Chapter 1 Part 1
The market was loud and full of ponies wandering through the shops looking for the better deal and each merchant seemed to be in a shouting match with one another, each one claiming to have the newest piece of crap that they found in the scrap yards. Flint was wandering through the dusty market his cloak only stopping a bit of the sand from getting into his mane. He was out on an errand for an iron steam valve for a job his sister was trying to complete. As it turns out the only thing the 15 bits she gave him could fetch him was a broken one. He hated that he actually bought it instead of getting something to eat, but he knew his sister and if any pony could make it work like a new one it would be her.
As he turned the corner to head back to the shop he noticed a pony setting up a stand filled with what looked like scrap from the Canterlot scrap heaps. On closer inspection he noticed the pony had a intact steam arc wielder gun. His eyes lit up thinking about how much more work they could do with that instead of spending hours molding the graphs by hoof.
“How much for the arc wielder?” he asked without breaking his gaze from it.
“Hmm?” the pony said turning around. “Oh, that isn’t for sell, found that out in the scrap yards of Canterlot. Kind of a good luck charm if you will.”
“Oh come on man, my sister runs one of the best steam tech shops in the waists.” Flint said almost pleading for it.
“Well, I don’t really use it and I’m sure a steam technician will get far more use out of it.” He said tapping a hoof to his chin in thought “Ok, I’ll sell it to you for 200 bits.”
“200! That’s ridiculous even for a gun piece in perfect shape!” Flint yelled in annoyance to the ludicrous price.
“Well you can’t get new ones anymore and I got that out of a danger zone scrap yard. 200 is the price if you can’t pay it than I suggest you leave.”
“Wait, I see you have a steam tech leg, what if I could get you a free tune up and a set of new sand nets. What kind of deal would you give me then?”
“Well with all that included, I would let it go for…200 bits.” He said in a sarcastic tone.
Flint let out a frustrated snarl and whirled around to walk away. As he walked away a mare walked up to the stand and started talking with the merchant and drew his attention to the other side of his stand. Noticing this Flint looked back at the tool. Quietly he slid back over to the stand and before he even thought about it snatched up the arc wielder and ran. Noticing, the merchant turned and yelled.
“Stop, that pony in the cloak he just stole from me!”
At that the guards in the ally broke into a run after Flint. He quickly pulled up his cloak further up to try to cover his identity. He turned into the food market and nearly knocked a mare that was looking at an apple to the ground. As she gave him an annoyed look one of the guards slammed into her, but the other weaved past her and continued the chase. As they ran through the market Flint weaved in and out of the ponies and stands hoping that the guard wouldn’t be able to keep up, but the mustang was proving to be as agile as Flint.
As he turned a corner Flint snagged a cart of scrap with his tail and pulled the leg out and the whole cart toppled over but the mustang simply leaped over the obstruction. Looking back to see if his diversion worked he noticed 2 more guards had joined the chase. Annoyed he picked up speed and turned into an ally, thinking quickly he ran up a trash can and kicked off the wall to reach the roof of the side buildings. “Try that one coppers!” he said with a triumphant laugh. He stopped to catch his breath when he heard loud pings coming from the ally and a sudden release of steam filled the ally and surrounding areas the three guards shoot straight up from the ally and landed on the roof a few feet away from Flint, the jets pulling back into a tucked position.
“OH COME ON!” Flint yelled as he turned to start running again. He ran and jumped from building to building the guards following close behind. Thinking about how what he was about to do was going to piss his sister off he figured it would be better than her bailing him out for the 100th time this year. With the thought he pulled his cloak up a bit and hit a switch on his copper leg. The gears in it began to spin and click; the gears started to build up speed and as they did Flint began to speed up. Suddenly he kicked his leg up and a loud bang sent a jet of steam out of the hoof and propelled him quickly away from the guards.
“YEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH” he yelled as he shot through the air. Suddenly his leg began to jerk and sputter then abruptly stopped. He glided for another few feet as he quickly realized that he no longer had buildings under him. In a split second he glided down and slammed into a pile of trash. He lay upside down in the trash heap for a moment to make sure he was in the clear. He flipped over and quickly ditched his cloak. His black mane filled with dirt and his gray coat caked with mud and trash. As he stood up he noticed his copper leg could no longer support any weight.
“Crap, I must have blown all the hydraulic water. Spark is going to be so pissed, but this should more than make up for it.” He said to himself as he inspected the lifted arc wielder. He looked around and then tucked the wielder into his bag and started limping away. As he turned a corner that would keep him off the main road he ran into what felt like a brick wall. Looking up he fell back as the monstrous red stallion glared him down, the stallion was wearing the guard captain uniform which still did little to cover the large amount of steam tech prosthetic that covered his body, from 2 well designed copper legs to an eye cover that Flint immediately recognized as his sisters work.
Rubbing his snout Flint looked up at the guard and let out a small chuckle. “We have to stop meeting like this Big Mac.”