Tales of a Tinker Pony

by Tinkerton

Winds of Fate

The trip to Fillydelphia went by fast. It was only a couple hours away but Avis and I talked the entire way. She was very excited to be helping out with the tornado, and doing what she loves, flying. I was just happy to be with her. It was also exciting to be traveling someplace without it being with my parents on business. I didn’t leave town that much, there was usually no reason to.

This trip was going to be different. I was hoping that this would be the start of something new, and if I was lucky, bring a little more excitement into my life. Don’t get me wrong, I still love building and fixing things, and that will never change, but maybe there was more to life then work, and I think that Avis will be the one to show me.

When we got to Fillydelphia there was a huge crowd at the station. Despite it being limited to Fillydelphia citizens (with Avis being one of the exceptions) it brought many visitors to the city. It was an eventful day for the city. Unbeknownst to me, it would be an eventful day for us as well.

The event was not until the next day, but we were getting tired. Despite it being a short trip, train rides always have a tendency to make ponies sleepy, at least for Avis and I. So we headed towards the hotel that we were going to stay at to relax and to get away from the crowd, large crowds always made me feel nervous.

Avis on the other hoof loved large crowds. Since she was always practicing aerobatics, she liked to have an audience. She wanted badly to just lift up and fly around, but I said that she should probably save her energy for tomorrow, since she will be needing it. Most of the Pegasus of the city must have had the same thought, because there were very few wings flapping along the streets.

After we got to our hotel room, we crashed on the bed. It wasn’t the first time we had been to a hotel, but it was nice not having parents to say what he had to do. The first thing we did was order room service. I had plenty of bits to cover it, so we spoiled ourselves. After dinner we decided to wind down. Tomorrow would be a big day for Avis, and full of surprises.

The next morning we woke up, had some breakfast and headed down to town square where the mayor was gathering all the Pegasus to describe the day’s events. There must have been a hundred or more Pegasus crowded around the pedestal where the mayor was going to be giving a speech before the event. The mayor finally arrived and greeted the crowd.

“Good morning fillies and gentlecolts. I hope everypony is well rested for today. As all of you know today we will be hosting the transport of water up to Cloudsdale. Representatives from the city will be here to help facilitate the process, but it will be up to all of you to complete the job. Just in case there are those unfamiliar with the process, it is quite simple. In order to funnel the water from the cities reservoir up to Cloudsdale, we need to create a tornado that can transport it. To do this all Pegasus attending will need to produce a total wing power of 800 or more. Now this has been done with much fewer ponies, but with this many attending we will get there in no time.”

When the mayor was finished addressing everyone, a horn sounded, marking the start of the event. Since I had no wings, I had to go and watch from the viewing area set up a safe distance from the reservoir. I wished Avis good luck and headed over there. The pegasus were then split into small groups, each group going in order to prevent too many ponies from entering at once and crashing into each other. As the groups entered the flying area a small sign of a tornado began to appear, growing bigger and bigger with every added group. Soon it was Avis and her groups turn. She glanced to find me in the crowd and I waved my hoof to get show I was there. I think she saw me because she smiled then flew off with her group. As she entered the tornado, like with the other groups, it grew significantly larger than before.

One of the Cloudsdale representatives had a device that could detect the wing power and speeds of the tornados that they used during the bad weather seasons. The Pegasus measured the tornado and reported it to the mayor who in turn announced it to the crowd.

“750 Wing Power and rising!” the mayor shouted as loud as she could because even an amplifying spell was not enough to go over the sound the winds within the tornado were making.

“780 Wing Power and rising!”

“800 Wing Power and rising!”

At 800 wing power the funnel made contact with the reservoir and began siphoning it up into the funnel. As the wing power got bigger and bigger, more water was taken and it traveled faster and faster through the funnel. The more water they got to Cloudsdale, the better rain they can provide for all of Equestria’s crops and ponies.

“You are doing very well! We’ve reached the minimum but I want to see it go higher!” the Mayor said using the unicorn’s amplifying spell to increase her own voice.

“840 Wing Power and rising!” the unicorn began to shout again.

“870 Wing Power and rising!”

By the time the mayor announced that the wing power had reached 900, I could make out a few silhouettes of ponies in the funnel wavering, many of them had probably exhausted themselves early on but didn’t want to be the first to abandon the cause so found whatever they could to keep them going. It was impossible to differentiate one pony from another within the winds so seeing Avis was not possible, but she was giving it her all from start to finish.

“910 Wing Power and holding! I think this is it folks!” the unicorn shouted.

“Congratulations everypony, we have just made a new record!” The mayor added, not just to the crowd but to all the Pegasus in the funnel.

Everyone was cheering and stomping their hooves in excitement. Since the wing power was not increasing, it was a matter of just holding it still until the last of the water had made it past the tornado’s mouth and into Cloudsdale. After the final drops of water left, the mayor announced to the fliers that they can start to safely slow it down so that everypony could rest after a hard day’s work. As the Pegasus were slowing down, one of the ones who had gotten tired earlier began to lose focus and drifted into another pony knocking them both out of their flight path and flying out of the tornado. Unfortunately, the Pegasus that who had gotten slammed into by the tired pony was Avis. The crash must had knocked her out because she went flying, limply out of the tornado and crashed on the ground, the tired pegasus was more lucky and regained enough wing power to perform a safer landing, albeit with some bumps and bruises.

I knew that jade coat anywhere when I saw that Pegasus fly out of the tornado. Avis had crashed onto the ground a few hundred yards away from the well and was not moving. When I saw her hit the ground I ran as fast as I could to her. When I go there, there was already a crowd gathering around her. I shoved them aside yelling that I knew her and went over to her side. She looked very bad, bruised and beaten, with one of her wings flopped limply on her side. She was still alive as I saw her start to regain consciousness.

“What, what happened?” Avis started to say as she tried to move.

She looked bad, and I was trying not tear up as I started to talk. “You, you had an accident. Something happened and you were thrown from the tornado. Don’t worry, help is on the way.”

Almost as if I had summoned them with my words, I could hear the emergency ponies arriving. They brought out a stretcher and one of them used a levitate spell to move her safely onto it. As they started to load her into the ambulance carriage, I told one of them that I was a friend and I wanted to go to the hospital with her. As the carriage left the crowd I could not keep my eyes off of Avis, lying there in pain. The day started off with great excitement but was ending very un-expectantly. After today, things would never be the same again.