It was sad to watch Whizzer go. The Punnery Sergeant shrank into insignificance as he went westwards en route to Canterlot. Sundance quite liked the soldier and wondered if he would ever see him again. He had high hopes accompanied by all the usual dreadful fears. There was a lot to do and he was in desperate need of a cup of tea. There was so much to do that Sundance wasn't sure where to start. As he stood there, his eyes westward, he wondered when Turmeric might return. The yellow unicorn would know just what to do and when to do it.
"The wagon was a bust." Beside him, Hoppy pensively drew nearer, her every movement hesitant and cautious. "Double Helping is a smart little fella. He tried to tell us that the wagon was a bust long before we knew the wagon was a bust. But he knew."
"What happened?" asked Sundance as he beckoned Hoppy closer, though with some hesitation of his own. If she flirted again, aggressively or otherwise, this might get awkward.
"Physics, I guess?" She scuttled closer, her sidelong movement jerky. "I checked out that hearse… the lift system. Had ideas for a wagon that used the same principle, I thought that we could haul heavy loads and use Celestium to turn a load of bricks into a load of feathers. But then again… a pound of bricks weighs as much as a pound of feathers." She shook her head from side to side, distracted.
"The idea was flawed from the start. The cargo isn't made lighter, and the full weight of it comes down on the wagon bed. Which is wood, and buckles under too much weight. The lift system would reduce how much weight bore down on the wheels and axles, but that was flawed in design as well. The electricity wouldn't always be flowing, and when that happened, you had an overloaded wagon that would crush its own axles and turn its own wheels into matchsticks.
"But the idea was still a good one. I guess. Even if it can't be done. Hey, at least we were thinking. But this is probably why we don't have Celestium-assisted wagons cluttering up the roads." Head tilted off to one side, Hoppy relaxed a little. "Double Helping is a lot like me. He's smart, but not smart. Like, I can tinker and fix most anything, even if I don't understand how it works exactly. But I can work out how mechanical systems relate to one another and how they interact. Even if I can't tell you why it works, I can fix it. Most of the time. And Double Helping is the same way. Only he was smarter than all of us today, and knew that we were wasting our time, but he went along with the plan anyway."
"You sound proud of him," Sundance remarked.
"Maybe I am?" Puzzled, Hoppy took a moment to consider her feelings, and she hummed to herself while her face contorted from the mental gymnastics she performed. "I'm gonna teach that boy all I know," she said at last as her face relaxed a bit.
"Maybe you should take him on as your apprentice?"
Nopony was more surprised by Sundance's words than he was, though Hoppy was a close second.
"I'm not a wizard though… unless you mean like… a career apprentice, like a baker taking on a trainee."
"No, I mean… like… that thing that unicorns do. I don't think it matters if you're a wizard." Frustrated with his lack of knowledge, Sundance thought of Sunburst and Chartreuse. They were wizards, sure, but also so much more. With a turn of his head, he looked Hoppy right in the eye, and much to his relief, she didn't glance away or try to stare elsewhere. "Teach Double Helping everything you know. Be his friend. Maybe even mother him a bit. However old he might be, he still has his moments. I think it will be good for both of you."
"You really think so?" she asked, curious.
"I do," he replied with eye-contact maintained, which was rather uncomfortable.
Desire glinted in the windows to Hoppy's soul.
"We went from having a shortage of unicorns here to having a few," he began in restrained tones. "Now, for unicorns to thrive, they need to do whatever it is that unicorns do. And that means doing the apprentice thing that unicorns do." As he spoke, he thought of Gallows Humour, who was in the infirmary at the moment.
Even unicorns could fall through the vast chasms in the system.
"I suppose I can do my part," Hoppy replied. "To be honest, I like it here. I like that I feel needed. Necessary. I must confess, I had some doubts about living here. A lot of doubts. But… this is the freest that I've ever been. Is 'freest' even a word? Nevermind. Granny said to me just last night, I'm free to be me, and she's totally right. I've been so busy trying to survive that I haven't had time to be me. I had to be the survivor. But that's changed. And maybe I should have an apprentice. I think I will."
Then, in a somewhat lower voice, she added, "I really do need to get a lift from you, if possible. For the greenhouses. And the used airship. Please, don't forget about me."
"When do you want to go?" he asked.
"Sooner the better. I'd like to have those greenhouses constructed by winter. A good supply of strawberry wine requires year-round growth. That, and the barony could use an airship. Even a junker. I miss mine. When I gutted it, and dismantled everything, I discovered that her spine was broken. After what the autopsy revealed, I don't even know how she flew."
"Where are we going?"
"Fillydelphia." She frowned. "Well, not Fillydelphia proper. Outside of Filly. I know the way by air. All the landmarks. And there's a shipyard as well."
"Tomorrow?" asked Sundance.
"That works for me. Thank you, Sundance. I promise you, the trouble will be worth it. This'll do great things for all of us."
"Tomorrow then. Bright and early. Be prepared. We'll leave at dawn."
"Dawn, eh? I can do that. Thank you, Sundance. You're the best."
A one-eyed colt got his just desserts and was mercilessly hugged almost to death by a mare determined to be his parent. Sundance watched as the scene played out, but did nothing to intervene. On the table in front of him was a cup of tea—plain—and a half of a tea biscuit that bore the distinct marks of Sundance's teeth. In a nearby corner of the dining hall, Grandmother Growler tried to show Gerard and Gisela how to pluck a banjo—but there was only one banjo and three griffons. Flax and Tarantula were engaged in a fierce game of ring-toss, but neither of them had successfully landed a wooden ring on a hook. They were eager participants though, and fierce competitors.
Amber Dawn had her hoof pressed down upon a book to hold it open and read the contents therein to Silent Thunder and Lemongrass. Bonk and Runt were brushing one another; Bonk did rather well at her task, while Runt made a mess of things. At least he tried. Express Delivery fawned over the littlest and smallest residents, Sweet Relish and Doodlebug. Hollyhock's pegasus filly, Sweet Relish, she was named in memory of Cucumber. As for Doodlebug, a rolly-polly-pudgy earth pony filly, Sundance had no idea why she was named as such, but adored the name nonetheless.
The older gathered around to watch the younger.
"Sundance…"
Mentioned by name, he turned his head in Paradox's direction and raised his ears.
"Litany gave me a book." Paradox leaned over the table a bit and she lowered her voice. "It's a published essay by Dim Dark. I think you should read it."
"If I had the time to read it, I would."
"Well, you should make time." Her tone chiding, Paradox narrowed her eyes at Sundance. "Dim is considered by many… or maybe most to be completely amoral, but he writes amazing essays on morality and ethics. And this one is superb. Most of the stuff I read from him is about blowing stuff up, and he's good at that. But he's great at this. You should read it."
"Can you just… I dunno… give me the gist of it?" he asked.
She frowned, clearly disappointed, but she nodded her head. "I can. But I am going to insist that you read this. Maybe the next time that you're laid out flat in the infirmary. I'll even come and read it to you."
"You have a deal," he said with the hopes that he might mollify the insistent unicorn. It did bother him though that Paradox counted on the fact that he'd get hurt again, and just the thought of it caused his scars to ache in an unpleasant manner.
"Equestria has an energy crisis. We do. Plenty of ponies want to deny it, but we do. It's become a political issue, even. A topic that divides us." She paused, cleared her throat, and then raised her voice just a little, but not much. "The thing is, we don't have to have an energy crisis. There is, uh, a solution for all of our energy needs. At least, in theory. And what a theory it is. Dim goes into it in detail, and even discusses his own experiences with it, because of what he did during the Great War when the nations of old-world Ponyland unified with the Midreach to battle the forces of Menagerie."
Rather clumsily, Sundance picked up his half-eaten tea biscuit and nibbled.
"A lot of bad things happened during the Great War. Awful things. Dim did a lot of terrible things… such as introducing the world to fully industrialised warfare. But he doesn't feel bad for that. He says that he does feel remorse for his energy solutions, and he elucidates upon his thoughts in his essay."
Listening, Sundance raised an eyebrow with the hopes that Paradox would take a hint.
"Not every unicorn can do this, but a fair number of them could… in theory. You see, Sundance, we're a steam driven society. And we use coal to generate heat. But relying on coal is idiotic. Anypony that depends upon a depleting resource for power is a moron. But, for boilers to work, for turbines to spin and for pistons to pump, we need heat."
He nodded whilst he chewed on tiny crumbs from his tea biscuit.
"Dim summoned fire elementals and contained them to heat the boilers for the machines of war. And he really regrets it. I can see why. Well, I didn't at first, but I can see it so clearly now. I can summon fire spirits and fire elementals. And, well, they're fire. They'll stick around for however long they last, until their bodies burn out and their spirits return to the Infernium. Wizards did this back in the old days. Summoned and enslaved elementals to make lamps and to power Equestria's earliest steam engines. So we've always had the means for unlimited, endless energy."
Now, at last, Sundance was intrigued, and so he listened intently.
"Dim goes into the why. Fire elementals, fire spirits, some of them are barely even sapient. Some of them are just… well, like dumb beasts. You could conjure one and with proper wards, you could force it to live in your fireplace and heat your home, until such a time when it expires. And then you just summon another. But that's wrong… and here's why it is wrong.
"We're creatures of compassion. Or, at least, we're supposed to be. And one of the things we do is act as caretakers for the lesser beasts around us. We have cows, and goats, and chickens, and creatures that we, uh, well, there's no nice way of saying it, we're animals that keep other animals as livestock. They give us milk, and eggs, and wool, and in return, we give them life, and protection, and comfort, and care. It is a mutually beneficial relationship that we both get something in return from.
"I mean, cows talk, sure. But cows are dumb.. Not mute, but stupid. Without us, cows might be extinct. They can't build civilisation, or perform great acts as a society, and the whole of their existence depends upon our compassion. Which really makes me stop and think about what you and I are doing here, and well, that's a different topic of conversation.
"But these fire spirits and fire elementals… there is nothing we can give them in return. Nothing we can offer them. We abduct them away from their plane of existence, and then we exploit them. We take from them, but have nothing to give in return. And that's wrong. And that's what this book is all about. Dim goes into detail about why this is an immoral and unethical act. Because it is not a mutually beneficial relationship where both parties get something as part of an exchange. And for you, as our baron, I really do think that you should read this."
"So we can do that… but we still use coal?" Perplexed, this was the first question that emerged out of Sundance.
"In the old days, when Equestria was young, and we first started building crude airships, we used bound elementals." An intense frown caused Paradox's face to wrinkle. "Princess Celestia never outlawed this practice. It just… sorta… went away… on its own. For some reason." She tilted her head to the left, then to the right, and then shook her head hard enough that it made her ears flop around. "We… stopped doing this on our own, Sundance… without Princess Celestia telling us that we were wrong, and that we should stop. That's uh…"
Sundance's ears went rigid as her words trailed off into a muted gasp.
"The lesson is that we should trust in the good of others," he said when it was clear that words had failed Paradox. "Or maybe the lesson is something else entirely. You know, Paradox… I never really gave much thought to the energy crisis. Here, we barely even have electricity, and yet"—he inhaled through pursed lips—"I know we need it. Just don't know how to provide it. And if we get airships to move goods, how am I going to power those?"
"Not with summoned fire spirits, I would hope," she said with mock-solemnity.
"Never with those," he replied. "So, Paradox… tell me… how would you solve Equestria's energy crisis?"
I'm terrible with making a name ponyfied but a pony or other equestrian version of this guy Ernest Rutherford should come along and jump-start the equestrian atomic age. Rutherford is considered the father of nuclear physics.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1908/rutherford/biographical/
Summoned lightning spirits. Duh.
10149831
As a society, they keep lightning in jars.
Another great chapter kudzu!
One of the things missing in the equation with fire elementals is informed consent: they can’t (due to lack of cognitive capacity) understand what will happen, and say “Ok”, or “No”... they are just bound and enslaved. They do, however, have the requisite sapience and situational awareness to suffer from it (unlike, say, a Thorium reactor, which has no sapience whatsoever).
It doesn't help that magic is also a finite resource. They're going to have to learn to harness things like splitting the thaum. And it looks like they at least have mastered the "boom" version of that, just not a controlled fission reaction.
Hmm. Wonder if those hot springs have any really "hot" materials underneath generating heat aside from just raw geothermal energy? Either that, or they're going to learn to tap that molten rock goodness for keeping ponies warm in the winter and powered in the rest.
10149856
Wow. Guess that's canon, after all.
really neat bit here, kind of want to share it on facebook
Well, this would seem to indicate that there is a curve. Some Fire elementals are more simple than others, so that might mean some of them are smarter than others. One solution would be to do a mass summoning until they find one that is smart enough to have a discussion with and ask what them Fire elemental would like to have in exchange for burning if anything? Not to mention what kind of living standards they would need, do Fire elementals like scratches and or snuggles of some kind?
10150245
The smart ones are beings of pure chaos. They would love to make a deal.
Of course, if they break free from the wards and go on a rampage...
10150251
So what you’re saying is that playing with fire is one thing, playing with sapient, malevolent fire that would love nothing more than to burn your face off is another?
ummm you are on land that emits geothermal heat , you are literally sat on top of a gigantic generator and a RENEWABLE one at that that could EASILY power your domain, and with cables neighbours too. Then of course there's the massive water flow through your domain, even old style waterwheels generate a fair bit of oomph if regeared ta favour speed over torque.
10150251
10150482
Well to be honest i am quite sure truly such chaotic beings might really think the idea of Ponies of harmony playing with the said kind of fire as absolutely amusing and might be all for it. It really depends what kind of Chaotic we are talking about in here. Not to mention Discord likely would be over the Rainbow on chaotic and cascading failures which would be present in such arrangements.
Still, one wonders if them more simple Fire elements would be content to burn for ponies if rewarded with fuel an scratches of some description.
You've done quite a lovely job on this. It's also really cool to see Dim talk about Ethics in this way.
a vary interesting chapter that has so much truth to it.
10150517
10150482
There is a reason why you have to trap them. Even if the stupid ones that play dumb, and do such a fine job of it that ponies believe they are idiot beasts. I mean, this is a conjuring. With wards. And infernal spirits.
All the classic warnings apply.
10150498
That's kind of how the end of the story wraps up on things.
10150810
I see lots words here and some of them looks to be talking about very important things but yet still i see no factual information on them not liking scratches and or snuggles of some description.
10150840
They're fire. Without physical bodies. They're hot. How would one even get close to them, much less pet or scratch them? I mean, how does one interact physically with a wisp of flame? They're beyond such physical concepts. They only exist to burn. To destroy. To consume. They get off on suffering and destruction.
Paradox is speaking solely from her own point of view here. She's arrogant and stupid. Like so many of her kind, she believes in her mastery over the environment and that she is somehow in control. She speaks of them as being dumb beasts, but she is wrong. She's a pony, and thinks that she's the top of the heap. The dominant life form in control of everything. She delivered a bit of classic unreliable narration. Like so many others, she believes that she can control the things she conjures, which is of course the Conjurer's Fallacy. The summoning of demons, infernal creatures, elementals, and spirits is fraught with danger.
If we were to see this from the fire elemental's perspective, we would see that they allow themselves to be conjured so that they could spy and gather information. So that way, when they finally break free of their prison, the Infernium, they'll know exactly what to do and how to do it. They'll know exactly what sort of magic that ponies are capable of, how they defend themselves, and they'll know exactly how to counter it.
Play with fire at your own risk.
10150857
“You know, for a bunch of ugly bags of mostly water, you’re surprisingly combustible...” - any random Fire Elemental.
10150857
I have read this over several times now and as i understand it does not indeed say that scratching and petting them is deemed impossible, just extremely difficult and attempts have not been made so far. Also there seems to be an implication that they have never been scratched and snuggled. In addition to this it seems to me that it is stated that one day they will burst out from Infernium so it might be a good thing to get on the scratching and snuggling part that pretty quickly now that they are still contained.
I mean look at Discord, he turned sufficiently well after some initial troubles no? He was the spirit of chaos, these elemental's are just beings of pure chaos, not embodiment's of it?
10151055
Hey now. Water explodes at high enough temperatures.
I womder if you could have shifts of pegasi weather teams driving a permanent tornado to, in turn, drive some sort of turbine.
10151683
You can't beat conservation of energy. Pegasi require food to fly, and presumably some degree of magic too...
10150812
oops sorry want me to delete for spoilers? Sorry as a permaculturist with side study in sustainable architecture I may be kinda cheating XD
10151680
Yes, but these are fire elementals, not explosion elementals. They exist to burn... as in fuel + oxidizer + heat. An over pressurized tank full of helium will explode, no combustion required (much to the dismay of certain rocket engineers).
10151943
It's fine.
10149856
Well, where else would you keep lightning?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyden_jar
"A Modest Proposal"