The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Technology

The entrance to Arambai's house was on the second floor. As Starlight slowly descended the stairs to the first, however, it felt much closer to a basement. There was more metal present than she had seen in all of Riverfall so far combined, and it was twisted into shapes and constructs she couldn't even begin to trace the purpose of. Pipes hung from the ceiling, and every permanent surface was covered in trails of glowing, geometric conduits that pulsed with ethereal light.

Walkable floorspace was limited to tight walkways, with bulky wooden tables higher than her line of sight taking up every available inch and then some. Under the tables were an endless sea of crates, boxes and other storage devices, some covered in sheets and others simply open-topped bins.

Completely lost and confused, Starlight settled for following the stallion as he confidently navigated the maze, vaguely aware that Amber had followed her inside. They turned several times, until suddenly, abruptly, the walls fell away. Starlight blinked at the openness.

She was standing on a slightly raised circular dais, inscribed with more runes and glowing etches leading up to a higher pedestal in the middle. Suspended in the air high above was a mesh of what looked vaguely like rails, twisting about in a cloud of metal but never quite intersecting, hung from barely-visible crystalline supports. Nearby, a stack of glowing towers seemed to feed into it.

"Just takes your breath away, don't it?" Arambai asked, using the central pedestal as a stool. "I've spent the better part of seven years building this one. Based on some research by an old colleague. How do you like it?"

Starlight was completely nonplussed. "What is it?"

"Well..." Arambai gestured up at the nest of metal rails. "This one here's supposed to be a long-distance teleporter, at least in theory. But it's more of a proof of concept for more, cutting-edge technology." He raised an eyebrow at Starlight. "How much do you know about mana tech, kid?"

Truthfully, Starlight answered, "Nothing."

"Ahhhh..." Arambai growled. "Shame, that. Then you probably wouldn't be able to appreciate the intricacies even if I told you. Of course, if you're looking for something to do here, and you've got time to make vanish, you could always learn... Say, how good are you with that horn of yours?"

Starlight winced. "I hurt it getting here. I don't want to use it yet."

"Shame to that, too." Arambai got up, pacing in a circle around the center. "How'd it happen? Trip and bang it on a rock?" He moved to a clearer table at the edge of the dais and began rummaging.

"Overtaxed myself on a spell," Starlight muttered, hanging her head. She considered trying to deceive him, since the last thing she wanted was another unicorn telling her there was something wrong with her horn. She was here to stop sulking, not be told she was defective.

"Overtaxation? And it's still bothering you now?" Arambai looked back over his shoulder. "That must have been quite the spell that took you out. What all could you do, back when it worked?"

Starlight shrugged. "Levitate, light stuff up. Normal things. Make crystals appear."

"Making crystals appear?" Arambai's eyebrows both rose, and he grinned. "Huh. Sounds to me like you were quite the magical prodigy. I bet you'd learn quickly, if there was anything you wanted me to teach you..." He picked up what looked like a helmet with one end cut off, spinning it on one hoof. "Any spells you'd like to learn? Teleportation, perhaps? Transfiguration? How to fly?"

"How to fly?" Starlight's eyes nearly bulged. "Unicorns can't do that! Only pegasi can!"

"Is that so?" Arambai's lip twitched. "Tell me. Have you ever seen a pegasus?"

Starlight nodded, and Amber shook her head.

"Heh." Arambai swung a hoof, nodding at Amber. "I hardly blame you. Those winged goofballs hardly come 'round these parts anymore. But the important part is, they look like you took a normal pony and stuck a pair of flappers on just to make them cuter or more huggable." He raised an eyebrow upon seeing the expressions he was getting. "Sure, go tell that to the town. Me having a thing for pegasi would make a fantastic rumor. I can't wait to see how they manage to take it too seriously. Now where was I?"

"Have we seen a pegasus," Amber helpfully interjected.

"Right, right, I knew that," Arambai loudly muttered. "Point is, they're about the least aerodynamic things you could imagine, and their wings are tiny compared to the size of their bodies. Ever wonder how those things stay in the air?" He grinned triumphantly. "Magic. Same as unicorns have magic in their horns and earth ponies have... whatever it is you earth ponies do. Way I see it is, how different can two kinds of magic be?"

Starlight scuffed at the ground. She could guess where Arambai was going, but something about messing with a pony's personal magic sat uneasily with her. It felt too similar to forcibly changing who they were.

"Plenty different, it turns out," Arambai growled, distracting her from her thoughts. "Mana is the basis for all magical technology society has ever built. It's like an energy form produced in unicorn horns, and a few other ways... Anyone who learns a simple spell can push it out, and trap it in a gemstone where it can be used for all sorts of stuff. Heating. Sending signals and information. Making giant engines for boats and ships. But real ponies can effortlessly do things like telekinesis and flight that we can't even begin to approximate with mana tech. It's always been as if there was something missing..."

He hefted the helmet, and offered it to Amber. "And I just might be on the right track to figuring out what that something is. Care for a little demonstration, miss...?"

"If it's what you make it sound like," Amber said, licking her lips, "I'm beyond game. And it's Amber, by the way. I'm pretty sure we've met?"

"I knew that!" Arambai waved her closer. "So, little filly, I'll need you to lift her. Any way you like will do, so long as it's off the ground. Just to get a sense for how heavy she is."

"And I'm Starlight," Starlight mumbled, moving towards Amber and trying to slide under her, hoisting with her back the way Amber had lifted her earlier. Amber was fairly small for a grown mare, so she didn't have trouble getting the required height, especially when the earth pony spread her limbs out, putting her entire weight on Starlight's back. The filly wheezed, but stood strong without shaking.

"I knew that too!" Arambai growled. "Anyway, if you've got it, then put her down. Amber, come here and wear this." He held out the helmet, which was connected to the glowing towers with a set of heavy wires. "It goes on your butt, by the way."

"What?" Amber took it, blinking bemusedly and holding it to her behind. "Why there?"

Arambai shrugged. "Don't ask me who decided where ponies' brands should appear. But they're somehow involved, so the closer this gets, the bigger the effect is... Let's see, now." Seeing that Amber had the helmet properly fitted, he turned back to a control panel next to the towers and made some adjustments. "Starlight!" He turned back to them, watching eagerly. "Try to lift her again."

"I don't feel anything..." Amber said uncertainly, but still stretched for Starlight to lift her.

The filly held her up, thinking. It didn't really feel that much different from last time... but now that there was a metal helmet on her, she should probably feel noticeably heavier. Instead, if anything, she felt slightly lighter... about the difference that would be made by her being hungry, instead of just after a good meal. She blinked several times. "I guess she's lighter? Maybe?"

"Hah! There you have it, then. How many times have you ever seen an earth pony do that?" Arambai moved to turn the machines off, adding, "You can set her down now. It's not like she'll up and float away, or anything..."

"What happened?" Amber asked bemusedly, taking off the helmet and hoofing it to Arambai.

"Technology happened," he replied with a grin. "Well... it will happen, eventually. Unfortunately, it's fairly useless right now, but still around a hundred times better than anything anyone else has ever made! This thing's powered purely by you, and not anything else. Maybe after enough years, I'll get it efficient enough that you can fly for real!" He turned to Starlight, adding, "Sound interesting, yet?"

"You said there was no way out of this place," Starlight answered, changing the subject. "So why do you have a giant teleporter?"

"Proof of concept, mostly," Arambai said with a shrug, running a hoof along the central pedestal. "I want to make this work with as much natural pony magic as possible. It can do telekinesis, too, at about enough strength to levitate a tissue. As for getting out of the village, it doesn't have that long of range. Maybe with half the population of Riverfall powering it, it could get you to Ironridge, but there's nowhere out there for a much bigger distance past that." He leaned in, adding, "Care to know a secret?"

"Okay." The stallion was rambling so much, Starlight didn't see much point in giving him permission to continue, but did it anyway. After all, it probably couldn't hurt to know more about this.

"Where I'd really like to go with this thing..." He sucked in a breath, looking wistfully upwards. "Is to get on top of those big cliffs everyone thinks are the edge of the world. It's definitely good enough to do that, I think. Only issue is where to go from there... and once you were done, how to get back down. I actually had a talented seamstress offer to make me a parachute once." He sighed, still gazing into the distance. "Never found out if that was ever going to happen. Just a dream, I guess."

Starlight held her tongue. It very well could have been accidental, but she was getting the uncomfortable feeling back that he knew where she was from and was baiting her to talk about it.

While she was thinking, Arambai shot her a glance. "Is any of this hooking you, kid?"

Starlight shrugged. "It's nice," she answered, truthfully adding, "but I don't get it."

"Well..." Arambai hitched himself up, straightening and stretching as if he was preparing to leave and return upstairs. "If you ever find yourself needing something to do, I can guarantee you that you can sink more hours into this work than you'd otherwise know what to do with. I think you'd be a good learner, and I'd be happy to teach you. And if you'd rather be in it for the reward..." He narrowed his eyes conspiratorially. "Who knows? Maybe you'd be around when this gets to the point where you could carry everything you need to make it work on your back, in a suit of armor."

Amber brightened, shivering slightly. "That sounds like something straight out of a story..."

"Well, what's the use in having technology if you don't make it interesting?" Arambai chuckled slightly. "For real, though... this is too new for me to have any idea what it could lead to. Anything could happen, absolutely anything... and you'd be there when it does."

"I'll... think about it," Starlight finally answered, shuffling nearer to Amber.

"So, old stallion..." Amber poked at some of the supplies laying nearby that weren't part of his flying machine. "What else do you have down here?"

"Heh. I'm glad you asked..."

Comments

[alamais]

"I've invented a time machine! Just need to get it up to 88 miles per hour..."

[Texus]

I can't decite if I like him or find this chapter about him uninteressting.

[Phoenix Kitten]

Can't tell if just old and eccentric, or slightly creepy...

[AppleTank]

Guess they haven't tried carving a path into the cliff.

[GMBlackjack]

I like this guy.

I don't trust him within five miles of Starlight.

But I like him.

-GM, master of donuts.

[Rupple]

Well, this could lead the story into an interesting direction, if it gets more development. Or maybe it's just a random thing to be barely mentioned again. I've gotta cling to all chances of getting the exciting back in here, though.

[Quinch]

Tell someone to lift something, then do something that tells them it makes an object lighter, then tell them to lift it again and see if they say it is lighter...

You'd think a scientist would have heard of a double blind trial. Or a scale.

[Czar_Yoshi]

10541769
He's trying to demo it to them, not run an experiment. He already knows what it's supposed to do.

[avidreader07]

In the last few months, I’ve come to the conclusion that telekinesis is the basic/original form of magic, that all three tribes use. Or used originally, perhaps. Pegasi developed it into flight and possibly cloudwalking. Like Starswirl Arambai said, they’re about as aerodynamic as a brick. And earth ponies use it to make their strength work. In EQG, we saw AJ lift a tractor, didn’t we? That’s well over ten tons of machinery, and should have buried her up to her knees, at least. Not to mention, it would’ve been incredibly unwieldy, trying to pick that up with one hand.

And even if I am wrong about picking up the tractor, Mac dragging the house could serve as proof, instead. After all, the road under his hooves should have given way long before the house budged a millimeter. Admittedly, the rope should’ve snapped, too, but maybe it was woven specifically to withstand Mac’s strength. Or maybe that was another aspect of earth pony magic, like pegasi and air carriages—which is another TK-like aspect of their magic, incidentally.

[BurningSkies]

"Right, right, I knew that," Arambai loudly muttered. "Point is, they're about the least aerodynamic things you could imagine, and their wings are tiny compared to the size of their bodies. Ever wonder how those things stay in the air?" He grinned triumphantly. "Magic. Same as unicorns have magic in their horns and earth ponies have... whatever it is you earth ponies do. Way I see it is, how different can two kinds of magic be?"

"According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a pegasus should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The pegasus of course, flies anyway, because pegasi don't care what humans think is impossible."

[Merula]

Honestly, I like him!

[TheCommunistDog]

This chapter alone needs a classic!

https://m.

[Walrusesarecute]

Well, some things are coming into the picture