "Maybe we'll be able to get some real food too, not whatever slop the rats refused to eat."

            "HEY!!" the cook cried from the back, "I heard that!"

            Clockwork should be relaxed, she realized. She'd had a full massage, hooficure, facial, and a few dozen other procedures she couldn't even identify. Tome turned out to be more knowledgeable about what a spa offered then either of the mares with her. The problem, Clockwork realized, was that each treatment cost increasingly more bits. Bits she was sure she didn't have. Galaxi didn't have to worry, she had an allowance directly from the Princess herself, and Tome seemed quite capable of financing herself. But despite all her work these past weeks on the armour, she didn't exactly have a lot of bits to her name.

            This meant that the khaki pony was in the jacuzzi with the other mares, sunk down to her nose as if she could vanish under the water or hide in the steam. Galaxi had warmed up to Tome, and even Clockwork couldn't help feel some warmth to the self-aggrandizing unicorn, but therein rested the problem. Clockwork knew much of what the blue unicorn was spouting had to be exaggerations, if not outright fabrications. No pony could have lived as long as she would have had to in order to have seen Appleloosa back when it was nothing more then a small border town, not to mention witnessing the "defeat" of an Ursa Minor after it rampaged through an unnamed town.

            Every time the mare thought Tome was about to wind down, she launched into yet another story. In a way she started to understand Tome's dislike of Flourish, since they were both performers of a sort. Flourish was a purely physical performer, jumping around with acrobatic precision. Tome relied on her magic and story-telling abilities to captivate an audience, which she admitted freely… often… every chance she could brag about it.

            In fact, Galaxi and Clockwork had almost no chance to get in a word edgewise with Tome's constant litany of stories. Galaxi managed to slip in a few interested comments and questions directed at Tome, most of which were met by Tome's haughty laugh. That laugh that was pounding on Clockwork's last nerves when they finally slipped out of the Jacuzzi and headed for the door.

            "Galaxi…" Clockwork whispered to the other mare, "I might need a bit of a hand here. Tome got me in over my head. I don't know if I have the bits for the bill."

            Galaxi nodded quickly as Clockwork reached back for her bits, but Tome moved ahead of her, further irritating the small mare.

            "I believe this will cover Tome's tab, plus that of her two friends. Please, keep the remainder as a tip for the wonderful service!" the unicorn all but announced as she reached the front desk, dropping a bag onto the counter with her magic. The unicorn behind the counter sorted through the bag of bits, then with a huge smile thanked her for her patronage and invited all of them to return soon.

            Clockwork could only stand there, her jaw hanging open as she watched the unicorn trot past. If it weren't for Galaxi snapping her jaw shut, she might have been there a great deal longer.

            "Did she just…"

            Galaxi nodded, "She did."

            "And tipped them…."

            "Yup."

            Clockwork swallowed and glanced out the door where Tome waited, her nose still stuck into the air. For the first time of the day, the tension that had been working across Clockwork's shoulders released.

            "Are you fillies coming?" Tome asked, and the pair trotted to catch up.

            "Thank you." Clockwork managed when she came abreast of Tome.

            "Whatever for?" the unicorn asked, "Tome simply would not just volunteer her friends for something without paying for it."

            Clockwork swallowed and dipped her head, "You heard?"

            "Tome knew," she said, a smile playing across her lips, "One is not a showpony as long as Tome has been without knowing which pony has the bits to spend and which does not. Besides, Tome all but demanded you allow her to come with you, and it would be rude if Tome did not pick up the tab."

            "That was very generous of you Tome," Galaxi chipped in, saving Clockwork from some embarrassed mumbling.

            "Think nothing of it. Now Tome is hungry, what do you say she treat you girls to some gourmet spinach-burgers before our salon appointment?"

            "Well I am a little hungry…" "I thought you'd never ask!"

            "Very well, follow Tome. Let us see if this wonderful burger stand she found on her last Canterlot tour is still here in this fine city," she said, the unicorn's smile was so broad it seemed to fill her face, and for the first time Clockwork thought she understood the unicorn. Despite all her showponyship, all her bluster and stories and pointed sarcasm, she was as lonely as the rest of them.

            She just wanted friends.