To the Library!
Whirlie found the library, which she found to be curiously built into a tree. Neither arbormancy nor archimancy were among her abilities, but she paused to admire the structure. While she did so, a small, purple dragon popped the door open and came marching out carrying a stack of books. She went from admiring the building to gawking at the creature as he walked away. He paused, and looked back at her, asking “Whaddaryou lookin’ at?” At this, she blinked. “It speaks,” she muttered to herself, blinking. Sighing, the dragon headed on about his business, leaving Whirlie at the door.
Whirlie made her way into the building, or was it a tree? She wasn’t sure. Inside, she found bookcases upon bookcases of hardbound volumes. Taking yet another moment to stare about in awe, she was startled when a purple mare welcomed her to the library. “You must be the new pony in town...the blacksmith?” she asked.
“Well I’m a blacksmith by trade,” she began explaining, “but I’m really more of an engineer, or a tinkerer. I’m actually interested in magic theory, or rather putting magic theory into practice. You don’t happen to know somepony who could help me with that do you? Pinkie Pie mentioned that Princess Celestia’s magic prodigy was around here somewhere, and I was hoping to meet her.”
Blushing, the purple pony replied, “Hi, I’m Twilight Sparkle and I,” she hesitated, “think I’m the pony you’re looking for.”
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Whirlie Gears.”
“So, which theory were you interested in? I keep up with all of the latest research from the unicorn universities all over Equestria. In fact, the latest journals just arrived,” she explained, indicating a small stack of hardbound volumes on the floor.
“Well...” she trailed off. “I...uhh...need...umm...want to learn how to fly like the pegasi do...” she said sheepishly, looking away. She perked up and her speech gained speed as she followed with, “...and I think I can do it, but I need a way to convert magic power into heat and maybe store it temporarily. I suspect other applications might power all sorts of machinery,” she went on to explain. “And it would certainly be more practical than trying to build a tower to reach Cloudsdale and have it fall on the town...but nopony could have foreseen that, except maybe Pinkie. But I wouldn’t try that...again...here...” By the time she finished she was trailing off again; she grimaced as her eyes roved about the room.
“You were the crazy pony that built that tower in Trottingham?!” came a new, scratchy voice from the window. Twilight’s head spun around to glare at a blue pegasus peeking in the window. “What? It was a pretty impressive amount of destruction for one pony, I have to say. And you could see the dust cloud for miiiiles! Heh, and they called me ‘Crash’!”
“Rainbow!” Twilight snapped, looking irritated.
Whirlie was getting nervous now, and started to back slowly toward the door. She thought to herself, “Darnit, Whirlie! Why did you have to let that slip!” Out loud she replied, “Umm...I just failed to account for the amount of wind up there is all and I didn’t realize that clouds didn’t support any un-flightbound weight. The whole thing just kind of got out of control.” She sped up with, “Please don’t kick me out of town and throw me in a dungeon!”
Twilight looked at her with one eyebrow arched. “I don’t think I could do that. And besides, what somepony did before she came to town is no reason to judge her now,” Twilight explained, nearly growling at Rainbow Dash. “The news said you built the whole thing by yourself. You did the design work and the construction?” She looked shocked.
“I always do everything myself,” Whirlie explained, blinking. “I mean...I don’t think anypony else is really interested in getting into the clouds; except the pegasi, but that’s like their whole thing,” she glanced at Rainbow. “Besides, most ponies avoid me once they know who I am. I guess they’d rather be injured as bystanders than in the line of research. I was the only one in the hospital for four weeks after the...err...incident...so I guess the math is on their side.”
“You know, Whirlie, I’d help you out. Have you ever asked anypony if they wanted to help?”
Whirlie responded by staring at her blankly.
Twilight went on, “With some help, the work probably won’t be so dangerous...”
Whirlie continued staring, her head slowly tilting to one side before she regained her senses. “Umm...I guess no pony ever offered and I never thought to ask,” she responded, blushing. “Working together would be...an honor. And probably considerably less dangerous,” she said, looking up.
“I should tell you, though, I’ve been to Cloudsdale before by hot-air balloon, you don’t have to go build anything, tower or otherwise, to get there. And the spell to let you walk on clouds is really not that difficult either. Giving you wings, THAT is difficult,” Twilight explained, starting to pace about the room, adopting her lecturing tone.
“I guess I hadn’t thought about using pure magic,” Whirlie admitted. “I’m no wizard, and I’m not even particularly good at basic spells. And...the freedom to soar among the clouds,” she sighed, gazing out the window. Rainbow Dash caught her gaze and nodded in agreement.
“Nothin’ like it,” she agreed.
“What is your idea, anyway? And what are you good at? I would have assumed you were a clockmaker, judging by your cutie mark.” Twilight interjected.
“Well...I design things, and work with metal. I’m...pretty good at math, but you kind of have to be to build anything worthwhile. The idea is pretty simple, really,” Whirlie explained, pulling a notebook out of her pack and opening it in front of Twilight. The pages were coated in of diagrams, formulae, and notes. “You see, we siphon off our unicorn magic...” she pointed to a diagram of a ring with some sort of cable attached, looped over a unicorn horn. “That’s the real hard part, I think.”
She flipped through several pages, then indicated the next diagram, showing a backpack with a ridge of spine-shaped objects down the back and large, tank-like contraptions on the sides. She went on, “...we convert that magic into heat, plasma really, through this phase coil array.” A number of pages flitted by showing various drawings of the backpack and its internals. “I’ve already built this thing. I have one attached to my forge and I power it using my horn. But it doesn’t get hot enough for the next part. I think we really need that siphon to get a better efficiency out of the energy feed.” Twilight nodded, looking like she was following without difficulty, while Rainbow, still perched in the window, was squinting and frowning at the pair on the ground.
The next series of diagrams showed an array of metal nozzles attached to a pony’s leg, each with a tube running up from it, “we drive the plasma down these tubes and through these nozzles attached to our hooves. When it leaves the containment structure, it expands. If we can get the right amount of power, I think we could achieve lift!” She was getting excited again, and Twilight began to get a little enthusiastic herself. “And, with enough control and practice, we could be aerial acrobats as good as the Wonderbolts!” The last bit she shouted, then looked around, embarrassed.
Rainbow Dash gave her a sidelong look, while leaning her head on her forehoof. “See what I was saying about a crazy pony?”
“Rainbow!” Twilight responded in a harsh tone. “There’s nothing wrong with her idea, it’s theoretically sound...assuming it doesn’t blow up,” she amended.
“Just make sure you two don’t blow up Ponyville, okay?” Rainbow asked. Twilight just responded by glaring.
“I’ve played with rockets since I was a foal, and I think that part will be easy,” she explained, pages of notes fluttering by. “And I’ve even done some work on transferring the plasma out of the phase coil array,” she went on, pulling more notebooks out of her pack. “But, I haven’t figured out how to efficiently transfer magic power in such a way that I can drive the coil. You don’t happen to have any ideas that might help with that, do you?”
“I think I have just the book you need,” Twilight responded, as she headed over to one of the bookshelves.