Rocket-Powered Pony

by bronyZ

"You mean I have to read ALL of that?!"

"You mean I have to read ALL of that?!"

Whrilie and Twilight returned to Ponyville a few days later, taking the weekend for Twilight and Spike to show the new pony around Canterlot as a mini-vacation. Spike insisted on visiting his favorite doughnut shop, and Twilight’s tour of the remainder of the library took up a full day. They spent the evenings relaxing in the royal gardens.

By the time they returned, they were ready to continue on the project, or so they kept telling each other. The truth was, even though the siphon throttle should be safe, they still were not sure that it was. After the last incident, Whirlie was feeling nervous about putting it on, and, especially after Princess Celestia’s admonishments, Twilight was feeling the same way. She did not think it was wrong, but the level of danger seemed higher than before.

Delaying the day of the test, Twilight insisted they put together a “safety protocol”. Whirlie was not sure what this was, or why they would do this, but given her track record for destruction, that was not all too surprising. Twilight explained that it was a set of rules that they would follow to test the design. It would help them not only gather proper data, but ensure that everypony (including the neighbors) remained uninjured. They would need to follow it to the letter.

Whirlie set to finishing up some blacksmithing she had been delaying while Twilight sat in the workshop, scribbling away on parchment. As the sun set, Whirlie came in, followed by Rainbow Dash. She was exhausted and sweating from working the forge and hammering steel all afternoon, but Dash looked her usual cool self. Whirlie trotted past Twilight, who had her tongue lolling out one side in concentration, and headed to the small kitchen to find something to drink. Meanwhile, Rainbow just hovered over Twilight, trying to make out what she was up to. When Whirlie returned, bringing two glasses of water and a pitcher, she realized just how much work Twilight had done. Three tall stacks of parchment were situated around the purple pony, along with a sizable pile of broken quills and empty ink bottles. Unfamiliar books were open everywhere. Glancing about, she realized there were several more paper stacks all over the room.

“Umm...where did all of this come from?” Whirlie asked, a little confused.

“Huh?” Twilight shook her head and looked up, in something of a daze. “Oh, most of it was in my head, until I wrote it down. I didn’t have any reference guides for this. I mean, there are a few texts on rudimentary unicorn magic that I used for some of the baselines and several books for doing the measurements. All of my sources are cited appropriately,” she explained with a smile, indicating one of the smaller stacks of parchment.

“I meant the parchment and the books,” Whirlie replied flatly, sipping the cool water.

“Oh. I found most of it in those boxes,” she said, indicating the various boxes around Whirlie’s workshop lying open on the floor. “The rest I sent Spike out for.” Whirlie shifted to glaring at Twilight. “Oh, hi, Rainbow!” Twilight said, when she finally noticed the pegasus hovering nearby. “What are you doing here?”

“Hey, Twilight,” she replied. “I had dropped by to see if Whirlie could fix the pump for my fountain. Turns out she’s not a cloud...smith,” she explained, feeling somewhat confused.

The two unicorns corrected in unison, “Nimbomancer.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever, it just sort of fell apart when she touched it. After all that, I figured I’d just drop in and see how you two were doing. I haven’t seen Whirlie up in Cloudsdale yet,” she teased.

Twilight replied, “Well, before anyone goes flying, I have to finish this safety protocol, then we have to actually execute it successfully, then make sure that the rest of the pack works, which will probably require a few more protocols to get through.”

“And I thought I was nervous about this,” Whirlie stated, walking over to flip through one of the stacks. “Wait, you said we have to follow this to the letter. Am I supposed to read all this stuff you wrote down? It doesn’t look much like a reference guide...”

“Boooooring!” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “You just need to get out there and go!” she explained, and demonstrated by flying rapidly around the room. This caused Twilight to jump up from her work and run around, snagging loose sheets caught up in Rainbow Dash’s whirlwind.

“Knock that off!” Twilight shouted at the hyper pegasus. Rather than continuing to grab paper, she decided to use her telekinesis on Rainbow’s tail instead, ending the source of the problem. “It’s not boring, it’s safe.” Twilight looked over at Whirlie smugly. “And of course you need to read it all! It’s for your---our---own good. I expect you to remember and apply it all too,” she finished, with the air of a pony who knew better.

Flopping onto the floor and crossing her hooves across her chest, while she moved page after page past her face, Whirlie gave a “Hrmph.”

“Well, call me when you’re ready to fly!” Rainbow said. “See ya later!” and she zipped out of the workshop, a trail of papers sucked into her wake, leaving Twilight growling. Whirlie half-heartedly helped Twilight gather the loose pages back up.

“I never thought it would take this long to make it all work,” Whirlie explained. “I’d like to just go...” she looked wistfully out the open door as Dash disappeared.

“Whirlie, this is serious,” Twilight implored, ”I got too caught up in the excitement of it all to realize at first, but Princess Celestia is right. This device we built is founded on principles used for very dark purposes. We’re adapting it, but it’s still not safe. It nearly killed you the first time you tried it and I was stuck just standing there, completely helpless. And flying itself will be even more dangerous. We’ve never done it before, especially not with this equipment.” Whirlie thought she saw tears welling under Twilight’s eyes. “I’m sorry it’s not fast, but this is the only way I can protect you,” she explained. Forcing a small smile, she continued “It’s also the only way we’re going to soar among the clouds, at least, in one piece. You know, I wouldn’t mind trying it myself, once we get it all working.”

Whirlie looked at her blankly, then gave a small smile. “You’re right. We need to be careful and if you say this is the safe way to proceed, it’s how we’ll proceed.” She crossed the room and gave Twilight a small hug.

“Great!” Twilight exclaimed, then spun around and started prancing about the room, rearranging pages and laying them out on the floor. Putting on her instructor’s mein again, she began explaining. “The foundation of all of this is to perform tests and record the data, so we know what is safe and what you are capable of with the device equipped; I’ll have to do the same, of course. We’ll have to get a baseline on how much each of us can levitate and for how long. Then we’ll move to using the siphon throttle. One of us will record how the other is feeling before and after the test, and during, We’ll observe the nature of the sparks coming off of the output feed---oh yes, that was another source, Metamagical Measurements, I think we can use the Sparkscale in the appendix. When one of us has the throttle equipped, she’ll need to perform the levitation tests again, so we can see how those change.” Whirlie was unclear on how Twilight was breathing through all of the fast explanation. She continued, nonstop, “Naturally, we’ll start small, with the throttle completely closed, and see what happens. Then we’ll open it more and more, until we find the danger zone. I think by the end, we’ll need to adjust the failsafes on the device, but we should know what is safe to use and start to get some idea of the energy output. Oh this is so exciting!” she exclaimed, bouncing in place, without Whirlie being able to get a word in edgewise.

“So...if that’s it,” Whirlie interjected, “then why so many sheets of parchment?” She looked around the workshop, clearly a bit irritated as well as confused.

“Well, it’s not all protocol, Silly!” Twilight went on. “That stack,” she pointed at one of the neat, small stacks in the corner, “is the trash-heap,” she explained proudly.

“Wait, you organized your trash?”

“Can’t go around making a mess of things!” Twilight announced in a sing-song voice, then much more quietly, “Or more of a mess of things.” Undaunted, she went on, “There are a number of conditions we have to take into account during the test. We’ll need a safe open space, optimal and consistent lighting to observe the sparks coming off the cable, a set of carefully tuned weights, oh---something to hold the cable in place---I should add that---you’ll need to build it.” Twilight had gone into one of her reverie states again, continuing to rattle off all of the necessary precursors and procedures to the experiments in more detail.

By the time she was done explaining and amending the protocol, it had been hours, and the sun had long since set. Whirlie was exhausted. “So...” Twilight explained, “You should read the protocol, internalize it, oh...and don’t forget those modifications. I’ll need you to build that cable-holding rig...”

“And the weights,” Whirlie added from the spot on the floor where she had curled up, nearly asleep. “I’ll just make those. Tomorrow...I’ll read it all tomorrow.” She yawned.

“Great!” Twilight chirruped as she gathered up her things to head home for the night. “There’ll be a test the day after!” Whirlie’s head popped up in alarm as Twilight strode out into the evening.

Comments

[Silver the Sojourner]

Leave it to Twilight to do something like that.

[AlphaThroughZeta]

SECUNDUS!!!!!!

[bronyZ]

850832 latin?

[AlphaThroughZeta]

IMO (yes)

[bronyZ]

852422 ahh. Haven't studied Latin since college. ;)

[bronyZ]

Reviewing done for now, so more time for ponies. Next chapter (hopefully) by the weekend!