Patchwork
Finding Little Zap was easier than I hoped.
Asking Parchment if he knew about Zap’s whereabouts got me her address in Canterlot in less than five minutes.
Apparently, since I last saw her over a year ago, she has been working closely with Celestia in order to bring cell phones to life in Equestria, and due to that she moved over to Canterlot from Trottingham a few months ago.
Flying over the streets of Canterlot in the form of a pegasus mare (butter-yellow, with an ice-blue mane and tail) I made my way to the third-highest plate of the city. I took my time as I was in no rush to return back to Badlands. Chrysalis was there, and with several lings keeping an eye on her I wasn’t worried about things going south… maybe I shouldn’t spend too much time here though.
The only problem I was facing right now is that I never left the plate of Canterlot that held the U.E.G. academy other than to visit Celestia. I had almost no idea what the other plates contained beyond some basic knowledge that I looked up when I was bored.
Because of that, I was guided by Silent Drop to my location. She lived in Canterlot for years and she could at the very least, get us close. She swooped down once at the plate checkpoint to get a confirmation of the directions but otherwise, it was an uneventful flight during which I spent the entirety of my time lost in thoughts of nothing.
…
Zap’s house wasn’t a mansion, but it wasn’t a small house either.
It still followed the white stone construction that the majority of Canterlot enjoyed aside from the colourful roofs that eerily reminded me of the middle-ages.
After a few more seconds of studying the outside (there were no decorations and based on the leftover boxes on the small front lawn I wondered what she was up to), I raised my left arm and knocked on the brown wooden door.
While the knock echoed I took some time to look around me.
I was still in the form of a mare, Silent Drop was behind me in the shadows of the buildings and I guessed she would stay outside once I go in, and the street behind me was still fairly busy at four in the afternoon.
I considered it a shame that Zap’s house is facing a side street and other than ponies going to and from work there wasn’t anything else of interest to see.
I still pony-watched, enjoying the sight of two little foals playing around their mother while she giggled at their antics… a sad pegasus with a wing covered in bandages watching at the sky as several flyers slowly glided over the city, I did not need to be a changeling to understand his emotions.
I watched as a minotaur in a suit carrying a briefcase rounded a corner when a loud sharp knock sounded off close to me.
Turning to look at the door I saw a retreating black hoof and a small burst of annoyance from Drop. Guess I got lost in thoughts again.
“Thank you, Drop,” All I got was a quick nod.
It didn’t take long for the door to open this time.
After a loud ‘coming!’ it took only a few seconds till the door handle rattled and some swearing could be heard.
When the door actually opened I had to look down to see the diminutive earth pony mare.
Little Zap’s banana-yellow fur and mane were matted and dusty, her face slightly sagged but her eyes were still very much awake. She looked up at me with a small frown and what I would like to call a pout, but I knew better.
“I’m sorry, miss, but I am rather busy at the moment…” She started off but I raised my left arm to stop her while I let my actual voice come through.
“Sorry to bother Zap, but would you be able to spare some time nonetheless?”
My deeper voice coming out froze her for a moment and I could see the gears in her head turning. She hasn’t seen me in over a year, and from what I knew she was very busy with the whole phone thing. I never looked into how far the project had come, maybe I should ask afterwards.
“Patch, is that you?” She asked lifting her brow in surprise.
“Yep, you mind if I come in?” I pointed at the doorway hoping that she wouldn’t be so busy for a quick favour. I could have probably asked Celestia bout this first, but I kind of did not want to go over Zap for this. Reverse engineering this technology and implementing it in Equestria meant a lot to her.
“Yea, of course, sure… just let me…” She turned around and shoved the door open wide and moved two boxes that were at the entrance out of the way.
I frowned and made a quick switch of species from a pegasus to a unicorn when I made sure that no one was looking.
Igniting my horn I entered the house and what I thought was one or two stray boxes turned out into a completely covered corridor.
“I’m sorry about this, but all of these arrived yesterday and I spent the whole day trying to fix it,” Zap spoke up from behind me in a huff while closing the door.
“Mhm…” I gave a cursory glance around me and I made note of all the labels on the boxes.
I let my magic fizzle out transforming into myself and causing the small earth pony behind me to gasp loudly in shock.
I pulled a bit more magic into my horn and I looked under me at Little Zap who stared with wide eyes, “Tell me, where are all these supposed to go?” I asked with a smile.
…
“Why didn’t you ask the delivery ponies for help?” I raised my voice so it could reach Zap in the kitchen while I finished with the last box in the basement.
It took about thirty minutes for her to point me to her basement and for me to organise all the boxes following the labels. Advanced magic may not be my strong suit but multitasking and arcanokinesis worked just fine. If Night Light was here he would have done this in less than five minutes, and probably neater.
Exiting the surprisingly spacious cellar (ducking my head so I wouldn’t rake my horn on the top of the doorway), I heard her voice from my left side.
“Because I wasn’t here when they made the delivery yesterday, and I did not want them to break anything,” there was some muttering as well but I couldn’t make it out.
In confirmation, I bobbed my head several times in understanding, mostly to myself, and closed the door behind me.
Looking to the left and right I took notice that the main corridor was completely bare of anything. Just bare white walls.
Directly in front of me was the kitchen, on the right, was the main door, to my far left, was a staircase and before that was an arch and a closed door after it.
Shrugging to myself I turned left twice, through the arch and I ended up in the living room, which was lavishly, but tastefully decorated in a look that I could only describe fluffy but homey.
The walls were filled with numerous paintings and coloured photographs of Zap and ponies that I presumed to belong to her family. Some of the paintings were small things, placed on the various shelves that surrounded a decently sized fireplace on the right side of the room. I took a quick peek at one of the pictures noticing an absolutely beaming younger Zap along with two older mares in a small group hug. I did not wish to jump to conclusions about who was who so I left it alone for now.
In the centre of the room was a decently sized wooden table on top of which Zap placed two steaming cups (coffee and tea based on the smell) next to a large plate full to the brim with doughnuts.
The floor was completely covered with a fuzzy white carpet with the very tips of its fluffy ends being coloured blue, and there were pillows EVERYWHERE.
Taking a step forward I quickly ran my claws through the carpet enjoying the feeling of fluff before I joined Little Zap who was sitting at the table on a red pillow.
“Thank you for the help,” I noticed that her fur was cleaned up. Probably while I was sorting out the basement.
“No worries. Happy to,” A gave her a quick smile and I lifted the steaming cup to my lips. The tea was… nice. It was fruity, and normally I would consider it delicious, but… I had to shamefully admit to myself that I got used to the quality of Celestia’s teas.
“I doubt you came over to help me with the boxes though,” she took a long sip of her coffee, holding the cup with her hooves, “so what’s up? Also, what happened to you?” She waved her hoof at me trying to encompass my new size and changes.
“Well… I am a prince now, kind of. A changeling Prince to be precise,” I started off but I only just now realized just how uncomfortable I was with using that title out loud. “And…”
“A prince?” She put the cup down much faster than she obviously wanted, if the slight jump she made after the loud ‘clink’ was any indication, I also tasted a small amount of…fear? from her, “A prince like Charming or more like… Princess Celestia?”
“Relax Zap,” I chuckled at her overreaction, “I’m like an alicorn, yes, but that’s about it. No political power here (‘Yet’).”
“That’s not the point,” she sighed heavily after face-hoofing, “This will cost me my job when Princess Celestia hears about this…”
“Hears about what?” One of my ears perked up and I tilted my head to the side, confused at her reaction, “That I offered my help to a pony that needed it? She would be disappointed if I DIDN’T help.”
She still shook her head muttering something under her breath.
I decided to move the subject into something less bothersome to keep her from freaking out over a wannabe princeling.
“So, about that favour, I was hoping to get?”
And, true to form, ponies being ponies, she went from worried and panicky to smiles and sunshine.
“Oh certainly, I was curious about that.”
“So…” I took a dramatic inhale, “I am working outside of Equestria, and it’ll stay that way for a while. The problem is, my marefriend cannot come with me so I was hoping your new phones would be able to help me with staying in contact with her.”
“AH, I heard you have a marefriend, congratulations,” She put on a warm smile, and I nodded my head in thank you, “but we don’t call them ‘phone’ anymore.”
She got up from her pillow and left the room and I was left there perplexed. The phone was a fine way to call such a device… why would they change that?
I mean the word certainly didn’t belong to this world, and using the word in Equish certainly made it feel like it didn’t belong… ‘I guess there is a reason to change the name.’
“We call them ‘vobbys’ now,” she chirped from behind me entering the room and carrying a decently sized box on her back, “or ‘vob’ if you want to be boring.” I could feel a part of me dying at the name.
With a quick wiggle, the box was slid onto the table and she pushed it closer to me. Grabbing the box with my claws I quickly opened it revealing two rows of four phones, one side coloured powder blue and the other a soft pink.
Gently scooping a pink one out I was immediately impressed.
The first time I was shown a fully functional product, back in the room/home, the phones were effectively the size of a brick and with the same colour. Two buttons and a screen, which was all there is to it.
This ‘new’ model, while still fairly large, was much sleeker with four more buttons added to the side (two on each side respectively) and a larger screen was dominating the front with two large buttons (a green button with a music note in the centre, and a red button with that same note and a slash over it).
Pressing a few of those buttons I wasn’t surprised that they had a bit of a typewriter feel to it. The buttons let out a solid ‘click’ when pressed and there was a much softer ‘click’ when let go.
Turing the whole thing around in my claws I noticed a frog-shaped indentation in the back of the case with five strange… clawed shapes around it. Looking at it from several angles did not yield any solutions so I glanced quickly at Zap only for a realisation to hit me when I saw her hooves wiggle.
My claws were much larger than the keratinous hooves of ponies, but it completely slipped my mind that pony hooves were segmented with limited gripping ability.
Turning the phone around, I made a quick change to my physique making me about the size of an average pony and placed my hoof-shaped palm into the groove. I was pleasantly surprised at how easily the whole thing fit, even if my claws couldn’t get a proper grip.
Transforming back into my normal size I flipped the phone again in my claws finding a power button at the very top above the screen. I did not wish to press it yet, but so far, the ponies made fantastic progress in the span of a year.
Nodding a couple of times in satisfaction I looked over at Zap, “I’m guessing they are linked?” I picked up a blue phone… vobby out of the box and placed both of them in front of me while pushing the box towards Zap.
“Yes,” she reached over and pulled the now lighter box closer to her and placed it on the floor on her left, “they are, were, the first few models we made before an epiphany struck us;” she shrugged, “long story short, the newer models currently in production will work in a similar way our radios work: several ponies will be in charge of linking the vobbys to one another based on the calls and messages to their intended targets.” There was a sour look on her face and her emotions were quickly flooded with annoyance.
“Not everything is going according to plans?” I asked. I couldn’t help but smirk a bit; I wanted them to have at least SOME trouble figuring this out. Two years is too short of a time for this kind of development, even with the ponies' talents.
“No, she huffed. We are still hashing out the details,” She picked up the cup again and gave it another slurp, making a face as I’m guessing the brew cooled down. A quick application of my magic warmed it right back up and she took a larger gulp with a smile, “We had to reach out to minotaurs for a bit of assistance, and you just know they are going to lord it over our heads for years to come.”
I did not know much about minotaurs other than their geo-position, but that was my own fault. I should look into other races and nations, especially now, it would be a great help to changelings to know more about other races… or maybe they already do… I’ll have to look into that when I get back.
“What you are trying to do is very similar to what they did in the old days on Earth,” I used my magic again on my own cup and with a large ‘gulp’ I downed the tea. I used the saucer that came with the cup to put an unassuming brown doughnut on it, “The phones about… what, fifty, sixty years ago used to be connected by wires and we had several booths in a city that were the hub for all the connections. The people in those booths were in charge of linking the caller with the person they wanted to call… a matter of fact, now that I think about it, don’t cell phones still use a similar system to a degree?” I thought out loud mostly to myself but I could feel several large flashes of emotion from Zap; anger being chief among them.
“You bucker! You never told us about any of it!” The clang that came from her cup when she slammed it on the table was fully intended this time it seems, “You could have saved us MONTHS of work. We didn’t even NEED to talk to the minotaurs if we knew this!”
The doughnut was halfway to my mouth, “Sorry?” I shrugged without any remorse before taking a bite of it… which I immediately regretted when I found out that there was coffee in it. “The history of phones and their development is long, complicated, and not something I cared to look deeper into. I know some basic stuff that I was taught in school and that’s about it,” I could tell that Zap was furious, but I was more focused on picking a different doughnut to remove the bitter taste from my mouth.
Letting out a series of grumbles and swears the yellow earth pony stomped out of the room and came back with a small stack of parchment and a quill with ink.
Sitting back down on the red pillow with a grunt she dumped everything on the table (she was far gentler with the ink) and turned to me with a mad glint in her eyes, “All right buster, you are going to tell me EVERYTHING you know about phones, start to finish, and I’ll probably let you go with those two, okay?” With both honey and venom dripping from her words all I could do was hope that Velvet won’t mind if I visit her late.