//------------------------------// // Wings of Change // Story: Gizmo and Tinker // by LaeviG //------------------------------// Authors Note: This is my second story, and i feel like this one is very different from my usual writing style. And as always, Be Brutal, i don't just wanna hear what was good about it. I want to hear what you all hated about it. Standard disclaimer: I own nothing but the OC's the rest goes to the respective owners. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Are you sure this thing will work Gizmo? Your math looks pretty off to me, and is that just a hoofful of squiggly lines instead of numbers?” The white mare’s nervousness was very evident as Gizmo strapped himself into his latest innovation. “I’m am roughly eighty percent sure that I won’t die. The other twenty, this thing is gonna blow up killing me and everypony in proximity.” Gizmo couldn’t help but laugh at his own grim joke. “Besides Tinker, this is for science and nothing will get in my way so long as I am this close to finishing this stupid thing” “My goodness, just look at yourself, you look absolutely awful,” said Tinker, “Your coat and mane are coated in grease and what I can only hope is paint and not burns. I can’t even see your cutie mark under all that gunk. Not to mention the bags under your eyes, when did you last sleep?” Gizmo walked into the bathroom adjacent his workshop and looked at himself in the mirror. His orange coat was a mess of grease stains and what turned out to be burn. His usually long brown mane was in shambles and much shorter thanks to a recent incident with a blowtorch, and his eyes looked as they usually did so at least that was normal. “Tinker, you know I don’t sleep, and I’ll get cleaned up right after I test the latest design. I promise.” “Well, just do be careful. I’ll be watching from the safety of the blast shield.” Gizmo could help but think to himself about the outcome of this test of his. 'If this thing actually manages to work, I swear to Celestia I will actually get a full night sleep as soon as I land' Gizmo walked out of his shop to see the sun high in the sky and the weather cool and calm. Tinker was in close pursuit. He chose this location in Ponyville for, not only its seclusion, but also its quick access to the local library and the purple unicorn that resides in it. She never failed to be of help with her extensive knowledge of flight dynamics and her skill with numbers. Gizmo had never been able to remember her name, then again, he’d forget his own if it wasn’t right on his shirt. The item to be tested today was by all means a brilliant masterpiece of precision metalwork and engineered brilliance. It was a set of wings that allowed anypony, whether it be unicorn or earth pony, to fly in the sky like a Pegasus. It was made of a rocket that was located in the center of the device with a false set of wings designed to mimic a pegasi’s to a T. It wasn’t the most visually beautiful piece of equipment but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and to Gizmo it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. “Months of work Tinker, and to think it all boils down to this, one final showdown. Just a Stallion, and his creation. I find poetic justice that this thing should do me in; just to spite all my work.” “You’ll be fine, besides if it doesn’t kill you, I surely will for being so silly as not to test it on a dummy first.” Tinker proceeded to step behind the impromptu blast shield set up earlier in the day for just this occasion. “Let’s just hope this goes better than last time, I’m still getting grief from the damages to town hall.” Gizmo couldn’t help but reminisce to that fateful day when he ejected from his machine to save his own flank. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Gizmo, there is no way this thing is gonna work without the wings, besides look how offset the thruster is. This thing is just gonna send you up and around into the air.” “Silence Tinker, I’m sciencing so hard right now that this couldn’t possibly end badly.” Gizmo strapped on his makeshift jetpack and proceeded to do the preflight checklist provided by the nice mare from the library. “Goggles? Check. Fuel? Check. Helmet? Check. Wings? Uncheck. Everything seems to be in order-” “but you just said-“ “Tinker, what’d I say? This will work, I mean really, how could this go wrong?” Tinker couldn’t help but roll her eye’s at her roommate’s lack of foresight. It’s not like she really expected anything less from him, but she wasn’t really expecting this level of recklessness. She resigned her complaints though because it was obvious he wasn’t going to listen. “Tinker, could you please do the countdown.” “Sure, why not.” “5” “4” “3” Gizmo could feel the tension in the air as he flipped on all the switches and started up the engine. “2” “1” Gizmo’s ascension was all but graceful; it was as though he was writing nonsense in the sky. Tinker could swear she heard Gizmo scream something along the lines of “Do a Barrel Roll” as he careened through the sky in the general direction of the center of town. His journey took him close to the ground and flying right down the main road. Ponies jumping left and right to avoid an abrupt collision with an orange blur. Gizmo was only 50 meters from a fiery crash into town hall when he decided he should bail and let the rocket crash on its own. “INCOMING!!!!!” he yelled as he pulled the eject lever. Never before had a pony seen such a graceless landing as he proceeded to slide forward with his flank up in the air as he got a good taste of the ground underhoof. He started counting the seconds until the explosion and only managed to get to about 5 before he heard it. He stared open muzzled at the destruction wrought by his seemingly small device. The entire wall that the rocket impacted had collapsed in on itself and took half the roof with it. In all honesty this wasn’t the first building he had destroyed with his silly inventions, and it will likely not be the last. So they went over all the necessary paperwork and Gizmo handed over a bag with a hefty amount of bits in it and returned to his shop. The mayor never really got over that one and had a system installed that alerted the town when he was testing something. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Ok Gizmo, let’s go over our new checklist and be sure we got everything, ok?” “Fine, Goggles? Check. Fuel? Check. Helmet? Check. Wings? Check. Go ahead and activate the new alarm system.” Tinker walked over to a lever on the wall and flipped it on. A loud wail could be heard from deeper within town and Gizmo could see the local ponies preparing for something to get destroyed. Gizmo began to test the new wings when he realized that the left wing was a little slow to respond. “Hold on, Tinker, could you grab me my tools, I need to adjust the left wing a little.” Tinker stepped back into the shop for a moment and returned with the needed tools. She grabbed the tools out with her mouth and began hoofing over what Gizmo needed. The adjustments were simple, only a slight tweak in some mechanical actuators and the wing was responding just as well as it should. “Alright let’s get this show on the road, Tinker; would you do me the honor of counting down till the blast?” Tinker really didn’t get his dark and grim sense of humor sometimes. “I would…Um…love to.” She was obviously offset by Gizmo’s joke. “5” “4” “3,2,1 GO!” Interrupted Gizmo as he took off. This flight was definitely much more stable than the last one. He even managed to do a barrel roll, on purpose. Although he didn’t get his hopes to high since he could explode at any moment. To his surprise the wings held, the thruster maintained a steady speed, and he wasn’t eating dirt so things were going swimmingly. A few curious Pegasi even flew up to escort him on his journey across the sky, He could swear he saw one with a… a rainbow mane and tail? They flew with him for a few moments before he increased the thrust and left them all in the dust. All except for the Rainbow one, she could really fly. She even started doing tricks around Gizmo to try to figure out what he was capable of. ‘Fantastic, I felt like putting these things under extreme stress. Now’s my chance’ Gizmo thought to himself He began to mimic the Rainbow Pegasus as she began with a few simple tricks. Things got progressively harder as time flew by and after a while he had to call it quits before… As if on cue, the thruster began to sputter and cough as it exhausted its fuel supply. “Oh just bucking great, out of gas.” Gizmo yelled out for the Rainbow Pegasus to help him but she was in the middle of some aerial display and hadn’t noticed him. So he did the one thing he could, he locked the wings and started gliding towards a nearby clearing. I didn’t take long before he realized he didn’t have the speed to hit the clearing and was going to have to land in a somewhat closer pond. The rainbow Pegasus had finished her trick just in time to see the pony with the strange wings crash into a pond. She dashed over to see if he was alright only to be beaten there by a white mare wearing a shirt much like the winged one had on and already had him out of the water. “Hey, you are a pretty good flyer, have you ever thought of trying out for the Wonderbolts? I’m Rainbow dash by the way.” “Oh, hello Rainbow dash I’m Gizmo and this is my assistant Tinker. It was a pleasure meeting and flying with you but I gotta get these home before the water makes em rust.” Rainbow just stared on in awe as Gizmo removed his wings and began folding them back into the pack “What is that thing; I’ve never seen anything like it.” Asked Rainbow All Tinker could do was facehoof since she knew what was about to come. “Oh, these are a pair of artificial wings that allow non-Pegasi to experience the joys of flight. I designed and built em myself. So what do you think, pretty neat eh?” Gizmo seemed to enjoy bragging about the cool gadgets and inventions he made. “They are amazing, but is the rocket really needed? I mean, couldn’t you just flap the wings for the lift?” “Well no and no, no I couldn’t use them for the lift needed to sustain flight, and they do not supply the lift to take off; thus the brilliant idea to add a dangerous rocket. That and the rocket makes it look cooler.” Gizmo laughed after he said all this, his sense of humor again. “Yah, about twenty percent cooler, what made you want to build these things anyways?” “Well,” Gizmo put a hoof to his chin in thought, “seeing as how I am an earth pony, I always wondered what it would be like to fly like a Pegasus. So I built wings, added a rocket to said wings, and flew like a Pegasus for the first time.” “And? What’d you think about your first flight?” “To put it bluntly,” Gizmo put on a big grin, “IT WAS ABSOLUTLY FANTASTIC!!!” Tinker had had enough of Gizmo’s shenanigans for one day and didn’t need to see him flirting with some strange rainbow mare. She trotted up next to Gizmo and nudged him in his side. “Can I help you Tinker?” Tinker cleared her throat “The wings…Rust…” The light bulb popped on “Ah of course. It’s been wonderful meeting you Rainbow Dash, just drop on by the workshop if you ever wanna fly again.” Tinkers mouth dropped open a little bit ‘Did he just remember her name’ she thought to herself. “I’ll be sure to do that Gizmo, see you around Tinker.” Rainbow dash took off towards her cloud home at the outskirts of Ponyville. “You were so flirting with her” “That may be true,” Gizmo admitted, “At least she was fun. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must get these wings back to the shop. You can take the rest of the day off if you’d like.” “I’d like that very much, now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to the pub down the street. See ya.” Gizmo worked his way back to the shop and turned off the alarm system. He strung the wings up in the shop and opened a few windows to allow a cross breeze and just as he promised Tinker he hopped into the shower and got cleaned up. Then just as he vowed to Celestia he went to bed and managed to get a full night’s sleep. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PS: Leave a comment about something you want to see him build next. I've got a few different options lined up but I wanna see if anypony else has any brilliant Ideas.