Zombies to Ponies in Ten Seconds Flat

by 8r0ny

35: Volcanis’s Acclimation

Volcanis, for his lack of knowledge on our technology, was no dummy. His mind was trained and sharp from millennia of seeking out interesting things. He may have a bad reputation as of late, but he said it’s all from boredom. He likes learning about anything and everything, but most of the world has been stagnant as of late. People are content and peace reigns, not a good recipe for invention.

Another thing we learned about Volcanis is he is a big music fan. He doesn't like electronic music because he thinks it's catchy, but because of how we have “distorted musical theory.” I'll admit it's quite different from anything this world has produced thus far, Vinyl was on her way there but it would have been another ten to fifteen years before it got as distorted and “crunchy” as the dubstep I’ve introduced them to, and that’s if it caught on.

Twilight is practically drooling over his magic. Draconic magic is a field seldom studied, well dragons in general are. Volcanis...tolerates her. He will answer a question here and there but for the most part Twi will just observe. It is interesting, from what I’ve learned Draconic magic is more raw than pony magic. It's closer to Chaos magic in how the user wills for things to happen. The main difference being you ask for things to happen and they do, chaos is more forceful.

Using his magic, Volcanis has actually sped up our technological advances as well as building up our infrastructure. If he continues to help us out, I think we can have people moving to the larger island within the week. And with them gone we can focus more on our little island of parliament. Once we get going this will no doubt be the capital of our country.

On the topic of the future and our impact on it...wow. I never really stopped to think about it but we are a plot twist, a monkey wrench, and a jump start all in one here. If Twi is to be believed with her infinite timeline theory, I’d like to compare the Equis of an alternate timeline that we never showed up to this one in like a hundred years time. It would either be Equis but everyone has smartphones, or differ so much that the only similarity are the races. Only time will tell I suppose, and unfortunately I won’t be around to see it...that and I’m not really sure about the whole infinite timeline thing. Kinda far fetched you know?

Internal musings aside, I made my way to the Lab to see what Volcanis was into now. While Camden is really good with technology, he isn’t the best at teaching. The rest of us do our best to fill in were Camden is lacking, but we aren’t exactly teachers either. As I approached I could hear Cody and Camden already talking, presumably with Volcanis as he basically lives in the Lab when he’s not out doing chores. Say what you want about dragons, but he insists on paying us for the information we are giving him. So we give him some work that would take us a few days and he knocks it out in like two hours.

“Yo Volcanis.” I said entering the tent. “How you doin today?”

“I’m just chillin fam.” He said, partaking in his favorite game of mocking the, admittedly ridiculous, slang he picked up from my ironic usage of it. “Science is wack.”

“Word.” I replied. “You ready for today's to-do list?”

“Sure, I may not start for another hour yet.” He said. “Camden is in the middle of explaining fuel injection.”

“Bah, carburetors are the way to go until we can make a more pure fuel.” I said. “Easier to clean. Anyhow, no worries about starting right away. I know you’ll get it done, and as always, don’t be afraid to ask for help or clarification.”

“I can just ask any of the Changelings right?” He said for clarification.

“Yup. Chloris will relay the message.” I said. “Well, there is one Changeling that isn’t linked, but statistically you’re unlikely to ask her. And if you do, just find another.”

“Gotcha.” He said taking the paper checklist from my magic. He scanned over the tasks to see if he had any questions right off the bat. “Looks doable. I’ll have it done.”

“Noice.” I said turning to Camden. “Sorry to interrupt your lessons but how is the club coming?”

“I knew you would ask.” Cody said laughing. “I would have won a bet, but everyone I tried to bet just agreed with me.”

“Well, thanks to Volcanis here, it is reinforced.” Camden said, receiving a hoof pump from me. “But, there are some power issues at the moment. We’re doing a push to nuclear power thanks to the materials the Changelings gave us but we have to much draw. So you won’t be able to go all out.”

“Disappointing, but still exciting. The other speakers are done right?” I asked, receiving a nod from Camden. “Cool, so I can place and lightly test those. Unlike subs, they have a fairly accurate representation of how they will sound maxed when at lower decibels.”

“Keep the amps at four or lower.” Camden said. “That should be within the calculated draw allowance I have for the club. If you go over that it’ll auto cut power and I won’t fix it till we have the power plant operational.”

“Got it, keep is at normal concert levels of loud.” I said, already making my way out to get Vinyl and Billy. “See y’all later!”

“I’m serious about the power cut off you know.” Camden said. “I will feel no sympathy if you can’t work on the club for a while because you got overzealous and tried to stress test the speakers.”

“I got ya.” I said continuing to walk off.

“I’ll give him an hour.” Nyjill said walking in, having overheard the conversation.

“Nah, that place is his baby.” Cody replied. “It’s been eating him up not being able to work on it. He’ll be fine.”

“I also put a few lighting fixtures in there that he requested.” Camden added. “So that will keep him busy for a bit too.”

“Keep him busy, It’s like you’re saying he gets in the way.” Volcanis said.

“O no, that's not it.” Cody replied. “He just needs a creative outlet sometimes to help clear his head. After a day or so in there he’ll be back to optimal Shawn stats.”

“You’re people really look out for one another.” Volcanis said. “The ones closest to Shawn especially. Your teamwork is quite admirable.”

“We have a country to establish and a people to integrate.” Camden said. “Our personalities are well matched so we operate efficiently.”

“Like I’ve told many before, Shawn has a lot on his plate.” Cody began. “He may look carefree and silly but he accomplishes a lot. In a way a changeling was the perfect form for him. He very rarely shows his true self, it’s always a facade. However his motifs is to help others even at great cost to himself. So we need to help him out every once in a while and do what no one else can do. See past his outer shell and give him a break when he needs it or push him in the right direction.”

“You may not have magic in your home world.” Twilight said strolling in. “But what you’ve accomplished together can be recognized as the magic of friendship no matter how you look at it.”

“She’s been summoned by the talk of friendship.” Nyjill said. “She’s like a friendship shark.”

“Actually I wanted to speak with her.” Camden said simply. “I need to make sure my calculations are correct for our reactor. If physics don't work exactly the same here, it could be catastrophic.”

“Ahh, so it was science that caught her attention.” Cody said. “The friendship was just the icing on the cake.”

“Well, yes.” She said. “I like science and I like friendship...whats the problem?”

“Nothing really.” Nyjill said. “Just funny for us.”

“Well this new talk sounds even more interesting than gasoline engines.” Volcanis said. “Mind if I listen in?”

“Personally I would say no.” Camden said flatly. “However Shawn gave you access to all of our information, including developing so I can’t deny you. I just ask that you don’t misuse this information as it could be catastrophic is used improperly or leaked to the wrong person.”

“You have my word that it will be purely educational on my part.” Volcanis said. “I wish to only learn. And I’m sure it would be outdated by the time I would have a use for it anyhow. It’s not like you’re going anywhere.”

“This is true.” Camden pondered. “Still, we are jump-starting equestrian science by roughly a thousand human years. And by looking at the progression of Equestria it would equate to roughly seven thousand equestrian years. And that’s if they didn’t stagnate after every hundred years or so like they have recently.”

“That's not to say that we would come to the same solutions for problems.” Twilight added. “As it is we aren’t really in the human stone age, just our scientific advances are. Our magical science fiends are well advanced.”

“However we didn't have magic.” Camden said. “So for the sake of progress we can say we were equally matched as populations.”

“We could have wrecked them.” Nyjill said disjointedly. “One well placed nuke and Canterlot is gone.”

“It would be a loss on both sides.” Cody said. “If Equestria and the US were to go to war no one would win. Both sides have ridiculous power and neither understand the other.”

“Well let's move on shall we?” Twilight butted in. Obviously uncomfortable with the topic. “What do you need to know Camden?”

---

In the meantime I had gathered both Vinyl and Billy and headed for the club. The light fixtures were a pleasant surprise, and I was really excited to get them up and running. However, we needed to get the sound system finished up first.

First thing I did once I walked through the doors was head to the sound room. Since we didn't have a soundboard yet all control had to be don't manually. So I went into the back room and turned all the amps to three, that way we had a little more to go if needed. Then we went to work. Since this club had a rather similar layout as Echostage, Billy told us where every speaker was placed at that venue. I used my knowledge in tandem with that to place them in the best place possible for optimum sound. And Vinyl, of course, spun some tracks to make sure it sounded perfect.

With the three of our expertise's, we had the speakers set up in no time. Hardly took the better part of the day. Ok, it’s hard to work at optimal efficiency when you love what you’re doing and take frequent breaks to appreciate the music. Meaning taking turns playing music and the others dancing their brains out.

“Ok, you guys feel free to continue.” I said, a bit out of breath. “I’m going to get started on lighting.”

“Do you want me to tell you were the lights were?” Billy asked.

“No thanks.” I replied smiling. “This design is all me.”

“If you need anything just ask us.” Vinyl said. “And with that said, let's spin some new shit!”

It seemed our culture was bleeding off onto those within close proximity to us. Hopefully our curse words didn’t get too integrated into the Equestrian vocabulary. Moving on, I made my way over to the lights and admired them. They weren’t quite what I worked with back home, but they were hundreds of times better than anything I owned. And if my druggy roommates in college were anything to go by, I could make one hell of a light show with minimal equipment.

So with that, I got to work unpacking and preparing the lights for hanging. I already had the plot done, and mostly memorized, now it was time to implement. As far as I was concerned, plotting was ok, hang and focus was fun, designing and programming was awesome, and seeing people, or ponies in this case, react to it was beyond words.

“It’s all uphill from here.” I said smiling like a madman. “This club was my best idea ever.”

Author's Note:

Woop woop! Progression!

Here's a Discord server I mentioned in a blog post. ~ https://discord.gg/DqKaX7h
I'm not the owner or even a mod, just a guy that wants to share a great community with others! Join the fun!

Comments

[bgklol]

all ready band from the discord server but thats fine i still got fimfiction

[Divan1229]

9856300
Can you tell us where you have find the map picture?

[8r0ny]

9857704
This one?
or
This one?

[Divan1229]

9857953
the devianart. Tha is the one.

[8r0ny]

9857966
Awesome sauce, glad I could assist.
As you were.