Extra Crispy sat on a stool behind the counter, looking over a family of customers. Oddly enough a lot of her fears did not come true; around half of her customer base was still more than willing to come to her shop for their plateful of pie and mash. However this was smoothed out by the fact that there was now a considerable amount of griffons coming over to her caf' for dinner after work or as a trip with their families.
As of now she was making the perfect amount of money to keep herself fed and the shop running with a little bit extra on good days. But she did not care about that. Having reconsidered her life’s choices she now spent a lot more time trying to socialise with her customers in hopes of finding a few more friends. The words from the two Ponyvillians still singing in her memory:
“Not only you will spend your entire life with an empty crib but you will have nopony to appreciate what makes you happy, nopony to comfort you when you are sad and worse still there will be nopony to see you off to your deathbed.”
Much to her pleasant surprise both Gladius and Glaive were still in town and remembered her fairly well andin good light.
Reconnecting over with the two was as sweet as she could ever imagine it. Pleasant memories of the past were generously washed over in generous quantity of tea and cucumber sandwiches.
Turns out they have both married a decade ago-their shop singing with the scratching of little talons. Nonetheless, they have both decided that it would be best for both of them to stay here as they have been partners for long time know and it saved then a great deal on rent. Their wives did not object so they did.
Hearing on what Crispy had done in her shop they have both appreciated her decision saying that the main reason they have ditched Griffinstone was the toxic attitude everygriff had there when it came to bits. Upon hearing how many bits she had managed to save up they were both impressed with Glaive latter adding:
“If that old geezer Gruff is still alive; he sure wouldn’t be after hearing about you Crisp. He’d have a stroke for sure!” The other shared his opinion.
Back in her shop she was now spending a lot more time talking to her customers which she had now thanks to the fact that she was not as busy…
Turns out a lot of ponies really respected her willingness to explore the cuisine a little more, often replying how the pony culture has been overly stagnant for quite the considerable amount of time and that her “Trottingham” pies were still the best in Trottingham. She did hear of some of her old customers being outrgaed as well as news of the mayor trying to ban the imports of pig carcases into the region but that did not go anywhere. She even considered putting pigeon pies back on the menu but eventually decided that despite her "better" relationship with her customer base she now had quite a public image so it would be best to avoid anything that can be considered further unethical.
Furthermore to her own surprise, for the first time ever, she had received some letters asking if she has room to hire an apprentice which was a particularly pleasant bit of news.
There were only two more things left…
One was writing a letter to her parents about what has happened. Not only she has kept them in the dark about what she has been putting in her pies but she also hasn’t wrote to them in good three years now,which she had to ammend....
“Thanks for the dinner Crispy! Have a good one!” A voice interrupted her train of thought as a family of pegasi was leaving the hall…
“Oh, shears! Shears!” She waved back at them as they were leaving only to stop in the doorway looking somewhat confused.
“Shears?” The mother of the group asked.
“I meanth C H E E R S!” Extra Crispy said, painstakingly annunciating the last word. Although getting new friends was nice having to talk more proved a lot more tiresome than it would usually be. ON the bright note if you talk with them for long enough they would generally get used to it….
“Oh sorry Crisp. Cheers to you too!”
They left, leaving the shop empty as she was back considering the other aspect. The empty crib aspect.
She did not know from which angle to approach the issue. On one hoof she never fell in love even once in all of her thirty-six years of life and if she does find a good apprentice, and there were servile applications on her desk right now, she didn’t need to worry about her craft dying out with her. On the other those little chicks the two butchers had were lovely.
And when she was little she did always want a little sister or a brother: something her parents never gave her no matter how much she nagged…
Extra Crispy went upstairs for a gaze through the window… Out of it she could catch the tips of the masts from various ships that go into and out of the harbour. She heard some sort of a new ship was completed in Baltimare and was arriving in Trottingham for a show of flag. Understandibly this drew a lot of ponies into the docks, although she couldn’t quite catch the glimpse of it…
Thinking about it again the earth pony baker became a little upset as she considered what future there was for her.
Looking behind her she had servile drawers and chests full of bits. (she never trusted the banks and thus kept her money at home since Equestrian bits never went down in value) She was sorted for servile times over, and she had her shop and she had friends as well, but one aspect of her life was left lacking. Still, she thought, perhaps it is for the better. Was a coltfried really that important as other mares make it out to be? And furthermore what are the chances she won’t get scammed out of all her precious bits or be distracted form the few friends she managed to have? Better not be a silly pony and rush things because of some continental farmer’s grunts.
As she looked out of the window one of the clippers moved out of sight and she thought that this must have been the new vessel. And, despite the fact she could only see the masts and funnels, she was in awe…
The ship was a steamer with three stacks coughing up a lot of soot into the sky. The only two masts it had, holding the banners of the two sisters, lacked any sort of sail. Instead the aft mast only had the flag and curiously a little wooden shack under where the sails should have been. The foremast appeared to be a tripod with wooden platforms and a bigger shack atop it… and looking at the distance between the masts the thing must have been at least four or five hundred hooves in length making it truly massive.
But as she was staring at it she could catch the sound a bell going off downstairs-customer! She dashed down like a weatherpony on storm Friday and hit the counter like a battering ram.
“Helloo! I amh the Slitherin Sclarhleth Pie Mare of Shaltlikh Shreet! Welkome to my pie shoph!”
“Good Afternoon to you as well, pie mare.” A grey unicorn who she did not recall seeing before replied. "My name would be Coal Jacky Pudding, I heard you sell Griffinstone food here?”
“No?” She said feeling a little confused. “I only shell pie an mash”
“But I heard that you sell Griffinstone inspired pies? I heard you have pies like you can't get anywhere?"
“Oh, of courshe!” She cheered up finally understanding what he meant. “You woulth likhe some of my Thotingham pie? That has meath.”
“Well yes!” He lit up in anticipation. “As soon as I heard my home town has meat on sale I was in a hurry to get some.”
“Yhe came to the reicht place!” She said opening the hot cabinet, pulling out one hefty piece of pastry out of it, filling her nostrils with the ever so familiar smell. “I do hapfen to be the onlee pony in Thotingham to sell meath pies.”
“Well that would be music to my years!” The stallion smiled, I’ll take two with one side of mash and one mug of tea please.”
“Here you gho…” The scarlet mare passed the plate over the counter, the chunky unicorn took the seat by the window and proceeded to dig in…”
“Have I known you pie was this good, I would have come here ages ago…” He said after taking a few bites, following that with a quick lick of the mashed spuds. “And the side is splendid too, how come I only hear of this place now?”
Crispy proceeded to tell him the same story she told a while back as well as the abridged version of what happened yesterday, leaving out the names of the two mares she had deal with as well as the heartburning spew she received from Applejack. Despite the fact that she did not budge before getting a stern verbal thrashing she would sooner eat her own socks (and she really liked her socks) before she would throw away her strong-willed, seasoned businesspone, every inch a Trottinghammer image.
The unicorn listened with enthusiasm as he dug into his meal, eventually he also noticed that Crispy was seemingly sounding a bit smoother as she talked on and on. He could still hear all the distortion loud and clear but there was no longer any confusion with what she was saying, making it a lot easier to join her in her story.
After finishing the tale right as Coal Pudding has finished his meal he stretched his hooves on the table and grinned.
“I can definitely relate to that…, in my business I also have to face with a lot of resistance, thoug mine is no way near as sneaky as your ever was, quite the contrary”
“Really? What is it that you practice in then?” The baker wondered, leaning in to listen better. Her voice was still odd but for some reason he could no longer pick out misplaced letters, not that it mattered since Coal Pudding did most of the talking now.
“I run a steamworks in Northeast-End, it’s a pretty profitable organisation and something I have a genuine passion for, so you think my life would be paradise but instead I can’t help but notice that fellow ponies don’t seem to appreciate steam power as much as they ought to…”
“What do you mean by that?” The earth pony was noticeably surprised. “I can’t walk for a quater of a mile without seeing smoke in the air and just about every city has a railroad connection going out it…, surely that would be enough for most ponies?”
“Well this is precisely what I meant, you understand the benefit of what modern engineering is offering. But you don’t see what it CAN offer…”
“Elaborate on that…” The crimson mare pondered, putting down the mug she was wiping.
“Have you ever been to any other Equestrian town or city besides Trottingham that isn’t Baltimare or Manehattan?” Crispy shook her head to that. “Well, the fact is there is nearly no manufacturing present in Equestria outside of the “soot belt” that we are fortunate enough to live in… Take a trip to Ponyvile, Las Pegasus or even Canterlot and you will see a very different Equestria.” The unicorn took a look around the room until he locked onto his target of choice. “I think I have just found my example, I see you have gas lighting here? You do like them?”
“Well of course I am quite fond of my lights, it is a lot more convenient and brighter than whale oil or candles we had when I was younger… These really lit up a room.”
“Why don’t you use electric lights instead? They never soot, you don't need starters and room doesn't get as hot in the summer?"
“Oh sure, but those cost an absolute fortune!” She dismissed the notion. “I know the hospital and the town hall has those but I don’t know anypony who uses one at home.”
“Well what if I tell you, if you wanted to you could make electric lights cheaper than gas… or that in some places it is already a reality"
“I am not sure how..., but you’re the engineer so go on…”
“A typical induction bulb, let’s ignore ark and mercury-vapour lamps for now, produces the equivalent of 114 candles worth of light for sixty watts of power. A good triple expansion industrial steam engine can produce an estimate of two thousand seven hundred steady-pony power or approximately 1700 kilowatts of electrical energy; the generation is about 95% efficient on a modern equestrian generator. To produce that much kinetic energy, assuming you know what you doing when setting up your boiler, you need to burn seven times of that energy. However that can be reduced to five or even four.”
“With gas you don’t need to run any engines what so ever, but gas is made from coal-with coal. I will not get into detail since I don’t know much about gas generation other than you are cooking coal and then gathering the hydrocarbon rich exhaust.”
“So you are telling me that I am just using coal at the end of the day every time I run my ovens?”
“Well not quite, you do know that you are getting a lot more convenience when using gas. Back to the lights, let me tell you that as of present day-for every candle worth energy of light produced per a given amount of coal from gas you COULD be getting approximately ten candles worth of light for the same amount of fuel consumed”. He finished, floating a piece of tissue to wipe his forehead. "Which is why gas lighting is already obsolete in Manehattan as costs five times as much there with gas being about the same price as it is here."
“Why is it so expensive then?” The mare asked to which the unicorn was more than keen to reply…
“Because the Equestrian society is horrendously backwards for reasons that are misguided at best.” He said now noticing that his tea that came with the meal went cold. “We could have reliable affordable electric network in Trottingham and the rest of Equestria but thanks to various bits of local law that is not a possibility. They already have a very robust electric network in Manehattan, as Imeantioned earlier, there every building is lit by electricity as well as provided with sockets for domestic use. The electric companies in Trottingham are about as competent as a parasprite would be in charge of a food bank. Canter’s and Sons relies on old low pressure pump engines and kettle boilers bought over from defunct mines, Trottingham Direct has good modern engines but it’s all useless since they use locomotive boilers, altogether making it about ten percent efficient. They also use Direct Current which I am not a professional electrician but even I know that you can’t transmit it across long distances very well, which is why they have servile small stations and steam engines work better when they are scaled up, hence the low efficiency. But who I hate the most is East Side Gas and Electric… do you happen to get your gas from them?”
“No, I get mine from Lady Glasshooves Gasworks…,"
The unicorn wheezed, much to the mare’s confusion…,
“Lady… Glasshooves… Gasworks…” He slowly exhaled and then changed his voice to sound more feminine… “Well yes, I am the cahirpony of the Glashooves Gasworks. Please consider switching to us, the most reliable gas service in all off Trottingham, with our no cut-off guarantee. Don’t be put off by the fact that I actually enjoy having my gas cut off… It’s because I like BBQ.”
“Well I heard East Side is inconsistent with their supplies…” The baker said feeling quite confused… “So that no cut-off guarantee is really good despite how inconsistent their rates are and how arrogant Lady Glasshooves often is…”
“Well there is a good reason for the cut offs, they have the most efficient and clean power station in Trottingham, which got them servile awards from the weatherpony union… as well as good publicity BUT, there is a caveat that everypony seem to overlook. Their electricity is gas generated. But its gas they made themselves, from coal, on a separate site which also provides gas to consumers, thus often running their gasometers empty.
“But why?” The mare asked feeling ultimately dumbfounded and quickly checking whenever or not her cutie mark is being stolen as she was bombarded with knowledge.
“Well there are servile reasons, it could be the rewards and the public image associated with them or it could be the fact that they are trying to artificially make the price of electricity more expensive without violating the Cap on Excess Act, limiting the mark-up on electrical and gas generation, to preserve their contract on city lighting-which is gas operated. But Trottingham and Baltimare are lucky still to have a gas infrastructure, which is still a godsend for cooking and heating.” He said getting off the table and leaning against the counter. “Most of Equestria doesn’t even have that…”
“So you can’t get cooking gas in Ponyvile?” The mare questioned, scratching her head.
“Not in Ponyvile, Hope Hollow, Appleoosa, Las Pegasus, Van Hoofer,Dodge Junction or Canterlot…, we have the means and the knowledge to industrialise the whole of Equestria but the nation’s industrial capability is mainly concentrated in these three cities… Sticking to our previous topic, most of Equestrian homes are still candlelit while the Canterlot nobility spends the night under gilded ethanol lamps. The hospitals DO have electric lights but do you know how they get electricity?” The unicorn grinned like a mad horse.
“No?”
"Point your horn at the lead acid battery and go to town. I tried that once but that would only got me an hour of light for twenty minutes of work. Which would be fine with me if not for the fact it was just my desk light and that I couldn't steadily hold a mug for a quarter of an hour after the ordeal." He winced at the memory whilst gently rubing the base of his horn. "The alternative would be stuffing you in a hamster wheel, would you like that as a keep earner?"
"Of course not!" The shopkeeper winced in protest. "I wouldn't ever imagine myself doing something as mundane as that. I am not that used to repetitive work to begin with..."
"Well too bad! I have seen ponies running pretty large food processing plants of the backs of earth ponies like you just to preserve that clean air! Because one extra funace will DEFINATELY give everypoby cancer overnight! Nevermid that the two of us are still alive! Or that my old stud got it once and after a couple of therapies he never heard of it again! But to have..." He made the saddest face that his bush eyebrows and doublechin would allow..." Soot.. *sob on my feathertips... *sob *sob... GET A LIFE!"
"That must make running factories in there a real tartarus. I couldn't imagine placing a newspaper add for literal ponypower" She thought for a moment..., "But if you were to rotate your staff, maybe one hour in the well seven in the..."
"Many do..., not that it helps since industrial output is pitiful in the mainland. Not only the existing factories are terribly choked by regulations but industrial zoning is also left scare, something about preserving small businesses from the ever-extending tentacles of big capital. I shall have them know that big capital is not the threat. Not that many of them are too clever to invest in new ventures anyway. I know Fancypants does, Luna is quite curious and despite what I said Lady Glashooves is a bit of a role model when it comes to that." The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow to that but kept listening. "Most of them are too busy sipping wine whilst wondering whenever they should spending the night playing snooker in the club or cello in the conservatory."
"Accurate" The mare laughed at the image. "But won't you have to agree that you wouldn't want to ruin small shop when mass produced goods are so much cheaper..."
"Haycakes! I have a very good friend who makes copperware and is also the village smith. Works mainly by himself with his adopted colt occasionally helping out. He even makes his own alloys, has a small crucible furnace he built himself. And for him business is doing well. The difference is that he has a more or less modern workshop with a press, a spinning lathe and a polishing wheel. He still lives in a half timbered house with a coal range and a kerosene lamp, he doesn't actually live in Trottingham but in a small village within the metropolitan area, but he is doing fine. In fact a lot of the jobs that will go are the jobs which either nopony wants, require overly specific talent sets, or fully mechanisisng the process will create competition with the existing plants.
"Of course it would be! I can tell you once again that the reason I went with meat pies is because there is too much competition for traditional pies, I had to innovate! If it weren't for the fact there is a pie shop on every other block my parents would never move to Vanhoover and I'd never carry the meat pie forward."
"Exactly, or you could have lowered your prices... no offence, your prices are pretty reasonable, but you get the point. We, the engineers, scored a small victory in Appleoosa where they decided to open a small one-lot industrial park as well as lift the smog laws in the region. About seven applications were placed on the lot but I did not expect Cheese Sandwich's gag factory to be the winner until I realised this is the only plant that doesn't compete with any of the big guys. And by the way that plant was a beauty to trot around during the grand opening, I had a contract with them for their boilers and Mr Sandwich and Sans Smirk are the dream team to run it for decades to come. Created a lot of new jobs too..."
"So you have problems with finding contracts?"
"Not anymore I don't, largely thanks to the battleship program there is now a growing need for producing more and more materials. I heard Philydelphia is about to abolish both the zoning and smog laws: patching up the hole in the East Coast Soot Belt, Dodge Junction is looking into getting a water powered cotton mill, Stalliongrad created a government trust to authorize rapid industrialization. So thanks to the Royal Equastian Navy driving up material and labour costs things are getting sorted. Not to mention all the new inventions are coming up like better optics, new engine designs, wireless-magicless telegraphy, new steels and alloys..., there are many small gifts which might make their ways into our homes down the line. And for me that, while I did not expect it to be, is the real victory."
"An interesting way to phrase it...,did you manage to contribute anything to the project? You sound like you did?"
"Nice to see that you noticed it, I did make a quite the noticeable contribution to the battleship effort. I am one of the two executive heads of the re-armament program. The other being my good mate Onion Breeze."
"Really?" The mare squinted with a subtle, even a tad sarcastic grin. "You in charge of the whopper outside?"
"That whopper is the THS Goliath; second ship of the Leviathan class. Six hundred hooves in length, twenty-one thousand tons displacement..."
"Six hundred hooves length?" The baker questioned. "Why did you need to make it this long?"
"Well, if you are closing soon I can always show her to you..., the ship is in the docks where we try to recruit some sailors."
Extra Crispy looked at the clock, then outside through the tall windows of the dining hall and back on th clock again, technically it was only 5 o'clock whole two hours before closing. On the other hoof she really did not many ponies today mainly because of the accursed ship so she replied to the unicorn:
"Sure, just let m switch of me gas, put away the leftovers and find me keys..."
Having arrived in the dockyards Crispy was stunned, as she eyed the great gray giant perched on the velvety surface of the bay, dwarfing all the now insignificant brick shacks around it with its hull while the masts poked fun at the dockside cranes and picked fights with the many clippers and steamers. Trotting closer and closer to the iron castle the stallion eventually lead on to a gangplank-or in this case a gang ladder pointing up towards the deck.
"It is good to see a pony who can appreciate beauty behind labour." Coal Pudding said as he was tried to help the baker up the stairs only to notice that she had no trouble so her rushed behind her to catch up. "The first one took us a lot of work..., not just getting it designed and build but digging through all the pish-posh and riff-raff the navy thrown at us." He thought about how he really needed to change his eating habits as he got to the deck. "Not as hard now but I fear we might have trouble getting the upgraded design through..."
Upon the deck Crispy was thunderstruck by the imposing sight of four cannons staring her down from their iron towers backing a bridge the size of a block of flats on which a mast not much unlike that tower the Prench seem to like.
Having been told the inns and outs of the vessel the sun came down right as they were exiting the engine room... The vessel was even more impressive on the inside than she could have ever imagined it from the outside. Crispy did remember very vividly how she once visiting an old museum ship that was on display when she was little. That however was nothing more than a vast empty space with rows and rows of bronze long guns on the lower decks, short iron carronades on the upper deck and hammocks amidst them. This ship had an awestriking collection of rooms each with a dedicated purpose. Dining rooms, recreation rooms, storerooms, coalbunkers and humble crew quarters stretched and dotted the hull under it's everencompassing layers of steel guarding every inch of the craft. A grand sight in itself but then they reached to one of the gun turrets guarded by a consort of marines which kindle let the two ponies in. The vast circular chamber had its walls lined with servile rows of chimera-sized arrowheads surrounding a centerpiece electric elevator; a far cry from her humble pie lift. Beneath her a similar chamber was located which instead held a blood chilling quantity of powder bags. While she was not allowed near the guns themselves he did show her the engine rooms which provoked a sizable debate, thankfully mainly concealed within the rows of pistons.... Mainly...
"...you wouldn't understand, I really wanted to use turbines but the design is just not refined enough yet..., not only the blades keep creeping inside the engine overtime, the tolerances have to be super tight too since you can't really fix it with piston rings. But it is a huge pity we can't break twenty one knots so I do have my assistant running tests back in my workshop. Extra range and speed would be nice but reliability is more important."
"Sure...," The mare said, giving up on the conversation. "But you have to admit I made some convincing arguments..., you said yourself why it would have been a better idea for it to use the Tur...Turd-nine engines, after all a revolutionary ship needs a revolutionary propulsion system, won't you say?"
"I'd say my head hurts..."The stallion rubbed the back of his head. "You really are good at convincing other poines aren't you."
"Oh sod it!" She waved it off... "If you know what you are doing I wouldn't get involved, I just wanted to understand your reasoning which is quite solid. For now I am just mocking about." She laughed...
"Mocking about..." The stallion stared into the blue abyss ahead of him that was the Celestial Sea..., across it was Griffonstone and if he looked the other way he could just barely catch mainland Equestria under the glow of twilight where Baltimare was waiting for him...
"Say..., I know you have a shop to run but I have a need of somepony who can help me out with procurement. I told you what the nobility can be like, having someone who can talk-up a big game would be really handy to have on-board..." He said as he opened the hatch they have just emerged from.
Extra Crispy considered her options, on one hoof she still had a shop to run with the school holiday being just around the corner, thus expecting more customers, but on the other hoof she never had a genuine adventure in her life. Not the one where she hunted pigeons or dodged discovery of her secrets but the one where she genuinely made a difference to the lives of ponies and sticking it to those loudmouth Ponyvillians, despite the fact the were genuinely right, was so alluring..."
"Did I mention the pay is also quite generous?" The unicorn added, which has tipped the scales...
"Count me in."