//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 - I'm sure there are ethical concerns. I'm not sure I can be bothered, though. // Story: Drifting Through Realities // by Thadius0 //------------------------------// Drifting Through Realities Chapter 14 - I'm sure there are ethical concerns. I'm not sure I can be bothered, though. The first thing I had done was, quite naturally, demand that the self-destruct button be removed. The little Clank just laughed its annoying laugh again. At least, I assume it was a laugh. I then attempted other things, but the Clank kept refusing. Eventually, the little guy had the Clanks form together into a pyramid right under the button and pulled the button out of its casing. I then noticed the lack of wires and sighed. "Okay, so you prepared a self-destruct button." One ding. "Hmm. That's actually not a bad idea. A fake self-destruct button that triggers a trap to catch the one triggering it...so long as you don't attempt to install a real one, that is." The little Clank actually looked away from me at that, and I sighed. It probably would. I pulled my pack around and stuck my hand in, quickly coming up with a crystal, before pulling it out, nodding, and holding it out so the Clank could see it. "This little guy should be all you need to get started. Once it's given a jolt, it'll keep providing power, so long as you don't drain it all at once." I got the impression that if the Clank had eyebrows, it would be raising them at me. I chuckled and turned the crystal on, and again got an impression: if it had a jaw to drop, it would have performed said action. I passed the active crystal over to him, letting him marvel in the glow, before I took it back and drained it. He glared at me, but I shook my head. "Couple of facts for all you Clanks! Give me a ding if you hear me!" In retrospect, asking that of a room where the floor is covered in Clanks was a bad idea to begin with. Once I made sure my ears had stopped ringing, I nodded once. "Okay, so! The dominant species in this country are ponies! There are three main variants! First, we have Earth Ponies, normal enough looking. Though, they do have a talent with plant-growing and inventing things." The lead Clank dinged once, I suppose they'd noticed the effect that much sound had had on me. That, and caught on to the connotations in my emphasis. I continued in my explanation. "Then we have Pegasi, those ponies with wings that, despite my brain telling me otherwise, can and do fly. They tend to be talented in flight and weather manipulation, to include electricity. At least, to a degree." Another ding for my efforts, and then I sighed. I would have to instill the fear I had into them with this one. "And lastly, we have Unicorns! If you see a pony with a horn on its head, it can do bloody magic. The types are different for every one of them, but they can all lift things with the power of their minds. Plus, they'll notice when the crystal is on, unless you put the power it generates to very good use!" I powered the crystal up again and explained. "When this is on, it is a magebane field unless the excess power it generates is put to good use and the energy is contained. And that's something that they can feel. So we can't have too many crystals on in the house at this time. I'll give you this one after I'm done. Probably." I then drained the crystal and made sure the lead Clank was looking at me. "But if it's hit with enough magic to overpower its magbane field, then there is the chance they'll feed it the right pulse of magic to invert it. From magebane to techbane. It'll make fine electronics go fiddly, which would be devastating to me. Even though it would take a significant amount of magic for that to happen, the best course of action is still to make sure no horned ponies find this out or study the crystals too closely. Got that?" The lead Clank dinged again, and I powered up the crystal, then passed it off to him. "Good luck. I'll bring a unicorn friend around every so often, and when said friend can't detect the magebane field, then I'll know you got the containment right and will be willing to give you more to power...whatever you intend to install in the house. First things first, I need to know that all the systems that make a house livable are working at peak efficiency. Things like water, heating, ways to regulate the temperature from hot to cold at a whim. Think you lot can do that?" The Clank gave a little salute, and I nodded at him, then left the house. Let's just hope by the time he's done, it's still a house, and not an evil lair... ----- Arriving back at Vinyl and Octavia's place in the middle of the afternoon brought on an interesting development. In the sense that Tempered Works was in their living room, listening to Octavia play her cello. The tune wasn't familiar to me, but I listened anyways. I'd enjoyed good music on my jaunts, it seemed to be something of a universal constant. As the song finished, Tempered opened his eyes and nodded at the musical mare. "Aye, tha' be a good ballad, miss. I kin see why you hold the first chair in that fancy assortment." Octavia bowed her head to the smith with a small smile. "Thank you, your words are kind." She looked to me and smiled mischievously. "And you, Eric? What do you have to say about my song?" Even as Tempered turned to look at me, I held a hand to my chin and hummed. "A most moving piece, m'dear. Were it not for the fact that I've heard your in-progress one, this one too would have likely moved me to such depths." Tempered raised his eyebrows at that. "Ya mean to say that this mare has made something that moved you even more than that?" I nodded and dropped my hand. "And for reasons that I don't feel comfortable discussing." I then clapped my hands, startling the two ponies slightly. "So! Might I ask why you're here, my smith friend?" Tempered blinked a few times before nodding and pointing to a bundle of metallic fibers I hadn't seen beforehand lying in a corner of the room. "Aye, I poured some infused steel for you. My price is going to be the rest of the vat, assuming you agree to what Celestia would like to use it for." I pursed my lips at the thought, but nodded at him. "Elaborate, if you would." "Well, when she heard that the metal was resistant to magic, she asked if another crystal would make it impervious or impossible to use magic on it." I thought on the subject before nodding slowly. "After a...fashion, another crystal could help you. However, it would have to be 'on' at the time for the steel to be truly impervious, and it can never be turned off. And I've no reason to go to the castle, so you'd have to drag a clearly-on crystal into your workshop, something that every unicorn will be able to sense when they get close enough. Which isn't all that close, really..." Tempered blinked at that before smiling. "I kin do it, ya worrywart. And don't worry about me, I can handle some attention being tossed my way from the nobs." Wheels spun in my mind as the idea caught with Tempered's last word. "Actually, I have an idea..." ----- "So what you're saying is, that you can procure magic-resistant materials of varying types?" I waved my hand at Fancy Pants. He'd come to visit me at work when I put out word through the noble grapevine that I wanted to talk to him. Apparently it's highly well connected too, as he also knew where I worked. I would be surprised if he didn't know that I was staying at Vinyl and Octavia's as well, or that I had recently rented a place of my own. "I can only make so much, but that so much is quite a bit. And actually, it's not me, but Tempered Works. Celestia will be skimming a portion off of what we make as 'payment' for the use of the Royal Smith, and as I'm the front man and he's the skills, we'll be splitting the profit, if any on this. Currently, we can make metals, and he's got a lead on a glassblower I might be able to get along with." Fancy nodded and sipped his drink. When he'd shown up at the club and said he was responding to my invitation, I tapped out and got the other guy on duty (Not Rock, he'd happily moved on, the club policy was two bouncers on any given night in case the patrons got physical or one had an emergency) to cover while Fancy and I talked shop. I refrained from drinking, while Fancy had some of that mead that had apparently caught on. "An interesting proposal. What does her highness want with magic-resistant metal?" I paused at that before looking around and dropping my voice. "You didn't hear this from me." At his nod, I continued. "It's not just resistant she wanted, she wanted a safer magic inhibition ring. Something that just shuts down magic. A ring of metal that permits no magic to pass through it. Apparently, the ones you have run on a spell, which can be overloaded, or the metal can be melted just by the magic passing through it. Once Tempered and I hammer out the formula, she's set to pay us both very well for our services. Well, moreso in his case." Fancy chuckled, nodded, and then pursed his lips. "I see, but what does this have to do with me?" I reclined a little bit and waved one arm as though showcasing a particularly picturesque view. "Think about it. Once the soon-to-be trio of us get our respective formula down, we'll have metals and glass that resist magic. Heck, when made thin enough, the metals can be woven into fabrics. I can see at least two business opportunities there. The first being a safe room for those unicorns who like to experiment with their magic, but don't like blowing up the house. Simply line a room with this stuff, and suddenly, your house is safe!" Fancy's eyes widened as the proverbial coin dropped. Probably with a sound like 'Ca-CHING!' I merely continued. "Oh, and think of the applications for safe equipment! Things like flasks that couldn't be changed by magic at all, so no matter how dangerous the magic, when bottled up, it can't get out! Or lab coats that deaden any errant blasts, so you're less likely to be injured!" The noble managed a shaky response. "My word, that is a market I can see being found and filled. There are quite a few magical accidents a year in Canterlot alone, and merely some who would experiment if they could take a few more precautions. This product of yours would do precisely that." I nodded and then said in a more morose tone. "The flip side of that market is simple enough to see, really. For those paranoid about unicorns or magic in general, all they'd have to do is coat their house in the stuff..." Fancy shook his head at that. "While those sorts of ponies exist, let's not cater to them if we can avoid it." I nodded at that, then smiled. Fancy caught light of it and tilted his head. "Oh? And what now?" I smirked before replying. "Well, there's also the flip side to the reason Celestia wants the metal. She intends to use it for more effective bondage of unicorn prisoners. Who said it couldn't be used for that outside of the prisons as well?" It took the white stallion all of two seconds to blush at my implied meaning. "Aha. Well. That...could be a market. I'm not sure how well we can sell it..." I waved my hand. "The market exists, I know it. All you'd have to do is find the right way to...de...scr..." My voice trailed off as I saw three pegasus ponies enter the club. Two of them I didn't recognize, but the leader of the pack, the one in the middle, I knew him all too well. From his violet coat to his grey mane to his cloudception cutie mark to his blue eyes. Cloud Stuffer. What the fuck was he doing in here?!