As far as Rainbow's usually concerned, innovation doesn't come fast enough. The future should be now, and anypony who isn't willing to greet it head-on just isn't moving with the times. So getting what's effectively a new way of reading? Awesome! But it's not good enough yet. She needs it to work at her standards. And fortunately, she just happens to know a mechanic who can make a few adjustments.
Ratchette (usually) appreciates the business. But anypony who regularly deals with the weather coordinator has to expect a certain amount of... fallout.
And nopony can ever stop Rainbow from being Rainbow.
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Chapters (1)
And now we know what Ratchette looks like
As a mechanic, I feel like this is going to be terribly relatable.
Okay, I have to read this tonight, but... Ratchette looks like the next in line to plan Dash's murder (presumably) without actually going through with it.
I have a feeling that there's a "Murder-Rainbow-Dash resonant frequency" at which everypony in Ponyville will eventually vibrate together, and it won't be a happy day for Dash.
Glad to know the Cerea and Nightwatch's little venture is going well. Good for them. Too bad they never could have predicted what Rainbow Dash would do with it
Typo
Ah, a true love-hate relationship. Rachette and Rainbow, gadgeteer and flying idea disaster.
Also a horrifying reminder of the old Sony Discmans. Great green gods, did those things suck or what?
This was added to The Triptych Continuum Rebooted in the AU Folder
...The thing is, Ratchette likely could take the idea behind Rainbow's commission, sell it and make a fortune. After all, not all fliers are Rainbow Dash and for ground based transport it would work just fine. Just because Rainbow is an idiot doesn't mean the idea is bad.
I thought it was going to end with another Pony dreaming of killing Rainbow Dash but it just ended with the usual destruction. I thought cassette tape were going to be invented here. But in the end, they got the prehistoric grampa of all Walkman.
Still, all those innovation Rachette is making because Rainbow is pushing for new things outta be useful for other projects or invention. Maybe she could brevet some of it?
And augmented reality reading tablets? Now that's a great way to have to pick shards of glass out of your face.
Breakable glass. Yeah, that will end well. Portable window to break through.
👍
Rainbow, never change. Even if everyone in town has thought of killing you at least once, never change.
Yes, i know, this is complaining on a higher level but:
I wish this had been longer between it being done and
it being destroyed.
Especially the twilighting after having been shown up
by rainbow crash of all beings with a mobile library.
It wasn't Fluttershy's strangest legal exception, but it came close.
Which is a whole other story in its own right.
There is the question of why Yearling is so insistent on adaptations staying so true to the original, but that's also another story. Not necessarily the one we'd expect from canon, either.
I just wanted to highlight this sentence so I could properly appreciate it.
A reminder that the Bearers are no less insane than the average pony. They're just better at putting that madness aside when push comes to shove.
And what's that blocking out?
At least Rachette said no to earbuds; no way those could end well.
Truly an innovation ahead of its time.
This is something Dash and Discord could probably connect over. The past is static and pointless. The future is where all the fun is, and it can't get here fast enough.
Delightful stuff. I have to echo 11337391. More responsible users could absolutely get more than an afternoon's use out of the mechanism in its current state. (And for the less responsible ones, that's what the EULA is for. Though having it written down means they'll ignore it even faster and more thoroughly than Dash's best time with a verbal one. And no, that wasn't a challenge.) Thank you for this.
11337804
Probably saw too many other things get ruined because they changed so much from the source material.
Well this was a delightful character study (or two, considering the insight into Rachette and her willingness to be involved.)
I’m glad that you threw in the reference to the Minder, and why it wouldn’t work, as I recalled something like them in a previous story. I do recall them being considered junk in that one.
11337461
And near the eyes, too. No way that ends well.
Poor Rachette, the tech isnt QUITE there yet.
None the less, another superb one-shot Estee!
This is where I realized I'm reading Estee (I didn't look at author name again).
11337764
Twilight would've came up with v.2.
And film version was probably discarded by Cerea\Midnight because of magic involved.
11338006
All the more betterer.
Well, it's not a total loss. I imagine there's still plenty of uses for all of the little solutions to problems Ratchette came up with. The headphones at the very least will mean that listeners could play audio books in the library without disturbing other patrons, just as an example.
Rainbow = Scootaloo + Time.
You know, Its quite a good thing that thaumic fiction isn't Rainbow's favorite genre.
Also, nice to see Cerea's impact on Equestria, and I feel for Twilight, Her con and pro list is so true. At least she is quite a few generation away from (ugh) digital copies and the bullshit copyright rules in regards to lending.
And as frustrating it must be to have Rainbow as your muse, it is also nice to see the good parts of it.
"prevent ponies from flying while reading. Also while trotting in"
"prevent ponies from reading while flying. Also while trotting in"?
"changing only slightly as they bounced"
"changing only slightly as it bounced"?
Thanks for writing. :)
"What if," a new fast-approaching inevitable conclusion proposed, "you projected the words onto glass?"
Hey, that’s not as maniac as it sounds! I’ve been doing Ratchette-Rainbow experiments with my car windscreen
What for? HUD Heads Up Display. Projecting speed and maps onto the car windscreen. Production cars have actually incorporated this, displaying the speed and tachometer onto the glass so the driver doesn’t need to take their eyes off the road. Arguably, it’s safer.
If you use fresnel lenses to focus the image to infinity, then it will always remain in focus on your car windscreen no matter what distance your eyes have actually focussed to.
So there will be no: “I’m sorry Miranda Rights, I didn’t see the trotting librarian
or her dragon brother 
or even the dining seamstress 
because my binocular vision was focussed on an image projected onto a glass plate three hoofs in front of my nose 
EDIT:
And a big yaaaaaayy!! for Ratchette, whom we all love
EDIT 2:
Say... I wonder if Rainbow could a Heads Up Display...
Imagine her flying around with her current Wingpower displayed on a plate of glass in front of her...
She also has a non-mark talent for not thinking things through. Part of me suspects that when somepony bitter and angry needs to model abject idiocy, she channels the tub of manure they have as a weather controller.
This was a very enjoyable read, loved the explanation of why Ratchet keeps at it with rainbow beyond the money/damage control. One part that I didn't understand till reading more was when she apologized for the machine after RD mentioned what audiobook she was grabbing, the mention of stunt flying went right over my head.
I do have some questions. Is the ejection system just straight up tossing the used vinyl's to the ground or was there some sort of safety system? Doesn't speak well for the design if you need to buy a new audiobook every playthrough even if Ratchet knew the first flight would end this way.
Twilight being apparently ok with what's essentially the planned destruction of library feels a bit odd, though I guess that could be explained by this story's universe essentially giving up on stopping RD's.........ehh I'll just say her worst traits. That is me assuming that they used library audiobooks during testing and that vinyl's were broken during, is that correct?
11340088
I don't think the ejection mechanism ever got made, it was just Rachette explaining why it wasn't all that viable. Breaking your audiobooks every time you read them is probably not acceptable, even to RD.
I would think you could solve that by using a narrow strip of celluloid, basically the soundtrack part by itself. Which would leave you with something functionally equivalent to magnetic tape, only more flammable.
Also, in 1924 a Swiss company actually made a portable record player:
The Mikiphone
11340607
Believe you're right, it definitely does feel like Ratchet saying there's no good method in a roundabout way.
Neither and all fail to recognise this is how new development begins and finishes. They will be at the tape deck in a few months. Magic CD's in a few years.
Who knows what's next?
Is it weird that Rainbow's fertile imagination and blissful ignorance of engineering reminds me of Elon Musk? I feel like that's weird, and I'm also not sure whether that would be a compliment or an insult.
11342746
I would say that Musk is very aware of engineering. However he does like to push boundaries beyond the "this is what we've always done" line, since he believes that essentially anything is possible, unless it breaks actual laws of physics.
How much damage would occur if somepony suggested that Rainbow listen to the audiobook while she was asleep? Or would that be a Twilight thing, trying to learn while sleeping?
11337967
The tech is there, as in Minders, it's just that the manufacturers are greedy, selfish, jerks with no sense for a real innovative product. High-capacity, ejectable Minder spools with high fidelity recording/copying/playback systems in the manufacturing of the books. Audiobooks priced by the chapter versus by the syllable and eventually by the book. Hook the power system into a lesser used body mana channel, with mana capacitors to smooth out the flow. And, finally, NO PLATINUM! Who knows? Trixie could have come up with the idea, and tried to sell it to manufacturers, but they didn't care.
11337970
Estee has a very particular style of writing that is very recognisable
I just get this image of Dash flying along, with the sound cones by her ears also taking air flow in, to a small wind turbine for mechanical power inside the mechanism. One that can then project film stock, or even microfiched text and images through a flexible stalk with geared mirrors on the joints, to overlay images onto her visual field?
Pegasus with Big Ears and HUD?
It would be funny if someone did an audio reading of this. An audiobook (that can be portable) about making a portable audiobook.