Looking For Trouble (Open)

[Fade]

STEAMPUNK

The sun had just risen, and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. It looked like it was going to be an absolutely beautiful day. It was early summer, so the little animals were already out and about gathering food for the day. Even better, there were no Buffalo in sight; they seemed to be avoiding this part of the plains for now.

A lone figure was walking along, watching the ground as he went. The Unicorn's horn was glowing softly as he went; he was looking for something. A closer look would show that this was the unicorn who went by the name of Steampunk, a known master of metal.

It was small chunks of metal that he was looking for. Recently he had discovered that a lot of rocks contained copper in the plains, and he could use his magic to separate the copper and other ores from the rocks and then craft them into the metal he needed.

But also, Steampunk looked bored. He kept kicking at rocks as he went, wondering where everypony was.

[peanut]

Peanut Brittle

The lone figure trudged through the plains, the dim-morning light casting an almost unreal shadow behind him. The clanking sound it made echoed across every rock and tree in the meadow. As the morning sun rose higher into the sky, the shadowy veil was lifted, revealing Peanut Brittle, pulling his peanut cart behind him.

He was making the trek to the Ponyville settlement for market day. He had numerous peanut goods of various kinds littered about the cart in tin buckets, and what he couldn't fit in the cart, he carried in the buckets at his sides. The noise was the buckets clanking together, and the squeeking of a rusty wheel.

As Peanut passed by, he took a glance at Steampunk. "Howdy neighbor," he called out, "Nice day, innit?"

[Fade]

STEAMPUNK

Steampunk looked up to see another pony walking by, pulling a cart filled with peanuts. The magic he was using picked up on the tin buckets that Peanut Brittle was carrying, causing them to glow. Annoyed, he quickly shook his head to end the spell.

"Hey," he said in greeting. Out of sheer boredom, he decided to follow Peanut Brittle, though ended up walking beside him. "Where are you headed with all these peanuts?"

Truth was, Steampunk had a soft spot in his stomach for peanuts. Especially peanut butter.

[peanut]

Peanut Brittle

Peanut Brittle looked up again to see the Unicorn following him. He grinned a little at the prospect of having someone to talk to. The trip from Buffalo Bluff to Ponyville was rather lonely with nopony to pass the time with. "Ponyville," he answered Steampunk's question, "The folks there love'em." He took a quick glance into the cart. "Let'see... I got peanuts, peanut brittle, roast peanuts, peanut butter, and Diamo-"

Before he could finish however, the cart ran over a rock, and a back wheel snapped with a metallic ring. The sudden jerk flung a bucket out the back, spilling glittering, peanut-shaped gems across the ground. "-the hay?" he loosed himself from the harness to inspect the damage. "The dern thing had a rust spot and it finally gave way. Dat's cheap metal for yeh." Ignoring the problem for the moment, he focused his attention on gathering the Diamonuts back into the bucket. "Can't let these spoil, too val'ble! Make 'nuff on these and I jest might be able to buy a new wheel fer it."

Having successfully gathered all the nuts, he placed it back on the cart. His smile dropped a bit as he realized his predicament. "Dunno how I'm gonna get it to Ponyville though..."

[Fade]

STEAMPUNK

Steampunk had never been to Ponyville before, though he had heard of it. He was about to question Peanut Brittle about the place when a sudden loud metallic snap could be heard. Steampunk flinched a little at the sudden sound, despite being used to it when he was working; metal bent and snapped all the time, but when he wasn't expecting it, it sure was loud.

He used his magic to help Peanut Brittle pick up some of the dropped cargo, then followed the other pony around the back of the wagon to inspect the wheel. "Whoever crafted this wheel used a very bad quality of iron." Steampunk said, looking closely at the snap.

"I can fix this, but most of this iron is garbage. I just need some extra tin or copper and I can patch it up. I can make you a new wheel if I can get enough ore." He looked up at Peanut Brittle, who seemed like an honest hard-working pony and offered a small smile, which was a lot for him. He was usually quite antisocial.

[peanut]

Peanut Brittle

Peanut Brittle turned his head to hide his embaressment. He had actually fixed a hole on that part the wheel himself about a year ago.

He brightened up when Steampunk offered to fix the wheel. "Fer real?" he almost shouted. "Yeh'd do that for me?" Peanut Brittle took Steampunk by the hoof and shook it vigrously. "Dank'yeh kindly stranger! Deh name's Peanut Brittle by the way." He waited for Steampunk's introduction before letting go.

"So where can we find sum copper n' tin 'round here? We could use one of muh buckets, but I'm down to muh last'uns as it is."

[Fade]

STEAMPUNK

"My name's Steampunk," He said. He allowed his hoof to be shaken, but pulled it back as soon as he could. That was just too far out of his comfort zone for a pony he had really only just met.

The unicorn "hmm'd" for a moment, before digging at the ground with one hoof. "Well, I was out here earlier looking for copper ore. Sometimes you'll notice when it rains, the water has a reddish tinge to it out here. Thats copper ore in some of the rocks."

His horn started glowing as he tried to locate some, but he couldn't see anything. "They must be a little further underground, and I'm not a very good digger."

[peanut]

Peanut Brittle

"Pleasure to meet yeh Steampunk!" Peanut senced the unicorn's uneasyness and stepped back a trot. "Rain you say? Jest a sec." Spreading his wings, Peanut Brittle took to the air.

After a minute, he found what he was looking for, and came back down to the earth, dragging a small rain cloud with him. "Jest tell me where to spread it, an I'll have this field water'd down in a jiff."

[Fade]

STEAMPUNK

He had always admired pegasus ponies for the ability to fly. The closest Steampunk would ever get to owning wings would be if he made a pair out of metal. Which suddenly gave him the greatest idea ever, though he quickly had to push it to the back of his mind. Getting copper and fixing up Peanut's wheel was the most important thing right now.

"Excellent!" he shouted, getting excited. He concentrated his magic and picked up a few trace amounts nearby. "Over here, from about this spot.." he dashed over a few paces and kicked an X into the ground with a hoof. "To about here... I can pull the copper right out of the water!" he scratched another X into the ground and waited for the rain to fall.

[peanut]

Peanut Brittle

He waited as Steampunk pointed out the copper spots with his magic. He'd personally had a curiousity about Unicorn Ponies abillity to use magic, but it never really came to mind much.

When Steampunk had finished, Peanut Brittle flew up to his cloud and gave it a good kick with his hind hooves. "YEEHAW!" his shout echoed over the thunder-crack the cloud made. Within a second, rain started pouring down, and he passed the cloud over the line between the X's, sweeping over it again for a few passes before the cloud ran out of rain and vanished in a puff. "Dat's all she's got," he told Steampunk as he landed, "Let's see that Unicorn magic work."

[Fade]

STEAMPUNK

A few moments after the rain started coming down, the water that splashed back up had a copper tinge to it. Steampunk closed his eyes as his horn lit up. Starting off slowly, little flecks of metal or powder started to lift up from the water and hover over top of it. Gradually, more and more flecks joined in until there was a large glob of pure copper.

Which was apparently heavy; Steampunk was straining to keep it hovering above the water. After he had gathered as much as he could, he continued to use his magic and pull it over closer to the wagon and the broken wheel. Then he dropped it, and fell forward a single step; lifting metal with magic was not as easy as it looked.

"Now, lets see that wheel..." he sat down beside the wheel and held onto it with his front hooves, and began to use his magic to weave the copper lump into long thing strips, which he wrapped around the break, and other subsequent weak spots. His cutie mark, which consisted of three gears, also glowed while he did this oddly enough.

After a few minutes, all of the weak points on the wheel had been patched up with the copper.

[peanut]

Peanut Brittle

Peanut watched in wonder as Steampunk formed the copper bits into a large ball, and then turned into strips to repair the wheel. "Well take my hay n' call me "Slim"! You fixed it!" He examined the wheel in numerous spots, and was satisfied with the result. "An not to twist yer jimmies, but you had more lights glowin' on you than a christmas tree!"

Peanut Brittle picked up something from the back of the cart and layed it on the ground infront of Steampunk. A jar of peanut butter. "I dunno how I'll repay yeh for this, but yer free to stop by my farm anytime yeh like. Say, you want to come with me to Ponyville? It get's lonely 'nuff on the trip over there, and you could make sure this dern wheel don't break a'gin."

(I'm not sure if the ponies celebrate christmas, but the tree was the only thing I could think of that had lots of lights on it. XD )

[Fade]

STEAMPUNK

Steampunk seemed almost to blush a little when the other pony seemed to be impressed by his work. "I wouldn't have been able to do it if you hadn't brought that rain cloud over here." He said, trying to make it sound as if his fixing of the wheel was nothing.

However, at the sight of the peanut butter, Steampunk let out a girlish little squeak and used his magic to pick it up and bring it to his nose so he could take a good long sniff of it. "I love peanut butter!" However, he had enough self control to not plop down right then and there and start stuffing his face. "This is more than enough payment for fixing the wheel, thank you."

At Peanut Brittle's next words, Steampunk paused and thought about it for a moment. "Ya know what, I think I will go with you. I came out here looking for copper and iron ore, but I bet I could buy some scrap metal at this... Ponyville."

Well, it was official - Steampunk decided that Peanut Brittle was now his friend. This of course means that Peanut Brittle will never be able to get rid of him.

Ever.

[peanut]

Peanut Brittle[/font]

Peanut Brittle chuckled to himself as Steampunk sniffed the peanut butter jar. "I've yet to meet a pony who didn't."

He sat on the edge of his hooves, waiting for Steampunk's answer. And he said yes. "Well then," he said standing up, "We best git movin then, that wheel cost me a whole 15 minutes a' travelin time." Peanut Brittle slipped himself back into the harness and gave it a small tug. The cart rolled forward as if it were sliding on ice. "Jim'ny crickets! She runs smoother now den the day I bought 'er!"

Taking up a trot, the cart rolled along just as smooth as before, and taking up an admirable speed aswell. Before this, it was a strain just to get it going, let alone drag it to Ponyville. Let's face it, Peanut wasn't exactly an earth pony. "Scratch what I said b'fore," He told Steampunk over his shoulder, "We should get there in short time with the wheel fixed up like it is."

[Fade]

STEAMPUNK

Steampunk was proud of his work; the wheel was running smoothly. If he could buy enough metal at this... Ponyville... he would consider re-making the other wheels on the cart for his new friend. "Perhaps we can set up some sort of deal." The unicorn said, thinking slowly while he spoke.

"I'm good with metal, I'm hoping to set up my own shop creating things out of metal. For a few jars of peanut butter, I'll fix up or replace any metal items you have."

It sounded like a good idea to him. Anything for delicious peanut butter!