Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Blowing Off Steam

“So I mentioned I went to a trade school, right?”

Rainbow nodded along. “Yeah, G. That’s where you learned how to be a grease monkey and stuff.”

Gyro rolled her eyes. “Basically, though my job was more complicated than maintenance work—actual grease monkeys. I was trained to work with the engines. I know how to make any steam boiler tick, from a tiny thing as big as my head to something as massive as an airship engine. If it’s steam powered, I can run it.”

“I wouldn’t think that would be all that difficult,” Rarity said. “Steam engines simply function off of heating water to create steam and pressure. There aren’t many moving parts, right?”

“See, that’s what most ponies think,” Gyro said, pointing her gray hoof at Rarity. “But there’s more that goes into it on the other side. You have to condense that steam back down into water inside of a system where heat is constantly being applied. Condensers and all that pipework can get really complicated inside of a huge engine, like what you’d find on the Concordia.” She wistfully shook her head. “That ship was a beauty. She had four massive boilers, bigger than anything I’ve seen before. Half of the bottom decks were dedicated to her engine room. She could really fly if we put them all at full power.”

“Yeah, but like…” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “How does this tie into crush stories?”

“I was getting to that, but you distracted me.” Crossing her forelegs over one another, Gyro stared out over the sea. “Like I was saying, I went to trade school to become a steam engineer. I liked it there. It was only focused on what I wanted to do, no dumb stuff to distract me from my passion. And I learned everything I needed to operate a steam engine in three years, so that was pretty great.

“But steam engineering isn’t really a mare’s field,” she said. “I was one of a class of about a hundred there, and there were seventeen other mares. Can you imagine that? Four out of every five ponies there was a stallion.” Chuckling, she shook her head. “Us eighteen could basically have the run of the school. We were prime real estate, and everypony wanted us.”

“Is this gonna go somewhere tragic about how you still couldn’t get laid in a school where you could’ve just picked any stallion you wanted?” Rainbow asked.

“Thankfully, no,” Gyro said with a laugh. “Although I do find the irony in it now where it feels like I’m just the unluckiest mare to have ever lived when I came from that.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, darling,” Rarity said. “But please do continue with your story. Were you idolized, worshipped as a goddess? Or were they all incredibly awkward and didn’t know how to speak with girls?”

“About half and half,” Gyro said. “Some of them were nervous stallions who just wanted to focus on learning about steam engines and nothing else. A bunch of them already had dates and marefriends, so they’d only look but not touch. But the rest were all able-bodied, usually muscular, and kind of jocks.” Her lips curled upwards. “I liked the jocks.”

“Did you have a crush on your high school hoofball quarterback?” Rainbow teased her.

Gyro blushed. “…Maybe…”

“Hah! Knew it!” Rainbow’s wingtips fluttered as she giggled. “You just want a big, muscular stallion to make you feel like a girly girl.”

“I never claimed I didn’t,” Gyro said. “But in high school I was some weird middle ground between nerdy and butch. I wore glasses and tied my hair back in a ponytail, but I also had about as much muscle as some stallions. I wasn’t very high on most colts’ lists, that’s for sure.”

Rarity tutted. “I’m sorry, dear,” she said. “But you look like you’ve grown into your frame since then. And you have a lovely face! I already know exactly what I’d do for you if I ever made you a dress.”

“Wait, you wore glasses?” Rainbow asked. “Did you get your eyes fixed or something?”

“No,” Gyro said. “I just lost them in the crash.”

Both Rarity and Rainbow blinked. “So… you still need them?”

“I’m farsighted,” Gyro said. “I only really wear them when I’m trying to do my job or read something. I’ve been fine out here because there’s nothing to read and I haven’t needed to work with my hooves a whole bunch.”

“Heavens, I know the feeling!” Rarity exclaimed. “I need glasses when I’m doing my fine needlework and stitching, otherwise my eyes would go cross. But you’re right, at least out here, we don’t need them as much. Has this been bothering you the whole time?”

“Yeah, but starving was on my mind a lot more.”

“Wait, but like, are we blurry?” Rainbow asked. “How many feathers am I holding up?”

Gyro frowned at Rainbow. “Three. Just because I’m farsighted doesn’t mean I’m blind!”

“Oh.” Rainbow put her wing back down at her side. “Well, I just wanted to know! How bad is it, though?”

“Bad enough that I can’t see the individual hairs of your coat from here,” Gyro said to the mare sitting right next to her. “You’re just a solid layer of blue and rainbow, and kind of blurry. But I can see the strands in Rarity’s mane clearly enough, so it isn’t much of a problem from further than five feet out.”

“Huh,” Rainbow said, furrowing her brow in thought.

“Anyways, like I was saying…” The engineer shook her head. “You two are the worst, seriously.”

“Sorry,” Rarity said, “We’re just interested in learning more about you!”

“Yeah, you’ve been here for like three weeks now, and we’re still learning things about you,” Rainbow said. “Seriously, how could you go that long without mentioning that?”

“Because it wasn’t important,” Gyro said with a shrug. “Anyway, there was a stallion in that school that I really liked named Hot Coals. I called him Hot Stuff because he was really attractive. He liked me and I obviously liked him, so we dated while we were there.” A lovey smile flitted to Gyro’s muzzle. “I feel like we made it our mission to have sex in every room of that school.”

Rainbow burst out laughing while Rarity simply seemed impressed. “Hah! Well, did you succeed?”

Gyro chuckled a bit herself. “No, but we got close. We decided not to try it in boiler maintenance room. If somepony fired one of those up while we were in there, we’d probably get burnt to death. It… wasn’t very well designed.” After a moment, she added, “The professor’s lounge was the best. They had a long table in the middle of it. We had to hide under it when the janitor walked by so he wouldn’t see us through the window in the door.”

“What happened to him?” Rarity asked. “It sounded like you two were very happy together.”

The gray mare sighed and let her shoulders sink. “We graduated and got hired by two different airship companies, even though we applied to all the same ones. So I went one way, and he went another. We tried to stay in touch, but…” She hung her head. “The letters stopped coming one day. Haven’t seen him or heard from him since.”

“Oh, you poor thing,” Rarity said. Standing up, she made her way across the sand and sat down at Gyro’s side and put her weight against the mare. “I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, putting her good wing over Gyro’s back. “That sucks.”

“It does,” Gyro agreed. “But it’s whatever. That was a few years ago. I’m… well, not over it, but past it. For a few short months before graduation, I thought we were gonna have a life together. But we weren’t just cut out for it. He probably found somepony better on his ship while I was waiting to see him again.”

“There’ll be more,” Rarity assured her. “There are always more. Don’t let one stallion get you down.”

Gyro nodded. “I try not to… but thanks.” She sighed and rolled her shoulders. “I kind of needed that, I think. I… hadn’t talked about Coals in a while. I don’t think it’ll make anything better, but it’s nice to just get it out there.”

“We’re always willing to listen to anything you have to say,” Rarity assured her. “Just let us know, and we’ll listen.”

“Yeah, especially for an awesome mare like you, G.” Rainbow smirked and added, “I’ll even waive the fee, just for you.”

The mechanic snorted and laughed. “The day you of all ponies open a therapy clinic is the day Equestria goes insane.”

“Sounds like it’ll be fun,” Rainbow said, smirking. “I’m gonna try it when I get back!”

“Please don’t,” Rarity groaned. “I rather like Equestria just the way it is.”

Comments

[Matthewl419]

Discord would be happy, though. Discord would be very happy if that happened.

[Sir Budginton]

I know exactly what you mean about having bad eye sight and people assuming you're blind. I'm short sighted, and pretty badly, so any small text further away than what I'd normally read a book starts to become an incomprehensible blur. And yet people think I can't see how many fingers they are holding up like a metre away from me.

[SIGAWESOME]

“Yeah, but like…” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “How does this tie into crush stories?”

Rainbow, Rainbow, Rainbow....

What do you think Gyro's first love was?

I was one of a class of about a hundred there, and there were seventeen other mares. Can you imagine that? Four out of every five ponies there was a stallion.

Heh...

Try being a mail inserter operator and repair technician. You will definetely have the pick of the litter there too in the warehouse.

[zaponator]

You know, when Gyro first showed up I suspected she was secretly a pirate, but if that turns out to be the case at this point I will be very surprised.

[nemryn]

“See, that’s what most ponies think,” Gyro said, pointing her gray hoof at Rarity. “But there’s more that goes into it on the other side. You have to condense that steam back down into water inside of a system where heat is constantly being applied. Condensers and all that pipework can get really complicated inside of a huge engine, like what you’d find on the Concordia.” She wistfully shook her head. “That ship was a beauty. She had four massive boilers, bigger than anything I’ve seen before. Half of the bottom decks were dedicated to her engine room. She could really fly if we put them all at full power.”

Well, she seems to know a bit about the Concordia. Either she's not one of the pirates, or she's really worked on her cover story.

[Eroraf86]

The mechanic snorted and laughed. “The day you of all ponies open a therapy clinic is the day Equestria goes insane.”

Somewhere in an alternate dimension, Discord sneezed.

[FridayPie]

8793967
bwahaha... I had laughing fit at that, saying Discord.. then had read your comment and gone broken for looong time