Quickwrench Who?

by Biker

Chapter 2

Rarity walked up toward the door. 'Well, this seems to be the place.' She thought to herself, looking around the front of the shop. It was a bit run down looking, but having been abandoned for the last few years it was to be expected. After all, no one wanted to live or keep shop this close to the Everfree Forest. And the sign, a pair of crossed silver wrenches in a light blue circle, it would almost look forbidding if it wasn't so bright and cheery looking. Making up her mind, she opened up the door and walked inside.

"Welcome to Quickwrench's Fixit Shop!" A suprisingly upbeat voice for the dinginess of the surroundings called from the back room, almost before the bell mounted over the door tinkled. "Be with you in a second." the voice said, followed by a resounding crash. "Or maybe just a couple of seconds."

Rarity looked around the front counter space. It was fairly cluttered, with bits and pieces of just about anything you could imagine sitting on any available space. Despite that , there seemed to be an order to things, though what it was she would probably never be able to sort out.

"Sorry 'bout that, just had to finish something up." the voice said just behind her as she was trying to figure out exactly what a broken candle holder and a plow blade had in common aside from the shelf they were sitting on.

"Oh my!" she exclaimed, turning around to face the shop owner. He was a blue-gray unicorn, a bit taller than most, but also a bit heavier built. Not as large as Big Mac by any means, but definitely somepony that had done plenty of physical labor in their life. It wouldn't have been odd if he had been an earth pony, but it was a bit atypical for a unicorn to have that much bulk. A cutie mark that matched the wrenches on the sign outside the door seemed to indicate he was the owner.

"You must be..."

"Quickwrench Silverspark" He replied, "Owner, proprietor, and most of the labor. So what can I do for you?" he asked, looking curiously at the bag the white unicorn was carrying.

"Well, you see..." Rarity began, "I have a large order of dresses I need to finish and have delivered in two days, and my sewing machine has stopped working. There is simply no way I can possibly finish the order on time unless I can get it fixed." She said with a worried look on her face.

"Then let's have a look see at what's going on. I'm guessing it's in the bag?" he said, indicating the still closed bag at Rarity's side.

"Oh yes, how rude of me." she replied, taking the machine out. "You see, every time I start a new piece of cloth, it jams up right-"

"Is that a Silkenthread Model 60? Did you really just bring a Silkenthread into my shop?" Quickwrench asked, though whether he was excited or annoyed Rarity couldn't tell.

"- here." she finished, pointing to the foot. "Well yes, I suppose it is, I do hope that's all right?"

"All right? My dear that's simply wonderful! I never thought I'd get the opportunity to work on such a fine machine. Let's have a look shall we?"

"Oh, very well then." Rarity replied. A light glow surrounded the machine as she picked it up with her magic and gently set it on the counter.

"Excellent. Stand back a bit please." Quickwrench said.

"Stand back, why whatever for?" she said as she backed away from the counter.

"Oh, just this." he replied as a collection of bright silver sparks began winking in and out of existence around his horn. With a brilliant flash, a stream of almost solid looking magic blasted out of his horn and slammed into the machine, carrying it over and behind Rarity until it was just about halfway across the shop. As she turned to look, the machine exploded into what seemed to be hundreds of pieces.

"What ever did you do?!" Rarity cried out in alarm as she turned furiously back to Quickwrench. "I'll never be able to finish my order without my machine, and now that you took it upon yourself to blow it into Tautarus... Oh, this is the worst thing ever! The. Worst! Possible! Thing!"

"Oh, I don't know about that. Turn around and have a look."

Hesitantly, almost afraid to look at the wreckage, she turned around, expecting to see broken bits of her machine strewn across the shop and undoubtedly mixed in with the rest of the jumble. Instead, every part of the machine was floating by itself in the middle of the room, with an incredibly intricate web of magic fibers holding each piece in perfect relation to everything else. It looked like the diagram in the back of the users manual that showed all the parts, lot of good that was to her, but this was the machine itself. "How did you ever...?"

He glanced toward the slightly thicker thread of magic that connected his horn to the web holding up the parts of the sewing machine. "Well, I'm not known as Quickwrench for nothing you know," he answered with a chuckle. Ok, now that I have a clear view of everything, let's get down to business. Do your thing, my little mechanical wonder!"

As she watched, all the parts of the machine started to move on their own, just as though the machine was sitting fully assembled on her sewing table at home. Quickwrench moved into the cloud of parts talking quietly to himself, glancing here and there as he went. Or at least that was what it looked like until she caught some of the one sided sounding conversation.

"Hello, and how are you today? Excellent. Now does that hurt when you start spinning? No. everything else ok then? Wonderful. And how about you, do you......" he trailed off, barely talking loud enough for Rarity to hear. Every so often a part would float down in front of him to show him something, seemingly of its own accord. He'd turn it this way and that ask a question or two, and then motion for it to go back up to where it came from. After a few minutes, he took a tiny piece down and brought it back to the counter.

"You see, here's your problem. This little guy is worn out." he said, motioning to the part. I can fix him up for you, but I'll need to ask a favor from you in return."

"And that would be what exactly?" Rarity asked, suddenly wondering about the motives and sanity of the pony in front of her.

"Oh, I just have a small job requiring a skilled seamstress with a keen eye and a good quality sewing machine. A simple job really, and I can pay you well for it. But you must keep it absolutely secret."

"A secret? But why would you need a sewing job kept-"

He suddenly rushed forward to the windows and slammed the shutters closed, followed by a bizarre assortment of locks on the front door. After checking the back room behind the counter, he walked back over to her, glancing around the shop as though he wanted to make sure nopony had snuck in the locked front door while he was checking the back. "Because," Quickwrench whispered, leaning in conspiratorially, "It's a secret."

"Oh very well, I suppose I can keep a secret for you." Rarity replied, thinking of the promise of 'pay you well.' While nopony could accuse Rarity of being greedy, it was the off season for a fashionista, and some extra business would be welcome. "I can even do one better; I will Pinkie Pie swear on it."

"Pinkie Pie swear?"

"Yes. Nopony in Ponyville would ever break a Pinkie Pie." After a brief pause, she recited "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"..and hope to fly, How absolutely wonderful." he chuckled as he opened the shutters again. "Very well then. Come on, up and back you go."

The part on the desk floated up in front of Quickwrench, and started to glow. It seemed to subtly reshape itself, and then flew back to rejoin the rest of the machine. As she turned to watch it fly back, she could see that a few other bits were glowing, though none as bright as the part that was removed from the jumble. Suddenly the glowing stopped, and all the bits and pieces raced toward each other and reassembled themselves. It happened so quickly Rarity hardly had time to register what was happening before it was done. The machine gently floated back down to the counter. Just as it settled into place, Quickwrench's magic winked out of existence with a gentle pop.

"Quickwrench indeed." Rarity said, suitably impressed. "But will it work properly?"

"Try it yourself, I think I have some rags or scraps of material around here." He went into the back room and returned quickly with a few pieces of fabric and some thread. While the material Quickwrench had brought her was far from 'rags or scraps' as he had put it, she tried the machine with it. After just a few seconds, Rarity could tell that the sewing machine was working as well as it did when it was new, if not even a bit better.

"Oh, it's positively wonderful, you can hardly even see the seam. And in silk like this! How much do I owe you for such amazing work?"

"In this case, the pleasure of meeting a skilled seamstress and such a wonderful piece of machinery was payment enough. Have a wonderful day," he said as he turned toward the back of the shop again.

"And your sewing job?" Rarity inquired.

"Hmm? Oh, nothing to worry yourself over, I'll have it to you in a day or two." he replied as he walked toward the back room where he came from. "Besides, didn't you have dresses to finish?"

"Oh of course, of course." She said, turning to leave. "Quickwrench? Could you be a dear and unlock the door?"

"Silly me." he turned and a web of magic threads flowed over the door, unlocking all the slides and padlocks at once. As he did, one of the locks got a little more than it needed and disassembled itself as it fell to the floor directly in front of Rarity. "Oh my, sorry about that."

"It's quite all right, no harm done," Rarity said as she sidestepped the parts lying on the floor.

"What's that?" Quickwrench said as he looked at her quizzically.

"Well, you apologized for the lock and I-"

"Ahh, yes I supposed that startled you almost as much as it did him," he said, nodding toward the door.

"Who....?"

"Why the lock of course."

---

Comments

[Radiogenicpony]

the description, lol. I'll read this as soon as I am done with my current story, and post a review.

[sierra_seven_]

Is it me, or did you spell your own name wrong in the title?

[Vapour101]

I like it.
If you need an editor/proof-reader; give me a shout.

[Root Strider]

I believe this is the beginning of a great story, I am looking forwards to seeing more!

Also... *poke, poke* Keep working!

[Biker]

1156239
I had a typo in the title?! Worst! Possible! Thing!
Seriously though, thanks for pointing that out. I need to stop writing & editing when I'm without sleep.

[Radiogenicpony]

review: well written, the individual scenes flow well (though there is room for improvement). might I suggest paragraph spacing (to avoid the story from looking intimidating to read)? I usually don't read stories with ocs but this has been worth it. looking forward to the rest of the story.

additional tip: be sure not to make it seem like a compilation of separate stories, (a way to avoid this is connecting two stories with a scene that involves both).

overall rating: 7/10

[Biker]

1158865
Ya, spacing things out would probably be useful. The various scenes will make sense together once it's done, but at this point, it's admittedly a bit of a jumble.

[Vapour101]

1158865 What is it with the hard-on people seem to have for double-spaced paragraphs? They make the story look like a disjointed mess. (But that's just my two bits, take it how you will.)
However, indenting your paragraphs would be a good idea.

EDIT: Looking back, this seems an awful lot like I'm raging...

[Biker]

1160547
Just one of the hazards of text based communications. I'm liking the suggestion actually. In reference to your earlier post, If you're willing to take on the hazard of proof reading my occasional insanity, I'd be happy to take you up on the offer.

So, wow. This story has been up for a whole day, actually gotten views and everything, and I haven't had anyone raging at me for writing garbage. Thanks everyone for the advice and comments, that's the only way I'll be able to improve my writing and have the motivation to keep writing. On a related note, I just had inspiration for a one shot, now I need to make it into enough of a story to be worth posting.

[Elusive Phoenix]

I'm liking that description...
TO THE READING MOBILE!