[Cloudsdale]Wingnut's Open Ship Day

[Stainless Steel Fox]

Wingnut looked along the length of the dock, and saw what it contained to be good. While the air-ship dock, like it's bretheren in the lower reaches of Cloudsdale, was made of carefully sculpted cumulus, the unicorn didn't experience a sudden sinking feeling due to the cloud hoof shoes she wore, one of her earlier inventions. At the time finding a cheaper and more effective way to vest the spell permanently in an object had seemed the height of her ambitions, but now she had far greater plans.

The air-ship dock contained one of her later inventions, and the instrument of future ones. The 'Equestria Spanner' had started out as a medium haul cargo air-ship, 'The North Wind', on the Canterlot/Staliongrad run. Over sixty ponies could stand nose to tail along the length of her envelope, though the ones at the each end would be on a slope, and possibly require some sort of harness. She mentally waved away the designs that started to line up neatly in her mind.

But it had been Wingnut who had taken the aging, second-hand vessel and converted it into a flying workshop, it's main cargo bay stuffed with the equipment necessary to fix almost any sort of malfunction in either air-ship or locomotive. She'd retained the pectoral wing-sails and underslung rudder for manouvring, but rebuild the main engines and wing-sail arrangement at the stern to be more efficient, faster, and above all, operable remotely from the control cabin at the front.

No... she'd be going over all that soon enough. For now she just admired the new decoration on the envelope which shielded the line of spherical gas cells. While many air-ships had fanciful scenes or decorations on their envelopes, hers was coloured a jaunty (and highly visible) orange. The only decoration was her company logo, her cutie mark of a hex-nut with a pair of white pegasus wings, and underneath the legend, 'Wingnut's Air Repair Service'. It was emblazoned as a boss on the very nose of the envelope, and again on each flank.

Her latest upgrades and modifications had just been completed, and she had decided that other air-ship operators and indeed the public should have a change to see them. While she had contracts with several air-ship companies to fly off and repair their vessels in situ, new customers were always helpful, and recognition for her inventions would help to bring in engineering business. Which led to the present circumstance, a gangway leading to a hatch on the forward cabin, and a banner reading. 'Open ship day! All ponies welcome!'