>You hold the copper panel over the flame. >It heats up rapidly, changing color as it does. >Once it reaches a nice white, you take it away from the flame and bend it into shape. >Now of a suitable curvature, you place the panel in its place within the device. >Your current contraption is a gauntlet of sorts. >Using the mighty power of clockwork and steam, you intend on creating a device that will increase the strength and dexterity of your left arm sevenfold! >With each of the fingers being extra sharp, so people know you're not messing around. >You stifle a yawn, and rub one of your eyes. >It's about midnight now, but you're too busy for sleep. >You throw yourself back into your work. >You cut tubing, bend metal, screw plates together and work on your machine in general. >It doesn't seem like long before you notice the sun rising. >Gazing upon your creation in the light of day shining through the holes in the walls of your shed, its beautiful. >A mess of tubing peeks through gaps in the gauntlet's iron plating, and the whole device now extends up past the wrist all the way to the shoulder. >You make some more adjustments here and there before trying it out. >You slide your arm into the copper monstrosity, and then turn it on. >It rumbles to life, before it dies down to a much more acceptable low hum. >You wiggle your fingers, then move your arm about, testing the joints. >It whirs slightly louder as it moves, but not too loudly. >It's like it's hardly even there! >You pick up a sharp bit of metal you had lying around, and throw it at the wall of your shed. >It impales the wall with ease, leaving a jagged edge for someone to accidentally cut themselves on later. >So the gauntlet works! >You take it off and start tinkering with it again when Scootaloo enters the shed. >"Hey." "Hey." >She puts her jetpack on an unused section of bench and you both work on your respective projects. >A few minutes later, she looks over your shoulder, and then starts helping you with your machine. >With Scootaloo's assistance, you replace a few makeshift mechanisms with better ones. >You also coat the iron plates with a thin layer of copper, for looks. >Time for another test drive! >You stick your arm in the gauntlet once more, turn it on, and move it around. >Practically silent, and you can hardly feel it on your arm. >Perfect! >You toss a piece of junk metal in the air, and shred it with your claws. >It's split into five sections, which are flung into the ground. >You then pluck each shard of metal out of the ground, and crumple them into a ball. >Said ball is tossed into the garbage corner. >Everything is working as intended. >There's a knock on the door. >Strange. Who in their right mind would be visiting you? >Opening the door, you find Rainbow Dash. "'Sup. Please, do come in." >Cautiously stepping into your shed, Rainbow Dash looks around at the chaos that is your workshop. >"Uhh, Hi. I was wondering if you've seen Scootaloo the past few days-" "Yeah, she's right over there." >You gesture towards Scootaloo, who is currently working on her jetpack. >"Oh. What's she doing?" "Improving a jetpack. It's pretty cool, too." >You lead Rainbow towards the jetpack Scoots is working on. >Rainbow gazes into the jetpack's complex internals, and you can practically see the gears turning in her head. >She suddenly blinks a few times and steps back. >"Hey, look at the time! I gotta go." >And she bolts out the door. What a strange mare. >Well, with that momentary distraction out of the way you turn your attention back to the gauntlet. >You grab a box of spare parts and start improving the existing parts in the gauntlet. >Switching out tiny gears for ones with better gear ratios, replacing springs with more heavy duty versions, that sort of thing. >Some time later, you're satisfied with the device. >Time for breakfast, you suppose. >You walk to the door, fling it open and- >Damn. Has the sun always been that bright? >Need to make a dimmer switch for that someday. >You close the door, and start digging in your piles of junk. >You could've sworn you had a bit of tinted glass somewhere around here... >Here it is! >You use a claw to carve out a pair of lenses, then twist a piece of scrap metal into some frames. >Pop each bit of glass in, and bam! Aviator shades. >You brave the sunlight once again, eyes thus shielded from it's blinding glory. >Now where to get breakfast? >Considering you have no idea where anything is in this town, you guess you'll just ask Twilight. >You walk through the streets at a solid pace, easily overtaking everypony in your way by virtue of your unusually long legs. >A minute or so later, you arrive at Twilight's library. >The door is slightly ajar, so you enter the building. >There's nopony here. >Maybe she's downstairs. >You look around for the stairs, find them, and descend into the darkness of the basement. >Yep, she's here. >You stumble across Twilight Sparkle and Spike hunched over some sort of steel table. >Both have welders masks on, and Twilight appears to be levitating a welding torch. "Hail, and well met!" >The two of them freak out a bit, and the welding torch gets dropped. "So, what're you working on?" >They calm down and look towards you as you walk towards them. >"Oh! Anonymous!" >You look over what they're doing, and can't make heads or tails of it. >It seems as though they've gotten Humphrey, a foot-tall clockwork dragon you made for them, and stabbed a bunch of crystals in him. >"I couldn't figure out how exactly he worked, so I filled in the blanks with magic. I think he's ready now." >This should be good. >You stand back as they reassemble Humphrey's chassis and reattach his outer shell. >Then, Twilight's horn glows, then a spark jumps out and hits the automaton. >Humphrey's internals glow an eerie blue light, and he sits upright. >"Now, Humphrey. Bring me a welding torch." >He salutes, gets up, jumps off the table, picks up the welding torch and hops back up on the table, handing Twilight the torch. >You clap quietly. "Quite an achievement." >Twilight looks away and blushes, something you can see even in the darkness of her basement. >"Oh, it was nothing. And besides, I had your contraption to work off of." >She smiles and clicks her front hooves together in some semblance of a clap. >"And now that I know how to do it, I'm going to be able to make all sorts of things!" "Lovely. Now, do you know of anywhere I could get some breakfast?" >"Hmm? It's morning?" "Yes. Yes it is." >"Oh. Well in that case, why don't we go out and get some now? Come along Spike. You too, Humphrey." >The three of you exit the basement, then leave the library. >Shielding her eyes against the sun, Twilight speaks. >"Has the sun always been that bright? Need to make a dimmer switch for that one of these days..." >The three of you walk to some sort of café, and have breakfast. >No meat, though. You'll have to rectify this situation.