Aldous opened the door to his less than humble abode. He quickly dropped his bags and rushed up the stairs to his workplace. With a flourish, a desk was revealed under piles of plans and ideas. Adlous lifted a pencil and a paper up from his cabinet. Quickly, his horn lit up with a golden bronze as his pencil flew across paper. He worked quickly, for he knew an idea must be caught on paper before it can fly away like a passing butterfly. A few minutes passed, and the paper was filled. With a sigh of satisfaction, he sat back and looked back to his work. It wasn't anything as fancy as a blueprint of a model, but it was a concept. It was a start.
~~~~
Aldous looked up to the a great building in front of him. It was large and long, glistening with the shine of brass. Aldous always came here whenever he had an idea he was comfortable with. He had taken a liking to the place. The singing steam pipes and the clinking gears always lifted his spirits. He opened the door and took a step in.
A brown unicorn turned her head. "Oh! Hello Aldous. Here with another invention?" Aldous chuckled. "I still find it hard you can hear the bell on your door, Epona." Epona just shrugged. "I'm used to it. So! What d'ya need?"
Aldous pulled out the plans he had put together the night before and showed it to her. Epona looked the plans over and narrowed her eyes. "Wow." Epona chuckled. "You're pushing me, Aldous. I've never seen anything like this from you. I've never seen anything like this period. You do realize I'm still working on your train engine and body?"
Aldous nodded. "Yes, I am aware of that. By the way, how is that project going?" Epona smiled and shook her head. "Follow me." Epona led Aldous past the assembly lines of countless products. Aldous looked over to see a statue of the legendary Commander Hurricane of Pre-Equestria. Aldous smiled as he thought about his wondrous inventions such as the shovel, which proved to be a very versatile tool.
Epona turned the corner and opened the door. Aldous followed her out of the factory and towards the mountainside. He could see a small, short train track winding around and through the mountain side. Epona walked up to the platform near the train and pulled a few levers. Aldous smiled as he heard the hissing of a train come around the mountain. Epona came back with a few papers as the sleek bronze train pulled up to the makeshift station. She held up the papers to the train. "You like it? I tried to fit the engine into the train design. Turns out I can't do it without having the engine occupying the entire first car. It might not run as many ponies as you want."
Aldous looked at the papers Epona was holding. They were his, so he could tell what he wanted where. He stroked his chin for a moment. Epona had definitely made changes to it. They were minor, but often times the minor things can make the biggest difference. Aldous pointed a scratched out pipe. "Did you include this?" Epona looked over. "No, I didn't. It would've made the engine too bulky for even the first car." Aldous looked back over everything else. "And you included everything attached to it?" Epona nodded. "Yeah, why?"
Aldous chuckled. "That pipe was for the cooling device. I designed it so that it wouldn't melt half way to its destination." Epona took the plans and looked it over again. "OOoohhhh! That's what it was for! WOW." Epona trotted back to the engine and opened a panel in the side of the frame. "That's probably why the engineer was complaining about a burning hot floor." With a small grunt of effort, the engine detached itself from the train and was placed on a nearby cart. Epona sighed. "Now I'm gonna have to rework the engine. Not to mention remake the entire train frame." She began to push it back to the factory. "Ho boy."
Aldous watched as Epona pushed the engine back into the factory. He took one final look at the sleek train body before catching up with her. "So tell me, approximately how fast can it go at optimum speed? It's fast, I know, but exactly how fast?" Epona pushed the engine into a large room. "It can go roughly ninety mph running horizontally, eighty mph going up hill, and a hundred downhill. Turning corners are a bit dangerous, so we can either slow the train down on a turn or angle the tracks." Aldous nodded. "And when factoring the weight of passengers...?" Epona attached a bit of pipe to a small container within the engine. "Factoring a standard capacity of ten cars, it can go seventy five mph horizontally, sixty five uphill, and ninety downhill. For the safety of the passengers of course."
"Enough to go to Ponyville and back in a few minutes." Epona nodded. "A neighborhoods worth in roughly ten minutes." Aldous sighed. "What's wrong, Aldous? Did you want it to go faster?" He waved his hoof. "No, that's not it." Epona looked at the plans for the train. "If it's not the train, then..." Epona suddenly took out the plans he had given her earlier. "Oh... my..." Epona ran her hoof along the edge of the design. "It looks just like..." She paused and looked over to Aldous.
"Your daughter."
Epona simply watched as Aldous took the plans away from her and sat down. Aldous looked over the plans, running his hoof along the projected face of the robot. He sighed. Epona looked over his shoulder. "You know, it looks simple to me. I'm guessing I can get it done within a week or so." Aldous looked up to Epona and smiled. "If only it were so easy to heal a broken heart."
He stood up and cleared his throat. "Please, this a secret. I want the finished product delivered to my study. You know where it is, yes?" Epona nodded. "Oh, and please Epona, take your time. It may look simple, but its supposed to incorporate something that's not mechanical." Epona looked through the plans again. The pages after the first were more detailed.
"I'll be right on it, Aldous! Right after the train." Aldous smiled. "Thank you, Epona. Now if you'll excuse me," He walked to the door. "I have some royal duties to attend to." Epona waved. "Don't worry! I'll be done with it quick as a flash!" Aldous chuckled as the door closed behind him.
Epona took a second look through the plans. She held them up as she levitated paper and pencil to her. As she looked through the plans, the pencil scribbled down foot notes and small diagrams. "Wow. Um...I..." She had already understood the plans through and through. But it looked as if the robot was not designed to operate on its' own. It was designed to be operated.
"But all the controls are in that tiny little place. What little thing could fit in there and control the machine?"