Cars in Equestria

by Dudofall

Chapter Ten: Survey the Wreck

"Destroyed?!" Mr. Rich exclaimed.

"I'm afraid so," Twilight confirmed.

"Now what are we going to do?" Oloy lamented.

"Ice cream?" Spike offered. The others looked to him in unison. He held out a cone of rocky road.

Oloy took it. "Might as well." He had his first lick of ice cream and looked off the cliff again.

Mr. Rich took a cone as well. "Once we finish this, we'll have to salvage what we can," he said.

"I can multitask," Twilight noted, taking her own cone. The business pony nodded. In a flash, the princess was gone. They watched a speck of purple move towards the dot of wreckage. Pieces of the prototype began to part.

"Sorry it turned out like this," Spike offered.

"It's not your fault," said Oloy, "it was just an accident." Fateful Coincidence dragged Tumbler over by the ear.

"Ow ow ow! Fine!" the pegasus yelped, "I was going to do it anyway!"

"Good evening, stranger," Mr. Rich greeted, "what's your name?"

"Hi Mr. Rich! I'm Tumbler! I'm great at cartwheels and somersaults!" He beamed. Fateful cleared her throat. "Um...and I'm here to apologize for unbalancing...the enchantment?"

"So you're the reason our prototype went to tartarus in a hand basket?"

"Afraid so," He replied.

"Ah well. Nopony was hurt, so I'll just send ya a survey in a couple days," Mr. Rich said. "Now, who's your friend?"

"Fateful Coincidence, at your service."

"Now then, Miss Coincidence," he pivoted, "how did you know that Tumbler here unbalanced...the enchantment?"

"My special talent is knowing the right spell at the right time," she replied, "not after. I remember needing a spell to contain a smell black hole, and casting it, but I couldn't tell you how it worked, or how the enchantment was...unbalanced."

"Oh."

Oloy wiped his face clean. "That was some good ice cream!"

"Thanks," said Spike.

"Let's go down and help Twilight!" he responded. With that, they headed towards the spiral staircase to the bottom of the cliff. The rickety metal steps creaked loudly, and the wind blew consistently if not dangerously as they made their way down. Spike, who was in the lead, started shivering about halfway down.

"It's cold," he told Oloy, "you might have to carry me to the bottom."

"What? Why?"

"I get really tired if it's too cold," the dragon explained.

"You can make it to the bottom," Oloy said encouragingly.

Spike shrugged shakily. "If you say so. Just promise you'll catch me if I fall asleep."

The crystal pony nodded. "Sure thing."

The business pony grinned. "Maybe this accident was a good thing after all! If Twilight can design a vehicle that's easier to mass produce, maybe cut down on all the magic, and take it as a learning opportunity, everything'll be much easier."

"Having some kind of mechanical brake system would be helpful," Oloy posited.

Spike shrugged. "I think if we just store the magic somehow instead of trying to use it all up it will be easier." They reached the bottom of the staircase. Twilight glanced over.

"Hey guys," she said, "I think I have an idea!"

"What is it?" Mr. Rich asked.

"A hybrid!"

***

Spike carried the pile of books outside, where Twilight and Mr. Rich were talking in a newly erected garage. The new prototype was covered with a large woolen blanket, but it seemed much curvier than the last one. "Here's everything I could find on mana storage," the dragon announced.

"Thanks Spike!" Twilight took the pile from him and floated the books in the air, inspecting the titles. "We'll start out with Starswirl's mana matrix, then build it up with some other spells."

"Why can't the machine be entirely mechanical?" Mr. Rich wanted to know.

"Miniaturizing a mechanical engine in and of itself is ambitious enough for our first project," the princess explained, "magical engines are usually much easier to work with."

"Yes, but it's much easier to add more fuel to something if it ain't magical," Mr. Rich countered.

Spike interjected. "Wait, you guys are gonna make the prototype more complicated? Why?"

Twilight sighed. "Mr. Rich and I are making a compromise. We both want to put a lot of these vehicles on the roads, but in order to do that I can't make every magical component myself. I'd never be fast enough. Instead, I'll make sure the spells I use are easy enough that more unicorns will be able to perform them, and we'll have a mechanical engine side by side with the magical one."

"Mechanical engines will be easier for anypony to assemble," Mr. Rich added. "I want to make sure plenty of ponies can get good paying jobs at our factory. Naturally my store will provide for all their service and fuel needs. I'll probably have to build an expansion!"

"We don't want anypony to have to get out and push either," Twilight stated, "so they'll always have one engine working if the other one fails."

Spike nodded. "Okay. When is Oloy going to drive that?" He pointed at the prototype.

"Not for some time," Twilight said. "I want to add a whole new control system and a user interface, on top of dramatically rethinking my old designs to increase comfort and reliability. Why don't you two find something to do in town? I bet Rainbow Dash isn't busy with the weather anymore." The dragon nodded and headed back into the castle. The afternoon sun warmed his scales through the windows, and he found the crystal pony hanging out in the main foyer.

Oloy perked up. "What did she say?"

"She said we should see what Rainbow's up to," Spike sighed dejectedly.

"Who's Rainbow?"

"I'll introduce you. Ever see a cloud house before?"

"No, but it sounds amazing!" Oloy exclaimed exuberantly.

"It's at least 20% cooler than a normal house. It has cloud doors, a cloud ceiling, and a cloud floor," Spike enumerated. He headed out the front door, Oloy falling in step next to him.

"We don't have many clouds in the Crystal Empire," Oloy Victorium noted, "unless the barrier goes down. I know here in Equestria you have pegasi teams to control the weather, so I'm not too worried."

Spike grinned. "Rainbow Dash is on the weather team! When we first met she cleared a bunch of clouds super fast."

"Sounds amazing!" Oloy replied. "I can't wait to meet this pony!" He changed speeds from walk to power walk. Spike matched his pace. Then Oloy broke into a gallop.

Spike couldn't keep up. "Wait! I'm the one who knows where she lives!"

Author's Note:

So yes, this story is in fact not dead. I just wanted to have a big chapter ready for the triumphant return.