//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Manufactoreum // Story: Starbound // by Nagmeister //------------------------------// The rest of the day passed rather quickly, it being a saturday, she had little to do other than play around the town with her friends. It was not a bad day, to be sure; she had enjoyed the pleasant company of her friends, and lunch at Sugarcube Corner was not bad either. However, come nightfall, she stole away to her house and waited patiently in her room until she was certain her parents were asleep; then, with practiced expertise, she silently opened the door to her room and stole off into the night. Coming to the abandoned barn on the edge of Ponyville, she took a match from a box by the door and used it to light the makeshift fireplace she'd made. It provided not only light, but also warmth against the frigid winter night. She waited patiently after she threw the match into the haphazard pile of logs, watching as the flames slowly grew until they'd encompassed most of the fuel. She grabbed a log from a pile she'd stacked nearby and threw it into the fire before turning to what dominated the majority of the floorspace. A wooden frame sat, plopped on three wheels. Cloth covered some parts of the vehicle, while others were still awaiting the bundles of the stuff situated near the door to be applied to them. After she finished the coating of the vehicle, she'd have to set up the wires, the support braces - maybe they would actually help - and the harness, and then finally she'd have to test it. She donned the small coat that she kept in her barn and walked outside. In the ten minutes she'd been inside, the temperature had dropped by as many degrees. It was a very cold walk to the testing rig she'd set up; it was nothing more than a long pair of wooden rails designed to fit underneath the wings of the craft snugly, lubricated enough to allow gravity to do its job and accelerate the craft but snug enough to keep it going relatively straight. She sighed as she looked beyond the edge of the ski jump; various pieces of debris from previous flights she couldn't be bothered to clean up were strewn about: string, strips of cloth, broken pieces of wood, and the occasional strap of silk she'd used to make the harnesses more comfortable in the early days, when Rarity was more willing to lend some of the extremely expensive material. She'd stopped after it had started to take a significant amount of her profit; but Scootaloo had decided that using cloth and the occasional strip of grass was more than comfortable enough for her short flights. Still, she'd made a point to recover as much silk as she could find; if she ever made something that lasted more than thirty seconds, she'd want it to be more comfortable. She went back into the barn, turning for a few seconds to close the door to keep the frigid air from filling the warm space. She saw a fresh cup of hot chocolate sitting on one of the many makeshift tables arranged sporadically throughout the space; not questioning who'd left it, she took a sip before staring with a feeling of mild pride at the half-completed glider. Putting the mug on the table, she grabbed one of the bolts of cloth and started wrapping it around one of the uncovered sections of wing. After twenty minutes of laying it over itself and smoothing any bumps at a cost of nearly three small bundles of the stuff, she sighed, the wing complete. All that was left now was a small part of the fuselage, the elevators, the harness, and the control and support cables. She sighed; tonight was going to be a long night. Apple Bloom watched intently from one of the windows, staring in awe at Scootaloo's contraption. Sweetie Belle was sitting on the roof next to her, peering in through a hole in the roof. "Wow." she said quietly to Sweetie. "We should stalk each other more often." "Did we get our cutie marks in spying?" Sweetie Belle asked, struggling to look at her flank. "Nope." Apple Bloom sighed sadly. "That hot chocolate thing was a good idea, though. Seem's like she's working her flank off on... that thing." "What is it?" "Should we ask her?" "And ruin our stealth? No! Let's watch until she notices u-Aaaaaah!" Sweetie Belle shouted as the section of roof she was leaning on collapsed, dropping her a mere few feet in front of her orange pegasus friend. "H... Hey, Scootaloo?" The look of utter confusion on the flightless pegasus' face quickly turned into one of intrigue. "What were you doing on the roof?" "N.. Nothing! Just took a walk to this part of town with Apple Bloom!" "Hey!" a voice shouted from outside. "Don't drag me into this." "Come here, Bloom." Scootaloo said. "Fine." Apple Bloom pushed the doors open, a defeated look on her face. "Maybe we didn't stealth hard enough to get our marks?" Sweetie Belle didn't notice the comment, however; she was busy examining the half-complete prototype glider. "What's this?" she asked after a few minutes of slowly circling it, taking in its every detail in a vain attempt to determine what it was. "It's a flying machine. It's supposed to help be a replacement for these," she said, gesturing to her abnormally small wings. "You're trying to fly? Scootaloo, that's..." Applebloom began, but trailed off. "Stupid? I know." "I was going to say awesome, but I guess stupidly awesome works too!" she excitedly continued. "If you want any help with that, Sweetie and Ah here'd be happy to do what you need." "Thanks, guys, but I think I've got it." "Come on! Cutie Mark Engineers!" Scootaloo sighed. "Alright. You want to help? Sweetie, take that bundle of cloth. Applebloom, bring me those shears. Now come over here..." The three fillies worked, all the while Scootaloo shouting orders between a snip of the scissors or tugging on a string. Eventually, after a few hours, the prototype was looking much more complete. "Come on, just a little bit more left..." Scootaloo said to herself as she tied the harness to the bottom of the glider. The rest was complete, and much higher quality than any of her previous prototypes. She sighed in relief as the rough fiber cleanly fit through the holes in the mount on the harness, and she quickly finished tying the knots and leaned back from the vessel. The glider looked immaculately clean, far more than any of her previous attempts. The three of them had done far too much work on it, and her friends had fallen asleep on the floor of the barn nearly half an hour ago, but it was ready for its test flight. Groggily, she trotted over to the door of the barn and pushed it open; she was met with the glaring light of the sunrise. "Oh, buck." she said as she realized her parents must have been awake by now, and likely freaking out when they realized she was not home. Not to mention that Applejack and Rarity were probably also worried... "Oh, buck." She tried to lift her friends onto her back to carry them, but she could barely even lift up Sweetie Belle, not to mention Applebloom. After trying for a few minutes in vain, she sighed and was just content to drag their sleeping forms outside into the sunlight. "Applejack, sweet Celestia, what are you doing?" Applebloom mumbled in her half-sleep as she was dragged along the floor of the barn. Thankfully, she did not awake while she was being taken outside. Sweetie Belle was much quieter, only groaning slightly as she was grabbed by her mane and put outside. Scootaloo then sighed. Going back into the barn, she retrieved a makeshift cloth and wood sled. It was originally designed to carry logs, but now it was being repurposed to carry ponies. Dragging Sweetie Belle and Applebloom onto it, she began to walk down the long dirt road towards town. Only about ten minutes down the road, she ran into a group of ponies. Upon spotting her, they ran back towards the town. "Celestia on a bike, it's only been one night and they're already sending the search and rescue teams?" She stopped for a second, tilting her head, before continuing down her path. After another twenty or so minutes, she came to the Apple Family Farm, where a small group of ponies were standing near a tired, worried-looking Applejack. Upon seeing the filly dragging the sled, the orange farmpony ran off in a cloud of dust towards them, followed somewhat closely by the much slower group comprised of Scootaloo's parents and Rarity. They all formed a circle around the orange pegasus, bombarding her with questions. "Where were you?" Scootaloo's mother asked in a worried voice. "When we saw your room was empty and the window was open, well..." "Princess Twilight sent out almost ten divisions of guards to search the Everfree for you!" her father continued, sounding decidedly more angry. "Do you know what a ruckus you've caused? I swear --" "Now, now, Credence. No need to be so harsh on the poor filly," Scootaloo's mother said. Her father looked at her angrily before sighing. "Fine." he said defeatedly. "But don't pull something like this again, you hear me?" "Yes sir!" Scootaloo said quickly, earning a look of mild approval from her father. Meanwhile, Applejack and Rarity were cuddling their respective sisters, making sure that nothing too bad had happened to them. "What were you doing all night, anyway?" "Stuff and..." *yawn* ".. things..." Scootaloo said, the adrenaline from the run finally beginning to wear off. "I... think I'll take a... nap..." the filly said as she dozed off into her mother's embrace.