Vignettes
Sweets hurried out of the elevator onto the factory floor. She took a left at the welding stations, eyeing the remains of the Sprouticus Maximus, before hurrying into a meeting room. She clicked her pen, set down her clipboard and cleared her throat.
Canterlogic had split in two, one half focused on market research, the other dedicated to developing a roving base for Zipp Storm's exploration deep into the mountainous north. Sweets was given the opportunity to choose her division.
"Toots couldn't make it. But I have the full list of specs from Zephyr Heights."
Sweets felt like she'd made the adventurous choice.
"We're anticipating it to have a minimum crew of three ponies, maximum capacity of nine, including two month's supplies..."
Afterwards she'd reconsidered. Sweets couldn't shake the feeling that this was the unimportant side of things.
"The weather is pretty bad. So, it needs to be insulated against electrical hazards…"
Which part of Canterlogic would ultimately have the most impact? The domestic impact of whatever the next line of Canterlogic products was would likely reshape Maretime Bay industry. It’d definitely impact the ponies Sweets knew. Wouldn't it be in her best interests to help them?
"There will be... 'communications utilities' manufactured by Zephyr Heights,"
Zipp's side however... It was simply exciting to be involved in an "expedition." Besides Toots and her family, Sweets didn't even know if her friends cared much about her. With this, even if she didn’t see where the vehicle and Zipp went, even if she never saw anything they did, even if she didn't even make anything for it, it would still be nice to be involved.
"It'll need to be able to cover rocky hills with grades up to 66%."
Sweets would have to go back to regular Canterlogic projects once the mobile base was finished. Speculatively, only three lucky ponies would be selected as personnel for the machine from Canterlogic. She had hunches on who would volunteer. It wasn't like she was about to go on some life or death adventure she might not return from.
"And it needs to be painted... Hot pink. Got all that?"
Instantly, every engineer's hoof shot up.
After days of conferencing with engineers, scouts, various consultants, and her mother, Zipp had finally almost struck a balanced plan for the base. There was only one holdup.
“Ah,” Alphabittle examined a stack of papers. “Manacrystals.” He looked at Zipp, handing the papers back. “To be honest, I never really knew a whole lot about those. Back in Bridlewood we don’t use them complexly. Guess with losing the war and everything, that became a thing of the past.”
Zipp sighed. Based off of previous vehicles and current prototyping, Zipp’s base would need a fortune’s worth of manacrystals.. The budget was already strained! Zipp’s one hope was that perhaps Bridlewood could help. Now, her hopes were dashed.
“Hey,” Alphabittle said. “Stop frowning. I didn’t say I don’t know anypony who could help!”
Zipp raised an eyebrow. Perhaps her hopes were justified after all.
Alphabittle smiled, leaning forward and polishing a platter with a napkin. “I happen to know a guy who knows a lot about crystals. You kind of met him the first time you crashed my place. Tomas. He’s a bit of a recluse, but if you want Crystals, he’s your guy.” Alphabittle chuckled, “I should know.”
“Limbo contest.” Zipp remembered the unicorn crystal.
“Limbo crystals?” Haven looked up from her phone.
“No, Limbo contest.” Alphabittle chuckled. “Haven, I have to tell you about this.”
“Well,” Haven stashed her phone. “I do find unicorn culture fascinating. Maybe we could talk about horns again?”
“Uh,” Zipp interrupted, “Tomas?”
“Oh, yeah.” Alphabittle nodded, “Izzy knows where he lives.”
Zipp stood from the table, thanking her mother and Alphabittle, before exiting the dining hall, trying to make space for a trip to Bridlewood in her schedule.