Lilypad and Fish sat behind their desks watching the clock creep slowly around to lunch time. It was a very nice day outside and certainly far to pleasant to be inside a class room. Fish wanted to run around in the sunshine and Lilypad wanted to be back in her water barrel for a bit. Despite being midsummer 'Miss' was explaining rain. As Lilypad was currently magically transformed into her unicorn state, the topic was nearly too much to bare.
"How does heavy water go up and why does it come back down?" A pony had asked an hour ago.
The description of the water cycle was something the class covered every year. Although rain was important, it wasn't any more exciting than; dried out water went up, got cold and fell back as rain.
"How fast can raindrops fall?"
Fish groaned under her breath and Lilypad quietly giggled at her friends response.
"It falls faster and faster until the air pushes back on it and the speed levels out. Rain drops only fall so fast and no more," said Miss.
Eventually the clock reached twelve and the whole class made ready to break for the door. "Your assignment for the next two weeks is to demonstrate gravity. Class dismissed."
Once outside Fish jumped into the barrel with Lilypad. "Room for another one!" She shouted. Lilypad laughed as large amount of water sloshed over the side. Fish put her head under the water and resurfaced with a bedraggled smirk. "Gravity."
Lilypad pondered the word for a moment. Her underwater world was mostly without gravity. She hadn't really considered it until the first time she tried the land spell. Then turning her tail into legs had shown how much heavier she was as a fish out of water. Before that she had floated up and down as she pleased.
"We could throw something off a cliff or roll a big stone down a hill maybe?"
Fish's eyes lit up at this last suggestion. "We could roll a cart wheel down the hill, or the whole cart and then could ride in the cart."
That evening after school the Little grey filly decided to make a start on their new gravity cart. She knew many different pieces would be needed, but she figured if she made a start the list would be shorter. It might only be half a list or even less!
Sam stepped out into the yard to see what was happening. Waving a hoof in the general direction of Fish's work area she asked; "Are you building a wagon or a boat?"
"Both!" Beamed Fish, "if it doesn't work as a waggon it might work as a boat."
Sam turned her head on one side to see if it helped her imagine all the pieces assembled. It didn't, so she went back to her work and hoped Fish didn't hit herself with the hammer. She added; "Oh, why?"
"It's fur a hool roject," came the muffled small voice now holding a hammer in her mouth. "Wur esting ravity."
Fish had come on a long way since the failed submarine construction days. She could now nail on planks close together and knew how to plain the edges with some help. Glyn was very impressed and said so to Sam.
"I thought she would be a diver, and she knows her way around water like few others, but I'm beginning to wonder if we have bred a ship wright?"
That evening Sam and Glyn decided to probe further into this new 'school assignment'. Fish sometimes went off on a tangent and they wanted to be sure of the facts. A cart seemed an unlikely way to demonstrated gravity in a way that any school board would consider 'proper'.
"Lilypad and I will ride in the cart down a sloping road. We'll count to three and throw a marker over the side. If we go faster and faster the markers will be further apart. Afterwards we can step them out and see what gravity did to us."
Even though the information had clearly come from a book it still impressed Sam. She suspected the cart part was her daughters idea and the technical bit was most likely Lilypads. She would have known about ships using a rope with regularly tied knots as speed/distance markers.
Glyn considered the experiment for a moment, before adding; "We had a school trip to the canyon and we did a field experiment. There was a road at the top. Sticking out half way down was a big metal hoop which had paper across it. They dropped a stone off the top and counted until 'whack', the paper split and we started counting again. The rock did the last half a lot quicker. There might have been math?"
That weekend Lilypad came to the farm to do some home work. Fish had managed to find some decent planks by doing some chores at the next farm and Lilypad had acquired some wheels. Apparently some brand new hand carts had fallen off the crane and there were now more wheels than carts. White Cap her mum had managed to get five so that they had one spare. A passing pony had dropped them off.
"Brilliant that your mum got us great wheels," said Fish, poking a bolt through one and idly kicking a likely axel.
"She said they were ours on the condition we fitted a brake. I guess that's a good idea?"
Fish thought about it for a moment. "I suppose we should have one, but we won't be going very fast."
The two set to work finishing the shallow box that Fish had started earlier for a cart body. It didn't look very science like, so they decided to stream line it a bit. They hunted around for something inspirational and found a half collapsed barrel. Fish gave it a buck to loosen the staves and Lilypad used her magic to stack them.
"You're getting really good at that," beamed Fish.
Then they nailed the staves to the front of the box to give it a really good boat like feel. The gaps meant it wouldn't hold water, but it was at least looking fast!
"You've nailed the axel on the wrong end," Laughed Lilypad. "I thought you said the steering axel went at the pointy end."
Fish tried to look through her legs at the upturned cart-boat so it was the right way up. She wasn't sure how the mishap had happened, but it now had a lot of nails holding it together. Certainly far too many to pull back out easily. "It's new for this season.... I present the Boat Tailed Waggon!" she grinned.
Next on the list was the steering. Fish opted for a T handle sticking through the carts floor. Standing in the cart she had the option of teeth or hooves to turn the front axel. They also tied some rope to it so that they could pull the cart to the test site.
For practice they pushed each other around the yard for a bit and shoved it off a few small banks around the farm. It didn't fall apart so they lashed on a length of wood for a brake and set off for their maiden voyage. Half an hour later they were at the top of a hill with a large pond at the bottom.
The words were now firmly embedded in their minds. "Gravity pulls on things and makes them fall faster and faster." Fish braced her hooves into the front corners of the body and grabbed the tiller in her mouth. Lilypad pushed off stoutly and jumped in.
Initially things went very slowly. They counted to three and Lilypad threw a white stone over the side, then another three seconds and repeat. Fish was quite disappointed at the lack of speed for a few seconds until they achieved an acceptable velocity.
Then they reached a less acceptable velocity that needed to be reduced and very shortly after that she began to regret not fitting a really good brake.
"It's come off," shouted Lilypad, "the brake lever broke!"
Ten seconds in and the regret was replaced by a sudden rush of adrenaline as they really started to gain speed. They left the ground completely at several points as they launched over ruts. Fish hung on for dear life, using all her strength to keep off of the fences either side.
The noise was also starting to build as flying stones spat from the wheels and hit the wooden body.
Time changed up a gear as the two began to hope the inevitable crash went well.
"The Pond, aim for the pond," Lilypad shouted over the road noise. Fish couldn't reply that the pond was already her ideal 'soft landing' because of a mouth full of tiller. In a flash of spinning wheels and hope the two fillies ran out of luck and road.
Although traveling at a good running speed for a fully grown stallion, their velocity was not enough to jump the drainage ditch edging the T junction at the end of the bottom of the hill. The front axel dug in before gouging out the earth ahead of it, causing the back end to make an attempt at overtaking the front.
Lilypad was immediately launched from the back of the waggon and had enough sense to transform back into a sea pony mid air. She landed with a well practiced splash and used the speed to make a fast turn out of harms way.
Fish on the other hoof pretty much stuck with the wagon until the end. Just before impact she released the tiller and kicked out her hooves to make for open air. The wagon went down as much as she went up and threw her into a spin. Looking down she saw the wooden body grab the water before she went in rump first with a huge splash.
Lilypad surfaced as the wave came past, her eyes huge as she looked for her friend. The wagon began to list over and then sink as Fish spluttered to the surface."YES!" She shouted before making for the nearest grass.
Lilypad laughed and dived in to get the cart which was now wheels up and bobbing on the surface. Pushing it toward Fish she rammed it into the mud and leaned her hooves on it.
"This is the wrong side. The roads over there," Lilypad said, waving an ear in the general direction.
"Wow!" exclaimed Fish with a dazed expression. "How far did we fly?"
Fish regained her composure and righted the wagon so that it floated wheels down. She hopped in while Lilypad dragged it to the other side. "It's a Fish-Boat now," she giggled.
Fish then dragged the waggon from the pond while Lilypad sat proudly inside with her fish tail lolling over the side. The stout earth pony had it fully out of the water before she realised that the extra weight was a half load of water and a grinning sea pony.
It was clearly time to put the discovery learning aside, return to the farm and make repairs and upgrades. The wagon wasn't seriously damaged, but it was in need of a fresh hammering. Climbing back up the hill they collected the white stones that weren't at the bottom of the muddy pond.
Many were together near the bottom, indicating where they had gained air over ruts, but the first four were very well spaced. Lilypad had stuck with the plan despite the loss of the brake and they now had what they needed. Carefully pacing out the distance they scratched the results on the side of the wagon.
Lilypad eyed the numbers. "No doubt about it, this will get us an A grade for sure. Every stone is further away from the last one. We definitely accelerated, just like the graph showed in that book."
"Nice one," grinned Fish. "Let's go re-seal it and crash it into the river."
The End
Author's Note
Part biography maybe? I did build a soapbox-cart/boat once as a kid. I think Lilypad and Fish had better wheels though? But careering down hill is part of growing up and if you have an excuse it can only be good.
At 46 I'm still careering down hills, so I hope Fish is too :o)
No idea where she is going next? But I always say that ;p)
Great art by Fia94 again. We work well together and I got the chance to input a little on this one, so it is extra special.
