Fg Off. Burkley
Twilight's Lab
That Afternoon
Ugh. Writing on this chalkboard really takes me back to school, if only we had better options. I had already explained the concept of atoms and drawn out the experiement that we were going to perform. Sunburst seemed to insist on having someone else present while I spoke to aid the investigation and Twilight was busy. Now we have Starlight Glimmer here to aid, as if the names were just starting to get creative then back to the sky.
"The point of this experiment is to derive the structure of atoms. We fire our alpha emitter at the gold leaf foil, we know from earlier theory that this radiation is a large structure and should reflect back entirely, the detectors will flash a light when a particle passes. You have the advantage of magic to record and detect all reflected particles making this experiment much shorter than it was back home."
"So we measure the angles and this helps us understand atoms in which atoms of different masses are the foundations of all materials that surround us?"
"That's the gist Starlight yes, this experiment in particular discusses the structure of the atom, in particular the nucleus which I spoke of earlier. If I had any textbooks and papers from my home to utilise, I would since memory can be clunky at the best of times."
Sunburst piped up for the first time this year. "Couldn't you ask Luna for help there and somewhat pull the information from the dream realm, if not the books you would need?"
"I could ask, from what I understand that could be nigh impossible. Get on with the experiment for as much as I have described and tell me what you find."
When I was told that the castle had a small store of these strange materials, I knew I had to be careful and insanely lucky to find something useful. Thankfully they were sensible and stored the radioactive substances within enchanted boxes which prevented the radiation from escaping. Sensible but still dangerous. To find Uranium however was not too surprising, a common alpha emitter present nearly everywhere around us. I knew what I was looking at because the ore was a slight yellow-green crystaline structure, not overly high grade but enough that if extracted would be a suitable alpha emitter for us to use. Twilight gave the go-ahead for us to use it. I was not going to be responisble for Equestria making a bomb with this, intentional or by accident, a simple addition of acid and filtration will give all we need, Uranium Oxide is nearly harmless anyway as long as it is safely handled, a point I made very clear to Starlight and Sunburst. Uranium Oxide is not particularly radioactive, enough for this experiment. I don't expect Ponies to figure out Enrichement to make pure U-235, incase they do however, I may have to warn Twilight.
Approaching the main throne room where I would find Twilight discussing matters with the Sisters, a thought crossed my mind. I just opened a can of worms for the Ponies here. Radioactivity and the path towards a greater understanding of the Universe. Not only that, the potential use of the energy in atoms and more. Maybe those documents are actually really important for Twilight to see.
The Guards opened the door for me, giving them a small nod I enter the room finding Twilight laughing with a rather bemused look on Luna's visage at Celestia's expense as it would seem. Twilight looks my way and waves me over. "Afternoon James, hope your lesson and lab time is going well?"
"It is, I trust them enough to setup and use the equipment safely. I do have a question for Luna however with regards to dreams."
"What would that be Mr. Burkley?"
"Please, James is fine, no senior officers as far as I can see from my home to complain. It has dawned upon me that my memory may not be excellent on some of the matters and could even be factually incorrect in some places if I'm remembering some data wrongly from papers. To avoid some lackluster explanations or incorrect experiments, is there anyway to retrieve papers and books I have read personally on a subject from my dreams?"
"As far as I am aware, there is no direct way to transfer information from the mind into a physical form, however there are methods to get around this from past necessities that may help. I could use my magic for example to feed the information to a magical quill in the waking world if a physical copy is necessary. From there we can get the paper printed properly or just use it as is. Alternatively we can use dream solidification to nail these papers and books into your head leaving you able to recall and draw the information out on chalkboards accurately."
"That is remarkably helpful actually, what are the chances of performing the former to retrieve some textbooks?"
"Whenever you feel ready, the process will be somewhat lengthy for the both of us despite a small passage of time in reality. I'm sure Twilight will supply the quill and paper required." The mentioned Princess then teleported said materials into the room, a stack of paper half my height standing at roughly two and a half to three foot tall. Twilight smiles at my strange look. Did she have that on standby all the time? Ponies, honestly.
"Judging by the eagerness of Twilight there, we could start now but I have inexperienced students using equipment in the lab. Maybe someone could watch over them so they don't get hurt." Celestia decided to stand up at this moment.
"Don't worry, I can handle that for a couple hours. Maybe they can explain it to me too." She spoke leaving the room headed for the lab.
"Well, let's get this over with."
Sitting down, I was sleeping in moments.
Luna
Entering the dream construct, I found myself quite surprised by the bustling town centre I found myself in. A large open square containing some greenery, otherwise not much else. Solidifying the dream, I disperse the crowds a little finding James sitting on a wall with some textbooks by his side.
"Welcome to Market Square Luna, Nottingham, my home. These are the books I shall need for now. They cover off atomic theory, give relevant experiments and there are a few here that detail flight, engines and more."
"This shall take some time, and a lot of paper. Thankfully the spells I need to use dont require me to read the book, but simply allow it to scan through the pages which takes a little time on our end. Tell me about this place."
"Nottingham is a city in the United Kingdom, my country. Market square is just one of the many places people pass through, gather at or meet others in. Plenty of buses pass through here and there are shops for nearly all your commodities. Life was finally starting to get better though. My early childhood wasn't as hard as some, I was born at the end of the rationing period in truth in 1948, got off lucky. Cold war is all I have to really worry about as it currently stands, causes some infighting around the world but it's better than the World Wars not too long before I was born."
"World Wars?"
"I'm surprised that you haven't been told all the details yet by Twilight, I can show what I know I think if those books won't go away that is."
"With a solidifyed dream, you have more control over the construct than a regular dream. I am interacting with the books, so they should stay."
"OK, well I can't place us in the battlefields, but I can show depictions and films taken showing it all."
The motion picture began just in front of us. The scenes seemd to change rapidly but it was enough to show the extent of the conflict. Explosions, weapons, death. So much. The scenes morphed from black and white into a coloured depiction. My head became nauseous and my stomach churned bile ready to be ejected from my body as scenes of charred corpses and screaming men filled the screen. Burning bunkers and trees. Men being dragged back with no legs. Then it ended. A cloud in the shape of a mushroom left on the screen slowly rising. Cutting to a city, presumably the very same I just saw under the cloud, collapsed into ashes and rubble.
"The Second World War was one of the most brutal conflicts in Human History so far. Seventy Five million people lost their life as a result, roughly Forty million being civilians."
"Why James? Why would such a conflict ever arise? Not even the unification wars became this bad, the injured being limited to soldiers, civilians the minority in the occasional battles."
"It's a long list that some are still wracking their brains to complete. Some of it was our fault after the First World War, the assasination of a duke, a diplomat, caused a war, which grew due to alliances in Europe, eventually bringing in the USA as a result of the U-Boat campaign sinking vessels in the atlantic. Afterwards the blame was put almost entirely onto Germany, it was pretty much the only survivor of the losing side. Austria-Hundary was falling apart and Italy never joined the war on Germany's side to begin with. From what I can tell, we caused hyperinflation in the German economy and which lead to some resentment and that only grew as extremist parties began to gain traction. Once Hitler was in power, he did some good, pulling Germany out of the Great Depression fairly well and seemed to handle the nation well. Once he started to pressure and his views became more open, we stood by and did nothing. We could have prevented a Six year long conflict. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing. Without the technology, maybe this would never have gotten so bad, but technology brings so much good!"
"I'm afraid I can't see that James, not after all this."
"Well watch."
The screen flashed up again showing railways mass transporting goods with engines not powered by steam. Flying machines similar to James' but some larger, some taking cargo, some taking people to places all over and faster too. One that stood out was 'Concord' being noted as the first supersonic passenger aircraft being tested. The view switched to towering vehicles powered by fire below, pushing people high up into the 'space' James had described prior, even footage supposedly from the lunar surface. My mouth was agape at the achievements made by the human race. This could open up so many opportunities for our species. Maybe the information James brings to us could be of great use.
"As you can see Luna, technology and research has allowed us to reach the final frontier and master travel across the planet. I hope you can see and understand why this is so important and what it could all mean for Equestria as a whole."
"I think I do."