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“Uh what?” I replied to Amethyst Dream. Okay not the brightest comment I’ve made in my Equestria dreamscape but my mind was quickly shifting gears. One moment I’d been watching a half dozen, attractive mares practice pole dancing, and now this mare was saying it was time for me to show me what I can do?

“Um, I don’t pole dance. I’m clumsy that way.” I replied sheepishly.

Amethyst Dream giggled. “No, no you silly stallion! Scratch said you were a natural at cloud shaping and sculpting. Some of the other pegasi and myself in Scratch’s merry troupe are in charge of smoke and cloud special effects! So we wanted to see what tricks you might have to show us?”

“Oh! Cloud shaping. Yeah, that’s more my thing! So what kind of set up does Scratch have at her disposal?”

Amethyst Dream smiled and took to the air. “Follow me.” She said. “We keep most of the stage props and machinery in a separate workshop on the property.

With that the mare flew off and I followed. The other workshop was only about two hundred yards away but Amethyst Dream obviously adhered to the pegasi philosophy that legs are only landing gear only meant for standing, taking off, landing and picking things up. After a few seconds of flight we landed again and trotted through an open sliding door into the dimly lit workshop.

I stopped just inside the workshop to give my eyes a couple of seconds to adjust to the dimly lit conditions. There were four pegasus ponies were lounging in the room. Two stallions and a couple of mares. One of the mare who was obviously a zebra mix. I had never seen a zebra-pegasi before but she was quite a sight to behold. However for some reason she didn't appear to be very happy to see me. At the moment all of them were watching the other occupants of the workshop argue with each other.

That would be three earth ponies, two stallions and one mare. As we entered the building they were engaged in a rather heated argument.

“I’m telling you Strut the valves and boiler pipes can take the extra pressure! The factory forepony told us they run the same combination of boilers and engines their factory and they run at 100% all the time, and they had there's installed three years ago.

“I think he’s got a point Strut.” The second stallion had his face stuck in a thick instruction manual. The dark bay stallion shook his head. “According to the literature the factory gave us this model of engine can run at 100% for extended periods, and to do what we needed to do we’ll only need 100% for short bursts. Why don’t we run the engines at full power and ignore this blasted gearbox you seem obsessed with?”

“Because we’re using the engines in a way the engineers at the factory never allowed for!” A blue-gray mare with a white blaze, mane, tail and somewhat dirty white socks tapped her right front hoof on an open manual she had resting on a low work stand in front her. “To get those blasted props to rise as quickly as Scratch desires we have to quickly increase the pressure and suddenly engage the gearbox. We’re running the RPMs up almost into the red, then slam on brakes, throw the gearbox into neutral which causes the revs to actually spike into the red. Then we slam the clutch plates and engage the second set of props. Praise the sun that the sound cancelling spells work most of the time and that this is happening when the band is blasting away because it’s the only reason the audience doesn’t hear the horrible screech this thing is making! We need to get some form of mechanical advantage so we’re not running this engine so hard and we need a more graceful system of changing gears. This crude, clunky gearbox won’t make it through an entire tour!”

“Well why didn’t you recommend that Scratch order a larger engines and boilers for the job that would’ve solved the problem without requiring this synchromesh gearbox?” The first stallion rolled his eyes. We could’ve avoided this whole argument!”

“Because the next model of engine and boiler weighs twice as much. It won’t easily fit on most wagons or many railcars. Most teamsters would charge three times as much to move it and many of the venues we’ve performed at have floors that won’t take the extra weight or vibration the bigger engine would create!” The mare had the look of why are we having this argument again. She pressed on with her rebuttal.

“Also, every time we load those things on to a wagon and then take off we’re torquing the boilers. No matter careful we are they're getting jostled, knocked and rattled around. Those engines at the factory got moved once, installed and haven’t moved since. Our stuff gets moved sometimes three times a week! I’m worried that we’re putting hairline cracks in that boiler bodies and weakening the welds in the boiler tubes. The last thing we want is to have a boiler detonate in middle of concert! That’s why I’m trying to get Scratch to fork out for some custom boilers and engines designed by one of the steamship makers in Fillydelphia! They’re already using seamless tubes in their boilers and they build engines that can take all the banging, rattling and the RPMs we’re giving ours!”

Amethyst Dream saw an opening in the argument and jumped right in. “Um Strut I’ve brought Sky Brush over to give him a run through of our equipment like Scratch asked.”

The earth pony mare finally noticed us and sighed; then she looked back at the stallions. “Look guys I want you to put your heads together and get me a gearbox design for review by the end of the week. Sorry if it is not sexy but it’s time you stallions starting earning your bits. Dismissed.”

The two stallions grumbled then they proceeded to collect various pieces of paperwork, manuals and stuff them into panniers; with that task finished they trotted out of the workshop. The mares watched them leave then Strut spoke.

“So you’re the cloud sculptor that Scratch is all excited about! Steel Strut is my name, and I’m in charge of some how making my boss's blue sky ideas reality. So stallion, I understand you’re buddies with Rainbow Dash and the rest of the Elements of Harmony? So is your cloud sculpting so good it caught their attention or is it just your winning personality?”

Well she’s a blunt one. I thought. “No it just happened that I settled in Ponyville and started working in the Weather Service, and Rainbow Dash is my boss and a good friend.” I grinned. “Maybe that and my winning personality?”

Steel Strut stared at me for a second then turned around and started walking further into the workshop. “Well. Follow me. I’ve got steam condensers all fired up and ready to go! So let’s see a demonstration of your talent!”

Amethyst and the other pegasi followed me. Steel Strut was very muscular but still rather attractive mare. She had short cut mane and an even shorter tail. In fact it was cut so short it didn’t cover her…

“Hey flyboy!” I realized that Strut had looked back at me and my eyes had been on her plot. “Eyes up here feather flapper! Get your head out of the clouds! Scratch didn’t pay for you to come all the way down here just to stare at a mare’s hindquarters!”

She then shot me a wicked grin. “Besides mine is already taken!”

To be continued.

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Posted previously at: 2020-06-19T01:04:57 | Posted previously by: dontebell