Research and Development
Trudging her way towards the garage, Twilight bit the inside of her cheek. After managing to peel off that torn up, skin-tight suit, along with that silly looking eye-patch, it was time to go around Ponyville and issue apologies.
Many, many apologies.
A few days prior, Twilight had alarmed all of Ponyville that she had been visited by her future self about an unknown disaster that would occur some time between then and next Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, her future self never managed to tell her what the disaster was due to the timer on her spell expiring just before she could.
The entire incident prompted town-wide maintenance, region-wide aerial patrols, and the deployment of well over a hundred Blues all over Ponyville.
It was now Tuesday afternoon, and excluding the appearance of a giant three-headed dog that was quickly subdued by Fluttershy a couple of days ago, absolutely nothing of interest happened. In fact, Twilight learned that her future self actually traveled through time to tell her that nothing would happen at all, and that she shouldn’t worry about anything.
She was not looking forward to telling that to Alex and Rose.
Twilight took one final breath in front of Alex’s door before marching inside.
A blue-eyed domestic was already waiting for her just beyond the door. “Hello, Twilight,” Rose said in an unusually calm manner. “It seems this disaster of yours hasn’t happened yet. Is there something else we need to know?”
Twilight forced a smile to her face. “Oh, um... Yeah… about that…”
Rose tilted her surrogate’s head to the side. “Yes?”
She isn’t making it any easier, that’s for sure… Twilight scratched the back of her neck. “You see, I actually found out that my future self came to tell me… um… Well… She wanted to tell me not to worry about anything…”
Rose said nothing, instead opting to simply stare at the unicorn.
Twilight continued, keeping her forced smile. “There, um… There actually… is no disaster… heheh…”
Silence permeated the space between the two before Rose finally said, “I see. I’ll recall the Blues, then.”
Twilight’s tensed muscles relaxed, more out of confusion than anything else. “Wait, you’re not mad?”
The Domestic shook its head. “No. To be honest, we anticipated this.”
Twilight blinked at that. “You did?”
“ - Just hurry! We need to make sure Ponyville is safe!” Twilight practically yelled at Alex before running out of the garage.
Once Twilight was gone, Rose asked, “Well? How should we proceed with this?”
Alex grimaced. “Okay, something important is coming to mind right now. Remember that My Little Pony cartoon I told you about?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, well, my memory may not be the best on the subject, but if I’m remembering this right, I think there was an episode of the show based on this. If that’s the case, then I’m fairly sure that whole ‘Twilight from the future thing’ turned out to be nothing. I dunno… Humor her. Give her a few squads, but don’t go overboard. I don’t really think this needs much of our attention.”
“Yes, we did,” Rose answered Twilight.
Twilight rubbed a hoof against the floor. “Oh… I hope I didn’t cause too much trouble for you…”
Rose waved a hand. “I only deployed two dozen squads. It’s easy enough to manage. I’ll let Alex know about this new information. Is there anything else you needed?”
Twilight held up a hoof. “I actually wanted to apologize to Alex personally, if that’s alright with you.”
Rose shook her head in turn. “Alex is currently busy at the moment, but I’ll let him know you came by and reserve the apology.”
Twilight sighed, and nodded her head. Of course he would be busy. “Alright. Thanks, Rose.”
Just as Twilight was making her way out, Rose called out to her. “Twilight, a moment, please.”
Twilight perked up, looking back at the domestic.
“For reasons beyond my own comprehension, Alex says you can come down right now, if you want.”
A wide grin split Twilight’s face as the opportunity to sneak a peek at Alex’s latest work presented itself to her. “Really?! Yes! I would love to!”
Without wasting a moment, Twilight trotted to the elevator, which promptly began its descent. Rose’s civilian chassis was waiting for Twilight at the level of the Prototype Lab, and the two walked side by side toward the door at the back.
“A word of warning, Twilight,” Rose began, speaking purely from her Liandri body. “You may find what we’re doing a little disturbing.”
Twilight perked an ear up at her, but otherwise kept her pace. “Really? Why’s that?”
Rose paused for a brief moment before saying, “Unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to say. It seems Alex wants to keep it a surprise.”
Twilight’s pace slowed ever so slightly as her thoughts twirled. “Of course he does… So where is he, anyway?”
“Right this way.”
Rose led Twilight through the rear door of the Lab, followed by a small network of stark white hallways. Rounding a corner, Rose stopped just outside an automatic door which in no way differentiated itself from the others they had passed.
“Through here is an observatory,” said Rose, holding a hand toward the door. “As I said, you may not be prepared for what you are about to see. I hope this apology of yours is worth it.”
Twilight waved a dismissive hoof. “Oh come on. How bad could it be?”
The door automatically whirred open as Rose said, “See for yourself.”
Twilight didn’t even have to move to see the truth behind Rose’s warning. Freezing in place, her brain lagged; struggling to understand what her eyes were telling her. Twilight's eyes grew wide and her jaw slackened as a gross understanding crept into her. Pure horror overcame her, forcing her to do the only reasonable thing anypony would do when confronted with what she was witnessing.
She screamed.
“I warned you,” Rose said, rolling her optics as Twilight screamed her way against the opposite wall.
When her screaming eventually tapered off into quick, labored breathing in an attempt to scream even more, Alex’s voice came through the observatory’s intercom. “Oh come on, Twilight! I thought you loved how sexy my brain is!”
Just beyond the observatory’s glass wall was Alex himself, sitting in a chair in the middle of the room with a mischievous smile. Several bright lights illuminated a large red cover that was draped over his body below the neck, as if he were simply getting his haircut, and he appeared just as calm as if that were the case.
Only that wasn’t what was happening.
Countless robotic arms hung from a mechanism above him, each with their own grips and tools. His head was locked in an intricate vice to keep it perfectly still, but the most important thing of all was the fact that his skull cap was missing, exposing his brain for Twilight to gape at in terror.
Finally coming down from her original panic, Twilight shouted, “What are you doing?!”
“I’m getting my BCI replaced, what does it look like I’m doing?” said Alex as a robotic limb carefully lifted the device in question from the surface of his brain.
Rose walked into the room and stood by the observatory’s window, beckoning Twilight to follow with a wave of her hand. “I’ve performed this type of surgery before, Twilight. He’s perfectly safe.”
Twilight’s anxiously raised her brows as her rubbery legs carried her into the room. “Just how many times…?”
“Once,” Rose replied with a shrug.
Twilight’s eyes bugged out at this, but Alex quickly followed up.
“Twilight, you know just as much as I do that Rose is really careful about this sort of thing. She wouldn’t put sharp objects next to my exposed brain without being absolutely sure about what she was doing.” As Alex said this, an arm with a drill bit on the end carefully positioned itself behind his skull and began carving out a neat section beneath the exposed rim. “Ooo, that kinda feels funny.”
Twilight pinned her ears against her head and held a leg against herself. “Okay, this is really, really, really weird… I’m not entirely sure I’m comfortable with—”
Twilight stopped herself mid-sentence as her eyes immediately focused on a drop of blood snaking its way down Alex’s forehead. Before either of them could say anything else, another arm holding a balled up towel with red spots swooped in and wiped the crimson streak away.
Alex seemed completely unfazed by this. “So Twilight, Rose says you have something to tell me.”
“Umm…” Twilight bit her lip. “Yeah, I, uh… wanted to let you know that, um… there actually isn’t any, uh…” Another arm came in behind Alex’s head and lifted away what was very clearly a piece of his skull. Twilight stammered at the sight. “Umm…”
Completely oblivious to Twilight’s distress, Alex said, “Well come on, what is it? There isn’t any what?”
Twilight shook her head and forced herself to concentrate on a particularly interesting section of ceiling. “There actually isn’t a disaster! I just wanted to say I was sorry I got everypony riled up!”
“Apology accepted!” Alex cheerfully declared as another robotic limb positioned itself over him, delicately holding the new Brain-Computer Interface in its grasp. “Just glad to hear nothing bad happened. Also, what are you looking at?”
Rose’s optics scanned over Twilight and she crossed her arms. “It would seem she is rather uncomfortable with the sight of blood.”
Twilight kept her gaze aimed upward, though continued to watch through her peripheral vision out of morbid curiosity. “Just a bit!”
“No shit…?” said Alex with a raised brow. “Oh well, don’t worry about it. This’ll be over soon.”
Other robotic arms lowered themselves between Alex’s brain and skull and ever so carefully created a gap for the BCI to fit in. Another arm equipped with a gel dispenser approached and applied its contents to the carved out portion of the back of his head. Once done, the BCI was slowly lowered into place, fitting snugly around the top and sides of his brain and the reshaped skull.
All at once, the arms lifted away, allowing the gel dispenser to apply its coating all around his skull’s rim. A pair of arms quickly swooped in with his bald skull cap and fit the piece of bone and skin back into place. With one arm applying pressure downward, yet another dispensing limb approached, ejecting a red mist around his head that quickly zeroed in on the cut. The skin seemingly sewed itself together in only a matter of seconds, leaving behind so little scar tissue, it was as if no cut had ever been made in the first place.
“And there we go! All done!” said Alex as the robotic limbs released his head from the vice. Other arms simultaneously removed the red drape from around his neck, the IVs in his arms, and lifted a small mirror for Alex to examine himself. Alex leaned towards it and pressed a finger along the area where the initial cut was made, satisfied that it was barely noticeable. His hand wandered to the back of his head, where his fingers brushed against a small metallic plate holding a variety of connectors.
“Damn, that feels freaky…” he muttered. Alex grabbed the bandaids given to him by another arm and applied them to the holes left behind by the IVs before turning his attention back to Twilight. “It’s all done Twilight, you can look again.”
Taking his words at face value, Twilight returned her gaze back to Alex. Much to her relief, he appeared normal again, albeit completely bald. She released a huff. “I’m sorry… I’m just not very comfortable with the idea of performing surgery like that on somepony while they’re completely awake…”
Alex chuckled and stood up from his chair, which automatically folded back into a surgical table. “Well, when you’re mucking around with the brain, the patient always needs to be awake, Twi. Just in case you poke anything important.” Alex walked around to the side of the observatory where a plain glass door whirred upward to let him into the room with Twilight and Rose. “Nice haircut by the way. That whole ‘singed’ thing you got going on looks pretty good on you.”
Twilight’s face flushed. “Yeah… I kind of have Spike to thank for that… It was an accident, though.”
Alex shook his head in amusement. “Heheh, of course. So, what exactly happened with this ‘future self’ of yours?”
Twilight looked away. “Well, I… actually traveled back in time to tell my past self not to worry about anything, and… I didn’t really get the chance to do that…”
Alex crossed his arms and slowly raised a brow at her. Glancing over at Rose, they shared a lingering look before Alex said, “I see… And just where exactly did you acquire this ability to go back in time?”
“I found the spells in the Canterlot archives, but more specifically, the Starswirl the Bearded wing.”
Alex nodded at the information. “Right… Might be worth taking a look at… In any event, thanks for coming by and letting us-” Pausing. Alex leaned down and tilted Twilight’s head to the side to better examine her cheek, or rather, a surprisingly deep cut on it. “Heyo, when did that get there?”
“You mean the cut?” Twilight responded. “I got that when I returned Cerberus back to the gates of Tartarus. You remember him, right?”
Alex rolled his eyes.“You mean the giant three-headed dog that trampled at least three squads worth of blues? Yeah, I remember him. But that was days ago, Twilight. Did you ever get this thing cleaned out? I think it might be infected…”
Twilight brushed Alex’s hand away. “It’s fine, really. I’m okay.”
Rose walked over and quickly examined the cut for herself. It only took a few seconds before she declared, “It’s infected.”
Twilight flattened her ears. “Oh…”
“Eh, not a problem,” said Alex, walking back into the surgery room. “Just come in here for a bit and we’ll have you patched up in no time.”
Twilight’s eyes widened. “Wait, you want me to lie down on that?!” She pointed over to the table/chair.
“Uh, yes?”
Twilight backed up, shaking her head vigorously. “Oooooh no, I’m not lying down on that!”
Alex dropped his shoulders and sighed. “Rose, would you please get the door?” The door leading to the hallway whirred shut, barring Twilight’s only escape. “Thanks. Now look, Twilight, I know it’s scary, but we’re only going to clean and seal that cut, okay? Nothing else.”
Rose placed a hand along Twilight’s back in attempted comfort. “You don’t have to worry. I won’t even need stitches.”
Twilight gulped and tentatively entered the surgery room. “Alright… If you say so…”
Alex smiled and directed her onto the surprisingly comfortable surgical table. “There you go. Now just lie down on your back if you can - that’s it.”
Brightly lit robotic limbs dominated most of Twilight’s vision from where she was lying down. None of them were moving yet, but the mere thought that they would soon be poking around her face seemingly of their own accord caused her heart to race, despite knowing full well she had no reason to feel this way.
Holding onto Twilight’s hoof, Alex stood by the right side of the table as Rose appeared on the left to look down at her. “I need you to remain absolutely still, understand? I need to clear away the infection and sterilize what is left, so it won’t be painless.”
Twilight nodded, though remained silent.
“Excellent. I’ll start now.”
The entire collection of robot arms burst into life, forcing a gasp from Twilight. Many of the unnecessary ones raised themselves up and out of the way, while the rest lowered themselves closer to her.
Twilight struggled to control her breathing as one limb, with what looked like a camera on the end, approached her face a little closer than she would have liked. Twilight followed its erratic movements with her eyes, until another arm with a scalpel lowered itself beside it. Her heart skipped a beat and her eyes locked on the blade before it disappeared from her vision.
In spite of herself, Twilight flinched as the knife made contact with the infected scab in her cut. The surgical arm jerked away even faster than Twilight had moved, and the camera arm centered itself on the pupil of Twilight’s nearest eye. “I said: hold still,” Rose’s voice echoed from nowhere in particular.
Mumbling an apology, Twilight willed herself to be still, and let the arms resume their work. Gritting her teeth together, she allowed the knife to scrape away the infected portion of her cut, exposing it as if it were fresh again. Relief washed over her as the knife raised back up and joined its brothers. However, a new arm with some sort of sprayer lowered itself in its place.
“I’m going to sterilize the cut now,” said Rose. “This will sting.”
Before Twilight could voice any acknowledgement, the newest arm sprayed its contents, causing Twilight’s cheek to burn ferociously. Twilight inhaled sharply at the pain, though said nothing.
A trio of arms descended to replace the sterilizer, one of which Twilight recognized as the gel dispenser that sealed Alex’s skull back together. A wet coolness soon replaced the burning sensation of her cut as a small amount of the strange gel was applied to it. Twilight felt the other two arms press her cut together as the gel arm was replaced with the device that sprayed the red mist.
Twilight’s cut tickled as the mist was sprayed on it with the other two arms pressing the sides of her cut together. Soon enough, the arms distanced themselves from Twilight’s face and Rose announced the procedure to be complete.
“You see?” said Alex as he helped Twilight sit up. “It wasn’t that bad, was it?”
Twilight rubbed her cheek as another arm brought a mirror in front of her. To her amazement, the cut had completely vanished. “Whoa…”
Alex gave her a pat on the back. “Impressive, isn’t it? Complete surgical recovery in only a few seconds, be it break, fracture, or laceration. What do you think?”
“Honestly, it was a little scary at first, but… Wow, I can’t argue with the results! How did you manage this? This is way beyond anything I’ve ever heard of, even for magic!”
Alex grinned. “Nanites! That red stuff is actually a solution saturated with nanobots that repair broken tissues before breaking down and dissolving inside your body after a couple minutes. You have to admit, those buggers work fast.”
Twilight frowned in thought. “But then what’s that gel stuff for?”
“Building material,” Alex responded simply.
“Amazing… Have you considered giving some of this to Ponyville General? I’m sure the doctors would love to have some of it on hoof in case of emergencies!”
Alex stroked his chin. “Not a bad idea, actually… I just might do that.”
“So what else is new?” Twilight said as she hopped off the table. “I haven’t really seen you in a while, so I assume you’ve been busy.”
Alex rubbed his hands together in front of a wide grin. “Busy doesn’t even begin to describe it! Twilight, I can’t remember a time where we’ve been more productive!” He ushered her along with a hand. “Come, come! Let me to give you the grand tour!”
With Rose’s surrogate close behind, Alex led Twilight back to the Prototype Lab, where he presented her with a pair of circular metal platforms. Two flat arms stood out of each of their surfaces along what looked like circular tracks and a device in their centers that glowed a faint blue.
Alex held his hands out towards the machines. “Voila! Against my better judgement, Rose and I actually decided to reopen our teleporter program.”
Twilight’s eyes widened. “Wait, really?! I thought you said you’d never try that again! Not after what happened last time, anyway.”
“Oh, I’m never gonna use these things; not on your life. But we figured the Liandri could since they’re becoming more and more prominent here. Hey, Rose, you wanna do a demonstration?”
Without a word, Rose’s surrogate stepped onto one of the platforms and her eyes turned yellow as the AI relinquished control. The sets of arms on both platforms began spinning around, each on opposite directions. A hazy blue glow surrounded the Liandri, while at the same time, a ghost-like outline of the exact same Liandri appeared on the other platform.
Twilight took mental notes as the body of the Liandri on the “sending” platform began to gradually disappear, starting from the bottom up and leaving a similar ghostly outline of what used to be there. Conversely, on the “receiving” platform, the outline was being filled in at the same rate. Soon enough, it had almost had been as if the outline and the Liandri had swapped places. With a sudden flash, the outline vanished, the rotating arms slowed to a stop, and Rose’s surrogate body had officially been displaced.
Twilight clapped her hooves together. “Technology that mimics a teleportation spell! It’s a little slow, but I think it works beautifully!”
Alex bowed. “Thank you, thank you. We’ve cleared up a lot of issues with this particular design that we’re quite proud of.”
Twilight tapped her chin in thought. “You know, now that I think about it, you never really did tell me much about that first teleporter you build. What makes this so different?”
Alex leaned against a terminal. “Everything. For starters, we’ve managed to reduce power consumption and size, so these things could actually be deployed elsewhere. The last one had it’s own room and drew power directly from the core. Another is how it works. The first one created a wormhole in space that basically tried to slingshot you somewhere else. As you are fully aware of, that didn’t really work like I wanted it to. These ones essentially act as entrances and exits, so there’s no chance of just appearing in someone’s basement.” Alex finished with a smirk.
Twilight matched his smirk. “To be fair, I wouldn’t say that was a bad thing.”
“No, no it was not. Anyway, that’s not all I wanted to show you. Right this way.”
Alex led Twilight and Rose’s surrogate back to the central elevator. Instead of going straight to the garage level, like Twilight expected, the elevator spun as it ascended, pointing the door in a new direction, and stopped only part way. She continued to follow Alex through a network of hallways until they entered another observatory, though this one overlooked a large, elongated room with a large block of metal with a target painted on it on one end, and a large, elaborate machine on the other.
Twilight pressed herself against the glass and eyed the machine. It looked vaguely like the EMC she had built while Alex was in the hospital, though instead of glowing blue, it glowed red, and it was much, much bigger. “What is that?”
Alex crossed his arms and shrugged. “It’s a big ass thermal laser is what it is.”
Twilight’s face contorted in confusion as she slowly turned to look at him. “Why would you build this…?”
Alex shrugged again. “It was a Sunday afternoon - I was bored. What do you expect from me?”
Twilight’s hoof clacked against her face. “Nothing else, actually…”
Alex chuckled and patted Twilight’s back. “It works, though. Wanna see it in action?”
Twilight giggled and turned her attention back to him. “Sure.”
Alex nodded towards Rose. The red glow on the machine quickly grew brighter as a low pitched hum built up. The glow and hum grew stronger and louder while vents on the side hissed out giant columns of steam. Twilight placed her hoof against the glass as her eyes trailed over pieces of machinery spinning or locking into place. What had originally been cold to the touch soon turned warm.
Twilight forced herself to cover her eyes when a bright light suddenly seared through the window. Even through the glass, the continuous sound of thunder roared into her ears for what seemed like an eternity. But, just as suddenly as it began, the light faded and the thunder began to throttle down.
Blinking herself back to reality, Twilight gasped at the carnage before her. The stretch of floor between the laser and the target glowed a vibrant red, while the target itself now had a massive white hot hole in it, completely melted through. Even then, drops of molten metal were still dripping down.
“Pretty impressive, isn’t it?” said Alex, who for some reason or another was now wearing sunglasses. Where did he even get those? “Believe it or not, the power output on that laser is so intense, we had to build another core just for this thing alone.”
Twilight flopped her ears in an attempt to stop the ringing noise. “Wow, that is intense… Do you have an idea about what you want to use this for, or is it just going to stay something you made for the fun of it?”
“Oh, I have an idea…” Alex pocketed his glasses and winked at her. “But for now, I think I’ll just keep that to myself.”
“That’s not exactly comforting,” said Twilight as she started following Alex out of the observatory.
“What, and spoil the surprise? I’m not gonna burn down Ponyville with it, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
With the three of them back inside the elevator, Alex asked, “Hey, Twilight, you remember that business idea that I had? The private security thing?”
Twilight perked up. “Oh right! I completely forgot you wanted to do that! How’s that going?”
Alex waved his hand. “Not going anywhere. I scrapped the idea.”
“Oh… What made you change your mind?”
Alex crossed his arms and frowned. “A certain pony-who-shall-not-be-named that made me realize just how shitty an idea it was…”
Twilight’s brow shot up at that. As enticing as it was to do, something about his tone of voice made it a better idea to not ask for specifics. “So what are you going to do now? Even I know you don’t get very many contracts.”
Alex’s frown morphed into a smile as the elevator slowed to a stop. “I was hoping you’d ask. We’re actually on our way to plan B right now.” Alex stepped off the elevator and into yet another network of hallways. “You see, just last week, I decided to take the Raptor and fly over to Canterlot for a bit. More of a sightseeing tour than anything else, really. That and to see how many nobles I could scare the shit out of while just doing a simple flyby. Heheheh…”
He stopped in front of a door and turned to Twilight to finish his story. “But then I found the most awesome thing I’ve seen in a while. So there I was, just flying around, seeing what I could see, when lo and behold I find an airship dock!”
Twilight giggled. “You’ve never seen an airship before? I thought humans had something similar. What did you call them again?”
“Zeppelins. But zeppelins and these airships - whoa-ho-ho - they don’t compare at all! I mean, hanging a whole boat to a balloon? That’s insane!” Alex bent down and held Twilight’s face in his hands. “But that’s when an idea hatched.” Alex turned away from her and opened the door with the adjacent keypad. With arms outstretched, Alex yelled, “Welcome, Twilight, to the hangar!”
Twilight gasped as her entire body virtually went limp.
Beyond the door was an absurdly gigantic room. Railed walkways, elevators and large robotic lifting arms adorned the walls of the gargantuan metal chasm. Liandri of all sorts - Blues, Domestics, and Axons alike - populated the walkways, each of them carrying tools, building materials, and other machines towards the centerpiece of the room.
A massive airship; unlike anything Twilight had ever seen in Canterlot. She couldn’t even see the far wall, or even all of the ceiling. It was as wide as the biggest ship she’d ever seen was long, and the keel would have stretched a third of a hoofball field. The cabin above the deck was big enough to sit two dozen ponies, and ornate enough to even sit Princess Celestia in for tea.
The balloon floating above it was only a little larger than the ship itself, but somehow it managed to keep the vessel aloft. It was a standard hoofball-like shape, though it was encapsulated within a metal frame that supported an array of fin-like attachments, as well as what she could only identify as numerous solar panels.
Painted in livery of pristine white and gold trim (most likely real gold, if Twilight had to guess), the ship sparkled even in the cold light of the hangar’s lamps. Printed in bold red letters near the bow was the ship’s name: The Galleon.
“Sweet Celestia…” Twilight breathed. “This… This is…”
“Surreal?” asked Rose as she walked past Twilight to lean against the railing.
“Yeah…” Twilight stepped through the doorway.
“This, my dear Twilight, is plan B,” said Alex, leaning next to Rose. “A big ol’ luxury airship that we’re going to sell to some stuck up Canterlot noble with obscene amounts of cash burning a hole in his pocket. It’ll be the best ship on the market, and with the amount of money this thing brings in, we won’t have to produce any of our own bits for a loooong time.”
Twilight’s jaw refused to close as she approached the railing beside them, her eyes absorbing every minute detail. “Wow,” was the only word that managed to escape her lips.
Alex chuckled. “Would you like to get a closer look?”
“Would I?!” Twilight beamed at him.
“Heh, right this way, then.”
As the trio stepped fully into the room, the scale of the place began to sink in. Only after a solid minute of walking had they managed to approach the boarding gangplank. Out of sheer curiosity, Twilight glanced down through the grating of the catwalk.
The entire hangar was a massive pit, with large gaps in the walls to store what she could only assume would be other aircraft. Something else seemed to be under construction at the bottom, but despite the illumination, the massive distance alone disguised what it could be. The whole sight was so alien she could swear it was taken directly from a science fiction novel.
Stepping from that steel boarding ramp and onto the wooden deck, Twilight gazed wonderfully at all the activity. Liandri of all varieties were busy putting things together. Blues carried stacks of wood and other building materials across the gangplanks while an army of Domestics was busy laying down the floor of the deck and assembling other decorations. Axons followed suit, adding finishing touches and intricate carvings with their EMCs, though they moved more carefully than usual so as to not damage the wooden floor with their weighty steps. To Twilight, the level of synergy the Liandri worked with was jaw dropping!
Alex bumped Twilight’s head with his elbow, snapping her out of her wanderlust. “You done ogling the workers yet?”
“Sorry, sorry, it’s just… I’ve never seen anything like this before! I never thought I would, to be honest.”
Alex gave a passing Blue a pat on the shoulder. “You should come by more often, then. Hey, come check out the bridge.”
On the second floor of the cabin, above the formal dining room, was the bridge. A wide and ornate wooden staircase led up to it, though a team of domestics waited at the top with a rolled up red carpet, waiting for the three of them to pass before getting to work.
A large captain’s chair commanded the center of the room, though closer to the windows that overlooked the deck. A classic wooden steering wheel was positioned in front of it, and from the looks of the mechanism supporting it, it was adjustable. Levers for the throttle and altitude were positioned along the hoof rests of the overly cushioned seat, and even a few hologram projectors were placed near it. Most likely for navigation. Both the spaces downstairs and upstairs were fairly open, and there was even a beautifully lit bar off to the side upstairs.
Alex held his arms out and twirled around. “Just look at all this! We’ve never made anything this fancy! It’s almost a shame we’re selling it off.”
Twilight hopped onto the captain’s seat and rubbed her hoof against the hoof ... arm rest. “Velour! I’m impressed! I didn’t even realize you could make this stuff with EMCs!”
Alex stopped his twirling and grimaced. “Eh… Most things, yeah, but not so much on the wood front.” Alex walked over to the bar and tapped his hand against it. “Take a random guess as to what this is made of.”
Twilight squinted at the bar, though ultimately failed to identify it material. “I don’t know actually. I’m not very familiar when it comes to wood types.”
“Mahogany!” Alex answered. “On earth this stuff was luxurious. Turns out to be the same thing here. But the kicker is, believe it not, this stuff grows in spades out in the Everfree.”
Twilight’s jaw dropped at the information. “Really?!”
“Yeah! Figures, right? One of the biggest deposits of valuable woods is smack in the middle of one of the most dangerous places around. But when you have lumberjacks tough enough to do the job, well, heheheh...” Alex smirked and rubbed his nails against his shirt. “It ain’t a problem.”
Twilight giggled and bounced in her cushiony seat. As her hoof trailed over the throttle lever, a thought crossed her mind. “Hey, Alex? What powers this ship, anyway? It can’t be a Power-Core; you’d never sell that.”
“Astute observation!” Alex walked over and stood in front of the windows overlooking the deck. “The Galleon is powered by three things: solar panels, thorium turbines, and, thanks to the generous time donations of our good friend Rainbow Dash, high altitude magic collectors.”
Twilight blinked at him. “Wait a second. Magic collectors? I… what?!”
Alex chuckled at her reaction. “It’s something relatively new. Tell me, Twilight… Have you ever had the opportunity to scientifically analyze the sonic rainboom?”
“No…” Twilight’s eyes grew wider as the message finally registered. “Wait, are you saying you did?!”
“That’s right,” he nodded. “If you can believe it, there’s actually quite a bit of magic just floating around in the sky. Turns out good ol’ Rainbow acts like a magic catcher and uses it to make her rainboom. We did a bit of poking around and… a lot of free lunches… but we eventually figured out how it worked and reverse engineered it.”
“Wow… Hey, can I get that research sent to Google?” Twilight asked leaning back in her chair, her mind wandering over all the possibilities.
Alex nodded his head. “Sure, why not?”
An extra thought snaked its way in. “Wait, what was that other thing? A something turbine?”
“Thorium turbines! It’s a nuclear reactor of sorts. You see, thorium is a radioactive element that decays slowly and generates a lot of heat. All you have to do is turn that heat into mechanical power using steam, just the way every other reactor does it. The good thing about thorium, though, is that it’s much cleaner and much more efficient than uranium. That, and it lasts a looong time.
“In fact, get this. Something around the ballpark of ten years ago, back when I was still in school, engineers actually came up with a car design with a thorium based engine that could, in theory, go an entire century without refueling on just eight grams of the stuff! But, as with all good scientific ideas, it never left the drawing board.”
“What? Why?”
Alex crossed his arms and frowned. “Because rich people are idiots, that’s why. But more specifically, the idiots in the oil industry. If a whole bunch of cars that never needed refueling started being used, fewer and fewer people would use gas, and by extension, their oil. So they lobbied and threw a bunch of money at politicians to make sure that never happened. Because we can’t have innovation and progress, now can we? No-siree…”
Alex leaned against the window with his arm above his head and sighed. “You see, Twilight, that’s why I’m happy I ended up in Equestria. Here, there’s no corporate bureaucracy, no fight for funding, no kneeling to the political idiots who have no idea what they’re doing and who take all the credit for the work that good scientists like us do!
“Human beings went to the moon - no we fucking didn’t! It was a small group of intelligent individuals who managed to do that and the rest of the human race just up and decided to piggyback on their credit - despite the fact that most of them barely knew how to use their own computers, let alone how they worked! And the people who did make it to the moon? They got defunded just so that the military could have more fucking air conditioners!”
Rose placed a firm grip on Alex shoulder, which immediately silenced him. Alex slowly looked back at her, upon which Rose carefully shook her head. Alex sighed and mumbled an apology before turning his head back again.
Twilight slumped in the captain’s chair, any air of excitement gone from her image. As Rose walked past, Twilight held out a hoof and half whispered, “Hey, is he okay?”
Rose shook her head. “He’s been working himself too hard, lately. Even I think he needs a break.”
“I do not need a break.”
“Yes you do and you know it!” Rose snapped back at him.
A pregnant pause hovered in the air before Twilight asked, “What about you, Rose? You work almost twenty four-seven. Don’t you need a break?”
“Twilight, you know as well as anyone that I have no need for rest.”
“I know, but… but still…”
A loud sigh escaped Alex as he pushed himself against the window. “Look, I’m sorry for that little outburst of mine. I just get a little frustrated sometimes when I think back about humanity’s bullshit.”
Twilight finally bounded off the captain’s chair and sighed. “It’s okay, Alex, I understand. It’s good to rant every once in a while. Maybe it’s best I leave and let you settle down for a little bit.”
Despite mentally kicking himself, Alex nodded. “Alright. I’ll show you out.”
The positive mood thoroughly killed, Alex led Twilight off the ship across the starboard gangplank. Twilight never fully understood Alex’s misanthropic tendencies, but on many occasions, she could at least understand his frustration. After all, she had experienced her own fair share of ponies who gave her grief to no end, and even caused her to shut herself off from perceived equine stupidity for days at a time! But at the end of it all, she was always able to forgive and forget, knowing that some ponies just needed a little more time and understanding.
Watching Alex continue to despise the memories of his entire race almost a year later, even if he did seem justified to some extent… it was painful. Nopony should ever have to bear that type of self loathing.
The trio left the hangar through a door in the direction of the bow of the ship, which dumped them back onto the main garage floor.
Twilight did a double take at the door as it closed. “Wait a second, we’re in the garage now? Didn’t that door used to lead to that workshop of yours? Where you gave us all those presents?”
“Yeah, we tore it all out. Put it further down.”
A knot tied in Twilight’s stomach. Alex sounded much less enthusiastic than he did just five minute ago. What she would give to just listen to his thoughts at times like these… “Right… anyway, I should go, um… apologize to the rest of the town for the false alarm.”
Alex nodded and patted her on the back, forcing a smile to his face. “Alright. You go do that.”
Twilight trotted towards the front door, but stopped just short of it. Turning back, she called out, “Hey, Alex? Thanks for showing me all that. If there’s anyone that proves that the human race can still be productive in a good way, it’s you.”
Alex stared back at her blankly for a moment before a more genuine smile crossed his face. “Thanks, Twilight. That means a lot.” His smile morphed into a smirk. “Now get outta here. You have busy day ahead of you!”
Twilight giggled. At least that lifted him up a bit. Satisfied that she had salvaged at least something positive, Twilight left the garage…
And immediately ran into Rarity and Fluttershy who were walking in. Rarity’s horn glowed its usual faint blue aura, and floating along beside her with a similar aura around it was Garry, happily flapping his impotent wings as if he were flying on his own.
“Oh hey, girls!” Twilight said instinctively. “What brings you here?”
“Hello, Twilight!” Rarity beamed. “I’m just here to help Fluttershy get Garry some proper wings. Honestly, this poor dragon has suffered enough!”
Twilight glanced at Fluttershy first, who hid behind her mane and let Rarity do all the talking, and then at Garry, who simply stared back at her with a tilted head. It may have been anatomically correct, but Twilight could swear she’s never seen that dragon make any other expressions than that…
“Riiiight… Anyway, I was just about to look around town for you, but while you’re here… I just wanted to apologize for all the commotion I caused over the past few days. Turns out there actually isn’t a disaster…”
Rarity waved a dismissive hoof. “Oh we’ve already figured that out by now, dear, don’t worry about it. Although I’m sure the rest of Ponyville will be glad to hear it.”
Twilight chuckled to herself as she trotted away. “Heh, yeah, I hope so…”
“Good luck!” Rarity called to her with a final wave. “Come, Fluttershy! With the sun as my witness, I shall do everything in my power to help this dragon fly!”
I was originally going to make this chapter the one with the cider-squeezer, but I decided to drop it. Didn't really add much to the overall story line. Granted, neither does this, but it does prelude some things to come later. That, and I really wanted to include things like the surgery scene at some point. 
However, I can guarantee this is the LAST filler chapter. Everything after this will be story related in one way or another. So what can you expect to look out for in the next few chapters? For starters, these things.
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SOOPER SPOODER SEIDER SKWEEZEE
... The overseer? Dear God... is this... is Equestria a vault? An experiment?
Is Equestria even REAL?
Nah, I'm probably just overthinking things...
....... I have a question, would Alex go back to earth, if its even possible, even if he sent something to see what has happened after he left?
4745495 Alex is someone who prefers to look forward, rather than back. If the opportunity were to present itself, he wouldn't take it.
4745762 Even if he forgot something extremely important ,or someone or thing somehow followed him?
4746215 As far as Alex knows, there's nothing left. To quote chapter 1...
Quite the parting gift if you ask me. Although I'm sure you're wondering: Is the story ever going to get back to Earth at some point?
That, I won't answer.
hmmm....judging from the picture hinting on the next chapters, I think that we are going to see dragon quest next. wonder how Alex will help the girls in following spike. actual robot dragon disguise? surveillance drone? can't wait to know what he can come up with.
On a side note, wonder what he can do with dragon scales (assuming they shed their skin like other lizard animals) once he realize how their essentially fireproof (spike, a baby dragon, went swimming in lava in this episode for God sake). a dragon scale suit for protection against experiments with very hot temperatures maybe?
good chapter by the way. looking forward for more.
That dragon is the most boss dragon I have ever seen that is somehow associated with lava.
4746749 I know, right? The shit you can find with google!
Thorium cars sounded especially awesome when I heard about them, but I was under the impression they used a thorium-powered laser to power the engine, not thorium's natural heat. Also that there was very little radiation shielding. Then again, I heard about this secondhand from a skeptic while browsing YouTube...
Not sure how they'd work, but that they'd work (or not, apparently depending on who you ask) is the important thing for a consumer-basis.
I tried to google it and find out about it, but I'm not finding the original video OR kickstarter, and the closest thing I found was a mega-unprofessionally made Kickstarter about LFTR (the guy had an outline after being shopped into various scenes, I took a one-semester class that covered Adobe After-Effects for a week and I can do better than that). Can you link me to the thorium car video?
EDIT: Whoops, they're not using a laser to power the thorium from what I heard. That was stupid of me.
A good chapter. You are doing a good job on this slice of life stuff. I do hope to see more of it. I do wunder how long be for Alex replace a new part of his body? Be for long he will be more robot then human.
Dragonfox
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Came across that video a while ago. Also, turns out it wasn't one gram of thorium, it was eight. Had to make that little edit... still impressive, though.
4748486
Did a little bit of research, proved pretty fruitless for power output but at least it doesn't look like naturally occurring thorium would produce any gamma rays. A little dubious on the thought of using a laser and using a reactor that miniaturized, but I'm no physicist, nuclear or not.
Also, just realized I didn't comment on the chapter. Alex seems to be losing a bit of empathy and 'personal touch', so to speak, and I'm dubious of the new BCI. It seems like something in Equestria has a link to technology and is trying to do feedback through his BCI to control him, if I'm reading the plot correctly. Of course, this could be solved by a one-way BCI or a BCI with very limited brain input functions, but that also limits the potential of it. Can always make it require a hardwired connection, though given the prevalence of magic I'm not sure that would stop Mr. Shadowey Figure.
Now that's friendship for ya, traumatizing a poor Pony by having her Watch mechanical arms mess around in ones head.
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4748486
By the power of THOR