BPT: A Friendship Built to Last

by Wolven5

Chapter 4. Brainstorming

"A pumping system?" Midnight gave the inventor a confused look as Techorse was already writing down ideas and notes at his drawing board.

"It's perfect! Think about it... Ever since this drought settled over Fillydelphia, it's gradually become a bigger and bigger problem," Techorse explained as he continued to jot down the details of the idea hatching in his brain.
"We need to come up with an invention that is helpful to the public, so why not invent a device that could provide water from a nearby source at no personal cost and minimum effort?"

"The lakes," Midnight guessed.

"Exactly, but..." Techorse erased a mistake and continued, "it's too much work to haul very limited amounts of water going to and fro between the city and those lakes, so we create this pumping system to bring the water to the citizens! I'll show up Redtape, my neighbors will have plenty of water, everypony wins!"

"Speaking of Redtape and this drought..." Midnight pondered what he'd learned from earlier, "It doesn't make sense that Fillydelphia is even experiencing a drought to begin with. It'd be easy enough for the Fillydelphia Weather Office or even a public official to send a request to Cloudsdale Weather Factory for extra rain to fill the city's water reserves, and yet..."

"I'm sorry, Midnight, what was that?" Techorse peered over his shoulder to look at the sapphire blue alicorn. "Got a little immersed in my creative process."

Giving the green earth pony a sigh, Midnight responded, "You know what, never mind. Tell me more about this pumping system. It needs to be efficient to bring ample amounts of water just to residents who live closest to the lakes, and that's still a considerable distance."

"The distance, unfortunately, is a problem..." Techorse gave his notes a hard look, "The pump will need to have a great amount of suction power without burning out or over-exerting the system. I could try building multiple pumps along the distance between the lakes and the locals, but that would take too much time and the maintenance alone would be too difficult, like trying to read five books at once!"

"Heh, my Twilight once tried that and drove herself crazy trying to keep track of the books she was trying to read simultaneously," chuckled Midnight.

Then he gave it a thought. Perhaps there was a way to blend their talents.
"Well... Seeing as we're pressed for time and left with few solutions, perhaps we should consider involving magic."

Techorse turned and gave Midnight a look, "Midnight, I'm an earth pony inventor. My expertise lies in science and technological engineering. I mean, sure, I've heard of and attempted to use energems to power some of my more complicated devices, but compatibility is a massive issue without complex converters and..."

"It's okay, I can help with that," Midnight came over and gave the blueprint Techorse was drawing up a look. "Believe it or not, Tech, there are plenty of earth pony experts in magic and there are some kinds of magic that even earth ponies and pegasi can do! Mage Meadowbrook was a celebrated healer and a sorceress even though she herself was an earth pony."

That was news to Techorse, as he gave Midnight a bewildered look as the alicorn went on and conjured a notebook and pencil, "And besides, energems are useful for more than powering technology. Just like there are different types of gems, there are different types of energems, each with their own unique properties that can be utilized for different magical effects.

"For example, the properties of an Onyx Energem can be exploited to wield the natural force of gravity. With the right tinkering and enchantments, I think we could use an Onyx Energem of good quality to assist in the suction power of the pump! Even better, a unicorn mage with the right qualifications could be hired to assist in the magical concerns of maintenance. What do you think?"

"That sounds plausible, but..." Tech considered when-

*Knock-knock-knock*

They looked to the front door of Techorse's home.
"Were you expecting company?"
"No. This had better not be Redtape again, I swear I'll..."

Techorse went over, his saddle extending one of its mechanical arms to the door handle and opening it to reveal a slightly nerdish yet pretty unicorn mare. Of course, she had known that Techorse would be unlikely to believe she just wanted to observe his work for no reason, so she had come prepared with a decent cover. She had donned some goggles now resting on her forehead, put back her long mane in a nice bun with a beautiful pink ribbon keeping it tied together, and wore a long white lab coat to complete the picture. Now that she looked the part of a good lab assistant, she would play the part with the same level of detail.

"Um, hi! My name is Stencil Guide. Is um... Mr. Techorse home?"

“Yeah, that's... me,” said the inventor slowly, taking in the fact that there was this seemingly random lab mare standing in front of him, “can I help you, miss?”

Stencil Guide couldn't believe that the kind stallion in front of her was Techorse! The way Redtape made him out to be, he sounded like a crackpot, although she had always pitied him for drawing such undeserved negative attention from her boss.

“Oh, it's very nice to meet you,” she said shyly, her cheeks turning red, “I um... I've been looking for a place to apprentice as an inventor for a while. I heard you were the only one in town, so I was hoping I could become y-your lab assistant, so I can learn the basics.”

“Well, truth is, I could use a little more help,” he answered to her surprise, “I've got about a week left to come up with a good invention or I'll be run out of town!”

“How horrible!” choked Stencil, having already known that, “Can I come in, it's really hot out here.”

Midnight could tell that there was something off about this strange mare who just happened to show up not one day after Techorse made a bet with the most powerful stallion in town. Stencil Guide couldn't see him yet, so with a quick channeling of his glamour magic, he made himself appear again as the more mundane-looking unicorn he'd initially shown himself to Techorse as without being brown muzzled. Just as the last of the sparks and wisps vanished above him, Techorse brought his new acquaintance into the door.

“So I'd like you to meet my friend...” he said, ushering her in but halting his sentence as soon as he saw that Midnight had transformed, he tilted his head, “Really?”

“Hello,” said the fake Midnight, pretending to be friendly to the suspicious guest, “what's your name?”

“Stencil Guide,” she answered, quickly regretting her choice to reveal her true name.

“That's a pretty name,” Techorse said, unable to take his blue eyes off of the poorly tied-back mane and tail Stencil Guide sported, “well Stencil, I actually think this partnership could work out. Of course, I don't know if I could pay you much right now.”

“Oh, I have a scholarship to um... study abroad in Fillydelphia!” she lied, making up words on the fly, “I don't need any money, just some work to do! I gotta come home with something invented or they'll kick me out of my engineering school!”

Techorse sighed, “That's awful... I guess we're in the same boat then. I've got a week to finish this invention and prove it's worth, or I'll be out on the town by order of Tweed Redtape.”

She put a hoof to her cheek, almost like an actress, “That's awful!”

Midnight still felt suspicious of the mare. Sure, she seemed nice, and was rather pretty, even though her tail and mane was longer than even Fluttershy's. But things were a little too perfect about the sweet little unicorn. Questions needed to be asked, and he was determined to ask them without Techorse getting upset with him for being mistrusting.

“Maybe we can work something out then, you scratch our withers and we'll scratch yours!” said the disguised prince, putting on his best smile, “looks like you need to help invent something, and as luck would have it, you've shown up when we're working on a fantastic project. I was just talking to Techorse about it.”

Tech started to relax about Midnight's disguise, perhaps he was only trying to avoid scaring off Stencil Guide. Or maybe he was just trying to avoid nabbing himself another 'fanmare'. He couldn't help but chuckle imagining how many mares try to cling to him despite his aforementioned relationship.

“Yeah,” added Tech, smiling, “we were just about to get started. So do you want to join us?”

Stencil Guide didn't think it was going to be this easy, “You mean you'd really offer me this chance to help, right away? But we've just met.”

“Well sure, but, you need to work on a project, and I need to finish one to avoid getting kicked out by Redtape,” answered Techorse, “and it looks like you're eager to work hard. So welcome aboard, Stencil Guide!”

“Thank you,” she stuttered, floored that Techorse had offered a stranger help.

“Oh, sounds great! Can you tell me about it?” the mare answered, a bead of sweat escaping from out underneath her long mane, “I want to get to work right away!”

“Suuuuure,” hummed Midnight, shifting his eyes to his buddy, “Tech, go ahead and get started, I'm going to brief Stencil here on what we were planning for the device.”

As trusting as ever, Techorse nodded, “All right. See you inside the workshop, Stencil Guide. I think you'll like working here.”

Techorse exited the room through a steam-powered hatch to his workshop, the hissing of the door opening filling the room. Stencil Guide turned to the disguised prince and smiled.

“So, um... glad to be here now. What is it we're working on again?”

Immediately Midnight dropped his disguise, the glamour burning away to reveal his his taller and larger alicorn form, making Stencil Guide yelp in terror. The pony she thought she had seen had turned into... Prince Midnight Blaze! The mare dropped to the ground on her back, holding her hoof up to protect herself. She had always been afraid of the royal family since a young age, their level of magical power startling her, given that she only used hers for penmaneship. Now there was a very cross-looking prince in front of her, and a well-known wizardly warrior.

“Oh gosh!” she stifled a scream before managing to utter, “It... it's the prince?!”

“Quiet, you,” growled the alicorn, barely speaking above a whisper while glaring at her, “I don't know what you're up to, but I won't let you take advantage of Techorse's kindness.“

Now she was stuck. If she didn't tell the truth to the prince or dared to anger him, there was a good chance that she'd never bee seen again. But if she gave herself up and went back to Redtape, there was an equally likely chance that she'd end up fired, or worse... in his bed. Could this day possibly get any worse for her? Faced with a tough dilemma, she decided to do her best to tell Midnight half the truth in order to get past him without revealing her espionage.

“P... please don't hurt me, I'm not planning anything bad, I promise!” she whimpered, about to burst into tears, “I'm just trying to survive this summer is all! Please, if I can't help out... I'll lose everything!”

Midnight's eyes softened, and his horn ceased its angry glow, finally believing that perhaps he had been wrong. Yet he was still a little bit concerned, and pointed a hoof straight at the mare's sternum.

“I... I'm sorry I snapped, but you need to be honest with Techorse if you're going to work with him,” he warned.

“Like you were honest about being an alicorn?” she said, standing up on her hooves as the shock wore off, “I thought you were going to zap me!”

“I wasn't going to, I just... I'm not in the mood to deal with things after I saw how horribly Redtape treated Techorse. He's my friend and I care about him,” said the prince, looking at the ground, “forgive me.”

“Well, look, I bet whoever that Redtape guy is, he must be really mean... and a mare-grabbing pig too,” she said.

“Excuse me?”

Stencil shook her head, “Nothing, sorry! Let's go help Techorse!”

She marched over to the hatch, brushing off her coat from having been knocked down, and entered the garage. Midnight thought for a short while about her words, but decided Redtape's reputation must be a lot worse than what he thought, and dropped it. If Techorse found out he had threatened Stencil, he was going to be upset, and that was something he didn't want, their friendship getting off on the wrong hoof.

Techorse barely looked up from his work long enough to acknowledge the two of them entering his workshop. As was to be expected, the industrious stallion had already eagerly dug into his new project with blueprint paper already out and robot hands inking the pages with a white pen.

“I guess you decided to stop disusing yourself, Midnight?” he joked, “We like you for who you are, you know.”

“I was only worried that Stencil Guide might be uncomfortable around an alicorn,” answered his friend, his answer mostly true, “but she's nice enough to not really care.”

Stencil had a much harder time keeping her end of the secret intact, and she stuttered, “Oh yeah... I'm not scared of the Canterlot royalty at all! They're so nice, heh heh!”

Midnight shook his head at her, making the mare clench her teeth a bit. He really - really - hoped that he wasn't going to have to take any serious actions concerning her.

Trying to change the subject, she pointed out how much had been accomplished in just the few minutes that they had talked.
“Whoa, you already have twelve pages?

Techorse answered without moving his eyes, “I was already thinking about the designs in my head when Midnight and I came up with them. I just need to get them all out on paper before I forget!”

Stencil Guide let him continue his work, but looking around at the workshop made her frown at how horribly discombobulated the scene was, with parts and sheets of metal laying around on the floors, shelves, and work tables. There were probably dozens of pieces for machines sitting underneath other objects that Techorse had long forgotten about, and the only semblance of harmony between anything in the room were a few token common parts bins labeled for easy reference. The stark contrast between her cozy, neat, and very well-dusted desk at her office and the total dump in front of her made Stencil Guide want to laugh.

“Tech's not too good at keeping things in order,” she said quietly, trying to prevent herself from bursting out laughing. She was used to stallions making a mess when at work, but the inventor's workshop was by far the worst she'd ever seen.

“He's busy,” said Midnight, trying to make an excuse for him, “and I bet if you asked, he'd be able to pick out anything from this pile. I know a couple of ponies with that work habit.”

“I don't know,” she teased, “looks pretty messy in here.”

“Then go for it, ask for a part,” he insisted, “you're an engineer too, right? There's got to be something you know we need for this invention.”

Stencil Guide bit her cheek in realization that she had no idea whatsoever how engineering worked and that the prince next to her was calling her bluff. At least, she was paranoid enough to believe that he was still probing into her thoughts and actions. The truth was closer to Midnight wanting her to stop criticizing Techorse over what appeared to him to be a rather minor lack of organization.

She began to play with her mane, feeling the bun starting to unravel, “Uhhh, um...”

Quickly digging up a couple of words from her final school days learning about the science of electricity, she queried the inventor, “Techorse, can I please have... a...delayed capacitor?”

Techorse stopped furiously sketching the blueprint and casually scratched his head with the robotic hand he wasn't writing with, eyebrows raised.

“Delayed capacitors... where did I leave them? I haven't used one in a long time since I can just use a regular capacitor and a switch instead when building a conduit.”

The mare exhaled in relief, “Oh, you have some? Let me help you out.”

Her horn lit up, and aura energy of that amazing sparkly blue surrounded the scraps and bits all over the room. Techorse took a step back and watched in amazement, his workshop was being cleaned up and organized so quickly he didn't know what to make of it! The pieces of metal plating were stacked side by side on a nearby pushcart used for moving items around the shop, the electronic components and steam valves were sorted out into the many shamefully unused cups and trays left scattered over the benches and machine tables, and anything even remotely related to magical components eagerly followed Stencil's aura up and into their own little place in the room. Then the places for everything were also sorted by size, color, and how useful the 'intern' believed them to be despite her lack of experience, and the tools scattered all over the floor were back hanging up on the pegs Techorse should have been using all along. Even Midnight had to admit with a somewhat sarcastic shrug and lip curl that her skills in keeping things together were powerful.

Opening her eyes, Stencil took a look around the now unified workshop and felt the usual pulse of warmth she got on the inside when she got something in order. She looked at his expression, and wondered if she had taken things a little too far. He was not going to like what she needed to do with his blueprints if that was the case.

Techorse seemed to be pleased enough, and gave her an awed congratulation, “That was amazing! I haven't seen a unicorn with sorting magic before, you've got a really neat talent.”

“Oh well, it's not sorting magic,” she stumbled, a little surprised by the compliment, “it's just me mentally putting it all together and moving things around, Techorse. But... thank you, that's... really sweet of you.”

“And now that the place is clean, we should be able to pull together all of the parts we have to use to build the magical pumping chamber,” continued Midnight, approaching the large wooden table in the center of the room to read the blueprint Techorse was finishing, “let's see what you've got here and I'll start working on the arcane components we're going to need.”

The three of them huddled over what Techorse was drawing, going over the various details and elements of the design for the water pump. The lines were straight and crisp, the measurements listed on the blue sheets were perfect, and the parts all lined up in a show of Techorse's design skills. But of course, the sheets were unlabeled, out of order, and scattered across the table.

“The moment you guys start building this, you're going to do things out of order and probably break something,” she said bluntly, “here, let me help again.”

Techorse watched patiently for another act of help from her, this time surrendering his white pen and letting his assistant make changes to the blueprints. They were given a number and letter designation to help keep them together and in chronological order, and the segments of the machine that required a magical part or help from Midnight were marked with a star. Then she scooted around the papers until they were all in nice, neat stacks based on her rapidly devised organization scheme. A clipboard came out from inside her lab coat, she never left home without one, and she attached the first half-sized blueprint too it, handing it to Techorse who gratefully accepted it with the mechanics mounted on his back.

“There, now you can build things one at a time and we won't make a big mess again,” she said, giving him a warm smile with her pearly teeth, “just let me know what parts we need for each one and I can fetch them for you from the bins!”

“I wish you'd shown up a lot sooner,” Techorse smiled at her, “this is going to make things so much easier for us!”

His words were quite different from the “compliments” she received from Redtape, for her talents hadn't really been given very much attention over her other aspects. She had almost forgotten about her need to report back on Techorse's progress to the politician, but it looked like her initial nervousness had been for nothing. Now that she had been allowed to organize Techorse's workshop and participate in the production of this new device, it didn't look like her cover was going to be blown anytime soon.

For several hours, the ponies stayed busy putting together the pieces of the pumping machine. Wires, bits of brass and copper, pipes and plastic all were taken out from the now straightened bins and placed on the work table where Techorse welded or wrenched it into place. Occasionally Midnight needed to step in and perform a magical weld on something, either to aid in the use of future magical items, or more likely it was the fact that welding was fun and Techorse was happy to let Midnight participate. With Stencil Guide retrieving parts and the two stallions turning the blueprints into a visible product, the table was starting to fill up with the various functioning parts they were constructing before putting all of them together into the working final product. A couple of times during the process Techorse would leave a tool or piece lying out when moving on to the next step, and Stencil Guide would patiently put the things back where he got them from to avoid things getting messy again. Eventually, all that was left to build was the outer casing for the machine... and the arcane core.

“We're ready to build the null vacuum chamber,” Techorse declared, viewing the final blueprint, “this is where you come in handy, Midnight.”

“Remind me again what it is you need exactly,” the prince requested.

“So a null vacuum is a small area that is identical to the void of space, contained within a rounded core,” Techorse explained, emoting with his hoof in a circular shape, “it's not been done very often with machines, but you told me you could use an onyx energem to generate that vacuum power. So I've built the shell that will house that, but I need you to use whatever spell it is you're going to use to get it to work.”

“Right,” said the alicorn, remembering, “I'm going to have to enchant the gem to get it to generate the field on command from the activation of the magical conduits you've soldered around the chamber.”

Stencil Guide sat there, nodding and giving the boys thoughtful looks since she had no idea what it was they were talking about. The topics were deep, but in the completely wrong subject matter for her to be able to participate or really know what was going on. She did take a little heart knowing however, that in a conversation about the history and methods of Equestrian record keeping and technical writing, she would be able to mop the floor with both of them.

“...But I need to get the stone first, Tech,” Midnight pointed out, “I don't have one on me. Do you think there's a shop in town where we'd be able to get one?”

“I can think of a place,” he answered, “let me take you there.”

“That's fine, I should probably head back to my apartment anyways,” Stencil guide added, “I'll see you both tomorrow morning then?”

*GGRRRrGUrrrll...*

Midnight blushed a little as his stomach remind him of the hour, and he came up with a friendly suggestion, “You know, we've been at this all day without food. Why don't I get us all something to eat after we pick up the energem?”

“I like that idea,” Techorse agreed, noticing his own hunger now that it had been mentioned, “Would you care to join us, Stencil? Or do you really need to go home?”

With the current time, she knew she'd probably end up being too late back to the office to report back in to Redtape. Pretending to give it a little thought, she scraped her hoof on the floor of the workshop.

“I guess I could have dinner with you first, if Prince Midnight Blaze doesn't mind!”

“Hey,” he warned sternly, his aura already igniting to turn him back into his disguised form, “I'm trying to keep my identity a secret, if you don't mind. The minute ponies around here figure out I'm royalty, they'll be bothering us with unwanted attention.”

His transformation back into his old form complete, Midnight ran a hoof through his new mane hair and winked at Stencil Guide.

“You can keep a secret, right?”

The wording seemed to indicate he knew, and she nervously grit her teeth and shook her head.

“Yup! I'll be good.”

Techorse teased his buddy, “Midnight, please stop scaring her! She's doing so much for us.”

“Kidding, Tech!” he assured him, “Now come on, let's go get something to eat.”