//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: A Good Day // Story: Repair and Deliver // by SleeplessScribe //------------------------------// Repair and Deliver Story 6 Chapter 10: A Good Day By: SleeplessScribe “Alright, Sparks, the playground is taken care of.” “Good! Get your tail over here right now, you are not going to believe who’s here!” Gee, she sounded like she was about to scream… in a good way. I did kind of pick up my pace a little, and I didn’t stop to wave at anyone, though I did reply when they greeted me. However, I soon found myself really wishing I had just booked it to the shop. Sparkplug opened the door to her office for me, dragging me in and towards the garage door. “Oh my gosh, Torque, you are going to be blown away, it’s so amazing!” My jaw dropped when I saw who was standing in the garage with my fellow workers, as well as when I spotted the machine he had brought with him. It felt almost disrespectful to shake the light brown hoof that was held out to me, though he didn’t seem to mind. The old…ish stallion smiled at me, though he didn’t look like he was going to say anything. My mind was racing as I tried to think of what to say. So many things could’ve probably offended him, and so many more could have appealed to him, but in the end I could only say one thing. “Mr. Haynry Fjord. It’s an honor, sir.” His smile turned in a small grin. “Well hello to you too, boy. It has been quite a while since I’ve seen you. Why, I remember when you weren’t tall enough to touch my knee.” Everyone jammed themselves between us, but of course, Drill Bit was the first to speak. “Hold up, you know Haynry Fjord? How the heck do you know Haynry Fjord?” The old colt chuckled and unintentionally silenced everyone else. “Well, his daddy was the first pony to ever do work on one of my Model T cars. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, that’s how this one got his cutie mark, isn’t it?” I gave him a quick nod. “Yes sir, it is. It was my first big job, and dad let me work on the engine all by myself. I got it up and running again, and once I cleaned myself up, I had these here tools on my flank.” All their jaws dropped just as mine had when I first saw Mr. Fjord. He chuckled again and drew everyone’s attention to the old car behind him. “Now, I’m sure some of you are asking yourselves what I’m doing all the way down here in Ponyville. Well, I don’t intend to sell my product in a town that has no need for it, but seeing as how Engage has been my go to repair company for years, I decided to put it to the test. That being said, this here car will not run. In fact, I’ve ensured that it doesn’t run by messing around under the hood. I’ve got a little bit of a friendly competition going on, now. I’ve gone all around Equestria to some of the highest rated repair companies to see how quickly they could get this puppy fully up and running. The company that gets it done the fastest will not only be the one that I support in my advertisements, but the workers that win the competition will each get a sum of one hundred crops.” I’m pretty sure all jaws, including my own, were almost hitting the floor. I had never even seen paper money before, let alone been in possession of it. From what I remember, a crop was worth ten bits, but they were only produced in big cities like Manehattan and Baltimare. Finally, someone other than Drill Bit spoke. My cousin kind of stumbled over her words, but eventually managed to form a coherent sentence. “Sir, I’m not complaining or anything, but why didn’t you go to the headquarters in Vanhoover instead.” The colt nearly threw his hoof in my face with that grin of his still stuck on his own. “I did, but old Ratchet told me to seek out this young colt! He said, and I quote ‘My boy’s working in Ponyville, and I’d like you to put him to the test. I’m confident he can fix up your car in thirty minutes.’ Of course, you’ll need to figure out the issues before you can even start fixing them.” Fuse threw his hooves in the air. “Hold on, thirty minutes? There ain’t no way we can fix a car in half an hour!” All heads turned once they heard me open the hood. “Well first off, your fan drive belt is outright missing. The cylinder head has a crack in it. You’ll also need a new control pedal assembly, it’s misaligned. Two of your four sparkplugs are missing, and the transmission case cover is loose. This oil filler and breather pipe—talk about gunked up—it looks like it’s never been cleaned. Finally, you’ve got a hole in your water connection pipe. If we all work together and follow my instructions, I’d say we’ll have her running in… yeah, about half an hour.” “Even less.” It turns out he had been hiding a bag with his magic, which he set down on the counter behind us to reveal all the parts we needed. “Honestly, I was expecting at least a couple of minutes to be dedicated to finding the less obvious problems. I should’ve known better from someone who’s already worked on my cars, regardless of how long ago. It’s not really fair of me to ask you to go out and spend your own money on the parts, so I came prepared with all the spares myself. Now the real test begins: can you fix up everything and make sure it runs in thirty minutes?” Fuse opened his mouth, but shut it again when I pointed a hoof at him. “Haven’t I made my stance on impossible clear already? I wasn’t too pleased with what you said this morning, so please don’t say anything if you can’t be positive.” He held his hooves up again. “Alright, whatever you say. Let’s get to work, then.” Mr. Fjord stood back as we got started. The main issue we ran into was more taking the old parts off than it was putting on the new ones. I split everyone up and had them each tackle one problem on their own, though I did kind of have to walk each of them through their task. As we worked, I found myself continually looking back to the mirrors on the side. An idea started forming in my head, though I was forced to put it on the backburner so I could focus. I honestly couldn’t tell you how long it took us, as it really didn’t feel like it took ten minutes. Once we were finished and the hood was closed, Mr. Fjord climbed into the driver’s seat and shot a little magic into the little conductor beside the steering wheel. After just a few moments, that thing was purring like a kitten. It was purring like a loud, motorized kitten. He looked down at all of us with another smile. “Well, I must say that you all have done some mighty fine work! Not only is she running, she sounds even smoother than before! You all deserve a pat on the back right now.” Sparkplug’s eyes lit up as she approached him. She held her front hooves together, starting at the car before addressing the colt. “So, how did we do on time?” He set a stopwatch in the pocket of his jacket without looking at my cousin. “Just watch the mail for a few days. If you win, I’ll send you that money along with the time you took to complete the repairs. See you around my friends!” With that, he took off down the road. Granted, the car wasn’t all that fast, leaving us time to wave and shout our goodbyes, but he still took off. I was the last to put my leg down, and the first to speak. “I think we did it.” Fuse rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Right. That was definitely not thirty minutes. At the very least, it was forty-five. I’m not saying we lost, but we definitely didn’t meet the expectations.” Every one of us turned to him, causing Fuse to back away some. “What? I’m just trying to be realistic.” Sparks groaned as she made her way back to her office. “Fuse Box, we just repaired a Model T for Haynry Fjord himself. Everypony else is having a good day, would it kill you to do the same? Come on, let’s get back inside.” I could hardly wait to have Mr. Wags again. Miss Cheerilee asked me to put him in her drawer for safe keeping until it was time to do show and tell, and that time was getting closer and closer. Finally, class was over, and Miss Cheerilee had saved some time at the end for me to come up. “Alright now, class. As you know, today starts the beginning of show and tell month! Every Monday, one student will be allowed to bring in something very special to them and tell the class all about it. Today, Dinky Hooves will be doing a presentation for you all.” She nodded to me, and I could hear all my Crusader friends plus one or two more ponies clapping for me. Once I was up front Miss Cheerilee handed Mr. Wags to me and I lifted him up. “Everyone, say hi to Mr. Wags!” All of them did, but my friends were the only ones that sounded truly interested. My teacher smiled and patted my head. “And just who is Mr. Wags?” I held him as high up as I could with a big smile on my face. “He’s the first toy Momma ever bought me. I’ve always wanted a dog, but Momma doesn’t think we can afford one, so a long time ago, she bought me this so I’d have the closest thing to a dog as possible. For years, he’s been my best friend. He always listens to me and hugs me and plays games and stuff. Over the years, he got old and tattered, too. He never really talked much until Sweetie Belle’s big sister and my Momma’s friend Mister Torque fixed him up. Now he looks all spiffy, and he does this!” I gave Mr. Wags a tight squeeze, and all my classmates smiled when they heard him talk. I know Miss Cheerilee did, but I think I heard a few of the others let out a small “Aw” as well. After they were all done, I lifted him up again, and this time everypony was looking. “Miss Rarity made him look all nice again, and Mister Torque made him talk! It was the nicest thing ever, and I was starting to get afraid, too. He was so old and torn up I was scared we might have had to throw him away soon. Now I can keep playing with my best friend for a long time!” The momentary silence was broken as Apple Bloom started to clap. Soon after that, Sweetie Belle started, then Sprint, then Scootaloo, and pretty soon the whole class save for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon was clapping. I even heard Miss Cheerilee clapping behind me and what sounded like clapping from the doorway. However, there was nothing there when I looked. I looked around at everyone applauding for me before hugging Mr. Wags again. I tried to hold him up so nopony would see me wipe my eyes, and I think it worked. No one really said anything or asked me if anything was wrong, but I would’ve told them there wasn’t anyway. I was crying a little, sure, but it was because all these ponies were happy for me. They liked something I did for once. I felt noticed in a good way, and that felt really good. All in all, it was just a really good day.