Chapter 1: Working Too Hard
Chapter 1 – Working Too Hard
The sun shone down with unnatural heat, its rays streaming down in an abundance that set a new record high for the year. Few ponies were braving the heat, preferring to stay indoors and enjoy the coolness their houses offered. There were, of course, a good many ponies that were cooling off in the nearby horseshoe-shaped lake; very few ponies were anywhere else but at home or submerged in a cool body of water today.
The heat wasn’t completely unheard of (even if it was a little extreme); there was always at least one day every summer that set a record high for that year. The small town of Hayburn - like most high-altitude mountain towns - got the extremes of the weather all year round. The proximity to Princess Celestia’s sun meant that the town could heat up swiftly in the day, but it also meant that it would cool down quickly at night. The town would regularly get high temperatures in the summer and bitter cold ones once winter and its heavy snows came around. And, to top it off, the days themselves had large variances in temperature; going from freezing water barrels at night to nearly emptying them from evaporation in the day.
There was one pony in particular, however, whose concern lay not with the hot weather, but with her long-standing friend. As the light green Pony plodded her way up the side of the hill that lay on the side of the valley at its widest point, she let her eyes drift over the landscape. The valley was the product of eons of erosion; a curve in the river creating a large flat area of land around the middle of its bend. Flat land was critical to sustaining a town of any size in the mountains.
The earth pony by the name of Fara Greensbroth determinedly walked up the road that ascended the hill, her destination was a somewhat large house that sat at the hill’s peak. The house looked lonely sitting on top. Had it not been for the houses that lined the hill alongside the road as it switched back and forth up the hill, that loneliness would not of been an illusion.
Fara’s fillyhood friend Dormant Blast lived there, and while she had been known to visit regularly just to hang out with the eccentric and energetic inventor pony, that was sadly not the purpose of today's visit. That blasted pony is shirking his duties again! Fara raged in her thoughts before inwardly groaning at the unintentional pun. The town council had hired Blast to design the valley’s new irrigation system, and they were due to sit and give the okay for the system’s construction today. But Blast, who was to present the system, was still holed up in his lab working on some new invention of his.
Dormant Blast was normally a social pony but of late he had sequestered himself in his basement lab working on some project of his. In fact, starting the day after he had been let out of the hospital after recovering from his accident a few months back, he had only come out in short trips to buy food from the market, speaking as little as possible when he did so.
When Fara had managed to catch him for a moment on his brief forays into town she had asked if he was alright; Blast had politely dismissed her as he “had no time for pleasantries.” Fara had noticed a distant tone in his voice then. Almost as if his mind was, for the most part, preoccupied with something mentally demanding and of far more importance, leaving little brain power left to spend on conversation. Fara had been worried about him for about a week now. Blast had, at many points in the time she had know him, disappeared to work on something, but never for so long, and never had he been so completely withdrawn from society.
The view from the top of the hill overlooking Hayburn was a sight to behold; Fara stopped to admire it, even though she had seen it nearly every day since she was born. The road winding down the hill was lined with fruit trees, most of which were in full bloom, their colorful flowers like giant balls of cotton candy. The trees lined up in two parallel winding rows that framed the road and the houses that bordered it as it wound all the way to the base of the hill where it entered Hayburn. The hodgepodge of stylized roofs, characteristic of many small equestrian towns, bespoke the personality of each and every home or business, and the bright colors painted a pastel carpet across the valley floor form this distance.
Beyond the town the ground was blanketed by golden grains of many types, spotted throughout was the green quilt of the leafy heads of a multitude of vegetables. The town would get a good crop this year, provided nothing disastrous happened between now and then; something always did. Off to the east end of the valley the telltale red spotted trees marked the massive apple orchard of the resident apple family members. Beyond, the natural beauty of the valley's woodland climbed the mountains up to the tree line where the spiky red peaks with their capping of snow cut through the clouds. The sight was breathtaking to say the least.
As Fara looked out across the valley she began to wonder how she would get Blast to drop whatever he was doing and come down to the town hall for his presentation. She began to run through several scenarios in her head, all of which were entirely unlikely and all too sterile for a conversation with anypony, let alone Dormant Blast. The hypothetical exchanges went a little something like this:
“Hey Blast!”
“Hey Fara.”
“Did you know that you have a presentation at the town hall today?”
“I did.”
“And you’re not down there because?”
“I’m working on something.”
“That something would be?”
“Oh it’s a *Bzzzzzzzzzzzt* with a *Bzzzzzzzt* for the purpose of *Bzzzzzt*.”
The fact that her brain had replaced all the science talk that Blast usually blabbered on about with some sort of buzzing noise was a testament to how little she payed attention when he talked about anything science related.
Fara finally decided that the mental preparation was useless. He tended to be rather unpredictable. The fantasy conversations with a Dormant Blast her mind cooked up were not going to reflect the borderline insanity that the real word Blast often displayed. Fara put aside her useless conversation run throughs; the only way she was going to get Blast out of his house and down to the town hall was to convince him that it was in his best interest and it would be fun. He was always looking to have some sort of fun.
The sound of Fara’s hoof knocking on the front door of Dormant’s house was hollow. It was always this way; Blast refused to furnish his house or or put any form of carpeting in and so sound would bounce around without being absorbed into any sort of soft surface. The effect was that his house felt empty and sterile. There was no response or any sound of hoofsteps that would signal that somepony was inside. So, Fara invited herself in. It wasn’t like Blast would mind. Besides, if he was down in his lab like she suspected, there was no other way to get his attention. If Blast was working on something he could ignore the world ending outside. Of course, as he loved to tell her, the analogy only worked if the world ending made the loudest noise possible, and he suspected it wouldn't make any noise at all.
Fara’s hoofsteps echoed across the hard surfaces of Dormant Blast’s home. The small kitchen off to the left was surfaced with slate on the floor and a thick, wood counter atop hardwood cabinets. The moderately sized living room off to the right of the front door had a wood floor, almost devoid of any furnishings. The sofa and coffee table were new from the last time she had visited, she’d have to ask when he had gotten them. Continuing on further in to the house Fara passed the door to Blast’s bedroom and worked her way to the stairs at the back of the house.
The descent into the basement lab under Blast’s house was not some long dark stair case like those described in horror stories; rather it was a bright cheerily lit staircase that didn’t look like it was going underground at all. Fara wasn’t quite sure how that had been accomplished. Perhaps because it was a wide staircase capable of fitting a king bed, laying flat, comfortably in its breadth. Perhaps also because there was no wall separating it from the rest of the basement; the design being wide open with a beam at the bottom corner of the stairs holding up the floor above, only a wood bannister guarding the drop of the side of the staircase.
As Fara’s head passed below the bottom of the ground floor she was greeted with the sight of Dormant’s lab. It was one huge room covering the entirety of the floor plan with support posts holding up the ceiling, spaced evenly throughout the room. The walls, ceiling, and floor finished off like any other room of the house; unlike the cellars some of the other ponies in town had. The space was brightly lit with a system of bright white lights providing more than enough light. Even the shadows under the work benches that lined the walls of the room were almost unnoticeable, faded out from the multiple light sources. Blast’s current project stood dominate in the center of the room. A large matching pair of what appeared to be white door frames rising from large platform bases sat side by side.
Normally she would be far more interested in what Blast was making down here but at the moment it was more important that she find him and get him down to the town hall. Unfortunately, Dormant Blast himself was nowhere in sight, the lab's only occupants were her and these door frames as far as she could tell. Still, it didn't hurt to double check.
“Blast? You down here?” Fara called hesitantly as she stepped off the stairs and made a left turn at their base to enter the lab proper. A clatter like the sound of metal hitting stone came from the center of the room, slightly muffled like it had come from under something. The sudden sound gave Fara a slight start, she couldn’t pinpoint the origin of the sound so she walked out around the door frames further into the lab. and then a muffled voice called out, seemingly from the same place as the previous clatter.
“Fara? That you?” another clank was heard, this one much softer more like flesh on metal, perhaps 'clunk' or 'thump' were closer, more accurate descriptions of the sound. but once again its origin was not clear.
“Owwww, Why did I do that?” Fara still couldn’t find the origin of the muffled sound. It was almost as if it was disembodied and floating about in the room coming from no place in particular. As Fara finished these thoughts a rattling sound emanated form the corners of the room. The sound was like that of small hard wheels on a smooth hard surface, very similar roller skates.
Something hard bumped the side of her left hind leg causing her to leap forward in fright, spinning around in the process to look where she had been standing. Blast rolled out from under the nearest door frame’s pedestal, laying on some sort of flat rolling board. The pair of door frame pedestals, she now saw, were held slightly off the ground creating a space a pony could just fit through laying on their back. The light gray unicorn pony with blue and yellow striped hair lay on his board holding a hoof to his head. The board came to halt right where she had been standing; Had she been any slower in getting out of the way, she might well have been knocked over to fall on top of him. Fara put aside though of telling him off to “perhaps warn ponies before rolling out of nowhere lest you hurt somepony,” in favor of addressing the clear look of pain Blast was displaying as he gently massaged his head.
“Oh! Are you hurt? Did you hit your head or something?” Fara leaned over him to get a better look at the sight of the injury..
“No, no, I’m fine,” The colt responded, “just a bump.” Dormant lay atop his rolling board a moment longer before rolling over and hoping to his hooves in one smooth motion. “Now, what can I do for one of my bestest friends in all of Equestria?” an exuberant joy replacing the slightly dazed look his eyes had held just seconds ago. “I haven’t had anypony visit in weeks! Though I suppose I have been rather busy with my latest invention, I might not of noticed if anypony knocked…” a slight bit of the excitement faded from his eyes. “Oh no! is that what I did to you? Is that why you just let yourself in and came down here?” the excitement now mixed with dread as his voice tried to escape his mouth faster than the mussels in his face could contract to shape the words. “Oh I’m so sorry about that! I should make it up to you...” Dormant’s voice trailed off as he taped his chin in contemplation, Fara was just about to inject herself with a comment and had just opened her mouth to speak when Blast ran her over with words.
“OH! I know! I have raspberry tea up stairs! I know how you love raspberries!” He gave a slight bounce and spun around in midair whipping his hind quarters around with such speed that he almost snapped her in the face with his blue and yellow streaked tail. “I’ll be right back!” and with that Blast was gone. She hadn’t been able to get a single word in his incessant mouth running right over her words of protest as he dashed up stairs with seemingly impossible speed.
“Blast, wait!” Fara called after him as she tried to follow as fast as she could without falling down the stairs. She caught up with him in his kitchen The unicorn colt was already half way though pouring her a glass of raspberry ice tea having pulled a pitcher out of his ice box and a glass and straw out of the cupboards. His telekinetic magic tipped the pitcher to pour the dark red brown liquid into the glass and set it down on the kitchen table in front of her.
“There, raspberry ice tea, Just the way you like it.” Blast said excitedly as he looked at her expectantly.
“Well I am thirsty,” Fara thought as she extended her neck a bit to grasp the straw in her lips and take a draw of the fruity drink. It was good, Blast had a talent for making truly good tea. Most ponies wouldn’t notice the difference but being the resident herbalist of Hayburn meant she could appreciate properly brewed tea. Her annoyance at having to come all the way up here to fetch him was almost sedated with the seemingly insignificant glass of tea.
“I really am sorry,” This time Blast sounded genuinely sad, “I’ve been incredibly unsociable these last few weeks, I guess I got so wrapped up in my new project that I forgot to make time for everypony else. I finally took your advice though.” Blast’s voice brightened with the last line as he bounce trotted over to his living room. She really wondered how he did that, that bouncing trot was almost unnatural; It was the way he normally moved though, his happy energy emanating from the simple skip like movement.
Raising a hoof, Blast pointed at the new couch and coffee table. “Got them delivered them about four days ago from a place called ‘Quills and Sofas’ over in Ponyville. Or rather the sofa I got from ‘Quills and Sofas’ the table of got from a place called ‘Fans and Tables’. Come on over and have a seat! We have some caching up to do I bet.” Blast hopped up and swung his hind end around to sit upright on the sofa his body sinking into the plush upholstery. Fara took up the lip her glass of refreshing ice tea in her teeth and plodded over to the couch to join him. Setting the glass down on a readily awaiting coaster she joined him in taking a load off her hooves. She enjoyed the new sofa for a few moments before speaking.
“Actually we’ll have to catch up another time, I came to fetch you and get you down to the town hall.”
“Oh? Why is that? Any they holding a party today and I forgot or something? I’d hate it if I forgot about a party, I love parties.” Blast cut off as Fara held up a hoof to forestall him.
“No not a party, your presentation.”
“My presentation?”
“Ya, you know, the presentation you’re giving to the town council on the new irrigation system they had you design? The one they are paying you good bits for and you were about to blow off?”
“OH! Celestia, I completely forgot!” Blast launched himself from the couch like a coiled spring landing on all four hooves on the other side of the coffee table.
For a pony who works with science so much he sure seems to defy the laws of physics a lot, Fara thought to herself. As soon as Blast’s hooves hit the floor he was off at a full gallop towards the back of the house the sound of his hooves descended into the lab.
“Wow, did not expect that reaction.” The words were quite, but aloud, and they echoed off the hard surfaces in the house, whispering them back to her as she spoke. In a matter of seconds the sound of Blast’s hooves could be heard ascending the stairs again and with a blur he was back in front of the coffee table.
“Ok, got my notes!” Blast said as he indicating the bound cloth folder that levitated next to him via the unicorn’s magic. “Let’s go! I don't want to be late!”
“Your already late Blast,” Fara responded, the annoyance clear in her voice. “They sent me up here to get you when it was time for your presentation and they realized that you weren’t there.” Fara hopped off the sofa, the sequential clack of all four of her hooves hitting the floor echoing in the empty space.
“Oh... is that so...” the way Blast visibly deflated with the knowledge that he had failed to show up when he was supposed to and was thus letting ponies down was almost depressing. It was almost as if his body had lost all it's unnatural energy and his frame visible sagged like there was a large pack on his back.
Taking one last draw from her glass of tea Fara left the glass on its coaster on the coffee table and joined Dormant in walking to the door. “Let’s head down so you can give your presentation and I can get on with my day.”
The two ponies walked out Dormant's front door, Fara with determination in her step and Blast with a languid motion that almost made it look like he was melting
“Oh come on Blast, they'll forgive you for being late. Everypony knows how you get wrapped up in those projects of yours,” Fara said as she turned her head to see Blast following her out the front door. The way the brightness returned to his body a pony might have thought that the bright noon sun it self was granting him the energy. Blast's new energy allowed him to spring forward as if the welcome mat he was standing on was a launch pad, clearing far more ground in one leap than should be possible, to land next to her.
“Your right, being late once won't make then hate me. What was I thinking” Blast’s gate now consisted of quick bouncing steps that spoke of more energy than Fara could remember having in her entire life.
That would be true, if it was really only once, Fara thought to herself, although she didn't dare voice the thought, Blast switched between emotional extremes often enough as it was, she didn't need to depress him again and have to endue his emotionally dampening presence all the way down the hill into town.
“Wow, I've been down there a long time!” Dormant Blast said as he trotted down the hill beside her.
“Why do you say that?” Fara asked as she looked over to see blast starring unblinkingly at the sun, why was he doing that? A pony could blind themselves looking at the sun for too long.
“Well because the sun is just past it's zenith of course!” he replied cheerily.
“So what, you've been working in your lab all morning?” Fara asked, “When did you start? After breakfast?”
“Breakfast! I haven't had breakfast yet! No wonder I feel all droopy!” Blast replied with an enthusiasm that was the complete opposite of 'droopy'.
“You haven't had breakfast yet?” Fara ashed giggling to herself slightly, “So you just got out of bed and went straight to work in your lab.” the intonation was that of a statement but it was clearly meant to be a mocking question. This colt needed to get his priorities strait. Breakfast was the most important meal of the day after all.
“Bed? I never went to bed in the first place. I went down into my lab around nine O' clock last night, that means I've been down there, oh, sixteen hours or so.”
“Sixteen hou-! You worked all night?” Fara's jaw appeared to unhinge from her skull as it dropped. Her legs stopped moving momentarily halting her forward momentum. Blast continued on either ignoring or completely oblivious to the fact that she had stopped. Fara quickly rebooted her thought process as it had stalled along with her movement and trotted a few steps to catch up with Blast.
“Blast... How long have you been awake?” Fara asked hesitantly, she knew she probably wouldn't like that answer.
“Well lets see... I took a four hour nap yesterday morning to keep my energy up and I woke up at seven... so.. thirty hours or so.” all this rolled off as if thirty hours awake was nothing out of the ordinary. Fara flinched at the thought, sleep deprivation my not seem like a big deal but it's effects were akin to alcohol poisoning if it got bad enough.
“A four hour nap?”
“Ya, as I said I had to sleep a little to keep my energy up.”
“And, how long were you awake before this nap?” Fara had to know how long Blast had been pushing himself like this.
“Hmm, I guess close to forty two hours. I didn't sleep the night before that. I was too caught up in my work.” again he acted as if this kind of lack of sleep was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Blast... how long have you been on this kind of sleep schedule?” Blast looked at her with an odd expression on his face, the slight frown and tilted eyebrows along with the slight tilt with which he held his head told here he was wondering why in Equestraia she was asking these questions.
“I guess about three of four weeks? I've really only been sleeping when absolutely necessary. I hit a break through and had to work while the ideas and concepts were still fresh in my head.” Fara frowned and drifted into thought as she walk alongside her friend. This was not healthy. And if the fact that he claimed not have eaten breakfast was any indication he hadn't been eating well either. Or 'only when necessary' as he would put it. What could possible drive him to work this hard forgoing food and rest just to have more time to work? What were those door frame like things in his basement that he was working on? Fara was just about to ask all these questions and more when her quite contemplation was rudely interrupted by a very loud beeping noise emanating from a just to her right.
“What the hay is THAT!” Fara cried out, doing a fair imitation of a startled cat what with her arched back and fully extended legs as she launched herself a foot or to into the air away form Blast. Blast his self stopped and lifted his left foreleg to look as a small black device Fara hadn't seen before strapped just above the fetlocks where one would wear a watch. But this clearly wasn’t a watch. The black device was shaped like that of a black rectangular prism and did not have a clock face like a watch, instead there was a series of rolling cylinders with number printed on them like those little click counters. Set into the long face of the box. Dormant looked at the display on the box for a bit and then set his hoof firmly back on the ground.
“Perfect timing!” Blast said with significantly more cheer than she had hear from his voice this morning. A feat she would of though impossible as Blast always displayed a seemingly impossible amount of generally happy emotion in his voice. Blast took one big bounce and landed next to her again extending a hoof to lay it across her shoulders. “now we can get down this hill into town in no time at all!” Blast floated his folder of paper in from of him and transferred it to his mouth taking hold of the two cloth straps that hung off the side that opened in his teeth. The slight glow around his horn changed form the slight aura that had indicated he was using telekinesis to a much brighter intense glow that spoke of far more powerful, complicated magic.
“Blast? What are you doing? It's only a twenty minute walk into town we don;t need and magic to-” Fara cut off as she noticed that a shifting multi-hue aura had appear around the pair of ponies, it was almost as if some one had misted liquid rainbow and made a cloud out of it. Fara recognized what was going on. she had seen this particular spell before, back just after blast had had his latest accident requiring hospitalization
“Wait, NO! BLAST DON-” but she was too late. With a whoosh the air rushed to fill the now vacant space where the pair had stood, no flash of light of crack of thunder announced their disappearance. There were simply there one moment; surrounded by a shifting, rainbow colored aura, and the next, gone.
