GREEN   1055   2
   20788 115.56 KB    1277

TiM take 2

By Drostapena
Created: 2021-07-16 21:31:33
Updated: 2023-01-04 04:37:09
Expiry: Never
tech is magic

  1. Alright let's do this, I'm gonna start again but keep the same opening- it seems I'm okay with what I wrote down.
  2.  
  3. >You are anonymous.
  4. >You have been yanked from your life of shit-posting and working, day in and day out… To a place that has technology comparative to the dark ages.
  5. >you're in an age of pax romana, no real conflict for a thousand years- So there hasn't been any changes technologically for… well, a thousand years.
  6. >that’s mostly thanks to magic, allowing a 'deus ex machina' of sorts for necessity.
  7. >you need a house built?
  8. >we can magic that shit together in an afternoon.
  9. >you want to record your speech for the generations?
  10. >we can magic that shit together in an afternoon.
  11. >and so on and so forth.
  12. >and this is where we meet you.
  13. >you're sitting at a desk, in a large; i'mposing castle that- from what you heard… was magicked together in about 3 minutes.
  14. >at this rate, you understand how there is no issue with living… Why change it?
  15. >but, that’s really an appeal to tradition, now isn't it?
  16. >they really don't think about how much better it could be.
  17. >and, now, here in your desk, you seem to be staving off the withdrawal coming from lack of shitposting.
  18. >aka, Boredom.
  19. >your favorite activity since you got here, was to draw.
  20. >and at this point, thinking about the technology of the era; you find yourself drawing large high rises, planes, cars, and all sorts of people.
  21. >people.
  22. >you really can't believe it at this point in time, you sort of miss the feeling of driving on Interstate - 5 to your small workplace in the mission valley of sunny San Diego- Where you used to live beforehand.
  23. >and how on some days, you would buy a blizzard from your local dairy queen, let the soft top down at a stoplight. Take a turn, and be staring at a white salty beach leading to a large, infinite, blue ocean laying out its rough, beautiful texture before you… trailing down to an endless horizon meeting in the middle with a an infinite, pastel painting of a tangerine mixture of bubbling flame… oozing and mixing with the blue of the sky… sailing into the deep dark infinite that was space, with a backdrop of other celestial brethren; forming innumerable pieces of starry art.
  24. >and on nights like those. Your life was perfect.
  25. >it was perfect.
  26. >You find yourself shading in the sunset- the view you saw from across the water onto the picturesque white and blue skyline- overlooking the mighty naval station in front of you, with no less that three aircraft carriers in port- and a destroyer lazily floating passed, aided on by the bright construction orange of a port tug- a sight you remember easily, taking mind pictures at the time for the scenery spank bank you keep.
  27.  
  28. >"hey anon!"
  29. >In an act of self defense and surprise, you jump out of your seat and onto the ground.
  30. >You slightly gather yourself. saying hello to the pegasi-thing on the way down from space, and saying to the Princess; in no particularly calm way.
  31. "TOP OF THE MORNIN TO YA"
  32. >that sends her aback. She blinks twice, and looks over what you are doing.
  33. >"oh… you've been to San Neighego. I was just there for a royal summit!"
  34. >that surprises the shit out of you.
  35. "n-no, I was just drawing my home back in the human world."
  36. >"Really? Because… that’s San Neighego. I mean, minus the ships- you drew them all wrong! What are they made of, stone?" she insists.
  37. >"and, well, that one there, and those two- they look like the size of islands! You must be mistaken for some science fiction novel. Unless humans possess some sort of magic! You said there was no magic. I mean, as far as I know… you can't build a cloud-streaker without /at least/ 400 uni's worth of magic. Do you know how many ponies that takes? she chuckles.
  38. >she pauses, and thinks for a second- before continuing pointing at the downtown Marriott she refers to as a "cloud streaker".
  39. >"Wait. Do you have magic? Anon, are there Wizards where you come from?"
  40. >well, you could pull off a wizard.
  41. >if this was the internet.
  42. >you think for a moment about the card tricks pulled on you.
  43. >no, Equestrian Magic is different, more like… electricity back home.
  44. You think for a moment more before you say- "in a way. I suppose- but it wasn't magic, it had a different name, and was completely disclosed. Instead of being a force we haven't discovered yet, it was a force we added onto"
  45. >you started picking up steam
  46. "We were able to look at a desert, and think; 'this… this is where life's gonna be'."
  47. "We were able to look at blue clay, and see potential for silver. And that’s the key word, twilight- potential."
  48. >You point at one of the aircraft carriers
  49. "Twilight look here, what you think is an incorrect representation of a ship is actually an enormous steam ship that runs off of the heat generated when we destroy matter at an atomic scale. It's frightening considering- when we think of the time this tech came from, it is stone age in comparison to the rest of the world we lived in. That's no island! It's a moving, floating-"
  50. >Airport.
  51. >they don’t have airports in Equestria, so you stop yourself before you overwhelm the poor princess
  52. >Twilights taking notes, deciding to look up your words to see if they even exist in modern dictionaries later- most likely.
  53. >regardless, you continue down your intellectual rabbit hole.
  54. "humans have potential like no other… people were able to make large machines that could carry all of Ponyville over 600 miles in one /hour/- and all of Manehatteon across the western royal oceans in a week or so."
  55. >you jut your hands out to both sides.
  56. "Certain countries have built train systems that are so fast that they move /millions/ of people hundreds of miles in just a morning, and do the same in the evening."
  57. "or make these 'cloud-streaking' 100 story buildings with no problems, lots of money. No magic. Just… well… potential, and a lot of engineering, of course."
  58. >twilight puts down the pad
  59. >her next remark took you aback. As she was awestruck all before the last line.
  60. >"I can't really believe your story Anon, buildings with over a 100 levels? Flying machines bigger than Ponyville? And yet there's no magic in your world? Please."
  61. >You giggle.
  62. "And you say you're the trusting one around here."
  63. >"I never said that."
  64. "Well, here- I'll make you a bet, I'm gonna come up with a couple of human science thingies to present, and if I blow your mind you get to make me waffles every morning for a week."
  65. >She thinks for a second.
  66. >"well what do I get if i'm unimpressed- or debunk all your theories?"
  67. "uhh-"
  68. >"OOH! How about you come to one of the girl's sleepovers, i'll dress you up~ and put makeup~"
  69. "Enough of all that!"
  70. >you sigh.
  71. "Just because I know I'll win- I'll take you on. Give me a day or so and I'll show you what an average human is capable of!"
  72. >And with that, you grab your notebook and start writing.
  73. >You're gonna see how much you can actually regurgitate onto your paper.
  74. >You consider a couple of experiments, but don’t know what to begin with. You need to prove to her you know what you're talking about if you're gonna ever talk like that again without getting laughed at, or simply blown off.
  75. >You begin racking your brain, weird definitions fill your brain
  76. >The laws of thermodynamics, various physics related shit, Organic or inorganic chemistry, alchemical explosives, all relatively easy, but nothing super practical.
  77. >Trying to prove entropy when you don’t even have a way to generate or reject heat- or measure either.
  78. >'Well.' You think to yourself. Let's start with trying to make a generator/ motor. Would look close enough to telekinesis'
  79. >You need a couple of things though, some copper wiring… Maybe at the local crafts store or blacksmith?
  80. >something structural, metal might work? It's gotta be metal of some kind.
  81. >bearing- output shaft, input shaft, turbine, stator windings, rotor windings.
  82. >You're getting ahead of yourself. Start with a drawing.
  83. >You begin writing out the basic idea of an electric generator/ motor.
  84. >A Scribble is pressed into the top that states Electric motor: "A current carrying conductor in a magnetic field generates motor action."
  85. >You think that’s the right definition, though you don’t explicitly remember, honestly.
  86. >You begin writing again. "A conductor in a magnetic field with relative motion in-between them produces generating action."
  87. >You drum up a couple more constants of electric DC and AC machines.
  88. >'Each DC machine must have a rotor, a stator, an insulated output shaft, and graphitic brushes in contact with the rotor in order to transfer the electricity to and from the rotor."
  89. >You then scribble out a couple of ways that conductors move when presented with a magnetic field. You've seen fridge magnets around here, maybe they're natural?
  90. >If you can source all the materials- which you think graphitic brushes will be the hardest to source, you would break twilight's brain making rotating action without magic.
  91. >though you're thinking you wanna expand your project.
  92. >you should make a steam machine- release energy from wood in the form of fire and heat, make steam, make some crude moisture separators, run it through a turbine to turn a generator, and then move that across the castle with wires into a motor, which you can turn something…
  93. >what it is, you don’t know. Regardless- it's time to steal some bits from the treasury of friendship and use that grant money to reinvent the wheel!
  94. >and with that, you set your drawings down- drum up a material list, and head out.
  95. >Your first stop is the local forgery.
  96. >It's run by a blacksmithing stallion named Burly Steel's. And from what he tells you- his families worked that there forge for generations.
  97. >"We've run this here forge for generations, mister anon. I've got the finest materials anypony could ask for."
  98. "Nice, got any graphite or copper? And I'm gonna need some steel bar stock 1 inch by 1 quarter, about 15 feet should do me good."
  99. >Mister Burly looks puzzled.
  100. >"I don’t really understand, graphite would be at a general store, copper at a crafts store or maybe a hardware store, and I've never heard of steel coming in the form of 'bar stock'." he finishes, looking through his papers randomly for some sort of answer.
  101. >you give him one
  102. "It's human lingo- I suppose. Where i'm from-"
  103. >"the other dimension?"
  104. "Yeah- anyway, where I'm from, we as humans decided to make a standardization of materials, widespread distribution of materials in standard sizes so us as humans can easily build what we want using measurements, gage, and other properties. Like how all your hammers are made the same."
  105. >"sounds like magic manufacturing to me! They drum those things out all the same, not because of ease though like you say- that's just how the spell was made. Regardless, I don’t have that stuff for you. I can make it custom here in an hour or so if it's relatively simple!"
  106. >You show him the diagram of what you plan to make.
  107. >he looks it over, eyes on the complexity of the measurements and dimensions, types of welds, tolerances.
  108. >He looks up at you again.
  109. >"This is amazing! I've never seen such detail. I always have people coming in with their inventions scribbled out on a napkin, they always just expect to talk to an artificer to have them do the legwork."
  110. >He pauses.
  111. >"Do you plan on making this yourself?"
  112. >You nod.
  113. "Yep, yep- tryna win a bet. It’s a really cool concept using a force that you ponies don’t really know much about since you've got magic as a superior force."
  114. >He smiles.
  115. >"Tell you what- i'll do my best to make this squirrel cage looking thing and run your bearings for yous, you run off to find your wire, and if you show me this human magic of yours then it'll be free of charge!"
  116. >You smile back.
  117. "You've got it, I'll be right back, hopefully with good news."
  118.  
  119. >So you step out, and walk to the nearest hardware store.
  120. >A mare named tick tack runs the counter.
  121. >"Howdy sir, you sure chose a beautiful day to come to sheed's seed and feed and hardware store! How may I be of assistance?"
  122. "I'm gonna need all of your copper wire, and a pile of wax."
  123. >She giggles.
  124. >"Finally a reason to get rid of this roll of crap that came from canterlot. Been sitting for months. Turns out ponies only need it if they're making cutesy crafts."
  125. >She canters off to the back, and you have a moment with yourself.
  126. >You eye all the hand tools made to operate with hooves or mouths.
  127. >You think you might be able to operate a couple of these, but the rest just look worthless in your hands.
  128. >She comes back.
  129. >"Candle Wax or beeswax?"
  130. >uhh
  131. "Uhh."
  132. >you think for a second, then just decide-
  133. "Whatever's cheaper."
  134. >"candle wax it is, then."
  135. >she begins scooping the stuff into a sack.
  136. >You really hope this stuff acts as insulation. You have no idea what to do in a world without rubber.
  137. >After paying a hefty fee for all the materials, you charter a wagon to take the enormous bundles of copper back to the castle, before walking back to the blacksmiths shop.
  138. >After a quick chat with mister Burly, he produces an excellent sized skeleton for an induction motor.
  139. >You decided to start with the brushless induction motor since graphite sounds like a pain in the asshole to make it work like you need it to work.
  140. >you're really banking on the idea that you can win over Twilight's skepticism with your induction motor so you can use her magic to make your ideas come to life.
  141. >As promised, you begin to explain how the motor works.
  142. "So there are two concepts everyone needs to know in order to build any form of motor like this."
  143. "all it does is spin, once again; without magic- but we can use this spinning to do so many things."
  144. >he sits down, hopefully taking mental notes.
  145. "Number one- a current carrying conductor in a magnetic field produces motor action."
  146. >you smile.
  147. "Now let's break that down word by word. Current- lets think of it as the flow of magic through a piece of metal."
  148. >"carrying?"
  149. "Carrying is when the conductor has current flowing through it." You gesture with your hands at the flowpath through the generator.
  150. >"Conductor?"
  151. "Conductor is the ability to carry current. Most things conduct, just require a lot more electricity to make the same current."
  152. >"Magnetic?"
  153. "Magnetic is when two ferrous materials- simply materials that have iron in them- are attracted to each other. Any current carrying conductor produces a magnetic field, and attracts ferrous materials."
  154. >"Motor action?"
  155. "Finally, motor action is when the motor starts to spin."
  156. >He nods.
  157. >"wow, anon- that actually makes quite a bit of sense. Either you're a good teacher or i'm a hidden genius" He chuckles a bit.
  158. "Yep, yep. Okay- so the second principle…"
  159. >You point back to the induction motor skeleton.
  160. "A conductor in a magnetic field with relative motion between them creates generating action."
  161. >"word for word, once again. I know about conductors, and magnetic fields still- but relative motion?"
  162. "Yeah- so it's pretty simple too- all you need is for the magnetic field to be moving, in the case of Alternating currents, or the machine to be spinning, it will create a current. But you need that magnetic field first."
  163. >He nods again.
  164. "So here's the crazy part. This induction motor is genius. Since normal motors would need to electrically charge both parts here and here to cause there to be a current carrying conductor in a magnetic field, but check this out."
  165. >you point to the stationary bit- or the 'Stator' for short.
  166. "when you move alternating current, which in its simplest state is current that pulsates, causing relative motion. So this inner part- the rotating bit"
  167. >you point to the rotor of the motor.
  168. "this is now a conductor- in a magnetic field, with relative motion between them, causing what?"
  169. >He chirps back "Generating action!"
  170. "wow you absorb quickly! So what does that mean?"
  171. >"The rotating bit is now current…ified…"
  172. >you chuckle.
  173. "It's currentified, sure- so what is this now?"
  174. >he thinks for a second.
  175. >it clicks.
  176. >"now that is a current carrying conductor in a magnetic field! Holy cow, it creates its own electricity to power the inner rotating bit and remove the need for any current to be applied to the middle!"
  177. >you shake his hoof.
  178. "And you are a fucking genius, you are the first pony to understand what an induction motor is. It was invented by a human named Nikola Tesla, and he was unfathomably smart. You're trailblazing a path forward mister burly!"
  179. >"when are you firing this thing up! I gotta know if you just taught me a bunch of chaos or not."
  180. "you'll know- I'll make sure you know."
  181. >he gets up.
  182. >"I'll be waiting then, anon!"
  183. >me too, me too…
  184. >One pony convinced, 100 million more to go…
  185. >you grab your skeleton motor, and head to the castle.
  186. >By this point, the copper has shown up and is laying in the corner of the castle main hall.
  187. >You grab a bundle, and sit down in a chair and disassemble the mighty work of mister burly to start wrapping copper.
  188. >The more bundles, the more hardcore the motor, that’s all you remember.
  189. >so you put an unreasonable amount of copper on the squirrel cage and the stator.
  190. >honestly it looks fine.
  191. >You heat up a pot on the stove and start melting the wax.
  192. >once again- you have no idea how long this is gonna last on that hot ass wire but it’s a temporary solution.
  193. >all you can ask for is magic intervention.
  194. >You begin dipping all the wire in the wax as a form of crude insulation.
  195. >in a bit, you’ve got a pretty convincing motor sitting in front of you.
  196. >the output shaft is supposed to be keyed to some pulley or cog wheel, but you've decided to free spin it until you have real use for it.
  197. >you set it aside after literally tying off copper for connections since solder doesn’t exist in Equestria, and melting lead and tin to make your own sounds like a horrible time. Once again- you might not even blow twilight's mind when you light this bad boy off- so none of that inventing stuff until she's making you waffles.
  198. >The next is trying to figure out how to use a DC motor in order to make a battery.
  199. >You have your ambitions to go 'Battery- filled by a dc machine connected to an ac machine being electronically powered by another AC generator being turned mechanically by a windmill- or horse, you suppose, and the dc machine being able to then drive the ac machine as a dc motor, ac generator receiving power off of the battery, being able to then power the ac induction motor to do…
  200. >something.
  201. >and you have before you
  202. >the induction motor. With shitty insulation and no voltage limiting things…
  203. >Maybe if you just tried to scratch out the rest of the blueprints you can outsource this all to burly, and just reap all the waffles.
  204. >yesss. Let's start with the drawings, start with the graphite brush dc motor.
  205. >you begin the explanations on how DC current works, making sure to put in full explanations on how dc motors work, how the brushes transmit the current on the conductors that get pushed in a certain direction by the stator windings
  206. >then the ac machine, how it has the rotor being electrically charged, and the stators turning the rotor, how people go about starting these machines, and what synchronous speed is.
  207. >finally- you just need two of the ac machines, one for a purebred generator, and one for a simple AC machine to be an ac motor and generator.
  208. >maybe he'll be able to do some of it, and you can focus on getting the tools you need.
  209. >You sit looking over the plans for the pile of generators, and decide to scribble down a couple of other thoughts.
  210. >Making a galvanometer- a way that basically tells you "there is current"
  211. >making fuses, you have no idea how to go about that.
  212. >making insulation- you remember in one class at some point that people just ran hot wires ungrounded through ceramic tubes insulated in leather. You know ceramic exists in Equestria. You just need the tube and a way to cut it.
  213. >and you think you can have twilight heat proof the wax either through alchemical ways to simple magic means.
  214. >you're not exactly sure how you're gonna make your demonstration safe. Definitely don’t want to be electrocuting elephants like Edison did.
  215. >you laugh at the thought.
  216. >you scribble the idea out of a transformer, how the windings interact with each other to produce different voltages of ac current.
  217. >you think you can make a light AC current, transform it as high as you can and do something with the zappies that won't hurt anything. That would be a good idea for the demonstration.
  218. >You think for a second- that's a Tesla coil.
  219. >well you need the ac machines first.
  220. >you finish up the final touches of the DC machine and the AC machines and head back to Burly's forge.
  221. >stepping in the door, the front room is hot, and you begin to sweat.
  222. >the place is a bit darker now. And you deduce that burly's forging something good.
  223. >so- you refine yourself to sitting outside for a bit while burly finishes up.
  224. >You time yourself by checking the forge's smoke stacks from the outside- if there's smoke, he's running hot. Which means he's probably drumming up some steel.
  225. >it's interesting how he insists on blowing the steel out regularly versus using a unicorn.
  226. >Maybe- you think- he believes it's stronger that way, at least cheaper.
  227. >Pinkie walks by, and notices you.
  228. >"Heya Anon! I just noticed you sitting there with all those cool drawings in your book. What's an AC generator?"
  229. >You look down, and notice your book is shut.
  230. >and behind your back.
  231. "Oh- well its-"
  232. >"no talkie talk! lemme seeeeee!"
  233. >she scoops up the book from behind you and leans down next to you on the bench you're sitting on.
  234. "AH Pinkie!"
  235. >"SO-"
  236. >she pours over the book.
  237. "Pinkie- please… You're"
  238. >"you're sooooo smart! This looks exactly like ol' Fara day's notes, much more advanced though."
  239. >She Flips to your Motor/Generator design- that transforms AC to DC energy
  240. >"He really believed in the power of the earth ponies. He thought up a magic that all ponies can use. He got really far too!"
  241. >he points out the common shaft between your AC Motor/Generator and DC Motor/Generator.
  242. >"He never thought up ideas like this though. He was big into the straight current style of all this stuff."
  243. >You're startled by her knowledge.
  244. >"Whats the idea behind having 3 different sources of AC? Isn't that just complicating things?"
  245. "Well- pinkie it's really simple.. Wait."
  246. >You're full on dumbstruck at this point. She hasn't even let you talk yet and she's spouted all this information about electricity being found by ponies already.
  247. >She cuts you off again
  248. >"Oh- anon- I know what you're thinking. You're just lucky- I once helped maud through her college thesis on copper as a usable rock, it's all Far Aday used though it's really the only pony to ever use it useful for anything other than arts and crafts. Maud used it to get her PHD in rock sciences. I just learned through osmosis."
  249. "Is there much for mister day's discoveries?"
  250. >"not really, we had to pay for his journal entries from a pony in Ponyston, and had to guess a lot of things. It's just really interesting! I heard about your bet with twilight. I think she'll be impressed. Plus I bet you'll get your rock doctorate if you expand maud's findings! She'd love to chat with you about this all!"
  251. >she gets up.
  252. >"I'm late for the ice cream stand opening! I'll be waiting for the big show anon- I'm told twilights gonna publish your findings if they're of merit!"
  253. >And with that- she trots off. Leaving you visibly shook.
  254. >What if ponies all know about this stuff- and have already rejected it!
  255. >You must do some reading on Fara Day's findings!
  256. >Looking up, you notice that the smoke's disappeared. Finally your cue to walk into the shop and show off your '''''findings''''''.
  257. >Stepping inside, the room has cooled down significantly, and you can see the sweat drip leading to behind the black smith's counter and you can hear burly wiping his sweat off.
  258. >in a moment- the sound stops and his head pops up, followed by a warm smile.
  259. >"Anon! Welcome back! What's in store now? Let me see- I can't wait!"
  260. >The books already opened up to the AC machine, and behind it- the DC machine.
  261. >He pours over the notes and the theorems, and he looks back up.
  262. "Yeah so the DC generator makes a different type of current and follows a couple other properties."
  263. >"oh yeah- I see it here anon, polarity matters- so it has one output instead of three?"
  264. "Yeah, and it's supposed to feed a battery, which uses chemical reactions to store and release electricity. Though I don’t know what to store the battery in."
  265. >"I've got a couple ideas, why don’t we go sit down and talk out what we can do to bring this to life?"
  266. >you smile.
  267. "I'd like nothing more. I'd love to hear what you've got to say about this all."
  268. >And with that- you follow him into the back and sit down at a round table with a few metalworking tools spread out.
  269. >"yeah- so I see- so you need a couple more bearings, a shaft- and then a couple of electric windings here to get the conductor action."
  270. >The currents on the rotating assembly move lengthwise, and get close to the stationary copper windings before ending at the end of the rotating shaft, being stopped by a thrust bearing that holds the whole assembly together.
  271. "yeah but the electric windings are rigid while the rotor has the windings running lengthwise."
  272. >"I can form copper into these square-ish long shapes. So what are these brushes?"
  273. >you point to the graphite.
  274. >the graphite sprawls from the main bearing over the top of the end of the rotating assembly and makes contact at the very ends of the DC generator
  275. "So it uses graphite- as you see I wrote. It's got the wires running into it, and it sends the current into these conductors. One side is negative and then the other is positive. These stationary windings are just electrically charged."
  276. >he takes a good look at it.
  277. >"Graphite is pretty soft, I can shape it, I'll make these little brackets for the brushes and if you can bring the graphite I bet I can pretty easily fit it."
  278. >You smile.
  279. "You're too helpful, burly. What about the AC generator?"
  280. >"Oh it looks simple too. You just need these conductors to hold these specific-"
  281. >he blinks as if something clicks.
  282. "what is it"
  283. >"these are all just magnets, different sides that are at different states. I learned it in my courses on being a blacksmith at the royal college."
  284. >you laugh.
  285. "Yeah- exactly! When you energize all these little things they act as magnets."
  286. >"Wow- I never knew that you could even do that with magic. That's really intuitive if it works out."
  287. >"yeah- so I see here, you can measure the current by measuring the strength of the magnets it makes. I see what you put here about galvani whatzits you wrote."
  288. "yeah it’s a compass, instead of being attracted to the north pole, it's attracted to the magnets at different strengths."
  289. >"Sweet Celestia- this is so cool."
  290. >"So this is all called current? You have the word 'Voltage' written down, what does that mean?"
  291. >you think for a second.
  292. "Its hard to talk about this without using math for me. Give me a second to think of how to explain it."
  293. >you write out OHM's law, and try to break down the variables.
  294. "Okay- okay I think I got something here."
  295. >he leans into your work.
  296. "So here- check this- Resistance, it's simple, it's how hard it is to push current- which to me- is the absolute power of electricity."
  297. >"Okay- okay- and electricity?"
  298. "it's what we're generating, think of it as just a general term of creating a voltage."
  299. >"uhh- okay. Okay I believe- keep going."
  300. >you're afraid you might be going too deep.
  301. "Aah- okay, so- so so so- current is basically-"
  302. >"right the amount of flow moving through right?"
  303. "yeah, voltage is a potential- you know what- i'm going too deep, even for me."
  304. >"Okay- let's just focus. Theory doesn't do the thing."
  305. "right!"
  306. >"So I think I can make it- you still have a bunch of copper?"
  307. "plenty."
  308. >"Yeah- yeah bring the copper in and i'll see what I can do!"
  309. "Ok sounds good. I'll come back- find me at the castle if you have any questions- remember, i'm regurgitating all this information so if anything seems off come let me know immediately."
  310. >"thanks anon! I'm glad to be a part of all this. I can see this is cutting edge stuff!"
  311. >and with that, you head back to the castle.
  312. >On your way back- you're thinking up how you want to run the wires. A lot of people at the turn of the century used cotton to insulate the wires. You think if you can talk twilight into heat proofing the wax- you can dip the cotton in the wax and have a pretty good insulation medium.
  313. >Soon- you're back at the crystal steps of the castle of friendship.
  314. >pushing the heavy doors out of the way- you grab all but one of the large windings of copper.
  315. >immediately you can tell you're not moving this without a wagon.
  316. >and- as if on cue, Applejack walks in, looking for twilight.
  317. >"Twilight? Hey- you in here? You know I'm not gonna get lost here again. You come to me this time!"
  318. >she notices you.
  319. >"Oh heya anon! What's all this shiny stuff? Is it for rarity?"
  320. >you look at the neatly stacked spools of wire.
  321. "No- it's for a little project. A bet-"
  322. >"Oh I've heard of your little bet. You’re gonna need some good luck and skill to surprise her at her own game!"
  323. "Oh, I know- hey- can I ask a favor?"
  324. >She looks at the spools of wire, suspicious of your intentions.
  325. >"You know I'm not good with this kind of stuff hun."
  326. "what moving things?"
  327. >it clicks for her.
  328. >"Oh- wait of course! I'm the best at haulin. Where's this stuff that needs to go? Hopefully not inside the castle deeper. I have no idea where anything is in here. Place is endless ya know."
  329. "Nope- just to the blacksmith."
  330. >"Steel's kid's place? I can do that- sure. It's been a bit since I've talked to him. I could use some new shoes or a wheel.``
  331. >You smile.
  332. "thank you- I know I can always count on you to get me the help I need."
  333. >she smiles back
  334. >"Ya'll don't gotta thank me, I'm just happy to help a friend. Just help me get it into muh saddlebags."
  335. >and with that exchange out of the way- you grab spools and start putting them into the bags to get sent off.
  336. >With one more smile. She reminds you- "if you've seen twilight, please let her know i'm looking for her."
  337. "No problem, thanks again!"
  338. >she gives one more reassuring "Yuup!" before cantering out the door in the vague direction of the blacksmiths shop.
  339. >You yourself head out the door as well in the vague direction of the couple of places you frequent in Ponyville.
  340. >Next on the list is grabbing some ceramic tubing to cut into your wire mounts.
  341. >and leather, though you're unsure of the nature of leather in this world.
  342. >you bet rarity can help you get the cotton cloth and the leather- or what passes for leather.
  343. >You don't even know where to start on the ceramic, maybe the hardware store?
  344. >yeah. The hardware store.
  345. >At this point. You realize that you're already halfway there, walking on the cobble in the warm equestrian spring day.
  346. >And soon, the walking takes you back to the familiar hardware store.
  347. >You walk in, smile at the pony behind the counter- and walk towards the piping.
  348. >Stepping passed """galvanized""" steel- copper, and-
  349. >"Ooh!"
  350. >Ceramic piping, and "L" shaped elbows. You consider shortly running the whole wiring through ceramic pipe.
  351. >Considering you have effectively infinite money- you decide you'd catch something in the middle, since the copper needs to cool off somehow some way.
  352. >You eye the long tubes up and down, and grab a couple with an inside diameter of about one inch and head to the counter.
  353. >You smile as a courtesy to the smiling wage pony.
  354. >"Find everything okay?"
  355. "Absolutely, I'm surprised you keep this stuff…"
  356. >You point to the pipe.
  357. >"Oooh yess, very popular in Equestria for running drinking water."
  358. >she takes your bits and starts counting out change.
  359. >"yeah- yeah it doesn't taste so funny."
  360. >makes sense to you- you think.
  361. >After gathering the load of ceramic piping, fittings, and various other materials you reckon you need for routing the wiring you chuck it all on a provided cart and head outside.
  362. >You flag down a taxi pony and ask him to take the materials out to the castle.
  363. >It's not their usual gig, though a diamond usually changes their mind. Besides- out here in Ponyville everything's so close that taxis make most of their money leaving Ponyville.
  364. >compound that with you having infinite money, and you can pretty much pay anyone here to do anything for you. Which is nice- much more leverage than what you had on earth
  365. >And with that thought escaping your mind, you head back over a wooden bridge into the core of Ponyville, passed sugarcube corner, and down the road towards Twilight's house
  366. >You make it about a block down before tripping on a rock, and stabilizing yourself a couple of feet later.
  367. >You spout a human profanity- and look around quickly to see if any foals heard.
  368. >You scan- see a couple of ponies sitting around the carousel boutique, but no foals, regardless none of them noticed.
  369. >But that does remind you that you need some cotton and some """""'' Leather"""" from rarity.
  370. >You walk into the sparkly eye-catching boutique, pass the stacks of dresses and clothes and find yourself scanning for Rarity.
  371. >You notice her behind the counter on the right, checking out a pony's dress.
  372. >The dress is blue and silver, with little sparklies strewn about on it.
  373. >Frills lined all the areas that you assume have appendages sticking out of them, adorning the ends of each of the front sleeves and the end of the dresses' skirt, not excluding the neck. Looks itchy- but fabulous regardless.
  374. >After you had your look, coincidently the pony's properly checked out, and left the boutique with her new dress.
  375. >You weren't necessarily standing in line, more so hanging back by the designer socks.
  376. >Rarity had noticed you when you walked in so the moment she was free she approached you, looking you up and down.
  377. >"You're a size 36 waist?"
  378. >You look at your wranglers.
  379. "I bought a pair of 38's and put a belt on."
  380. >She giggles.
  381. >"I'm certain only certain ponies in Equestria dresses are in the 30 range, let alone 38."
  382. >You smile.
  383. "Are you fat shaming?"
  384.  
  385. >She smiles back and shakes her head, walking over to your right to get another look at you.
  386. >"Absolutely NOT! Just an observation. You're definitely more lean than a lot of ponies."
  387. >You turn your smile at her.
  388. "Oh so now you're asking to go out to dinner, then."
  389. >she laughs.
  390. >"Oh I'd love that-"
  391. >You cut in trying to drive it further.
  392. "Oh good, I am going through a dry spell right now I could use the-"
  393. >"Anon!"
  394. >you both laugh.
  395. >And with that- you point the conversation in a non-flirtatious direction.
  396. "Alright, enough of that- I'm looking for some swatches."
  397. >She cocks her head.
  398. >"I didn’t take you for the dressmaking type, what are you doing- curtains?"
  399. "Oh- no I'm using it for a science project."
  400. >"Twilights bet?"
  401. >You nod.
  402. "Yep."
  403. >"Oh, yes- all you need, right this way."
  404. >She begins to lead you upstairs.
  405. "Right on. Do you guys have leather here?"
  406. >"What, like for books and saddles?"
  407. "Yep- I need it for insulation."
  408. >"I suppose I could order them, but you'd be better off going to quills and sofas. They make a bunch of stuff out of leather there."
  409. >she continues.
  410. >"even when applejack asks for a new hat every couple of years or so, I just order one from canterlot- the magic required to shape that stuff is really weirdly specific, and takes years to work out."
  411. >You two make it to the second story of the carousel boutique, and she points out the rack of coiled up colored cloth you can choose from.
  412. >"just take what you need. I've been on the same rolls of cloth for a couple months now, and I gotta clear out the old colors anyway."
  413. >You nod, and look at the velvety, soft sheets of cloth.
  414. >You turn your head to rarity after feeling up the cloth.
  415. "Do you keep a roll of rucksack like material laying around?"
  416. >"Oh of course darling. Though the cotton rucksack material is hard to come by- you came to the right mare!"
  417. >She magicks over a roll of the rougher cloth and begins switching it out with one of the rolls on the rack.
  418. >"I keep it in the back, applejack always wants the wool and hair stuff. Gross if you ask me~"
  419. >you giggle and begin pulling a couple of yards off.
  420. >"As for the leather, do you need me to get you some?"
  421. >You think for a second.
  422. "I should be able to get by on this stuff. It seems thick enough."
  423. >She nods her head.
  424. >"well i'm here to help, darling. My doors always open!"
  425.  
  426. >You nod back.
  427. >"Maybe I'll even cash in on that dinner offer with you. Ooh! Maybe even the spa. You don't even know how amazing lotus's deep tissue massages can make you feel!"
  428. "You've got it. Just come find me after this stuff's out of the way."
  429. >And with that- you gather your cloth and head back down, Rarity follows, and begins sizing up more ponies as you walk out.
  430. >"Have a good day darling- good luck!"
  431. "Yes ma'am I'm gonna need it."
  432. >And down the road you go back to work on the equipment.
  433. >You mentally check off what you need.
  434. >The AC and DC machines are being worked on by Burly, and the Induction motor needs insulation and to be hooked up.
  435. >Which means twilight is next on the list to get some aid from.
  436. >you begin the trivial walk from the carousel boutique, burlap in tow- to the friendship castle.
  437. >The door opens with a dull crystalline shriek and you inspect your pile of various dull materials contrasted by the bright colors of the castle.
  438. >On top sits a little pink note, in twilights """""Handwriting""""" that says, simply "impress me with all this boring stuff!"
  439. >You smirk, folding up the note and placing it into your wallet.
  440. >You'll need a saw for the piping and a hammer, and a way to mount the crap to the walls.
  441. >twilights probably got all the stuff you need.
  442. >and with that- you grab the nearest hallway and begin your trek to find the book horse.
  443. >What followed- naturally, was the longest walk of your week, up and down stairs, through bedrooms and out bathrooms, down libraries and up office spaces.
  444. >all seem to be just 'thought up' as a good idea, even though none of them see use.
  445. >except for a couple bedrooms. And rarity- who's on a mission to bathe in every bathroom at least once.
  446. >You reckon, she's only about 16 bathrooms in with no end in sight.
  447. >After about 35 minutes of walking, resting, drawing, and reading, you find twilight's quarters.
  448. >You knock. And you hear a couple bedsheets rustle, the thump of a horse hitting the floor- the same thump on the ceiling, and a couple of gallops before she finally says "On my way!"
  449. "What a relief, I almost thought you weren't home!"
  450. >you hear her giggle from the other side. A sink turns on.
  451. >the door opens, you get a whiff of incense smoke and berries, and twilight, wild looking, her mane only barely held together by a bit of water splashed on and combed in.
  452. >"You look great anon!"
  453. "You look even better!"
  454. >You both laugh.
  455. >"Sorry, I was awake all night reading this new series I found. Its on the study of mechanical potential energy and the application of counterweights as a-"
  456. "woah."
  457. >"Yeah, I know- I almost decided to read every /other/ page to get to sleep, but it was so captivating!"
  458.  
  459. "Honestly, good for you."
  460. >You outstretch your finger to rest one inch from her snoot, and she leans forward to be booped, then tries to snap at it like a mischievous dog."
  461. >you both laugh again.
  462. "Here Twilight, take me back to the main hall, I want your help with a couple things."
  463. >she immediately begins to open her mouth in protest.
  464. >your finger, still up, makes the 'shhh' sign on her snoot.
  465. "It won't ruin the surprise."
  466. >wordlessly, she nods, and smiles.
  467. "come on- you're in front. You have no idea how long i've been looking for your room."
  468. >and with that- you both head out to find the lobby.
  469. >It only takes about 10 minutes to find the lobby, and only one bathroom stop.
  470. "Alright, nice- here we are. Okay- check it out. You see this pile of crap?"
  471. >"Yes I see it!" she states, proudly.
  472. "So I want to run these pipes along the wall here, I need it to run some of this copper here-"
  473. >You point at the corner.
  474. "I need two wires running here."
  475. >you point where you're standing.
  476. "And I need then- a conduit of 3 wires running from here to over there."
  477. >you point at the kitchen.
  478. "Keep it out of reach, I don’t want people touching the copper. Touching the ceramic is fine"
  479. >Twilights taking notes at this point, taking mental images of how it will run along the ceiling and such.
  480. >She levitates a bit of the mess and then takes inventory of the length of the copper wiring, and nods.
  481. >"We should have about 400 legs left of copper wire."
  482. "Yep yep."
  483. >Legs, you learned early, are a bit less than 2 and a half feet, which is approximately the length of Celestia's leg, 1200 years ago.
  484. >Legs are divided into hooves, and further into shoes.
  485. >Weight is first, made from the weight of 4 of Celestia's horse-shoes. Which are actually called eyes, and then divided into tears, and further into tenths of a tear, thousandths of a tear. So on and so forth.
  486. >You're gonna bring imperial measurements into this world at some point, since French metric measurements make too much sense.
  487. >And while, lost in thought- Twilight has already put up a pile of the equipment and glued it using some mounting putty she made out of the wax and a bit of magic.
  488. >Right! The magic.
  489. "Hey- Twiggles."
  490. >She turns her head, still levitating a pile of the raw materials, organizing them on the wall.
  491. "I need you to heat proof some wax, and put it on the wire, and coat that little pile of copper there-"
  492. >you point at the machine.
  493. "I only want it to not melt once applied."
  494. >She nods again.
  495. "Don't you worry this is gonna be awesome."
  496. >she smiles and gets to it.
  497. >Watching twilight levitate that crap with her magic, you finally figure out what you're gonna do.
  498. >You're gonna need some finely machined steel ball bearings and a bit more copper windings, and a lightbulb
  499. >Finally satisfied, you leave Twilight to knock that shit out and get back to sleeping.
  500.  
  501. >And with that- you need the DC and AC machine from burly, so you can get to rigging things up.
  502. >So- with a smile, you turn around, and head towards the door.
  503. "Gonna pick up the final bits for this, i'll be back. I think it'll be ready tomorrow."
  504. >"I'm excited, anon- great to see you becoming the inventor I always knew you'd be!"
  505. >"You see, I read this book the other day on alien technology, everything you claimed was sort of in my novel, they made a big mechanical fish, and a big mechanical bird out of brass and glass, so cool!"
  506. >You feed off her energy, smile, and step with some pep out the door towards the iron working shop.
  507. >You smile, looking at the bees, the trees, and the flowers, ponies buying said flowers from a stand, and eating out with their friends.
  508. >You spot an ice cream stand, and decide to grab a little something for you and Burly.
  509. >approaching the ice cream stand, for the first time- you produce your bit wallet, and drop about 4 coins on the table.
  510. >after scanning the paper menu on the table, you order.
  511. "Two scoops vanilla, in a bowl, with chocolate drizzle, and a neapolitan split."
  512. >The mare behind the counter looks at you with her lazy eye, looks down on the table. And looks back up.
  513. >"I must be seeing double, this is twice as much as the price is."
  514. >You look back at the paper menu, spotting the little tag that says "All ice cream, one bit- picc and choose, silly- don't be shy!"
  515. >you smile at the typo.
  516. "Call it a tip. Get yourself some ice-cream too."
  517. >She smiles brightly, and takes the money.
  518. >"You're too kind! Let me get you your ice cream."
  519. >the grey mare turns around, her blonde, spiked up tail follows her flank as she does.
  520. >it's easy to spend when it's not your money.
  521. >After a moment, she turns with the ice cream, and slides it over with her snout.
  522. "Thank you, kind stranger!"
  523. >"Oh- my- call me Derpy, see right here on my name tag!"
  524. >She points to a spot on her fur where she would put her name tag, if she had one.
  525. >It quickly dawns on her that she lost her identity.
  526. >Embarrassed- she quickly starts looking for it.
  527. >In the shuffle, you see you're piling a line up, so you take your ice cream and leave.
  528. >Just before setting off, you let her know behind the counter that your name is Anon.
  529. >she simply says "Yes!" while you turn to leave.
  530. >as the next pony is steeping up, you realize you don’t have spoons.
  531. >It'll be fine, you expect, so you continue on to the shop.
  532. >You inspect the chimney, see there's no smoke billowing, and head inside.
  533. >You reckon it's about 4pm, he might be eating.
  534. >Your suspicion is quickly confirmed as you see a tray of apples, peeled and sliced, sitting next to a spot of honey.
  535. >Burly is nowhere to be found, but he quickly appears from the shop. He sees you, with the ice-cream- nonetheless, and smiles.
  536. "Hey hey!"
  537.  
  538. >"Howdy, anon. got that stuff from applejack. Really nice mare!"
  539. "Oh, you don’t know the half of it. Did you know that one time she made me breakfast in bed?"
  540. >"Wow! I really didn’t know she could cook!"
  541. "Yeah, great mare. I'll tell you the details later, how are the machines?"
  542. >"Oh- just swell, I made up a rig for wrapping the copper this morning, and it's working like a champ, even though I'd really like one of these motors to spin it instead of me having to use a pedal."
  543. "Well, once I figure out how to make a battery, it'll be a reality!"
  544. >"good stuff, let me get you your equipment."
  545. >And with that, he leaves you with your ice cream.
  546. >You slide the Neapolitan split over.
  547. >You decided that it has enough crap in it that he'd find something to like.
  548. >You thought you were gonna wait a bit, so you sat down.
  549. >You're right, you find- as fifteen minutes later, your ice cream is gone- and he finally lugs one in.
  550. >"Sorry about the wait, I found a little issue with the windings, so I fixed it- here you go."
  551. >You take a look up and down at the machine, long and sturdily built, one side has the 3 clips for the poles, and the other has 2, confirming that it looks good.
  552. >"See here, I have this little accessory shaft here for putting a couple of different things on it, you can use it to drive a belt, a chain, or take input from a crank or- really anything that can couple to it."
  553. >"she is heavy though, so watch out. Do you need somepony to take it over?"
  554. "i'll take it, I bet it'll be fine."
  555. >Whilst saying that, you grab the machine by both sides, and heave up.
  556. >it wasn’t that bad, you decide- and you place it back down.
  557. "Yeah- it'll be fine."
  558. >You sit down, and he notices the split.
  559. >"ooh- this looks great!"
  560. "yeah, it's got a bunch of crap on it. I expect you'd find something to love about it."
  561. >"Oh yeah- love the sweet stuff, as you can tell."
  562. >he begins tearing into the ice cream with his mouth, not bothering to go find a spoon.
  563. >You reflect on the possibility of producing plastic crap, but you decide that keeping fossil fuels in the ground is the best way.
  564. >If you're gonna share human technology with Equestria, you'd might as well make it clean enough to not kill the bees.
  565. >with that- you talk a bit with burly a bit more, discuss the output machine, just a large conductor transformer that is made to spit electricity out at random, and the bulb of glass that lights up when current is applied, with a vacuum inside the bulb to protect the filament from burning up, you agree on a design, and head out with the heavy machine.
  566.  
  567. >soon, you're back to the castle of friendship.
  568. >you set it down by the pile of crap, and spot the leftover enchanted wax.
  569. >On it is another note, explaining that it wont get hard until it touches copper, and then it'll solidify and begin insulating.
  570. >With a not, you begin scooping the liquid onto the machine.
  571. >It was thick, but rolled off your hand like water.
  572. >Extremely satisfying to work with!
  573. >Soon, all the machines are done, finally, and all that’s left is to wire it up and see if everything turns when you spin the wheel.
  574. >the wires run easily, and connect up to the poles, you spin them and coil them up to verify the connection to the poles, and then apply more of the insulation.
  575. >soon, the whole room is wired up, and the machines all have a couple of offshooting wires that are meant to go to the tesla coil and the lightbulb.
  576. >if literally summoning light and lightning doesn't impress her, then it's back to the drawing board.
  577. >You have a bit of downtime until Burly said he'd be done with the windings and transformer rig.
  578. >Tesla coils are pretty si'mple machines, you take AC current, transform it twice and run the extreme voltage to a circular conductor and it creates a magnetic field thigi'magingy that shoots fucking lightning.
  579. >lightbulbs are pretty simple too, just a conductor brought through a bulb with either xenon, argon, or simply vacuum.
  580. >Apparently light bulbs already exist, but work on a slightly different principle centered around enchantment.
  581. >they more-so act like batteries
  582. >You wonder for a moment what happens at a molecular level when magic interacts with it.
  583. >Maybe one day you'll be able to study the crazy effects of magic.
  584. >Burly knew a mare that made them, and said he'd ask about making something with leads.
  585. >Regardless. The sun is setting soon. And you decide to head to your normal location for the sunset.
  586. >And as you walk, your mind wanders and reflects briefly on how quickly Burly was able to knock out the machines.
  587. >If that was a trained machinist, he would have taken a week.
  588. >You think, in your head- he went into the back and started working in a cloud of dust.
  589. >Cartoonish- but you're certain that something like that was how your machines were made.
  590. >These pony's special talents really put humans in their place.
  591. >And the only reason you look "smart" at all is because of the slow chug of your race over a couple hundred years of building on each other.
  592. >You suspect that if ponies started being born with 'technology' as their special talent, then we'd have enormous, nuclear powered metal cities that create their own electric jet powered cargo and passenger jets to fly throughout the world.
  593. >Hey- you think, if you kick this off soon, you might even be able to watch it happen- considering they're so quick at their jobs.
  594. >And with that thought, you made it.
  595.  
  596. >you watch the everfree woods clear up into a cliff that overlooks a large forest below you
  597. >you believe that's also the Everfree, either way, if you look down the cliffside, you can see the sun set over all of Equestria.
  598. >living on the west coast when you were on earth, it put sunsets in the spotlight for the thing to do at evening time.
  599. >plenty of restaurants had you hemmed up looking at the horizon overlooking the ocean as the sun set.
  600. >it definitely made the beers there taste better.
  601. >The golden blaze here- same as on earth, traces its way down beyond the horizon, lighting the timberland a dull burnt orange-green mix.
  602. >The picture in your mind shines clear, the reflection of the water tracing its way across the sunglasses you mistakenly left on.
  603. >it fades as you notice the sunshine fade away, and one final defiant green flash shines across the horizon.
  604. >Your eyes glide effortlessly over the timber, and over the sky to the east- where you watch the sky shine from golden orange, into a dull blue, into a dark blue, into a pale violet- as the moon chases the sun off. Taking the watch for the night.
  605. >it’s a piece of comfort in this strange existence that transcends worlds.
  606. >Once you meet the two sisters again, you must thank them for their work.
  607. >it’s a good day's work, and you decide to head back to the castle to sleep for the night. Tomorrow's a big day!
  608. >Your dreams echo the sunset in your head, the clouds swimming a bright orange and a dull yellow.
  609. >You're unable to find your balance, and decide to begin to float instead, letting the world rotate around you.
  610. >this time you're in a field. The dizziness gets to you- and you wake up with a start.
  611. >You check the clock on the wall- and realize it's 2 AM, and work to go back to sleep.
  612. >Soon, you awake, and it’s a crisp 6:30 in the morning- and you crawl out of bed, slip into your slippers, and a pair of shorts and a shirt that you had bought from a local town before you were found by Twilight and her friends.
  613. >You spent a while wandering when you first appeared in Equestria. You honestly thought you were alone in this world, foraging for supplies and using your little pocket knife to survive for a couple of days before a couple of ponies from a small town called Horseshoe found you in your little lean-to, eating berries, yet to make a fire.
  614. >You resolve to recall your story later, and head downstairs and beyond to do the finishing touches on your machines.
  615. >Eventually you want to have electric light bulbs running through the entire treehouse, powered by a dam- or simply a water wheel.
  616. >maybe even a blender for smoothies.
  617. >you chuckle at the idea of introducing human technology via blenders and lightbulbs
  618. >You're also partially glad that some tyrant didn’t show up, with the ability to get darker ponies to produce firearms and fighter jets.
  619. >But you can't imagine that magic would ever lose in a war with technology
  620.  
  621. >You'd just produce a barrier and they could just fuck right off.
  622. >Lost in your thoughts, you find yourself in the kitchen, putting together your breakfast of wheat biscuits and eggs.
  623. >Fluttershy provided the eggs for you, and you thank her very much every time.
  624. >Eggs are pretty much your favorite food now that cow meat comes from sentient beings.
  625. >Pouring the scramble into the pan, you saute the eggs with some carrots, onions, and some mushrooms in the magical self heating pan.
  626. >it cooks quickly with some butter, the smell filling the kitchen.
  627. >You pour the contents out, the pan itself being non-stick, and effectively self cleaning itself under the introduction of water from the sink.
  628. >Back home, you know that a lot of local water systems are either pumped or pressurized with low pressure air.
  629. >Low pressure air is made a couple of ways, you think a piston system would work well enough.
  630. >That thought out of the way, you sit down with your food and decompress over a glass of milk.
  631. >In a short period of time your brain has quickly transitioned from one of laziness, waiting around to move forward to one of cool technicality
  632. >Zip! That way- Yip- that way, yp- yp- yp- fucking cosmic wind.
  633. >it's overwhelming all the shit your brains are telling you to do. But a refreshing change of pace.
  634. >you must have been running around for 12 to 15 hours yesterday. And had no intention to stop.
  635. >Also, you can't imagine that Burly's done with your machines yet. So you decide to hang out with the equipment, checking the iron brushes that Burly decided to use instead of the graphite that became surprisingly hard to find in brick form.
  636. >iron, with graphitic lube should be able to transfer the electricity well enough considering that you'd need an artificer or a sculptor to come up with the graphitic brushes that see widespread use.
  637. >You wait at the desk that twilight made for you
  638. >Quickly, you pull out a long piece of paper off the roll sitting on the desk, cut it with the little cutter they installed, and begin to draw on it using the enchanted quill.
  639. >More designs, much more complicated and far reaching, begin sketching out the basic intentions of the internal combustion engine, excluding the fueling bits to make it into what looks like a low pressure air compressor.
  640. >Draw in the principles behind the crankshaft, camshafts, valves, seals, and cooling jackets.
  641. >The intention is to not use it for a gasoline engine, or to make it a novelty so it doesn't plague the world with emissions.
  642. >You list out the other ideas you have, producing the soldier you need to make things autonomous from magic.
  643. >making electricians pliers, methods of insulating wires, and the idea of making electrically driven cars.
  644. >Only rub is you only have a vague idea of how to make a battery and it involves acids that you're not mentally prepared to even begin to produce.
  645.  
  646. >You might have to get clever about batteries. Or just go to an artificer.
  647. >Maybe swallowing your pride and just going for intention would be fine enough.
  648. >Ugh- that thinking got magic making everything though.
  649. >You push the thought to the side, and continue with concepts.
  650. >Once you're happy with the drawing, you roll up the paper, wrap a ribbon around it, and crudely scribble "Piston Type Pump." on it and place it in the drawer.
  651. >You do the same with couplings, gearing, reductions, and equations for calculating force. You decide to put in the various types of human standards- inches, feet, pounds, and the like.
  652. >Just before you decide to get up, and go for a walk- one more idea catches your brain.
  653. >distilling and brewing.
  654. >You pull one more paper out, put in the chemical reactions involved, principles behind the still, and various other concepts you vaguely recall from your time on earth on the paper, this one is simply marked "Goals!" and placed among the other scrolls, and put in the desk.
  655. >And with that- you get up, and walk out the door, heading to town to think more about your new hobby.
  656. >Clumsily stepping down the steps, you realize you walked out in your slippers.
  657. >'Oh well.' you think, 'Most ponies don’t wear shoes so who cares.'
  658. >the little morning overcast has just barely burned off, and it's still a little cold from the morning.
  659. >it's almost perfect, only because there's no breeze making things colder for your barely clothed person.
  660. >Soon, the walk gets boring, and your brain starts to nod off back to the castle.
  661. >Your mental state sits back down on your desk back home and goes back to its thing.
  662. >You think that next you should work towards alloying agents and combining different metals.
  663. >Once thought sits in your mind that you can't shake- and that’s generation of power.
  664. >You first thought on it- AH
  665. >You trip over a rock in the road, and stumble, snapping to reality.
  666. >You dust yourself off, and take a moment out of your brain to enjoy the area.
  667. >This hobby is taking all your brain time all of a sudden, and you decide to breathe and enjoy nature for a change.
  668. >Mentally, you pull your brain back out of the castle to join you on this walk.
  669. >It's getting warm finally, and you can really go for an arnold palmer.
  670. >The norm back on earth was getting them out of a can, but in Equestria, they do it right.
  671. >And with that- its a sugarcube corner for a tall glass.
  672. >passing the thatch roofed houses, colorful and bright, you're greeted by various townsponies, always spotting you out of a crowd.
  673. >You happily wave back to them, smiling as you go- as you take a direct line to the sweetshop.
  674. >Soon- you spot it, and step inside, Mrs Cake tending to a line, passing out orders made the previous day.
  675. >What a wonderful existence these ponies live, you think- picturesque.
  676.  
  677. >Soon enough- you're at the front of the line, and a couple of bits turn into a glass of tea cut with lemonade.
  678. >a couple of sips in, and you're in your happy place.
  679. >pinkie pie notices your pajama clad body, and giggles as she moves over to your round table, with a bit of flour in her mane.
  680. >"Heya Bestie- can I get you some housemade chocolate? It's got the rare stuff in it!"
  681. >She holds up a half eaten bar of chocolate. You giggle back and hold out your hand for a piece of her bar.
  682. >Instead- she simply sets the bar in your hand, and produces another for herself, and sits down, skillfully unwrapping the paper with her teeth.
  683. >"So- Today's the day, huh? Twilight gave me a formal invitation to the event after seeing the crazy stuff you had her put up. I haven't been in the castle since I got it out of sheer anticipation!"
  684. "Oh yeah! God I hope it all works out alright."
  685. >You crack off a piece of chocolate, and pop it into your mouth, the complex flavors dancing around your mouth as you smile to show your approval of the delicacy.
  686. >"Oh I know! Its got all sorts of stuff in it, I had a shipment of imported spices come from canterlot and I just couldn't help myself!"
  687. >"Cost us a hoof and a half for it, but our customers are willing to get us on the back end for it!"
  688. "This stuff's amazing!" you say in response. "I know they'll love it."
  689. >"Gosh you think? I've been experimenting all night with the stuff. I think this was batch seventeen- finally got it, eh?"
  690. >You nod, taking a sip of your drink as you do, leaning back a bit more.
  691. >It's warming up fast, and you gesture to move to the outside seating, where its warmed up considerably.
  692. >Pinkie nods, and follows suit.
  693. >As you sit down, you notice the tired lines of her face. Poor mare hasn't slept and is going straight through another shift.
  694. >You mindlessly nod in agreement, you're glad you've got someone whos at least *more* more passionate than you about their work.
  695. "Oh- hey- just reminded me, I'm thinking of bringing a bit of human drink making to Equestria, it’s a pretty convoluted process but the end result is amazing."
  696. >Then it hits you.
  697. "And! Oh my god- its fuel!"
  698. >you stand up and clap and rub your hands together in a bit of celebration.
  699. >at that moment, pinkie starts laughing at the absurd gesture.
  700. >And with that- smiling more, you sit back down, bouncing your leg with renewed vigor.
  701. "Anyway- it’s a pretty cool drink, or potion- whatever you wanna call it. It might even be considered alchemy by pony standards."
  702. >"Ooh~ you gotta show meee!"
  703. "Oh I will! Just gotta get through the demonstration first. That’s the uhh-"
  704. >You think for a moment.
  705. "That's the closest shark to the boat."
  706. >she nods in agreement, and continues the conversation.
  707.  
  708. >the conversation dilutes back into small talk for a bit, and pinkie excuses herself back to her shift making the special order of pastries.
  709. >with a clink of the ice, your drink is empty, and you pocket the chocolate in your shorts before heading to burly's workshop.
  710. >The trip is uneventful, and you open the dark oak door into the smoky, cobble clad main room.
  711. >Burly's working the forge again, but you see the tesla coil peeking out behind the main counter.
  712. >After a moment of thinking of 'just taking the tesla coil'. You decide to wait for burly to come out. You have to invite him to the demonstration, after all.
  713. >And- as if on call, just before you sit down, you hear the clanking of metal stop, and the sound of hooves coming towards you.
  714. >Burly prairie dogs you from the corner, before smiling and coming out, smelling of sulfur and soot.
  715. >"Anon! I'm so glad you got here so quickly, I was up until late AM putting this bad boy together, I had such a good time with it."
  716. >he gestures towards the doughnut shaped conductor on the top.
  717. >"Pulled out all the old tricks in order to make this shape properly, the copper wrapping- I still have the taste in my mouth."
  718. >He laughs a bit, before pointing out a couple of things that he did.
  719. >"I put a bit of leather insulation on the bottom, and did a couple of other things to separate the charge coming in from the wires."
  720. >You nod, and eye the beautiful machine up and down.
  721. >"though unfortunately I had to have the lightbulb made by a friend of mine, he's an artificer from canterlot, and he was able to make it pretty quickly, but it did cost me a favor though."
  722. >He reaches into a paper bag with a bit of paper shreds for keeping the bulb intact.
  723. >it's much bigger than the normal light bulbs that you're used to at home depot, though it’s a welcome change considering you wanna make it as much of a demonstration as the tesla coil.
  724. >After looking over the equipment, you nod, and begin to fish out the gem bag you grabbed from the castle before leaving earlier.
  725. >You produce what would be considered an exuberant amount of money, and place it on the table.
  726. >Burly's eye's go wide, and simply asks "Are you sure, anon? That’s way more than I was ever expecting!"
  727. >You smile.
  728. "Oh it's from the Celestial treasury, I don’t think they'll miss it."
  729. >He darts back to the stack of gems, and back to the equipment.
  730. >"Thank you so much anon. This means so much to me."
  731. >he extends a hoof for a bump, and you respond with an outstretched fist.
  732. >"I'll bring it right over, this stuff's much heavier than the motor. Besides- you've absolutely paid for shipping with this kind of money.
  733. >You nod, and let him do his thing.
  734. "Thanks a ton, burly- the demonstrations tonight, will you be there?"
  735. >"at the castle? I've- I've never been in the castle before."
  736. "yes- its at the castle atrium, it'll be just after sundown, is that okay?"
  737. >"Oh- Oh absolutely, I'll make it. Can't wait for it- actually!"
  738.  
  739. >You exchange a couple more pleasantries, and he begins the preparations to bring it to the castle.
  740. >You fish Pinkie’s chocolate from your pocket and place it with the gems before heading back out to the castle to work on the equipment.
  741. >Soon, you find yourself climbing the crystalline stairs into the castle and are greeted by the equipment from the day prior.
  742. >Soon burly comes in, and helps you slop the wax on to make the machines operate inline with the AC wirings coming off the generator.
  743. >You look at the DC machine, with the crude lightbulb connected with the heatproof wax melting the wire on.
  744. >looks good enough- you decide, and head over to the ac tesla coil.
  745. >You're not quite sure if your principles are correct, but if they are, they should shoot lightning to the nearest conductor- or ground.
  746. >It might go to one of the three wires it's connected to, you're not quite sure- all you're looking for is the ark.
  747. >finally, you walk over to the ac machine hooked up for machine action, and look at the lever created for generating the ac.
  748. >You're not quite sure if the rainbow dash will show up to help you by being the input for the generator.
  749. >You had a couple ideas, but ended up just having a lever keyed to the machine using a larger cog on the input shaft from the lever and a much smaller cog on the input shaft to the motor, so the rainbow doesn’t have to rotate it as much.
  750. >or you could have twilight magic that shit together.
  751. >either way- you have bigger plans for the method of generation, but you wanna skip that and go straight for the fruits of the labor first, maybe you'll even get a bit of help from twilight in getting more shit together.
  752. >the setup becomes relatively simple. AC generator with wirings to the AC load, that being a few transformers and into the tesla coil, and the motor generator- which is an AC motor sharing a shaft with a DC generator, which makes DC voltage. The DC voltage goes to the bulb, and grounds back to the machine.
  753. >you look around, to make sure nobody is looking besides burly.
  754. "ok Burly, take the helm here at the crank, and crank this up. You gotta get it pretty fast before the cool stuff happens."
  755. >"sure thing anon. I'll give it my best shot."
  756. >quickly, burly takes the crank, and starts cranking the AC generator.
  757. >WHUR!
  758. >it takes a fraction of a second for the squirrel cage to become energized. You can see when it starts running based on burly's cranking meeting some resistance from the counter voltage of the machine.
  759. >WHUR!
  760. >you look at the bulb, and- to your surprise, the filament begins to glow faintly. Pulsing with the portions of the cranking that has better leverage.
  761. >You look over at burly, who's too preoccupied with the crank to see his efforts paying off.
  762. "More burly you're almos-"
  763. >WHUAPPP! FLASH!
  764. >burly jumps, stops cranking, and backs up quickly.
  765. >"WHAT IN CELESTIA WAS THAT!"
  766. >Your eyes wide, you look at him and reply.
  767.  
  768. "That was the Tesla Coil discharging the high voltage of the cranking. Hold on- I'll do the cranking and you watch. It's basically harmless."
  769. >you swear you can hear burly's enormous earth pony heart thumping. You approach the crank and begin cranking again.
  770. >it's surprisingly easy to get this thing going. You thought the reduction would make it pretty difficult, but the machines are small enough to not be such an issue.
  771. >you feel the counter voltage, and from here- you can see the motor-generator spinning up, and the bulb gaining some dull brightness
  772. >you're losing too much voltage through the motor-generator to get a bright light. And you'd be best off using a natural source of roundy-roundy, instead of this glorified hamster wheel you've made for yourself.
  773. >and with that- the tesla coil, which has much less of a voltage loss, begins arcing.
  774. >and arc it does. It really looks like a normal science class in high school. And burly begins smiling brightly, simultaneously calming down from his scare.
  775. >"It really does look like magic, anon! That's amazing. No spells, nothing, just conductors and motion!"
  776. >"You're turning the effort you're putting into that crank into lightning! I can't believe it!"
  777. "yes. imagine if you scaled this up to the size of a building, then turned it really fast. Do that a couple of times, run copper wire all throughout the city, then boom! You've got electricity on demand everywhere you go."
  778. >"huh. Here I was thinking everyone made their own electricity."
  779. "you remember what I was saying about standardization?"
  780. >he looks up at you.
  781. >"of course anon."
  782. "Well, even the electricity is standardized for us. Much more efficient that way."
  783. >"Humans are insane. This is gonna shake twilight to her core. I just know it."
  784. >and with that, Burly leads himself out, presumably to be back this evening.
  785. >which leaves you to your simple electronic machine, and your devices.
  786. "Oh hell. I'm gonna have a cup of tea."
  787. >and with that, you head to the kitchen.
  788. >mixing the loose tea into the metal tea steeper, you place it into the hot water that’s brought to life via magic.
  789. >if you could find a good way to get electricity distributed, you might be able to make a hot water heater out of coils and electronic heaters.
  790. >you place the cup aside, and leave it too steep. Washing your hands of the grime that’s standard with the electronic machines you've been working with.
  791. >you don’t know what you want to chase next, whether it’s a whiskey still or getting sweet electric light systems wired up.
  792. >would be super sweet to have Ponyville wired up with street lamps at night.
  793. >but it's been months since you've last had a good drink. And you're starting to wonder if you should head off into the everfree looking for magic mushrooms at this point.
  794. >Also, having alcohol fuel around could allow you to make an internal combustion engine.
  795. >or a sweet jet powered engine.
  796.  
  797. >the idea of making a turboprop plane puts a smile on your face, even if you know you couldn’t do it without some sort of technical library.
  798. >another thought enters your mind as you remove the tea steeper from the glass, disposing of its contents smartly into the provided bottomless burlap trash sack.
  799. >you also know quite a bit of inorganic chemistry, though you don’t exactly know how to create nitric acid or ammonia required for a lot of the cooler stuff.
  800. >let alone the sodium hydroxide. Maybe they have an alchemists supply house that isn't just 'ginseng root extract' and 'white birch tree oil'
  801. >you giggle to yourself at the thought of making a propeller plane and mercury fulminate, a high explosive- and dropping bombs on the poor denizens of Equestria.
  802. >that would be so fucked.
  803. "that would be so fucked."
  804. >and with that, you add some of Fluttershy's famous honey and some of Moo-riella's milk to your glass.
  805. >you'd prefer coffee, but that’s more of a Canterlot thing. Everyone in Ponyville drinks tea.
  806. >finally, you retire right where you started, at your desk. Drawing of San Diego still pleasantly undisturbed.
  807. >the tea goes down smoothly, albeit a bit hotter than you'd like.
  808. >your room is quite close to the kitchen, which is quite close to the main room you've set up your electrical equipment in. which is good for you- because you think you'd starve to death if you slept where twilight slept.
  809. >you notice, sitting on the table- is a cute little cupcake, red velvet.
  810. >you smile sweetly. Deciding it must have been pinkie pie handing out the sweets.
  811. >apparently Twilight's friends didn’t always invade her home. But that was at her old place.
  812. >or apartment, you don’t know. You weren't here.
  813. >and with that, you draw up some sweet concepts for things you probably wont ever make, repeating rifles, Gatling guns-
  814. "Oh, right, wine. I can make wine."
  815. >your ADHD addled mind takes the reigns from your warlord fantasies- and you start writing up the process for another form of alcohol
  816. >soon, you've dove down the rabbit hole of no less than three forms of alcohol. And you notice- the sun is starting to come down.
  817. >where your rooms are situated, the sun beams in through a stained glass window, coloring your room in dazzling pastels of orange and purple.
  818. >smiling, you simply state-
  819. "Magic is so sweet. Why the hell am I making induction motors."
  820. >and with that- you head down stairs to your demonstration, empty tea mug in tow.
  821.  
  822. >down below are no less than eight ponies ogling your strange contraption.
  823. >Twilight is taking notes, Pinkie Pie is simply sitting aside waiting happily.
  824. >Applejack is tapping the contraption with her hooves, testing its rigidity.
  825. >Fluttershy is as far away from the equipment as is socially acceptable. She seems to want nothing with it.
  826. >Rainbow dash is bored, and resolves to go to the kitchen
  827. >and rarity is smiling brightly, seeing where the burlap has gone to, but scowling when she sees the motors.
  828. >"anon!~" rarity chimes up, seeing you descend the stairs from above.
  829. >"Anon! This contraption you’ve made is simply ghastly! Couldn't you have used a prettier metal than /steel/ and /copper?/"
  830. >you giggle a bit at that.
  831. "Rarity, it’s industrial equipment, like a shovel. It's not meant to be pretty."
  832. >"I beg to differ darling. Once you're over, I'll show you my garden shed. Nothing should be this ugly."
  833. >though, she smiles, and adds warmly- "I will say I'm quite pleased that you were able to put that fabric to good use. Thank you for taking it off my hands."
  834. >you pat her on her cute little dress hat she wore. It’s a dark green thing with bits of sapphire jewels and red rubies tastefully placed as to not make the ensemble look tac
  835. "Thank you for coming to the demonstration. You'll probably find that the beauty is in the details. Not the superficial kind."
  836. >You turn to burly, and you both just smugly smile and nod at each other.
  837. "Okay, Mares and Stallion. Today I will show you the existence of a force that has yet to be discovered by pony-kind, only theorized."
  838. >"Exciting!" twilight exclaims. Notebook ready.
  839. "so, the concept is simple. At a subatomic level, all matter's got-"
  840. >You look around, and realize that the only one listening is twilight.
  841. "Ahh, nevermind. Just watch this."
  842. >And with that- you strut over to the generator end, still in your silk robe that rarity made for you, and begin to crank.
  843. >And like this morning, you watch the motor generator begin to whirl, and the lightbulb begins to glow.
  844. "Everyone back up- you're too close."
  845. >"What for the li-"
  846. >FVWUAAAAAHP
  847. >"EEP"
  848. >fluttershy jumps about five feet, wings going hard, immediately hiding behind the table she was standing by.
  849. >everybody seems to do the same besides burly, and rainbow dash, who sits in awe.
  850. >the tesla coil has begun arc-ing, and you’ve no reason to stop.
  851. "As you can see. When I crank here. It makes lightning there, and light there."
  852. >"ANON! I'VE SEEN ENOUGH! I TAP. STOP THE STORMCLOUD PLEASE!"
  853. "as you wish!"
  854. >you stop cranking, and the light immediately goes out, and the motor generator dies down.
  855.  
  856. "so, waffles?"
  857. >"you- you can have your damn waffles. What in Celestia did you just bring into my castle?"
  858. >she says, more shocked than the tesla coil. The girls' minis rainbow and twilight have run off to other rooms while you talk.
  859. "It’s a tesla coil. It just discharges high voltage electricity in the form of lightning. It's pretty much harmless. Turns out its really hard to transfer electricity through the air."
  860. >"Here, Twilight, you crank it and I'll touch the thing."
  861. >burly butts in.
  862. >"That won't be necessary, Burly. I'm convinced. It took me two weeks to learn the spell that makes lightning. And even then it requires some materials. If you simply built this in a day using some help and materials in town., I have no doubt that a hundred million of you could build floating skystreakers that are powered off of magic rocks."
  863. >you smile triumphantly.
  864. "So now what?"
  865. >"well, we publish your findings, get you some royal grants, and you work full time in the castle developing this newfound 'Coltage" or whatever you call it.
  866. >You look around.
  867. "Well, I've got more in me than just electricity- err- 'voltage'. I know a fair amount of chemistry too."
  868. >"That’s fine anon. you'll have plenty of money from the coffers to build whatever you want to. Just for the love of the sun, please don’t start summoning sentient thunder storms or something. My poor alicorn heart can only take so much surprise divination."
  869. "If I told you what it did I don’t think I would have blown your mind so wide open, Twilight."
  870. >"Yeah, well you have my attention now. So no more secrets."
  871. >Two weeks go buy relatively quick. You've spent much of your time processing a large work on the concepts of electricity, compiling everything you know into a large textbook usable by Twilight and the royal academy to better aid in your next project.
  872. >That is- to wire up Ponyville with a functional power grid.
  873. >You're cross between hanging lines, and placing them below ground.
  874. >Seems that since you've 'gotten the attention' of Twilight Sparkle, she's been very eager to lend her magic abilities.
  875. >Effectively, her conclusion on what electricity is- is basically magic that you can produce in large scale, and transport throughout town into the homes of everypony.
  876. >And so, the princess is beyond eager to get into the homes of the masses.
  877. >So- first you begin writing up the basics, how electricity functions, where it goes, how 'Wire gage' works, how 'I squared R losses' works, properties of counter voltage, polarities, and basic circuits.
  878. >Then into practical operations, generation, motor function, motor generators, construction, various forms of generation, maintenance, frequency- how each affects each other, and finally, how to measure electricity.
  879. >So far, all you've got is old school galvanometers, since you never got far enough in school to figure out how actual multi-voltmeters worked.
  880. >You make sure to first write the math on how dangerous electricity actually is, and how- in large voltages, can go as far as to atomize unsuspecting electricians.
  881. >Which has opened the talks of wheeling in great numbers of natural latex rubber, and making safety equipment and insulated wires. The last thing you need is to answer why Mrs. Cake has sudden heart problems from trying to blend a smoothie.
  882. >"How's the report coming along anon?"
  883. >You jump, as Twilight has a bad habit of quietly flying into your study.
  884. >She thinks she's being polite by not bothering you. But it only succeeds in increasing your blood pressure.
  885. "Ohuah uhh- It's- it's good!"
  886. >You turn quick to face the princess.
  887. >"Good! You'd be happy to hear that we've made nearly fourteen kilo-legs of insulated wiring for use in the distribution of the wires. And we've made great progress in the circuit breaker system you so kindly provided me. Though we're still looking for a suitable way to build the fusible links you've insisted on making."
  888. >she jots over, and looks over your shoulder at your 'renaissance style' drawings.
  889.  
  890. >"You seem very stern on these safety measures. If you can just turn off the power, why would it matter? It's nothing like spells that can run away."
  891. >You look over neutrally.
  892. "Let me tell you a little anecdote Twilight."
  893. >"Sure, Mr. Raconteur- what's the story?"
  894. "Ok, so back in the not so magical land of Chicago- or wherever sqrewed up area of the US, lived the father of electricity."
  895. >Nodding, she watches intently as you go on.
  896. "And- well, im paraphrasing here, but he killed elephants with electricity to show how dangerous it can be."
  897. >"Oh my goodness, the innocent creatures!"
  898. "yes. It was a brutal time called the industrial revolution. Our society gave no interest to things that weren't humans. The believed that the earth was a world of infinite resources. So a few lives didn't matter. Just progress."
  899. >"Oh dear. Electricity can do that?"
  900. "Yes, and at high enough voltages, can reduce anything living to ash. I can imagine you have some spells that can do that."
  901. >"Yes, but practice of those spells- its unheard of. Mostly because they've been banished."
  902. "Well, if we're not careful. We can end up answering to why someone was atomized by our efforts to replace a 'tried and true' force of nature."
  903. >Visibly shook, she gets up, quietly walking to the door, turning one last time on her way out- and simply stating "Im sorry I asked. I still do not know what I don't know."
  904. >You smile warmly.
  905. "Twilight come back here, just a second of your time."
  906. >And, on cue, she turns her 180° turn into a 360°, and trots back.
  907. >You pull her into a friendly hug, giving her an ear scratch.
  908. "Don’t worry, we just take it slow, and methodical, we don’t have to do what my ancestors did. Besides, how could you have even known."
  909. >She smiles, returns the hug. And just as quickly, breaks it- and just like that. She's heading for the door again.
  910. >"Thanks anon. I truly believe in our efforts. I hope you'll show me one of these mega ships you were talking about some day."
  911. >You smile back.
  912. "Oh I can't wait to tell you about the dangers of nuclear power."
  913. >She giggles on her way out, and just like that- you're back to your designs.
  914.  
  915. >You've yet to tell her that the reason you know so much about electric generation.
  916. >You spent much time in school learning the in's and outs of nuclear power generation, with hopes to someday make loads of money designing the damn things.
  917. >It's a nice change of pace to be putting some of that knowledge to use.
  918. "Anyway." you say, in-between sips of coffee. Coffee that you convinced Twilight to bring back following her visit to Canterlot.
  919. "Time for turbine theory and bearings."
  920. >Two more weeks follow, your day job being regurgitating almost all of your mechanical knowledge into one huge 'power generation' text. And finally, you've got something worth proofreading.
  921. >Sitting up from your chair, and polishing off the last of your black coffee, you head to twilights quarters.
  922. >The halls are as enigmatic as ever, though you make it to her room in a little under 10 minutes. Which is an academy record- if you recall.
  923. >her door is open, which means she isn't home. So you simply place the text on the bed. And head out to Burly's shop.
  924. >In advance, you've sent him the notes on turbine construction, graphitic brushes, oil pumps, oil pumping systems, and condensers.
  925. >Though, you've instructed him on how to simply build an axial flow water turbine, considering you plan on running ponyville on hydroelectric. Which- to you, is the simplest way to consistently produce voltage.
  926. >Now- with Celestial money, he's added a significant amount onto his shop, and hired multiple artificers to mount the individual blades.
  927. >See, you've gone straight for the throat with an 'individual turbine blade' design, which sees each blade being press fit into one large compressor wheel, allowing simple replacement of blades, should one be fowled by the sediment in the riverbed.
  928. >In his weeks, he's got quite the turbine put together. Its adjustable for different levels of head and flow rates, and has a sleek ball bearing design. Courtesy of one of the talented artificer's he's hired on.
  929. >Next would come the transfer shaft from the output of the propeller, some simple labyrinth seals, then the turbine generator. Who's output will be transformed to a simple AC transformer, who's output will then be sent to the ponies.
  930. >to maintain frequency. You've been working on a 'Hall effect' design RPM sensor, which will control flow of water into the turbine to maintain 50HZ electricity.
  931. >You've also dabbled in ideas of using simple CVT belt drives to transfer power, and changing the gear ratio to make the frequency.
  932. >Your third concept would be making a DC generator, and using a motor generator to make the 50HZ AC. Which you believe might work the best.
  933.  
  934. >Though for now. You've got one turbine. It's going to be a while before you have to make any decisions on how to maintain frequency. Especially considering you don’t have power lines ran yet.
  935. >Burly trots up, obviously sleep deprived. Smiling widely.
  936. >"New designs? Show them, I can't wait!"
  937. >you smile, and pass the papers you've made.
  938. >Snatching them up quickly, he places them down and looks at them.
  939. >"Okay, so we need to build this gear set to transfer the axial force into this shaft, which goes to the turbine, easy enough."
  940. "Yes, and please take a look at the few drawings I did up for thrust bearings and see which one is easiest for you to produce. The 'Kinsbury' style here is the most complicated, but is the best solution."
  941. >you point with a graphite dusted finger to the 'shoe' style bearing.
  942. >"Hmm. Looks simple enough. Though I imagine it's gonna take quite a bit of magic to make this to specification.
  943. "Whatever you need to do, burly. We're big time now."
  944. >"Yeah, you're right. Wanna see the progress im making on the whiskey still?"
  945. >You smile a bit for the first time today, eager to see how far he's gotten.
  946. "Yes please."
  947. >"Great! It's right over here!"
  948. >And with that, he trots into the next room. You follow quickly.
  949. >Soon- you're greeted with the look of a sweet shiny whiskey distilling system. Fit with copper pipes and glass flasks.
  950. >that is to say, it looks complete.
  951. "Looks like you got it done, Burly, what am I missing here?"
  952. >"Anon, it's been done for a week or so now. Its just missing the mix you put in here." he says, smirking.
  953. "Holding out on me again?" you say, patting Burly between the ears.
  954.  
  955. >"I had assumed that you wouldn't be able to keep your hands on your report if I gave it to you, and with how you were telling me this 'booze' worked- it'd be awfully distracting. But I can tell you're all done with the paper twilight asked you to make."
  956. >he's probably right. You think softly.
  957. "Yeah, you're probably right. So should we do the first batch in house?"
  958. >"Ol' homebrew? Just give me a recipe to follow and we'll be beating out the town alchemists in no time flat!"
  959. >you put a finger up, and pull your sweet leather bound book from the inside of your jacket, and flip to the appropriate page.
  960. >Inside, is the process for making, then aging- bourbon whiskey. Though it's mostly conceptual, like most of the stuff you've written down thus far. 'X percentage rye grain, x to y percentage corn, etc. etc.'
  961. >quickly, you tear out the paper, and hand it over to the highly accomplished pony.
  962. "Go crazy, but don’t drink it until I've had a looksie. This stuff can come out quite bad and cause some serious harm to you if you do it wrong."
  963. >"Sheesh, anon- is everything you humans do have a chance at killing you?"
  964. >you think for a moment on the question.
  965. "Well, I suppose killing each other is one of our favorite past-times."
  966. >he rolls his eyes.
  967. "Bunch of savages, we are." you say with a smile.
  968. >"eh, life's too short. I'll send a messenger when I've got this stuff frying up. You can have a looksie at it."
  969. >And with that, he uses his expert mouth to pull the note from your hand, and head off to the counter. Quickly, before you could even think about leaving, he produces a bottle of what 'looks' like whiskey. And it confuses you.
  970. "Whats that- already made some?"
  971. >"oh, nono- that' here is some apple cider Applejack left for us to enjoy following our winning of the waffle bet."
  972. >you smile and nod. Approaching the counter in short order.
  973. "Hell, I'd love a cool glass of cider."
  974. >"there it is. Come come, anon- we've both earned our fair share of rest. And im starving for some sunshine."
  975. >Soon after you're with Burly, where he leads you to the front facia of the shop. He keeps a few 'rough around the edges' sitting chairs outside, old leather things that show decades of wear.
  976. >You can tell that these chairs were originally sold as an indoor furnishing, then sold on the used market as an outdoor furnishing.
  977. >Burly pushes over a wooden crate to you- as indication that you should be putting your feet up.
  978. >The shop is located just off the town square, and sports a dark green hue reminiscent of hard working tradesponies.
  979. >The outer walls are of tired wood, and below you is hard packed dirt. In front of you is the main square. The heart of trade in this small community.
  980. >Ponies go about their days, buying wagons of hard materials, with some ponies sporting large saddlebags of foodstuffs.
  981. >Burly's settles to pour your glass, using his mouth on the pitcher in a way that would make you dizzy. Turning his head to the side at an almost unnatural angle.
  982. >Though soon, you have a glass of pressed apple cider. Unfiltered- naturally, though almost uncomfortably warm in your hands.
  983. >Burly grunts a bit as he settles into his well worn chair
  984. >"These seats arent much to look at, but I've really gone through these bad boys and got them up to code."
  985. >He looks over at you holding your glass, before adding. "All apologies about the temperature. Not much ice to go around here."
  986. You wave him off simply. "Oh, it's no issue, Burly. I wouldn't expect you to keep ice. Especially without a refrigerator."
  987. >"Refridgerator?"
  988. You smile, take a swig of the sickly sweet honey crisp cider, and deign to go back down another technological rabbit hole.
  989. "Yeah, it's a pretty complicated machine. But ultimately- it makes things cool. You have to do some pretty serious chemistry just to get the gasses involved. And the easy ones are really bad for you if you let them leak out."
  990. >"Ah, so that ones pretty far off in terms of stuff we can do."
  991. "Pretty much. Though if we ever get that far- and I hope we do, we can cool basically anything we want. Houses, food, water-"
  992. >"Well, there's some pretty sweet magics that can do that for us until we get there. Just have to go buy one."
  993. "Oh- right forgot about magic."
  994. >He smiles, sips his drink, and goes down a hole of his own.
  995. >"yeah, its just a box with a few sigils, most of the mages capable of it are from the crystal empire. Though since we have Twilight around- she's able to keep the cool flowing. It's why we have ice at all."
  996. >Burly shifts in his seat, and finishes off his explanation.
  997. >"Ponyville's been earthponies for a millennia. We're pretty disconnected to the comforts of magic, atleast- compared to the larger cities of Manehatteon and Canterlot."
  998. "eh, but the weather's nice. And we've got plenty of good folks around here."
  999. >"You could say that again. You'd be hard pressed to make me leave. Even on vacation."
  1000. >You simply nod in agreement. Polishing off your glass.
  1001. "Mind if I have another?"
  1002.  
  1003. >"Go ahead. I've got plenty of the stuff. Don't tell Applejack though. She'd never give me another pitcher for free." he says, laughing a bit.
  1004. >And, just like that- you've spent your afternoon lounging, sipping juice.
  1005. >You and burly happily excuse yourselves, and head in separate ways.
  1006. >The air is that of late evening time, and you're getting quite hungry.
  1007. >Which reminds you, you've gotta cash in on that dinner date with Rarity.
  1008. >Not tonight, though. You'd rather just cook up something at home.
  1009. >The warm cobbles of Ponyville welcome your weary feet as you walk the main road to the crystalline castle.
  1010. >Soon, you're greeted with the relatively unaccommodating front steps to castle friendship.
  1011. >The stairs are quite tall. Even for you. Which means its quite cumbersome for ponies to climb.
  1012. >Pushing the large stained glass doors aside, past the atrium of friendship, and to your den of shitposting.
  1013. >Inside, sits the book you finished writing just this morning, and a small note.
  1014. >undoubtedly from the princess.
  1015. " 'Dear Anon. I've proofread your book, and had spike made an edited copy of the revised version. I've kept a copy for myself- of course'."
  1016. >Well. Glad to hear that you're time as an author has come to a close.
  1017. >You open the book to skim it, and find that its contents have been printed in bright midnight purple ink, with certain statements printed in separate colors. Principles are in an off-red color while the main bulk is that strange purple.
  1018. >Seems she hasn't changed much. Just made it look more like a textbook instead of schitzo ramblings.
  1019. >Setting the book aside. You reach into your food chest and produce a bowl of assorted whole fruit. Fruit which you eagerly begin peeling and eating.
  1020. >Settling in, you finish your dinner- lounge some more for the evening reading your own book to look for any changes you might not agree with. Before drifting off to sleep.
  1021. >You wake to the smell of waffles.
  1022. >Which is interesting- considering the kitchens about a five minutes journey from your room.
  1023. >regardless, you quickly bathe yourself, and dress in your best morning gear.
  1024. >Rarity's really starting to spoil you, she seems to have found out at some point that you have an affinity for silk shirts, leading you to have a 'Simply marvelous!' selection of button up silk shirts, fit with pearl buttons and hems of shiny material reminicent of precious metals.
  1025. >As for bottoms, early on in your stay here she reverse engineered the jeans you came with, and produced a few pairs of her own. Though you also have some sweet slacks to choose from too.
  1026. >As for the shoes- she's not a practiced human cobbler, so your loafers are pretty much your only choice until you have a local draft you a new pair.
  1027. >Properly dressed, you head for the kitchen.
  1028.  
  1029. >Twilight's a bit less ready for the outside world.
  1030. >She appears deliriously tired, and covered in flour. Seems she's called on pinkie pie to make sure she doesn't add salt instead of sugar or potato chips instead of chocolate.
  1031. >Pinkie notices you first, coming down the stairs. Still a bit groggy.
  1032. >"Oh goodness, Nonny!"
  1033. "Morning pinkie!"
  1034. >"Morning morning! That it is! Rarity sure is spoiling you! What an 'Absolutely Marvelous' Shirt you have on."
  1035. >You giggle a bit at her impression of Rarity.
  1036. "And you- Pinkie, Are absolutely glowing this morning."
  1037. >"Oh no! I am! I sure hope it isnt the electricity!"
  1038. >Finally, you make it to the bottom of the stairs.
  1039. >"Twilight, look- it's anon!"
  1040. >Twilight rouses a bit, and looks in your general direction.
  1041. >Finally, she snaps to.
  1042. >"Oh goodness- morning anon!"
  1043. >You giggle, before heading for the coffee.
  1044. >"Sorry I didn't see you there. I was pouring over your book. Im amazed by the detail and depth of your writings!"
  1045. >She starts prancing in excitement, closing her eyes and visualizing the one-line circuits and equations, most likely.
  1046. >"I was-"
  1047. "Up all night reading it?"
  1048. >She smiles, before laying her head on the table.
  1049. >"You caught me. I just couldn't put it down. You're quite the artist with words, anon."
  1050. "Egg."
  1051. >"Hey!"
  1052. >you and pinkie giggle while you pour the coffee grounds into the self heating 'french press' style brewer.
  1053. >And- very soon, you have some of Pinkie's very own Belgium waffles.
  1054. >"Enjoy, nonny! I put my own very special ingredient in there!"
  1055. "Oh lord did you put your hair in this again."
  1056. >She flushes. Before stammering out- "N-No, of course not I wouldn’t do that."
  1057. >You giggle before cutting apart your breakfast and digging in. Pinkie deciding to simply eat without utensils and twilight sleeping on hers.
  1058. >At least she didn't dress it before sleeping on it.
  1059. >"SO! What's next for the lord of lightning?" Pinkie says, between bites.
  1060. "Well, we've gotta do some surveying on the viability of damming up the river that flows through ponyville, then finding a suitable place to dam it."
  1061. >"What, like a beaver?"
  1062. "Well- yes. But its to make electricity."
  1063. >"So you're telling me we can make magic from running water?"
  1064. "Oh yes, plenty of it."
  1065. >"That’s so sweet. I'll have my own storm cloud in no time!"
  1066. >You giggle at the prospect of giving pinkie a tesla coil for use as a lamp.
  1067.  
  1068. "Regardless. I've gotta get a huge shipment of concrete in."
  1069. >"Whats that?" Pinkie says, head cocked.
  1070. >You put on your most confused face.
  1071. "Like- didn't you grow up at a quarry?"
  1072. >"It's a rock farm. But we sell cobblestone. So concrete is rock then?"
  1073. >That takes you back.
  1074. "What do you guys make buildings out of when you need stone?"
  1075. >"We use magic to compress dirt back into stone."
  1076. >You laugh good at the absurdity of the concept, before settling back down.
  1077. "You simply mix limestone powder, sand, and water to make something called mortar."
  1078. >you make mixing motions with your hands.
  1079. "Then you take rocks and whatever, and then it makes mud."
  1080. >"whats so useful about mud?"
  1081. "Well, the mud solidifies into stone. Lets you pour it"
  1082. >"without magic?"
  1083. "as far as I know."
  1084. >"Wow. Maud might wanna marry you if what you're saying is right."
  1085. >You both laugh at that.
  1086. "Anyway. I need a large amount of Limestone powder, beachsand- not desert sand, and ground stone."
  1087. >Pinkie thinks for a moment. Before replying.
  1088. >"I'll write dad and ask if they've got all that. And get a shipment sent here. They'd love the business. "
  1089. "Well, thanks for the help in advance. I've still got lots of math to work out with making sure I don't flood out ponyville with my dam."
  1090. >"I bet Twilight would love to help with that. She's got so many good magics that would make it a breeze."
  1091. >Finally finished with the waffles, you pour yourself some coffee and continue.
  1092. "Yeah. If only she'd be lucid long enough to help."
  1093. >You poke the snoring purple horse with the brunt end of your butter knife, and receive no response.
  1094. >"Dang. She's out cold."
  1095. >Standing up, you take the girl in your arms and begin the long arduous trek to her room.
  1096. >Twilight herself is quite light considering. Though carrying the poor girl to her room is quite the task regardless.
  1097. >9 minutes go by, and she's placed safely under sheets of silk and a heavy comforter. Next to her is the book you gave her, in all its papyrus glory.
  1098.  
  1099. >And with that, you decide to go walk the river for a suitable place to dam.
  1100. >What follows is two weeks of meticulous planning, resource management and directing to get this electric symphony inline.
  1101. >You survey the ponyville river, and- As Pinkie promised, Twilight helped you find the right place to dam.
  1102. >Which is a godsend, considering it took seven tries to not flood out ponyville with your simulations.
  1103. >this one, will simply produce a sweet natural lake, and plenty of water head for your turbines.
  1104. >The intention is to use a low head turbine, since ponyville river is quite small. And you want to minimize the size of the dam.
  1105. >Pinkie has her folks bring in trains of lime, sand, and rock for use on the construction, and many ponies and artificers have been brought in for the project.
  1106. >You've made a plan to route the river through a dug trench, to allow for construction on the riverbed.
  1107. >Followed by drying the bed up, and placing the plans for the turbine generator spaces, and diverters to allow some flow through.
  1108. >This is done in an afternoon with help from twilight and her merry band of unicorns.
  1109. >The concrete is mixed, placed, and held in place with magic. Since the rock hardens on its own- the amount of unicorns needed dropped starkly. Considering that spell is the most labor intensive of any construction project.
  1110. >and- while the concrete dries, ponies place power poles in the ground, following the lazy paths of town.
  1111. >Finally, the concrete dries, and all the heavy equipment Burly and his men manufactured, with some help from twilight- is put into place.
  1112. >Turbine, Transmission shaft, DC generator, motor generator, and transformers are all placed into three channels, held by shoe style thrust bearings and ball bearings.
  1113. >Finally, the heavy steel doors are placed in their hinges, meant to be able to shut to allow maintenance of the rotating bits.
  1114. >And so, begins the electric future of ponyville.
  1115. >everything is wired in, and the water re-routed through the enormous construct.
  1116. >You stand on the top. Overlooking the now running ponyville river. Watching intently for any flooding that may happen.
  1117. >And- you're pleased to see that it works just fine. Though the turbines are uncoupled, windmilling about 30 feet below you, waiting for loading.
  1118.  
  1119. >You and burly take your time checking the oiling systems of the generators, verifying their windings are to specification, while twilight gets ready to flash the generators with magic to get their field windings running.
  1120. >You stand above the bunker-like construction, giving the thumbs up to start the generators while watching the dead lamps of ponyville, hoping for a miracle.
  1121. "GO AHEAD TWILIGHT!"
  1122. >"COMING RIGHT UP!"
  1123. >FHUAP
  1124. >CREAK
  1125. >WHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
  1126. >The deafening roar of the generators settle into their frequency, and you see voltage climbing to acceptable minimums.
  1127. >the electric gageboard installed on the top of the concrete shows you've got about 6 megawatts of electricity to work with.
  1128. >the breaker remains open. Ready to flip and begin the industrial revolution of ponyville.
  1129. >You climb down, and approach burly and twilight, who watch the main breaker, as it it would move on its own.
  1130. "Well. Let's get this place glowing. Allow me."
  1131. >and with that, you grab the lever of the main breaker, and close it. Which shuts the feeder breaker on the actual voltage regulator on the motor generator. Causing the lights in the dam to snap on, bright and shiny.
  1132. >Twilight, amazed- runs up to the top of the bunker, overlooking the town.
  1133. >"Oh my sweet Celestia, Anon- come here- come see this!"
  1134. >You can hear the tapping of Twilights hooves from above, while you climb the metal ladder to the top of the dam, with Burly on your back.
  1135. >And, with that, Ponyville is no longer dark at night. The glittering orbs of incandescence shine a dull orange on the cotton candy homes and businesses of the town.
  1136. >behind you- stands a few ponies who have been brought on to watch the machines run. Trained meticulously in the functions of electricity, to respond in case of a generator fault.
  1137. >looks like the lighting system took approximately…
  1138. "2 KW of loading."
  1139. >"Woah. We have how many to use?" Burly says, eyeing the gage.
  1140. "6000 KW of loading."
  1141. >Burly and Twilight are simply speechless.
  1142. "Well. Let's get to work. We've got some appliances to make."
  1143. >After that, You, Twilight and Burly go their separate ways while the two day-shift ponies get to work maintaining the power station.
  1144. >The next day, you return to the now well expanded shop of Burly Steele. Inside is a now brightly lit work center. Seems Burly was prepared for the electrical hookup and strung wires and sockets all around the shop.
  1145. >the forge being as bright as it is now is quite a weird sight for your eyes.
  1146. >Burly approaches. Excited as always.
  1147. >"How do you like it anon? I've got so many leftover lights from doing up the town- I couldn't help myself!"
  1148. "It looks sweet. I bet productivity's skyrocketed since you stopped using torches."
  1149. >"Oh, absolutely. I've gotten to getting together that mash for the alcohol, by the way."
  1150. >you light up instinctively at the thought of having access to alcohol.
  1151. "sweet, what stage is it at right now?"
  1152. >"oh- if im not mistaken, it's all mixed together in there and fermenting like bread."
  1153. Gesturing with your hands, you simply reply "Well, then we just wait a while and we'll be ready to move on."
  1154. >"Right, but how long?"
  1155. You giggle a bit. "Don't know, never got that far honestly."
  1156. >You both laugh at that.
  1157. >"Well, regardless. I'm very interested in your refrigeration system. What gasses do we need really? How bad can it be to make?"
  1158. >You make a 'you don’t want to know' face, and shake your head simultaneously.
  1159. "Ever heard of ammonia?"
  1160. >He scrunches his brow. And replies "No. what is it?"
  1161. "It's a chemical compound composed of two gasses found in the air you're breathing right now."
  1162. >He relaxes his brow at that. "Oh, you were making it sound like it was really bad."
  1163. You laugh a bit. "Its terrible for you, one whiff and you might go blind, pass out, and die of toxic asphyxiation. Its awful stuff."
  1164. >"Now how in Celestia does that work?"
  1165. "Chemicals do weird things. Table salt- if broken up properly, produces a metal explosive and another toxic gas that will kill you just as dead."
  1166. >You cross your fingers
  1167. "Combined, you put it on your tomatoes."
  1168. >You split your fingers
  1169. "Apart, it kills you worse than a lightning strike."
  1170. >You turn away.
  1171. "To get refrigeration running good, we'd need a LOT of ammonia. Pure ammonia, not diluted with anything."
  1172. >"Yikes."
  1173. "But, regardless, its okay on the environment so I'm fine with making it as long as we keep it in a contained room that has good ventilation and alarms."
  1174. >"Well, now im not so sure I wanna make this stuff. We still have to mass produce the crap and then add it to the machine."
  1175. "I hoped you'd say that. I'd rather make a waffle iron, honestly. Or make a bunch of stuff with motors. Stuff we already know about. Or lead into making batteries and flashlights."
  1176.  
  1177. >Shelving the refrigerant idea, you begin on drumming up the basic concept for a battery.
  1178. >at this point, you've been brought to Burly's desk, and gifted a notebook and a pen.
  1179. >You begin drawing up the basic design for a lead-acid battery.
  1180. "So, basically- we need an electrolyte, and a bunch of lead, wrapped in a container of whatever. Something strong- I'd prefer plastic but we've got ceramic so that would work."
  1181. >"Sounds as nasty as the ammonia."
  1182. "You basically make the electrolyte in the same way. If I'm being honest."
  1183. >"Yuck. Any alternatives."
  1184. >You nod
  1185. "We can do like normal batteries that we have back home, though that requires some legitimate prospecting. And its hard to physically distinguish manganese ore from any other black powder. Then we need some zinc, which is pretty easy if we had a pile of other chemicals capable of chemically distinguishing what the hell we've got."
  1186. >"Sounds tedious."
  1187. "Damn near impossible. I've got plenty of knowledge on battery construction but nothing practical. Maybe twilight can help me. Though I don’t know if she actually knows any chemistry."
  1188. >"Probably our best bet. What happens once we've got these batteries?"
  1189. >You point your pen at burly softly.
  1190. "Well, it allows a whole mess of stuff for us to use. Considering it makes electricity portable."
  1191. >"So- Realistically, we could mass produce these things and export electricity?"
  1192. "Sure, but they only last so long. And most designs are relatively bothersome to recharge considering it works off the principle of a chain reaction, not necessarily being 'charged' in the first place."
  1193. >"Well, anon- draw up the drawing and I'll see what I can do at the academy."
  1194. >You nod your head, and bring your pen back to the parchment.
  1195. "Haven't let me down yet. Here's to hoping."
  1196. >And with that, you bring your pen to the paper and begin doing what you've done best so far. Regurgitate patents from 1890.
  1197. >makes you wanna regurgitate the patent for a flip gun so you can-
  1198. >You stop the intrusive thought and giggle at the concept of inventing the firearm for commiting self die.
  1199.  
  1200. >and soon- you have in front of you, the basic idea of both a dry cell battery, a wet cell lead acid battery, and a gel lead acid battery.
  1201. >Though- in terms of electrolytes, you don’t know whats gonna be harder, making the dry cell's zinc and manganese-
  1202. >It clicks
  1203. "Oh wait. I can use ammonium chloride. Easy enough."
  1204. >This goes on for a while until you have a 10 page picture book on everything you know about batteries, including all the concepts behind the inorganic chemistry required to make the solutions, fueled furthermore by the constant glasses of apple cider Burly's been feeding you.
  1205. >Its late now. But the lights have made you feel at home again. Sleeping at night was a suggestion in your old life.
  1206. >you take the writings, bid Burly a good night and head towards the castle of friendship, illuminated a dark brass color by the incandescent bulb lamps placed every 10 or so yards.
  1207. >The castle itself has been quite oversupplied with lights. Finished with their own light switches that service the important rooms.
  1208. >You thought it'd be funny to be able to turn on the tesla coil. So you wired in a switch for each of the machines in the main room.
  1209. >You simply smile at the construct as you pass. And head up the now golden fleece lit steps of the castle towards your room.
  1210. >But not before you stop off at Twilights room, and slide the report under the door.
  1211. >And with that. You make your way to your study.
  1212. >You grab a new book, and head towards your room.
  1213. >Inside the original report on electricity you detailed different styles of lamps, including ones that telescope and move around. Though the ones being made by burly's shop are relatively straightforward, granted- they do have lampshades.
  1214. >And the cutest little switch on the lamp itself. It even turns like the ones back home.
  1215. >You don’t know what you'd do if you actually had to manufacture all this crap. You're more than just glad that there's enough real practical talent around here to make your knowledge mean something.
  1216. >With that, you turn the lamp on and begin reading 'Do Gryphons dream of flying sheep?'. A crime thriller taking place in a futuristic metropolis about gryphon slaves and the cops hired to find and remove their flight feathers to forever keep them from flying above the city to where the pegasi live. A quite dreary book considering the world you've seen so far.
  1217. >And because of that- it's gripping. Though soon, you find yourself falling asleep.
  1218.  
  1219. >KNOCK
  1220. >THUD
  1221. >"ANON!"
  1222. "Waffles!" you say in the haze of your rude awakening as you see twilight on the other side of a well destroyed door.
  1223. You notice and scowl. "That door doesn’t lock, you know."
  1224. >"Enough! This paper is amazing! You never told me you could store electricity and ship it!"
  1225. "Yeah, because I was building a hydroelectric dam Twilight."
  1226. >She defuses, realizing she's making an ass of herself.
  1227. "Anyway, what time is it?"
  1228. >"Midnight- thirty."
  1229. "Im going back to sleep. I expect my waffles in the morning. I don’t care if they're cold. So you can make them now while you're lucid."
  1230. >"I just- uhh- wanted to let you know that im very thankful for your mind. Its been the most interesting thing I've done in quite some time."
  1231. "Thank you Twilight. Thank you all for helping me make this crazy stuff. Soon enough Ponyville will be able to do whatever they need without calling the town unicorn every day."
  1232. >"oh, I kind of liked enchanting things."
  1233. "Well, when the machines go out of buisness, get into the buisness of making the machines. That’s what humans always said. Anyhow- get back to sleep. Im tired as all get out."
  1234. >she nods her head, and leaves. The door- after a quick spell, is reanimated, and closed solid. And you're soon back to sleep.
  1235. >The next day was spent trying to source Zinc, and- as expected is harder than it looks.
  1236. >Twilight's been working on a spell that 'sniffs' out the material in the same vein as a 'gem locater' spell. While you produce the necessary lab setup for the extraction of chlorine from saltwater, which should form on the negative anode side. And the hydrogen from the positive cathode side.
  1237. >The Chlorine is going to be quickly transferred into a glass cylinder, where it will run into the ammonia that Twilight helped make.
  1238. > turns out swapping chemical composition of water is it's own school of magic that Twilight 'Never gets to use…".
  1239. >Considering the alternative is to pressurize nitrogen and hydrogen together at 100 BAR and about 200° C- Magic was realistically the only good way to make ammonium chloride.
  1240. >And with that- you quietly connect the positive and negative terminals of the electrolysis unit, and start the chlorine production. Standing back in case the chlorine breaks containment.
  1241. >At the bottom should form Ammonium chloride, which is going to be the electrolyte for use in your batteries.\
  1242. >And- like clockwork, the precipitate begins to form, but you can tell its gonna take a while, so you retire to downstairs until you're out of salt water. Which should take a few hours.
  1243. >At this point, Twilight's left for the Zinc. Once you have that and the ammonium chloride salt it should be pretty simple to make the battery, and subsequently- the flashlight.
  1244.  
  1245. >And, soon enough- you put down your book as Twilight walks in with a saddlebag of rocks.
  1246. >"Got about twenty pounds of the stuff. And I've found a pretty good pocket of the stuff. Plenty of it around, it seems."
  1247. "Yeah- I assumed as much. Zinc isn't the rarest element."
  1248. >"What's in store for these guys?"
  1249. "Take them to burly along with this ammonium chloride, burly will know what to do with them. Since we've got a good way to make ammonia, I'm gonna move into making refrigerators that run themselves."
  1250. >You smile and lay back, tapping the weird glass extraction lab you've made.
  1251. "Made by you of course. I've no time to build massive hot pressure chambers. It'd take megawatts to make the stuff without you. Though if you can make it less toxic, that'd be great."
  1252. >She eyes up the ammonia chloride, and simply replies "I'll see what I can do" before dropping the zinc rocks and retiring to her library.
  1253. >More so, one of her many libraries- probably on the prowl for a book on 'water magics' that might hold the key.
  1254. >And with that. You retire to your own study to begin drawing up the process for refridgeration.
  1255. >This loop goes on for a while, producing what you can naturally and cheating with the rest, making refrigerators using ammonia as refrigerant, pacified by twilight's magic.
  1256. >You're not out to kill magic, since it does make your job a lot easier, but it's inalienable that you're lowering the need for magic by a significant amount. Leading to your grant being soon unnecessary due to the absolute volume of equipment Burly and yourself are selling. First lamps, then flashlights, then refridgeration units, air conditioner units, heaters, appliances, hand tools, motor operated manufacturing equipment. You notice handily that Ponyville's total production has skyrocketed, with electric equipment.
  1257. >Each day, when the train leaves Ponyville, it brings with it equipment and products of all kinds- since the invention of concrete construction and mortar for use with brick, small factories are being put up every day, in hopes that it can make it big with the help of your power generation plant.
  1258. >Your electric output soon reaches its max output, and the plans for another turbine installation are lain. Soon- the Ponyville Hydroelectric Generation Station triples its output, leading for the need of local transformer stations through Ponyville. To account for the new lengths you have to move the voltage.
  1259. >You're no longer a hobbyist, you're the master creator- considered as highly as an archmagi in your town. A Professional who's word means something.
  1260. >Though you never let it get to your head. You simply told them what they can do if they get the right stuff. A glorified textbook. The ponies have basically clambered over each other to make something of your writings.
  1261.  
  1262. >Twilight has committed to making a curriculum of your writings, so canterlot ponies can learn and subsequently spread the power of electricity to the rest of Equestria.
  1263. >The only detail being left out- is the matter of power generation. You've made sure to tell them that hydroelectric is the best way to do it. Considering you don't want the industrial revolution to release ridiculous amounts of carbon into the air. Big mistake if you told them to start digging for coal and oil.
  1264. >Your next project is- honestly, figuring out how to centrifuge uranium into fuel.
  1265. >A process so complicated you couldn't even begin to consider the pipe dream.
  1266. >So- for now, you work in private, not disclosing any information on how to make nuclear anything- in the case that the ponies try to fuck around and find out what real danger is waiting for them in the dirt of the Everfree forest.
  1267. >You sip your now cider aged whiskey, chilled with a rock from your personal freezer, and write with your now ballpoint pen. Before reaching for the telescoping lamp and shining it on your work.
  1268. >Starting with the atomic physics of nuclear energy, you get to work.
  1269. >Though you find your mind quickly moving between two concepts- one nuclear and one chemical
  1270. >You've got good ethanol too, which means you can start off on a basic design for an internal combustion engine.
  1271. >You're probably just going to go straight for the throat and make an inline six car, carburate it, and attach it to a basic 4 speed transmission.
  1272. >Throw it on a frame, throw some seats and some body panels, see if it works.
  1273. >You've been working on the basic concepts of gears for a while, all the way back during the hydroelectric saga.
  1274. >You've got a broad understanding of how a transmission works, and a damn good understanding of how to make a functional internal combustion engine.
  1275. >So- you begin on your next two projects. Confident that you've made all the simple appliances as you planned to make.
  1276. >Go for the heart. Time to make a nuclear reactor that produces way too much fucking energy.
  1277. >And with that- you put pen to paper and pour yourself another round of Burly's drinkin' whiskey

Pinkie grimmmie story

by Drostapena

jojo

by Drostapena

TiM take 1

by Drostapena

TiM take 2

by Drostapena

Rainbow dash drag races and fucking dies

by Drostapena