Twilight's Castle (with extra laboratory accessories) · 11:42pm Jun 20th, 2014
The Twilight's Castle playset is out—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBJxXz5SxqE—with vanity chest, closet, and library book.
I think Twilight would install some additional features...
Rainbow Dash swooped low over Ponyville, then flicked a wing and let herself glide around in a graceful arc. She glanced to the side and admired the glittering spire of Twilight's new rainbow castle. Much as she missed her friend's old home, she had to admit that this new crystal-tower-tree-library-castle-citadel-thing was pretty awesome. It also looked rather solid. She would have to watch out—it looked like crash landings would be rather more painful than at the Golden Oak.
She was suddenly dazzled by a blinding ray of light. For a moment she panicked as she couldn't see where she was flying. This sent a shot of adrenaline through her veins. Then it was gone and she could see again. Turning back, she realised she had just been dazzled by the sunlight reflecting off a large plate mounted on top of one of the castle towers. She flew closer to get a good look and noticed Twilight standing on the balcony next to the mirror, dressed in a white coat and a hard-hat.
“Oh... Hi Rainbow,” said Twilight.
“Hi... Err... What is that thing?”
Rainbow flew up to the tower and saw that the reflective plate was enormous – at least eight metres in diameter and made of a set of hexagonal mirrors, all slotted together, supported by a metal framework. She flew closer still, and looked at her reflection in the plates. The mirror sat inside a large dome structure with a wide opening, large enough to see inside. She landed next to Twilight on the metal catwalk balcony next to the structure.
“It's my new telescope,” said Twilight. “I'm just putting it together.” She levitated a paper plan in front of her and stared alternately at this and the mirror structure. “Something isn't quite right. I probably shouldn't have put it up in the sun, the solar heating is warping something.”
“That's a telescope?”
“Yes. My old 60mm refractor got destroyed by Tirek. But that was too small for serious astronomy anyway. So I had a look at the new technology available. They can now make huge reflectors by using a segmented mirror with rigid sections each positioned using using precision actuators and kept it focus by active optics! Isn't it cool?” She gave Rainbow a wild grin.
“Err... Yeah.”
Twilight looked back at her plans. “I just need to get everything properly aligned... Oh well, it's time for a break. Come inside—there's more I want to show you.” She grabbed her friend with a hoof and pulled her along the balcony, then jumped onto a spiral chute. The two ponies slid down, past the various tower floors until the slide dumped them at ground level.
“Fortunately most of the books at the old library were in underground storage so they weren't lost during the blitz. We can rebuild – or regrow – the Golden Oak, but we were running seriously short of shelf space there, so we needed a new library anyway. I'll get a tunnel dug, and install a conveyor belt to transfer books between the two sites. Then we can install an automated computerised system to let readers request books from the underground bookstacks.”
The two friends walked across the wide castle hallway.
“And it's great to have some proper laboratory space. I've ordered a load of new equipment from the Crystal Empire: an accelerator mass spectrometer, a thin film deposition unit, a class-100 clean room, high field superconducting NMR magnet...”
They walked past a doorway through which a cloud of cold gas was spreading into the hallway. Twilight rushed into the room.
“Spike! Close that valve quickly! You're letting liquid nitrogen spill onto the floor.”
She walked back to join Rainbow. “Sorry. We're in the process of setting up a Low Temperature physics lab. There's all sorts of interesting quantum effects, which we'll be able to study once we're able to cool matter down to millikelvin temperature. But I'm afraid Spike is still learning how to efficiently transfer cryogenic gases.”
“Now come down to the basement.” Twilight hurried through a doorway and down some steps into the basement. Rainbow followed her into a large underground room, which was scattered with stainless steel pipe, support rails, vacuum pumps, electrical transformers, cable reels and other equipment. A group of stallions wearing the insignia of the Royal Guard Engineering Corps where in the process of assembling it, bolting together pipes, soldering cables, and aligning lenses and mirrors on optical tables.
“This will be the highest power laser facility in Equestria,” said Twilight, clapping her forehooves together in glee. “It's so exciting. We're going to use a titanium-sapphire oscillator, and a set of neodynium-glass pumps to produce short pulses of over a petawatt power! This will let us vaporise samples and create the kinds of temperatures and pressures that were previously unthinkable. We'll be able to study the physics of plasmas and see the processes that occur inside stars, right here in Ponyville. Isn't it great?”
“Yeah.”
“We're going to have to upgrade the power infrastructure to drive it. But that needed to be done anyway. I'll run a separate power feed to connect direct to Pinkie's nuclear reactor.”
“I thought you didn't like the nuclear reactor?”
“I'm starting to see that it has its uses.” She grinned manically at her friend. “Is there anything else you want to see? Any questions?”
“Err... Where's the bathroom?”
Photo links: Keck Telescope, Twilight, Rainbow, Vulcan Laser, Twilight.
Dear Twilight, Im not telling you about the holographic Lunar mirror, the multi spectral Crystal Rainbow accelerator, or the benchtop pair production fountain. Given I got into so much trouble from Celestia when they were demonstrated at about the time you became her personal student.
Dont forget, chaos functions follow Fibbonacci rules.
Also dont forget, the first thing to install in any worthwhile laboratory, is working sanitary facilities, so the builders can clean up themselves before you even get to installing equipment. Warm and dry builders with hot tea on hand are happy builders, no matter how badly things are going.
Edit, Gary Stu, Gary Oak, I always get confused.
The Castle of
FriendshipScience. Awesome.Sorry, had too much fun on the spiral slide, run that by me again?
2222431
Friendship is magic.
Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Therefore, this is the palace of both.
2222587 Excellent point!
one can link the video thus:
To get the above effect, strip the whitespace from this
[
youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=9Q5I0ISM9I8
]
First, Rainbow, stop looking so damn cute.
Second, Twilight is really blitzing the tech tree here.
.
*Grins* A friend of mine just got back from BC where they were doing something remarkably similar.