For science - Book two

by Znegil

3 Experiments

She came back a few minutes later. She was very relaxed and had a satisfied grin on her face.

"Are you feeling better?", I asked.

"I feel great. Let's make a fitting for your arm.", she said while she put the wooden hand on her workbench. "I thought about a padded wooden ring in some distance from the connection, this way it should be very stable but comfortable to wear. Then I will connect..."

Lyra worked on changing the hand for me while I decided to wash the gloves.

...

After only an hour I was able to try it. We made some adjustments and I started to train myself by picking up several objects. It was very hard at first, but after another half hour, it felt more natural to me.

"I think within a few days I will be able to use it without thinking about it.", I told her. "You always surprise me with hidden talents I had not expected, and I haven't even experienced your main talent."

"You never heard me play? We can fix this right now.", she dug through a few layers of books in one of the corners and presented a lyre to me.

"Wow, I thought the lyre on your flank was just a symbol for music, I hadn't expected you would really have one. These things are ancient instruments in my world, I'm not sure anyone plays them anymore."

"Well, it isn't modern here either, but I like its sound. I can play a lot of instruments but the lyre is my favorite."

She used her hoof to hold the pick that was dangling on a string from the bottom of the lyre and started playing. I saw she was using her magic to 'hold' different strings every time she strummed past them with the pick. I was really surprised when she started to sing along, she had a beautiful singing voice.

...

We had made some final adjustments and half an hour later we were on our way to the library. The prosthesis was attached to my arm and I wore the washed black silk gloves to hide the nature of my new hand. I got a lot of confused looks but nopony was daring enough to stop me and ask.

...

We entered the library. "Hey Honey, we're back!", I shouted.

Twilight came from the next room. "That's great. I read the rest of his diary and the book about humans he..." She stared at my fake hand. "What has happened?"

I used my left hand to pull off the glove and revealed the prosthesis. "Well, Lyra is a little genius.", I told her. "For her very own reasons... but that doesn't matter. I got back some basic functionality to my right arm again. I can open and close it relative to the position of my elbow. Since we're using elastic bands, I don't have to be afraid to crush something."

I gave my marefriend a little demonstration by lifting several books, it already was much easier than before, I started to get used to it.

Twilight had tears in her eyes as she hugged Lyra. "Thank you so much for this." Then she walked up to me and gave me a long deep kiss. "I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks, Honey. What have you learned from the books?"

"Right, the books... Not that much you haven't already expected. The portal led to a country named Italy like you said before. There are a lot of drawings in the book about humans, one of it is 'Cadenza'."

She levitated the book to us and show us the page she had talked about. It was a drawing of a beautiful woman, long black curly hair and a warm smile on her lips.

"That had always been my favorite picture.", whispered Lyra.

After marveling the picture a few more moments I talked to them: "Well this doesn't help us a lot. We should ask Cadence for a get-together, so we can look into the documents found next to her when she was a baby."

"Good idea.", Twily agreed. "I will send her a letter right away."

I remember something. "Oh, and a meeting with Celestia as well, Luna mentioned she could know more since she adopted Cadence back then."

"Okay, this will make it even easier for me.", she replied. "I will send a scroll to Celestia and ask her to inform Cadence as well."

I put my wooden hand on Lyra's back. "Meanwhile we will set up our first experiment."

...

I started to assemble everything for the experiment. A big glass beaker filled with water, I poured a little apple juice in it. "Water isn't a good conductor of electricity.", I explained to Lyra. "The fruit acid inside the apple juice will speed up the process."

I submerged two test tubes until they were filled and turned them upside down. Lyra used her magic to put some clamps on them to hold them in place. I inserted the bend wires into them and connected it to Twilight's battery.

We waited then for my marefriend to arrive.

...

"This is so exciting.", Twilight told us in a giggling tone her face was full of joy. "We can learn something completely new."

"Let's start slowly.", I said and moved the dial just a little. "Look at the bubbles in both tubes, these are the two different gases we are trying to get. Later I explain the process in detail."

We all watched with huge interest as the water slowly was pushed out of the tubes by the created gases.

"Why has one side about double the amount of gas?", Twilight asked.

"Good question. That is the hydrogen, water consists of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. It is..." I noticed some light purple haze coming from the water between the two test tubes. "This shouldn't happen." Lyra helped me quickly to put a much larger test tube in the middle.

"We should leave the room for a while, in case it is poisonous.", I told them. "I can cut the electricity from the next room as well."

...

We waited for twenty minutes before I turn off the power, then we waited for additional twenty minutes so any traces of the substance would disappear.

...

The outer tubes were completely filled with gas, there wasn't any water left in them. But the thing that really had my attention was the middle one, only a third of the water had been pushed out of it and was replaced by some purple shimmering opaque gas. I carefully got all three out of the water and Lyra put a plug onto them.

I took a few pictures with the camera I had bought a few days ago. I decided to get the obvious stuff out of the way and showed off the other gases first. I made a candle flame increase three times in size using the oxygen. Then I filled the hydrogen in a tiny tin can with a hole in the lid and ignited the gas getting out of the hole. Like I expected, it burned for a few seconds before oxyhydrogen gas made a tiny explosion. Both of them were quite impressed we got all this stuff just from plain water. Then we all gathered around the unknown gas watching it closely.

"It looks pretty.", Lyra stated.

"It seems to be slightly less dense than air.", I said.

"It looks like my magic aura.", commented Twilight.

After a few more moments of us marveling at it I had made a decision. "This might be a new element specific to your world, we should test its properties. I name it 'Twilonium'."

"Ohhhh, that's cute. Thank you, Love.", Twilight said and kissed me.

"Can I do the taste test?", Lyra asked excited.

I looked at her astonished. "How can you think about tasting it? It could be poisonous." I remembered her idea wasn't that crazy, back in the early days of chemistry people indeed tasted things... which often ended in catastrophic ways.

"Let's carefully try how it reacts to wood and metal first. To see if it has oxidation properties."

They look at me confused.

"I will explain all of it in detail afterward, okay?"

They nodded in agreement and we prepared everything for the experiments.

...

I had sent them out of the room in case of catastrophic failure and pressed myself against the blast shield Twilight had brought between me and the test tube. It was a wooden structure, reinforced with metal on the front and on the bottom, the whole thing was so heavy it could only be moved by levitation. I used my wooden hand through it to the bring the little wooden stick close to the purple gas. If my prosthesis would be destroyed, Lyra could always make a new one. I pushed the stick upwards into the 'Twilonium'.

Nothing seemed to happen.

I waited a few more moments and finally pulled it out again. It looked just like before. I brought it close to me and used my other hand to hold it in front of my eyes for closer inspection. It felt incredibly light. Slowly it let go of it.

It levitated right in front of me.

Comments

[Texus]

Wouldn't that somehow hurt a bit to put that hand on her?

My random thoughts demand to have them adopt a filly at some point or even a colt, yes this time I would even be okay with a colt, them having to give him the talk would fit in with the other akward moments.

[Kaze_of_Griffonstone]

"Why has one side about double the amount of gas?", Twilight asked.
"Good question. That is the hydrogen, water consists of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. It is..." I noticed some light purple haze coming from the water between the two test tubes. "This shouldn't happen." Lyra helped me quickly to put a much larger test tube in the middle.

The science here is wrong. The oxygen tube would actually appear to have 8 times the amount of the hydrogen tube because of their relative molar masses.

[harts fire]

well I am still working threw the story but even my old mind can guess what this new gas is.
hint it is not a gas at all. it is pure. no spoilers from me.

[Mist_Chaser]

my guess is she extracted mana...

[Znegil]

8216229
Since Mana is the stand-in for magic, I guess you're right

[HeartfireFirebrand]

8217636
Yep that makes sense.

[HeartfireFirebrand]

A big glass beaker filled with water, I poured a little apple juice in it. "Water isn't a good conductor of electricity.

I'm glad you got that right many people do think it is a good conductor but they are wrong, the reason water often conduct electricity is because of trace amount of metals often dissolved in it.

[Znegil]

8533438
Well that happens when a lab worker is writing fan fiction ;-)

[Kadigan]

These things are ancient instruments in my world, I'm not sure anyone plays them anymore.

Never make that mistake. If it exists, someone is using it, somewhere. People still drive (or at least start) cars from the early 1920s*; others sometimes want to 'commune with mother nature' and go out to do things the way our ancient ancestors did... I'm sure there are entire groups, if not schools, dedicated to playing the lyre. Somewhere.

* I originally put in "early 20s" in there, but this close to January 2020, I realised it needs a qualifier now.