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Post by quartzwing on Nov 13, 2011 20:35:54 GMT -5
"Seven to thirteen minutes huh? You can tell just by looking at the machine how long it'll take to fix. Now that's something."
What it must be like to be this Unicorn, to be able to build machines like this. To be able to simply glance over them and know just how much time and effort it would take to better or repair them. And the sort of devices to be made! Quartz's mind began to spin at the possibilities in weapons, efficiency upgrades and lightweight materials this unicorn could have at her disposal. Of course, such matters would be for later discussion. She had just met Aestella after all, and she seemed far from the forward type.
Speaking of which, perhaps she could lay off a bit as well. "Oh, sure. Sorry about that. Guess I wasn't thinking." She gave off a half smile to the unicorn before raising a hoof and brushing wet hair from her face again. The wind would pick up every once in a while and splay a few wet strands across her eyes.
She was just used to being forward was all. Most of her work required physical contact after all, though of a slightly different nature. But if this unicorn wanted her to back off a little bit she could definitely do that. Looking at Aestella she made her way back beside her, making sure to keep a comfortable distance between herself and the filly.
"I'm not a big fan of being touched all the time either to be honest. Sometimes I just forget, you know?"
Hopefully her answer would suffice. For some reason she was extremely interested in Aestella and her work. She couldn't quite understand why, but that wasn't important. Besides! The forest had already gotten enough of her "training" today. Quartz needed something else to hold her interest.
"So, I'm not in your way or anything am I? In terms of you fixin' the machine and what not. I'd be happy to help if you wanted it too."
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Post by zasknu on Nov 14, 2011 1:45:24 GMT -5
"That's nice, she understands how I feel about being touched, though I'm not sure what she means about forgetting sometimes..." The unicorn nodded at the pegasus' remark about forgetting, even though she did not know what she meant. Satisfied that the pegasus was going to be alright, Aestella turned and took the last few steps towards the workbench, already working to get the straps around her forelegs undone. "Oh. No. You aren't in the way at all. And I should be able to fix the device on my own, but thank you for the offer" Aestella stated quietly as she finished undoing the straps and slipping out of the vest, using her magic to float the device carefully onto the workbench.
Upon opening the engine, she quickly used her magic to carefully disassemble the complex series of gears. As she worked, she made sure to place the broken gears and cogs off to one side of the workbench. Aestella made a mental note to try and repair those pieces when she returned to her workshop. She nodded to herself, the preliminary mental glance at the device was accurate, as it usually was, so she was right in her approximation of the time it would take to fix the machine. She allowed herself a soft, split second smile at her ability to cast that spell. After honing over most of her life in order to assemble and disassemble clocks, she was happy that it could be used for something like this.
Trotting over the her box of parts, she pulled out replacement parts for the gears that were damaged and brought them back to the workbench. As she set to work, putting the engine back together, she took some time to think about the cords she was using to control the speed of the engine. Obviously she had to be more careful with how she moved her legs, and short of using her magic to adjust the speed she couldn't think of a better way to manipulate the engine at the moment.
"Perhaps I should just use magic for this... it would make controlling the wings so much sim- No! I need to use as little magic as possible, or else only unicorns would be able to use this. And that just won't do." She frowned at herself for even considering that as an option, looking over the two cords again. "Maybe adding cords for the back legs to adjust the tilt of the wings, rather than leaning forward and back..." Using her magic to continue rebuilding the engine, she trotted back over to the cart and picked up one of the blank scrolls and brought it, a quill, and ink back to the workbench. Aestella muttered her plans to herself as she began to sketch and take notes on how the new cords could be implemented.
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Post by quartzwing on Nov 14, 2011 10:40:23 GMT -5
Well, the Unicorn hadn't told her to leave or to get out of the way. That alone meant good things as far as she was concerned. Quartz had grown used to being seen as bothersome and in the way, a casualty of what her gathered experiences had created in life. For the most part though it worked to her advantage, where extended social contact was merely just another problem to be worked past or avoided. But more recently she found herself taking less jobs and spending more time around other ponies. She guessed the next step was coming to the conclusion of 'why?'.
Quartz hoped Aestella wasn't just being too nice or afraid of confrontation to outright ask her to leave, but she figured that was most likely the case. No matter, she had justified staying longer. The light colored pegasus followed Aestella back over to her workbench as the other filly began to use her magic in disassembling the mechanism. The interior looked extremely complex to Quartz Wing, but the familiarity in the bits and pieces was surprising. It was as if the entire thing was constructed from clocks! She'd heard of such things before, where gears and rotors were used in mechanical creations, but a flying machine?
When Aestella left for a moment for something in a nearby box, Quartz began looking over the pieces she had left across the work table. The broken bits were obvious, gears and cogs with bends or shattered teeth. For a moment she played with a few of such pieces, turning the small circular shapes together until broken wedges and junctions clashed. As Aestella returned the pegasus made sure to step back, giving the unicorn plenty of room around the bench. She walked around to the other side and watched as periwinkle unicorn began to write across a piece of parchment with a quill. She glanced up at her face when Aestella began to mumble, thinking the pony was speaking to her. But she just seemed lost in her work, and Quartz figured it better to leave her there. Instead she watched with curiosity as the quill flicked across the paper, etching some sort of design change for the wings.
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Post by zasknu on Nov 14, 2011 13:09:42 GMT -5
Setting down the quill, Aestella returned her full attention to the engine she had been repairing. after several more minutes of tinkering and strength testing, she finished placing all the pieces back inside and sealed up the metal box once more. Flipping the switch on the box, she nodded to herself as she watched the wings fold up as they were supposed to. Using her magic to lift the device, she placed it onto her back and began to strap herself into the vest and cords.
As she worked at getting herself strapped in, she risked a couple glances at Quartz. The pegasus had been rather quiet while Aestella had been working, a refreshing change of pace from the other ponies she has had to entertain recently. "Perhaps now would be a good time to ask Quartz what she thought of my project..." Aestella wondered. "Oh but what if she gets annoyed by my questions, I wouldn't want to bother her... Especially since she doesn't look like somepony who takes very kindly to being bothered." Aestella thought over the matter for a few moments more, before deciding that her friends would want her to ask and she wouldn't want to disappoint them, even if they weren't here.
"S-so... Q-quartz Wing. W-what do think of my project?" Aestella poked at the dirt nervously, not sure exactly what she wanted to know. "T-that is... I mean, does it look functional? Too conspicuous? B-because... I was trying to make them realistic..." Aestella shyly glanced at Quartz while she spoke, trying to keep her confidence up to respond to Quartz. The unicorn knew there was still a lot of work to be done, but this way maybe she would get a better idea from an actual pegasus of what she needs to do.
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Post by quartzwing on Nov 16, 2011 21:23:14 GMT -5
Quartz Wing continued to watch while the nervous filly worked on her flying machine. She looked as if she were changing the design around, this time to give the pack's controls to one's rear legs. Perhaps that would chance the awkward leaning the pegasus had noted, but it was still only so much of an advancement.
While Aestella returned the pack to the spot on her back, she kept glancing over to Quartz randomly. It started to unnerve the light colored pony, making her feel a bit awkward at the continued looks. She raised an eyebrow to the pony, thought she was quick to take her glance away. So Quartz turned her head once more, looking over towards the forest in the distance. From the corner of her eye she could still see Aestella looking over every so often. What a strange one...
When the unicorn spoke, Quartz turned back to face her. She was actually asking her what she though of that contraption she'd created. Hm... what to say to the filly.
"Well, it seems to work just fine. I mean you can fly and all, and I think controlling it with your hind legs is progress." She hopped off the ground spreading her wings, hovering above the earth. "But it's still not a natural motion for body movement during flight." She began twisting around in the air slowly around Aestella, making seemingly every movement possible as if to show the unicorn the proper method. "Perhaps mimicking these twists and turns would help to better your machine." She flew over Aestella upside down, ending with a slight flip before landing on her hooves in front of the periwinkle unicorn. "Assuming you would be able to work with something like that. But then again you're the tech expert right? Not my place to tell you how things should go."
Quartz Wing shrugged slightly and blinked, turning back to take another look at the forest. She kept her back to the other mare for a moment as she thought over the current situation. She certainly hadn't planned on spending her day talking to some mechanic pony about flying technique. But it couldn't hurt. Anything to keep her busy at this point. After another moment Quartz Wing turned back towards Aestella.
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Post by zasknu on Nov 17, 2011 15:34:42 GMT -5
"Body movement in flight..." Aestella thought as she nodded along with the things Quartz was telling her. At least she didn't seem angry or annoyed with Aestella's project. As the unicorn watched the pegasus fly around, purposefully making her motions in the air in ways that would give Aestella a good view of how the body of a pegasus looked during flight, she thought back to how she must have looked during her test flight. Obviously, she didn't need to move her body much, since the engine and the wings did all the work. As a result, she must have looked very awkward just hanging in the air, only occasionally adjusting the speed the wings beat.
"Mimicking your movements would definitely make flying with the machine look more natural as you suggest. However, I don't know how I would be able to improve the quality of flight that the machine produces using those movements..." Aestella admitted. She would love to be able to make using her device feel more natural, but it just didn't seem possible. The wings would never actually be a part of a pony's body, so controls would have to be external and the movements that Quartz suggested she imitate didn't look practical for controlling her mechanical creation.
With a sigh, Aestella continued to speak; "I suppose that I will never be able to make these look natural... perhaps I should scrap this project completely..." Instantly she regretted suggesting that she just give up, she never just quit on a project before until she knew that it didn't work, and her wings did work, they just didn't look good. If she quit just because of that she would never be able to respect herself again. Shaking her head, she spoke up once more; "No no, I can do this, I'll think of something... But for now, I guess I've had a successful first test. The machine does get me airborn..." She took off the metal contraption from her back once more, setting it back on the workbench, "If you don't mind... could I just... watch you fly some more? If it isn't too much trouble... it might give me some inspiration."
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Post by quartzwing on Nov 19, 2011 2:09:12 GMT -5
Upon Aestella's response to her comments on natural body movement, Quartz Wing shrugged. She figured the Unicorn wouldn't see much reason in implementing such methods into her creation since she could work just as fine without them, but she figured it was better to at least bring it up. There was just something slightly eerie about the stationary flight from the pony wearing that machine.
Aestella's sudden doubts towards finishing the project surprised the pegasus. She may have just met this pony, but she honestly hadn't expected something as minor and meaningless as the aesthetic appearance of the mechanism to put her off like that. She was about to say something in turn to the Unicorn, but she quickly corrected herself. Quartz nodded at her mention of airborne success. The machine certainly did that.
But the periwinkle pony's latest request surprised Quartz Wing a bit. She wanted to... watch her fly? Why? She had said herself that taking into account natural flight movements of a pegasus wouldn't enhance the project. Could she be asking for some other reason? And if so what in the hay could that be. . .
Quartz gave Aestella a slightly perplexed look before responding. "Well I guess so." she said, taking a few steps towards the Unicorn. She suddenly outstretched a foreleg towards Aestella, pointing her hoof. "But I better not be seeing any funny business from you." She finished off with a slight smirk before lifting herself slowly from the ground. As before, she began flying around Aestella, making sure to put emphasis in each physical movement her body would make. She twisted in the air calmly around Aestella, keeping her gaze on where the pony's eyes were focused.
"So since you've got me floatin' around in the air for for you, would you mind telling me just what you're looking for? You've got your eyes glued on me pretty good there."
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Post by zasknu on Nov 19, 2011 14:43:05 GMT -5
"W-what am I looking for?" Aestella asked quietly, mostly to herself. She knew why she was so interested in learning how pegasi flew at the moment, but was unsure how her answer would make Quartz react to the situation. Aestella knew she didn't really like attention, spending most of her life indoors and away from anypony didn't exactly do wonders for her self confidence or her social skills. Even just talking to a single stranger made her nervous to the point where she wished she could just run away and hide in her bed. But since she was already making new friends, she knew they would be disappointed in her for not trying to make conversation, and that concept was even more terrifying than the one she found herself in currently.
"W-well... I was thinking that if I could learn how pegasi properly fly... and found a way to apply those movements to my machine... then maybe, it wouldn't seem so strange when I used them..." Aestella choked out, avoiding Quartz' gaze and trying to make herself smaller against the workbench. "And then, maybe, I wouldn't draw any attention?" Aestella's final words turned more towards a question, not because she wasn't sure of what she was saying, but because she wasn't sure of what Quartz would do when she heard that.
"Who am I kidding," The unicorn thought to herself, glancing back at her machine. "Nopony is ever going to look at this and think that it's normal..." She sighed sadly, and closed her eyes, reviewing all the movements she had seen Quartz make in the air, and couldn't imagine being able to duplicate all of those mechanically in her machine or physically with her own body. Opening her eyes she looked sadly up to the pegasi and shook her head, "I'm sorry... I don't think I can do this... I'm sorry I wasted your time."
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Post by quartzwing on Nov 19, 2011 21:08:37 GMT -5
"What do you mean you can't do this? Do what? Make it look more realistic?"
The pegasus floated down in front of Aestella once more, offering out a look of suspicion. "It sure doesn't take much to turn you off your task does it?" She thought of putting a hoof on the unicorn's shoulder, but soon remembered her request from before. Saving her action, Quartz was quick to pull her foreleg back behind her head and scratch her neck. "It's like you said yourself, the thing doesn't NEED to look super realistic. If it works just fine flying around like that, then so be it. You're the expert as far as I'm concerned, and if you say movements like this-"
Quartz spread her wings and jumped up into the air, doing a forward flip while she landed behind Aestella, hooves planted swiftly on the ground. She turned around, keeping her wings out at her sides.
"-won't help its efficiency, then why incorporate them?" She let off her signature smirk to the Unicorn, assuming she turned back to face her. Aestella had no need to give up on her project just because she couldn't make it as realistic looking as possible, that's just crazy. Inventions never looked quite like what they were meant to replace in the real world, why should this set of wings be any different? "So what I'm gettin' at here is that there's no sense in scrapping the project. Just do what you can, and what you think is best. All right?" Quartz Wing leaned in close to Aestella, leaning her head at a slight angle as she looked at the unicorn.
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Post by zasknu on Nov 22, 2011 1:29:59 GMT -5
"I suppose... I just don't want to draw too much attention." Aestella looked over her machine and the improved plans she had drawn up. "You are right, Quartz. I might as well continue from here, without trying to make myself look more like a real pegasus." She nodded to herself, acknowledging that she would never make the device that realistic in form, at least, she wouldn't be able to do that. perhaps someday, somepony else would find a way to move with the wings in a more natural fashion.
"Well, I suppose that means I am finished here for the day..." Aestella looked back up at Quartz, "Thank you for your help with my tests today." Aestella offered the stranger a quick, slight smile and a nod before turning back to her work and starting to take it apart to pack it up once more. Looking back over the last hour or so, she found that she was happy that Quartz had shown up, not only to continuously pull Aestella out of the snow, but also to give feedback on her project. It's a shame that she wouldn't still be around for Aestella's next test...
"Actually..." Aestella turned back around to look sheepishly at Quartz, "It probably won't take me more than a week to make the upgrades that I have in mind... if you had the time, do you think you would mine coming back here to take a look at the wings then?" Aestella scratched at the dirt with a hoof, trying to seem somewhat confident in herself and not too desperate for the company.
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Post by quartzwing on Nov 22, 2011 2:07:13 GMT -5
She nodded and smiled to herself as Aestella accepted a limit over defeat. It made no sense to trash the project, it really was quite the inventive concept. And as it would seem, the unicorn was done with her project. Quartz felt a slight pang in her chest at the thought of ending their social contact, but she was quick to dismiss. Getting connected wasn't a good thing, no sir-ee. "All done then ay?" She shot off a quick glance of curiosity to the Unicorn, checking her sincerity in that matter. Either she just wanted to get away Quartz Wing, or she honestly was done out there for the day. She'd hoped it was the latter, but there wasn't much she could do about it either way. "Oh, it was no problem for me. Just had to do my thing is all, no sweat off my back." She blew quietly at the wet hair in front of her face again. She'd have to do something about that. . .
Was that it? Aestella turned and started making her way back to the cart and gear. Quartz hadn't expected their meeting to end so swiftly, at least draw out a few more minutes in some fashion of a goodbye, or aid offering on her own part. She took a few steps towards Aestella, preparing herself to say something. But what? Just what was it she wanted? Maybe just to talk, or to actually end their conversation the 'right' way. But before she could utter a word, the unicorn turned back towards her.
She blinked, looking into Aestella's eyes as the filly spoke. "Oh! Well I-" Quartz waited as Aestella continued, offering her a return viewing of the winged project. "That would be great. Then I can see how much more awesome you've put into the thing. Hopefully you'll be crashing a lot less by then." She finished with a grin, raising a hoof to pull the wet hair from her face. Again.
She went to lower the foreleg back to the ground, but reached it across to her other, rubbing it slowly. She looked down at the ground for a moment, but quickly raised her slightly wet head once more towards Aestella. "You've got a workshop right? Do you think it'd be too much of me asking to come see it? That way I could help you take all this stuff back, and get to see the other kind of neat stuff you work with. What'ya say?" She held an expression of innocence and vulnerability, hoping the pony wouldn't assume anything wrong of her. All she wanted was to talk some more, to have something to talk about. No sense in not trying.
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Post by zasknu on Nov 22, 2011 17:32:45 GMT -5
Aestella spent a good minute, just staring at Quartz, not sure if she had heard her correctly. It seemed so odd for anypony to really ask that, and something she had never really thought of an answer for. "You want to... see my workshop?" The young inventor wasn't too sure what to make of that request. If the pegasus had asked to come and see her home, that was one thing. She wouldn't have minded that question, because she- well, Diamond has already had other ponies come to the house to look at it. But her workshop? Other than her, nopony ever asked to come inside that. The only times anypony actually did enter her workshop was when her friends needed to drag her away from her work and force her to eat or to sleep, but those were the only times.
"I... guess you could if you really wanted..." Aestella finally responded, trace amounts of fear in her voice. "My workshop is located inside my store and home in Hoofington, so we won't have to travel too far." Aestella went back to packing up the cart, carefully disassembling the flying machine and placing the parts back inside the large box from where they originated. "Oh, and help carrying all this back isn't necessary... I wouldn't want to be a burden on you."
As Aestella continued to pack up her supplies in silence, she thought about the many ways in which this newest social interaction could go sour. She saw herself tripping and falling, breaking anything around her. She could almost feel the awkwardness of the upcoming conversations weighing down on her mind. She imagined the disappointment that her friends would hold if they found out that she had failed to make Quartz as comfortable as possible. When she was done fantasizing and packing up the cart, she hitched herself back up to it and faced Quartz. "I'm ready to go if you are, sorry for the delay... or the rush if you weren't ready to go yet." She swallowed, already nervous for the relatively short journey ahead of them. "I'd like to ... apologize in advance. My home is a little... messy at the moment, and I hope you won't be offended" Aestella added quietly, as she readied to follow or lead Quartz to Hoofington.
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Post by quartzwing on Nov 23, 2011 21:25:12 GMT -5
Quartz nodded once more as Aestella questioned her on wanting to see her workshop. Hopefully she wouldn't decline. Not like it would be the end of the world or anything, but Quartz was committed to (hopefully) getting to know this unicorn better. The pegasus let out a hint of a smile as the other pony agreed to bring her back, though she quickly removed it. Don't want to look like some over eager happy go lucky filly or something. She took a step forward in preparation of aiding Aestella with packing up when the unicorn continued.
She lived in Hoofington... Well of course she did. It was the closest town after all, and not everypony was a loner like herself. But would it be worth going there? It had been a while since she checked, but something in her gut let the pegasus know that her past would find her there. And she didn't think she was ready to face it just yet.
She stared down at the snow covered ground, trying her hardest to decide on what action to take. She was no coward, that was for sure. She couldn't just avoid someplace just because of a little history. No, she was a better pony than that. Slightly reassured Quartz nodded her head to herself, looking back up at Aestella. The unicorn was already packing up, and nearing her completion. The pegasus stepped over towards her conversational partner just as she finished loading up the last of her things.
"Oh, a little mess won't bother me. And it's not like you expected company ahead of time or anything like that."
Quartz hadn't thought of Aestella as the "messy" type. She was probably just being modest, or extremely conscience of her home. Unless of course she was a secret hoarder, or something like that. But hey, Quartz had asked to come, and she could always talk or find some way out if worst comes to worst.
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