Settlers of Equestria

by Taloon85

Chapter 2 - "First, I should explain what a Televison is."

Settlers of Equestria

Chapter 2 - “First, I should explain what a Television is.”

The Settlertrain began to emerge from the portal and slowly surrounded the area. The Princesses had made way for the entire train to pass through and as instructed by the team, including Marcus, John, Jan and Roy, the ponies made room for the entire train to settle in a large circle around the portal.

Once the last bit of the train came through the portal, it collapsed in a almost non-audible ‘Plop’ and not more than a bright flash. The train came to a hold short time afterwards, creating a perfect circle around the area on an almost horizontal level. The front connected to the rear end and some bumps in the ground were offset by hydraulics.

The Settlertrain was huge and efficient. 25m high but only the topmost was for the passengers to stay in. Because the train only had to pass through the portal there was no reason for seats. Immediately after the train emerged the settlers would go to work and build their new home.

A Settlertrain was around 3.5km long and made more or less perfect circle with a radius of approximately 560m. The train itself had a capacity of 3.000.000m³, packed with tools, material, food and seeds. In addition, the inner circle would be roofed and filled with five floors for living quarters, workshops, laboratories and more. But everything would be simple. Newer and better buildings had to be built shortly afterwards, once new resources were acquired.

This was the seed mankind had given every new colony, a cornerstone to build on. It was simple, but it was a start. And mankind had done so around 75.000 times. Nothing else was more important then this project: the survival of mankind. Resources and technology was shared freely, even for century-old enemies.

So it was quite normal for humans to see exo-frames now. Mechanical enhancements for hard labor. Ponies on the other hand, or hoof, were a bit buffled. Even more so when finally the leader of the new arrivals introduced himself.

But Celestia was a bit confused why he was wearing a bright orange suit from head to feet with a small window on the seamless helmet. For matter of fact every human so far that exited the train was wearing this getup.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ John

“Oh, I recognize confusion on your face princess Celestia. Please let me explain. This is a Hazmat Suit. It prevents viruses and any other contagious or dangerous substance to enter my body. We have to be careful. We don’t know yet if there is anything that could kill us… or you for this matter. We leave and enter the train through airlocks that sterilized everything that passes through”, I explained and pulled a small package from my backpack.

“This brings me to this. This are probes of every disease that is common to us and their related antidotes and vaccines. All settlers should be clean, but you never know if there isn’t something hidden in a crate. Viruses can survive sometimes month without a host. I don’t know if you have the environments to safely test this diseases if anything is dangerous to you. If not we will setup a laboratory.”

Celestia eyed the packed, that was thoroughly packed in multiple layers to make sure it wouldn’t get damaged easily. She took it in her Magic and gave it over to a unicorn guard.

“I want this analysed in Canterlot Medical University. They have to take every possible countermeasure. They have to handle everything inside as if it is highly contagious and could cause a pandemic”, Celestia told the guard before she returned her gaze to me, “Anything else?”

“Oh, yes we would like a similar probe from all disease known to you, so we can make our own analyses and produce vaccines. We just want to be careful. Normally our scientist would start right now taking probes from all plants and animals in the surrounding area, but with your help we could cut this research process to a quarter. I think we can leave this suit behind us in about three weeks. Or so I have been told”, I explained with a smile.

Celestia nodded and addressed the guard again: “You have heard their wish. Bring everything to the CMU. They should be able to prepare a package for them in two days. Now go and no teleportation. We don’t know how the pathogens react to magic yet.”

The guard trotted off and Celestia faced me again, but it was Luna that spoke this time: “So, now that this is taken care of, how about you tell us why you know so much about us.”

I grinned and started: “First, I should explain what a Television is.”

‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰ Roy

The work began immediately after the train came to stand. The load bays and large airlocks released the workers inside the courtyard, so I called the inner circle the train created. Workers in hazmat suit swarmed the 25m high train and connected everything permanently. Others flattened the area even more. A third crew filled every hole with fast-binding cement. It was a feast for sore eyes like mine, who had worked his ass off building one Settlertrain after another.

Now I could see everything fit together, like a gear in the other. Of course there were the occasional but manageable problems that I had to take care of. But overall it was coming together faster than anyone had dreamed.

“Oi you come over here”, I called to a exo-frame driver near me. The 2.5m big, two legged vehicle came to a stand right before me and a youngster of around 18 years was obvious expecting to scolded for a mistake.

“Take a break will’ya? I wanted to drive one of this babys myself for ages”, I grinned to the boy half a meter above me. He was a bit surprised, but spoke up his concern:

“Sir, not to be disrespectful, but do you have a license to handle this machine?” I was a bit shocked and stumbled a step backwards.

“Do A have a license? Buddy, ya do know that A have helped put this things together? The rotary tool belt? My creation, for fucks sack! Now get down here or A get up there, pull ya out myself and give ya a beating like my old man did”, I told the youngster, holding a bit back because I know the boy was right to ask. This monsters could lift a full loaded truck in each hand with ease. Could do some serious damage if misused.

“Sorry Sir, I had to ask”, the youngster said as he striped from the exo-frame. I waved it off: “Ah, don’t worry, it was right to ask.”

Then I climbed in. It was a unique feeling to sit/stay in this machine. You were more or less sitting in an 30° polster, fixing your legs in the frames legs and strap your arms into the sensor rig. The machine had massive shoulders but no head. The work arms of the machine are half a meter above you, longer and more massive than a normal human's arms. It was a challenge to get used to this machine.

There was also a five meter tall variant of this exo-frame. But in that one, you were sitting completely inside the chest and only minimal movement was necessary to move the exo-frame. Some workers referred to the 5m variant as the Golem.

Both had a tool belt that was located on the back and had every possible tool inside. The pilot could access everything with a monitor that captured eye movement. Double-blink while staring at the hammer icon? The toolbelt provided. Deactivating the arms so you could use your owns for more delicate work, without smashing everything around you? Double-blink the arm icon.

“So let’s see what we can do with this baby”, I smiled over both ears, while I rotated the arms a bit to get a feeling.

∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆ Jan

I was standing on top of tower three. The towers were raised shortly after the train stopped and was anchored to the ground. The tower added another 20m to the trains height. Maybe I shouldn’t call the Settlertrain train anymore. In a few hours, thanks to multiple shifts, the Settlertrain was transformed into a flat dome.

This offered enough convertible space for 100.000 Settler to have 20m³ each for living space. The rest, what was still a huge amount of space, was for storage, simple research and workstations and simple medical equipment.

The towers, six in numbers, were meant to be converted into wind turbines. Adding to the 45m another 55m, to a total height of 100m with 35m radius rotors. Each turbine should deliver roughly 17.5 million kWh per year.

On top of this came solar panels all over the train's roof and later over the entire dome. Producing additionally 0.5 million kWh per year. Nothing compared to the turbines, but it also produced heated water. Enough for everyone to take a bath, not necessarily at the same time.

But all this information was fancy trivialities. For me it was far more interesting that this towers delivered tactical information of the surrounding areas. And staying here at the railing on this tower was a great opportunity to get familiar with the land.

Gazing over the hills and forests with my binoculars, I could spot Canterlot in the north-east, Ponyville directly east of here, the railroads to the south and I even could catch glimpses of Cloudsdale in the far north over the mountains.

Then my view was completely light blue, befor two huge fuchsian colored eyes stared at me. Surprised but not showing so, thanks to my military training, I took the binoculars down and was greeted with the sight of Rainbow Dash.

“What are you doing?”, she asked, hovering in front of me, “Spying on Cloudsdale?”
“No, I was just getting my bearings. We have informations about you and most of the landmarks, but no proper map. Just some ‘it could be like this’”, I said, reached out with one hand, “But where are my manners. Jan Schmidt, Lead Soldier of this Settlertrain.”

“Rainbow Dash”, she shook my hand, “So, Lead Soldier? Is this similar to a captain of the royal guards or captain of the Wonderbolts?”

“Close yes. I have the command over every military unit on board and provide my input to Jonathan Walker, our Leader. He makes the final decision. But overall we have a flat hierarchy. Me, then five company commander, each has ten troop leaders under them that command 20 soldiers each. So a total of just 1056 trained and active soldiers. Too few in my opinion”, I explained.

“What do you mean?”, asked Rainbow now landing on the platform beside me, “And what exactly is a soldier? Some sort of guard?”

“1056 Soldiers protecting 98944 civilian? Each soldier has to protect around a 100 people at all time. Impossible in my eyes”, I told her leaning against the railing, “And a soldier is… Well what I think to know about your guards is that they are soldiers and police in one. But with us police is normally only for civilians while soldiers are for military only. The police is fighting crimes, protecting citizens in a small scale, like a city. Soldiers fight to protect an entire country. But right now, we soldiers have to do both police work and soldier work. So in the end, yeah I think we are actually more like your guards.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so in the beginning? You're not a secret egghead, explaining everything and stuff, are you?”, Rainbow looks me up and down like she wasn’t sure what to think of me.

“Trust me, the less I have to explain the better”, I said and waved the thought away I would be like Marcus, “But to less information or not thoroughly explained, leads to guesswork. And that leads to misunderstandings and errors. In my line of work that leads to death, most of the time.”

Rainbow looked like she was a bit taken aback, lowered her head a bit in thought. Then she looked to Cloudsdale and said: “I will join the Wonderbolts. What I heard and experienced so far, your thinking and theirs are the same. I…”, she looked at me, “You know about me. You know me, in some way, do you?”

I nod and she continues: “Do I… fit a live with the Wonderbolts? Following rules to the point and such?”

“You don’t have to give up who you are just because you have to follow procedure. But you must learn to switch from everyday you to professional you”, I say napping my fingers, “in an instant when the situation arise. But you should never forget or give up this side of yours.” I point to her chest.

“I have seen soldiers who were 24/7 professional and serious. They couldn’t let go. Not even around their family what created some serious problems”, I looked to Ponyville, “No, you have to balance between this two states, professional and relaxed. And never forgetting where your coming from, this is the most important part.”

When I looked back to Dash she gazed up to me like I was some kind of messiah's. Afraid I had given her permission to slack of I added: “But don’t think this means you can slack off. Training and military training in particular, is never easy. Your drill sergeant will most likely never admit that you did well. They will say you didn’t, raising the difficulty even more, just to get you to your best performance. Only when you finished all your training and you get to the regular troops, your seargeant shows a small proud smile, probably. That all you will ever get. Well at least so it was for me.”

Rainbow Dash sat there think about everything before she took of, hovering in front of me. “You gave me a lot to think about. I know it will be hard, especially because I can’t see my friends for a long time. But in the end it will pay off, I think”, she said, flying around me, “You’re a cool guy. I think I will see you more often now. But right now I have to go back to my friends. See ya.”

She waved good bye and flow back down to the huge group of ponies, most likely everypony from Ponyville, marveling at the huge new building that came literally out of nowhere.

I still leant against the railing. All this got me thinking too. I was always one to stick strictly to the rules. Rules helped me to survive. But I recognised the signs of 24/7 professional soldiers on me.

Turning around and taking in the view without the binoculars, I actual saw the land for the first time. It was beautiful here, peacefull. And suddenly I doubted that soldiers were really needed here. So I had to make a decision.

πππππππππππππππππππππππ Marcus

God this Hazmat Suits are hot and uncomfortable. I hope that this samples from the Equestrian government will help to develop vaccines against all this disease fast. But for now I had to tolerate this wearable saunas. And if it only was to get into contact with Twilight Sparkle.

She was sitting across from me right now and I had just explained the theories we had about the portal. Not much to tell there.

Before that I shocked her worldview with the fact of how big our sun was, how far away it was and our planet rotated around it, creating seasons and weather as result of it.

Now she was finally back to normal after she wrote everything down. Because, I told her we know about Celestia rising the Sun and Luna rising the Moon but no details about it, she explained it to me now: “Well, Celestia's sun is actually not much bigger than Luna’s moon. But it is much closer to us than your sun.”

“Understandable. Otherwise it wouldn’t heat the planet enough to sustain live”, I interjected, “but does Luna create the night sky too?”

“Oh yes she does. Without her or Celestia in her absence we would see only a reddish black void. Luna did show it to everyone one night, for clearing this rumor as fact”, Twilight answered excited over the fact that someone actually was interested in this theme.

“Reddish dark void? A small sun rotating around a lone planet… Does Celestia have to power the sun somehow?”, I asked building up to a theory.

Twilight thought for a moment and answered: “I think. I believe to remember that she said something about ‘filling her Sun with energy on the Summer Sun Celebration.’ Why do you ask?”

I was silent for a moment befor I answered: “Supposedly everything works here exactly like in our universe just plus magic, I think this planet is a lone wanderer. A planet that was slingshot from his original system and is now flying across space. I think this planet took his moon with him and got stuck on it’s way in a Nebula of some sort. The nebula is so thick that no light or almost no light comes through. so over the past million or billion years another object was caught by this planet gravity. A fragment of another star.”

Twilight listened fascinated by my theory, so I just continued: “Maybe this fragment was barely strong enough so that life could develop and in the last few thousand years lost a great deal of its power. But thanks to Celestia’s magic the star is stabilized and powered every year. This would explain the extreme winters before Equestria was founded. Celestia powering the sun and your Hearthwarming magic is actually keeping this planet alive. But hey, it’s just a theory.”

Twilights eyes were as big as soup plates. Her mouth hanging agape and was clearly in shock. “You okay there?”, I snipped my fingers in front of her.

“This is… BRILLIANT!”, shouted Twilight suddenly, causing me to tumble backwards, “You may have just solved an ancient puzzle! Your a geniuse!”

“Oh thank you. But to be honest, like I said it’s just a theorie. Theories have to be proven”, I told her.

“True. But still this is maybe the best explanation anypony has ever given on how this world came to be. And if it’s true what you said about planets orbiting their suns is the norm, this would be a huge revelation for us. I mean, untill now I was convinced that out there is nothing, but know… I would like to know what's out there.”

“Oh, you’re not alone”, I whispered before saying louder, “Maybe it’s possible if we combine our efforts. We had a space program, but our biggest problem was to leave our planet in the first place. We needed so much rocket fuel just to get into orbit that it was just not efficient enough and cost to much. But with your magic… there is maybe a way to combine our technology and your magic. Not only for space travel. How does your technology work? We never saw much in the show and that what we saw was limited.”

“Oh it’s quite simple. We use horn crafted gems to power our machines, but every gem takes weeks to manufacture, maybe even month. The more complex the machine is the more time it takes to make the gems. Sometimes a machine is build from dozens of gems that interact with each other to produce the desired effects, like a heart monitor or the sound system from this one DJ… Oh what was her name. Pinkie would know”, she explained and was thinking about DJ Pon3y’s.

“Vinyl Scratch”, I said absent, before I continued with more vigore, “This is where we can help. Our technology is powered by electricity and functions of physical laws that, obviously still apply. Otherwise our machines wouldn’t work anymore. Why not combine this to parts. Can you produce gems that bring something to spin? Like a wheel?”

“Yes, it is actually the most simple thing. But they aren’t used on trains or carriages, because the vibrations would destroy the gems over time and lead to accidents”, Twilight explained and getting giddy herself, “What are you think about, Marcus.”

“In simple terms explained, our electricity is produced through rotating magnets inside a coil of copper wire. But we need always something to rotate this magnets in the first place, like a waterwheel. But if we use gems to rotate the magnets, it’s clean and easy energy for everyone. Maybe we can even miniaturize the generators so every device produces it’s own energy. But we have to build a working concept prototype first.”

“Oh this is so exciting. Combining knowledge from two worlds to make something new entirely that benefits us all”, squeed Twilight.

“Come on, let’s go to John and Celestia and tell them our ideas!”, I jumped up and hold a hand out to help her up.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

The rest of the coming three weeks were mostly filled with work, building and planning for the future.

One thing that found practical use was the poll system. Day to day decision were still made by John and the others but if something big happened he would make a poll with every information, pro and contra, that was needed for a decision to be made by the settlers.

Because of that John and the other where now referred to as the council, even if he had the last Veto Right and decisions of polls where mostly from the settlers.

It looked like the future would be bright and exciting for the little community of humans in the middle of Equestria.

Author's Note:

So, after this chapter comes the first poll in form of an Intermission. A transcript of the council meeting after the first three weeks of hard work. Plus every information needed for the poll.

But first of to bed with me. 5:22am - five hours of writing and researching. You have no idea what's everything behind this.
I try to be as accurate and precisely as possible. But if something doesn't fit, I will use the Plot Card.

Comments

[I am a fake]

Some grammar errors here and there, but don't worry! Still a good story, I hope you keep it up and don't rush it too much.