//------------------------------// // Chapter 3. Gas // Story: The lightning bearer // by Hope //------------------------------// “Fried feathers, scorched mane, first degree burns, and possible lung damage!” Rainbow chuckled from her hospital bed, nodding along. “Yeah, it was pretty awesome, Twi.” Twilight sat back on her haunches and sighed, looking at the medical report. All in all, considering that Rainbow had run headlong into the fray and tried to wrestle with a molten piece of metal, it hadn’t been that bad. The bulk of the actual damage had come from the metal being so liquid that hitting it with the hammer just made it splash. Of course, Rainbow just saw it as progress. “So, what’s the next step?” Twilight asked. Rainbow sat up a bit more and smiled. “Okay, so it’s obviously working, our process is good, I think that I need to make a mold though, instead of trying to forge it. Have the metal pour into a mold that can hold the liquid. That would work, right?” Considering the proposal, Twilight nodded. “That sounds quite reasonable, okay. I’ll go get a mold produced, is there a particular design you’d like?” The book that Rainbow raised to show Twilight happened to be the only book in the Daring Doo series she hadn’t yet read. On the cover, Daring Doo held aloft a sword crackling with energy, stylistic and very pointy looking to Twilight, it was actually based on a mythical weapon so Twilight knew where the measurements were. “Alright. I’ll have a mold made. Anything else?” “Yeah, Twi, can you bring me some real food? The jello is really starting to get on my nerves.” “You only end up here every other week,” Twilight quipped. “Maybe they don’t want to encourage you to keep up the habit.” With that, Twilight headed out to design a sword mold, something that hadn’t been manufactured for near to a millenia. Naturally, her first inclination was to return to her library, but she had to pause and remind herself that the library was gone. She then turned and headed towards the castle instead. Buzzing with activity, Twilight avoided the crowded entryway by flying up to her balcony and entering the library from there. A few ponies were browsing the shelves, including the new royal librarian, a title that Twilight had been incredibly reluctant to give up. She approached the stallion and did her best to be polite. “Good afternoon Helvetica. How is the library today?” The unicorn looked up at his employer and rolled his eyes, immediately making Twilight bristle in annoyance. “I’ve been undoing your misguided labeling system, which entails undoing a great amount of damage from those little stickers you were so fond of. But I am sure you have more pressing matters to attend to than charred books and spine damage.” For a moment, Twilight was sorely tempted to say that she did and walk away, but Helvetica was just doing his job, and he was the best rural librarian she had been able to find on such short notice. With a sigh, she attempted to guide the conversation back on track. “That system was in place when I got here, but I’m very happy that you are rectifying the situation, especially with the new stock coming in. Speaking of, in the new books have--” “Have I found any problems?” He snorted. “Only in every box. They sent us only one of Starswirl’s almanac, but three of his collected works. What rural library needs three collected works of Starswirl?” he scoffed. “I’m sure that Canterlot will fix the mistake soon, but what I meant to ask was if you had seen any books having to do with ancient weapons manufacturing.” Helvetica paused and actually considered her question before shaking his head slowly. “I would have remembered a book like that. As a bit of an ameture historian myself, I would likely have checked it out. No, you’ll need to write Canterlot archives or request it from a specialist. What do you need a book like that for?” Twilight blushed a bit and tried to straighten her mane with her hoof as she replied. “Well… Rainbow Dash has me involved in a bit of a personal project, fashioning a weapon of sorts. I’ll, um, go ahead and write Canterlot, thank you!” Before he could start asking more questions, Twilight rushed off to find Spike, trying to shake off the nervousness that the librarian somehow instilled in her despite having held his position just a few months prior. After checking the throne room, kitchen, and lounge, Twilight headed to the bedrooms and knocked on Spike’s door. “Come in!” Twilight pushed the door open to find Spike in the middle of writing out something on his little desk. He looked up and gave her the biggest smile. “Twilight! Hey, I’ve been talking with Celestia about figuring out how to use my fire to send to different ponies. How is Rainbow?” “Oh, she’s fine. She gets herself into the hospital all the time anyway, it’s not like this is any worse than the time she tried to do a sonic rainboom backwards,” Twilight sighed. Spike shrugged and sat back down, as Twilight sat next to him. “Well, I’m glad she’s okay, but you look like you’ve got something else on your mind,” Spike said as he finished his letter and then sent it in a swirl of green flame. Twilight got a piece of parchment from his stack, and started writing out a letter herself. “Well, I’m still helping Rainbow, and it seems like we need to make a mold for the sword, to pour the molten metal into you know? Well, I can’t find a book that has instructions on this, so I’m going to send a letter to the princesses asking how to best design one.” Spike chuckled as he watched her write. “Sounds fun. Also sounds dangerous. I’m surprised that she didn’t ask me for help. After all, if I can bathe in lava, I don’t think some molten metal would be much of a problem.” “Hehe, yeah, I…” Twilight stopped writing as she actually considered the idea. “You know, Spike… Would you want to help out?” “Sure! Listen, this whole thing with Celestia and my fire breath, it’s fun but I really need to get out of the castle,” he insisted. “I’m starting to drool when I look at the walls, and that’s not good.” Twilight gave him a hug, before rolling up her letter and sealing it. Spike sent it off and she looked at the clock on the wall. “Tell you what, Spike. Let’s go get some lunch. I’m sure we will get a letter back by dinner, and then I can go get Rainbow released from the hospital.” She paused and smiled. “If she’s been behaving herself.” Spike laughed, and they left the castle to get some well overdue food. Meanwhile, Rainbow was enjoying herself at the hospital. “No way, broken wing is totally worse.” The unicorn in bed next to her rolled his eyes and gestured at the cast on his forehead. “This hurts every time I think.” Rainbow just scoffed and crossed her forelegs, ignoring the bit of pain from the bandages shifting over raw skin. “Broken wing hurts every time you breathe. I can go a whole day without thinking, but just you try to go a few minutes without breathing.” The unicorn chuckled, covering his mouth as Rainbow realized what she said and started to snicker at herself. “Hey, at least I’ll be fine if I ever break my horn,” she joked. “Well yeah, aren’t all of you element bearers going to go all… Princess-y eventually anyway?” he asked. Rainbow stuck her tongue out and shuddered. “I hope not. No offense to Twilight but I do not need that extra stress and bulk. Have you seen how big she’s gotten?” “Yeah, but Celestia’s bigger and noone thinks that’s anything less than beautiful,” he replied. Rainbow shook her head. “No thanks. I like being me. Sleek, fast, and awesome. I don’t need fluffier wings and a horn to know I’m the best.” The stallion looked her over and nodded before settling back in. “You should be an inspiration speaker.” She tossed a pillow at his stomach. “Never. That’s the most boring thing I could imagine. I bet--” She stopped as a sealed package of jello bounced off her head. She turned to look at him with a wicked smile. “Oh, you wanna play?” “Eight hundred and seventy bits worth of damage, Rainbow? Seriously? I can’t cover all of your expenses if you keep doing this,” Twilight said as she followed the ground bound pegasus on their way towards the castle. Rainbow just snorted. “I already paid, I just wanted you to see the bill. Come on, I want to see what the princesses said.” The entryway was less packed than it had been earlier in the day, but there were still plenty of ponies to gawk at the two as they crossed the atrium and headed upstairs. Spike was waiting for them in their sitting room with two scrolls. He was busy reading one, but held out the other to them as they sat down. “Okay, let’s see how they can help,” Twilight mumbled as she unrolled it. Instead of a letter, the scroll was a diagram with various details. A sword mold made of artificial sandstone, with a few strategically placed holes to let air escape. Rainbow leaned over to get a better view as her smile grew progressively wider. “Awesome.”