Short story practice - first draft

Just one week. Seven days. “This shouldn't be this hard. You've put together whole engines and magic tools in less time,” he thought aloud to himself. An exasperated groan and slumped shoulders punctuate that thought as he realizes the key difference between then and now. During those times he had a clear goal in mind, a finish line to reach. Here all he has is scrap, crystals, and the vague notion that whatever he makes needs to be impressive. In the month he's been at it so far he hasn't been able to actually develop any idea or design, and now the pile of partially put together doodads has one more member. This wasn't simply trouble getting to the finish, this was struggling to even get off the starting line. “Don't even remember what this was supposed to be anyway,” he grumbles as he slides the-- whatever-it-was-meant-to-be onto the jumble next to the bench, the clatter echoing off the walls of the warehouse he calls home.

“Maybe some sleep will help. A quick nap, at least,” he ponders while rubbing his eyes. A rhythmic knocking at the main doors behind him brought some alertness back to his eyes. “Come on in!” he shouted back. The reply he got back was the weighty sliding of the metal double doors, followed by a cheery mare's voice. “Knew you'd be in here again, Gear. I brought you some breakfast,” and the sound of trotting footsteps coming closer. “Yeah, sorry if I was making too much noise again,” he answered. “I was so sure I had something that ti- did you say breakfast?” Gear suddenly realized. He spun around to see the familiar icey-blue colored unicorn happily carrying a draped basket with her, but more importantly seeing the morning daylight coming in from the entry and overpowering the glow of the lightbulbs inside. “Oh.” Six days left.

“Another accidental all nighter?” the mare asked, still smiling, but now clearly concerned. Gear nodded, dejection starting to set in. “Seems so. You were right, Sublime, I should install a window in here.” There went yet another day and night wasted on another dead end project. “Hey, don't be so down,” she tries consoling him, “I'm sure you'll get something really cool put together. You've done it plenty of times before,” she motions to the machinery and devices kept at the far side of the warehouse's interior. “In fact, why not use one of those? I'm sure the de-magicer would get lots of buzz.”

“At this rate it looks like I will have to dig out one of the better things there and hope no one that shows up has seen me show them off before.” He knows that's not really an option, though. The Inventors' Fair is meant to be a place to show off something totally new. Something you really think could change the world someday. Bringing something you've had made already that was just a better version of something already out there would go against the whole spirit of the thing. Wouldn't it? “It just feels like I'm close to a breakthrough here. Any day- no, any hour now I'll have that idea I need to really get to work and make something perfect,” he says, really trying to convince himself that's true. The delicious smell coming from that basket is starting to hook his attention.

“Okay, if you're sure. But don't you think you should lie down for a while, or at least eat something? I don't want to sound rude, but you look like you're going to pass out any minute now,” Sublime says looking him over. The daylight must be really highlighting how much he's worn himself out working. “Uh-- Yeah, no, you're right. I'm just trying to bleed out a stone here,” he concedes. If it were anyone else telling him this, except maybe his older brother, he would have tried to claim he just needed a bit more time to jot down some ideas or get some parts laid out to pick up his work when he got back, but he'd come to know by now that the look she was giving him, even through her smile, was one that held the deepest concern one can have for a friend. Plus the basket's captivating smell was now too much to ignore. “So, what'd you guys make today?”

“Pancakes and crepes!” She sets the basket down on the bench and levitates out the goods. A stack of pancakes six high, a plate of golden crepes, syrup, cream, a bowl of berries, and a jug of orange juice. No surprise it all fit in such a small basket since he and Sublime were the ones that gave it its greatly increased holding space. “Eat up while they're still warm. I'll tell Blitz and Resplendence to keep the tv down so you can sleep when you come back in.” The utensils are laid out and she gives Gear a pat on the back. The thought crosses his mind that maybe going to sleep right after eating a big meal may not be the best idea, but it's quickly pushed out. “Thanks, seriously,” he says to her while drowning the pancakes in syrup, “If you hadn't come knocking I'd probably have kept myself cooped up in here the rest of the day.”

“That's what a good lab assistant's for, right?” She beams. It's true she made sure he never ended up passed out in the workshop of the warehouse, but she had also been vital to a lot of his work thus far over the years. An earth pony can't exactly manipulate the latent magics inside the crystals he used to power some of the more ambitious projects he'd designed and Sublime herself was seemingly a natural at it. The x-ray specs, the levitation discs, the arcane force boat engine, even the silver-rimmed basket sitting on the workbench. The ideas were his, but they were only made reality with her help. So-- an idea emerges from the brain fog.

“Hey, Sublime, do you have any idea for what I should make for the Fair?”

“Me? Um,” she puts on her deep thinking face. “Hmm. Well, the flashy stuff gets eyes on it, but it's usually the more useful stuff that the fair goers actually ask when they can buy, right?” A rather blunt observation, but not an incorrect one, Gear realizes after a moment and nods in agreement. Remembering how some of what he considered to be the best inventions at the Fair the past three years be treated as novelties while things like more compact air conditioners were getting manufacturing contract offers right there at the fair grounds stung something fierce. “Then how about something really useful that no one realizes would have been super useful to have all this time?”

“That-- would be a good idea, yes,” he says, avoiding saying something about how he thinks that just describes inventions as a whole “We'd just have to narrow down what would be that super useful thing ponies needed done.”

“Something that's normally SUPER inconvenient to do right now,” Sublime thinks even harder. “OH, oh oh!” She zips over to a storage drawer and pulls out some of its contents. Scrolls. Magic ciphered scrolls that had been extremely useful for binding spells and their effects into the crystals, learning the ways spells interacted with each other, and all manners of other miscellaneous magic knowledge, all bought from magic shops and private collectors. “These are what you need!” She's practically glowing with pride at having her revelation. Gear hadn't quite followed what she was getting at, though, and she explained once she noticed the confused look on his face. “Remember how a bunch of these had demonstrations imprinted on them or the writer recorded advice on them that we heard at the end after reading them?” He nods. “Well, what if you made a way to view those parts of the scrolls without having to decipher them each time? Like, uh, like the way a record player plays music or a projector plays movies.”

Gear taps his chin, thinking as hard as his current state will allow. “That's a good idea, actually. I bet I could plan something out around that.” Confidence is brimming in his voice again. “Yeah, for sure! In fact, it might be just what we need to use up some of the dud crystals. I can shape them down into focusing lenses and-”

“Ahem.” Sublime catches him reaching for his blueprint paper and moves the plate of pancakes, now rapidly becoming a soggy mess from the syrup, closer to him. “Er, right. After eat and sleep. Hehe.”