Caffeine-fueled Progress
Sugarcube Corner was filled to the brim with customers, all chattering away with each other while enjoying their treats and beverages. Spike loved all the different smells wafting through the air. Cinnamon, caramel, chocolate, banana, but most fragrant of all for him was a new smell, that reminded him of the time in Canterlot. The wonderful, burnt smell of coffee.
Two weeks ago, Twilight had come into Sugarcube Corner with bags under her eyes and a clearly unbrushed mane, which was her default state nowadays, and had asked if they had coffee. Mrs. Cake had to decline, but muttering something about ‘royal privilege’, they quickly added coffee to their sortiment. A great deal of debate had sprung up since then, discussing whether this was a good thing or not. As far as Spike was concerned, he was torn between both sides. On the one claw, he was finally able to put his Canterlot upbringing into use and impress Rarity. On the other claw it was concerning to see Twilight becoming even more obsessed than she tended to become without coffee thrown into the mix.
Still, it certainly became popular with the guests and as Spike reached the counter, two other customers received their mugs of coffee. Behind the counter was Pinkie Pie, trying to balance two bits on her muzzle, which promptly fell down into the cash register.
“Hello Spikey-wikey!”
“Oh hello, Pinkie Pie. It sure looks like you have your hooves full today.”
“Nah, this has become normal in the last week. This morning there was a lot of work to do, because Mr. Cake couldn’t calm down the twins and Mrs. Cake had to help him, so I was alone at the counter and almost wasn’t able to handle all customers, which would have been super sad, because then I would have had to turn down some of them and to make up for it I had already planned a Sorry-you-didn’t-get-your-coffee-party in my head, but luckily Rarity came by and agreed to help with the coffee machine, because that was en vogue, or something like that, and then all was fine, except that one stallion, who had to wait like so long for his coffee, because I almost wasn’t able to serve him and thus I-”
“Rarity’s here?”
“-was already planning, she’s in the kitchen, a Sorry-you-didn’t-get-your-Sorry-you-didn’t-get-your-coffee-party-party, but then that would have been silly even for me, so I just gave him a free cupcake and all was well.”
“Uh huh, sure.” Spike wasn’t really listening anymore and tried to peek into the kitchen. “I’ll just, uh, go look for Rarity. In case she needs help.”
“Okey-dokey-lokey.”
Leaving Pinkie to her antics, Spike went past the counter into the kitchen, where Mr. and Mrs. Cake were busy making cupcakes. Across the room a loud machine was grinding coffee beans into powder, right next to an array of four filters, three of which were currently filled with powder. Rarity stood further to the right, checking the temperature on the largest boiling can Spike had ever seen.
“Hello Spike.”
“Hello Rarity. You look wonderful today.”
“Why thank you. Ever since they replaced mud baths with coffee baths at the spa, my coat has become more radiant than ever. Lotus Blossom truly knows what she’s doing. But enough of me. What brings you here today?”
“Oh the usual. One large coffee for Twilight and for me one cup of regret, that I brought up coffee in conversation two weeks ago.”
“How is she? Why, I haven’t seen her in days and the last time she looked like she hadn’t slept enough.”
“She probably hasn’t. I’ve tried to peel her away from the books, but unless a letter from Princess Celestia demands it, she rarely does anything else. And she doesn’t just read those books, she basically recreates everything in them on a blackboard. This is worse than when she prepared for the final test at the School for Gifted Unicorns.”
“Those books? You mean the books in that package she talked about?”
“Yeah, there were twenty-two books in it and Twilight works on them like they come straight from the hoof of Princess Celestia.”
“But didn’t you send that package back?”
“No, see, after we first skimmed through them, Twilight realized that they were more advanced than anything in Equestria. At first she thought Princess Celestia had hidden something from her. She even wrote a letter expressing a ‘very mild disappointment’. But in the answer Princess Celestia urged Twilight to find out more about the books, because she couldn’t bear the thought that Twilight might think that she has hidden something her.”
“So you didn’t send the books back.”
“No, Twilight even declared by royal decree, even though that’s not a thing, that the books are now the cultural property of Equestria and she would personally see to it, that the knowledge within may be used ‘for the betterment of all of Equestria’. Not that anypony else would even have a chance to get some time with the books. She guards them like a Phoenix mother.”
“That does sound like Twilight. Still, I wonder what the original recipient expected from the package.”
“Actually, we know. You haven’t heard this from me, but Twilight did read the letter that came with the package. I have a copy with me.”
“You do? Why would you carry a copy with you?”
“I tried giving it to Applejack, so she might convince Twilight to give the whole package back. But once Twilight has set her eyes on something, not even the Bearer of Honesty can convince her otherwise.”
Rarity huffed and stomped a hoof on the ground. “We simply must have a talk with her these days. I certainly would be offended if somepony robbed me of a package of gems. Darling, can I have a look at this letter?”
“Sure why not. It’s not exactly dangerous knowledge. Pretty sappy, actually.”
Spike took out a letter and gave it Rarity. She unfolded it and levitated the letter in front of her.
Dear Margaret,
I know we’re not supposed to be on speaking terms, but please read this letter before you decide anything. In one of our rare conversations you mentioned that David is going to High School now and that he has shown interest in science.
I have recently gotten substantial windfall from one the projects you always complained about. I want to give some of it back to you, but since I know that you would reject any money I gave to you, I instead want to provide David with the means to pursue his interests. I hope we can both agree, that this can only be a good thing for him.
Therefore I have send you with this package a collection of books and tools. Please make sure that David knows that it’s purely a gift from his Dad and in no way carries any obligation. He is free to do whatever he wants with it.
That is all I dare to say today.
Your Stephen
Rarity turned the letter around, but there was nothing written on the back. “Is that all? It does not seem like something you’d expect from a package containing dangerous secrets. And what is ‘High School’?”
“Probably some kind of school of higher learning. If that stuff is on the curriculum, it’s more elite than university.”
Rarity gave the letter back to Spike, who refolded it and pointed at a can with steaming coffee. “I now better get back to Twilight with one those or she might replace me as her Number One Assistant. Can’t have that happening.”
“You do that Darling. I will talk to the girls and see if we can’t put something together to get Twilight back on track.”
~~~
As Spike returned to the library, he imagined what he might find when he opened the door. Twilight sitting between stacks of books, furiously scribbling away on endless scrolls while a piece of chalk with a come-to-life spell drew equations on the blackboard with symbols written in alphabets never before seen in Equestria. Twilight standing in the middle of the room, levitating dozens of books in a cloud of knowledge. Twilight lying on her back, stroking her mane and muttering incantations in forgotten tongues.
Instead he found Twilight sitting in front of a small device. The same device they found in the smaller box inside the package. It did kind of look like a book, in so far you could open it and there were characters written on buttons. But instead of just sitting there inertly, as the device had in the past days, it glowed with a dim light and the upper, inner side showed a colorful picture of some leaves with small symbols on the upper end of the frame.
Twilight sat so close to the device, that her muzzle almost touched it and her eyes were fixed on some point of the picture.
“I’m back, Twilight. But I really don’t think you should drink any more coffee. It might be bad for-”
“What? Oh yes, coffee. Doesn’t matter, just put it somewhere. I switched back to tea when you were away. Did you know you can extract caffeine from tea leaves? I found a wonderful experiment in one of the chemistry books, the red one over there, with a yield of up to 90%! I placed an order with Crystal Clear to make the glassware shown in the book. I don’t think she knows what it actually does, but it should be fine. I mean, how hard can it be to make a reflux condenser?”
“Uh, a what now? Anyway, what’s up with the device? How did you make it glow and show a picture?”
“Oh, that thing is simply marvelous! You know how I couldn’t figure out how to power it? I assumed it runs on magic, because of how complex the components in the inside look. But then I remembered that unicorn, what was her name again? DJ Pon-Four? Nylon Stretch? Something like that. She showed me how she powers her music box and that runs actually on lightning!”
“Lightning? That sounds dangerous!”
“Relax, Spike. Only a tiny bit of lightning, barely enough to make a spark. Opalescence gives out worse when the weather is damp.”
“You never had to babysit that little pest. The claws are worse. My scales still have scratches from the last time!”
“Yes, your love quest is a dangerous one. Enough chit chat, look at this.”
Spike raised his claw to protest, but was interrupted by Twilight, who pointed at the glowy picture.
“I simply cast an increasing lightning spell with surge protection components on the metal contacts in the back of the device and after a point it just magically came alive on its own. At least I think it did. There may have been some random button pressing involved.”
“So it’s a device that shows a picture?”
“Oh it’s much more than that. When it first did something, there were lots of words appearing on the frame, so many and so fast that I couldn’t read any of them. After a minute the words disappeared and a little box appeared with ‘David’ written on it.”
“Like the David mentioned in the letter?”
“Maybe, I don’t care.”
“Twilight, really. You should be more respectful.”
Twilight sat back on her behind and waved her forelegs in the air. “But it’s for science!”
“That excuse is wearing a little thin. Do I have to spell out ‘Hydra’ and ‘Pinkie Pie’ for you?”
“That was one ti- no wait. That was two times! Can’t we forget the past and concentrate on the wonders before us?”
“Alright, but you have to promise that you won’t spontaneously catch fire. I may be fireproof, but not Twilightproof.”
Twilight huffed and mumbled something, that was better left unheard. Spike used the moment to bring the coffee pot into the kitchen and get himself some leftover pancakes. When he returned to the main room, Twilight had calmed down a bit and gathered some documents from the various stacks standing all around the room.
“So what happened after the little box appeared on the frame?”
“I tried to press some of the buttons. When I was pressing one with a number or letter on it, a dot would appear in a box underneath the other box. When I pressed some of the buttons with the arrows on it, another box appeared that said ‘Invalid password’. I figured the box asked me for some password. There was something written about passwords on a piece of paper in the cardboard box of the device. Eventually I must have gotten it right, because the box disappeared and the picture of the leaves came up on the frame.”
“So what were you staring at when I came in?”
“If you look very closely, you can see a very, very small grid of lines on the frame. I think the image is composed of millions and millions of little dots.”
“Wow, that certainly is some magic. Controlling millions of dots can’t be easy.”
“That’s just it. There’s nothing magic about the device.”
“What do you mean? That this is a mechanism? But nothing so complex would ever fit into such a small space.”
“I don’t know how the device does what it does. I need some time to tinker with it. That reminds me.” Twilight gave Spike a bundle of documents. “Would you like to become my Number One Experimenter?”
~~~
Rainbow Dash knew she couldn’t slow down yet. Just one more second. Another half a second. Ponies never realised just how much work went into making a proper entrance. You couldn’t just dash right in, there was a careful and precise routine behind it. So to her, it was no surprise that she landed on exactly the right spot with the exact remaining force to make her bones vibrate with the exact frequency to shake the exact amount of water from her fur into the air to produce a rainbow from head to tail. “Equestria’s fastest flyer has arrived! Did somepony order one pegasus worth of awesome?”
Spike barely looked up from his clipboard as he checked off the last item on the list. ‘Power source’. “Hey Rainbow. Ready for a dash? You’re late, by the way.”
“Well you can’t expect me to win a race without a nap beforehoof, now can you? Where is the starting line? I only see all this egghead stuff. Have you become an egghead too?” Rainbow softly bumped Spike on the head.
“It’s not a race. I just need you to run really fast.”
“That’s all? Where’s the point in running when there’s not a race to win? Sounds boring!”
“Well if you don’t want to, I guess I’ll have to ask Applejack. I bet she’s faster too.”
“No way!”
“Is too!”
“Alright, Spike. I’ll run around a bit, only to proof that nopony is faster than me!”
Spike pointed to a wooden running wheel, that was connected to a frame with several bulky metal objects attached in a circle. Inside the circle was a thick beam of wood covered in copper wire. The wire connected to another contraption with even more wire and a bar of iron in the middle reaching into yet another contraption. There was a lot of copper wire involved.
The final wire lead to two large metal tubes, forming a V-shaped object without touching at the base.
“A running wheel? Are we making cider?”
“No, we’re making science. Now get in and start running.”
“Ok, bossypants. Now watch and marvel at my speed.”
Rainbow flew into the running wheel and started with a light canter.
“Is that what counts as running in Cloudsdale?”
“I’m just warming up and leg cramps are nasty. On wingpower, you’d see nothing but a blur.”
After a minute of cantering, Rainbow accelerated for the first sprint. The wooden frame with the metal objects started to vibrate and blur from speed, even though it was very well balanced. Evidently there were larger forces at work than visible. One of the smaller contraptions started to hum in a low note, but became louder as Rainbow accelerated even more.
Suddenly a spark sprang from the base of the metal pipes, connecting both sides. The spark was larger than any spark Spike had seen before. Almost like a lightning bolt, but smaller and permanent. The spark gave off a loud buzzing noise and began to arc upwards towards the upper end of the V-shape. In a few seconds the arc travelled upwards, becoming longer and reaching above the pipes. As the arc became too long, it suddenly vanished with a loud bang, like a full grown tree being snapped in half.
“Wow, that was awesome!” Rainbow had left the wheel after the arc vanished and the wheel slowed down rapidly. Spike just stood there and looked at the spot, where the arc had disappeared. His eyes became a bit larger and he spoke with a clearly audible tremble in his voice.
“Twilight... She said it wasn’t dangerous! ‘Barely any danger’ she said!”
“That was fun! Let’s do it again!” Rainbow was already in the wheel again and started running.
“Su- sure, but let’s not get crazy, alright?”
Rainbow did not seem to hear Spike and got into a full gallop. The spark appeared once again and filled the air with the buzzing sound. But Rainbow wasn’t finished yet. This time she began to flap her wings to provide enough lift, that she eventually started to run upside the inside of the wheel running in circles in reverse order as the rotation of the wheel. A rainbow trail after her, both the wheel and Rainbow turned into blurry circles of opposite rotation.
The spark had travelled to the upper end and connected the tip of each tube with an arc much bigger and much longer than before. The arc reached well beyond the tubes and into the air above the setup. Even in daylight the arc gave off light and must have been visible from all around Ponyville, if they were not well outside the inner town.
Spike noticed that the frame around the wooden beam had a slight red glow to it. Like it was on fire, but you couldn’t see the flames due to the fast rotation.
“Um, Rainbow? Maybe you should stop. I don’t think the machines can handle this speed much longer.”
Right on cue, the machine gave way to the forces and broke apart while still spinning. The break was undermined only by a thundering bang as the spark disappeared. The burning frame was catapulted into the air, while the running wheel no longer had any resistance and was just spinning as fast it could. The sudden change caused Rainbow to lose control and fly out of the wheel with a trajectory that intersected luckily with nothing but empty air.
The whole event lasted only seconds, giving Spike not enough time to do anything but to cower in fear while debris began falling down back to earth. A small part of Spike’s mind was nagging him to check off the experiment as both success and failure on the checklist, but was drowned by the remaining part telling Spike to stay in cover until the flaming debris stopped falling.
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I think Equestria is familiar with electricity and video technology, as well as some form of computer technology.
Ponyville has a hydroelectric dam, and in "Hearts and Hooves Day", you see a foal playing an arcade game.
3045189
They never said it was hydroelectric dam. Maybe they just like to have the threat of flood looming over their heads.
Jokes aside, the technological level presented in canon can be all over the place. I am mainly going with the most commonly presented level, which includes steam powered or magically enhanced machinery, as well as a basic (but not practical) understanding of electricity. Vinyl after all uses it, but it's not common knowledge. All in all, I don't think some oddities in canon warrant an Alternative Universe tag.
3045245 Indeed. The level of technology in canon makes no sense. I think there was a flashlight in one episode. Then there are the machines Twilight used to try and study Pinkie's "Pinkie sense", though what they ran on is anyone's guess.
3045245
I wouldn't worry too much about what kind of technology Equestria may or may not have. Just do the story like you've been doing it and it should be fine.