The Romance of Invention

Chrome finally trudged his way back to the front door a considerable amount of time later, he had walked pretty slowly while thinking over everything that transpired over dinner. It was a lot to process, how hadn’t he ever thought of that? Why did it take Rainbow and Twilight to point out such a simple solution? If it was such a simple solution then why did it not help at all? How does some pony even just show others people the stars, obviously he can’t just invite everyone to his home. His head just wouldn’t stop spinning with all the new information, he stopped to glance at his cutie mark. He’d come to think of his cutie mark as the villain in this whole experience after the long walk home, if it wasn’t for this damn thing he could just be an astronomer. But the stupid gears even if they did kind of look like stars were just bothering him endlessly.

“I guess they do kind of look like stars, and it makes sense; I said it myself that I only really enjoy it when it comes to looking at the stars at the end of the night. So why can’t I do both?” he stopped to think about this question for a few moments. “Ugh, cuz I hate the inventing part, right. Well I told Twilight I’d go visit her tomorrow so I’ll go see what I can come up with at the very least.” He finally concluded as he keeps thinking about everything while wandering back into his house.

“I need to find some way to thank Rainbow though, that’s twice now she’s helped me just by doing something super simple and didn’t seem to realize it. What can I do though for a pegaus who only seems to like speed?” He looked around his house glancing back at his workshop for a moment as he thought about this then shrugged and started to make his way up to the observatory.

The telescope was still partially up on the stand just about ready for him to open up the roof and finish setting up everything. It didn’t take him long after coming back nicely full and rested to finish assembling the last few parts then started to open up the roof to the sky. He had figured out the design of the room earlier before he had gone off to dinner, and he was forced to admit that it was quite slick. The roof actually sat on a small track so that the telescope and the opening could rotate around to face whichever part of the sky he wished. Well, after a little bit of care to the wheels but hey it was much easier than building it himself.

Finally after extending the telescope out the gap he fitted the last couple of pieces into place and checked everything to make sure it was set up properly. He stopped and looked through the opening of the roof. It was dark outside sure, but not quite at the optimal levels for actually seeing any stars. The first of the brighter stars were starting to wink into existence but it would be a while before the rest of them started to appear.

Chrome let out a quiet sigh and wandered back downstairs to his workshop aimlessly, thinking about anything that he could do for Rainbow Dash. Sure he could always try and make her something, but what? He found himself glancing around the workshop for any source of inspiration and not really finding anything useful. He didn’t even know what she would find useful, or even need.

“I don’t really know anything about her do I?” he sighed quietly as he put his head down on the workbench again then suddenly got up and stormed out of the workshop in frustration. After checking a clock again with a quiet sigh he just started to walk out the door and around the house. He found himself gravitating up towards the hill where he had met Rainbow. Laying on his back he nestled into the long grass and just stared up at the sky and fell into just watching the stars as they slowly winked into existance before him. As he kept looking up at the beautiful sight, he watched the nearly full moon as it started its long slow trek across the sky. The wonderful sights of the night did quite a lot to calm him down like it usually did.

“Maybe I can ask Twilight tomorrow about something that Rainbow would appreciate…” he muttered as he lay there. Then he smiled as he watched the sky  as it continued to slowly darken above him; for once he forgot about everything else, no more inventons, no projects just the beautiful night sky above him as it took up all of his attention.

Chrome suddenly started awake and shook his head with confusion, he hadn’t really intended to doze off like that. He looked up at the moon and the stars and it became apparent that quite a bit of time had passed. Honestly it wasn’t really that surprising, he had worked pretty hard putting together that telescope in a rather short amount of time. He let out a quiet yawn as he got up and decided he’d just save the telescope for tomorrow night. For now sleep was just far more important he thought to himself as he slowly walked up the stairs and flopped into bed.

*****

Chrome rolled over and looked at the clock beside his bed, normally he wasn’t much of a late sleeper; but this morning he had a strong desire to just pull the pillow up over his head and go back to sleep. He already allowed himself a bit of a lie in though so he couldn’t justify it anymore despite the strong urge. Finally after a long moment of interntal debate he comprised by rolling out of bed with a sour attitude and grumbling about it unhappily under his breath.

He continued his quiet grumbling even as he looked over his food situation again and realized he hadn’t done anything to fix it last night. So his sour disposition continued as he walked out the door with a pop-tart shoved into his mouth. He almost yawned but had to fight it back in the desire to not choke on it. He stopped and glanced quickly up at the sky to see if Rainbow was out clearing the clouds at the moment, that was a meeting he’d rather put off for now. He couldn’t very well just ask her what she’d like as a present that would kill the whole idea of the surprise.

Once again as he continued to ponder what he could possibly do for her he found himself standing in Ponyville proper without fully remembering how he got there. He took a moment to look around and get his bearings straight, he was starting to learn his way around a little bit better; but his objective today was pretty simple. All it took was a quick glance to find the gigantic tree that housed the library. His brain continued to whir with activity as ideas kept blinking in and out of his mind about both the telescope and Rainbow’s potential gift right up until when he arrived at the doorway to the library. Taking a moment to clear out his head with a few shakes he tried to gather himself slightly then reached out to knock at the door softly.

“Oh hey there Chrome, come on in I already have a few good ideas on some books you might like but let’s go look at them together,” beamed Twilight after she opened the door suddenly and started to walk back into the library ahead of him.

“Thanks for the help Twilight I really appreciate it, I’m not really sure what I can do. My original idea seems pretty much dead, so I need a new direction to go in but I’m completely empty on inspiration. I was hoping maybe I coiuld pick up some ideas from you or some of the books here.”

“Well I’m sure we can find you something to get your mental gears turning,” mused Twilight as she looked around the room for the books she had set aside earlier. “SPIKE! What did you do with the books I left out!?” she suddenly yelled causing him to have to step back suddenly as the little dragon skidded into the room at full tilt.

“Well you left them out so I thought you wanted me to put them away…”

Chrome just stood there with an awkward look on his face as the two of them went back and forth in a quick heated argument. It sounded like they had these types of disagreements often so he found his mind wandering and he looked around the room curiously. His eyes fell upon an owl asleep on top of one of the bookshelves and was immediately curious. The owl seemed to be completely undisturbed by the shouting match going on between the two of them and just kept on sleeping right there where it stood.

“Well just get them back out again then!” yelled Twillight loud enough to startle Chrome out of his reverie and he turned away from the bird. She then turned to Chrome with an exasperated look on her face. “Sorry about that it’ll be just a moment.”

“B-but if he put them all away how does he…” Chrome started to ask but was interrupted as the dragon walked up to him holding a teetering pile of books in his hands.

“What… how did he? Oh, umm thanks Spike.” He said while he took the books in his magic and the dragon stormed off into the back room. Blinking a few times with a confused look on his face he just shrugged and lay down off to the side of the room with the books so he could start looking through them.

“Oh Spike? He doesn’t forget anything, so he can remember which books they were and where he put them on the shelves. It lets him find books really quickly it’s very helpful.” She giggled in response to the confused look on his face.

“So then what’s the story behind the sleeping owl up there? I would have figured all of that would have woken it up?” Chrome asked with a confused look as he tilted his head up to look at the still sleeping owl on top of the bookshelf.

“Oh that’s just Owlowiscious, he helps me out at night when Spike is asleep, he’s used to all the noise by now so he just sleeps right through it; don’t worry about him.” Said Twilight completely unconcerned as she waved his concerns away with her hoof nonchalantly.

“So you have a dragon and an owl for assistants? That must be an interesting story, how did that happen?” asked Chrome with a bemused look on his face while he started to flip through the books already setting a few aside that seemed to be of no use to him at all.

“Well they’re both kind of long stories, but if you wanted an animal helper of your own I’m sure Fluttershy could come up with something. Maybe you should go ask her about it anyways huh?” Twilight grinned slightly as she said that last part. “I get the feeling she’d appreciate the visit from you.”

“Why does every pony keep doing that?” asked Chrome quietly while he could feel his cheeks starting to flush red. He looked down at the stack of books again as he avoided her gaze.

“Do what exactly?” asked Twilight looking amused as she stepped in front of him and looked at his reactions studiously.

“Well ponies keep suggesting that I should go visit Fluttershy, or that I should go talk to her. This is usually followed by any of a wink, a giggle, or even nudges to the flanks. Am I missing something here? I mean shes not that kind of pony is she? She seemed pretty normal to me, well shy yeah but hello pot meet kettle.” He chuckled nervously and looked back down at the books.

“Huh what do you mean ‘that kind of pony?’” Twilight looked at him with a stupid look on her face. “Anyways if you want a pet, helper or not she’d be the person to go to. I’m certain you could find some kind of animal to keep you company or help you around the house whichever you’re looking for.”

Chrome started to open his mouth to answer her question but hesitated not entirely sure of a good way to ‘explain’ to Twilight. Finally he just let out a quiet sigh instead and shook his head.

“Never mind, forget I said anything. Thanks for the advice though I’ll keep that in mind if I decide to look for a pet, that’s a good idea actually.” He added as he tossed another book aside onto the growing pile of discarded volumes. He pondered to himself the possibility of having a pet, he hand’t really considered it before for the most part; his face was still flushed pink though as he couldn’t get his mind to stop going back to Fluttershy. Finally he forced his attention back to the books but it didn’t really take him long to come to the conclusion that most of these weren’t really going to be very helpful to him at all. He kept looking through them though out of appreciation for the work that Twilight had put in for him.

“Okay well you let me know if you need any more books okay? Or if you need any help with your research okay?” Twilight finally said after a long awkward pause and she kept watching him for a bit longer before she walked back into the rear portion of the library.

“Don’t you dare rudly pass off another nice thing my friends did for you!” rang the loud voice of Rainbow in his head so clearly that he actually had to stop what he was doing and look arouind nervously just to be sure she wasn’t there. Sighing slightly with relief at the sight that Rainbow was in fact not in the room with him he glanced back at where Twilight disappeared do.

“Okay Twilight! Thanks!” he called out loudly to her disappearing form to make sure that she could hear him. Interestingly enough to him his call actually caused the owl above him to rustle slightly and he turned to watch it nervously afraid that he might have woken it up. After a long moment the bird seemed to fall back into its peaceful slumber and he exhaled in relief that he didn’t wake him up.

He returned to the stack of books but still wasn’t finding much of use as he started to flip through them faster and faster now. His mind started to wander more and more from the books until he was barely paying attention to them at all. He stopped to mentally berate himself as he realized what he was actually doing. He gots up to stretch out his limbs as he tried to distract himself from the subject at hand. He turned his gaze up once again to look at Owlowicious curiously while he pondered the possibilities some more of having a pet. It wasn’t a bad idea, having a cute little pet of some kind to keep him company…

He continued to gaze around the room curiously then glanced back down at the stack of books, there were only really a few more left but he wasn’t really feeling up to sitting down and sifting through them right now. He laid back down anyways and picked up a few of the more recent ones that he hadn’t even really looked at and started to try and flip through them, but he soon found himself welling up with a growing sense of frustration. He shook his head a few times trying to force the issue but the irritating sense of restlessness started to fill his entire body until he finally had to stand up or be forced to start lashing out and kicking at things. He started to pace around slowly he couldn’t help but wonder what it was that is bothering him so much, but he really just couldn’t pinpoint it. He grumbled quietly to himself and picked up the last few books he hadn’t reviewed as he wandered off into the rear section of the library looking for Twilight.

“Hey Twilight can I check these ones out?” he asked as he finally found her in one of the back rooms trying his best to hide his frustration not wanting Twilight to think that he was mad at her.

“Yeah no problem,” she replied as the two of them walked back up towards the front of the library and he filled out some paperwork before heading out the door.

“Thanks Twililght!” he said as he turned around and gave her a wave of the hoof as he levitated the books in front of him and started to walk back off towards his house.

A loud thump signified the books being dropped onto his coffee table in the living room as he muttered darkly to himself and was still unable to figure out the source of the inexplicable irritation. He once again was filled with the urge to just buck out and kick something. He just shook his head as he wandered off into his house and attempted to just walk it off instead. Finally giving up he sighed and walked back into his workshop and put his head down on the workbench with a thump as he turned his head to look at his note board desperate for anything on there to distract him.

*****

Chrome was thrown out of his slumber by the loud sound of knocking on his door, he couldn’t even remember falling asleep as he looked around groggily and found himself lying on the couch. He didn’t remember moving into the living room either but he just shrugged that off as he made his way to the door and opened it up after another loud series of knocks.

“Hey Chrome, can I come in?” asked Rainbow in a slightly more subdued voice than he was used to. She seemed… tentative? He wasn’t entirely sure but it seemed odd.

“What? Oh sure… OH!” he added suddenly then dragged her through the door and excitedly galloped off toward his workshop as an idea suddenly struck him. “Stay right there one moment!” He yelled back at her as he ruffled around the stack of papers on his workbench.

*****

Rainbow just tilted her head curiously as she wasn’t entirely sure what was going on but it wasn’t long until he returned with some paper a quill and a tape measure all levitated in front of him. He started to move the tape measure all around her head and writing down measurements of her… skull? She could feel a sense of worry welling up inside her at the manic look on his face as he continued to measure her skull while he took dutiful notes.

“Umm Chrome what are you doing?” she questioned the tone of worry seeping into her voice as she was wondered if maybe he had finally cracked under the pressure. He was still measuring her head and tilting his face as he looked at her all the while taking very detailed notes. “Are you… okay?” she added after a long pause trying not to laugh nervously.

“Yup, I had an idea earlier but I needed to know the measurements of your head for it to work, nothing to worry about.” He added with a smile then trotted back off towards his workshop to deposit his findings and leaving Rainbow thoroughly unconvinced.

*****

“So what was it you needed again Rainbow?” asked Chrome with a smile after a somewhat long pause between them, he was feeling much better now that he was making progress on at least one of his projects.

“Well hear me out here okay? This will sound a bit odd, but can you show me your telescope?”