It’s been almost 7.39 hours. I’ve been sitting on the bottom of the river for most of this time; rather interesting, it seems drowning isn’t going to work. I feel… Full, somehow.
I’ve spent much if this time whirling back and forth, in my mind, about exactly how I should feel about what happened to me… and trying to figure out how long it’ll last. And why I feel quite so tiny right now.
I haven’t been able to decide on any of those matters. Tactical has pitched in a few times, but reportedly been unable to extrapolate anything meaningful. … At least I have no trouble understanding the odd terms it uses, even if I know- positively- that I didn’t have a clue what it the term meant before I was transformed.
I have noticed that the water doesn’t feel cold- no. Instead, it feels like it’s about ten degrees Celsius… which I know IS cold, but it doesn’t FEEL cold, it only feels like… like ten degrees Celsius. Just like the power plant feeling offline, I haven’t a clue how to describe the feeling- except that it’s not a hot/cold feeling- other than that it feels like ten point three one seven degrees Celsius.
… at the moment. It’s fluctuating somewhat.
And, I suppose I could also describe it as fifty point five seven one degrees Fahrenheit.
But I don’t want to get stuck in a loop like that again- and kinda dread what Twilight might do when she wakes up. After all, I can remember every single iteration of consideration with perfect clarity… something I could never do before. Combine that with Twilight’s propensities…
Anyways. The reason I am not still stuck in that loop is something Twilight will probably get a lot of use out of. It’s difficult to respond to it, yet also quite scary.
Some part of my mind… noticed the loop as it tended towards identical thought. Unlike the other parts I’ve discovered- tactical, DCC, that adjustment helper, and so on- it doesn’t seem interested in following my every whim. Rather, it seems interested in making sure I still have whims to follow… in a manner of speaking.
What it did… I felt it right away, but had difficulty caring. I lost control of my new Bolo body- which didn’t do anything, thank Celestia- and even my senses went somewhat vague. That part kind of sat on my mind at the same time- and I had difficulty thinking… at all.
Until I allowed myself to stop thinking, to calm down.
Then it hopped off of me again- but I didn’t regain control of my body.
Until I started thinking again, and didn’t go in circles. Then that came back.
Now, of course, I can’t find that part of my mind. I want to thank it for helping me get back to thinking straight- for doing for me what I’ve done for Twilight many times. The part with my body was… Scary, to say the least- but if I remember correctly, I was… disjointed like that for a total of about thirty-six milliseconds.
And something tells me- a feeling, not another part of my mind- that I am remembering very correctly. I mean, I can even remember exactly what time it was when I lost control- and the same for when I regained control!
… and, despite the numbers both having over a dozen digits, doing the math in my head to find the difference is so easy… For kicks and grins, I try multiplying them… Dividing them… Even taking the square root of the product. All easy, all in my head. No need for even something so simple as an abacus, despite dealing with numbers with lots and lots of digits. Even checking my work is easy- and yes, I was absolutely correct on each of them.
Is this something that comes with being a Bolo? I don’t know.
I take a look around. Funny how easy that is; unlike when I was a pony, I can simply look in every direction at once. This river is fairly empty; the water does not hinder my vision.
I do notice my Optical Transparency Matrix is still running, alongside those two fusion plants. I ask Tactical how long I can maintain this status; it instantly answers with two numbers. If I stay in the river, indefinitely; this river provides more than enough fuel to maintain operation. If I climb out of the river, I can run it for about eighteen hours before running out of fuel. If I disable it and climb out, the time limit for finding additional water is a week or so. I ask if I can fly.
Uh… The answer is technically yes, I guess- but only if I ignite Fusion Three… and even then, only for about an hour. That is, assuming I keep my Optical Transparency Matrix running.
I sigh… or whatever the Bolo equivalent is, I’m not entirely sure. No bubbles went up.
I feel for Fusion Three… and ignite it. Much like I might have felt for my wing, when I was a pony, and extended it. Fusion Three tenses up, starts, and stabilizes to a steady ‘online’ feeling.
I still have no idea how to describe that feeling.
I tilt my head… erm, the Bolo equivalent doesn’t seem to involve any physical motion. Will that change how long I can maintain my Optical Transparency Matrix…?
Marginally. Tactical assures me that the difference is of about six seconds. Endurance with it off, however, has gone down by about a day.
I can work with that. For now, though, my animals probably need me. I push myself out of the river, and start… moving in the direction of my cottage. Invisible.
I pull off the road to avoid passing ponies several times on my way; I don’t want to accidentally run into somepony. I am about as large as a pony… if they were lying on their side; if I allow myself to be in their paths, I am an invisible tripping hazard right now.
I make it through town without issue. Probably helps that it’s in the evening, right about at my animal friends’ dinnertime; almost everypony is relaxing or heading inside by now, rather than out exploring the streets.
I pause as I approach my little cottage. There’s a couple Royal Guards walking up to it, carrying…
Oh. They’re taking care of my animal friends in my absence. Thank you, Guards! I was wondering how I would do that without hooves… or a mouth, it would seem. Or wings. Or anything else by which to lift a plate. Come to think of it, I wonder what it might take to give myself that ability while in Bolo form…
Eeek! Another one! … part of my mind, that is… This one’s calling itself my ‘design cores’... Oh. It just answered that question- a magic-powered claw or magnet- to simulate Spike’s claws or pony hooves, respectively- attached to the end of the strange sticks sticking out all over me… Would work, yes.
I move off the road. It’d be mighty ugly, though- and besides, I want to watch the Guards care for my animals. I want to be sure they’re being cared for properly.
“I wonder how long their adventure will last this time.” It’s a Royal Guardspony, trotting up to one of Fluttershy’s flowerbeds with a watering can held in his magic.
“Donno,” his companion responds, using his magic to draw the various food items out of his saddlebags, for delivery to the animals inside. “I hope it isn’t too long.” He opens the door, attempts to greet the animals… and delivers the food. Which is the hard part. He eventually figures out which parcel goes to who, thanks to helpful (if blatantly irritated) pointers from the animals, but it’s still his least favorite part of the job. He stumbles out apologetically, pulling the door closed behind him.
“You really hate that part, don’t you?” the first asks, while they proceed to the next line of duty.
… I suppose they’re being taken care of. They did all get fed the appropriate diets, in the end- though I am not amused by the number of complaints. And Angel Bunny could be a little nicer- they’re only trying to help.
That problem solved, I shift my consideration back to my ‘design cores’... I can feel sixteen of them, and they all feel idle. In the same way that Fusion Four feels offline, they feel idle. I…
Well, they seemed cheerful enough when they produced that claw-like design… Hmm. So, if it’s okay with them, would they mind designing a new shower for my cottage? The existing one is a little rickety, cramped, and it clogs a lot. Additionally, I think there’s a leak someplace.
They seem to leap at the opportunity to do something. I watch as they divvy up the problem.
One starts considering the behavior of animal- and pony- hair in a shower, and considering a way to create a drain grate that won’t get clogged by hair but also won’t let that hair- or any pony/animal parts- fall in.
Another tackles the pipe under the drain grate: The one that carries away the wastewater. It adjust the P-trap a few times, and seems to decide on one that would be almost impossible to clog, even if all sorts of animal/pony hair managed to get down in it.
The third tackles the subfloor of the shower. Solid timbers to form the base, in a series of beams with little crossmembers in between; the drain pipe would pass through holes cut in the crossmembers. A solid platform of more solid timbers on top of the base, then a low, stone bowl- an inch or two high at the outer edge- on top of that… to help the water flow towards the center, where the drain is.
Oh, the shape of that upper surface was submitted to it from a fourth design core that was working on optimizing the contour of the floor… to maximize ease in entering/exiting, ease in maintaining balance, and the drainage efficiency, so I’m not standing in a puddle- as tends to form in my existing shower.
That fourth core submitted that shape also to the fifth core, working on the surface of the floor… Oooh, it’s picked one of my favorite kinds of tile- and selected specific patterns, rotating & placing them inside the floor so as to create an amazing pattern… It shapes the floor to match that contour, before redesigning the pattern in the tile… and considering the walls.
The sixth core is considering the shape of the walls themselves. After designing the overall dimensions of the shower stall and mailing that to several other cores, it’s now deciding on exactly what contour the walls should have- for built-in shelving that won’t hold water but will hold brushes, soaps, and so on, all without getting in my way… or looking bad. It decides on this pattern and mails that to the seventh core.
The seventh is working on the walls. It’s using a few different kinds of tile, including one I hadn’t been impressed with when I saw it at the store- but with the pattern it’s designed with it and the others, it’s absolutely gorgeous. It accepts the contours from the sixth core and quickly redesigns the patterns to fit- and by Celestia do those shelves look nice!
An eighth is working on the shower curtain. It’s designed a curtain- that’ll be quite the custom job- that’ll seal nicely against the tile floor with every casual closure, just in case the drain does clog, yet not stick to anything else… Nor have an excessive amount dragging, nor be difficult to move, nor be… Just wow. And the pattern it’s selected for that custom job is gorgeous as well. It adjusts the bottom of the curtain slightly when it receives final specifications from the third one- the one on the floor- and the length of the curtain rod when it gets final dimensions from the seventh.
The ninth is working on the plumbing for the tap. This also gets adjusted when the seventh turns up with final contour for the tile; the plumbing will all be hidden inside the wall, unlike my present shower, where only some of it. The valves, the showerhead, the… It’s just so pretty!
The tenth is assembling all of the parts as they’re completed- and, once fully assembled, it- and the next three, through the fourteenth- runs a few examinations to verify everything works as intended before they all submit the finished design back to me. Fifteen and sixteen had nothing to do.
It’s… It’s gorgeous. I’m going to have to have it built and installed.
… Rarity might be envious… but no problem, those design cores were eager enough I’m sure they won’t have any trouble building her one- once I learn what kind of constraints she wants it to have.
This makes me wonder. Just last year, I had to participate in that… What was it called? I can’t remember- but I do know I had to participate in the formation of that tornado we used to get the water to Cloudsdale for the rainy season. I… still have difficulty finding that MY wingpower, despite being a weak flier, was actually enough to spell the difference between a success and failure.
But now, I don’t have any wingpower. Tactical is more than willing to indicate that, while I can fly, I don’t have wings- and likely won’t have anything like the same effect on that tornado.
So… What if we didn’t need so much wingpower? What if we had something more… Well, utilitarian? Universal? Whatever Twilight would call it. Some alternate method of getting water up there that didn’t require a tornado on the reservoir.
I try asking my design cores for that, if that’s okay with them… Which, apparently, it is.
That is, judging by how all sixteen immediately jumped into the task, generating and considering different possible methods- from a bucket train to an actual train to a pegasus running back and forth with a bucket to a permanent pumping tower on the reservoir to launch the water at Cloudsdale with the touch of an earth pony to…
There’s so many different solutions they consider. In the end, though, they finally come up with a solution. A rather elegant solution, she thinks; why aren’t they doing this already?
It’s fairly easy for a pegasus to permanently affect a small, inanimate object with cloudwalking magic. It takes some time, and they can only do so many so quickly, but her design cores don’t seem to think this warrants exclusion of such processes in the design of this system.
It would rest up in Cloudsdale… at all times. A pump would sit at the top, run by a paddlewheel propelled by a few pegasi worth of wind… Rainbow could probably run it all by herself, but she’d be one of few who could. This pump would actually push water DOWN from Cloudsdale- down one of the two little pipes attached to the big one.
These three long, flexible, sectional pipes would all be enchanted with cloudwalking abilities. So would the bigger, similarly sectional, divided pipe they’ll be enclosed in- with the extra space filled with cloud… giving it the appearance of a large, flexible pipe that simply floats in the air, like a cloud.
Anyways. The water would flow down that little tube, until it hit the bottom, where it would push a little pump and return to Cloudsdale through the other little tube, to flow back into the storage bowl that first pump draws from.
The little pump at the bottom would have no paddlewheel, powered by the stream of pressurized water from Cloudsdale. A backwards pump, one could say. It drives a slightly larger pump, also with no paddlewheel, located at the tip of the hose… This larger pump, of course, would take in water from the reservoir and push it up the big pipe, back to Cloudsdale. It wouldn’t push it as fast as the little streams would be going, but that’s why it wouldn’t need an entire town of windpower to operate; it’d only need enough to handle some water at a time, and through gears, it wouldn’t even need enough to get that water to Cloudsdale, normally. After all, pegasi normally have enormous endurance for their strength, according to Twilight last week.
… Or at least, I think it was last week. I’m not sure what day today is.
Getting the pipe back up to Cloudsdale would be easy- a second propeller on the reel next to the pump, requiring only enough wingpower to reel it in- any pegasus could do it, even a foal. After all, the pipe itself is effectively weightless; the more power is applied to the reel, the faster it retracts. Pulling it out to a new reservoir would be just as easy- a single pegasus, maybe two if they want to go fast, would just grab the slightly larger tip of the pipe and pull it out to the reservoir.
I’m… going to have to mention that to Rainbow sometime. Maybe they’ll want to use it? Construction- materials aside- would take something like two months, just for one thousand pegasi to properly enchant all the parts.
Hmm… This makes me wonder. Will I still be able to… ‘talk’ to these Design Cores when I turn back into a pony? Tactical answers; not likely. So, is there a way I can retain that ability while going back to look like a pony? Tactical answers; certainly. Simply build an auxiliary, and hide my hull someplace… Hull? What hull? … No answer.
So, if I can build an auxiliary- a term I understand, for what reason I don’t know- is there a way to make sure I don’t turn back into a regular pony… exclusively, at least? … Tactical is working on it. Um… Oh, it’s done. None apparent; it’s also noticing no sign of any such return… and seems to be considering many feelings- or senses- that I simply haven’t noticed yet…
Wait. What? Why can I feel Twilight’s power plant? And…
Why can I feel my friends’ new bodies as well?