It was sad to watch Whizzer go. The Punnery Sergeant shrank into insignificance as he went westwards en route to Canterlot. Sundance quite liked the soldier and wondered if he would ever see him again. He had high hopes accompanied by all the usual dreadful fears. There was a lot to do and he was in desperate need of a cup of tea. There was so much to do that Sundance wasn't sure where to start. As he stood there, his eyes westward, he wondered when Turmeric might return. The yellow unicorn would know just what to do and when to do it.
"The wagon was a bust." Beside him, Hoppy pensively drew nearer, her every movement hesitant and cautious. "Double Helping is a smart little fella. He tried to tell us that the wagon was a bust long before we knew the wagon was a bust. But he knew."
"What happened?" asked Sundance as he beckoned Hoppy closer, though with some hesitation of his own. If she flirted again, aggressively or otherwise, this might get awkward.
"Physics, I guess?" She scuttled closer, her sidelong movement jerky. "I checked out that hearse… the lift system. Had ideas for a wagon that used the same principle, I thought that we could haul heavy loads and use Celestium to turn a load of bricks into a load of feathers. But then again… a pound of bricks weighs as much as a pound of feathers." She shook her head from side to side, distracted.
"The idea was flawed from the start. The cargo isn't made lighter, and the full weight of it comes down on the wagon bed. Which is wood, and buckles under too much weight. The lift system would reduce how much weight bore down on the wheels and axles, but that was flawed in design as well. The electricity wouldn't always be flowing, and when that happened, you had an overloaded wagon that would crush its own axles and turn its own wheels into matchsticks.
"But the idea was still a good one. I guess. Even if it can't be done. Hey, at least we were thinking. But this is probably why we don't have Celestium-assisted wagons cluttering up the roads." Head tilted off to one side, Hoppy relaxed a little. "Double Helping is a lot like me. He's smart, but not smart. Like, I can tinker and fix most anything, even if I don't understand how it works exactly. But I can work out how mechanical systems relate to one another and how they interact. Even if I can't tell you why it works, I can fix it. Most of the time. And Double Helping is the same way. Only he was smarter than all of us today, and knew that we were wasting our time, but he went along with the plan anyway."
"You sound proud of him," Sundance remarked.
"Maybe I am?" Puzzled, Hoppy took a moment to consider her feelings, and she hummed to herself while her face contorted from the mental gymnastics she performed. "I'm gonna teach that boy all I know," she said at last as her face relaxed a bit.
"Maybe you should take him on as your apprentice?"
Nopony was more surprised by Sundance's words than he was, though Hoppy was a close second.
"I'm not a wizard though… unless you mean like… a career apprentice, like a baker taking on a trainee."
"No, I mean… like… that thing that unicorns do. I don't think it matters if you're a wizard." Frustrated with his lack of knowledge, Sundance thought of Sunburst and Chartreuse. They were wizards, sure, but also so much more. With a turn of his head, he looked Hoppy right in the eye, and much to his relief, she didn't glance away or try to stare elsewhere. "Teach Double Helping everything you know. Be his friend. Maybe even mother him a bit. However old he might be, he still has his moments. I think it will be good for both of you."
"You really think so?" she asked, curious.
"I do," he replied with eye-contact maintained, which was rather uncomfortable.
Desire glinted in the windows to Hoppy's soul.
"We went from having a shortage of unicorns here to having a few," he began in restrained tones. "Now, for unicorns to thrive, they need to do whatever it is that unicorns do. And that means doing the apprentice thing that unicorns do." As he spoke, he thought of Gallows Humour, who was in the infirmary at the moment.
Even unicorns could fall through the vast chasms in the system.
"I suppose I can do my part," Hoppy replied. "To be honest, I like it here. I like that I feel needed. Necessary. I must confess, I had some doubts about living here. A lot of doubts. But… this is the freest that I've ever been. Is 'freest' even a word? Nevermind. Granny said to me just last night, I'm free to be me, and she's totally right. I've been so busy trying to survive that I haven't had time to be me. I had to be the survivor. But that's changed. And maybe I should have an apprentice. I think I will."
Then, in a somewhat lower voice, she added, "I really do need to get a lift from you, if possible. For the greenhouses. And the used airship. Please, don't forget about me."
"When do you want to go?" he asked.
"Sooner the better. I'd like to have those greenhouses constructed by winter. A good supply of strawberry wine requires year-round growth. That, and the barony could use an airship. Even a junker. I miss mine. When I gutted it, and dismantled everything, I discovered that her spine was broken. After what the autopsy revealed, I don't even know how she flew."
"Where are we going?"
"Fillydelphia." She frowned. "Well, not Fillydelphia proper. Outside of Filly. I know the way by air. All the landmarks. And there's a shipyard as well."
"Tomorrow?" asked Sundance.
"That works for me. Thank you, Sundance. I promise you, the trouble will be worth it. This'll do great things for all of us."
"Tomorrow then. Bright and early. Be prepared. We'll leave at dawn."
"Dawn, eh? I can do that. Thank you, Sundance. You're the best."
A one-eyed colt got his just desserts and was mercilessly hugged almost to death by a mare determined to be his parent. Sundance watched as the scene played out, but did nothing to intervene. On the table in front of him was a cup of tea—plain—and a half of a tea biscuit that bore the distinct marks of Sundance's teeth. In a nearby corner of the dining hall, Grandmother Growler tried to show Gerard and Gisela how to pluck a banjo—but there was only one banjo and three griffons. Flax and Tarantula were engaged in a fierce game of ring-toss, but neither of them had successfully landed a wooden ring on a hook. They were eager participants though, and fierce competitors.
Amber Dawn had her hoof pressed down upon a book to hold it open and read the contents therein to Silent Thunder and Lemongrass. Bonk and Runt were brushing one another; Bonk did rather well at her task, while Runt made a mess of things. At least he tried. Express Delivery fawned over the littlest and smallest residents, Sweet Relish and Doodlebug. Hollyhock's pegasus filly, Sweet Relish, she was named in memory of Cucumber. As for Doodlebug, a rolly-polly-pudgy earth pony filly, Sundance had no idea why she was named as such, but adored the name nonetheless.
The older gathered around to watch the younger.
"Sundance…"
Mentioned by name, he turned his head in Paradox's direction and raised his ears.
"Litany gave me a book." Paradox leaned over the table a bit and she lowered her voice. "It's a published essay by Dim Dark. I think you should read it."
"If I had the time to read it, I would."
"Well, you should make time." Her tone chiding, Paradox narrowed her eyes at Sundance. "Dim is considered by many… or maybe most to be completely amoral, but he writes amazing essays on morality and ethics. And this one is superb. Most of the stuff I read from him is about blowing stuff up, and he's good at that. But he's great at this. You should read it."
"Can you just… I dunno… give me the gist of it?" he asked.
She frowned, clearly disappointed, but she nodded her head. "I can. But I am going to insist that you read this. Maybe the next time that you're laid out flat in the infirmary. I'll even come and read it to you."
"You have a deal," he said with the hopes that he might mollify the insistent unicorn. It did bother him though that Paradox counted on the fact that he'd get hurt again, and just the thought of it caused his scars to ache in an unpleasant manner.
"Equestria has an energy crisis. We do. Plenty of ponies want to deny it, but we do. It's become a political issue, even. A topic that divides us." She paused, cleared her throat, and then raised her voice just a little, but not much. "The thing is, we don't have to have an energy crisis. There is, uh, a solution for all of our energy needs. At least, in theory. And what a theory it is. Dim goes into it in detail, and even discusses his own experiences with it, because of what he did during the Great War when the nations of old-world Ponyland unified with the Midreach to battle the forces of Menagerie."
Rather clumsily, Sundance picked up his half-eaten tea biscuit and nibbled.
"A lot of bad things happened during the Great War. Awful things. Dim did a lot of terrible things… such as introducing the world to fully industrialised warfare. But he doesn't feel bad for that. He says that he does feel remorse for his energy solutions, and he elucidates upon his thoughts in his essay."
Listening, Sundance raised an eyebrow with the hopes that Paradox would take a hint.
"Not every unicorn can do this, but a fair number of them could… in theory. You see, Sundance, we're a steam driven society. And we use coal to generate heat. But relying on coal is idiotic. Anypony that depends upon a depleting resource for power is a moron. But, for boilers to work, for turbines to spin and for pistons to pump, we need heat."
He nodded whilst he chewed on tiny crumbs from his tea biscuit.
"Dim summoned fire elementals and contained them to heat the boilers for the machines of war. And he really regrets it. I can see why. Well, I didn't at first, but I can see it so clearly now. I can summon fire spirits and fire elementals. And, well, they're fire. They'll stick around for however long they last, until their bodies burn out and their spirits return to the Infernium. Wizards did this back in the old days. Summoned and enslaved elementals to make lamps and to power Equestria's earliest steam engines. So we've always had the means for unlimited, endless energy."
Now, at last, Sundance was intrigued, and so he listened intently.
"Dim goes into the why. Fire elementals, fire spirits, some of them are barely even sapient. Some of them are just… well, like dumb beasts. You could conjure one and with proper wards, you could force it to live in your fireplace and heat your home, until such a time when it expires. And then you just summon another. But that's wrong… and here's why it is wrong.
"We're creatures of compassion. Or, at least, we're supposed to be. And one of the things we do is act as caretakers for the lesser beasts around us. We have cows, and goats, and chickens, and creatures that we, uh, well, there's no nice way of saying it, we're animals that keep other animals as livestock. They give us milk, and eggs, and wool, and in return, we give them life, and protection, and comfort, and care. It is a mutually beneficial relationship that we both get something in return from.
"I mean, cows talk, sure. But cows are dumb.. Not mute, but stupid. Without us, cows might be extinct. They can't build civilisation, or perform great acts as a society, and the whole of their existence depends upon our compassion. Which really makes me stop and think about what you and I are doing here, and well, that's a different topic of conversation.
"But these fire spirits and fire elementals… there is nothing we can give them in return. Nothing we can offer them. We abduct them away from their plane of existence, and then we exploit them. We take from them, but have nothing to give in return. And that's wrong. And that's what this book is all about. Dim goes into detail about why this is an immoral and unethical act. Because it is not a mutually beneficial relationship where both parties get something as part of an exchange. And for you, as our baron, I really do think that you should read this."
"So we can do that… but we still use coal?" Perplexed, this was the first question that emerged out of Sundance.
"In the old days, when Equestria was young, and we first started building crude airships, we used bound elementals." An intense frown caused Paradox's face to wrinkle. "Princess Celestia never outlawed this practice. It just… sorta… went away… on its own. For some reason." She tilted her head to the left, then to the right, and then shook her head hard enough that it made her ears flop around. "We… stopped doing this on our own, Sundance… without Princess Celestia telling us that we were wrong, and that we should stop. That's uh…"
Sundance's ears went rigid as her words trailed off into a muted gasp.
"The lesson is that we should trust in the good of others," he said when it was clear that words had failed Paradox. "Or maybe the lesson is something else entirely. You know, Paradox… I never really gave much thought to the energy crisis. Here, we barely even have electricity, and yet"—he inhaled through pursed lips—"I know we need it. Just don't know how to provide it. And if we get airships to move goods, how am I going to power those?"
"Not with summoned fire spirits, I would hope," she said with mock-solemnity.
"Never with those," he replied. "So, Paradox… tell me… how would you solve Equestria's energy crisis?"