My Little Pony: How the Magic of Friendship Grows (Season 1)

by Majestical4729

22. Double Think

Author's Note:

Double Think serves as the twenty-second episode of the series. Most of its events happens at the same time as the events of the previous episode, Neurotic Situation.

Summary: Falcon Dive, Alkali, Volcano, Buffer and Krona travel to Appleloosa, where they work together with the Council of Friendship, after learning that the town is facing a water shortage problem.

Featured Characters:

Sheriff Bronze Rod, an Earth Pony who succeeded Sheriff Silverstar as the sheriff of Appleloosa.

Acknowledgements:

Information about melanin

Wikipedia Melanin

Morning at Sweet Apple Acres was like the morning of every other day for the Apple Family; the sun was rising from the east side, shining light on all their crops, like usual sunny days.

"Ah, another day at Sweet Apple Acres working with my family, what can be better?" Applejack asked, walking out of the Barn.

"Earning for your family?" Caramel asked, walking up to his wife.

"Sure thing, Caramel. Working and earning for working, I know hardworking always pays off." Applejack chuckled, just before Featherweight, the newspaper delivery pony landed right beside her.

"Newspaper for the Apple Family of Sweet Apple Acres," the pegasus announced.

"Thanks Featherweight," Caramel replied, before dropping bits to pay for the newspaper in Featherweight's empty hoof.

"Have a nice day, Apples!" Featherweight responded, before taking off.

"WHAT?! There's a water shortage at Appleloosa?!" Applejack could be heard saying out loud as she read the newspaper.

Caramel walked over to see the same page his wife was looking at, reading out loud, "Appleloosa reservoir has around 10 litres left by yesterday, and the water level is decreasing fast!"

"My cousin Braeburn and some of my Apple Family relatives are in trouble with this happening! I got to go check on them!" Applejack declared, as she was about to pack up and leave.

"Wait! Are you going alone?" Caramel asked.

"Not alone, Caramel, because this is a problem that the rulers of Equestria have to face...together." Applejack answered.

---

After the series' theme song intro played, the Council of Friendship could be seen gathering in the Throne Room.

"This is very serious, every creature." Princess Twilight Sparkle declared, "Many creatures in Appeloosa will suffer from the water shortage!"

"Including little animals and critters!" Fluttershy dded.

"No problem, I can just go to Cloudsdale and ask for a few clouds to make rain over the reservoir." Rainbow Dash figured.

"But we still have to go there and check everything out for ourselves." Princess Twilight Sparkle stated.

"And I have the perfect chance to wear my inspired-by-Appleloosa-culture country outfit!" Rarity declared, changing into an outfit with a cowgirl's hat, blue bandana scarf, and country clothes.

"Rairty, I know you love fashion, but please don't forget the problem we have to solve." Spike told his wife.

"Oh, right." Rarity sheepishly replied.

"So what are we waiting for?! Appleloosa, here we come!" Pinkie Pie announced in her usual, hyperactive tone.

---

The Council of Friendship rode on a huge chariot designed to fit all seven of them, pulled by four hippogriff royal guards.

"This ride is divine!" Rarity squealed, as she allowed her Mae and tail to move as the wind blew on them.

"Thanks for giving us a ride, Twilight." Fluttershy thanked the alicorn.

Princess Twilight Sparkle giggled before answering, "What are best friends for, Fluttershy?"

"Ooh, can we have a bigger chariot next time? To fit Cheesy, Lil'Cheese, and all our children and..." Pinkie Pie began asking, before being interrupted by Rainbow Dash.

"We're here!" the pegasus announced, as the town of Appleloosa came into their sight.

"Appleloosa, Equestria's Wild West town!" Applejack declared.

"Things may have changed all over Equestria after Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stepped down, but Appleloosa is still the western country town it is!" Rarity stated.

"Only, the town got bigger in terms of how much space it occupies for its buildings!" Spike corrected.

"And many non-ponies moved in!" Fluttershy added.

"Speaking of non-ponies, look at who's on their way to town!" Applejack cried, pointing at a group of creatures down below.

"A black griffon, indigo with cyan mane hippogriff, a dark orange with light orange spikes dragon, a buffalo and a yak!" Pinkie Pie answered after looking at what her 'cousin' was pointing at.

"They must be Luster Dawn's best friends, we've seen them before!" Princess Twilight Sparkle exclaimed.

"But that's only five of their team, where's the other five including Luster?" Spike asked.

"That's one of the things we're going to find out today." Princess Twilight Sparkle declared, before turning to the guards, "Please bring us down to the town."

The royal guards silently followed the princess' instructions and landed in the center of town. From a far, the five Heroic Ten members could see the chariot with the Council of Friendship riding in it.

"Is that a chariot?!" Krona asked.

"It is, with the Council of Friendship riding in it!" Falcon Dive exclaimed.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle must have heard about the problem and decided to come!" Volcano figured.

"And a good thing, too! We can really use all the help we can get!" Alkali added.

"Alkali's right, you know. A water problem is a problem that's tough to solve, and we can really use help solving tough problems." Buffer informed.

"Hey, Heroic Ten! Great to see you out here!" Rainbow Dash called, approaching the five creatures by flight, before she landed in front of them to ask, "What are you doing here, without the other half of the Heroic Ten?"

"The other half of the team is in Manehattan." Krona answered.

"Because Yellow Bright's little sister needs a little personality fixing." Buffer added.

"We heard about the Appeloosa water shortage problem by learning what was in the newspaper." Volcano informed.

"And Luster figured that half the team should go to Appleloosa, while the other half stays!" Alkali ended.

"Guess that's something good about having ten of you; being able to separate into two teams of five whenever you have to!" Rainbow Dash chuckled.

"Yes, if you don't realise that six is also an even number that you can halve whenever you need to, and it's less than ten." Falcon Dive reminded.

"Uh, if you don't realise that, there are seven members in the Council of Friendship, not six." Rainbow Dash pointed out.

"Seven is a prime number, in other words, seven is a number that only has one and itself as its factors. So no matter what you try, you can't divide it into any teams, because a team needs at least two members to be called a team!" Volcano pointed out.

"Thanks for the explaining, Volcano, but let's not forget why we're here." Buffer apprised.

"Yeah, there's a water shortage problem!" Krona reminded.

"And we came here to help!" Falcon Dive declared.

"So have we, I mean, the Council of Friendship." Rainbow Dash claimed.

"Then what are we waiting for?! Let's find out what's wrong with the water!" Alkali announced, running off towards the town with her four hippogriff legs.

"Alkali, wait up!" Krona cried, as she and the others followed the hippogriff to the buildings.

---

Meanwhile, in town, Fluttershy found some mice suffering from the heat and lack of water in town, right under the shadow of a building and next to the building's platform itself.

"Oh, you poor little things," Fluttershy cooed, picking up the mice with her front fight hoof and gently stroking them with her front left hoof.

"Appleloosa is certainly hot today!" Rarity cried, while using her magic to levitate a fan to fan herself, "I sure am glad that I left my usual black dress at home."

"You are lucky to make the right choice!" Volcano's voice could be heard saying, as he, Alkali, Falcon Dive, Buffer and Krona stepped into town and sight.

"Because dull, dark colours like black are better absorbers of heat than shiny, light colours like white. If you wore black under the hot sun and in a hot environment or hot surrounding, you are going to be heated up in fast!" the dark orange dragon explained.

"Uh, Volcano? What about creatures who are black in colour?" Falcon Dive asked after looking at himself.

"That's a different story depending on melanin, as in, how much melanin you have." Volcano answered.

"I don't even know what melanin is!" Falcon Dive dramatically cried.

"Melanin is a group of natural pigments in most organisms, like us creatures, and according to its chemical formula, it is a covalent compound because there are no metals, only non-metals. Melanin makes parts of the organism that has them darker, such as...whatever that's black. Plus, according to research, melanin may help protect the skin from UV rays and block processes in the body that can lead to skin cancer." Volcano explained.

"Did I miss a class?" Alkali asked.

"Guys, can't every creature focus on the crisis in Appleloosa?" Krona asked, reminding them why they were in town.

"Oh, right! The water shortage crisis." Rarity stated.

"Where's Luster? Doesn't she lead your team like how Twilight leads us?" Fluttershy asked, while still holding the mice in her front right hoof.

"Luster and the rest of the Heroic Ten have a problem to fix in Manehattan, so only half the team comes here to help Appleloosa." Buffer answered.

"Are you sure you can help, without your leader?" Fluttershy asked.

"We were together for seasons before Luster joined us, I'm sure we can manage." Volcano assured.

"Good, because we need all the help we can get." Princess Twilight Sparkle said, approaching the creatures, causing the five non-ponies to bow before her and say, "Your Majesty."

"No need to bow now, every creature, because this is an emergency! There's no time to waste!" the alicorn cried.

"Let me guess, the water is dropping fast?" Falcon Dive asked.

"More like the water level is dropping fast." Alkali corrected.

"It is, come look at the reservoir. There's not much water there." Princess Twilight Sparkle informed.

---

At the reservoir, Applejack and her cousin Braeburn were looking down at the nearly completely dried out empty hole that contained Appleloosa's water. Pinkie Pie, as a 'relative' of the Apple Family, was there too.

"This is a reservoir?! It looks like a giant well that's missing a giant bucket to pull up the water!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

"It is the Appleloosa reservoir, Pinkie. And it's running out of water." Braeburn stated.

"How can this happen?" Applejack asked.

"That's what I'm trying to find out, Applejack. The water's never gone this low before." Braeburn replied.

"Stand back, every creature! Rain for water for the reservoir coming up!" Rainbow Dash announced, before placing a cloud right over the hole and making it release water into reservoir, causing the water level to rise.

"It's rising! It's rising!" Braeburn excitedly cried.

The water from the cloud had ran out, stopping the water level's rise. A second later, the water level began decreasing, to the horror of the ponies.

"The water's going down!" Applejack cried.

"Could it be disappearing into thin air?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"You mean, evaporating into water vapour." Alkali corrected, showing up with her best friends and Princess Twilight Sparkle.

"I came from Mount Aris, and as a hippogriff on land and air, sea pony in the water, I should know the water cycle and water states by heart." Alkali spoke.

"The Heroic Ten, I'm so glad you're here!" Braeburn cried.

"Do you think we should be called that way even though not all ten members are present?" Buffer asked his fellow creatures.

"As long as we're members of the said team, we probably will still be addressed that way." Volcano figured.

"You all came to solve the problem, right?" Braeburn asked.

"Yes, we are." Falcon Dive replied.

"Then hurry up and think of something to fill the reservoir with water! Otherwise it might be nothing but a big hole in the middle of the land by sundown!" Braeburn panicked.

"Thanks for the extra pressure!" Krona sarcastically thanked.

"I'll get some more clouds." Rainbow Dash announced, before flying off.

"What if the town runs out of water? The apple trees might not survive, and worst of all, every creature will have to move!" Braeburn sadly cried.

"Don't worry, Braeburn, we'll do everything we can to stop that from happening!" Applejack assured.

The sun shone even brighter the next second, causing Spike to comment, "Whoa, the sun sure is hot today out here!"

"Indeed, like every other day this time of year!" Braeburn responded.

"Wait second, just like every other day?!" Alkali asked.

"Yup, there isn't much clouds to block it, matter of fact, there aren't much clouds in the sky as far as our eyes can see." Braeburn added.

"No clouds mean more sunlight and more heat!" Volcano stated.

"And more heat means more evaporation!" Alkali added.

"And lesser water in the liquid state!" Buffer continued.

"So you're saying that we're losing water because of the sun?" Braeburn asked.

"More like because of the heat." Falcon Dive corrected.

"Sweet Celestia! We all better shield ourselves with sunscreen!" Rarity cried, taking a bottle of sunscreen out of her country outfit's pocket and applying it on herself before passing it around with her magic.

"Thanks for the sunscreen, Rarity. But I don't think that's what those mice I saw earlier use. I better go back and check on them." Fluttershy said before leaving.

"Alright, back to the water situation. We figured that the heat is causing the water to evaporate quickly, which is why the water level is dropping." Volcano got every creature to focus on the main problem.

"If this goes on, my family will be in serious trouble!" Buffer panicked.

"And so will every creature else in Appleloosa!" Falcon Dive added.

"I think I know what else makes the evaporation happen so fast." Alkali announced after flying right above the hole to a certain height that allowed her to see the whole thing.

"What is it?" Pinkie Pie called.

"The reservoir's base area!" Alkali answered.

"She's right! Evaporation only occurs at the surface, so the more exposed surface area, the faster the evaporation, like your reservoir!" Volcano exclaimed.

"The area must be huge! It might take days to measure!" Krona cried.

"Do you know what the area of the reservoir is, Mr.Braeburn?" Buffer asked.

"How will I know? No creature bothered to do that much calculations!" Braeburn replied.

"Then what explains that you Appleloosa residents know how many litres of water the reservoir can store?!" Krona asked.

"And make a number line from one trillion litres to zero litres down?" Falcon Dive asked as he flew down into the hole to see a zero mark.

"Because when we filled it up the very first time, we counted how many litres we used, and when we reached one billion, we started a scale that goes up by the said number." Braeburn explained.

"But a scale that goes up by 1 billions will make 100 and numbers less than that as tiny as a millimetre! How did the creature who figured out that the number was less than 100, did that?!" Volcano asked.

"She was a scientist and an expert at math like you are." Braeburn answered.

"Did she calculate the area the reservoir takes up?" Alkali asked.

"Nope, she was in a rush to check the water reservoirs all over Equestria and Beyond! She didn't have a second to spare!" Braeburn responded.

"Don't worry, I know by mathematics that the area of a circle like your reservoir is 3.141592654 times radius square, and radius is the length of the displacement from the centre of the circle to the circumference, its perimeter. Radius is also the half of the diameter. So all we have to do is wrap a rope around the circle and measure the rope, then use the measurement divide by the irrational number I just mentioned, then divide by 2 to find the radius, and once we find the radius, square it, then multiply it by 3.141592654 and we'll know the area!" Volcano explained.

"Wow, you sure are one smart dragon." Spike commented.

"So are you Spike, I heard that you knew your math very well for some creature or some dragon your age back before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna retired." Volcano reminded.

"I just finished wrapping a rope all around the hole!" Falcon Dive called, holding a rope in his claws.

"Wait a second, did you outline around it?" Volcano asked.

"Yes, why did you ask?" Falcon Dive questioned.

"Because you are supposed to go as accurately as possible! That means trace the hole by its shape right above it! Your outline around it made a circle with a different circle with a different circumference, different diameter, different radius, different area, different everything!" Volcano complained.

"It's just a little difference, no creature will notice it!" Falcon Dive claimed.

"But we do notice it." Applejack pointed out.

"And this involves perimeter and area! More multiplication and division!" Volcano reminded.

"Don't we round off to 3 significant figures or 1 decimal place all the time?" Falcon Dive asked.

"For the final answer, Falcon Dive! If you kept rounding off every time before reaching your final answer, you'll get it all wrong!" Volcano called.

"I don't see the point." Falcon Dive responded.

"Does any creature here has something I can write on? And something to write?" Volcano asked.

"Well, I have a pencil and my sketchbook for my designs, but since you need them, I will generously let you borrow them for as long as you need." Rarity responded, levitating the said materials out of nowhere.

"Thanks, Madam Rarity. I'll return them to you shortly after I show some creature here how a little difference make a huge one." Volcano turned to look at Falcon Dive for a while when mentioning 'some creature', before turning back to the sketchbook in his claws.

Turning to a blank page Volcano started, "Let's say we are trying to find an angle, and the only thing we know is that sine said angle is 8 over 9."

"That's easy, to find the angle, sine inverse 8 over 9." Alkali stated.

"Yes, but look at the answer, it's 62.73395555 degrees. If you round it off to 1 decimal place, you get 62.7!" Volcano explained.

"Yes, we already know how rounding off goes." Falcon Dive responded, "If the number is in the range of 1 to 4, round down, in the range of to 9 round up."

"Of course, but now I'm going to add 180 degrees to my answer, and compare it to adding 180 degrees to my rounded off answer. For the accurate answer, I get 242.7339555, rounding off that answer, I get 242.7, if I took the earlier rounded off answer, 62.7, I get 242.7, the same number as what I got with using the accurate then finally rounding off." Volcano explained.

"See? You get the same answers!" Falcon Dive pointed out.

"But what if I had to subtract 100.84 from them after this?" Volcano asked, before doing his calculations, "Subtract 100.84 from the accurate 242.7339555, is 141.8939555, then rounding off to 1 decimal place will get me a 141.9. But as calculations go with the early rounded off 242.7, subtracting 100.84 from it will give me 141.86."

"The digit in the hundredths places of the numbers are different!" Alkali added.

"But if you rounded 141.86 to 1 decimal place, you get 141.9, the same as what you got when you did accurate until the end!" Falcon Dive argued.

"True, but let's see what happens when it's multiplication and division, what finding area is all about!" Volcano announced, "Now, I'm going to multiply both answers by 5, because 5 is the furthest from a 0 compared to all the other digits, being right in between the lower and the upper. Plus, since multiplying 2 already brings the number up to a ten, it probably is going to make some big changes!"

"Continue." Buffer told his dragon Best Friend.

"Alright, multiplying 141.8939555 by 5 will make 709.4697777, round it off to 1 decimal place is 709.5. But if I multiplied the earlier rounded off 141.9 multiply by 5, I will get 709.5?" Volcano went on, and was shocked to see that both numbers got to the same final answer.

"I told you there's not much of a difference! Like making a circle a little bigger than the reservoir!" Falcon Dive proudly responded.

"Come on Volcano, we got to move on to doing something! Not watch your calculations!" Applejack called.

"Wait a minute every creature, I'm sure Volcano can prove to you how rounding off before your final answer can be different from rounding off once you arrived at your final answer!" Alkali assured.

"Thanks Alkali, and I figured what went wrong, I shouldn't multiply by an integer, I should go even more accurate like an exam paper's question would!" Volcano informed, "I probably wasn't thinking straight to choose whole numbers, I wasn't thinking twice."

"That's alright. Now fire away!" Alkali responded.

"Going back to 141.89339555 degrees, only this time, multiplied by 5.55 and the result is 787.5114533. But if I multiplied 141.9 by 5.55 I get 787.545?! Rounding both answers off to 1 decimal place still gives me the same number; 787.5!" Volcano cried.

"Volcano, we don't have more time to spare!" Braeburn informed.

"Dividing them both by 16?! Oh...still the same rounded off final answer!" Volcano panicked.

"I better go check on my family here." Applejack walked away.

"So do I, as the leader of the Appleloosa's Apple Family!" Braeburn cried, following his cousin.

"Wait every creature! I just realised that I should have used an example similar to the situation right in front of our eyes!" Volcano announced, stopping every creature.

"You mean the area of the reservoir?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Yes, the same topic bout circles!" Volcano replied.

"I knew that!" Pinkie Pie chirped.

"Alright, not drawn to scale, here's a circle said to have a circumference of 10 centimetres, and another circle said to have the circumference of 10.01 centimetres, which is different from the former circle by just 0.01 centimetres." Volcano explained.

"It's just 0.01 centimetres, it's not going to make much of difference!" Falcon Dive figured.

"Are you sure about that? Because if I took 10 divided by 3.141592654 and got 3.183098862 and rounded off to 3.18 then halved it making 1.59 then square it, I get 2.5281 rounding that off, I get 2.53. Then multiply 2.53 by 3.141592654...I get 7.948229414, round it off and I will have 7.95 centimetre square.

But if I took 10.01 and took it down the same process, dividing it by 3.141592654, then divide by 2, and finally squaring it, I get 2.538098183, then multiply it by 3.141592654, I get 7.973670607. Round that off, my final answer will be 7.97 centimetre square, which is different from 7.95 centimetre square by 0.02, which is double the difference between the circles' circumferences!

And this time, I used 3 significant figures, because it is not degrees, and as the eyes can see, more accurate as it rounded off to 2 decimal places throughout with the exception of the 3.141592654." Volcano explained.

Every creature except for Volcano, Alkali, Buffer, Krona, Spike and Princess Twilight Sparkle gasped to see what a huge difference such a small change could make.

"Uh, Volcano? I just realised that you address Pi as its decimal form throughout, you could have saved time and speech by addressing it as Pi." Buffer stated.

"Oops, sorry. I guess I've been in accurate zone for too long." Volcano apologised.

"If a small difference of 0.01 made a change for the final answer..." Rarity began, before Spike finished the sentence for her.

"There's no telling what a big difference measuring that outline-out-of the circle rope will make compared to taking the measurements of the actual reservoir!"

"Sorry Volcano...I never thought that such a small difference can make a huge one!" Falcon Dive apologised.

"That's what many creatures think, but I'm glad the you see it now." Volcano responded, a second before the Captain of the Wonderbolts appeared pulling a cloud to the top of the reservoir.

"Sorry every creature, but I had to travel for miles just to get one cloud for rain!" Rainbow Dash apologised, before kicking the cloud, only to get one droplet of water."Whoops, I already used this cloud. Sorry I wasted all that time..."

"You're not the only creature who wasted every creature else's time here..." Volcano replied, feeling guilty.

"There, there, Volcano, at least you finally proved that even a little difference like 0.01 can make a huge difference!" Alkali assured, patting his shoulder.

"Uh, what did I just miss?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Volcano demonstrated that even small changes can make huge differences by doing some math involving Pi, halving then squaring numbers...but the main thing is he proved that even something we might barely notice can make a huge difference!" Falcon Dive explained.

"But I can't believe I never thought twice before wasting all that time, I really should have thought more than once to prevent so much time from going to waste!" Volcano unhappily claimed.

"And I should have thought twice before I put the clouds I used back into the sky, I mean, there's no way I can tell if I already used them or not!" Rainbow Dash added.

"Maybe if you left a mark, you will know that you already used it?" Buffer suggested.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Or leave a hole! Clouds don't naturally get huge holes in the, leave a hole to indicate that it's already used!" Krona figured.

"Great idea!" Rainbow Dash commented, before punching a hole in the cloud she had with her that second.

"Keep trying to find clouds for water, Rainbow Dash, Appleloosa really needs it!" Princess Twilight Sparkle ordered.

"On it!" Rainbow Dash saluted, flying off with the used cloud.

"Heroic Ten, please, do whatever you can to help until I have certain orders for you." Princess Twilight Sparkle pleaded.

"You can count on us, your Majesty!" Falcon Dive saluted like Rainbow Dash just did.

"And just one more thing!" Volcano called, "Madam Rarity, I said that I will need your pencil and sketchbook for a short while, but I just realised that I needed them for a longer period of time, in order to measure the reservoir!"

"Sure thing, darling, as long as you return them to me!" Rarity replied.

"The rest of the Council and I will do what we can." Princess Twilight Sparkle informed, walking off with her best friends.

---

The scene changed to show what happened after the creatures finally got a very accurate measurement of the circle's circumference.

"Alright, we got a measurement of 628.3 metres, as accurate as we can go. Divide by 3.1415..." Volcano stated, before being interrupted by his best friends.

"That's Pi!" the other creatures shouted in unison.

"Alright, divide 628.3 by Pi, will get 199.9941015, then divide it by 2 will get 99.99705074, then square the number, I get 9999.410158, then multiply 3.14..." Volcano went on before another interruption.

"Pi!" the other creatures exclaimed in unison once again.

"I meant multiply by Pi, and that's 31414.07349, round off to 3 significant figures and it's 31400 metre square!" Volcano announced.

"Wow! That's a lot!" Alkali commented.

"A lot of surfaced area exposed for the water to evaporate!" Krona cried.

"And that's not all, with 1 cubic centimetre equal to 1 millilitre, and 1 cubic metre equal to 1 million centimetres equal to 1 million millilitre, equal to 1 thousand litres, according to calculations, 31400 metre square times 1 metre, 31400 cubic metres is equal to...31400 000 litres!" Volcano exclaimed.

"That means for every 1 metre down in this reservoir, 31400 times 1 thousand litres of water is lost!" Falcon Dive figured.

"Or 3.14 times 10 to the power of 7! 3.14 times 10 million!" Alkali added.

"The creators of this reservoir sure didn't think twice; I mean, this large exposed surface area is going to lead to the loss of water through evaporation big time!" Volcano commented.

"We got to tell Princess Twilight Sparkle in fast!" Buffer announced.

"I'm the fastest out of all of us, especially when no Luster means no teleportation." Falcon Dive stepped up.

"Alright, Falcon Dive, tell Princess Twilight Sparkle that the reservoir is not well-designed to store and keep water, and take the sketchbook with you, to show her the calculations as proof. Bring the pencil along as well, just in case you bump into Madam Rarity, so you can return what I borrowed." Volcano instructed, giving the griffon the sketchbook and pencil as he spoke.

"On it!" Falcon Dive saluted, flying off.

"So, what's the rest of us going to do?" Alkali asked.

"Check on my family?" Buffer suggested.

"Well...maybe you can check on your family, Buffer." Volcano figured.

"MAYBE?!" Buffer repeated.

"Alright, you can go check on your family, while getting them to help look around town and observe the damage the lack of water is doing." Volcano instructed.

"Thanks, it means a lot to me to know that they're alright." Buffer replied, walking off.

"Can Krona go with Buffer?" Krona asked.

"Sorry Krona, but I think we need your help here with the reservoir." Volcano apologised.

"What?!" Krona asked.

"We need to build something waterproof to cover the reservoir, so even when the water evaporates, the water vapour cannot escape into the atmosphere! It will condense on the waterproof cover and go back into the reservoir and will not be lost through evaporation!" Volcano explained.

"Volcano's idea is great, but is Princess Twilight Sparkle and Appleloosa alright with it?" Krona asked.

"I don't know, but I think it's alright, I mean, that's a good idea!" Volcano figured.

"But if Sunshine was here, she'd ask Princess Twilight and the town for permission before doing something like make changes to the town's reservoir, because that's the right thing to do!" Alkali reminded, "Plus, you don't want to get into trouble like the time I broke the rules of the Relaxing Room and we both got caught by Sunshine."

Volcano's eyes widened and turned oval upon hearing Alkali's mention of their unfortunate time, and quickly responded, "Alkal, find Princess Twilight Sparkle and the sheriff of Appleloosa, and tell them our plan to build a waterproof cap over the reservoir!" Volcano instructed.

"Understood!" Alkali saluted, flying off in a flash.

"Now Krona, let's think of what the cap should be made of." Volcano turned to his yak Best Friend.

"Uh, shouldn't Krona and Volcano think of what features does the cap need?" Krona asked.

"We'll figure it out, after figuring out the features." Volcano explained, "Now, for a start, it needs to be waterproof, because non-waterproof materials like paper will absorb the water, and lose the water through evaporation! The material must not be fragile, because we don't want it breaking into millions of tiny pieces that can fall into the water and pollute it! So the material cannot be glass nor ceramic. The material must not be plastic that can break into micro-plastics and pollute the water, neither!"

"That's so many things to go on the cannot be list!" Krona commented.

"And that's not all, we need the material to be a poor conductor of heat, to slow down evaporation!" Volcano added, "And a finishing touch of painting it white to prevent the reservoir from getting hot through radiation so quickly!"

"Now that everything about what the material must be like is figured out, what material fits the description?!" Krona asked.

---

Above town, Falcon Dive spotted Princess Twilight Sparkle with Rarity, causing him to say to himself, "Perfect! Both creatures on my Find List, found in the same place, a metre apart!"

"Not completely perfect on my Find List, the sheriff isn't with the princess!" Alkali showed up to inform her griffon Best Friend.

"Maybe the princess is all we need!" Falcon Dive figured.

"What?!" Alkali asked.

"I mean, she can just magically send a letter to the sheriff without finding him! Everything solved!" Falcon Dive explained, before diving down like a peregrine falcon.

"Wait for me!" Alkali cried, following the griffon and copying his diving position.

Alkali's attempts to copy Falcon Dive's dive may be successful, but when he changed to spreading his wings out to change direction at the last second before his beak could hit the ground, she quickly found out that it was a bad idea to dive fast, as she had not mastered such a stunt, and winded up crashing right into the door of the building that Princess Twilight Sparkle and Rarity were standing in front of, a few seconds after Falcon Dive got to the mares.

"I'm okay..." the hippogriff groaned.

"Darling! What happened? How did you fly so out-of-control like that?" Rarity asked.

"I was trying to copy Falcon Dive's fast diving like a peregrine falcon, but I haven't mastered it to turn nor change direction at the last second." Alkali explained.

"Next time, practice stunts in the sky near fluffy, soft clouds." Flacon Dive advised.

"Got it, and incidents like this won't happen again." Alkali declared.

"Alright Madam Rarity, here's your pencil back." Falcon Dive presented the pencil to the unicorn mare, before turning to Princess Twilight Sparkle, "And your Majesty, here's something you should see; according to the calculations Volcano made, the exposed surface area the reservoir has is 31400 metre square when rounded off, and that means around 3.14 times 10 to the power of 7 litres of water is lost when the water level goes down by 1 metre. The large exposed surface area is allowing too much evaporation! The reservoir is not designed well enough to store water with this feature!"

"But don't worry, Volcano figured that if we built a waterproof cap to prevent the water vapour from getting into the atmosphere, the water won't be going anywhere as the water vapour condenses into water droplets over the lid, and as far as I know Volcano, he's probably already figuring out what material the cap needs to be made of! Starting wth the features of the material like not fragile, not easy to decompose, will not break into tiny pieces to pollute the water.." Alkali went on until Princess Twilight Sparkle interfered.

"Thanks for th information, Heroic Ten, but I'm afraid that the reservoir has to stay the way it is!"

"WHAT?! Why?" Falcon Dive asked.

"Because the reservoir is designed to collect large amounts of water from rain!" Princess Twilight Sparkle explained, "The larger the area, the more water to collect, and the more it can store without going very deep underground. Do you know how long it took to dig that deep underground since the moles hadn't returned back when the reservoir was built? More than a year! We can't go any deeper, nor can we place a cap over the hole, as that will block the rainwater!" Princess Twilight Sparkle explained.

"But...can't you see that there is no rainwater to collect nowadays?!" Falcon Dive complained.

"Um, can you please excuse us a second?" Alkali asked, before walking off with Falcon Dive flying after her.

"What's with you? Don't you see that I have a good point back there?!" Falcon Dive asked while whispering.

"Yes, but so does Princess Twilight Sparkle! She's right that the reservoir needs to be designed to collect water in order to store! I mean, no point designing the reservoir to store water if it does not have any collected water to store!" Alkali whispered back.

"But it's not doing a good job storing water, is it?" Falcon Dive argued, still whispering.

"Yes, but maybe we need to think things through; we thought of the water reservoir one way, but not the other. We think that we have to improve the reservoir to be good at storing water and preventing it from losing water through evaporation, but we didn't think that the water reservoir should be designed for collecting water from rain, and storing so much without needing to go even deeper! Princess Twilight Sparkle and the creators of the reservoir thought of the opposite of what we thought! Both sides are thinking of one need, and not the other!" Alkali explained.

"Too bad we can't design the water reservoir to be good at both storing water and collecting water!" Falcon Dive signed.

"Falcon Dive, you're a genius!" Alkali praised, "If the reservoir is good at both storing and collecting water, both needs are fulfilled. We got to tell the princess!"

The two creatures turned to see that Princess Twilight Sparkle had disappeared while they talked.

"Where's Princess Twilight Sparkle?" Falcon Dive asked.

"She was here, until she learnt from a friend of the sheriff's that the sheriff needed to see her." Rarity explained.

"See her? Where?" Alkali asked.

"At the sheriff's office, of course." Rarity replied.

"Why didn't we think of that?" Falcon Dive asked.

"Wait a second, think!" Alkali gasped, "When we think and thought the whole day, we never thought more than once before we acted! That happened with you claiming that something as little as 0.01 will not make a big difference, Volcano's math examples, not thinking twice nor thrice, nor more than once, led to all that unnecessary waste of time until he found a way to obtain different answers from rounding off and accuracy! Same thing for the reservoir and how we thought of it, and the same thing for you when you were about to start an argument with Princess Twilight Sparkle!"

"Let's not talk about the argument part ever again." Falcon Dive insisted.

"Alright, but the main point is, every creature never thought twice before they acted! And look at how many bad things most of the mentioned examples can cause!" Alkali pointed out.

"You're right, not thinking twice sure led to a lot of problems, like the water reservoir is not designed to store water on hot days." Falcon Dive named an example.

"Which results in a water shortage!" Alkali cried.

"And a town in crisis!" Falcon Dive added.

"Looks like we got a new message to give out." Alkali declared.

"But before we do..." Falcon Dive responded, then turned to fly towards Rarity and return her sketchbook, "Here you go Madam Rarity, your sketchbook back, as promised."

"Thank you so much for returning it. It still has my latest designs that are yet to be made!" Rarity replied.

"Whatever, we're off now!" Falcon Dive notified, flying off with Alkali.

---

In the mean time, Buffer had arrived at his family's house and knocked on the door, but there was no answer.

"Looks like no creature's home." Buffer said to himself.

"Who are you calling no creature?" a familiar voice could be heard asking.

Buffer turned to see a pleasant sight; his younger sister Cushion right behind him.

"Cushion! Am I glad to see you alright!" Buffer cried happily, hugging his sister.

"I'm glad to see you too, Buffer, regardless of whether you are a famous hero of Equestrian and Beyond, or just your regular self." Cushion replied, embracing the hug.

"Buffer! It's so good to see you!" Buffer and Cushion's father Bulwark greeted.

"Especially in Appleloosa, our hometown!" the siblings' mother Mainstay added, "Even though, we might have to spend most of our days camping somewhere else nowadays."

"What?!" Buffer asked.

"Haven't you heard? There's a water shortage here!" Cushion informed.

"Yes, I've heard, and saw the reservoir with my best friends." Buffer explained, "Only half of the Heroic Ten, including myself are on the case here today."

"Where's the other half?" Mainstay asked.

"At Manehattan because some creature's relative nee personality fixing, but the main point is, my best friends and I will do something to solve the problem!" Buffer saluted.

"I sure hope so, because if the water doesn't go increase, we're afraid that we may have to move away and live somewhere else." Bulwark announced.

"What?!" Buffer asked in shock.

"Many Appleloosans have already been getting ready to do so, and so have we. Unless the water in the reservoir is enough for all of us once again." Mainstay explained.

"Face it, Buffer. We really need lots of water. Don't believe me, check out our water usage!" Cushion told her brother, before entering the house.

Buffer gasped to see that the house looked like a new one, with nothing other than space in it.

"Where's all your stuff?" Buffer asked.

"We packed it all up to prepare for the time we have to leave." Bulwark answered.

"But we still return to sleep here, before going out to somewhere else with more water to collect in our huge tanks and carry back." Mainstay added.

"Here's a graph of how much we used last month!" Cushion told her brother, while dragging a paper across the floor.

After the preteen buffalo removed her foot from the paper, Buffer could see how much water was used everyday of the month before, commenting, "You sure used different amounts of water each day! Which adds up to 28 cubic metres. And since 1 cubic metre is the same as 1 million cubic centimetres, which is the same as 1 million millilitres, which is the same as 1000 litres, you actually used 28000 litres of water!"

"28000 litres of water is way more than we can drink in a month!" Cushion added.

"That's because we use water for all sorts of things! Washing apples before consumption, taking a shower, cleaning the floor, all sorts of things!" Bulwark explained.

"And worst of all, if you consumed 28000 litres a month, how many litres do you think the whole town of Appleloosa consumes in the same period of time?!" Buffer asked.

---

At the sheriff's office, the sheriff and Princess Twilight Sparkle were still thinking of what to do with the water reservoir.

"We could try making it even deeper now that the moles have returned to help us again..." the princess suggested, a second before there was a knock on the door.

"Come in, the door' snot locked." the sheriff called.

Alkali and Falcon Dive entered the office the very next second, with Alkali doing the greetings, "Good afternoon, sheriff of Appleloosa!"

"I'm Sheriff Bronze Rod, the sheriff who succeeded the former Sheriff of Appleloosa Sheriff Silverstar." the sheriff introduced himself.

"Got it. And by the way, you do know who we are and why we're here, don't you?" Falcon Dive asked.

"Indeed, two members of the Heroic Ten. The team's hippogriff and griffon members." was the sheriff's answer.

"You don't know our names?!" Falcon Dive asked in a complaining tone.

"The only Heroic Ten member's name that I know is Luster Dawn, the unicorn who leads the team?" the sheriff referred.

"Alright...here's your chance to know the whole team's names, although not all of them are here nor in Appleloosa...I'm Alkali, the hippogriff, and the griffon is named Falcon Dive, the buffalo is originally from here, and he's called Buffer..." Alkali began, until she was interrupted by the sheriff.

"I don't have time for this! I'm trying to thin of what to do with the water in the reservoir..."

"That's what we're trying to help with! And we figured that you need to improvise and make the reservoir good at both collecting water and storing water." Alkali informed.

"Hmm...good at both collecting and storing water...I like the sound of that." the sheriff responded.

"You creatures have a great idea, but how is that possible?" Princess Twilight Sparkle asked.

"That's what we are still trying to figure out. Maybe Volcano already thought of something. He and Krona should be still at the reservoir." Alkali reported.

"Then take us to them!" the sheriff instructed.

---

"No! No! No! Why can't I think of a material that matches everything needed?!" Volcano asked as he paced around.

"Krona already tried to tell Volcano, that there's no such material that fits all of the descriptions!" Krona reminded.

"There has to be at least one out of all the materials the universe has!" Volcano dramatically cried.

"Has what?" the sheriff asked upon showing up with Alkali, Falcon Dive and the Ruler of Equestria.

"Volcano, Krona, meet the current Sheriff of Appleloosa, Sheriff Bronze Rod!" Falcon Dive introduced.

"Great to see that some creatures are concerned enough to come all this way to help!" the sheriff commented.

"Indeed the Heroic Ten are trying to help!" Krona declared.

"I still have no luck thinking of a material that's waterproof, not fragile, will not break down into tiny pieces, not biodegradable, not reactive and a poor conductor of heat!" Volcano panicked, "And I wasted so much time!"

"Guys! You will not believe what I just found out!" Buffer called, running towards his best friends.

"What did you just find out?" Princess Twilight Sparkle asked.

"That my family, despite being three creatures in a house with me living in Ponyville, consumes 28000 litres last month! That means the whole town must have used loads of water last month, because a small family used up to such a large amount!" Buffer informed.

"Of course! Water consumption! That's a factor of decreasing water level as well!" Volcano exclaimed.

"But how much water did the whole town of Appleloosa use?" Alkali asked.

"I don't know, a few billions?" the sheriff figured.

"Let's go down town and ask every creature!" Volcano declared.

"What?! No way! That will take too long! Do we have enough time to go to every house and ask and then add up?!" Falcon Dive asked.

"But how els are we going to know exactly how much water the whole town consumed?" Volcano asked.

"We can estimate!" Buffer suggested.

"Estimate? But that's like, the opposite of accurate!" Volcano complained.

"Does Volcano think that there's time to be accurate and go to every house in Appleloosa and get info?!" Krona dramatically asked.

"Now that you put it that way, maybe an estimation is good enough!" Volcano sheepishly responded.

"Alright, since my family used 28000 litres last month, we can use that amount to estimate how much all of Appleloosa used." Buffer began.

"There are 500 buildings in the town, plus one Apple Orchard." the sheriff reported, "And judging by how big the orchard is, I bet it consumes 10 times the water a house or building consumes!"

"In that case, we should have 28000 multiply the number that's 10 more than 500!" Falcon Dive apprised.

"Got it! 28000 multiply 510...that's...14280000 litres!" Volcano gasped.

"Or 1.43 times 10 to the power of 7 litres in standard form! And if it weren't for needing to write decimals, the number is actually 1428 times 10 to the power of 4, making an 8-digit number!" Alkali cried.

"But 1 billion is a 9-digit number, and 9-digit numbers are more than 8-digit numbers!" the sheriff assured.

"That's for the positive numbers, not the negative numbers." Krona pointed out.

"Um, Krona? I don't think Appleloosa's going to have negative temperatures." Buffer informed.

"And, no matter what 8-digit number you use, multiply it by 10 will surely get you to a 9-digit number!" Alkali stated.

"There are 12 months in a year, and 12 is more than 10! Multiply 14280000 by 12 is surely going to get us over a billion! In other words, the town will probably use over a billion litres every year!" Volcano exclaimed.

"And that's just a year! How many litres will they use in a decade?!" Falcon Dive asked.

"Ten times of how much they used in a year if you estimate." Buffer figured.

"Water is actually very precious!" notified.

"More than that, it's very important, living things like us creatures can't survive without it! You have to improve the reservoir so it can collect and store water perfectly!" Alkali declared.

"And encourage every creature to save water!" Volcano ended.

"I see what you creatures mean, but how are we going to make sure the reservoir does not allow the water it stores to dry out so easily?" the sheriff asked.

"You mean don't let the water evaporate so easily." Alkali corrected.

"I suggest making a cap to cover it, but can't think of a material that has all the characteristics; waterproof, not fragile, will not break down, poor conductor of heat and not reactive!" Volcano stated.

"Maybe instead of just one material, you can combine materials?" Buffer asked.

"Combine materials?! Have you taken Chemistry?!" Volcano asked.

"Not chemically combine them, just combine them so you can get all the characteristics. Like our team doesn't have just one creature who has all the characteristics of strength, flight, fire breath, transformation, aquatic respiration, and magic...it has different creatures that have different characteristics, so the team can have all those characteristics together!" Buffer explained.

"That's a great idea! I can't believe I was too busy thinking of one material to think of that idea." Volcano responded.

"Looks like every creature isn't thinking twice today." Krona commented.

"And I don't think that my family's idea of going to other places of Equestria to collect water with large tanks to bring home every day is a good idea." Buffer admitted.

"Wait. If the Appleloosans are getting water from other parts of Equestria and consume as much as they do, it's only a matter of time before they make those places run out of water!" Falcon Dive cried.

"And not just them! Every creature in Equestria and Beyond needs water to consume! How much water do you think they all consume?!" Alkali asked.

"Probably more than we can ever calculate or imagine!" Princess Twilight Sparkle answered.

"So we got to not just encourage Appleloosa to save water, but also all of Equestria?!" Sheriff Bronze Rod asked.

"Yes, but we'll start here, in Appleloosa, because we're already here, and here needs help way more than every other place we know!" Alkali responded.

"And I think I managed to think of how to make the cap..." Volcano stated.

"But we still need to let the rain water get in whenever it rains!" Princess Twilight Sparkle reminded.

"I figured that out too, we can dig tunnels and holes to drain the water into the reservoir while the cap stays covering it!" Volcano figured.

"But what if some creature doesn't notice the holes and falls in?" Falcon Dive asked.

"I...never thought of that..." Volcano gulped.

"Maybe the holes used to drain the water, should be covered up by something with tinier holes in it! Like the holes of a colander! They're used to allow water in!" Alkali suggested.

"And now that the moles are helping Equestria like they used to before disappearing, we can ask them to dig holes and tunnels not just around the reservoir, but all of Appleloosa, to collect even more water whenever it rains!" Buffer suggested.

"Wait a second, Buffer! We can't dig tunnels and holes in the ground as much as we want to, because if there were too many of them, the ground won't be able to hold everything" Volcano warned.

"Then maybe, we should just dig rows of tunnels long the buildings that lead to the reservoir! As in, a tunnel in front and behind every building!" Falcon Dive suggested.

"And cover them with caps that have tiny holes in it so no creature falls in, while water goes in!" Alkali ended.

"You creatures are clever to think of all this!" Princess Twilight Sparkle complimented.

"But just one question; if we built a cap over the reservoir, how are we going to know how many litres of water is in the reservoir, when the cap may block the view?" the sheriff asked.

"Maybe we need to add the characteristic, transparent, on the list?" Buffer asked.

"Unless the cap can be removed whenever it is needed to be removed, and then put back into place." Krona commented.

"Krona, you just figured out the finishing touches!" Volcano praised.

"What can Krona say?" Krona asked in a proud tone.

"Alright, we had the reservoir improvements plan all figured out!" Alkali exclaimed.

"But what about every creature's water consumption?" the sheriff questioned, "You can't blame them for needing to drink and wash things and water plants!"

"Waer? Wash?" Alkali repeated.

"Yes, I did use those words." the sheriff responded.

"Those words remind me of what I used to do with my little brother Acid years ago whenever we neutralised an acid and alkali to get water. We won't drink nor wash things with the water, so we used it to water the plants. Matter of fact, we used all the water that we used to wash things without soap, to water the plants. We always had a container right underneath whatever we were washing without soap to collect the water!" Alkali recalled.

"Alkali, your example is the last thing we need!" Volcano exclaimed.

"What? Watering the plants with water that was used to wash things without soap?" Alkali asked.

"Yes! If every creature collected that water for their plants, they will save some water as they will not have to use so as much as they do when they do not collect the water they use to wash things without soap!" Volcano figured.

"But that's just a little bit of water compared to all the water they need!" the sheriff complained.

"Never underestimate little amounts." Falcon Dive told the Earth Pony.

"Look at it this way, sheriff. If one mouse used 1 millilitre of water, as little as a droplet of water, how many millilitres would 500 houses use?" Buffer asked.

"That's easy, 500 times 1, that's 500!" Sheriff Bronze Rod answered, before gasping, "500 millilitres?!"

"That's enough to fill a 4 by 5 by 25 centimetres cuboid!"Krona exclaimed.

"And all from little droplets of water!" Buffer added.

"Bet you'd think that such a little amount was nothing to mind!" Falcon Dive said to Sheriff Bronze Rod.

"But if every creature saved the amount of tap water that they use to water the plants with by using already used water instead, the amount will add up just like saving time!" Volcano stated.

"Like, if I took 60 seconds to fly from here to the town, I'd take 120 seconds to go 1 round from here to the town and back! But if I managed to get faster and use 59 seconds to get here to town, I can go 1 round from here to town and back in 118 seconds, which is lesser time compared to 120 seconds! So the little 1 second difference does make a difference!" Alkali gave an example.

"A little difference can make a big one. That's something very valuable, as valuable as a lesson!" Princess Twilight Sparkle commented.

"Therefore every creature and every one can make a difference!" Alkali declared.

"Yes, we can! And we're going to make that difference right away!" Sheriff Bronze Rod announced.

---

The sun was soon setting, as all the new changes to the town of Appleloosa completed: There were neat, straight rows of drains in front and behind buildings to drain rain water, a new cap to cover the reservoir in order to prevent water vapour from escaping into the atmosphere, and a lever to open and close the cap whenever necessary. he Council of Friendship stood in a straight line with Princess Twilight Sparkle in the middle, watching the events unfold.

"I'm glad that I don't have to harvest rain for Appleloosa anymore. I mean, that was exhausting!" Rainbow Dash commented.

"I'm just glad that every creature has water again!" Fluttershy said, nuzzling the mice from earlier as she held them in her front right hoof.

"I'm glad that the town is going to stay!" Rarity announced.

"I'm glad that my family here is going to be alright." Applejack honestly stated.

"So am I!" Pinkie Pie chirped.

"All of Equestria is going to be alright, as soon as we ensure that every creature got the word, that every creature and every one can make a difference." Princess Twilight Sparkle said.

"They sure can!" Spike responded, walking right up to his adoptive sister's side, having left the end of the Council of Friendship's line position.

"With every creature trying to save water, Appleloosa won't consume as much as it did!" Krona exclaimed.

"Little differences sure can make a big one!" Buffer reminded.

"In your school subjects, and real-life scenarios!" Volcano added.

"So you got to think twice!" Alkali chirped.

"Before doing something, or claiming that things are the way you think they are!" Falcon Dive ended.

"You creatures sure have taught an important lesson to us all today: That we should think twice as even a little difference can make a big difference." Princess Twilight Sparkle told the five creatures.

"Wait, is that one or two lessons combined into one?" Pinkie Pie asked, causing every creature to laugh.

"We better get going, the train is going to come in less than quarter hour!" Volcano told the Council of Friendship.

"Sure thing. Until we meet again, Heroic Ten." Princess Twilight Sparkle replied.

---

That night, the entire Heroic Ten team was back together in the Castle of Friendship's Dining Room, sitting around the Dining Table, exhausted from their day.

"Well, it's great to know that you handled the problem, without us..." Luster told the five creatures who went to Appleloosa.

"And taught them something as important as thinking twice and how small differences can make a big one." Sunshine Rays added.

"And get them to save a very important need; water!" Nature Bloom contributed.

"But, you got to work with the Council of Friendship, while we don't..." Luster sighed.

"I don't think so, Luster. I don't think we worked with them much because we weren't together much!" Falcon Dive informed.

"Think twice, Falcon! If every creature did their part to save water, they are actually working together to save water!" Alkali stated.

"Regardless of whether they spent time with each other or not!" Buffer added.

"So...we ALL can actually be working with the Council of Friendship, anytime!" Yellow Bright cheered.

"What do you say, Luster?" Evergreen asked.

"That was great thinking twice!" Luster answered with smile.

---

Comments

[Magic135]

I was wondering if the Council of Friendship was going to do something like the old days.