//------------------------------// // Chapter Five // Story: My Little Humie: Fanfiction is Social // by SwiperTheFox //------------------------------// "Stand the heck back! There's science in here!" Bill Nye called out, waving his white-gloved hands in the air. His bandmates froze, all of them waiting in anticipation. Freddie's eyes ran back and forth from Bill to the pill circular power meter on the outside of the empty building. "You tell them, darling!" Rarity called out as well, feeling her heart beating hard as she focused on her pPad. She glanced out quickly towards the botique door, seeing hardly a pony on the street. She turned back to the My Little Human episode. "You can save those kids with the power of science!" All of us 'humares' know it! "Help, help! We're totally stuck!" yelled the two small boys helplessly as the gigantic junkyard magnet swayed slightly in the wind. "We can't hold on much longer!" A small bluejay sailed along far below them, stopping atop the ruined old rubber tubing in the middle of the junkyard. The boys had a rather long fall to go if anything went wrong. "Don't worry!" Nye hollered over. The shorter boy smacked his arms against the flat magnetic drum before propping them back against his big belt. The boy still couldn't stand looking down, still not used to that horrible sight of yard after yard of thin air beneath him. The taller boy tried to put on a hopeful expression-- knowing from experience that if anyone could save him in a tricky situation, then Bill Nye and the other Damona's could. Using the power-- of-- science! "Okay," the taller boy meekly replied. "Just, please hurry. I can't stand another minute dangling up here." "You won't drop! We promise!" Freddie shouted, his mustache tweaking on his face with the sheer determination. "Oh, wow," Nye said, moving his fingers over and inspecting the power monitor. He tapped against a large hole in the glass, with an ugly, foreign looking black cable coming from the monitor and leading up towards the building's roof. "Oh, gosh, if that magnetic thing lets them go, then," Elton said, whistling. He really didn't want to finish the sentence. "I don't get it!" Joey groused, stamping his Chuck Taylors against the dusty concrete. He glanced around the junkyard, looking from heap of old cars to the open seaside to the sets of metal platforms seemingly leading nowhere, and he scowled. "How can this thing even be a magnet, anyways? I mean--" He took a gulp. "We were here a few hours ago, anyway. Katie and I. That big crane thing had metal under it, and nothing happened. Aren't magnetic things always magnetic?" "Yeah, that's right," Elton said, rubbing a sparkly gloved hand against his pink glitter covered cheeks. "How can something be magnetic sometimes and not other times? Those kids were smart, like they said. They thought that the crane thing was dead or gone, so it wouldn't pick them up." "Time! For!" Moon shouted. "The Science Goggles!" "That's right, Moon," Rarity said to the screen. She magically lifted over her own special set of souvenir 'Science Goggles' from the 'Foals' Meal' at McDougals. She flashed back to how she had felt so silly, so wrong when she had paid more attention to the children's toy than Sweetie Belle had. At least she ate the hay fries instead of complaining about them being "over-salted" like usual. All five members of the Damona's reached out into their pockets and put on their enormous black, horn-rimmed glasses. They all clicked the sides of the glasses, with the glowing white lights rippling across the sides. The lenses tinted grey, and they began to see in Bill Nye's 'Science-O-Vision'. "Now then," Nye began, leaning over to the power monitor, "as well all know, electricity is made of the movement of electrons." Nye moved a hand over to a thick grey cable besides the ground. Through their Science Goggles, everyone saw tiny little flicks of electrons bouncing up the cable. They squinted, and they made out atoms receiving the energy. "And electricity of the kind that powers machinery as well as the usual stuff that you'd have around the house," Nye went on, "is usually made from special power stations far away from where it actually ends up being used. Electricity goes to a 'power grid', which people can hook into. Devices such as this power monitor here show you how much electricity that your building or building complex draws from the overall power grid." "Fascinating," Freddie said, flipping himself over and standing up atop an old refrigeration. He looked out across the junkyard and saw pulses of electricity moving all along the city's power grid into the complex. "But, this doesn't help us help those kids. What does all of this stuff about power have to do with magnets?" "It's very simple, Freddie," Nye said, and he lead the band around to the front of the building. They traced a big grey array of cables from the power monitor over to the enormous crane thing with the poor boys trapped on it. "You can observe that the electricity is going up over to that special magnetic drum up there. Right where the boys are stuck to given their big metal belts." "So," Joey said, scratching his thick, loose locks atop his head, "electricity becomes magnetism? But that doesn't make sense! I have power outlets at home, and I can put-- say-- a metal guitar in front of it. The guitar doesn't get stuck onto the outlet like velcro onto a shoe or anything." "Ah, but it all depends on how you put that electricity to work!" Nye called out, smiling as he knew that he'd get his bandmates to understand in just a moment. "Now, click the side of your glasses and zoom into the magnetic drum. You'll see!" Rarity slid a hoof along the side of her own glasses. Of course, her own pair did nothing by itself. They don't have to. They let me unlock the power of my imagination. That's what's wrong with us stuffy adults, and what's great about those foals that this show is for. They have imaginations, and they can see things that aren't really there but should be there. She took a sip from her orange smoothie besides her. "Oh, wow!" Freddie yelled. "Wowie, Zowie!" Moon yelled as well. The other band members just gawked. They saw, zoomed in, that the magnetic drum had a huge metal slab inside of it. Big wires ran right into the slab and curled around sort of like how string went around a spool. The electrons sped up the wires and danced around the slab, shaking their little yellow bottoms against the sides of the drum. The slab lit up with a bright blue energy. "Look at the atoms inside of that slab," Nye said, pointing up at the air. Joey and Elton pointed up as well, mouths open in surprise. "You see that the electricity moves through in such a way, based on the design of the device, that it causes the very atoms inside the metal molecules to all line up." Before, the slab's atoms had been all jumbled about, facing every which way. It looked something like pieces of crackers, noodle, cheese, and other items all lying about inside of a bowl of soup. With the electrical charge, the bandmembers saw the atoms all facing in the same direction, with their bright purple neutrons and their pale pink protons twisted about. The electrons all flipped around in perfectly symmetric orbits. It looked something like a bale, with every little bit of hay massed together. "Oh, so that's magnetism in action!" Joey called out. "That's, like, so totally cool!" "And that blue aura around the device, that's the magnetic 'pull' or whatever?" Freddie asked. "That's right," Nye answered. Their eyes all moved down from the top of the magnetic drum over to the kids underneath it. They saw thick streams of blue light circling around from the slab downwards. "Those orbits that you see, those lines, are called 'magnetic field lines'. They've emerged from the poles in those atoms, and they attract metallic objects." "So, all that plastic stuff down there underneath," Joey began. He stopped, and he leaned his head up. He seemed to have a light bulb pop up. "Oh, now I get it. The magnet won't work on that stuff because it's made of different atoms and molecules that aren't arranged like metal. It all makes sense now." "So, now we know!" Keith said, hopping over a pile of used bookshelves and twisting in the air. "But, dude!" He leaned down on his knees and pointed up at the kids. "How does knowing this help us help those guys!" Rarity heard a dinging sound, and she flipped around. She glared at the door, although her angry, interrupted expression faded. I'm only re-watching the last episode, hopefully picking up more things to talk about at our fan-fiction author meeting tonight. Nothing that's that big of a deal. She put on a smile as she paused the video on her pPad. A stallion half-stepped into the boutique, stopping to yell some things back to some outside compatriots of his. He made a deep, frustrated sigh, and he pushed open the door completely. Rarity locked eyes with him. He looked like nopony she had seen before, his softer pinkish body and dark purple mane with a light stripe making him seem like a grown-up foal of Twilight's with Pinkie Pie in an alternate world. She chuckled at the silly thought. "You see Pinkie anywhere?" he asked, putting on a surprisingly deep and low masculine voice. He ran a hoof through his sweaty head. Rarity just shook her head 'no'. "Oh, rats," he muttered, making a defeated groan. He bonked his head against the doorway. He took a breath, and he turned back over towards Rarity. "Well, if you ever do see her, tell her that Discord is in another one of his moods again." He almost bit his lip, sweat oozing down his cheeks. "You might want to stay way indoors, too." They both heard a loud pounding from outside. The stallion paused. He shut the door as he looked out in all directions. Rarity watched as a pack of pegasii ran across the street, grabbed the stallion, and shot out into the air. "Should I be worried about this?" Rarity asked herself. She looked out at the walls of her boutique and over outside, with not a single pony then in sight. Rarity made a dismissive shrug. Back to my show! She clicked the screen. Nothing happened. She clicked again. She made a pout-y face, and she ran her hoof along the top right of her device. No... not again... She blinked. Her eyes grew wide as she say that horrible icon of a foal chasing her tail popping up in the middle of the otherwise frozen screen. "Buffering?" Rarity smacked her hooves against the table. She sucked down some more of her smoothie. "I hope Celestia bumps to the Moon for five thousand years that monster that invented buffering! Even Discord is nicer." She stopped as she heard ominous pounding, ripping, and crashing moods from way outside. "Well, Discord is usually nicer. Pinkie will show up with some lace stockings and soothe him right back to normal in just a few minutes, I'm sure." Rarity tapped her hooves against the table. Still buffering? She paused, and she leaned her head upon the table. Stupid 'Sprinting' service? More like 'Crawling'! I can't believe that I haven't swapped to Verimare Wireless yet! *Beep!* Rarity hopped up to attention. She held her hoof right above the screen, ready to restart the video. She had to giggle at the advertisement that had just popped up. In big, bright letters, it read: "Are you a 'Humie' or 'Humare'? Enjoy the unofficial 'Human' versus 'Human' fighting game! Play as Bowie against Elton, Joey against Katie, Freddie against Moon, and more!" A human fighting game? What will these obsessive fans think of next? I'm surprised that they haven't made a life-size Freddie Mercury Damona pillow for lonely mares to hug and cuddle with. She started the video again. Although, that actually sounds... nice, actually. "It's simple," Nye said, running back over to the group's Rock-N-Roll-Mobile. His fellow members followed right behind. Nye flipped open a side door, fingering for a large black box. The huge silver car featured space-ship like gull-wing doors, big white cooling towers in the back shooting out every couple seconds, and-- most interesting of all-- a flux-capacitor station in the interior roof that used the planet's three most powerful forces-- pop music, rock music, and metal music-- to fuel the portable fusion engine. The members all thought of it as Nye's greatest invention. Nye, on the other hand, always wanted to try and top himself. "Your latest invention, of course!" Freddie called out. "That's right," Nye replied. He clutched the black box and flicked a small grey nub on the side. The box collapsed, showing a huge dark grey device covered in green circular stripes. Nye picked up the end, showing a large knob, and the device lit up. A pulse of light blinked at its tip, looking a lot like a TV's remote controller crossed with an alien invader's lazer gun. "Now, I can just use my 'electricity modulator' to adjust the current going through that magnet and, thus, the magnet's power." "But, hey!" Joey interjected, running up and stranding right in front of Nye. "If you pull the plug, won't those poor kids have a rather long drop--" "No, not at all," Nye commented, leaning down and preparing to use his switch. Energy bubbled all across it, the green stripes flashing brightly. "Because this modulator works a lot like a remote." "Oh, I see!' Freddie said, popping up behind Nye's back. "Instead of during the electricity off like a TV goes off, you can turn the electricity down like a TV's volume goes down." "Basically, yes," Nye said, "but I need to say that it's more complicated than that. If I just lowered the electrical current and that was it, there would be a point where gravity became stronger than the magnetic pull and then the poor kids would just drop. My device works by manipulating--" "Help! Please! No more talking!" The band members looked up at the two helplessly dangling kids, and they grew even more determined. "No time to explain, William," said Elton, "just get them down." Nye nodded. "Well, that was too clever by the scriptwriters," Rarity remarked. "Of course, one couldn't really get a remote that turns up or down magnetism that easily. One would have to use other forms of energy to due that besides electromagnetism, such as manipulating particles even smaller than neutrons and protons." Oh, well. There's so much science in here already. I can't fault the creators for being reasonable about it all. She smiled. Science fiction mixed with real science makes everything better! "Science rocks!" Nye's device shot out a blue wave that hit the tip of the junkyard crane, and he grinned. He gripped the control knob, and he turned it down from 100% over to 90% as his friends watched with baited breath. The boys wiggled about in the air as the electromagnetic field around them grew wider, and they slightly broke off of the big magnetic drum. Nye went from 90% over to 70%, seeing the boys gently floating down in the air like leaves. He finally turned from 70% to 40%, making sure that the drop wouldn't get too fast, and he slid his fingers down. The boys made it to just a few feet above the stacks of rubber piping and other trash. Nye turned his device down to 0%, and the band members all cheered. They sped over and grabbed the boys, both seeming to be in some sort of shock. Nye packed his device back into its box, moving very carefully. "Let's get your boys home," Elton said, playfully scraping one of them on the noggin. They made their way back to the Rock-N-Roll-Mobile. *Boom!* An explosion threw them all off balance, grabbing items around them to keep from falling right onto the cold, hard concrete. Joey winded up entangled in thick plastic tubing. Moon accidentally fell into an old refrigerator, almost getting shut in there if his leg hadn't caught the door. The other guys leaned up against the walls. "Not. So. Fast. You. Scum!" called out a familiar, devious voice from the roof besides them. "Oh, no!" muttered the band members. They all staggered over and glared upwards. "That's right!" A tall figure with huge, thick red boots, tight glittery silver spandex with a large white codpiece, a rolling black cape featuring flashing lights looking like all the constellations of the night sky, and thick black armor stepped out from behind a steam pipe. Energy seemed to radiate all over his body. The band members all focused on his face, featuring enormous bright red hair coupled with a red lightening bolt mark over his right eye and half his features. Glitter and make-up caked all across every inch of his skin. Rarity clapped. She loved this character. He didn't just seem to be the best villain, but he seemed to be one of the best humans on the entire show. He's so stylish! He's so flamboyant! "It is I! The Great and Powerful David Bowie!" He stamped his boots against the ceiling, cracks forming all through the building. "And the Great and Powerful Bowie is most pleased that you have fallen for the Great and Powerful Bowie most intelligent and cunning trap, exactly how the Great and Powerful Bowie had foreseen." Nye slyly pulled out his special device once again, holding it behind his back. He winked at Elton. Elton understood, and he waved up at Bowie. The other band members immediately understood the trick, and they pretended to play along. "What is it, you most unenlightened one?" Bowie leaned out his hands, and he shot up into the air. He flew around onto a set of metal girders. "Are you not terrified, Elton Damone? The Great and Powerful Bowie has engineered such painful and incessant delights for you, as a reward for interrupting the Great and Powerful Bowie's 'Gala Concert' last week." Bowie grit his teeth and curled up his nose at the horrible memory, back when he had been humiliated before Princess Hillary Clinton during a performance for Guyville's armed forces. "Oh, I just am wondering where exactly you got that special creamy glitter mix that you have on your temples," Elton said, stalling as Nye reactivated his device. "You look totally scrumptious, darling. Such a wonderful mix of sliver on bright white." Bowie laughed, his hands leaning back behind his shoulders as his huge hair tossed about. "The Great and Powerful Bowie is most amused by your insipid attempts at fabulous-ity, given that the Great and Powerful Bowie's status as the most stylish and well-kept human in the entire world. And, soon, I shall rule the entire world." He grinned from cheek to cheek. "If you must know, the Great and Powerful Bowie ordered these chemical treatments factory direct." "Oh, but what about your previous engagement?" Elton asked. "The Great and Powerful Bowie does not understand," Bowie replied, looking frustrated with his hair dropping down around his sides. "What previous engagement?" "You have a date with a crane, jerk." Joey interjected, leaning up alongside Elton. *Clang!* "No!" Bowie yelled. His body shot up onto the metal drum where the children had just been trapped. He fired his hand and leg rockets to no avail, just spinning the big magnet around in a circle. He grimaced, his eyes shrinking into narrow little slits. "Bowie get you for this, the Damones! Bowie get you for this!" The band members simply laughed as they returned to their car, leaving Bowie stranded in place. Bowie shuddered in sheer rage. Nye and the rest knew that the so-called "glitter god of rock" wouldn't stay put for long, but they didn't care. They had a gig to go to, and kids to return to their parents. The episode ended, and the credits rolled. Rarity leaned back and let a wave of sheer happiness flow through her senses. She slid side to side to that catchy theme song, which never got old. "Oh, my goodness," Rarity said, "I still can't believe it. The creators brought back the Great and Powerful Bowie! The best villain ever! The character voiced by Princess Luna herself no less! And now, in the final episode, we'll see if Joey ever does 'get the girl' as well as if the Great and Powerful Bowie manages to get his revenge." Rarity leaned down, and she glanced all around the pPad. She froze as she spotted the time. Oh, wow! It's already 7:02pm! She hopped upwards, and she slid the pPad over into her special saddlebag. I thought I'd be there two minutes ago-- going down at Lulu's to co-ordinate things! She sized up herself in the mirror. She looked frumpy, not sexy. She ran a hoof through her matted mane. "I definitely need to style myself up," she said. I have to put on all the airs. This is for TBH, after all, and I have to be the best mare that I can be. She flashed back to Princess Blueblood, and her sad experiences at the Gala. I have to make up for all that, and I just know that TBH will be different. I know from reading his fanfics that he has a different soul-- a kind, soft, and romantic soul. Rarity smiled as she moved over to her shower, magically gathering all kinds of supplies from perfume to make-up to shampoo behind her. She visualized her special dress, her mind's eye going over every inch of that wonderful outfit that she had arranged out atop her bed. She felt her heart fluttering. Oh, this will be a night to remember. To Be Continued...