Chapter 9: Settling In
Chapter 9: Settling In
Perspective: Edgar Worthington
Location: Sugarcube Corner, Ponyville, Equestria
Date: October 26, 2025
7:02p.m.
The room was deathly silent after the stupidest remark I have ever made was said. I kinda feel bad for humanity at this point; if we really do die here, the last thing we (as a unwilling representation of humans) will be remembered for will be…yea, that. Pinkie (and everyone else for that matter), still dumbstruck by the situation, stared at us with abnormally large eyes. I continued fake-smiling.
“C…counter surprise?” asked Pinkie slowly, breaking the awkward silence in the room.
“Y-yea,” replied Mike. “You know, when someone surprises you, and you surprise them back…yea. A…counter-surprise.” He finished that with a not-as-subtle-as-it-should-have-been look in my direction that screamed ‘really?’. ‘Shut up man! I know it sucks, I was under pressure! It’s the best I could come up with!’ We stood there, watching to see if anyone would ‘magic-man-handle’ us into the nearest holes and declare them our graves. The corners of Pinkie’s mouth twitched. I flinched. Ever so slowly, they tugged upwards little by little, until she was giggling away with a smile showing off all her teeth.
“A counter surprise!” she said. “Why didn’t I think of that; it’s brilliant! Heeheehee, you humans are so much fun! *GASP* Eddy, didn’t you pull that surprise machine-thingy out in the hospital too? Were you going to counter surprise me there too!? That’s so cool! Now I have to be ready for surprises and counter surprises! I need another party cannon!! But what if they have a counter counter surprise?…”
As Pinkie continued to ramble on, the guests noticeably relaxed, and the tense air started to clear. We let out a breath in relief. I noticed I was still holding on to Eddy’s arm at the wrist, having angled the firearm just in time. I turned my head lethargically and mechanically to face him, then quickly leaned in.
“What the hell was that?” I whispered harshly. “You could’ve killed her!”
“That was the point,” he said, emphasizing the word ‘point’ by pulling his arm free at that moment. He rubbed his wrists a bit, then holstered the weapon. “Excuse me everyone, I need a smoke,” he said, turning around. We looked at him, confused.
“Eddy, you don’t smoke,” I pointed out.
“And no one needed to know till you called it out, dumbass!” he called out, before exiting the building and slamming the door. 'Great...'
“You’ll have to forgive him,” I said. “He’s not much of a social guy. But enough of that, let’s start this party that you so graciously prepared for us.”
“Woo, let’s party!” yelled Pinkie. A white mare with electric-blue hair and goggles, who was standing by what appeared to be a DJ booth, manipulated some unseen controls. Music started playing from the speakers, and the lights dimmed down and flashed in time with the music.
I have to say, Pinkie sure can run a party! She managed to seemingly attend to everyone at once, yet still managed to enjoy the party as well. The music selection was not bad, the pastries were delicious, and everyone was really chill and friendly. Mike and Jonathon also seemed to enjoy the party, and appeared to have equal success at socializing.
It looks like parties in Equestria were similar to parties on Earth (when they were still around anyways). In fact, the only part that seemed odd was that Twilight seemed to be zoned out, deep in thought rather than enjoying herself. It wasn’t hard to pick her out; not only is she purple, she was the only per- err, pony in the room just sitting at a table (alone). Eventually, she came over and asked where Eddy had gone. I told her he was probably still outside, and she thanked me and headed for the door.
Wonder what that was about.
Perspective: Eddy Culivin
Location: Sugarcube Corner, Ponyville, Equestria
Date: October 26, 2025
“*Sigh* 14 left now. Didn’t even need to waste it, they didn’t do anything,” I muttered. I slid the magazine back into the handgun, and returned the pistol to its rightful place. Behind me, the music was thumping softly away, lights flashing in time. ‘An innocent party. That’s all it was Eddy, an innocent party.’ Ok, so I jumped to conclusions, alright!? I’m sorry; I can’t exactly help the constant paranoia I have, it’s how I’ve gotten by! I’m sorry…
I sighed for the umpteenth time this evening. ‘Maybe I should just call it a night. They obviously don’t need me, and I don’t really want to go in there. Maybe I could walk around…it is a beautiful night outside. Heh, haven’t been able to enjoy a view like this since-’
“Hey.”
“GAAH!!...*huff* *huff* Yea, gimme a heart attack why don’t you.”
“I’m sorry.” I turned around to find none other than Twilight herself. Wonder if she just came to bug me with more questions. “You really don’t like surprises, do you?” she asked.
“Let’s just say…it’s been a while since my last ‘good’ surprise,” I replied. I sat back down on the porch, the purple mare taking a seat to my right.
“What happened on Earth? From what you’ve told me, it sounds like a nice place to live.”
“…I don’t want to talk about it.”
“But why?”
“Twilight, please. Just…drop it.”
“Oh come on!” she cried suddenly, startling me. “You almost killed one of my friends, give me something!!”
“I told you that was a count-”
“Eddy,” she interrupted, looking me straight in the eye with a serious, no-nonsense stare. I almost found myself withering under those piercing violet eyes. It was like she was peering into my soul. “You and I both know that’s a blatant lie.” She pointed to my right pocket, where the bulge of the 910 contained inside was showing. “Is that your ‘counter-surprise’ device?”
“How did you-”
“I saw when you withdrew it.”
“…yea, it is. What about it?” I was on guard, though it probably served no purpose at this point. I had the strongest hunch she had figured it out, and I was caught red-handed.
“Let me see it,” she said more so than asked.
“No.”
“Then that proves it.”
“Proves what!?”
“The only tech you said I couldn’t see was weapon tech. If you don’t want me to see it, then that’s the only thing it could be, a weapon; a terrifying one at that. I only saw the hole the projectile left in the wall, not the projectile itself.” ‘Damn this woman is clever! Don’t think I’m worming my way outta this.’
“You know, it could just be a personal item I don’t want you to see.”
“Then which is it?” she asked, her gaze never leaving mine. “A personal item or a weapon?” ‘She knows…fuck!’
“Alright Twilight!” I cried out, exasperated. “I over-reacted! I assessed the situation wrong and made a bad call! Are you happy now!?”
“No!” she replied, glaring at me. “This only confirms my suspicion that you did almost kill my friend! Of course I’m not happy!” The glaring contest continued, though deep down I knew that I didn’t really have a right to be angry, I just was. After a while, her gaze softened.
“Look, I know this isn’t easy for you, and I’m not going to pretend I know what you’re going through. But please, let me help you. I don’t know what’s bothering you now, or what’s wrong on Earth, and I’ll stay ignorant unless you say something.” She did make a strong argument, and I knew her request was not unreasonable. That said though, how do I explain the horrors of Earth to her in a way that wouldn’t cause her to recoil in disgust?
“…Look, humanity made a…‘mistake’ four years ago,” I began. “It was really ugly, and I don’t want to talk in detail about it. Just know that bad things happened.”
“Are bad things still happening now?”
“…Maybe.”
“Is…is that why you have to return?”
“…Perhaps.” I was really uncomfortable giving her all this information. I was even more surprised and uncomfortable that she had managed to get me to talk, even if my answers were…vague, at best. I didn’t want to tell her anything! I looked over and saw Twilight staring up at the sky, lost in thought. Guess she wasn’t sharing the same mental turmoil I was, but then again I couldn’t really tell. I joined her, basking in the light from the full moon and enjoying the vast array of stars.
“…The night sky’s really beautiful here,” I commented. Twilight glanced over.
“Does it look the same on Earth as it does here?” she asked.
“Yea, more or less. I mean, the constellations are probably different, but it’s still stars, planets, and a moon.”
“Who controls your sun and moon?”
“No one.”
“They control themselves!?”
“Yea, it’s all gravity and spinning and all this physics-y stuff that runs our universe. Still can’t believe someone actually controls the sun and moon here; that’s just crazy, at least from an alien’s perspective. I guess this is what you guys are used to, so our universe probably seems equally weird.”
“…I’d love to see it sometime. It sounds fascinating,” she said softly, a small smile on her face.
“Yea…who knows.” God knows how long we sat there, but eventually, the boys came out. Seems they had a good time; they came out chuckling with a small group of mares as the party wound down. A few of them were familiar.
“..So you actually grow your apple trees naturally? No fertilizers, pesticides, etcetera?” asked Edgar.
“I sure as sugar do!” replied Applejack. “Would y’all like ta see it sometime?”
“Yea, that’d be great!” said Jonathon. “As soon as we fix everything back home, we’d love to come over. *Glances over* Eddy, there you are! Where have…oh wow, you actually opened up to someone?” He finished that with a tilt of the head in Twilight’s direction.
“We had a conversation, that’s it,” I replied. “Now come on, it’s late and we’ve got a long day tomorrow.” We said our goodbyes and set off, slowly of course since it was dark. The guys kept pestering me to spill the beans on what happened between Twilight and I, which was annoying. Why is it that when you say ‘nothing happened’ and sincerely mean it, they still don’t believe you? Eventually, we pulled in, Edgar noting the truck now had less than 1/4 tank left. We got inside and went through our nightly routines. The last thing we did was lock all the doors, close all the windows, and turn out the lights. We turned the A/C on; it wasn’t hot outside, felt like early fall weather, but we had all the windows closed.
As I went to bed though, I couldn’t get an image out of my head. It was Twilight, staring up at the stars while being bathed in the soft white light from the moon, a small smile on her face. My brain must be more out of it than I thought. Meh, nothing a good night’s sleep can’t fix.
Perspective: Mike Britowski
Location: Ponyville Outskirts, Equestria
Date: October 27, 2025
7:30a.m.
I was jolted awake when I thought I heard a yell. I listened quietly, trying to hear it again, but the sound never came. I climbed out of bed carefully and ghosted my way out of the room and up the stairs. There was movement above me, letting me know someone was in the attic. Satisfied we weren’t in danger, I walked to the ladder.
“Yo,” I called up the ladder. “Everything alright up there?”
“Yea, everything’s alright,” a voice called down, followed shortly by Eddy descending the ladder. “The pack’s unbalanced, pretty bad too. The wind stopped early yesterday, so we didn’t generate enough power. The pack’s gone critical again. The fridge and freezer will be fine, but don’t expect any A/C today.”
“*Sigh* Well, that’s a shame. Edgar is not going to be happy about that. Any idea when Jon’ll have the biodiesel generator running?”
“He said maybe as early as today, depending on what he finds. We should tell Edgar to start making biodiesel, if possible.” As Eddy was folding the ladder to the attic so the door would close, Jonathon ascended the stairs, a mug of coffee in his hands.
“Morning guys,” he greeted. “Anyone know why the power’s out?”
“Pack’s critical…again,” I replied.
“Well that sucks.”
“Yea, you better get cracking at that generator if you don’t want this to keep happening,” said Eddy. As we discussed our plans for the day, The door to Edgar's room swung open, revealing a very sleepy Edgar. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and scratched his bed-head hair. “Morning,” he said groggily. “It’s kinda muggy in here, someone turn on the A/C.”
“Can’t,” I replied. “There’s no power.”
“Ugh, really? Damn…really could use a coffee right now.”
“No power dude, remember?”
“Right…wait, then how does Jon have one?”
“Instant coffee, heated carefully with that torch you and Mike pulled from the warehouse. If you want, you can have the half-mug that’s left,” Jonathon offered. Edgar thanked him, accepted the mug, and took a sip. “Eh, not bad, I’ve had worse. So what’s on the agenda for today?”
“Well, Jon needs to fix the generator,” I began listing. “Eddy said something about the Ultracap bank needing to be ‘balanced’ or something, I need to re-inventory our ammo supply and clean our guns cause we cycled a lot of rounds through them, and we were hoping you could start making some diesel.”
“Yea, that makes sense,” Edgar said. “One question though; who attends to our guests?”
“Guests?” Jon asked.
“Don’t you remember? Celestia was talking about sending some ponies over to look at our tech.”
“Ah crap, that’s right! I guess Mike’ll let them in and explain that we’re fixing stuff today, and tell them they’re welcome to observe anyone of they’d like.”
“They’re not welcome to observe me,” Eddy muttered.
“Yea uh-huh we’ll let them know,” I dismissed. I would remember to specifically tell one of them to observe Eddy later, just to piss him off. We split, each heading for a different part of the house. I went to my room; a large portion of our stock was moved there yesterday before the children arrived. Eddy climbed the stairs, heading for the attic where the Ultracap bank was. Jonathon stepped outside into the generator shed. A sizable amount of tools followed him in there. Finally, Edgar headed off towards the garage. After all, the chemicals we collected were still loaded into the Model X. As I worked, I made sure to keep an ear out for the door, in case they knocked or rang the doorbell.
30 minutes later
*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK* Looks like Edgar was right, they came today. I had just lubed up an air rifle’s internals, so I washed my hands quickly before answering the door. There were three ponies at the door, two mares and a stallion. One of the mares had a magenta coat, with a purple mane and tail with a lighter purple and a pink stripe. And…wait.
“Twilight?” I asked more to myself than her. She answered anyways.
“Good morning,” she replied cheerfully. “Is it alright if we come in today?”
“Yes, of course, come in!” I stepped aside as Twilight and the other two ponies stepped in. They weren’t familiar, but judging by the uniform, I could tell they were guards. They acted less edgy than the guards did last time, at least one of them did anyway. Twilight spoke up.
“They insisted on coming despite my several attempts to dissuade them,” she said. “I’m really sorry about this.”
“It’s no problem at all.” I turned to the guards. “Hello there, I’m Mike. Pleased to meet you,” I said, extending out my hand. The stallion went first. He had an orange coat and blue eyes and tail, though his mane (and most of his coat) was hidden under the armor he wore. He was about 5’11” and average build. “Flash Sentry, nice meeting you,” he said kindly. It seems they were friendly after all.
The mare also stepped forth, though much more reluctantly. She sported a white coat, with a light yellow tail and golden eyes. Like her fellow male guard, most of her coat and all of her mane was hidden from sight thanks to the armor. Speaking of which, her armor was exactly like Flash’s, but more contoured to comfortably fit the female body. She was a little shorter than Flash, maybe 5’9”, and was of average build as well. She extended her hand tentatively. “Sword Smith,” was all she said as she shook my hand. 'I wonder if suspicious, cynical people get along. Maybe she’d like to meet Eddy?'
“Well, we’re busy today cleaning up and repairing the place after the trip over messed things up,” I partially lied in order to stick to the fib we told everyone yesterday. We were cleaning, but other circumstances were responsible for the mess. “You guys are welcome to observe as you please, though I must ask you to refrain from entering that room. *I point to my room* A large part of our weapon stock is in there, and I really need to inventory it today.”
Edgar came in at that moment. “Ah, the scientists have come to observe their latest lab rats, have they?” he said. Twilight’s face flushed red and she began stuttering.
“No wait…that’s not…I mean it’s not-”
“Whoa, relax. I was just playing around,” he said, chuckling. He then glanced past Twilight. “Oh? Seems you brought company. And who are these two fine-looking guards?” I introduced him to everyone, Flash once again being much friendlier than Sword. We ran through the plan for today, and I think it was at this point that Edgar realized that to make biodiesel, he would have to find some vegetable oil in town.
“Flash, I have a favor to ask of you,” said Edgar. “Mind accompanying me into town? I don’t know my way around. Plus...well, I’m not sure how the townspeople will react to a human wandering the streets alone. Not everyone knows of us.”
“Yea, I’ll come with,” he replied. Sword wasn’t too keen on that.
“Flash, you’re leaving Twilight and me alone with them?” she asked incredulously. Flash surprised everyone by quickly wheeling around.
“Sword Smith, I’ve had just about enough of this ‘dangerous humans’ nonsense! Enough!” ‘…awkward…’ He quickly calmed down, and turned once again to face us. He seemed a little embarrassed about his outburst. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid she was getting on my last nerve. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to have somepony who constantly mistrusts and talks trash about aliens when they’ve done nothing wrong?”
I couldn’t help laughing at the coincidence. “Yes I do!” I blurted out. “Eddy’s the exact same way!” We shared a laugh then, well, except Sword. She left, grumbling something about ‘checking up on the hidden human outside’. Flash was accompanying Edgar to the garage, when he said the carriage that brought him could take them there. Edgar accepted, his truck’s critical fuel level deciding for him. After they left, it was just Twilight and me in the living room.
“So…” she began.
“Don’t worry, I’ll find something for you to do,” I replied. ‘Let’s see now, Edgar’s gone now, she can’t observe me for reasons obvious, and Jonathon’s about to get company. That leaves…’ I know this was an evil plan, and Eddy was going to hate me for it, but I couldn’t help it. I faced Twilight and motioned her closer to me.
I knew exactly who I was sending up to see Eddy.
Perspective: Eddy Culivin
Location: Ponyville Outskirts, Equestria
Date: October 27, 2025
“This has to be the most poorly balanced pack I have seen in a long time,” I muttered grimly to myself aloud. Let me break it down: each Ultracapacitor is referred to as a “Cell”, each producing 3 volts with tens of thousands of Farads of storage capacity. 40 of these wired in series are known as a “Bank”, producing 120 DC volts. Lots of banks are wired in parallel to produce the “Pack”, and the pack coupled with control/monitoring circuits and the DC/AC converter become the “System”. Each cell should be at the same voltage, but the monitoring circuits atop each cell beg to differ. Ten LEDs on each circuit gives a rough indication of the charge. Most are at 1 LED, but some cells are as high as 3 or down to zero!
“*Sigh* the trip over must’ve really fucked with the system.” There was some quiet conversation going on downstairs; I suppose the ‘guests’ have arrived. Ugh, I’m still not comfortable with the whole ‘being friends with them’ idea. I felt like the rest of the guys have taken too quick a liking to them, for reasons unbeknownst to me. They also seemed to like us, though I strongly suspect the reason for that is so that we share our tech with them. It’s all self-interest! The volume of the conversation downstairs increased, then silenced, then started up again. Not that I cared though; I already left specific instructions to not send anyone up. My friends would honor that request…right? The soft thudding sounds below me alerted me to the presence of someone on the second floor. One of the guys must’ve come to inform me or check my progress.
“Watch your step, cables everywhere!” I called over my shoulder and returned my attention back to the control panel.
“Thanks for the warning,” replied the voice as its owner climbed the ladder to the attic. It’s funny actually, for a moment I could have sworn one of the guys sounded very feminine. Now interested in who was coming up, I peeled away from the panel, and watched the entry-hole in the floor. Purple hair pokes through…’why me…’
“Twilight?” I asked, making a mental note to thoroughly chew out my friends for this later. She just smiled in response, before pulling herself up the rest of the way into the attic. You know, if one thought about it, I really should’ve seen this coming. Celestia needs to send someone observant, intelligent, and thorough in their note-taking to observe us. Someone she trusts, someone who reports directly to her. Who better than her personal student Twilight?
“Mike said you were up here,” said Twilight while looking around. “These metal cylinders look really advanced. What are they? What do they do?” I was just going to kick her out , to tell her that I was incredibly busy and didn’t have time for this, but something stopped me: genuine curiosity. You see, my friends’ hobbies were always considered “cool” and earned them a lot of attention. Edgar could blow stuff up, Mike had his collection of guns, and Jonathon worked on some really nice cars. Circuit-making wasn’t considered ‘cool’, and I was always labeled a nerd because of it. Seeing someone genuinely curious about electronics resonated with something in me. Maybe she could sense this and was playing me to get information; after all, I don’t know how magic works. But I caved in regardless.
“…Well, since you’re not going to leave anytime soon, put these on and follow me,” I said, tossing her a pair of thick rubber gloves to insulate her hands from the current. I led her back to the control panel. On the display, a “5%” was flashing red, indicating the pack’s sorry state. The panel also contained the main disconnect for the pack, as well as the switches to disconnect the individual banks and re-wire the cells within each in parallel, which would equalize the voltage in all the cells. That’s what I had to do now.
“You familiar with electricity?” I asked.
“Yes. It’s used in certain offensive spells, and the weather team uses it all the time to create lightning,” she replied. ‘Create lightning? Well that’s a question I’m definitely going to need the answer to, but perhaps later.’
“Well in this house, a lot of the devices and appliances, as well as the lights use electricity as energy to do stuff. These cylinders here are the storage for that power, and right now they’re all out of whack.”
“What happened to them?”
“Well I’m not sure about this, but I think the trip over screwed with them. It’s either that, or they were neglected for a while. Anyways, each cell, that what the cylinders are called in this context, is supposed to have the same voltage as the rest, but they don’t.”
“Voltage?”
‘Right…’ “Uh, the potential difference. Voltage is the unit we humans use to measure it.”
She cast her gaze over the myriad of cells in the room, contemplating something. She then turned to me. “I see. You said the ‘voltage’ in each of the ‘cells’ is different. Is that why some of these cells have a different number of lights lit up than the rest?”
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I was maybe somewhat enjoying explaining things to someone competent. ‘What’s happening to me? No no, I’m only enjoying a nice conversation, that’s all.’ “You catch on fast, that’s correct. The reason I’m up here is to balance them all out.”
I glanced over at Twilight, who was observing the circuitry on the Ultracaps. “Hey Twilight,” I began. She looked up and made eye contact. “Listen, don’t tell anyone about what I told you about Earth yesterday. I know this sounds stupid, but…I don’t want anyone to know what’s happening on Earth.”
“You have my word,” she replied with a smile. “After all, losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend-”
Suddenly, the blue panel that covers the A/C filter exploded open, an unrecognizable mass of pink skin and curly hair emerging from the opening. “FOR-E-VER!!” the thing screeched.
“AAAAAHH, what the fuck!?” I yelled, tripping and falling on my ass. The thing disappeared into the hole, and Twilight was…she was laughing? I fail to see what’s so funny!
“That was just Pinkie,” she said in-between giggles. ‘NOT. FUNNY. I knew I should’ve killed it with fire at the party!’
“Yo, everything alright up there?” Mike called from the base of the ladder
“Yea, just got startled, that’s it.”
“You sure? That was a pretty loud yell.”
“Don’t you have bullets you need to be counting?”
“Yeesh, alright, I’ll go.”
“And you’re not off the hook buddy,” I called after him. “I’m giving everyone a verbal beat-down tonight!”
I got up and walked to the A/C unit. Grabbing the blue panel, I proceeded to install it back into the unit. Twilight, who had finally stopped giggling, walked up beside me. “So, how are we going to balance the pack?”
I could continue explaining with words, but since I was actually going to balance the pack anyways, I might as well show her. “Here, step up to the panel and I’ll explain…”
Perspective: Jonathon Burley
Location: Ponyville Outskirts, Equestria
Date: October 27, 2025
“With every mistake we must surely be learning,
Still my guitar gently weeps.”
My headphones were playing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, originally by The Beatles, but I preferred the Santana version, which is the one I’m listening to. Seriously, that man can sing with just his instrument! It’s incredible-
“Answer me human!”
“Whoa! …Hey, didn’t see you there.” Standing at the doorway was a female guard, fully clad in armor and wielding a spear. She looked kinda pissed, though as to why, I don’t know.
“I called out to you and you ignored me,” she said. ‘Oh, well that explains it.’ “Why didn’t you acknowledge me when I first called you?”
“I couldn’t hear you; earphones,” I replied, pointing to the black JVC’s in my ear. She huffed, but said nothing more. I currently had the head of the engine off, and was carefully scrubbing the top of the pistons down. Thinking the conversation was over, I went back to that.
“What are you doing, human?” she asked.
“Nothing, just cleaning, pony.”
“I have a name!” she hissed.
“As do I,” I responded nonchalantly. She glared at me, fuming, but was unable to counter my point. If she used my name, I would use hers. She crossed her arms and took a seat at the opposite end of the room, refusing to look at me anymore.
“Jonathon,” I said, not taking my eyes off of my work.
“What?”
“My name. Jon is fine too.” There was an awkward silence after that, so I returned to scrubbing the pistons. I had set aside my iPod at this point; using it now would just be plain rude. Oh well, I guess Santana can wait.
“Sword Smith…” she answered reluctantly.
“Interesting name.”
“Yea? Why’s that?”
“Well, I’m not sure if this is the norm here, but from what I’ve gathered about this world, your name has something to do with your profession. Applejack is an apple farmer, Bon-Bon makes sweets, Roseluck sells flowers; see the trend? What I’m getting at is that your name implies you make weapons, rather than wield them.” Silence…
“So? Did you used to work as a smith?” More silence…ugh, well back to work I g-
“Yea,” she finally answered. After that she let me work for a while. I thought about saying something at times, but what do I say? How do I strike up conversation with someone who doesn’t like me very much? She seems to hate me, for reasons I don’t even know. Was it because I ignored her? *Sigh* I guess I’ll never know. She wasn’t distracting and didn’t touch anything while she sat there (thankfully), but I kept noticing she eyed the small three-cylinder with curiosity. The observation gave me an idea. I waited until she glanced at the engine again.
“Curious?” I asked with a knowing grin. Again, she didn’t answer, but I saw her nod almost imperceptibly.
“If you sit over here, I can show you how it works.”
“No.”
“You don’t want to know?”
“I don’t trust you. Who knows what you’ll do to me.”
“Ah well, can’t help you there. I hope that corner’s comfortable.” It took her a little bit, but she finally gave in and inched over and sat down next to me.
“You better not try anything funny, or I’ll beat you into the ground!” she said.
“You have my word,” I replied calmly. I had no reason to fear that threat if I really wasn’t going to do anything ‘funny’. “Now then, this machine right here is called an Internal Combustion Engine, or I.C.E. for short…”
Perspective: Edgar Worthington
Location: Ponyville, Equestria
Date: October 27, 2025
The carriages here, especially the royal ones, were quite interesting. Apparently (and this was explained to me when I asked the question on the way here), only ‘animals’ walk on four legs; there are no horses and such to draw carriages. So the ponies strap themselves in and pull! Talk about culture shock, but I needed to get to town, and I’d rather not walk. In the case of this royal chariot, four pegasi pulled it along, so we were flying. Flying! It was unbelievable! It was awesome and terrifying at the same time, which only made it more fun. Is that weird? Anyways, the chariot seemed to defy gravity and float behind the pegasi rather than hang from them, like it should do. Eventually we touched down in Ponyville, the locals staring at the chariot. Whether it was because it was royal or because I was on it I had no clue.
“Thanks guys, that was so awesome!” I exclaimed to the pegasi that pulled us along.
“First time riding a chariot?” one of them asked.
“One that flies, yea,” I responded. He laughed.
“Glad you had fun,” he said. I thanked him once more and Flash and I set off. Just then, my stomach started rumbling.
“Heh, whoops,” I said, embarrassed. “Haven’t had lunch yet.
“What do humans eat?” Flash asked.
“A lot of things, but it’s ok. I’ll eat when I get back.” Flash however, wasn’t having any of that.
“The princess allotted you guys a budget for letting Twilight study your tech,” he said. “Let’s go eat somewhere, it’ll be fine.”
I would have to remember to thank the princess next time I saw her. I admit, working on an empty stomach probably wasn’t going to do me any favors, and this would be a chance to try some of the local cuisine.
“Ok sure, but let’s go somewhere where we can get a quick bite to eat,” I said. Flash took me into a local equivalent of a fast-food place. A fair bit of the townspeople still looked at me funny, but ignored them. I guess they’re still not used to us yet. Thankfully, Flash was there; I wouldn’t have wanted to walk in here alone. As we waited in line, the attention I was getting slowly dissipated, which I was most thankful for. I began looking at the menu when we were close.
“Have you ever tried hay fries?” Flash asked.
“Well, humans don’t eat hay, so not really,” I responded. “The veggie burger looks good though.”
“Alright, I’ll go order. Just wait over there.”
“Thanks.” Flash went up to order, and that’s when I learned that their currency was what appeared to be gold coins! Wow, I’d really need to remember to ask Flash about that later. Then again, gold is useless back on Earth. Not much to buy when the economy’s collapsed.
I also noticed something else, something really important that, unlike the gold, was actually very useful right now. I walked up to the cashier next to Flash.
“Excuse me ma’am,” I began. “I couldn’t help but notice; is the oil you’re frying the fries in…vegetable oil?” The cashier looked a bit uncomfortable, probably because I was human.
“Um, yes sir…why?”
“Do you just, you know, throw the oil away when you change it?”
“Well, it collected in barrels until the ponies responsible for disposing of it take it away.” The cashier was very confused, and understandably so. I don’t suppose many customers walk in asking that. But to me however, I know that I just hit the jackpot! I placed my hands on the counter, leaned in very close, and spoke in a low voice.
“I’m going to need every barrel of waste oil you’ve got.”
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*leans in and whispers* "I'm going to rape you till you can't walk"
3585940
HAHAHAHA XD!! The sad part is that it somewhat fits, but not really...does that make any sense?
3585972
Don't think about it jut blurt things out and hope the police isn't around.
Eddy, why? I liked you so much! And now your going to that one guy that 'opens up' and falls in love ,or something along those lines. I don't want to do this, but you forced my hand. Edgar is now my favorite. Goodbye. *walks away bawling eyes out*
3585999
Oh Setablaze53, you have no idea what's coming...no idea at all *Evil laugh*.
3586011 Of course I don't. I have to wait and find out. But there's always that one guy! He falls in love and is either happy for all time or they break up and everything get all confusing. Maybe it's just my 13 year old mind talking, but that's why I try to avoid the romance tag most of the time. I mean, I don't mind romance like hugs and kisses and the occasional make out or whatever but there are so many fics on here that I love and then all of a sudden it goes from a hug here or there to borderline clop.
am loving this. can't wait for next chapter
3586057
Well, I can assure you now that I don't intend to go anywhere near the clop line. Also, I've seen a lot of stories as well where the main character gets one or more of the Main 6 to fall in love with him instantly or in an absurdly short amount of time. That's just sad, not to mention totally unrealistic. Love, especially between two entirely different species takes time. Also, think about Eddy's character for a moment (hint, he's not going soft anytime soon, wait till i have some real time to write this story!). It might seem like they're getting along now, but he's definitely going to screw that over, one way or another!
finding this new chapter first thing in the morning was a great start to the day
and I don't now a thing about tech at least not the level that is used in the story how accurate is it? if its not well it wounds like it is so that why I was asking
3587010
The tech is pretty accurate. Being an Electrical Engineer (college still, but you know what I mean) in real life helps me a lot! The pack is like a battery pack for houses with real solar collector systems, only those houses usually have 12 volt batteries (like the ones in your car) and a 12 volt DC to 120 Volt AC converter. Since Eddy used a huge number of Ultracapacitors (Which are real by the way, just not at tens of thousands of Farads yet), he went straight to 120 volts and simply used a DC to AC converter. Informational video, if you want to learn about them.
3587574 I will see the video it will be nice to learn something new and if it helps me get a handle on tech terns used in the story so much the better thanks