In the dead of that same night, Blades awoke suddenly to a loud scream emanating from Tech Specs’ bed, the sound nearly scaring the dragon out of his scales. He jumped out of his bed and swtched the lights to the room on. He then looked to Tech’s bed to see the unicorn writhing in excruciating pain, with a look of agony strewn across her face. Blades climbed atop Tech’s bed and held her head, trying to comfort her. He then asked in an extremely worried tone, “wh.. what is it, Tech? What happened?”
Tech managed to hold back her screaming for a bit, and, breathing heavily, hastily uttered to Blades, “cast.. bent.. bone.. shifted.. GET IT OFF!” As she finished the command, her movements ceased and she fell unconscious.
Blades, with another show of his immense strength, managed to heave his incapacitated friend onto his shoulders, and carefully made his way out the bedroom door and down the hallway to the stairs. He descended them carefully, and entered Tech Specs’ workshop.
Blades made his way to one of the empty tables in the workshop and gently hoisted Tech onto it, carefully shifting around to avoid injury to the unicorn. He cautiously rolled the mare onto her left side, revealing the leg around which her metal cast was built. Upon looking, Blades saw that the lower portion of the cast was collapsed. the baby dragon readied his massive claws, took a deep breath, and in one swipe, cut clean through the steel leg cast. He then reached his hands into the opening, and separated the two halves, pulling the cast out from her leg as he did so, and what he saw inside made his little stomach churn. He saw that her lower leg, which was broken in two places, was bent in ways that nopony’s leg should ever be naturally bent. Blades observed his friend’s leg for a few seconds, then looked to her face, and whispered, “I’m so sorry,” into her ear. He knew what he had to do.
The dragon hopped off of the shop table, temporarily an operating table, and approached the scrap crate marked “Carbon Steel.” He rummaged through the crate and, after almost digging to the bottom of it, produced from it three steel tubes, about the length of an average pony’s rear leg. He then opened a drawer on one of the work tables, and grabbed a roll of some kind of cloth from it. With his makeshift medical tools, Blades rushed back to the unconscious unicorn’s side. He lay his tools down by Tech’s side, and took a deep breath and popped his fingers in preparation for what he was about to do.
Blades, being careful with his claws as always, took Tech’s broken leg into his hands, the break highest on her leg between them, and began his work. This part of Tech’s bone moved back into place with a loud popping, snapping sound, which made Blades cringe. Tech Specs, still unconscious, made a brief expression of pain or discomfort on her face, which quickly subsided.
Once Blades regained his composure, he moved his hands to the lower of the two breaks in the unicorn’s leg. He did the same to this break, taking care not to disturb the other. Blades watched Tech’s face, but she didn’t move or change expressions, which worried the baby dragon. He kept Tech’s leg in one arm, and grabbed one of the three steel tubes in the other, then placed it in his first hand, which was now holding the tube to Tech’s leg. He repeated this process twice so that all three tubes were in place around the mare’s broken leg to act as stents. Blades hurriedly picked up the roll of cloth, and placed the beginning of the roll under one steel tube to hold it. He then began unrolling the cloth, wrapping it around Tech’s leg and the stents. Finally, the dragon took the beginning of the cloth from under the tube holding it, and, having wrapped all of the cloth around the stents, which covered them completely and came back to where it began, tied the ends together securely. the acting doctor dragon wiped a bit of sweat from his face, for he was done with the hard part of his job.
Blades put the side of his head to Tech’s chest, listening. He gave a great sigh of relief when he heard the mare’s heart beating regularly. Relieved, he dismounted the table again, and quickly ran upstairs to their room. The light to the room was still on and the door open, so he slid in silently. Once inside, blades looked up to the photograph of the two ponies, and, his attention focused on the stallion, quietly said, “don’t worry, Uhrwerk, Tech’s alright. I’ll take care of her.” The dragon grabbed a pillow and the blanket from Tech Specs’ bed, exited the room, turning the lights off and closing the door respectfully, and headed back down to the workshop.
Blades, upon reentering the workshop, got back up on the table where his friend lay, where he carefully lifted her head and slid the pillow under it, and then did the same to the rest of her body with the blanket. He then wrapped her up in her blanket to keep her warm in the cold room on that cold table, kissed her cheek, and curled up beside her, then fell asleep, ready to respond should Tech experience more pain and wake up again.
After the horrific, late-night ordeal, morning finally arose, and Tech Specs with it. As she awoke, a delicious smell filled her nose, and confusion her head. She looked up to see that she was in her workshop, wrapped in a blanket and on one of her work tables. She also saw Blades sitting beside her, holding a bowl of the soup they had made the previous day, with a spoonful to her mouth. “Here; eat this, Tech,” said Blades as he let out a yawn.
Tech Specs accepted the spoon of warm soup, then looked to Blades and tiredly said to him, “thanks, Blades. Now, what am I doing down here and why can’t I move my leg?”
“Seriously? you don’t remember?” questioned Blades, looking a bit shocked. How could she forget waking up screaming in pain like she did? He then yawned again and answered, “your cast screwed up, which shifted your broken leg. So, I brought you down here and stented it, which is why you can’t move it.” He then offered Tech another spoon of soup, saying, “you should eat something; you’ve been out for quite a while.”
“Well, how long?” asked Tech groggily. She shook her head for a second to wake herself up a bit more.
“About 14 hours,” answered Blades, glancing at the clock on the other table. Tech Specs almost rolled off of the table in surprise, but the dragon caught her quickly, remarking, “whoah. We can’t hurt that leg of yours again, can we?”
“No, I guess not,” replied Tech worriedly, “but 14 hours? What time is it?” She looked to the clock that Blades glanced at, revealing a time of about three-and-a-half hours past Midday. The unicorn scratched her mane with her hoof, then continued, “okay, that’s not too bad. I can still get to the chemist’s shop and have plenty of time to finish the flame boxes before tomorrow.” At the moment she finished saying this, she heard the shop bell.
Blades and Tech both heard the bell, and Tech tried to hop from the table to answer, but was once again halted by the orange dragon, who said to her, “don’t worry, Tech; I got this. You just stay here and relax.” At that, he was out the front door of the workshop.
Tech Specs heard some words being exchanged, but, being behind a heavy steel door, were too muffled to be legible. Within the next minute, Tech heard the door creaking deeply as it opened, revealing Blades and their pegasus friend, Bass Beat, following behind him as they entered the workshop. The mare rushed to the table where Tech lay as they saw her, saying as she trotted, “oh my goodness! Are you alright?”
“Me? I’m fine,” answered Tech confidently, pointing to Blades as she finished, “thanks to this little guy.” The baby dragon smiled and stood proudly as Tech pointed him out.
Bass stood on her hind legs, with her front hooves rested on the table which held Tech Specs, drumming a catchy beat against the steel table. “Well, what did he do?” asked she curiously.
“last night, my cast broke, so Blades here sprung into action and fixed me up in the dead of night.” She sounded very proud as she talked about her little orange assistant.
“Awwwww, he’s adorable AND a doctor,” complimented Bass of the orange dragon and his heroic doings. “Take a bow for that five-star performance.” Blades smiled and happily bowed to Bass and Tech.
“But anyway,” interrupted Tech, “I didn’t get to finish your flame boxes. Well, we finished the boxes, but not the charges.” She motioned to the table at which they worked the day before, where the six completed flame boxes lay.
“Oh, well, given the circumstances, that’s not really my biggest concern,” replied Bass, looking worriedly at her blue friend. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Tech Specs sat up on the table and looked about the room, pausing briefly to study various things about it. She felt a tap on her flank, and directed her head toward Blades, who had poked her to get her attention. This refreshed her memory a bit, and she then replied, “ummm, you can’t really help much with my leg; I can take care of that. However, I still need to see the chemist to pick up some more spark powder for the flame boxes.”
“Say no more; I’ll get it for you,” replied the pegasus enthusiastically. Tech and Blades, and anypony who knew her, for that matter, have yet to see the time when Bass wasn’t the very first to offer her hoof in assistance. “What kind of spark powder do you need?”
By this time, Blades had already been across the workshop and back with the saddlebags which previously contained Tech’s failed wing experiment, and the notebook in which the dragon had previously scrawled notes regarding the flame boxes and their charges. Tech was about to speak, but was cut off by Blades, who informed, “the first page has everything the chemist needs to know about the powder. I think the last time we had him make some, he called it something like, ‘Mechanist’s Mix’ or something like that.” He opened and read quickly to himself part of the notes he took, and then looked back at Bass and finished, “yeah; Mechanist’s Mix. He should recognise that.”
Bass Beat looked to Tech, as to ask to confirm what the dragon had said. The blue mare nodded, giving Bass said confirmation. “Okay then,” said she, “I’ll be there and back faster than a Slipknot drum riff.” She then lifted the saddlebag onto her head, and slid it down onto her back, making sure to get her wings through the loops on the bag straps. She was almost out the workshop door when Tech got her attention.
“Oi! I almost forgot.” The blue mare tossed a small bag of coins to Bass, who, with the reflexes of a cheetah, caught them in her hooves. The yellow pegasus gave Tech a questioning look, to which she responded, “that’s about twenty bits. That should be more than enough for the powder.” Bass Beat nodded and departed from the shop, taking off promptly after exiting the small building. Tech Specs skillfully slid off of the table to a sitting position on the corresponding work bench, then said to herself, “great; now that’s stuck in my head all day. Oh well, at least it’s a good song.” She looked to Blades and requested, “can you bring me the ‘Tungsten Steel,’ and ‘Aluminum-tin’ crates, please?”
“No problem, Tech." Blades saluted to his friend, who giggled at the gesture, and then slid one crate at a time to either side of the mare’s workspace. After that, he grabbed the cast which had broken the night before, and placed it on Tech’s table as well.
“Time to work on Cast two-point-oh, eh Blades?” said Tech cheerfully to her assistant, who returned the cheerful look and nod. At that, they began their work, with Tech singing a song under her breath, by the metal band Bass mentioned before, called Slipknot. “I have screamed until my veins collapsed, I’ve waited as my time’s elapsed, now all I do is live with so much hate...”
During the pair’s session of invention and building, Tech Specs began by examining her previous cast in an extremely meticulous fashion, scanning for any imperfection that could have caused its catastrophic failure. After carefully looking over the bent part of the cast, she smacked her hoof against the steel table, which made a loud clanging noise, shouting, “aha! I found you!” at her cast, catching Blades completely off guard. The dragon’s view snapped to Tech, who saw him and, blushing, said, “sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry about it, Tech,” assured he, then asking the inevitable question, “what’s the problem?”
The blue unicorn tapped her hoof against a welding line in the metal of the cast, clarifying, “weak spot in the steel: this seam here. Stupid me!” Her tone became frustrated as she spoke, lightly knocking her head twice with her hoof as she asked herself, “why didn’t I notice that sooner?”
“Tech, Tech!” shouted Blades, grabbing the mare’s shoulders, careful as usual with his claws. “Relax; take a deep breath,” ordered he, trying to calm his frustrated friend. “You probably just overlooked it; no big deal. Now, on to fixing it. Any ideas?”
Tech snapped out of her frustration at Blades’ words, and confidently informed him, “without a doubt. I had you fetch these metals because they’re both incredibly strong and relatively light. I plan on making the cast in two layers this time, the inner layer being tungsten steel, and the outer being aluminum-tin, with tungsten steel braces in between them so they won’t collapse.” She held the old cast and pointed to various parts of it as she told her plans to her dragon assistant, who quickly scrawled the information down in his notebook. As he wrote the last points down, the pair heard the shop’s bell being rung.
Blades hopped down to the ground and said, “here; I’ll take care of them for you,” as he left the workshop. Tech could hear words between the dragon and somepony else being exchanged. The voice sounded familiar, and Tech tried to remember who it was. A few seconds later, Blades opened the workshop door, poking his head in and asking her, “do you have Ace’s Tennis ball machine ready?”
Tech Specs thought for a short period of time, running a hoof through her short pink mane. “Ummm, I think so. Let me check.” The mare attempted to stand, trying to avoid putting weight on her broken leg, which, after stumbling a couple times, she did successfully. Blades held the door open for his friend as she slowly walked out into the front of the shop.
Standing in front of Tech’s desk was a light tan stallion with a wavy dark-brown mane and tail, and an unusual style of brown hair upon his face. He wore a pair of yellow tennis shorts, and was tapping his front hoof on the floor impatiently. “Come on, come on. I haven’t got all day,” barked he with a tone matching his impatient stance.
Tech Specs held her head down and nervously turned around, looking into her workshop. Her current demeanour was much unlike her. She pointed a hoof to a wheeled machine at the back of the shop. “Blades, can you fetch that for us, please?” Blades quickly ran to the machine, and easily rolled it out into the shop front for the stallion to see. The box had a tube protruding from the front of it, and a crank on the side. “Here you go, Mr. Ace,” said she to the stallion. “Somepony can turn this crank to launch the balls, or you can wind it by moving the crank to the other side and cranking it. It’ll fire them automatically if you do that. I also put wheels on it to make it mobile.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s all fine and dandy,” interrupted the stallion rudely, “but how much is this going to cost me?”
“Oh, right, sorry,” replied Tech in a sheepish tone, completely alien to anypony who knew the blue mare, who usually stood so high and took so much pride in her doings. She then shyly continued, “umm, does 250 bits sound fair?”
“Fine,” huffed the stallion, whose name is apparently Ace, taking another look at the machine. “But, if this just is a half-flank excuse for the tennis trainer I wanted, I want my money back in full!”
Ace then looked to Tech, who was standing as high as she could on three hooves, eye level with the tall stallion, with a furious look burning in her emerald eyes. “All right, that’s it!” shouted she, having completely thrown off her previous sheepish tone. “You can degrade me all you want, and mock my shop, but you DO NOT insult my work.” She then slammed her front hoof against the side of the machine, which made a loud thud, but barely made an impression on the solid steel frame. She then continued, “this thing could withstand a stick of dynamite detonating right next to it and keep ticking. I’ve been doing this for years, and not once, no Sir, NOT ONCE have I done a half-flank job.” With the words spoken, Tech hobbled to her desk, produced a small stack of papers from a drawer, and set them atop the machine. “This is everything there is to know about this thing: components, schematics, maintenence instructions, the works,” informed she, returning to her usual, calm demeanour. “250 is a fair price.”
Ace reached his head into a pocket on his shorts and produced in his teeth a sizeable bag of coins. He then dropped the bag onto Tech Specs’ desk, saying with reluctance, “fine, take it, but only because I need this thing.” Ace turned the Tennis machine in the direction of the door, and rolled it out of the shop.
Tech poured the coins out of the bag and began counting them, with a look of disdain again strewn across her face. As she finished counting the last of the coins, she slid them back into their bag and placed them into a desk drawer, which was filled with various bags of coins. “He may be an arrogant pain in the flank, but he doesn’t lie,” said she, referencing the fact that he had paid the full 250 bits the pair had “agreed” upon.
“Yeah,” agreed Blades. “But hey, at least you won’t have to deal with him again. Right, Tech?” Right as Tech started to open her mouth to answer the dragon’s question, the shop bell rung again, this time revealing Bass Beat at the door, her saddlebags full of the things she had picked up for Tech Specs.
“Welcome back, Bass!” welcomed Tech, a bit of joy in her voice. “Now we can get back in gear and knock these flame boxes out.” With a massive, joyous grin on her face, she trotted back into her workshop, with Blades following. Bass tapped her hoof on the shop’s wood floor to get Tech’s attention, which prevailed. “What is it, Bass?” asked she.
“Well,” began she, looking out the door, and making a gesture with her hoof. As she did that, two other pegasus ponies came into view of the blue unicorn. “I bumped into these two on the way back from the chemist’s, and they said they were looking for you.” The first had a cyan coat and a short, rainbow-coloured mane, and the second had a light yellow coat and a long, flowing pink mane.
“Rainbow Dash? What are you and Fluttershy doing here?” questioned Tech. “The show’s not until tomorrow.” Tech’s view moved from one pony to the other, more and more confusion becoming visible with each look.
“Oh, yeah,” answered Rainbow, “Twilight sent us here to make sure you’re okay. Y’know, check up on you.” She looked at Tech’s broken leg, wrapped up in cloth and stented, then added, “and it looks like it was a good call, too.”
“What, this?” Tech looked at her leg and said dismissively, “it’ll be fine. I made that cast with my own hooves; I can make another in no time.” She then looked into her workshop, and finished, “and I’ve got my own stuff to make it with this time. Speaking of which, shall we move into the workshop? This place seems a bit too crowded, eh?” Rainbow and Bass nodded, and followed as Tech Specs trotted into the workshop. Rainbow Dash turned to look at Flutershy, who stayed put, nervously looking down at the floor.
“Come on, Slowpoke!” Rainbow Dash bade Fluttershy go into the workshop with everypony else, but she didn’t move.
“Ummm, no thanks,” replied Fluttershy in a soft, almost silent voice. “I.. I’ll just stay out here. Umm, if that’s okay.” She stepped back a bit, towards the shop exit.
“Well, it’s not okay.” Rainbow tried to push the timid yellow mare towards the workshop, but to no avail. “Come.. on.. Fluttershy.. Don’t you want to meet Tech’s baby dragon?” As she mentioned a baby dragon, Rainbow Dash fell flat on her face, due to the absence of the mare she was attempting to push. She looked up to see the pegasus sprinting as fast as she could toward the workshop. Rainbow stayed where she was for a second, admiring the view, but then hopped to her hooves and entered the back room with everypony else.
Back in the workshop, there was socialising. “Awww, he’s so cute!” beamed Fluttershy, hugging Blades tightly. Fluttershy always loved baby dragons; Blades was no exception.
“Well, somepony’s in a good mood,” remarked Bass, looking at Rainbow Dash, who seemed zoned out, with a look on her face that could be described as either blissful or idiotic. Bass then undid her saddlebags, slid them onto Tech Specs’ work table, opened one bag, and produced a rather large aluminum can which bore a green stripe on it. She slid the can to the blue unicorn, who by this time was seated at the table’s bench. Bass Beat looked around the massive room, then asked, “anything else you need, Tech?”
Tech Specs thought for a moment, looking about the room, pausing to observe certain things, including Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who were idly conversing amongst themselves. “Umm, not really,” said she after a few seconds of silence. “All I have to do is make the charges and put them in the boxes, and then they’re yours.” Tech looked back down at the table, and opened the can of powder with her hoof. She meticulously poured the contents of the can into precisely measured amounts on six small sheets of tin foil. Once she had spark powder on each of the sheets, she picked each one up in her hooves and wrapped the foil around the powder into small balls. Blades, Bass Beat, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy were carefully observing each of Tech’s precise movements when working with the powder. They were silent, but their expressions made obvious the fact that they were utterly fascinated by the work the blue mare had done and was doing. As they watched, Tech Specs had laced a long, narrow fuse through the foil balls, connecting them to one another, and then placed them gently into each of their corresponding flame boxes. she already had the pedal and initial charge, a flintlock integrated into the first box, ready, and thus the flame box system was ready to fire. “And, that’s it,” said she, snapping the three ponies and Blades from their collective trance.
Bass Beat was the first to respond, simply asking, “is it done?”
“Aye,” confirmed Tech, “all you have to do is pull back the flintlock on the side of the first flame box, and as soon as you hit the pedal, it’ll fire.”
Rainbow Dash looked at the six boxes in confusion. “So, these do what exactly?”
“Just wait till the show; you’ll find out.” Bass Beat loaded the boxes into her saddlebags, taking care not to bother the charges or the flintlock. “Thanks a billion times over, Tech.” She hugged Tech Specs and Blades, and told the two pegasi, “it was nice meeting you pair. I look forward to seeing you at the show.” With the words spoken, Bass Beat departed, leaving Tech Specs, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Blades in the vast workshop.
After a brief silence, Fluttershy spoke. “So, umm.. now that we’ve seen that Tech’s just fine, sh.. shouldn’t we head back home and tell Twilight?” She looked to Rainbow Dash, who was staring at the portrait on Tech’s wall. She gazed into the cyan eyes of the brown stallion, which seemed to stare back. Fluttershy waited for Rainbow to respond, but she was too focused on the portrait. “Oh, ummm.. sorry. I.. I won’t bother you then.”
“Huh, what?” The blue pegasus shook her head, looking at the shy pegasus. “Oh, yeah,” said she, “I guess you’re right.” She then began walking with Fluttershy out of the workshop, turning her head to Tech Specs and telling her, “we’ll get out of your mane now. See you tomorrow, Tech.”
Tech hobbled to the ponies to bid them a proper farewell when she put too much weight on her bad leg and toppled over, releasing a piercing cry of pain that chilled the very bones of everypony in the room. The two pegasi and Blades rushed to Tech’s aid, the small dragon displaying his strength once again as he and Rainbow Dash lifted the blue unicorn to her work bench. “Tech, are you alright?” asked Blades
“Y..yeah. I’ll be fine,” replied Tech, gritting her teeth from the pain she felt. She then remarked, “the sooner I get this thing built, the better.”
“E..excuse me, Tech,” squeaked Fluttershy, “but.. is there anything that, you know, we could do to help?” Her tone was soft and timid as usual, but a hint of deep concern leaked through her voice as well as she added, “I’d like to assist you, you know, if.. that’s okay.”
“Yeah,” added Rainbow Dash, “you don’t exactly look like you’re in any shape to be working with this stuff by yorself.” She looked around at the metalworking machines, such as cutters, lathes, and other machinery that could easily kill somepony should they slip up even once.
“Look, I thank you girls for wanting to give me a hoof, I really do.” Tech motioned to her dragon friend standing beside her, and finished, “but I have Blades here to help. And, we’ve been doing this for years; we know what we’re doing. You pair also have to go tell Twilight that everything’s going to occur tomorrow as planned.”
Rainbow Dash spread her wings and brought them down lightly, getting herself airborne, and began hovering above Tech’s work table, looking down at her with her hooves crossed. She then sarcastically told Tech, “as much as I’d love to abandon a friend when she CLEARLY needs a hoof with some dangerous work, I insist that we help you however we can.” Rainbow landed beside the yellow pegasus, and asked her, “isn’t that right, Fluttershy?” Fluttershy merely nodded and smiled at Tech Specs.
The blue unicorn lay her head on her table and let out a sigh at the mare’s offer, then said, “alright; whatever you say.” She ran a hoof through her mane, and then lifted her head up, her expression as bright as Blades’ scales. She then gleefully announced, “let’s get to work then, shall we? I’ll walk you through what we’re going to do, eh?” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy smiled at each other, then approached the unicorn’s side as Blades opened his notebook to the page containing his notes on the cast.