The Romance of Invention

Chrome rubbed his forehead with his hoof as he struggled to wake up; once he finally remembered everything that had happened the night before though he suddenly bolted out of bed. He ran off towards his workshop and frantically tore through all the papers for the notes he had taken last night on Rainbow. Finally after finding them he grinned and started to look over them intently as he pulled out some more paper and started to scribble out a basic design.

He couldn’t help but grin slightly as he worked on the idea for his gift for Rainbow and couldn’t help but imagine her possible reactions in his head. He stopped and tried to consider everything he would need in order to make this. It wouldn’t really be that hard to modify an existing pair if he went out and bought the right materials. He chuckled to himself and put everything down where he’d remember where it all was. He set out the door towards town careful to check to see if Rainbow was zooming around the sky before heading towards town to get everything he needed.

*****

Chrome couldn’t help but grin as he barely held back the giggles that were threatened to burst out of him while he levitated the gift in front of him. It was wrapped in a bright blue box and had a big yellow ribbon tied up around it. As he walked towards town he started to imagine how Rainbow would react to the gift inside which only made him chuckle even more.

“Okay okay deep breaths…” he said to himself trying to calm himself down as he stood on the edge of town. He didn’t want to give her the wrong idea by sporting a manic grin and giggling as he approached with a present. Finally after gaining control of himself he started to trot off towards the town center with a slightly more composed demeanor and glanced around the sky looking for the rainbow trail she seemed to leave everywhere as she flew around.

“Ooooh! Who’s the present for? Are you going to a party? I LOVE PARTIES! Oh… but I didn’t throw this party, and I don’t know about it does that mean I wasn’t invited? Oh! Not unless it’s a surprise party! That’s why you didn’t invite me! Oh you’re so nice Chrome thanks!” Pinkie pie finally concluded after one long breath and started trying to grab at the present he was levitating in front of him. Chrome had to keep yanking the present away from her with his magic so that she couldn’t reach it and start tearing it open excitedly.

“Hi  Pinkie, no this present is for Rainbow I’m looking for her have you seen her around at all today?” He glanced up at the sky again quickly actually wanting to see the signs of Rainbow this time.

“(GASP!) Nonononono! You’re not supposed to be giving presents to Rainbow; you’re supposed to date Fluttershy! I’m sure you meant to give it to Fluttershy, you probably just didn’t know where she lives did you? I can show you where she is if you want!” She finished excitedly and started to try and drag him off towards the Everfree Forest.

“No, Pinkie it’s nothing like that it’s just a thank you gift; she’s done a lot to help me since I moved here.” He sighed quietly as he shook his hoof away from Pinkie as she kept trying to drag him away.

“Oh, that’s okay I guess… Are you sure you don’t want to go to Fluttershy’s? You could ask her out on a date while you’re there. I’m sure she’d like that.” Pinkie added with a grin and tried once again to drag him off towards her house.

“Yes I’m sure Pinkie, I’ll visit Fluttershy later have you seen Rainbow?” He asserted with a sigh as he had to fight the strong desire to face hoof very very hard.

“OH! So you are going to ask her out then? Oh I’m so happy for you two I should throw you two A PARTY!” Pinkie started to bounce off happily in order to start throwing them a ‘you’re now dating party’ and Chrome had to grab her by the tail with his magic in order to stop her.

“PINKIE! I’m just going to her house to ask about pets, I don’t know if I’m going to ask her out or not. So you don’t have to throw a party, actually please don’t that would make things awkward. But more importantly have you seen Rainbow around recently?” He reiterated forcefully trying to actually get some useful information out of her while he face hoofed rather hard.

“Aww are you sure? I’m sure she’d like getting asked out on a date; besides Rainbow is right there silly.” Pinkie pointed her hoof to Chrome’s left then giggled at how silly he was before bouncing away towards Sugarcube Corner.

Chrome turned with an exasperated look on his face only to see Rainbow on the ground next to him laughing hysterically and silently gasping as she could barely control herself trying her best to stay silent to not interrupt them. Finally once she saw that he had seen her she laughed loudly while she held out a hoof towards him motioning for him to not say anything. She took a deep breath and seemed to get herself under control then fell back down on the ground laughing hysterically again.

“Oh my gosh, Pinkie Pie is so random… The look on your face was utterly priceless.” Rainbow finally said seeming to have calmed herself down a bit but every time she seemed like she was done she just laughed some more at the annoyed look on his face.

“Are you quite done yet?” Chrome asked with a long suffering sigh.

“Almost…” gasped out Rainbow  between laughs then slowly started to stand up still shaking visibly from a few giggles.

“You’re making me reconsider this gift thing Rainbow…” he sighed again quietly as he walked over to sit down on a nearby bench while he waited for her to get herself under enough control to realize what was going on.

“What? It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie” said Rainbow then suddenly saw the blue and yellow box before stopping dead. “Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh! You didn’t!” She zoomed over and was suddenly sitting right next to him on the bench nearly bouncing with excitement as she saw the box with Wonderbolts colors wrapped in his magic.

“This is to say thanks for everything you’ve done for me so far Rainbow. I know a lot of it probably seemed small but you really did a lot for me so thanks. It’s nothing huge but I think you’ll like it.” He said before levitating over her lap then letting it drop gently there.

“Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh!” she reiterated while she looked down at the present not even touching it for a moment. Then she surprised Chrome by carefully taking the ribbon off instead of just tearing the gift apart as he had expected. She opened it up slowly building up the tension for herself until she finally saw a sleek pair of blue and yellow flight goggles similar to those the Wonderbolts wore.

“NO WAY!” she yelled out loudly before pulling them out and holding them between her hooves.

“Go on, try them on, I wanted to get you something for your flying. They should fit your head particularly well; let me know if they don’t. Hopefully they won’t create much wind resistance either since I made them to fit your head so well. I had noticed that while you were trying to do that last trick you were straining in your eyes a bit so I thought maybe the goggles would help. I figured it would probably help if you could keep your eyes open while trying to do a difficult trick, you know that’s usually helpful being able to see where you’re going and all?” He chuckled to himself as she just stared at them in awe for a few more moments.

“Oh my gosh… these are totally awesome!” exclaimed Rainbow as she slipped them on over her head and fitted them closely on her eyes. The goggles seemed to fit perfectly on her head and she looked over at him smiling brightly and looking thoroughly excited. “Do they make  me look like a Wonderbolt?”

“Yeah totally, now go try them out, go on.” He chuckled at her excited reaction and just waved a hoof off in the direction of the sky with a smile.

She just grinned at him for a moment then zoomed straight up into the sky at full speed. She flew around with agility through the town weaving her way between the clouds and circled around a few of the roofs in town. She stopped halfway through her flight and just hovered a short distance away while she grinned at him and mouthed “Ohmygosh!” a few more times then zoomed far off into the distance to the very edges of the town.

Chrome tried to squint to see what she was up to but soon lost track of her rainbow trail in the distance as well. Suddenly he was rocked in his bench as huge ‘BOOM!’ erupted from the distance and a gigantic circular rainbow exploded outwards from the sky in the distance. Shortly there afterwards he was buffeted by a quick wind and a bright rainbow as she flew right by his head. Her rainbow trail seemed to have been intensified at the increased speed and she flew an entire circuit around the town encircling it completely in the bright rainbow she was leaving behind. Finally she flew back around slower and landed right in front of him looking completely ecstatic.

“These are… completely... AWESOME it was totally about twenty percent easier to do that Rainboom than it normally is. Thank you so much! This is the best present EVER!” Rainbow bounced in place happily reminding him of an excited Pinkie Pie as she was completely unable to come up with anything more to add to this before she finally threw her hooves around him in a light hug. Chrome froze up for a moment but she withdrew and went back to her excited antics without quite noticing his reaction.

“I’m glad you like them Rainbow, you’ve done a lot for me and like I said I wanted to say thanks.” He said unable to keep himself from grinning even as the blush faded from his face slowly and he chuckled in response to the pure joy that Rainbow was exhibiting.

“Thanks? I think I owe you one after this… These are completely amazing! But I heard you say that you were going to off to Fluttershy’s right? I won’t keep you, have fun with that. You are totally going to make the best coltfriend for Fluttershy! Oh my gosh Thank you!” She leaned forward and hugged him again before suddenly zooming off towards Sugarcube Corner while she yelled loudly for Pinkie. She left him so suddenly and so full of excitement that she didn’t see the look on his face as he sat there his eyes unfocused slightly with a look of shock like she had just slapped him as hard as she could across the cheek.