The bell above the door rang as the local mail mare walked in and the scent of muffins filled the room.
“Welcome to Steam & Clockworks, how can I- Oh, good morning Derpy. What brings you here?” Violet asked as he looked up from the pocket watch he was working on to see his friend standing in the door way.
They had gotten to know each other over the past week, since he took her out for lunch and as she deliver the last of his stuff from Iron Thorn.
“I have a letter for you from Canterlot.” The cross eyed mare said. As she reached into her bag and pulled out a muffin and a letter.
“Canterlot?” He said as he levitated it over to himself and opened it.
“Her grand royal highness; Princess Luna of Equestria, is pleased to announce that the Grand Galloping Gala to be held at the magnificent capital city of Canterlot on the 21st day of… blah, blah, blah” Violet says as he skips over all the royal mumbo jumbo. “Cordially extends an invitation to Violet Runner plus one guest.” He read as he pulled two tickets out of the envelope.
“Wow, a ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala, you're so lucky Violet.” Derpy said as she eyed the other ticket but decided not to say anything after seeing what happened to the town's librarian the other day. “Well I got to get going; I have a lot of other letters and packages to deliver.” She then walked back outside. “What the?” She said as she froze right before taking off.
“What is it? WOW!” The Craftspony said as he walked out outside and saw a big red stallion walking down the street in a greatly. “Ok…I really didn’t need to see that.”
When the stallion was out of sight Derpy and Violet both look at each other and burst into laughter.
“Well, see you later Violet.” Derpy said as she took off when the laughter had subsided.
“Bye.” Violet said as he went back inside.
“Here you go Mr. Filthy good as new.” Violet said as he levitated the pocket watch over to the brown Earth Pony.
“Thanks and please call me Mr. Rich.” Filthy Rich said as he took the pocket watch and turned to leave.
“Right, sorry Mr. Rich.” He said as one of the closest things to high society in Ponyvile left the shop.
Violet Runner looked at the main clock in the shop and seeing that it was noon he decided to work on his machine for a while. He put a sign up stating he would be back at 3:00 and went around back to his garage.
“Ok, I’ve recalibrated gears and pressure gages, replaced the turbines, lubricated the pistons, and switched to Propane. Let’s try this again.” Violet said as he started up the machine. “Fire going, water boiling, turbines spinning, pistons working, using Propane instead of Helium, and…”
*Boom*
The machine backfired as a big cloud of smoke came out of the exhaust.
“Celestia, damn it.” Violet said as he turned on the fan. “I’m starting to see why the last owner just left it here, all it does is explode. Well it might not if I knew what it was supposed to do or if I had the blueprints but whoever built it took them with him.” He levitated a cloth of and wiped the oil from his hooves. He was about to leave when he thought of something. “Wait a minute, I wonder if?” He opened up a panel on the side and sure enough he found the problem. “Well there’s the problem; it has no cooling fan. I’ll have to order in a new one."
With that he closed it up and went back to the shop and to change cloths.
“What am I going to do with you?” Violet said looking at the extra ticket to the Gala sitting on his dresser. “I don’t want to make a big commotion about it, not after what happened to the local librarian. I could give it to my friend Derpy but I don’t what to her to get the wrong idea and jeopardize our friendship. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll think of something.” He said as he slipped on a new shirt, vest and pair of pants.
The bell above the door dang for the fifth time that day and a mint green unicorn walked in.
“Welcome to Steam & Clockworks, how can I help you?” Violet said looking up from the order form he was filling out.
“Just browsing.” She said looking at the clocks. “How much for that one?” She asked pointing to a clock on the wall that had two mythical creatures on it.
“That one? You're really interested in that one?” He asked looking at the strange clock.
“Ya, how much?” She asked again.
“Ok, that will be five bits.” He said as he came around the counter to get the clock down.
“Hey you wear pants.” The unicorn said curiously.
“Ya, so?” He asked as he levitated the clock into a box.
“Nothing it’s just that most ponies don’t wear them.” She said as she fished some bits out of her saddlebag.
“Well, I find they help keep my coat clean well I’m working on different machines.” He said as he put the bits into the cash register.
The bell above the door rang and a cream colored Earth pony with purple and pink main walked in.
“There you are Lyra. Don’t tell me you’re buying more human junk.” She said looking at the box.
“Just a clock. We needed a new one anyway Bonbon.” Lyra said as she levitated the box onto her back.
“Fine, just hurry up, we’re late.” Bonbon said going back outside.
“Well it was nice meeting you Mr.?” She asked.
“Runner, Violet Runner.” Violet said introducing himself.
“It was nice to meet you Violet.” Lyra said as she exited the shop.
“So what did you think of him?” Bonbon asked as they walked back to their house.
“He seemed nice. He doesn’t seem like the kind of pony who would purposely hurt somepony else.” Lyra said walking beside her.
“That’s good. You’re not really going to keep that clock are you?” Bonbon asked looking at the box on her marefriends back.
“Why not?” She asked.
“*Sigh* Never mind.” Bonbon said shaking her head.