“So, other than having a break from me for a few days, what were you all up to?” I asked, setting Celestia down.
“Well Camden made a breakthrough…” Twilight hesitated. “Well for us it's a breakthrough, for him it was like playing with building blocks.”
“Yah, he can be mildly infuriating like that.” I said smiling at the flustered Twilight. “What did he do this time?”
“He called it a nuclear reactor.” She said clearly unfamiliar with the concept, yet eager to learn. “Using radioactive materials acquired by the changelings, he-”
“Yes yes, I am aware of how it works.” I interjected. “I was a human too. Should I be worried about this? Where's a smart one when you need them.”
“I don’t believe you should worry.” Celestia chimed in. “You know about his scientific workings better than us after all.”
“I sense some trepidation in your voice dear Tia.” I said questioningly. “Was that a statement or a question?”
“A statement…” She paused. “It’s just that it shares a word with that one term you mentioned back when we were accepting your spices to Equis.”
“Ahh, thermonuclear warfare.” I said thinking back. “Indeed it does, what of it?”
“Yes that.” She said taking on a more serious demeanor. “I’ve gotten to know you all pretty well over the years, and you me. So I’d like to be straight with you and ask why he is researching and advancing in something that could bring about catastrophic warfare?”
“But, he’s not…” I said, trying to think of how to explain it. “It does share properties with nuclear bombs, but the reactor is a power source. If it’s maintained properly, there is no threat whatsoever.”
“That doesn't quite ease my worries Shawn.” She said, looking me over as if to appraise me. Like she would get anything new.
“Ok, lets flip the tables.” I said. “Are you studying magic at the moment?”
“Why yes, our mages are always trying to advance the study of magic.” She said, visibly confused. “Twilight here is a main contributor.”
“So you’re creating war spells as we speak?” I said glancing to Twilight. “And she’s the one at the forefront of the research. She is a threat.”
“What?” Twilight gasped. “We are researching no such thing. Our spells improve the quality of life for ponies, not start wars.”
“And that can be applied, word for word, to what Camden is doing.” I said simply. “All knowledge can be used for good or for evil. It's all up to the character of the one wielding it.”
“I see.” Celestia said quietly. She looked ashamed. “I apologies for my questioning.”
“No worries princess.” I said grinning. “As far as I’m concerned we’re friends first, and rulers second. Chats like this help us both out.”
“You only say rulers second because of how much you owe me.” She said smirking. “Thanks for the talk, I’ll keep this in mind for future inquiries.”
“Cool, anything else happen?” I asked moving on from the slightly awkward silence.
“Well with Vinyl in town, Camden's progression, Twilight's help and Billy’s knowledge of your plans, “ Celestia began. “Your club is coming along quite nicely.”
“O sweet.” I said excitedly. “Where we at in the process?”
“Actually, they’re waiting for you to give instructions on a few key items, but it’s mostly done.” Twilight chimed in. “You could have the grand opening in a week or less.”
“Fuck yah!” I said hopping out of bed. “Thanks for keeping me alive and shit.”
“Yah yah, no problem.” Chloris replied.
“It was the least I could do, it was my fault after all.” Celestia added.
I went to walk away, forgetting about the whole gauntlet thing. I didn’t fall, but I may have stumbled...over...onto my face. Ok fine, I fell. Lose a limb, then come talk to me.
“Guys you’re never gonna believe this.” I said looking up from my prone position on the floor. “At some point my leg was replaced by this metal thing and it doesn't behave like I thought it would.
A chorus of groans and face hoofs was the unanimous reply. Music to my ears. Standing back up, I took it slower. To explain it...imagine you had a peg leg. You there? Yah, well it’s like that, but metal and tentacles. I know, crazy right? Now that you know what it’s like, you can probably imagine that it's different from a normal leg. Sure it had a...knee and wrist thing...whatever pony joints are, it had them. But they don't work without commands, and I don’t know if you’ve walked recently but you don’t exactly command your joints to move. So we are struck with a problem.
“Hey magic ponies.” I said, totally not degrading or anything. “Can we make the gauntlet respond to subconscious commands or muscle movement? It’ll take me ages to get anywhere if I have to think about each movement of my leg.”
“That may take some time.” Twilight said as her horn glowed, sheathing the gauntlet in her glow. “I know it's possible but I’m not sure how to-”
“To..?” I said at her sudden pause. “Toooooooooo?”
“What?” She said surprised. “O, sorry, it’s done.”
“For real?” I said disbelievingly. “Ms. I don’t know how long it will take, solved it in less time than it took to finish her sentence.”
“It was simpler than expected.” She said blushing. “Well test it and make sure it's right.”
I did so, I took a few steps, trying not to think about how I’m walking, You can imagine how that goes. Quick, don't think about kittens! Aaand boom, kittens everywhere. Like that.
“I think it's working..” I said uncertainty. “Well, I know who to call if it isn’t.”
With my part said and my leg working, I made my way out the door and to my club. Still need to name that… Whatever, that's a future Shawn problem. I was taken from my musings by the almost complete building in front of me. Twilight wasn’t kidding when she said it was close. From what I could see on approach, the outside was lacking a sign, doors, and a some cool lighting. Sign obviously came after name, doors...not sure about that one, just don’t have them yet I guess, and lighting, well that's my job.
“Wubba-dub-dub, Flash Beats is in the club!” I said walking in the door-less doorway. “I’m here to scrutinize, and maybe praise. Y’all were busy while my lazy ass was taking a nap.”
“If it isn’t my favorite human king.” Vinyl said from onstage. “If you had us waiting any longer I would have started setting this up. I’m just itching to test those subs out, they look amazing.”
“Yes, marvel at human technology.” I said looking to the many speakers and subs strewn about what would be the dance floor. “I need to get a light order to Camden now. That way he’ll have it ready by the time this is all hooked up.”
“Going off your plans, I got a simple one in already.” Billy said, crawling from under the stage. Well, it was basically crouched walking, the stage had a lot of room under it. “But we both figured you would have more specifics to add.”
“Yah, but that can wait.” I said excitedly. “I’m getting to work on this right now. Hopefully we can have some quick rigged tests by the end of the day. Have to make sure everything is working in harmony after all.”
“O heck yah, I’m definitely staying now.” Vinyl said pumping her hoof.
“Sweet, I’m gonna work on getting the front doors on so we don't shake the town.” He said heading to the front. “Camden had to make some alterations but using the same tech that you guys used on the original camp he made some really solid and sound dampening doors.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I said, switching to mental communication. “Chloris, can you spare some changelings? I have some work to do and I need some support.”
“No problem, I’m sending a few now.” She replied. “I’m also sending Lianna and Mirage. They’ve really hit it off.”
“Sweet, reinforcements are on their way.” I said to Vinyl. “I’m gonna get started with organizing and placing speakers.”
“Cool, I’m just doing a simple DJ setup for any testing we need to do.” She said. “Then I’ll start getting cables ran to approximate locations.”
With a nod of affirmation I set to work. First I found the list Camden left me. It was an itemised list with specs on each item. Finding the largest and most powerful subs on the list, two housings with quad twenty-four inch subs. I used some magic to slide them to the rear corners of the room, making a mental note to reverse the polarity on those. Luckily, my helpers arrived, because even though I only slid two subs some, I was tired. I blame my impromptu hospital visit. Directing the changelings, I put two eighteen inch subs centered under the stage, facing the dance floor. Then, flanked them with fifteen inch subs, four on each side. I still had four housings to place. Each housed four twelve inch subs in a two by two layout. But I was saving those to help fill any dead zones.
“This is a pretty rough layout Vinyl.” I said as the changelings cleared the floor. “But I’d like to get a test to see if there are any dead zones.”
“Plug em up and feed em through the wall and I’ll hook them to the amps.” She said from the back room. “Just let me know what's what.”
All of the clubs amps were in a secure, well cooled room behind the stage. There was a fairly sizeable hole under the stage to feed cables through. Doing as she asked, I started directing my helpers again. The subs in the back had the longest and most difficult run, so I set two changelings on that immediately. Then while that was getting taken care of I had the others rout cables one by one, telling Vinyl what they were plugged into and what amps I thought they should use. She put her say in a few times too, helping to more evenly distribute draw over the amps. It was great working with someone who knew what they were doing. We were both in our element. But, like they say, time flies when you’re having fun. Before I knew it everything was routed and plugged. And while that is sad, it did mean we could do some tests now, and that is a very good thing.
“Better hurry with that door.” I yelled to Billy as we were checking our runs. “It’s about to get loud.”
“O come on, you said it wouldn’t be till late.” He said holding the second door to the frame. “I’ve only gotten one up.”
“Well I suggest you hold it in place.” I said looking back to Vinyl. She was already on stage and ready. “Drop it!”
Everything was wub. A sane pony would have started low and worked their way up to avoid any unforeseen complications. Either Vinyl was super confident or she was just a complete lunatic. Either way, it was crazy. All that being said, it wasn't as loud as I expected. Sure if the building wasn't reinforced I’m sure the roof would have caved, and the ponies outside may mistake the bass for an earthquake. But audibly it was underwhelming.
“Cut it.” I said with a cut it hoof motion since I knew full well she couldn't hear me.
“Whats up?” She asked once she killed the beat.
“Something is off.” I said, ignoring Billy’s protests of doors and whatnot. “It’s not loud enough, rather it isn’t as loud as it feels. It’s like…”
“Polarity!” We both said in unison.
“That's what I forgot, I didn't reverse polarity on the subs in the back.” I said making my way into the back room. “It was canceling the sound but I was sandwiched between sound waves, that's why it didn’t seem right.”
After a quick alteration to the amp, it was now sending out it's signal in reverse. Might need to ask Camden to modify the sub so it can hit as hard reversed as it did forward, but I’ll decide that after the test. Maybe he already did, who knows with him.
“Take two.” I said once I re-centered myself on the dance floor. “Drop it!”