Assembly - Chapter 7
Chapter 7
The next morning Steel felt horrid. Not in a physical way. His body felt fine. He’d awoken early as he always did, well before the sun had risen and gone on a run through the winding streets of Canterlot, his muscles heating to a dull burn, sweat pouring from his flanks. He’d actually run further this morning, adding miles to his normal route, pushing himself faster and harder as he went. His body had complied, and he had run on until well after the sun rose, sweat coating his body and his chest heaving with every breath.
He knew he could run through the entire day, perhaps the next. He’d done it before, pushing his body to its absolute limit until he collapsed in utter pain, agony coursing through his limbs. Part of him wanted to do that now, to run until everything lost meaning but the running itself, finally pulling his attention from the wrong inside of him. But he couldn’t.
By the time he finally stumbled back to his sister’s home, panting heavily, his legs feeling as if he’d dragged them through hot coals, no one was home. Sapphire and Click were off at the Flower shop, while Jammer and Sparkle had school until the afternoon. He was the only pony there.
Maybe there was a better way to do it, he thought to himself as he stuck his head under the showerhead, cool water pouring over him. Maybe I could’ve just sent a letter or something. Maybe I should have asked Summer to take over. He still felt uneasy. Maybe she’ll get over it in time, he thought. Yeah, she’ll be fine. She’ll understand in time. I just need to go to work, not worry about it..
But the feeling of guilt persisted.
* * *
“You want to talk to Sky Bolt?” the foremare asked, her green eyes questioning him from underneath her bright yellow hardhat. “All right, this way.” The mare turned and trotted off, leaving Steel to follow her across the crowded warehouse floor. Ponies scurried in all directions around a massive skeletal frame that filled the room, carrying tools or blueprints. Sparks flew from one end of the structure as several ponies carefully welded two parts together.
“So what are you building here?” Steel asked as he followed the foremare across the cavernous room, taking care not to trip on various cables that snaked across the floor, their purpose unknown to him.
“You’re looking at the basic frame for another airship body!” the foremare cried back, raising her voice as a loud grinding sound echoed across the room. “The Alicorn was a huge success, despite only being a proof of concept! We’re already building two more!” She winced as a nearby earth pony dropped a steel panel to the ground with a crash. “Watch it Highjack!” she yelled as they walked by. “You damage those sheets, they come out of your pay!”
“Sorry boss!” the pony answered.
“Yeah yeah, just don’t do it again.” The foremare looked back at Steel and jerked her head at him. “This way!” she said, trotting towards a small door set back against the wall of the warehouse. “When she’s not working for us, she’s usually out back in her workshop!”
“Her workshop?” he asked as they passed through the heavy door, the noise of the workshop fading to a dull rumble as it swung shut behind them.
“Yeah, she’s a tinkerer,” the foremare said as they wandered across the backside of the Canterlot Industrial Engineering lot. “Half the stuff she comes up with we can’t even match; the girl's a genius with machinery.”
“I heard she designed The Alicorn for you guys, is that right?” he asked as they rounded the back end of the warehouse and headed for a smaller structure at the other side of the lot.
The foremare laughed. “For certain definitions of designed yes. We couldn’t even match half the stuff she showed us, so our own engineers had to come up with workarounds. Quite honestly,” she said as she looked back at him. “As impressive as The Alicorn is, it’s probably not nearly as impressive as it would be if we’d used her designs.”
“Why didn’t you?” Steel asked, looking up at at the building they were approaching. It resembled a can that had been cut in half laterally and set in the ground. A large set of rolling doors closed the front end off from the rest of the lot, but massive windows interlaced the top half of the structure, letting in plenty of light.
The foremare laughed and stopped by the rolling doors. “Sky Bolt isn’t tied down to our company. She works here, but she made sure that we’re paying her for the right to use her designs. She could leave anytime she wanted honestly, and we didn’t want to be saddled with something that only she could fix. So we’re paying her twice, once for her designs, and once again to help our engineers work backwards and build a ship that, if not nearly as good as her designs, we at least understand how to fix.”
"Anyway,” she said as she grabbed the handle to one of the rolling doors in her teeth. “ees in heer,” she said, pulling against the door and rolling it open. Thumping musical tones erupted from within, washing over Steel as the door rolled to one side. The foremare spat the handle out with a look of disgust. “Tastes terrible. Hey, Sky Bolt!”
The inside of the warehouse looked as if a scrapyard had exploded across the interior. Strange gadgets and machines sat in what Steel could only assume were varying degrees of completion, as he didn’t have the mechanical know-how to understand what any of them were for or how they worked. Workbenches were erected seemingly at random, tools scattered across them. Near the back, a massive shape sat concealed underneath a large tarp, filling almost half of the available workshop space.
“Hey Piston!” came a cheerful, young shout from the back. A hoof poked its way around a workbench and waved them in. “Come on in!”
“Actually can’t right now, I’ve got to get back to work, but you’ve got a visitor here.”
“Wait—a what?” There was a clatter, the music quieting, and a light grey pegasus flew up from behind the workbench, her wide wings flapping slowly. She had clearly been working on something, thick grease stains ran across her coat in irregular patches, and her sky blue mane was streaked with patches of oil, diminishing its bright colors. Even her cutie mark, a bolt crossed with a wrench over a blueprint, was partially obscured by the grime.
“We-ell,” she said, drawing out the word as she flew over to Steel and stuck out her hoof. “Don’t think I’ve met you before, big guy. Whatcha need?” Steel gave the hoof a shake. She was smaller than he’d expected, thin and wiry, and if not for the fact that she was hovering at head level, she wouldn’t have even come up to his chin.
“Nice workshop,” he said, choosing to avoid her first question for a moment. “Although I can’t really say much about it outside of quantity, I never was much with mechanics.”
“Ah don’t worry about it!” Sky Bolt said, releasing his hoof and floating up a little higher. “Most ponies can’t, so it wouldn’t make you the first. Later Piston!” she called over his shoulder, waving goodbye as the foremare closed the door. “So, anyway, whatcha need?”
“That’s kind of a complicated question,” Steel said, walking further into the young mare's workshop. Here and there large corkboards had been set up around the room, detailed plans tacked to them. He took a closer look at one and pulled his head back after a moment, completely lost. While he could make out the sketches of gears and bolts on the edges of the design, the complicated mess of intersecting lines looked like a maze.
“Pretty cool, huh?” He almost jumped as she appeared over his shoulder, her wing-flaps giving her the ability to float right next to him. “That’s just a free-time project right now,” she said, floating past him and giving the paper a tap. “I’m trying to come up with a better system for using wind to pump water up from underground sources, but the current windmills work pretty well.” She spun around and darted off to another section of the workshop. “If you want to see something really cool, check this out!”
She settled on top of a large cylindrical mess of gears and tubes that was almost twice as tall as Steel and just wide enough that Sky Bolt could comfortably settle on top. “Go on,” she said, one hoof stretched into the air. “Guess what this is?”
Steel walked over to the strange device and carefully looked it up and down. A large portion of it seemed to be made up of hundreds of tightly packed tubes that ran up and down its length, while a small opening midway up the device looked empty, pipes connecting to empty air. He could see gears and pistons here and there, but their purpose on the device was a complete mystery to him.
“I have no idea,” he said, giving the contraption a light tap with his hoof and earning a sharp metal ringing in return. “Like I said, I’m not one for machinery.”
The Pegasus groaned, an exasperated look on her face. “It’s a steam engine. Well, a part of one,” she said. “Cylindrical superboiler, my own design.” She flapped into the air and descended next to him. “If my numbers are right, it should give about … oh-“ a smug grin broke across her face. “Two-hundred and fifty percent more steam power than the current model used by the The Alicorn.”
Steel felt his jaw almost drop at the number. Even if it was an exaggeration, that was an incredible amount of power as he understood it. “So... Will this be put in one of the new airships being built?” he asked.
Sky Bolt laughed. “Are you kidding? For a ship that size you’d still need a couple of these, at least so far. No,” she said, rapping her hoof on the side of the superheater. “This would be for a much smaller airship, which is why it’ll never get used.” She hopped up into the air and came down behind the workbench she had been sitting behind when Steel had entered the room.
“Excuse my ignorance, but I don’t see a reason for it not getting used,” he said, following the vanished Pegasus to her workbench.
“Oh right, sorry,” the Pegasus said, her oil streaked mane briefly popping into view over the clutter of the workbench. There was a loud squeak, and Steel stepped around to the back of the workbench to see Sky Bolt tightening down a part on some contraption he couldn’t guess at, a wrench tightly held in her teeth. There was a another squeak as the muscles in Sky Bolt’s neck stood out, and the wrench slowly moved to one side before making a sudden jerky movement. Sky Bolt dropped the wrench from her mouth and catching it with one hoof. “It’s too costly. That thing isn’t even finished and it cost me a bundle of bits. Actually making it run? It’s way, way more cost effective to just build an equal power amount of regular steam boilers, they’d cost less to build and operate.”
“Cost huh?” Steel said, his mind falling to the astronomically high budget the Royal Sisters had presented him with.
“So, what are you doing here anyway?” Sky Bolt said, dropping the wrench and spinning around to face him, one eyebrow cocked. “You never quite answered my original question. Are you looking for me to build something for you?”
“Not quite.” Steel wandered past the workbench and over to the massive shrouded object sitting at the other end of the workshop. “But maybe. What’s under here?” he gestured up at the large tarpaulin covered mystery. Now that he was up close, he could see how much larger the thing was. It was at least three or four times taller than he was, and from the look of it, curved underneath the tarp.
“That’s a personal project,” Sky Bolt said, fluttering over. “But I’m starting to get a little curious as to why you won’t answer my only question so far.”
“Let me guess,” Steel said, putting one hoof out and pressing it against the tarp. It fell back under his touch, the surface of the object under it curving away from him as it went down. “If you had a larger budget, you could finish whatever this is.”
“’It’ is The Hummingbird,” Sky Bolt said, darting down in front of Steel and forcing him to step back. “My airship.” Her wings were out, and she had a look of annoyance on her face. “Or she will be, when I finish her. And if you think,” she said, stepping forward and forcing him to step back, “that you can just come in here and try to steal one of my designs like some of those other wannabes—”
“I’m not—" Steel tried to protest, but he was forced to back up again as Sky Bolt stepped forward again.
“—it won’t work. So you either answer my only question, or I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
“Alright, that's fair,” Steel said, backing away from the feisty Pegasus in front of him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that you’d had any issues with attempts at theft.”
Her wings fell a bit. “Well, only one,” she admitted. “But it puts a girl on edge. So, you going to tell me why you’re here?”
“Well, it’s pretty simple actually,” Steel said, reasserting himself. “I’m here to offer you a job.”
“Don’t need it. Already have one and like it,” Sky Bolt said, turning and flying up to the top of the covered airship frame. “What could you offer me that anypony else already hasn’t?”
“How about a chance to get The Hummingbird up and running?” he asked.
Sky Bolt looked at him in shock for a moment and then collapsed on her back with laughter. “You ... You have no idea ... how much that would cost do you?” she said between gasps. “No way. What are you, some rich noble who wants to show it off to his neighbors?” She rolled over onto her stomach and looked down the side of the ship at him. “No deal, Richie Mcgee, The Hummingbird isn’t flying for anyone but me, and I’m not about to just let some rich yahoo take it. Or me.”
“I’m not rich,” Steel said, giving her a slight glower. “And I’m not interested in taking you away from your airship.”
“Well then, if you don’t mind me asking,” the mare said, pausing to blow a bit of her greasy mane away from her face. “If you’re not rich, then how would you expect to give me a chance to get The Hummingbird up and running.”
“I’m not rich, but as the Captain of the Dusk Guard, I have a very substantial budget.”
“Dusk guard?” she said, confusion etching itself across her face. She gave her head a quick shake. “Never heard of it.”
“We’re new,” Steel said, stepping forward once more. “Something unique. A smaller, more well equipped guard than the Royal or Night divisions.” He followed her with his eyes as she began to pace back and forth on top of the ship frame.
“Uh huh,” she said. “And so you’re here because?” She let the question trail off as she fixed on eye on him.
“Because as a small, more responsive guard force we’ll need transportation,” Steel said. “So, I would like to offer you the chance to be one of our first recruits. A team engineer so to speak.”
“And The Hummingbird?” Sky Bolt asked, still giving him the same look.
“If she hadn’t been here, I would have asked you to supervise the building and piloting of an airship for the Dusk Guard anyway.” Steel answered. “We’ll need transportation above and beyond anything currently done, and I believe an airship, as shown with The Alicorn to be one of the better possible, and economical solutions.”
“Economical? An airship?” Sky Bolt asked.
“Well, compared to some sort of teleport network, yes,” Steel said, shrugging one shoulder. “Now, before you say anything, I have to tell you this will be an official Guard position-“
“I’ll take it!” Sky Bolt said, throwing herself from the airship frame and lazily gliding to the ground.
“Not so fast,” Steel said, holding up one hoof. “This will be a Guard position. That means training,”
“Done.”
“Physical conditioning,”
“No problem.”
“Danger,”
“Uh-huh.”
“Constant—are you even listening?” Steel said, giving the mare a suspicious look.
“Yeah, I hear you,” she said, waving her own hoof back at him. “Danger, physical conditioning, yada yada yada, it all sounds fine.” Her hoof made a sharp clapping noise as she brought it down on the workshops hard concrete floor. “You’re a guard, I don’t expect some sort of royal treatment.”
“Well what you should expect is a tougher than average treatment for a guard unit.” Steel responded. “The average guard unit runs six miles every morning. We’ll run twelve on the easy days. This morning I ran twenty.”
Sky Bolt visibly gulped, but nodded. “I can do that. I may have to work up to it, but I’ll do it.”
Steel fixed his eyes on her, doing his best to mimic the same stare he’d crumbled under during his time in the Royal Guard Academy. “Why?”
Sky Bolt shrank back, but only for a moment, and then her defiant look returned in force. “Someone must have told you who my parents are,” she said.
Mentally he stumbled, and the shock must have shown in his face, because her eyes narrowed and she kept talking.
“My parents are Able and Sunbeam, and I love them. And they are earth ponies.” Her voice was shining with pride. “Not pegasi, earth ponies! Good, solid, loving, earth ponies!” A fierce light was burning in her eyes now, a determination, a drive. “All my life I’ve had wings, been able to do things they couldn’t. They could only watch when I learned to do a loop, or a roll, or even fly off of the roof for the first time.” Her voice began to quiet a little, and he could see faint glimmers of tears in the corners of her eyes.
“I could help them do everything around the farm, even if only a little. But I never could bring them the same thrill I got from flying.” Her wings began to slowly spread as she spoke. “That’s why I designed The Hummingbird, why I got started with this in the first place. They’re out there on The Alicorn right now, first class tickets, the works. But it’s still not the same,” she said as she looked him in the eyes. “They’ll fly, but slow, without the feel of the wind underneath them. So if you say working for the Guard will help me get The Hummingbird done, then I’m all yours.” She gave a small cough. “With a few conditions of course,” she said, one hoof jabbing in the direction of the airship. “When she’s ready to fly, I want you to let me take my parents up first.”
Steel looked down at the young pegasus like he was seeing her for the first time. “It’s a promise,” he said softly. Her body relaxed, breathing slowing. “You must love them very much.”
She gave him a smile. “More than anything. They were always there for me, when I learned how to fly, when I—“ she gave a small laugh before continuing. “When I blew up the old garden shed, and then shredded the next one into sawdust…”
“Was there a third?” Steel asked.
Sky Bolt laughed. “Oh yeah, but I was a bit more cautious after the first two. Plus, it was an old barn, so I had more room for stuff.” She ran one hoof through her mane. “There was that one wall though.” She let out a chuckle, and Steel put a nervous smile on his face, wondering if he would need to keep a closer eye on her than he’d expected. Her file hadn’t mentioned any disasters.
“Anyway, my point is,” Sky Bolt was saying. “I owe my parents a lot, and I’m willing to do almost anything to pay it back somehow. Besides, if you’re going to want me to finish this then I’d assume I’m going to get my own workshop?”
Steel knew a condition when he heard one. “Fully stocked,” he said, giving the mare a nod. “Just give me a list of what you need and I’ll make sure you have it.”
Sky Bolt’s expression started out as a small smile, but seconds later erupted into a crazed grin that stretched across her face. “Wooooo-yeah!” she screamed as she leapt into the air, flapping her wings and pumping both forehooves into the air. “Get out that paperwork, I’ll sign it now!” She darted down, hovering near him.
“You’re sure you don’t want to think it over?” he asked, watching the boisterous celebration. “This is a big decision.”
“Yeah, one I already decided long ago,” she said, doing a quick roll in the air. “As long as you’re really from the Guard, and I don’t see why you’d lie about that, although I will be reading the fine print on my contract to make certain. Anyway, as long as you’re with the Guard, I doubt I’ve got much of a reason to worry. And come on, my own workshop-“
“You already have one here,” Steel pointed out.
“It’s basically a rental,” she said. “And too small. I’m not giving up a shot at a bigger workshop. Besides,” she fluttered to the floor in front of him and held out one hoof. “If I’m working with the Guard, then maybe I can get a chance to make some stuff that really matters and help make a difference for some other ponies. So let’s see that contract!”
‘You know,” he remarked as he dug into his saddlebags to pull out the paperwork. “For such a young mare, you’ve got a remarkably solid head.”
“Comes from growing up on a farm,” she said without missing a beat. “Now, the first thing I’m going to want to look at it compensation,” she said as she accepted the small stack of contract paperwork from him. She swept one of her forelegs across a nearby workbench, sweeping bolts and assorted tools to one side, and dropped the stack with a dull thump.
Steel grimaced as she looked away, the mare’s upbeat personality reminded him of somepony he’d spoken with the night before. Somepony who was probably still hurting. No, he told himself. Now is not the time to dwell on that.
He turned his attention back to the workbench, where Sky Bolt was flipping through the contract with surprising rapidity, talking to herself under her breath. Now he had to focus on the present. He had a contract to finalize. And that, he realized with a start, would bring the team total to four, leaving him with only two more to recruit. He might need to ask Luna to prepare the barracks after all, especially given that Sky Bolt seemed to be sketching something on a piece of paper that was likely her requirement list for her workshop.
“Hey, hello!” He snapped back to attention at her words. “I asked how we’re going to move The Hummingbird or if you just want me to work on it here?”
He thought for a moment, wondering if there was a practical way to move something so large through the streets of Canterlot. Then he remembered who he was working for and a smile grew on his face. “Oh, I think I can get something worked out.”
* * *
Dawn let out a silent sigh as she worked. It had been a full day since she’d told Steel that she would be join the Dusk Guard, and although she hadn’t admitted it out loud, the decision worried her somewhat. Will I be able to keep it up physically? she thought as she used her magic to adjust a bandage on a quietly sleeping patient. I haven’t had to keep a fitness regimen that strenuous for years.
Dawn looked down at herself as her magic finished securing the replacement bandage. Her body was still fairly beautiful, even if it was a little out of sorts. She could tell at a glance that she had lost tone over the last few years. A few weekly workouts weren’t going to make up for the daily regimen of workouts that she had kept up while she had been a Ranger. She almost muttered her displeasure out loud, but she didn’t want to take the slightest risk of waking the young patient she’d just finished tending to.
The young unicorn colt shifted in his sleep as something banged against the door to the room and for a panicked moment she thought that he would awake, but after a pause he settled and she relaxed. According to his file, the small reddish unicorn had been injured jumping from a rope swing over the Canterlot River. Poor kid hadn’t even earned his cutie mark yet and he’d given himself two massive cuts running along each of his front legs. They wouldn’t scar of course, not under the careful treatment of the Canterlot General hospital, and certainly not with Dawn around to check on him.
She carefully lifted his other leg with her magic, unraveling the old bandage that covered the small child’s wounds with infinite care. Apparently he was scared of doctors, so the staff had taken to changing his bandages when he was asleep to avoid upsetting him. She shook her head as she looked down at the small form sleeping in front of her, wondering exactly why he would be scared of the very ponies that were trying to help him. It wasn’t as if she was that scary. Well, she realized after a moment, not unless she wanted to be.
The bandage fell away and she got a good look at the colt’s injury. A fierce red gash ran up his foreleg, starting halfway up the fetlock and extending just past the colt's knee. Unlike the soft red of the colt's coat, the red of the wound was dark and ugly, with jagged edges. It was not, she reflected, a clean cut. It had doubtlessly hurt horribly.
Fortunately, it showed every sign of an easy healing. The surrounding flesh was un-irritated, smooth with no signs of infection. The cut itself didn’t appear to be that deep, and she could see that some of the outer scrapes were already almost healed. A few more days to let the wound heal a bit more and he should be ready to—she paused.
Near the base of the injury was a small reddish bump. She probed at it carefully with her magic and was rewarded with a small whimper of pain as the young unicorn shifted in his sleep. She tried again, this time with a different spell, one designed to examine what lay under the surface of the small bump rather than touch it.
A moment later she began wrapping the fresh bandage around his limb, the dull orange glow of her magic faintly lighting the dim room. The infection was small, but it would spread if left unchecked. Fortunately it appeared to be bacterial rather than viral or magical in nature, so it would be fairly simple for the doctors to treat. She finished wrapping the small colt's legs, tucked him back under his covers, made a note of the infection on his chart, and walked out of the room, carrying the soiled bandages with her magic.
“Did you absolutely have to make sure that someone slammed into the door despite the explicit instructions written on the outside of said door?” she said as soon as the door was shut and the sleeping child was sure not to hear them. “We can coat the room in sound dampening spells all we wish to help that child sleep, but absolutely none of them will be worth anything if some reckless pony slams something into the door!” The terrified nurse she was shadowing today, a pale green unicorn by the name of Mint Roll, cowered next to the door. She sighed, one hoof against her forehead. She’d only shadowed Mint Roll once before, and he was proving to be as fearful of her on her second experience as he was on her first.
“Oh grow some spine,” she finally said, exasperated by the quivering unicorn. “You act as if I’m Nightmare Moon, sent to gobble you up. I merely ask why there was such a sharp sudden impact on the door while I was in the middle of a delicate situation?” She pulled the small orderly cart over to herself with a small twitch of her magic and opened the garbage bin on the rear side, disposing of the soiled bandages.
“Well, uh—I—Blossom walked by—“ The nurse started, his voice shaking. Dawn fought the urge to roll her eyes. “And well, I kind of leaned on the cart—“
“And it rolled into the door. I understand,” she said, keeping her response as curt as possible. Of all the foalish things … But then the poor unicorn did look like he was about to faint. She sighed. “Look,” she said in as relaxed a tone she could manage. “I’m not angry, so you can stop your shivering. Despite what you may have heard from some of the other doctors, and—“ she admitted grudgingly, “—a few belligerent patients, I am not about to tie you down just so you can’t run away when I have a disagreement with you.” The poor unicorn didn’t look convinced. If anything, his pale grey mane was shaking harder than ever.
“Oh for the love of—“ she cut herself off, it wasn’t helping. She looked at the quivering mash of jelly claiming to be a unicorn standing in front of her. What am I going to do with—? A sudden epiphany went off in her head and she fought the urge to create a light bulb above her head. “So, Blossom walked by, and you leaned on the cart, and it slid into the door. Correct?” Mint nodded guiltily. “Well then, I suppose you won’t mind if I ask you exactly what about her so interests you?”
“Well, I … She’s just magic, you know?” he said, his eyes threatening to glaze over. “The way she talks, the way she laughs. And she’s so good with the kids, she makes them light up and so happy.” He looked down the long hallway towards where the object of his affection was just visible through the windows of the children’s playroom, her lilac covered coat standing out against the bright yellows and oranges that almost all playrooms seemed to be composed of.
“I see,” Dawn said as she followed his gaze. “Is she attractive?”
“Oh she’s beautiful!” Mint said. “The curve of her neck, the way it—uh ...“ He stopped, as if suddenly remembering who he was talking to.
“I think I get the picture,” Dawn said, stifling a smile. “And don’t worry about offending my ears, Mint. I’m a doctor, remember?” Ah young love. It is somewhat cute, she thought as Mint stole another hurried glance down the hall. “Tell you what Mint, I’m going to tell you what to do, and you’re going to do it alright?” She waited a moment, but finally was rewarded with a nod.
“Alright,” she said. “Blossom is in charge of the children in this wing, correct?” There was another nod. “And she cares for them greatly.” Again, another nod. “Well then,” she said, pointing at the door behind her. “The child in that room has a complication on his left forelimb, a small bit of debris was missed by whatever duty nurse or doctor tended to his injury. Normally not a small concern, but if you look very closely you will notice that it is beginning to show the first signs of an infection.” She raised her front hooves and balanced for a moment, tapping her left fetlock to show him the location of the infection. “Do you see what I’m suggesting here?”
Mint thought for a moment. “Show her where the infection is and then she can call someone in to take a look at it,” he said.
She nodded at him. “Exactly, and since her break is in another twenty minutes, you may be able to take one at the same time while someone else makes sure that her charge is cared for.” She lowered her voice to emphasize her meaning.
Mint’s eyes grew wide. “Well, yeah, that would work.”
“Technically you’re supposed to be on break now,” Dawn pointed out. “But if you’re reporting something to her …” she let the words trail off as Mint smiled. “Don’t worry about the cart,” she said, wrapping it in her dull orange magic and sending it rolling down the hallway ahead of herself. “I’ll take it back.”
“I ... Thank you!” Mint gushed before trotting very quickly down the hallway towards the play room. Dawn smiled as his hooves echoes against the polished linoleum of the hospital floor. Maybe the young colt would manage to not make a fool of himself and she would have done him a favor.
Her stomach growled as she wheeled the cart back towards the supply room, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten anything in almost nine hours. She decided to deviate her course after returning the cart, stopping at the cafeteria rather than the duty desk where she could find someone new to ‘shadow.’ Perhaps she’d see Mint and Blossom in there while she was eating lunch.
As she walked her thoughts turned back to the job she’d accepted the previous morning and the complications that were coming with it. I really shouldn’t have let my enthusiasm get the better of me. I should have made him wait a day or two for his answer. Her lips turned downward to form a faint frown. That wasn’t the real problem and she knew it. She’d been ‘retired’ five years ago. Five long years. Can I really keep up with what Steel will undoubtedly ask of me? she thought, again looking down at herself. To many she was a trim, well-in-shape if a bit older unicorn mare with a finely groomed coat and mane. But to her own eyes, she could see the differences that five years of retirement had left her with. She still might run six or seven miles every few days, but Steel would require much more than that.
She put away the cart without even thinking about it, her hooves turning her towards the cafeteria on autopilot. I’d best start practicing the old Ranger workouts tomorrow. Even if that means I come here later… She pondered on her status with the hospital for a moment. Being recruited by the guard meant that she would be able to do more than just ‘shadow’ certain doctors and nurses dispensing aid. So perhaps it would be for the best if she warned those at the duty desk now. Oh they’d miss her, those who had made use of her talents anyway, like Mint or Soothe. But if she could spend her off days as an official, on-call doctor again, not just some ‘retiree’ who followed nurses around, hoping they would take her advice ... She felt a little shiver of excitement run through her. She’d be able to help again.
Yes! she decided as she rounded the final corner to the hospital cafeteria. That’s exactly what I’ll do. I’ll tell the duty station today that I won’t be back in for a while. Surely this place can survive without—
A large crash interrupted her thought process as she walked into the cafeteria. Mint was standing by the orange juice machine, shock on his face and salad slathered all over him. A nearly empty food tray lay on the floor next to him, while an onlooking Blossom was trying unsuccessfully to stifle her laughter.
Maybe I can come back a few times in the next week, she thought. Just to give him a little help.
Stats
Page generated in 0.023 seconds
Total duration
1,029 users online
1,814,971 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
2612571
Yeah, it always made sense to me that most ponies around town would have a healthy respect/fear of Angel. And if you're working in a forest that he probably frequents, well...
After some clunkiness with overdescribing, it's beginning to loosen up. Keep it up!
*hums A-Team theme*
The Alicorn, eh? That wouldn't happen to be a reference to a certain Ponydora Prancypants fic, would it?
Possible references aside, I am enjoying the story so far. Steel Song's treatment of his relationship annoys me, though. It seems like he's pretending there's nothing between him and Cappy, and yet everypony (including his traitor mind) believes they'll be the next ones walking down the aisle to say their vows. His flat denials to himself are feeling kinda one-note to me.
I loved what you did with
gadgetSky Bolt and her backstory. I'm a sucker for plucky gadgeteer genii, and for people with strong relationships with their parents, so this is striking a couple of chords. I like Derpy and Dinky's interactions withSteve IrwinHunter as well, and am eager to see how that all plays out.Kinda agree with Bugsy over here. He's in denial over his relationship with Cappy. Somepony needs to knock him over the head for this.
Now one of the cast is starting to get hit with the consequences of not thinking things over. It'll work out, and it's nice to take a glimpse at other ponies' lives. Wonder who else is going to regret this. Two left to go.
Apostrophe in 'girls'
'Pegasus' shouldn't be capitalized. At least, it's inconsistent with previous chapters.
young mare's workshop
down its length
Generally your statements in dialogue end in commas instead of periods. Dunno if this was intentional or not.
Guard
River
colt's
he said
A couple of the quotes might be broken if you copy/paste them in their entirety.
I like the effort you've made into making each character feel like individuals, rather than simple tropes/roles.
shes not gonna stop hurting for a while, steel. so go make it up to her.
NOW!
The bit about the mystery train robberies is reminding me very strongly of Brandon Sanderson's The Alloy of law so I'll be quite interested to see if the same trick is being used in these robberies.
This was awesome, it was really intriguing to see Dawn more deeply, seeing her insecurities and fears and how she truly cares deep down for all the ponies she works with.
I'm a bit bemused by Steel's thoughts about Cappy, he seems to be aware she likes him, but there was no transition period of him realizing she liked him, just a very abrupt he doesn't know and then he does with no transition.
Mint was really amusing too. Just that growing into himself puppy love and awkward nervousness.
mane
pegasi (or pegasus ponies or featherdusters)
her
On music: Don't just use Youtube links. If they die, the reader will not know what you meant. Name the song.
Sky Bolt is officially my favourite character now.
Stop being an idiot and go talk to Cappy. Although everytime i read that, I can't help but think of RvB's Captain Flowers.
Broken BBCode up there.
9537988
Well, that was weird. It wasn't broken in the html (and it wasn't broken when I did a clean-up pass six months ago). Weirder, cutting it and then pasting the exact same BBCode back into place somehow fixed it. Despite nothing being different.
:Twilightshrug:
Anyway, thanks for the heads up. It's fixed now!