Zephyr Heights. Many many many moons ago.
“Not the brightest crystal in the conference, is he?”
The loud whisper at his ear caused Dr Garnet to jolt to attention. A pegasus mare, with a brilliant white coat and styled indigo mane, had appeared at his side. He looked around the auditorium and realised she was talking about the earth pony standing at the front by an equation-covered blackboard, mumbling about atomic energy levels. Garnet realised he must have drifted asleep.
He felt he should defend the keynote speaker. “Professor Zeemare is one of the top mathematical physicists from Maretime Bay. He has won awards for his theories of crystal structure.”
“But he isn’t giving the most scintillating presentation,” replied the pegasus. “You’re not the only pony who can’t stay awake.”
Looking around the room, he saw that she was right. Many ponies had their eyes closed and heads resting on desks. Apart from a few young researchers at the front, no one was paying much attention.
“Come,” said the mare. “You’re not taking any of this in and there’s something I want to show you.”
Feeling like a guilty student caught out by the teacher, the unicorn stood up and followed her. Once they were out of the hall and standing in the foyer, she faced him with a smile and held up her nametag.
“Diamond Dust. I’m the Chief Research Scientist at Ponafone. We are sponsoring the conference.”
Garnet nodded. That explained the prestigious conference venue, with polished stone floors and gilded railings, and the abundant complementary refreshments. The Equestrian Convention on Luminescence and Luminous Materials was usually a dry academic affair held in Bridlewood or Maretime Bay. This year was the first time it had been held in Zephyr Heights and it seemed like their hosts had spared no expense to impress visiting scientists. If they had financial backing of the giant electronics and telecommunications company, they could afford it.
What did this glamorous businessmare want with him?
“Are you a crystallographer?” he asked.
She shook her head. “My background is in electronic engineering and management. I oversee an interdisciplinary research team. I would like you to visit our laboratory.”
They walked past poster displays presenting studies of bioluminescent fungi in the Bridlewood forest, new techniques for growing large fluorescent crystals, and mathematic models to explain luminescent behaviour. Diamond Dust took a grey plastic rectangle out from under her wing, tapped it with a hoof, and held it up to her ear. Garnet had noticed on this trip that nearly all pegasus ponies were now carrying these portable phones. They reached an elevator, which they used to descend many floors. The towers of Zephyr Heights evidently had extensive multi-floor basements cut into the rock.
“Our laboratory is deep underground,” said Diamond. “Away from the noise of the city—electrical and acoustic.”
A few minutes later they were standing in a large room with a low ceiling. Long benches supported racks of specimens, microscopes, and a large amount of electronic test equipment. A few ponies wearing white coats stood at the work surfaces preparing samples or peering at gadgets.
“What do you study here?” asked Garnet
“Crystals,” replied the mare with a cryptic smile. She waved a hoof at a pony across the room. At this signal the lights were dimmed. She then picked up a hoofheld ultraviolet lamp and shone the invisible light onto the table top. A selection of minerals glowed in bright fluorescent colours—pink, purple, green, yellow, blue, orange… Garnet drew in a breath. It was impossible not to be impressed by the stunt even though he understood the phenomenon well. The radiation excited the electrons in the crystals into higher energy states. As they cascaded back to the ground state, they emitted light with colours determined by the spacing of the levels, which was different for each material.
“We have a research programme to scan and catalogue the optical and electrical properties of materials. We are searching for new sources of electroluminescence.”
“Why?”
“Ponafone is now the biggest company in Zephyr Heights thanks to our cellular phone network. We let every pony talk to their friends at any time from wherever they are. But the future is visual. The next generation will want full-colour screens and fast high-definition video on their hoofsets and large flat-screen displays for their home and office walls.”
“How could you provide that?”
“Electroluminescence.” Diamond Dust walked up to an electronics test rack and flicked a switch with a hoof. An array of tiny red lights flashed to life. “Light emitting diodes. A junction of semiconductor crystals with one side doped with extra electrons, and the other side with extra holes—or missing electrons. Run an electric current across it and the electrons drop into the holes and emit light in the process.”
“Is that gallium arsenide?” said Garnet. He watched the flashing red lights.
She nodded. “It only works for a few materials. We need to identify more of them. We need all three primary colours—red, green, and blue—to make a full colour display. We need crystals that we can grow in tiny pixels, which emit light efficiently. We need low-cost materials that will last a long time and work even after being stuck under a sweaty wing.”
She looked away with a slight sigh of frustration. “This is just an initial survey, but it’s taking forever. And at the moment we have to grow our samples in the laboratory before we can test them. At this rate, it could take fifty moons to find what we need. However…”
She paused, smiled, and walked over to a bookshelf.
“While I was passing through the balloon terminal yesterday, I heard some pony mention that if you’re looking for crystals, there’s a gazillion of them in Bridlewood.”
She turned to face Garnet and smiled. He saw she was holding a book with a cover he immediately recognised. It bore his name and the title Crystals of Bridlewood Forest and their Luminescence.
“Maybe you can help us?”
Bridlewood. Two weeks later.
“Garnet! Lovely to see you. Sit down here. I’ll get you some tea.”
“Hello Mossy. Thank you.”
The chestnut unicorn mare pushed a cup towards him and levitated a teapot across the table. Her horn sparkled with a yellow aura protruding from her curly green mane. She had just filled his cup when a family of earth ponies came into the dining room. She dashed off to greet them and clear a table. Once this task was completed she was stopped by a unicorn querying something on her bill, then by a pegasus couple with a map asking for directions to a forest trail.
Garnet sipped his tea patiently and watched his friend do her job. It was the height of the season. This much activity was to be expected as tourists from all across Equestria came to visit Bridlewood to admire the colours of the trees and crystals, hike along the trails, and collect mushrooms and berries. Mossy’s tree was a very popular place to stay, offering comfortable rooms and a large breakfast, served in a beautiful room where the sunshine shone through the windows and reflected off tiny crystals hung from the ceiling.
Eventually she had sorted out breakfast for every pony and had a chance to sit down and talk to him. “I’m so pleased you could stop by. It’s hard for me to a few hours off at the moment with so many guests. How are you doing? How was your trip to Zephyr Heights?”
“It was wonderful. That’s where I met the pegasus research team I referred here. We are collaborating on a new project. I just stopped by to check on them. Are they up yet?”
“Up and gone. They said they wanted to get to work early so they took breakfast before all the other guests. That was sort of useful as we are so crowded at the moment, but it was a shame I didn’t get a chance to chat with them. I would have loved to hear more about their work. Thank you for recommending that they stay here by the way. They were all very well equipped with shiny little hammers and chisels and safety glasses. I had to tell them that it’s not really allowed to take crystals—as I say to all the tourists—but they had the proper collecting permits. They showed me all the paperwork. Everything was in order.”
“Oh,” said Garnet. “I thought they would want to look around and get oriented first. I was going to give them a tour.”
“I guess they were just being efficient,” said Mossy. “I saw they had copies of your book. They must be big fans of yours. I hope they find what they want. Well, I must get back to work. Ra-ta-ta ta-tar la-la-la…” She circled the room and disappeared into the kitchen with a cheerful grin while levitating the empty cups and plates in the air.
Zephyr Heights. A year later.
“Friends, pegasi, citizens of Zephyr Heights. It is my great pleasure to turn on the latest technological marvel of our great city. This new creation by the engineers at Ponafone will truly light up our kingdom as the wonder of Equestria.”
Her Majesty Queen Pompon stood at the podium and spoke into the microphone. The perfect audio was relayed through loud speakers in public areas across the city, and to thousands of ponies listening on their phones. It was also broadcast on shortwave radio through the ZBS world service, but no pony paid any attention to that old technology.
Diamond Dust looked down from the balcony of the Ponafone tower where she stood watching the launch party with a select group of senior company executives. She was pleased to see the plazas and bridges of the city were packed with ponies, with more hovering above or flying in loops. She noted with satisfaction that they had picked just the right time of day as the sun fell behind the mountains and city grew dark. A spotlight illuminated the podium, the light glittering off the Pegasus Crystal in the queen’s crown.
The queen brought a hoof down onto a switch, and the wall behind her immediately lit up with a rainbow of colour. An image of the Ponafone logo flashed up, followed by the live video of the royal smile. At first the audience gasped, lifting their heads in surprise at how tall the display was. Then they let out a mighty cheer. The journalists and VIPs across the city, who had been sent new generation phones in advanced, got them out to admire the video, then send text and video messages to all their friends. Diamond smiled at the stallion to her side, the company CEO. They exchanged a hoof bump.
“Good job,” he said. “We now have advanced orders for over a hundred thousand. We dominate the market in ZH.”
“And soon the rest of Equestria?”
“We won’t be launching outside pegasus territory.”
This was new to Diamond Dust. “Why not?”
“The legal team found there were some technical issues with patent law in Bridlewood, which means there’s a risk we won’t be able to protect our intellectual property. And marketing think it will be a struggle to sell such advanced technology to earth ponies. It makes more sense to focus resources on our core market.”
Bridlewood. Many moons later.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
Garnet sat down next to Mossy. His friend poured a cup of tea and they sat facing one another. Garnet noticed there were grey hairs in her previously bright green mane. She was getting older. As he was. But it was her cheery manner that he missed most.
“It feels like you’ve lost your sparkle,” he said gently.
Mossy forced her face into a smile. “Yeah. It’s sometimes feels like all Bridlewood has lost its sparkle these days. Ten years ago, we were packed with tourists at this time of year. Now no one wants to visit us.”
She looked around the room. Most of the tables were empty. “There are just a few unicorns from the other end of the forest staying here now. We haven’t seen any pegasi for two years. The last one I had here just kept complaining that she couldn’t get any signal, and saying how everything was brighter at home. I wrote to the booking agent in Zephyr Heights to check we were still on the list, and they said they could longer take bookings for me as I didn’t have a ranking on Trotadvisor. Then they stopped the balloon service and now the earth ponies don’t come either.”
A little grey colt ran up to their table.
“Those pegasi are bad news! They got us all jinxed.”
“That’s not a nice thing to say,” said Mossy.
“It’s true,” he insisted. “My Mom says they stole our luminescence. They came and sucked all the power out of our crystals to light up their city.”
“That’s not how it works,” said Garnet.
The colt trotted away and the two ponies just looked at one another.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”