3.30 Exponential Network Growth
Part 3 of 3
by Cozy Mark IV
Disclaimer: This is a non-profit fan-made work of prose. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro. Please support the official release
Chapter Three point Thirty: Exponential Network Growth
The morning sunlight shown brightly in through the windows of the hotel dinning room as Dr Scot trotted up to the breakfast table and grabbed a fresh green apple in her right hand. Several of the pony researchers smiled or nodded as she made her way over to what they’d begun informally calling the bearers table.
“Good morning everyone!”
Those present returned her greeting with the exception of Rainbow Dash who settled for lifting her face off the table and giving her a silent scowl that clearly expressed her opinion of ‘morning’ as well as offering several likely places it could go. Scot’s attention only lingered on Rainbow for a moment before drawing her back to the unexpected orange pegasus at the table seated beside Twilight.
“And you must be Flash; it’s nice to meet you.”
Flash rose automatically to return her greeting, hesitating only a moment before putting his hoof in her prosthetic hand to shake.
“Good to meet you as well Dr. Scott. Between two traveling princesses and all the scientists we have to watch your adopted world will certainly been keeping the royal guard busy.” He paused a moment as he seemed to realize that could have been taken the wrong way and hastily added. “No offence meant Mam.”
Dr. Scott and Twilight shared an unobserved smile across the table.
“None taken Captain. It had never occurred to me what a logistical headache all of this must be for the military branch that protects equestrian royalty. Especially considering you apparently weren’t invited along for the initial trip...”
Twilight looked sheepish as Flash pointedly avoided her eyes.
“An unavoidable complication Mam. The princesses thought this would be a quick out and back with no need for an escort. As soon as they realized their mistake we were brought into the loop.”
‘Yes,’ Dr. Scott mentally added ‘but not before another princess and a bunch of researchers got here first. I suppose when your ‘protectee’ can shoot lasers from her head and claims to move the sun the job of ‘guard’ becomes mostly ceremonial.’ She shot a quick glance to Twilight as she took a seat opposite the pair. ‘Smile and wave indeed. I can see why they have something in common...’
“So, how was your trip? I hope you weren’t too jet lagged to sleep.”
He returned her smile warmly.
“Mercifully not a problem – I got to the hotel just as everyone else was going to bed, but one pony who shall remain nameless was still up hitting the books.” He looked meaningfully at Twilight who blushed slightly at what she had to know was coming. “After a very intense welcome I was able to clear up a certain misunderstanding ” he shot Applejack a pointed glare “regarding her grandmother.”
It took every bit of bedside manner Dr. Scott had to stifle her laughter and keep a straight face as she replied.
“Well mercifully no one here is culpable for the various... eccentricities of their family. I take it your meeting didn’t go quite the way Granny Smith intended it to?”
Both the Captain and Twilight were blushing visible by now.
“No. No it did not. I had arranged to meet her in hopes of getting a advice and a present for a certain special somepony. After she understood, well, let’s just say we had a good laugh over dinner and I got the advice I was looking for.”
“Advice?”
His ridged smile softened into something more real as he glanced to his left.
“I play the guitar, and was wondering if Twilight would enjoy learning on an instrument of her own. Granny liked the idea, said Twi had a beautiful voice and that it sounded like a good idea. She even told me about a shop that would custom match her color. What I hadn’t expected was how quick a student you would be.” He finished looking over at Twilight.
“Oh come on, it wasn’t that hard to learn.”
Dr Scot raised an eyebrow at that.
“You taught her to play scales on the guitar?”
Flash just shook his head.
“Oh, she can do a bit more than scales and cords... What do you say Twi, do you feel up to a quick encore?”
“I don’t know, the guitar is all the way upstairs...” Twilight tried to back peddle in embracement.
He just looked at her with a proud encouraging smile and put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Oh... alright, but only a quick song...”
There was a purple flash and the teleported guitar hung suspended in the air before Twilight who reached out and grabbed it. She plucked the strings in sequence, tuning them up with the speed and ease of long practice, then...
What followed was every bit the performance of a skilled performer. Soon every person and pony in the cafeteria had paused to watch and when she wound down to a stop quite a few of them applauded. Even Rainbowdash had picked her face up off the table and was looking impressed.
“Wow Twilight, how come you never told me you could play?”
Twilight arched an eyebrow in her direction as she leaned the guitar against the table and sat down again.
“Because I couldn’t, Dash. I’d never played an instrument before last night.”
There was dead silence at the table as they all stared at her.
When the punch line failed to arrive Rarity spoke up.
“Um, darling, you must mean you’d never taken formal lessons on that particular instrument, right?”
Twilight’s look of confusion grew as she turned to Rarity.
“No, I mean I’ve never played an instrument. I was always too busy with my studies to pick up a hobby like that.”
There was a long pause until at last Dr Scot looked to Flash.
“Well I don’t know how things work in equestrian, but here on earth it would take several years of disciplined effort to get that proficient with an instrument... Is it normal over there to pick up a new instrument and immediately know how to play?”
Now Flash was beginning to look confused as well.
“Well no, but we had a really productive session last night, and she worked on it for a long time with my guidance...”
“Captain... Did I understand you right that you arrived here around eight to ten PM? And you only had ten to twelve hours total between arrival and now to do any teaching and still get some sleep?”
“Well... Yes...” Twilight responded as she and Flash shared a look that was equal parts confused and worried. “Yes that’s right... Flash, they have a point; How did I get this good this fast?”
“I... I don’t know...”
Thinking quickly, Dr Scott decided to defuse this line of questioning until Twilight could safely approach it without a panic attack.
“Well regardless of how you did it I for one am impressed. And it’s not like anyone ever got in trouble for learning too much too fast. Did anyone else get up to anything interesting last night?”
“I do believe Rainbow learned something about earth beverages and liquors.” Rarity snarked politely as she sipped her tea. “Apparently the ‘Crocodile Help’ drink company was trying to get her as a sponsor and even offered to name their blue flavor ‘Rainbow Blast’. Things were going well right up until somepony suggested they seal the deal at a local bar.”
Dr. Scott gave her a level gaze.
“And you know all of this... how?”
“Well somepony had to keep her from drowning in these unfamiliar toilets while she... divested herself of some of the night’s celebratory beverages.” Rarity sighed dramatically. “And along the way I got to hear all about the nights events... whether I wanted to or not.”
“Hey, I told this native Everclear was stronger than whatever liquid rainbows are, but somebody wouldn’t listen to me.” Dashy chastised.
“It was clear and watery! How was I supposed to know it would be that strong?” Rainbow complained holding her head.
“Maybe by listening to someone who knew the local drinks?” Dashy shot back through gritted teeth. “When I checked out and left you to it, that should have been a big hint.”
“Hey, you are not my mother Dashy!”
“Yeah? Well here’s something else your mother wouldn’t do.” Dashy replied as she put a hoof to her lips and blew a high shrill whistle that made everyone cringe and Rainbow groan in pain.
“Mental note:” Flash muttered under his breath “Never tick off the pony you share a body with while hung-over...”
“Whelp,” Applejack said at length “some of us got actual work done yesterday.”
“This work wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with avoiding a certain ‘talk’ back home with your dear grandmother would it?” Rarity replied in a sweat tone.
The farmer was instantly red cheeked as she tried to ignore the remark.
“Anyhow, I spent some time with them geneticists who are working on the new foal bodies grown on our DNA. It turned out that the recessive genes for our coat color-“
What followed was a graduate level thesis on the genetic influences of intelligence and personality, and how it was likely the changes they had invented yesterday would result in better bodies with less bleed over from the host’s genetics. Total silence had fallen some time ago as Applejack continued to talk, but it was only now that she paused for response that she noticed all the slack jawed faces watching her.
“What?”
“Applejack, when did you learn to speak egg head?” Rainbow asked in astonishment.
“Whataya mean? This is how I always talk.”
Twilight placed a shaking hoof on the table before her to stop the tremors.
“Applejack. That was an insightful explanation of equine genetics that would impress me if it came from the mouth of biochemistry student. How in Tartarus do you know all that?
Applejack’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Are you calling me simple?”
Dr. Scott shook off her shock enough to put a hand on Applejack's shoulder.
“Applejack, I’m a doctor. I’ve been through years of biology, biochemistry and medical school and I had to work to follow some of that. Have you ever had formal education in genetic engineering or cellular programming?”
“Well, no...”
“Then...” She surged her shoulders and held out her arms, “How???”
There was a long pause as the same look of confusion slowly crossed AJ’s face.
“Well I did spend a lot a time with those scientists yesterday. I guess some of their terminology done rubbed off on me.”
...
Twilight sat fidgeting on the back seat with Rainbow and Dr. Scot as their car took the onramp to the freeway and began to leave the town behind.
“Girls, something is very wrong here and I need to get back to my lab to figure out what’s happening.”
“Oh come on Twi. So Applejack took a crash course in egghead; so what? She’s still the same pony as before.”
Twilight shot Rainbow an irritated glare as Dashy shrugged and looked apologetic.
“It’s not that simple Rainbow! Ponies don’t just absorb a biochemistry degree in a day! Or learn to play an instrument in only a night!”
“Depends on the instrument...” Rainbow snarked with a wicked grin. A moment latter Dashy’s hoof smacked her across the forehead drawing an irritated “Ow!”
Dr. Scot rolled her eyes as Twilight sputtered.
“It is strange, that’s for sure. You’re certain that nothing like this ever happens back in Equestria?”
“Outside of tall tales and ancient legend, no, no it does not. Now don’t get me wrong, the idea of a school that could grant a college degree in a week?” Twilight closed her eyes and shivered all over. “Yes. Yes, that I would very much like to see. But until we know how and why this is happening we don’t know where it’s going or what the side effects will be.”
Dr Scot leaned back in thought.
“Well what do you remember about last night?”
“Well I-” Twilight paused to look at Rainbows grin, sighed, then continued. “I started off just looking at the guitar; I’d never even held one before. Then Flash showed me how to grip it right and played a few cords with me. We worked through the sequence of our first song together as I got a feel for it-”
“Hold on.” Rainbow held up a hoof “You mean he played the song and you watched?”
“No... I played the song and he helped.”
“Did you know the song before?”
“Well, no...”
“Then how did you know what to do?” Dashy asked incredulously.
“He guided my hooves.”
“Oooohh!” The leer was back on Rainbow as she poked her friend. “So you were sitting on his lap so he could hold your hooves?”
“No, he was sitting on the chair while I sat on the bed.”
Silence reigned for a moment.
“Twilight, ” Dr. Scot asked with strained patience “how was he guiding your hooves from across the room?”
Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“He just played the song through my hooves while I memorized what it felt like and then gradually took over.”
“So... your colt friend just took physic control of your body.” She paused. “And you didn’t see anything odd about this?”
Twilight blinked owlishly.
“No, no I did not... Why didn’t I notice that?!”
As Rainbow tried to calm Twilight, Dr. Scot mused out loud.
“So we have two Equestrian ponies learning an Equestrian instrument on earth... Could it be something different about my world? Or something in it?”
The discussion continued in this vein for several more minutes without any hard conclusions before their driver interrupted from the front of the vehicle.
“Okay, what did you do now?”
The three of them stared at each other before turning back to Ms Glover at the wheel.
“Uh, I think we missed something. What’s going on?”
The car slowed rapidly as it pulled over and stopped with Glover repeating her irritable inquiry.
“There, ahead in the sky. What is that?”
Unable to follow her view through the windshield from the back seat, Dr. Scot opened the door and climbed out for a better look around. The day was sunny and clear, perhaps 75 degrees F without a cloud to be seen out to the horizon as far as she could tell.
“What? I don’t see anything.”
More doors opened and the others piled out onto the edge of the road with her as their driver pointed ahead up at a dimly visible band of color she’d missed.
“That. What is that?”
Rainbow made a rude noise and waved a hoof dismissively.
“That’s a rainbow, what else would it be? Don’t you have rainbows on earth?”
Dr. Scot looked alarmed as the pieces fell into place.
“Uh girls? Did you do this?”
“Not as far as I know...” Twilight replied with a raised eyebrow. “What’s wrong? I’ve learned enough to know earth does have rainbows like this.”
Dr. Scot put a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder.
“Dashy, Rainbow, what conditions are needed to make a rainbow?”
“Droplets of water suspended in the air...” Dashy stated slowly as her eyebrows climbed.
“What are you talking about?” Rainbow chided “Those help, but we have rainbows without that all the time!”
“Finish that thought.” Dashy said slowly.
“Yes, you have rainbows without natural conditions all the time. In Equestria.”
“Oh...”
“Uh oh...”
...
Before today if someone had asked the good doctor Scootaloo what the procedure was for dealing with extra terrestrial weather events, she would asked them if they were feeling well. Now as the group found themselves hunting for the end of the rainbow with two pegasi and a limonene she couldn’t help but quickly check her vitals on the heads up display.
‘It’s a heck of a day when you wish you were only delirious because it would be simpler than dealing with reality.’ She groused.
“Hey, I see something!”
“Yeah, it’s coming from over there.”
Unlike a normal rainbow that could turn into a full circle if viewed from the sky, this rainbow seemed to blow with the wind. The closer they got, the less it looked like a real rainbow, and the more it looked like some kind of rainbow colored smoke rising into the air.
It even seemed to be coming out of the exhaust stacks of a power plant...
“Hey Rainbow,” Dashy called out to herself “do power stations in Equestria generally sprout rainbows?”
“Uh, no. Rainbow falls concentrate and refine the stuff, but they don’t make rainbow from nothing.”
The three of them glided into the facility, landing with two hard ‘clack’s of hooves on concrete. Twilight and Glover followed their GPS beacon and met them at the front gate several confusing minutes later. Apparently the underpaid guards at the front desk had not received training on how to deal with government agents and flying ponies. After an awkward twenty minutes they eventually got the plant engineer to meet them and answer some questions.
“Now that you mention it, it does kind of look like a rainbow doesn’t it?” she agreed looking up at the steam rising into the morning air.
“It’s a lot more obvious from the air.” Scootaloo replied “Are you guys celebrating pride week or something?”
“No... No, when the front gate told me that some flying ponies were asking questions about the plant’s rainbow factory, my first question not regarding pharmaceuticals was just that, directed at our PR expert. This isn’t anything we’re doing.”
By now they group had covered about half the distance to the first building connected to one of the smoke stacks. Rainbow and Dashie took off to get a better look from the top of the stack while the rest of them proceeded to the roll up foam and metal door which the engineer opened with a key card. What had been a background thrum half felt through the ground became a deafening roar as the door ascended making Dr Scott flinch back as Twilight effortlessly conjured small purple bubbles over her ears. With a grumble she fished her spare ear plugs out of her pack (working on a helicopter all night did come with a few perks) and passed under the door. Inside of the building was packed full of complicated machinery connected together by a dimly lit web of pipes and cable conduits. The door descended behind them and as their eyes adjusted to the dim output of the old high bay LED lamps the prominent shapes of the huge gas turbine and its matched generator became clear a bit further in.
Years ago natural gas turbines like this old thing would have run round the clock to feed the grid, but solar and wind power had become cheaper than fossil fuels decades ago, and with grid batteries to level load the system for still cloudy days, these old systems had a pretty quiet retirement these days.
“By the way, why is this plant running during the day?” Scootaloo shouted over the deafening roar of the turbine.
“We’re under contract to run a certain number of kilowatt hours per month, mainly at night.” The engineer replied. “If we don’t produce our quota by the end of the month they pay us to run it in the day. They need us for the bad times so we get subsidized when everything works as it should.”
She gestured to one of the foreman and a moment latter the noise began to diminish as the huge turbine lost power and began to slow from its original obscene speed, to a merely ridiculous speed.
“The maintenance team love it this way. Any downtime they need, they just ask for it at the end of the month and we give them all the repair time they need.” She ran a hand absently through her graying hair, “You should have seen it in the good old days. Total madness to keep the turbines fired round the clock without rest. I sure don’t miss those times.”
Making a note to read up on electrical power grid design in the last decades, Twilight filed the information away and called their attention back to the task at hand.
“How hot is the gas coming out of these stacks? Is it possible someone put colorful chemicals into the exhaust scrubbers?”
“Wouldn’t that just result in a single muddy color?” Dr Scootaloo Scott replied.
Twilight was examining the in feed natural gas line, and gave the sample valve a quick quarter turn open and closed. A slight hint of natural gas odorant emerged from the small purple force bubble she’d placed at the pipes end, but there was definitely no trace of rainbows in the gas.
“Okay, if it isn’t in the turbine input gas…” Twilight absently burned the bubble of gas and let it go as she wormed her way through the tangled machinery towards the exhaust filters at the end of the turbine. Her magic had felt stronger than usual ever since they had entered the building, and on a whim she grabbed the handles of the exhaust scrubber filter port, threw up a containment force field and removed the door with almost no effort.
A safety alarm blared as the cover came off, but a quick depression of the safety interlock switch silenced it and she stared into a chamber lit by blinding rainbows.
After a moment to ensure that they were not going to be burned by the open exhaust port, the engineer and Scootaloo came closer for a look of their own.
“It’s full of rainbows…”
A fourth head was abruptly thrust into their midst as Dashy and Rainbow rejoined them.
“Hey, Rainbow here says this stuff is concentrated magic – apparently it makes pony magic stronger and does something hippie-related to the equestrian environment?”
Twilight was staring at the vortex of gradually dimming rainbows behind her shield in something like astonishment.
“I think you’re right Rainbow… But places like rainbow falls, they’re just distribution points… They server an important role in Equestria, but they don’t really produce magic… This…”
Scootaloo frowned.
“Wait, we know earth didn’t originally have magic, and we know the little bit you brought with you is pretty limited without an environment saturated with whatever these ‘magic’ particles are. Does this mean the magic is… multiplying? Trying to take over the earth?” She paused for a moment. “I don’t even know if that’s a good or a bad thing…”
The engineer shook her head.
“Hold on a moment here. I’ve been following what published research there is on magic, and the latest information suggests some kind of nanomachine network though it’s proving devilishly difficult to pin down.”
Rainbow looked up at the graying engineer incredulously.
“You know about magic?”
She waved the question aside.
“This isn’t the movies, nanomachines or whatever, any machine needs energy and raw materials to make copies of itself. For you to be right…” she trailed off as she held up one finger, hunting along a bank of instruments and tapping at the touch screen.
“Exhaust stack temp, I know it’s in here somewhere…”
With an amused snort the foreman who had shut down the turbine leaned over her shoulder and deftly brought up the exhaust temperature information.
“Yeah, it’s been a lot hotter than usual in here lately, that’s why we’ve got all the upper windows open. We thought the insulation was just failing on the stack piping.”
The engineer pulled out her tablet for some back of the napkin calculations, her eyebrows rising as the results were checked and double checked.
“There’s energy missing… A lot of it. Look at where the exhaust gas and coolant temperatures should be compared to where they are – something is sucking up that heat!”
“Magic likes to be hot?” Rainbow asked in confusion before sighing as Dashy replied: “No bird brain, heat is energy, as in energy to make something – didn’t you ever read a physics book?” Her face quickly contorted into an affronted frown as Rainbow scorned all things egg head, before falling into a look of profound sadness as Dashy replied “Not all of us got to play outside you know.”
The sight of the blue pony trying to hug and apologize to herself was confusing enough the engineer lost her train of thought and just stared.
Scootaloo shook her head again,
“Okay, so if you’re right that explains the low stack temperatures and high temperatures inside the building here – something is venting the stack heat from hot inside to’ cold’ out here in the shed and using the difference as useful energy… but where is the raw material coming from? You can’t make something from nothing.” She finished authoritatively, leaning up against a pile of discarded piping against one wall.
She suddenly stumbled and fell in heap when what should have been hundreds of pound of scrap metal parts collapsed under her weight like rusty tinfoil.
The entire group stood dumbstruck as Scootaloo hauled herself upright in a cloud of dust.
“I’m okay!”
“What.”
After a moment the engineer turned to her forman and asked slowly,
“Didn’t you say you thought one of your people was stealing scrap metal?”
“Yeah… Yeah I did, things have been turning up missing around here for a couple of months now, ever since we hired that new guy. I’ve never been able to prove it was him…”
Dashie snorted
“Three guesses why.”
“Uh, does anyone have a level?” Scootaloo asked slowly.
“Yeah, I got one in the tool box.” The foreman replied “What for?”
“Has… Has anyone else noticed the floor isn’t level anymore?”
The foreman just laughed.
“Honey, this place is one giant slab of concrete. Has to be with stuff like this mounted on it.” He slapped the turbine meaningfully. “And concrete is poured. As in poured like a liquid. It can’t NOT be level.”
Scootaloo reached into a nearby tray of mixed bolts and parts, selected a dirty ball bearing and carefully placed it on the smooth floor.
The bearing immediately began rolling towards the generator, picking up speed and striking with a ‘Clack!’ loud enough to be clearly heard over the slowing turbine.
Everyone stared for a moment. Eventually it was Twilight who broke the silence.
“I think it might be wise to find out how much material is missing from under this floor. Would I be right in assuming that a sink hole would be bad news for your business?”
…
Some time later as they made their way back to the limo it was Agent Glover who posed the obvious question.
“So your magic is making more of itself and it’s using any heat or power source to do so?”
“Yes.” Twilight responded. “Now that we’re looking for it it’s easier to see: It doesn’t look like much to those incompatible with magic, but look at that big truck over there.” She indicated a tractor trailer pulling into the gates. “You can just see the slightest traces of rainbow coming out of the stacks. The magic must have been hitching rides across the world this way, spreading from machine to machine and making more of itself out of the waste heat from the engines and any handy raw material.”
“Isn’t that going to be a problem for the aircraft industry?”
Agent Glover stopped dead in her tracks, cursed fluently for a moment in a language none of them new, then wiped out her phone and began franticly dialing.
“Uh… on the plus side, it didn’t seem to have eaten the turbine house, just everything else nearby… Maybe it’s smart enough to not be a problem?” Rainbow asked.
“Hopefully, but I doubt the average consumer is going to be happy about it. At this rate there might be a market for pegasus chariots sooner than I thought.”
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uh so magic is eating tech.....or something?
9367187
Any engine or generator allows energy to flow from a hot high pressure side to a cold, low pressure side. Whether coal fired steam power plant, diesel engine, geo-thermal powerplant or gas weed wacker, all engines use this principal to extract useful work. We don't know exactly what is happening, but we can say that energy is being extracted, useful metals are being mined from the environment, and more 'magic' is being manufactured. Those who payed attention will also notice that several formerly 'impossible' things like teleportation on earth are suddenly becoming possible as the ambient concentration of 'magic' rises. And there are also signs of 'magic' working in ways not previously seen in Equestria; earn a degree in organic chemistry overnight anyone?
Something new and different is happening, but what and why? That remains to be seen
I can totally believe it.
You monster.
Very interesting...
(And nice to see you're still working on this!)
A number of typos - "new" instead of "knew". The sort of thing a spellchecker tends to miss. I'll list them all later, after I had some sleep. I'll put them here, in this post as an edit.
I had completely forgotten about Dashy/Dashie and Rainbow.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hearths Warming.
Hhhhmmmmm, Magic is tricky. I can't wait to see what Twilight and Scootaloo figure out by working together!
I am very interested to see what they find to be your version of magic in this stories universe.
Will there ever be new chapters?
10620580
Maybe... It's tough to pick it up again after all this time, but thank you for showing an interest : )