The Idiot's Guide to Alchemy and Airship Building (18)
Everyone of the crew stared at me in shock for a moment before bursting out in cheer. I allowed myself a small smirk of satisfaction as they hugged each other with joy on their faces when I told them they we weren't going to be stuck on the island for much longer. After a little while I tried to get their attention, but was unsuccessful, until I fired a few shots from my pistol. THAT got their attention quickly
“I know you're all excited, but save that energy for later.” I said, “Right now, I want Astrid to step forward.” The griffin in question stepped forward, wondering what I called her forward for. She stopped right in front of me with an expectant look on her face. She actually looked a bit nervous.
“This isn't about the hole is it?” she said with a guilty look.
I frowned, “What hole?”
“N-Nothing!” she said quickly with a nervous grin, trying to keep her eyes on me.
I wanted to know more but it could wait until later. “Anyways, credit is where credit's due. Everyone needs to thank her because she gave me the idea on how to fix the ship.” Everyone lit up with praise and glee. Astrid seemed a bit uncomfortable under the new attention.
“And for your help, I give you the first piece of my work. Remember that iron bar?” I said. Astrid nodded and I pulled out the saw tooth sword from behind my back, flourished it in the air and then presented it to her, the sword spread across my paws. “Here's that weapon you wanted. Just don't cut yourself.” Astrid slowly grasped the hilt out of shock. She held it up at different positions and inspected it carefully. Then she gave a grin that threatened to split her face in half
“THIS IS SO COOL!” she shouted, before swinging it around a few times. I had to move my arms back to avoid injury since I wasn't in my Base form at the moment. She stopped swinging and I used the moment to hand her a quick scabbard I constructed from wood. It wasn't much but it was something to keep her from cutting herself when she wasn't playing with it. She tackled me with a big hug and a thank you before running off to play with her friends. Only now did it occur to me that I just gave a kid a large knife to run around with.
I turned away to go back and rest in my cabin and plan how I was going to design the ship, but I was stopped by a familiar hoof. I looked to see Rum Runner staring at me in wonder. “You seem different.” She said.
I frowned at her, “How so?”
“You were all depressed and mopey before, even when you didn't show it. Now you seem happy, or at least less depressed.”
I mentally sighed and swore to every god, spirit and deity in existence to work on my poker face. “Your point?” I snapped.
“Well not every pony changes like that overnight. I just want to know what happened.” She gave a smile.
“Okay, one, I'm not a pony,” I silently thanked Erebus for not turning me into one, “and two, I'm not telling you. Why do you even want to know?”
“Because I'm a bartender, I can't help others unless I know their story.”
“How about this? A mare tries to find out out a story but never will get it because I don't want her help. The end.” I said coldly
Rum frowned, “Well that's not very nice.” she said in an admonishing tone.
“News Flash! I don't care!” I said with sarcastic enthusiasm before speaking in a regular voice, “I'm not telling you and that's that. Lecture me all you want about keeping it bottled up but I prefer handling my problems on my own.” I swiftly went inside the ship before Rum could say another word.
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I scratched images into the air, my mind generating the pictures for me. I made a mental note to get some paper as soon as I hit the mainland. 'That design wouldn't work. Too bulky.' I thought before crossing out another idea. 'I don't like the shape' Another idea gone. 'Engines would get torn off' Idea gone.
I frowned as I contemplated what to do. I had my new spell but there was only so much I could do with it. But my inner engineer squealed with delight at this new challenge and I couldn't stop for anything.
Ah, It's feels good to be back
Well, almost anything. 'Get the fuck out. Right now. I'm not in the mood to put up with your bullshit.' I mentally yelled.
Suddenly, I could see a small humanoid figure in my mind. It was completely white but it was outlined in black. It wore no clothes that I could see and the only feature it had was a wide toothy smile on it's face. It looked like the lovechild of Slenderman and a dentist. It held up a hand to it's chest. I'm shocked that you would be so hateful to me. Did you not miss me at all?
'No. Beat it before I beat you'
That's not how you should treat old friends, much less children like me. Didn't your mother teach you better?
That was it. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” I roared. I tried to imagine myself throttling the figure but it was no use. It was always out of reach. Seeing my efforts were fruitless, I calmed myself down a bit, but I stood tense, ready to pounce on the little bastard. “What do you want?” I said, rage filling my voice.
The thing put a finger to it's cheek. Hmmm...what do I want? It mused to itself. Ah, that's right. I wanted to ask you a question. The thing put its hands behind its back and rocked back and forth on its feet as it said in a childish voice, Watcha doin?
The question caught me off guard. 'Umm...what?'
Need I repeat myself? it asked in an impatient tone.
'No. I'm just surprised that you would ask that.'
Am I not allowed to be curious? Now answer my question.
'Well...I'm trying to rebuild my ship but I need a good design for it. I don't want any design, I need a design that can be easily defended and can strike hard and fast when I need it to. Plus it needs to be streamlined and efficient. I don't want anything important to be easily broken off when I need it the most.' I went back to crossing out a few more ideas.
Can I help?
I paused, '...why?'
Because it looks like fun
I was instantly suspicious. The pest wouldn't help me just for petty entertainment or help me at all, but then again, he was created by Erebus, the guy with weird entertainment tastes. 'How can you help?' I thought with contempt, 'Do you have an engineering degree?'
No. But I can just search your memories. Suddenly, the figure jumped and disappeared from my mind. I began to panic a little. I would rather have that pest where I could see it. As I tried looking for the thing, there was a knock on my door. My heart leaped up into my throat. How long have they been there? Did they hear anything? I nervously opened the door to see Flamel staring at me.
“We need to talk.” he said bluntly before pushing the door open and shutting it behind him. 'Make yourself at home why don't you?' I thought bitterly as he stood in the middle of the room.
“How are you going to build the new ship? You can't possibly have enough magic to build an entire airship from scratch.” he said.
“I don't,” I said, wondering what he was getting at, “In fact, I'm not going to be using a lot of my magic at all.”
“Then how?”
“Simple. I thought about my shape shifting spell and I thought 'If I can use that on myself, why can't I use that on other things?'. Astrid gave me the inspiration for that and I figured out how I could go about this. Instead of using some giant complex spell, I could use a simpler one based on the basic laws of Physics and Chemsitry, thus with magic, I get Alchemy or my version of it.”
“Laws?”
“Yes, the Laws of Conservation of Mass and Energy together are the basis of this spell. I'm taking the original material's mass and turning it into something else with the same amount of mass. I can change the volume of it but the mass will stay the same no matter what. I could take a small piece of wood and turn it into a long pole, though it would be very brittle. I can also do the reverse to make materials denser than they normally would be.”
“How could you have enough magic to do that? Much less for an entire airship.” Flamel said incredulously.
“I don't,” I said, “heck, with my magic, I think I only have enough magic to make a small skiff and that's pushing it.”
“Then I assume you are going to use the unicorns?”
I paused at this idea. “Now that you mention it, I may have to.” I said, “But regardless, magic is only going to be the catalyst. The volcano is the thing that's going to power my spell.” Seeing Flamel's confusion, I explained. “There are many types of energy in the universe. One of the most prevalent ones is heat energy. Heat is the transfer of internal energy and normally can't be used for convenient purposes but if I can harness the heat from the volcano...” I trailed off, letting Flamel figure it out. Judging from the look of slow realization on his face, I'd say he got it.
“That's...quite possibly the most ingenious thing I've ever heard or the most foolish. I'm surprised no one else has come up with this solution.”
“Well, obviously, they keep their scientists and engineers occupied.” I said, waving a hand lazily, “Half the stuff I think up comes from bored curiosity. So why did you want to know?”
Flamel hesitated, only for a fraction of a second, but I still saw it. “I was curious. I saw that sword you made and heard you say it used to be an iron bar. I had to know.”
“Understandable.” I said, “Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to designing the new ship.” Flamel nodded and left. I waited as I heard him pad down the corridor outside my door.
He's hiding something.
'You think I didn't notice either?' I thought, and a bit relieved now that the pest was back, 'Now what did you find?' I was still annoyed at the privacy invasion.
Oh, right. I found this one. It looks nice. It sent an image to me and I looked it over. It wasn't bad, in fact it was pretty good. There was only one problem.
'How am I supposed to build this type of structure? I can use my spell, but I doubt any of the materials on this island can withstand that support.'
The thing grinned at me. Well, when in doubt, look to nature for answers. He then sent another picture over. My eyes widened. It was the dragon corpses.
'No. I'm not doing that. You can forget it.' I thought, tossing the image away.
It grinned even more. Ah, but think for a second. Dragon scale is one of the hardest known substances in the world. Not to mention the special effect it has.
'Special effect? Do tell.' Okay, now I had to know.
Dragon scale is known to reflect magic attacks.
I let that piece of information sink in for a moment before my nerd side went nuts. If I coated my ship in dragon scale....I'd be almost unstoppable. Any mage chess pieces or magic weapons of this world wouldn't be able to touch me. Even if it was a melee fighter, they would still have to breach the hull. My inner engineer and nerd squeed in delight at the prospect. Until it hit me at what the cost would be.
'I'm not going to defile their graves just for my own personal gain. As much as I want to use the material, I'll have to say no for now.'
I never said you were going to defile their grave. It said smoothly, In fact, this would be a more fitting grave than being buried in the earth. To let them soar in the sky once more. They would be able to protect their children once again if they came along as well. Just think, you would be able to have your ship and they can be with their parents once again, after a fashion. Everyone wins.
I stared at the thing in stunned silence. 'I...I need some time to think.' I quickly stepped outside into my Dog form and decided to run around for a bit to distract myself, but it was futile. Everywhere I looked, I was reminded about the ship which in turn reminded me about what the pest said. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was right. I could have my dream ship and I wouldn't be hurting anyone at all. I could make it into an homage to them as a bonus. Besides, they aren't going to use it and it would be a shame to waste such good building material. The strong, durable, magic reflecting material. Plus, I'm sure Magnus would agree that it would be a better grave to soar in the sky than rot in the ground. Yes, that would work quite well.
“Trans Form Harpy” I took to the sky and spoke my next spell, “Locus Magnus” A dot appeared on my HUD and I made a bee line to it. Soon enough, I ran into Magnus. Remembering what that pest said, I decided to talk to him. “Hey Magnus, I need to discuss something with you...”
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was going to make this chapter longer but I felt it should end here.
btw the guessing game in my blog is still going on
Lets build an airship. AWWAAAAAAAAYYYYYY
This conversation is not going to end well. .....I am so reading the next chapter as soon as you post it, Magnus' rage out is gonna be epic.
Now I really need to get to the point where Hollow and co. acquire that airship. Also want to add some of the more comical characters into the mix. CURSE YOU ADD!!
1682551 so are you going to change your name to Doctor ADD? *rimshot*
1682659 keep reading. It shows up later
1682568 Do that again and I'll un-favourite your story.
1682703 sorry, I couldn't resist.
...please don't unfavorite
img109.imageshack.us/img109/773/truthw.jpg
So the pest is Truth. Got it.
1682776 At least you are sorry.
Now pray for me that I get over my issues. The Doctor prescribes it!
That is one of the worst things to say. Almost as bad as 'Let's see what happens if...' and 'What could possibly go wrong?' not to mention everyone's favorite 'You and what army?'
1683177 I have no idea what you're talking about
(no seriously, I wasn't really intending that effect. but since I did, have a moustache
)
1682930 Dear Morgan Freeman, I pray that you shall take away the Doctor's ADD and help him write and that you will kick Erebus' ass. Amen
1683160 well what could possibly go wrong?
So it went from little 'Kill em. Doo eet!!'
To 'Defile their corpses, it could provide defense for your ship! And it would grant a last right' Deviousness. DIABOLICAL.
1683976 It;s all down hill from here
1684007what makes you say that?
Awwww, of course it has to be over so soon. Picked this story out a few hours ago, and now I have to wait for updates.
Still, this is a well written CGotG piece, keep it up. And how often do you get around to updating?
1684230 every week to every other week apparently.
...sorry if I stepped on some toes by answering that for ya author man.
1685980He pmed me his message. But this answer was a bit more helpful.
asking a dragon to use his parents corpse to build a ship..... what could possibly go wrong?
Such a cute little head-parasite, can't wait to see him help all for the betterment of the world.
Magnus is going to be sooooo pissed!
1686007 ah. well alrighty then!
in all honesty i would be up for it
....either i'm a cold heartless douche
or i'm just really logical
....but this was still a great chap and i'm liking the story.
this is one of those fics that can be great collab fics.... also pm me if ya would like to share ideas and suggestions.
Hummm dragon wing sails.........
1729458I know now. I read that story a while ago.
I can see this going badly. Perhaps Magnus will break him?
I thought it was said that evil brain parasite would get a bit more creative in his tactics to make him do evil things! He didn't drop kick the daemon into early teen years! Teens are creative and all, but most aren't THAT creative (myself included). He full blown punted the daemon through his teen years, past collage, and right into said daemons job as a professional lawyer or successful used car salesman!
2409108 He will break him. And only when Gotham is in ashes, he will have permission to die.
That sword the Pest is proposing is a two-edged sword. Sure, it makes the ship more durable and magic-proof (not to mention he could make armor out of it) but as a result of this he has built a potentially more deadly weapon. If Gun ever goes off the deep end it woudl be that much harder to take him down, not to mention if he found a way to make it fly as an actual airship and not a dirigible, and EVERYTHING was coated in Dragonscale Celestia and Luna would have to take the fight to them with either projectiles or directly. If he developed Dragonscale golems and made them tough enough he'd be unstoppable and could conquer the world.
Not bad, young teenager Voice. I feel like a few more age categories and you might be worth a name.
In semi-related news...
That is... variable. If you pronounce the 'h' silently then you would use 'an'; but if you pronounce it as it is written it would be 'a'. A/an with words beginning with 'h' is a bit queer like that. Mostly an American/British concept, like grey/gray.