From cloudsdale with...Tools?

Forge smiled as the train rounded the mountain, Ponyville spread out in front of him. He'd been given leave by the academy to travel and improve his skills, but they had suggested he start off here. Supposedly, some of the ruins near ponyville had rare metal scattered nearby, so he wanted to see if it was any better than the normal steel he was used to.

As the steam engine slowed, pulling into the station, he hopped off the roof, landing easily on the platform. It was all very good being sent here, but he didn't have the foggiest where to go. Most of the ponies around seemed too busy to ask, so he started to ease his way through the crowd. Maybe someone could help him?

"out of the way!"

a female voice was heard and in a stir of panic, the ponies began to move to the side, leaving a path down the road for the out of control pony to speed down at an alarming speed right towards the Red Peagusas. she quickly did a sharp turn and her and the device she was on fell to the ground and skidded right up to the Peagusas.

"Blast, stupid cheap metal, can't even handle such a simple mechanic."

She looked up and gave an embaressed smiled to the pony before her.

"I'm sorry, my brake mechanism broke on my Scooter."

she motions to the bronze scooter with moving gears and parts that were similar to a clockwork device.

Forge stepped to the side as the out of control pony crashed in front of him. "Hey, are you alright?" He asked, helping her to her feet. "That was a pretty heavy fall ya took there."

He glanced at the scooter. He wasn't too sure about inventions, but he could tell that the metal had been put under heavy stresses and had failed. The pegasus picked it up, looking inside. "Interestin design. Must have cost ya a bit to get it made, but they used an impure batch of steel for it. See the little black flecks? Thats why these gears broke. " He said, offering it back so she could see.

He smiled. "Sorry, guess I'm gettin ahead of myself here. The name's Forge. Nice ta meet you." He said, offering a hoof shake.

"I'm Fine, h ave suffered worse."

she smiled and listen to him explain the failure.

"So i see, hard to find a good Smith in this little town, but imported parts are really expensive for such leasure items for myself."

she examined the specks and the broken gears, sighing. she took his hoof and smiled at him.

"ClockWork. so what brings you to this town? looking for anything specific?"

"Actually, I'm supposed to be learnin more about metalworkin here. The problem is, I have no idea where I'm supposed to go right now. Does ponyville have a smithy around here?" He asked, starting to walk to the station's entrance, away from the bustling crowd.

He glanced back at the damaged scooter. "Tell ya what. You help me out, and I'll make ya some better gears fer your scooter. Deal?"He asked, tilting his head at Clockwork.

"well this may be a small town, but simple things like that you can find if you know the right pony."

she said and took out some tools and some spare gears, obiouisly of same quality as the rest, and quickly replaced the broken parts.

"well I'm no smithy, but if you can smelt some quality gears, I would apresiate it."

she hopped on the scooter and smiled at Forge.

"well then shall we head out? and don't worry, I'm going to manually drive my scooter so no worries of crashing."

Well, at least now he had some idea where to go. Forge was rather impressed at how quickly she repaired her scooter. "Sounds like a good idea Gears." He chuckled, giving her a quick nickname. It was easier the say than clockwork and seemed to suit the intelligent pony.

"You lead the way. I'm travellin light, so i don't need to get any luggage." He answered, taking to the air so they could travel faster. "Ready when you are."

"Gears? I guess my Mark kinda influced that huh?"

She chuckled and motion to her Cutie mark of three Bronze gears. she began to kick off the ground to move her scooter through town, easily moving through the town to the forge, were smoke billowed from the top as the ponies there began to melt down some ore, others preping molds and anvil to form the metal. they seemed to know Clockwork as the leader asked if she needed more gears.

"no, just showing a new aquantence to the forge."

It didn't take long before they reached ponyville's small blacksmith. "Hey, thanks!" Forge exclaimed, quickly looking everything over. He pulled a small letter from one of his pockets and passed it to the smithy's owner, the seal of cloudsdale stamped on it.

The colt read it several times, a look of puzzled amusement on his face. "A pegasus thinks he can learn a smiths job? Your welcome to try." He chortled, standing to one side.

Forge raised an eyebrow. "Gears, I'm gonna borrow those broken machine parts. I recall we had a deal?" He said, holding out a hoof for the pieces. He's need them to start making a mould.

She nodded and hannded the broken gears, corious on how well of a Smith he is, hopfully better then the Smiths here.

"so , what do you know already about smithing?"

she asked, watching him work, wondering what technuqes he will use that differs from these ponies.

He took the gears gratefully, pulling a tub of what seemed to be clay from his tooljacket. He quickly pressed the broken pieces together, removing the excess before seeming to look around for what looked like a tray of sand. "Well, Cloudsdale doesn't exactly have much metal to work with, so I had to learn to improvise. However, I did learn a few extra techniques due to that." He chatted as he used the heavy sand to make a mould of the various sized gears.

He took a look around, peering into the molten steel the smiths had been working on when he arrived. "Look at this." He beckoned Clockwork over. "Black stuff floating on the top? That is impurities in the ore that was used. Use anythin like that and yer metal breaks in no time, like your gears. Impurities can rise to the top, or sink to the bottom, so ya want to use the metal in the middle really." He took a scoop from by the fire, dipping it into the molten materialand pulling it out. He then took a small piece of metal and scraped it over the top of the scoop, removing the top layer, along with the gunk on top to show the silvery metal underneath. Removing the cogs from the sand mould, he poured the molten steel into each of the gear impressions, partly overfilling them before pouring the remainder back into the molten container.

"Next problem is if it cools too fast, the gears are gonna be brittle, so we'll keep em in the oven here till they harden." He picked the tray up and carefully carried it over to the large rounded oven nearby. Making sure his gloves were on properly, he eased the tray in carefully, being careful not to jolt any of the other trays in the oven.

"It'll take a few hours, so we can head out if ya want." He asked.

She looked as he made the mold and listen to his explanation of were the pure metal should be gathered from and smiled lightly as he went through all the steps needed to make a good quality metal.

"seems like all you need is a job, not practice."

she said jokenly as he finished all but the cooling process.

"well Normally I'm out playing with my inventions or in my shop tinkering, so if you want to head out, we can go bowling, or we can browse the shops. i doubt you have any friedns here as you seem new."

She smiled and leaned on her scooter, waiting for a reply of some sorts.

Forge chuckled "Like I said, There wasn't much metal in cloudsdale. I know my way around steel and normal metals, but theres supposed to be some rare deposits nearby." He glanced back at the oven. It would take a while before before the gears were ready for fine working. However, they'd still need to be back in time before they were in too long.

"Sure, I kinda need to get to know the area more. I'm gonna stay here a while." He nodded, waiting to follow her.

"wonderful, well i guess the market place should be our first stop."

she kicked off the ground and scooted towards the center of town. the market place was a busy part of the town as alot of crops are in season this month.

"here is where all out farming mares and Colts get together and sell their harvest. I personally enjoy the apples from Apple Acres. too bad it isn't Cider season."

she said with a sigh, smiling at Forge.

"if need be, i can loan you a few bits if you want to buy anything."