//------------------------------// // Of Lavender, the Unicorn, and Everything // Story: Ynanhluutr // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// The murmuring conversations and excited gasps of the campus drew into a distant hush as Rainbow Dash ascended. She stopped at the second and third story of several buildings, flying from one window to another, careful to duck outstretched oak tree branches. Twilight quivered, floating after Rainbow Dash in an awkward fetal position. She curiously eyed the pegasus as she blurred from one window frame to another. Rainbow's eyes squinted. She peered through several sheets of glass, staring in on random classrooms where students sat in ampitheatrical arrangements of chairs, facing the front of their respective chamber. The windows flashed before Rainbow's eyes like camera shutters, each featuring a differently aged professor. At last, Rainbow stumbled upon a particularly small and dusty classroom where the teacher was gesturing towards a dark chalkboard full of convoluted math equations. With a determined scowl, Rainbow Dash perched on the edge of the rooftop and gripped the bottom of the windowpane with both forelimbs, tugging upwards. “So then...” An old earth pony with a red-tinted brown mane strolled before the attentive youngsters. Lifting a piece of chalk in his hoof, he proceeded to slather several complex figures across a dark chalkboard. “...as we covered in the last lecture, within an RLC circuit, the inductor provides momentum, the resistor dissipates energy, and the capacitor—” Clank! All eyes flew towards the window. Several ponies gasped. Stallions gawked while mares covered their muzzles in shock. The professor spun about. “Good heavens!” He dropped his chalk with alarm. “… … …” Rainbow Dash glared into the room. One hoof at a time, she squeezed through the window, stumbling slightly. Not long after, Twilight Sparkle floated through the wall of the building with a faint lavender glow. “Uhm... can I help you, young lady?” The professor remarked. His graying features hardened into an authoritarian frown. “I don't know if you've noticed, but I happen to have a class in session at the moment.” Rainbow stared at him... then past him. All eyes fell on her lithe figure as she shuffled across the very front of the class, her hooves making tiny echoes against the dusty tile floor. “Wait one second...” The professor's jaw dropped. “Did... did you just fly up here?” “Oooooh...” Twilight suddenly cooed, her violet eyes a-sparkle. “Diffey Q...” Rainbow's hooves scuffled to a stop. She swiveled one hundred and eighty degrees, making the Professor lean back and the students flinch in their seats at the same time. With a dull expression, Rainbow reached down, grabbed the dropped piece of chalk off the floor in the crook of her hoof, and stood before the chalkboard. She faced the professor. “Give me a problem.” “Erm...” The professor brushed his reddish-brown bangs back. “What was that?” “Is this a classroom or isn't it?” Rainbow grumbled. “Gimme a math problem to solve.” “Uhhhh...” “And make it super... super eggheady.” The students exchanged glances. A few of them giggled breathily. The professor took a deep breath. “By all means, child...” A sly grin crossed his muzzle. “If you insist.” He leaned back, gestured towards the chalkboard, and said: “Determine the motion equations of this underdamped linear spring-mass system.” Instantly, Twilight cooed. “Oooh! Is that all?” A flicker of pastel euphoria rippled across her dimples. “Celestia had me doing those before I learned to levitate books!” “… … …” Rainbow Dash faced the chalkboard. She stood there, doing nothing—until the blue ear closer to Twilight Sparkle twitched. Twilight blinked. “Oh! Uhm...” She paced in a tiny circle, occasionally phasing through the professor's desk in the corner of the room. “Well, the equation of the motion is in the form of a second order linear differential equation. The second derivative of the displacement x, plus twice the damping ratio zeta times the undamped resonant frequency omega times the derivative of x... mmmm... plus the square of omega times x, is equal to zero! Granted, this is the complimentary solution, assuming no forcing after the initial displacement.” Rainbow stood in place, fidgeting. The professor stared at her, eyebrow arched. A few ponies in the classroom coughed. Twilight rambled on, tapping her fuzzy chin in thought. “Well, since he told us the system is underdamped, we know the damping ratio has two complex conjugate poles. And since this has both real and imaginary components, the solution has to have components of both sine and cosine. Both terms—of course—are functions of time multiplied by the natural frequency omega-sub-n, which—by the way—is the root of the differences of the squares of the undamped resonant frequency and the damping coefficient...” “Rrrrrgh...” Rainbow hissed through clenched teeth. Twilight Sparkle blinked the pegasus' way. Her ears drooped. “Oh. Uhm...” Clearing her throat, she trotted up to the chalkboard and gestured with her hoof, murmuring in a meek voice: “Draw an 'x' followed by a 't' in parentheses...” Rainbow Dash tapped the board with her chalk, sketching each figure as Twilight expressed them. “Then an equal sign, followed by an arbitrary constant—” Rainbow stopped in mid-stroke, glaring straight forward. Twilight bit her lip. “Erm... an upper case letter 'K.'” Rainbow resumed, swiftly sketching it out. “Follow it immediately by the subscript number 'one'... or j-just a tiny '1' just below and to the right of 'K', and to the upper right of that is a lower-case letter 'e' on the same level as 'K'...” Rainbow speedily drew the equation out. The professor gawked, his muzzle hanging more and more agape. The students sat up in their chairs, craning their necks to see. At last, after a full minute of tap-tap-tapping the board with chalk, Rainbow Dash came to a stop, dropping the instrument altogether with a powdery clatter. She twirled to face the professor, pointing at a full equation on the board: “Is that it?” Rainbow Dash grumbled. The professor stared, dumbfounded. Rainbow leaned forward, her brow furrowed. “Hello? Is that it? Is that the solution to your underdiaper line dance mass thingy?” “Why... yes!” The professor nodded, wide-eyed and impressed. “Yes indeed!” “… … …” Rainbow gaped at him. “… … … I don't know math!” The professor grimaced. Rainbow swiveled towards the students. They all fidgeted in their seats, staring curiously at the mare. Rainbow blinked. Then, turning on a dime, she trotted straight through Twilight, burst through the door, and marched down the nearest flight of stairs. “Eeep!” Twilight Sparkle yelped as she rolled after the pegasus on the end of her lavender tether.