The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Mechanical Aptitude

The lights in Arambai's basement clicked on as the party of mares descended, Starlight bringing up the rear. Rows of ceiling-high shelves obfuscated the area just as much as she had remembered, and she suddenly worried that packing that many ponies into such a cramped space might not be a good idea.

She quickly found herself sandwiched tightly between White Chocolate and a wall as they reached the teleporter area, Valey swimming to take up less space and Amber riding lazily on Willow's back. Maple stood alone, Jamjars was lurking, and Shinespark was staring breathlessly at the mounds of technology laying around.

"Okay," Starlight decided, noticing no one else was taking charge. "Shinespark, once you find what you came for, we can help carry-"

Shinespark wasn't remotely listening. "This is his workbench," she murmured, brushing her leg reverently across a small cleared space on a raised table with standing room on either side. "There's so much I've only heard about here, and even more he never even wrote to me for! Look at this!"

She actually beamed, shrugging off her melancholy as she held up a carrot-shaped device with wires sticking out of the thick end. Starlight looked around, realizing no one seemed in a hurry to leave and some even looked curious themselves, and huffed, seating herself on a box to watch.

"What is it?" White Chocolate asked, tail swishing and head turning sideways as she stepped forward. "It looks almost like a horn."

Shinespark lifted the thing in her aura, putting her hooves back on the table. "I dunno! It's either an unusually-shaped manacapacitor, an antenna, or some kind of discharge point! Maybe a prototype horn weapon for Braen?" She kicked over a long gray box with several wire prongs waving from the top, attached several to the carrot-shaped device, and put the other lead to her horn. "This is a spectroscope," she quickly explained. "Let's see what happens if-"

When her horn lit, the metal carrot instantly whirred and began rotating at high speed. The spectroscope, meanwhile, glowed blue and started to play a staticky recording of someone playing a violin. Shinespark blushed and turned them off. "Okay, so it's a drill and that's not a spectroscope. Ooh, here's a bin of timing crystals right next to a series of rapid-discharge capacitors? I wonder what he was making with this...?"

"This reminds me of my father's workroom," White Chocolate murmured, looking up and down a wall of shelves. "Only so many more things..." She gently bit the edge of a bin and slid it out, peering inside. "I know these. They're soldering crystals, for mana circuitry. But I remember them being so much smaller..."

"Soldering crystals?" Shinespark's ears perked, and she flew over the desk in a cloud of blue magic, landing right next to White Chocolate. "Let me see those... Wow, these are enormous. One step below the kind they use for power grid work. We'll need these for the ship for sure." She pulled her nose back out of the bin, stepping back and glancing at White Chocolate appreciatively. "You have experience with this stuff?"

White Chocolate looked at her hooves. "I used to watch my father. I don't have a horn, so I couldn't-"

Shinespark grabbed something and floated it near her mouth so she could grab it, accidentally overshooting and bumping her on the nose. "Standard-issue mouth bit," she said, offering the piece with a wiggle. "All Sosan tools for the last fifteen years have been made with at least some version of compatibility for them, and I see a bin of adapters right there. You'll need a manacore for power for testing and better workspace management to keep a clear area, but as long as you've got good motor control in your neck and teeth, being hornless shouldn't be an issue. There's no need to let what you're born as define what you can or can't do."

White Chocolate sat down heavily, looking stunned. "Fifteen years," she whispered as the mouth bit hovered in front of her eyes.

"You didn't know that?" Shinespark smiled gently, sending Starlight's mind spinning trying to reconcile her with the sad, brooding mare who had dwelt in and cleaned the airship for the last several days. "I'd put a hoof on your shoulder, but I have a cold right now."

"...I really did need to get out more," White Chocolate puffed, breathing heavily. "I never even thought..."

Shinespark waited for her to continue, checking several more bins along the shelf, then finished for her. "Thought you'd be good for anything? Felt like you had your future stolen? Oh, here's some smaller ones, if they're the size you're used to. A lot of Sosans felt that way. Good news now is, with the amount of rebuilding that needs to be done, anyone with talent..." She pulled out another bin with her teeth, horn already juggling several floating objects. "Yes! Here's the backup soldering guns. Anyone with talent can be useful. And I've seen ponies bring themselves back from situations even you wouldn't believe."

"Be useful?" White Chocolate shook her head, gingerly taking the bit and talking around it with bared teeth. "I just thought I'd never get to enjoy this again. This lab and everything here..." She wiped the corner of her eye. "It feels like my past is catching up to me, in a good way."

Maple appeared by her side, nudging her shoulder. "See?" She grinned hopefully. "I told you things can get better."

White Chocolate slumped, leaning against her, still looking as if she didn't quite believe it.

"Hey, look what I found!" Amber crowed, interrupting, legs flopping in excitement from atop Willow's back. She held up a silvery object Starlight couldn't quite make out. "It's like a metal griffon talon, or something, and it's full of wires. Pretty neat for a toy!"

Shinespark bounded over to her, frowning. "A talon?" She took it in her aura, pulling gently on the cables running back into a mass of things on the floor, and ultimately withdrew the entire contraption. It was in several pieces which she quickly plugged back together, and soon the talon had a cup at the base the perfect size for a mare's hoof and several wires tied to a mesh helmet that looked vaguely similar to the harmony extractor's.

"This is a mechanical hand," Shinespark said, holding it up and looking impressed. "Arambai wrote me a lot about this one. He said he had a finished prototype, and it was going to be incorporated in the next major revision of Braen's armor. The fingers would be able to retract into the metal for durability, but come out and grab things like griffons or dragons can. I wonder if this is the prototype that works?"

Eagerly, she strapped the hand into place, securing it around her right front hoof with several wrapping bands, then floated the helmet onto her rear and connected a bundle of auxiliary cables to a power supply. Her eyes suddenly constricted, and she looked at the altered hoof with pinprick pupils. "Wow," she managed. "I can... actually feel it. Like it's a part of my body."

Everyone crowded around in sudden interest as she lifted the attachment, tensed... and it shifted, the digits wrapping around until they were curled closed. "This isn't what I was expecting," Shinespark whispered as the mechanical hand continued to move, pivoting around its wrist and flexing one finger at a time. "I wonder if it can feel pain. Or if I could feel the rest of the armor. This would take a lot of training to get used to." She lifted the helmet from her rump, unstrapping the hand and floating them forward. "Does anyone else want to try?"

Amber quickly volunteered. As she twirled the hand around with a combination of consternation and amusement, Starlight's attention wandered, and she quickly found herself staring at the nearby teleporter dais, still connected to its harmony extractor. In fact, the thing looked like it had been recently turned on. She supposed that was how Arambai got from Riverfall to Ironridge in the first place, though how he had powered it was beyond her. Had Shinespark said anything about connecting multiple ponies at once producing unstable power surges? Maybe that would work for a teleportation spell. When she did it, it certainly felt like a single surge.

What would the machine get used for now? Did Shinespark need to take the whole thing to repair her airship? Arambai had said the larger components were fine, so if not, what would it do? Just get left in Riverfall for anyone to use for anything? She doubted there were many ponies who knew how to use it, and it felt somewhere between a waste and a liability. Idly, she entertained the possibility of using it to send Hemlock back to Ironridge... or maybe Gerardo.

"I can't feel it," White Chocolate complained, and she turned around to see the mare trying the hand for herself. The straps were affixed to her hoof, the helmet was placed over her rump, and the hand seemed to be sporadically moving... but she was still staring at it in concern. "I'm using it right, aren't I? I'm not thinking for it to move any way, and when I do, it doesn't respond. Maybe it didn't get hooked up correctly?"

Shinespark rubbed her chin, floating the helmet off and checking White Chocolate's backside. "Well, you don't have a cutie mark, so maybe it's not reading the signals correctly? I'd have to read Arambai's notes on how it works in person. Starlight doesn't have one, though, and she was able to use the harmony extractor just fine."

Maple snorted. "I'd hardly call what it did to her 'just fine'."

"...Point taken," Shinespark said, relenting.

"Maybe her foal is interfering somehow?" Willow offered. "Is that a possibility?"

"Hmmm..." Shinespark closed her eyes in thought. "You can never say something isn't a possibility in science, but I doubt it. Just a hunch, though. If anyone decided to finish this, I'm sure it won't be hard to get more mares to test that theory here in Riverfall."

Amber turned slightly red, as did White Chocolate, who was unstrapping the hand with her teeth. "Well..." She stood up, shuffling her hooves nervously. "Do you mind if I try to make something with some of the spare parts here? I know about workshop rules and how not to leave messes..."

Shinespark nodded approvingly. "This is a mess enough already that I'll have to give it a good cleaning. Sure, though. Say if you need anything; I'll be looking for more parts the ship needs. And try out that bit!"

White Chocolate wandered off to the workbench, and Shinespark strolled into a corridor between two shelf racks, her cast still clunking against the concrete ground. At some point, she must have fixed it, since Starlight couldn't imagine it surviving getting rained on the previous day.

"Well, girls?" Willow asked once it was just her, Maple, Amber and Starlight. "How are you doing?"

"With what?" Amber shrugged from her back and grinned. "Free rides, weird technology, and everyone happy? Sounds like a good day to me."

"Jamjars is lurking," Starlight pointed out, unable to see her or Valey. "That makes me nervous."

Amber nodded sagely, and Maple put a foreleg over Starlight, sliding so close that she was practically standing on top of the filly.

"Well," Willow repeated, sighing. "There's something we should talk about sooner rather than later." At everyone's apprehensive gazes, she added, "Not something bad. But when me and Starlight were at the ship yesterday... Arambai invited us back to Ironridge, as a group, if any of us wanted to go. He says it's safer now, and we can contact him with the sound stone Matryona is keeping, but we need to decide what to do, and I'd like us to have more than one night to do that this time." She looked sorrowfully at Maple.

"He what!?" Valey surfaced beside them. "Back to Ironridge? Yeah, no way. I just spent a billion years escaping from that place."

Maple cringed. "Willow, I don't know..."

"That's why I don't want us to make a decision now," Willow murmured.

"Yeah," Amber whispered atop her back. "Just think about it."

"Amber?" Maple glanced up. "What are you thinking?"

Amber bit her lip. "You know, you're not going to like this, Maple, but I actually wouldn't mind going. I'm put out I couldn't be there for you last time, and if this would be like a victory lap..."

Maple hung her head and sighed.

"Just think about it," Willow insisted. "Tonight, or maybe tomorrow night, we can all talk about it, and I'm not agreeing to go or stay before we talk to Arambai again, but I just wanted you girls to know now instead of the day before the ship flies."

Starlight's heart sank. As bad as rushing into Ironridge had been for them, watching this was somehow worse: now she knew she had to make a decision, whichever path they chose they could end up terribly regretting, and couldn't even be over and done with the decision itself. The good thing about bad things in the past was that they were already over...

"Hey!" Shinespark chirped, walking back out of the corridor with a spool of thick cable looped around her barrel and a box of spring-like dials in her aura. "White Chocolate? How's it... Woah, are you all right?"

Everyone jumped, spinning around to look. White Chocolate sat behind the work table, several parts arrayed before her, but she wasn't focused on it, eyes clenched and teeth gritted. Instantly, Willow set Amber down and was at her side, one hoof around her back. "How are you?" she whispered.

"Just a cramp," White Chocolate whispered back, and Starlight trotted far enough around the workbench to see that both of her forehooves were on her belly. "It'll pass."

"Do you want me to walk you home?" Willow asked, keeping her voice quiet. The room was suddenly perfectly still.

"I'll be fine," White Chocolate said, still clenching her teeth. "It'll be fine..."

Willow nodded. "Would you at least like to go sit upstairs? The couches there are softer."

"That might be nice..." White Chocolate hissed.

Starlight glanced around the room as Willow helped White Chocolate up, the latter walking gingerly for the staircase. Valey had vanished, Shinespark looked somewhat rattled, and Maple... was completely ashen. Amber waved her over.

"Hey, Starlight?" Amber asked, laying against a stack of shelves. "Do you mind walking Maple home? I think she needs it."

"Maple?" Starlight frowned.

Maple smirked regretfully, trembling, and reached out a hoof. "Sorry, Starlight. I still have triggers that go off, sometimes... I need some fresh air. Will you go with me?"

"Sure," Starlight decided, not fully understanding what had happened but definitely knowing when she was needed. "Amber? You can get home without us?"

"I've got Valey," Amber said with a wink. "She's here somewhere. I just hope Shinespark can carry everything back to the ship on her own."

Shinespark shook her head, blinking. "I'll make two trips if I need to. See you later."

Starlight glanced around, but no one seemed to have any further reservations. "Well, okay." She moved to lift Maple on her back, swiftly remembered that her adoptive mother could still walk on her own, and settled for being a supportive shoulder to lean on, navigating the maze of shelves that led to the stairs out of the house.

Comments

[Boopers]

Hihi, she said "cutie mark", she seems to like that word :D

[Czar_Yoshi]

8942985 Starlight has a habit of rubbing off on ponies like that. It's practically a mark (snrk) of being in her friend group.

...Gerardo still calls them brands, though.

[Venlinelle]

I can’t believe I didn’t comment on this one on my first read!

White Chocolate sat down heavily, looking stunned. "Fifteen years," she whispered as the mouth bit hovered in front of her eyes.

Shinespark waited for her to continue, checking several more bins along the shelf, then finished for her. "Thought you'd be good for anything? Felt like you had your future stolen? Oh, here's some smaller ones, if they're the size you're used to. A lot of Sosans felt that way. Good news now is, with the amount of rebuilding that needs to be done, anyone with talent..." She pulled out another bin with her teeth, horn already juggling several floating objects. "Yes! Here's the backup soldering guns. Anyone with talent can be useful. And I've seen ponies bring themselves back from situations even you wouldn't believe."

This section is incredibly heartwarming for so many reasons. White Chocolate is such a depressing character for so much of her presence that seeing her get to be happy and have hope for the future is amazing, and Shinespark unknowingly talking about her own recovery through the lens of all the ponies she’s helped over the years is both very reassuring considering how she’s been doing and a fantastic piece of writing. It lets the reader know that she’ll be okay eventually, while also showing that her old persona wasn’t just an easily-shattered act, but just how she is. I have her as Generosity on my TOW Elements lineup for a reason.

Also, while I’m leaving new comments, the constant time travel mentions in this story (not to mention Glimmer) are the biggest unfired Chekov’s gun I’ve ever seen, and it’s retroactively very funny to see how much foreshadowing there is for everything later in the fic—except the time travel, which ends up being a red herring. I’d assume that it’ll matter eventually, but I’ve gotten the impression by now that it’s not a story element you want to work with, which is understandable enough.