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// Chapter 1: Preparations 
// Story: The Diary of Crankshaft and his Mechanical Misadventures 
// by BLT185 
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I do mot own Hasbro or My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Chapter 1: Preparations

I woke up this morning with a spring in my step. I ate a very hastily made breakfast of an apple and a bowl of runny oatmeal and I was on my way. I was eager to get to Ponyville to pick up the supplies I would need to test my hypothesis, if it holds true then it will open up limitless possibilities. I reached the store I was looking for almost ten minutes before it opened. It was a tall building built in the shape of a carousel; it was called “Carousel Boutique” and the name seemed quite fitting. I decided to merely linger about the town square until it opened, making light conversation with the shopkeepers.

I knew quite well that the shop sold clothing but that’s not the reason I was there. I was there to ask the proprietor, a white unicorn named Rarity, if I could purchase some gemstones. She obliged and asked me the variety I wanted. I specified that I would like to purchase a ruby, an emerald, a sapphire and a diamond. Ms. Rarity questioned me as to why I wanted the gems, I told her that I had a theory regarding them and I needed different varieties to test. She became curious about my work so I began to explain.

I got the idea while writing in this journal yesterday; I had become somewhat curious as to the energy storage potential of gems, they always seemed to possess somewhat magical qualities about them and my intent is to test whether gems can store energy and if they have the potential to be used as batteries. Then I will see if I can use them as a better, though not necessarily cheaper, energy source than steam power. She fell asleep during my explanation; I personally take no offense at it, it seems to happen a lot when I speak of my work, eventually my speech becomes so technical that only those who have a vast vocabulary can understand what I’m saying. I’m trying to break that habit with little success. 

I tried to explain it in simpler terms and she understood. Her curiosity in my work had been rekindled. Though I was glad somepony was interested in what I did for a living, I couldn’t stay much longer. I still had one more stop to make in Ponyville before I went home. I needed some books regarding gems, their chemical makeup and their magical properties. The Ponyville Library was the only place I knew, short of the Canterlot Archives, that had those books and I was not about to make a trip to Canterlot just to get books. Humorously enough, the one mare I knew who would make such a journey just so happened to live in the Ponyville Library. 

It was 2:00 pm by the time I had reached the library. The sun was beginning its descent towards the horizon. Ms. Twilight welcomed me in and asked how she could help me. I told her about the information I was looking for. She gave me the books I needed The Relation between Gemstones and Magic and The Molecular Structure of Gems, both tomes weighed about as much as a school-aged foal, I was fairly certain I would strain my back on the way home. She, much like Ms. Rarity was curious what I was doing, and thankfully she is one of the few ponies I can talk to about my various projects without inadvertently putting her to sleep with all my technical jargon. She expressed some concern for my safety, “Be careful” she warned “Sometimes gems will explode if too much magic is exerted on them, and we all know what happened last time something you were working on exploded”. I assured her that I had taken the necessary precautions.

I reached my home at 5:00pm hoping to get started preparing my research after a light supper. I use a small cave in the mountain directly behind my house as my workshop. It used to be a room in my house, but one of my projects exploded and I had to completely reconstruct my house because of it, During the reconstruction I would have put the forge in the cave too but I need that for heating my house during the winter, they get very brutal on this mountain.

During the incident in question, I had been working on inventing a high efficiency steam engine in my workshop. It worked well enough but I was still testing it at the time and I had become momentarily distracted by hunger. I had overlooked adding a pressure release valve while building it and eventually the PSI grew too great while I was in the kitchen and the whole machine exploded. Luckily I was not in the room when this happened; otherwise I would have been killed by flying shrapnel. 

The force of the explosion reduced my house to rubble, leaving me temporarily homeless and with a nasty bump on my head. The whole town of Ponyville had heard the explosion and saw the smoke and thought Equestria was under attack, I had to clear everything up and explain it before the chaos reached the level of Ms. Twilight’s infamous “Smartypants Incident”. While the pandemonium had finished within the hour, the next day it was on every single newspaper available in Ponyville from Equestria Daily to the Foal Free Press. It made me a local celebrity for a few months, but during that time people were wary about purchasing from my shop. Every year my brother brings it up and I shudder every time, I clearly don’t find it nearly as funny as he does. 

Since that incident I have made completely sure that my home will remain unshaken if I accidentally explode something again. I kept my workshop separate from my house and I reinforced the structure to make sure I don’t have to entirely rebuild it. I also found a spell that acts as a containment field so that the explosion doesn’t leave the workshop. In the morning I will begin my research, after doing everything in my power to make sure I’m ready to perform my experiment it is too late for me to start now, so I must wait until tomorrow to begin my research.