The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

To Consider The Future

"I've been working on designs for your armor," Shinespark said, sitting on the edge of the bathtub where Meltdown lay, being pelted with cold water and turning it to steam. "It's scientifically impossible for the atmosphere around you to hold the amount of heat you'll be generating with as little disruption as we saw around you in your previous suits. There has to be some way you were capturing and storing the heat transfer as energy."

She held out a pad of notes. "These are heat pipes between the inner shell that contacts your body and the radiators. All the heat will be funneled along them. I've been trying to reverse-engineer your broken suit we have on the ship, and does this device I could attach to them look at all familiar?"

Meltdown looked up and scrutinized the page. "Is that a thermocouple? I may be misremembering the name..."

"Familiar. Good." Shinespark sat back. "So that much still follows basic logic. What I can't figure out is where you expend or store all the energy you'd have to be saving this way. I've already added the rocket boosters from my old armor to this design, but even if you used them to fly nonstop, it wouldn't be nearly enough."

Meltdown shook her head. "It was converted into mana and discharged into the ground. Look at the hoof assemblies."

Shinespark blinked. "...Really? I'll look into that." She closed her note pad. "Thanks. That's what I needed."

As she got up to leave, Meltdown raised a hoof. "Stay?"

"You want me to?" Shinespark turned back to her. "Well... alright. What is it?"

Meltdown's ears fell. "Mere curiosity," she said. "I have been thinking a lot on this, and your own armor interests me as well. How was it you were able to power yours?"

"Braen?" Shinespark blinked. "My... brand. We used it to convert heat into mana, which was slowly used to recharge Braen's mana core."

Meltdown looked skeptical. "You had a brand that specifically allows for this? That is not an efficient process."

Shinespark was equally surprised. "You know how our process worked in the first place?"

Meltdown nodded. "I am aware it was possible. I didn't know you were doing it. Recall the purpose of Garsheeva's entire temple core."

"Right..." Shinespark's gaze drifted. "But you know we had difficulties with efficiency."

"The generators were not only located in the tree room," Meltdown replied. "The entire temple had technology left over from its construction, including parts left for repairs. We had more than one of those generators remaining as a standalone unit. So yes, we tested them to see what they did."

Shinespark stared for a moment. "That makes me feel a lot better about our harmony extractors if the ancient ones used for your generator still had the same bottleneck."

"And it makes me wonder how you overcame such a limitation," Meltdown repeated, watching her with interest.

"It's not a limitation of the machines." Shinespark shook her head. "It's of our brands themselves. Braen was far too small to contain a full harmony extractor that could use the energy of our brands for greater purposes, like the Immortal Dream uses to fly. She had a smaller version we called the Sosan Black Box, which can only use harmony to convert heat to mana. It's the first thing I thought of for your armor, and it doesn't require a difference in temperature across two regions to work, like conventional methods. But the raw energy outputs between it and a full harmony extractor used to generate mana, like the ones in your generator, are the same for any given power source."

Meltdown watched her with interest.

"If you need to know," Shinespark said, "my brand is... unusually harmonic compared to most others. The normal black boxes, when attached to a small mana core they can recharge, are suitable for single-shot flashlights like Valey's, or activating one of the sound stones. Braen had to sleep at night to recharge, and was limited in what she could do. Walking around and appearing to fight was a technological accomplishment years in the making."

"When you say unusually harmonic," Meltdown cut in. "You mean the maximum power generation potential when attached to a device like the generators in the temple."

Shinespark paused. "That's... one measure of quantifying it."

"By how much of a margin?"

"Two orders of magnitude. Fifty to a hundred times over most ponies we tested." Shinespark glanced at the bathroom mirror. "Not within the range that should be theoretically impossible, but one in a million at best." She looked back, meeting Meltdown's eyes. "But you know how it is. It's one in a million to lead our homelands, as well. And for me, the brand and the position were one and the same."

Water fell, and steam hissed. "You manifested yours normally, though?"

"I did." Shinespark looked up. "When I made the decision on what I was doing with my life. Helping Sosa to fly."

"I was given mine alongside my position by a goddess," Meltdown answered. "Interesting that they're comparable."

"Was yours...?"

"Significantly more harmonic than that of an average pony?" Meltdown met her eyes. "Yes. By a similar margin to yours. That's a fascinating coincidence. I couldn't tell you anything about what it means."

Shinespark stared off into space. "Yours was created by Garsheeva, though. Mine appeared naturally, from... wherever these marks come from."

"That's why I say it must be a coincidence." Meltdown went quiet.

Outside the bathroom, the front door banged open. "Yo, guess what!? I'm home!"

"I should see if anything has happened." Shinespark rose to her hooves. "Hopefully something comes of studying your old armor's hooves."

Meltdown nodded, looking away with a sigh. "I hope so as well."

---

In the living room, Valey was basking in attention. "So I'm still not honestly one hundred percent sure I trust them," she was in the middle of saying, "but they aren't sure how much they trust us, and we sort of decided that means we both care pretty hard about keeping this place safe. And so if we want to, we've got a ride down to the seafloor where this crystal palace they found is located."

Maple and Starlight exchanged a look.

"So we really can bring her back, then?" Maple glanced back at her cutie mark. "I know we were saying we wanted to, and I don't want to keep her in here forever, and it's not like I'd ever drop her and kill her..."

"Depends." Valey shrugged, glancing at Starlight. "Those places usually react to you, right? You're always the one who's most interested in the flames, and you can do strange stuff with your magic there and stuff? Because they've seen the outside, but don't have a way in."

Starlight hesitated, remembering the dark magic Gwendolyn had used to open the path into Garsheeva's crystal palace. She definitely didn't have that... she hoped. But then again, the flames had previously wanted to see her. And they were in complete control of their palaces. Maybe if they detected her nearby, they would let her in.

"Maybe?" She shrugged, not sure whether seeing Glimmer again was really that big of a priority for her. "What would we lose if we went and I couldn't?"

Valey shrugged back. "Two weeks of travel time. A week there and a week back."

Maple winced heavily. "On a ship that crowded, that's going to feel like forever..."

"Yeah, it probably is," Valey agreed, waving to Shinespark in the bathroom doorway. "Which is why it would just be you, me, and Starlight, unless anyone else is feeling like a dash of boredom."

Maple glanced between them. "I do suppose all three of us need to come... You have just as many questions for her as I do, and if anyone knows how to work that place, it's Starlight."

Starlight swallowed. "You might also need me to bring her back. I don't know if I remember, but she might have said something about helping somehow when it was the other way around..."

"What are you planning?" Shinespark frowned.

"Crystal palace raid," Valey answered with a semi-serious look. "For the purpose of owning a certain filly who's apparently been giving Starlight bad advice."

"Her advice isn't terrible," Starlight mumbled. "I think she's right about what I need to do. I just don't like it."

Valey flexed. "Well, either way, we want answers."

"At the cost of two weeks in that submarine," Maple added.

"Anyway, I just wanted to say that hurdle's gone if we want this on the table." Valey crawled to the couch, slithered onto it and sprawled out, kicking lazily. "They didn't give us any important time stuff other than that they need a day of heads-up to prepare the boat."

Maple frowned. "You know who you're talking to, right? With our track record, that means we're probably going to be out the door by tomorrow..."

"Easy there, girl." Valey waved a wing. "Even if you're that gung-ho, I'm not. Absolute minimum, I want one more good day dawn to dusk to enjoy this place, and another to hang around and get some chats in with our friends. I'm not in a hurry, here."

"Have you considered how the guards will feel if you go running off in a submarine for two weeks?" Shinespark asked.

Valey looked like she had hit a wall. "Uhhh... bananas, no, I completely forgot about those dudes..."

"And Princess Celestia?" Shinespark tilted her head. "She'll be back. Who knows how long? But it will be soon."

Valey tapped the edges of her hooves together, sitting up. "Okay, strictly speaking, if we didn't go before she got here and somehow happened not to receive permission to stay on this island, and we bizarrely and randomly lost the chance to go down there..."

"And we returned to the north? Then we'd go back to Ironridge and use the flame there, if it's that important." Shinespark nodded. "Look, I don't know the context, and I'm not going to say no. But please consider this if you're thinking of going on a submarine trip. You won't be happy if this gets overlooked and comes back to bite you."

Valey shivered. "Yeah, thanks. I guess I've got a lot more work to do checking in on things than I thought. Maybe I'll go get midnight tacos with the guards again..."

Maple sighed. "Oh... well. Oh well. I suppose we'll have to put it off after all, then."

Starlight glanced up at her. "You wanted to go that badly?"

"No." Maple shook her head. "I just have a bad association with delaying travel plans."

"In the meantime..." Shinespark trotted for the door. "I have some errands to run at the ship. I'll be back later."

---

Shinespark approached the eastern end of the island where the Immortal Dream was moored, following the roads through early-evening crowds of ponies who were making the most of the time between when classes let out and the sun went down. Almost all of them were her age or older, laughing and running or else walking in chatty cohorts, oblivious to the world around them. That was where ponies like these should be, living carefree and having fun. For most of them, performance in classes and homework workloads might be the heaviest things on their shoulders.

Her own shoulders felt no lighter than they had in the days before. If anything, they were heavier, now that she had taken it upon herself to try to rehabilitate Meltdown with a new set of armor. It was a pressing task, one where having the results mattered now and every hour she waited, someone was living in a bathtub because their luck was just that bad. But this wasn't a dead weight.

It wasn't laden with regret. It wasn't something she had missed the chance to see through, like the Sosans who had depended on her to protect their home. This was a weight she could realistically carry, a goal she could realistically meet, something no amount of self-doubt could dissuade her from when what it required was already her area of expertise... and somehow, the strength she summoned up to carry it made it easier to carry her other weights, as well.

With straight shoulders, Shinespark crested the last hill before the eastern cove, only to see that the Immortal Dream was gone.

"What happened to my ship!?" She broke into a run, passing several startled and confused ponies. Shinespark charged down the dock, imagining that her cutie mark could speed her steps even without a horn... She had possessed a spell for that, even, once. The empty bay where it had been burned in her vision, and she skidded to a halt before a stallion who looked reasonably official.

"Oh!" He gave her a startled look. "You're not looking for the ship that was here, are you? You're one of the adventurers?"

Shinespark panted, gasping for breath. "Yes. Where is... it?"

The stallion pointed a short way up the beach to a small cluster of sea-facing warehouses at the end, one of which housed the Arc Manta. "Dry docks," he said, gesturing to one in particular. "Didn't want to leave her in the water with her outer hull in that shape."

Shinespark sagged in relief. That was a far better outcome than she had hoped... and actually a good one. She hadn't thought to ask for a dry dock... "Thank you," she managed, taking a more relaxed pace toward the indicated building.

Unlike the dry docks of Sosa where the Immortal Dream had been constructed, these buildings served purely to keep out the elements, and there was nothing to stop her from entering. She stepped inside to see it already raised high and dry, trickles of water still draining from the holes in the hull... and several ponies walking around on the deck.

Frowning, Shinespark picked up her pace again, trotting swiftly up the gangplank. "What's going on here?"

The ponies were all students, looking serious and earnest and not at all like they were goofing off. Some had equipment, others had sticks of chalk, and together they were measuring the damaged areas of the deck, drawing on the wood in patterns Shinespark quickly realized were sections that would need to be replaced.

"Oh, hey!" Ebb waved at her, a vaguely familiar face she had only really seen during their initial rendezvous at sea. "You guys were trying to rally for the cause of fixing up your ship, so, here we are!"

Shinespark blinked in surprise.

Everyone else broke from their work, looking up and smiling hopefully. "We've only been at it for an hour and a half," Ebb apologized. "Didn't want to go inside without more-official permission. And so far we're only scoping things out..." He frowned. "You look like you didn't know about this?"

"Surprise!" a voice called from the bridge before Shinespark could muster up a response. It was Jamjars.

"What are you doing?" Shinespark stared at her. It was all she could manage.

Jamjars preened her mane. "Taking advantage of our overwhelming popularity to turn this dump of a boat into something we can feel good about, of course. And look! I found ponies who know their stuff."

"Her ego is adorable," a mare with a mane ribbon whispered in Shinespark's ear.

"I..." The comment completely derailed Shinespark's train of thought. "Well, thank you."

Ebb wiped his brow. "Music to my ears. Now, you're actually the captain, right? Are you busy, or could you give us a little direction for what to and what not to do if we're going to be restoring your boat?"

Shinespark's ears fell, overwhelmed. "I... have some time."

Comments

[Oberth Effect]

Looks like they got lucky that the shower water is cold enough to let Meltdown provide the right hints to Shinespark. At least we got an answer as to where all that extra heat went. Isn't converting heat into mana what cutie marks normally do though? So the Griffon Empire figured out a significantly more efficient way to perform that conversion (or would you want an inefficient process, since you want a ton of heat to produce a not-ton of mana)? Just how much power was Meltdown dumping into the ground, anyways? How long can she not contact the ground (or contact something like a thin platform that probably can't store much mana)? Can you dump too much power into the ground?

I still can't help but feel that Shinespark's cutie mark isn't as natural as she thinks it is. But then I also don't know what setting up such a seeming coincidence would serve.

Was Shinespark saying that the mini harmony extractor in Braen, the harmony extractor on the Dream, and the generator used by the Griffon Empire are all equally efficient, and the only difference is the quantity of input power they can handle? Did I understand that right?

I totally forgot about the guards, too. Granted, I didn't think they would be particularly interested in this venture, although they would probably want to know their "captives"' whereabouts so they don't look like fools in front of Celestia. Speaking of which, how long has it been since Celestia left with Aegis?

Curious if one of the students is going to find something interesting on the Dream the regular crew thought was mundane. Perhaps one of the books on the library? Or the harmony extractor?

[Phoenix Kitten]

"What are you planning?" Shinespark frowned.

"Crystal palace raid," Valey answered with a semi-serious look.

Raid group, Crystal Palace, LF magic dps, must be lvl 80 with good gear.

"Her ego is adorable," a mare with a mane ribbon whispered in Shinespark's ear.

annnd that's another critical hit to Jamjar's self esteem.

[Boopers]

Did we ever hear the story how Shinespark got her cutie mark?
I'm wondering whether it really is a natural cutie mark. Maybe she somehow got it by touching obsidian without her even realizing? Maybe someone gave it to her on purpose, but didn't let her know?

[alamais]

Hmm...when they make it to the crystal palace, whatever else happens Starlight should get the first go at the flame. Don't want Glimmer interfering again, especially since her supposed knowledge of the future is obviously invalidated now with her lack of knowledge of Chryssi. (That or she did know and has been lying or hiding even more than we know. )

[Czar_Yoshi]

10002447
This chapter, and the two before it (but this one's most relevant).

[Boopers]

10002921
Oh my, those chapters were so recent and I already forgot about them... Silly me

[Alchemik]

Seems like they might actually have Jamjars' number here. Funny how it's this place, of all places, that counters her.

It's good to see Shinespark working again.

Glimmer is still an interesting case. We know she means well, she wouldn't have helped in all the ways she did if she didn't, but is she actually helpful to Starlight? Difficult to say, really. Time is wonky like that.

[sploopy slooder]

so starlight absolutely does NOT meet celesta here, because in the interludes she doesnt know starlight. which means something causes them to not interact. do they go to the palace now and miss her?