Chapters The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
***POV Jordan***
It was raining... Again. This time however, I didn’t have to go to work today. It was my day off, Sunday. It was about 10 AM and I had already done my usual routine (showering, eating breakfast, cleaning my teeth, shaving, etc...).
I thought I would at least be a bit productive today. Maybe go jogging. God knows I haven’t done that in a while, even if I’m not one of the fittest out there. I don’t want to become a fat piece of lard that you see on some TV shows. But with this weather, I just didn’t see the point to it.
I can hear some of you think. “Jordan, what is your job exactly?” Well I’m an Energy Manager. That means I get assigned to a situation within the company I work at and I upgrade and improve that specific point of the company if my boss thinks it’s a good investment.
For example: The company I work at needs to lower its electrical consumption because of some ecological guidelines. So they tell me these guidelines and let me have a look around the company. I tell them their lighting infrastructure is outdated and could have a great impact in reducing the electrical bill, then the boss will give me the green light to improve the lighting, like switching to LEDs. So I am basically the next level of electrician. I like my job.
Anyway, about me. I am a bit of a shy guy. But a comedian if you know me a bit better, or that’s what my friends tell me. I live in Belgium currently, more specifically in Ghent. It’s a decent city to live in, but that’s about it.
I like music, more specifically Rock. I play the piano as well as the organ, two instruments I really do enjoy playing. The thing I love to just mess around with the most is my sampler. With that I can just do silly stuff like create 8 bit music and other tunes.
In my free time I either play games, play music, or my friends play matchmaker for me and get me out on a date. Needless to say it usually goes horrible. Now that we have introductions out of the way, I was busy being bored.
I might play a game, haven’t done that in a while. I have been a bit too busy with work lately, I might as well do that. I was thinking about a blast from the past, Age of Empires 2. I played that game so much when I was little. And I also heard the recent DLC’s are pretty decent. So with my decision made, I started up my pc.
After the download was complete, I quickly started up the game. I started a random match against some bots to test if my skills had left me over the years. I quickly got immersed into the match I was playing. It quickly became a 3 hour match against 4 AI’s. I failed to take notice of the time that passed as I did my last push against the final AI.
I was just about to take the game and win when my phone started ringing. With a heavy sigh, I paused the game.
“Can’t a guy just play a game on his day off,” I ranted with some frustration. I picked up my phone and saw that it was already 1:43 PM. Damn, and I still had to eat my lunch. I looked at who was calling me and saw that it was my boss.
“Hello Mr. Torgue. What can I do for you,” I said trying to sound a bit cheerful.
“Son, we have an emergency that calls for your attention. At site Ertsvelde, the power grid you calculated and installed for our new solar panels is failing because of a peak in energy production. A peak you calculated that shouldn’t be possible.”
I was a bit shocked (no pun intended) because the power grid had enough safety regulations in it that it was near to impossible for a situation like this to happen.
“Sir, hang on a bit. Let me see if the data from the company server can provide more insight on the matter.”
“Make it quick because we need you here to fix this mess before the damage becomes worse” Snapped Mr. Torgue.
“Sir, any strange readings I see literally only started 3 minutes before you called me. Are there any unusual things happening at the factory?” I asked with worry.
“Son, we had to evacuate sector C within the factory because of these weird purple shining sparks coming off of the power supply to the machines. That’s all I have. Now listen, we made this investment because of your advice and if the damages become worse then a few hours of shut down then I am afraid that we can no longer have you in this corporation.”
I stayed silent for a few seconds. I replied with a shaky,“Yes sir, I understand.”
“Good. Now get your ass over here and fix this,” He said a bit aggressively. And then he hung up.
Fuck. This day went from good to “you’re about to lose your job” bad. “Calm down Jordan. You will be able to fix this mess without a doubt, I hope.”
It takes at least 10 minutes to get there by car, so I got moving. I quickly grabbed a couple of wraps from the fridge to eat on the go. I got my bag with the laptop from the company and headed out of my apartment.
I got towards my car. It’s a Opel astra from 1993. It’s old but it gets me from A to B. But lately I have been having some problems with my car. I needed to go to the garage sometime when I had some spare cash.
I tried to start her up.
“FUCK!” She wouldn’t start. “Don’t tell me, I have to go through this weather by bike,” I whispered to myself.
After 5 minutes I just gave up. “The one time I really need you, you piece of junk.” Now I was really frustrated. I picked up my bike and got through the shitty weather. I lost enough time as it is. It’s a good thing the company lies outside the city so I don’t have to get through all the traffic jams. Who am I kidding, It’s Sunday. There is no traffic on Sunday over here.
**TIME SKIP**
I tried to get there as fast as I could through the rain. It took me about 20 minutes to get to the company. And obviously I was soaked to the bone. I put my bike aside and I was quickly greeted by Ned. He’s a long time friend of mine and is head of one of the production lines in the factory.
“Yo Jordan. Glad you could make it this fast. And with a bike through this weather? What happened to your car?” He asked.
“Couldn’t start her. So I chose to lose the least amount of time. So what’s the problem here exactly?”
Ned answered: “First get inside. I’ll explain on the way to sector C.”
When we were inside everything goes just as normal. It was like nothing is wrong with the factory at all. But this was only sector A, the processing sector.
“The trouble only started about 40 minutes before you got here. Some machines are overloaded and are out of commission. The power grid from the solar panels are acting up,has this purple shining static around it and power production jumped from 6% to 165% which is insane considering the weather,” Ned explained.
Damn. This was one strange phenomenon. “This jump in production came out of the blue?” I asked.
“Yep. The bad part is it is still rising. If we don’t do anything now, I think our capacitors might explode. According to the papers you made, they’re the weakest of the installation.”
I thought for a minute about all the probable outcomes and which solution I would be able to use. “Are you sure this is coming from our solar installation?” I asked.
“165% sure. The readings just all indicate that,” He confirmed.
“It might be risky but I think I have a probable solution. But I have to see the situation before making assumptions.” I thought out loud.
“Damn straight you do,” he said while we continued walking.
We arrived at the sector and we noticed the effects immediately. There was nobody there. You could see the AC (Alternating current) HV (High Voltage) cables enveloped in this weird looking lavender static field. And the staff alarm was ringing with red lights everywhere.
“Let’s go to the observer room,” Ned said.
When we got to the observer room we could see all the data from the entire factory. The first thing I noticed was all the warnings from sector C.
It seemed like the capacitors were going to fail soon. If we didn’t do anything, they would cause major damage.
“We gotta try and uncouple the capacitors,” I told Ned.
“They still have a huge amount of power in them Jordan. This won’t be easy and without risk of them exploding,” he commented to my solution.
I thought long and hard. Such a huge problem in such a short time.
“Can we connect them directly to the national power grid?” I asked.
“It should work. But the boss ain’t gonna be happy, you know, paying the electrical bill afterward,” He joked.
“Mr. Torgue is going to have to deal with it. Its the bill or 1/4 of his factory in this site. I know what I would chose.”
Ned butted in: “If you’re going to couple the capacitors on the national power grid. Why don’t you do the same for the solar panels?”
“It’s too much power to dump in one go. But we might be able to divert our power to other companies near us and just some of it to the national power grid. Ned you are a genius,” I continued with Ned’s train of thought in mind.
“It’s why I’m here. Now let’s get to it,” he laughed.
We put on our safety gear and started going to the problem in our power grid. And with that we started on our plan to repair the power grid and remove the danger from it.
We were able to connect the capacitors to the national power grid without any real issue. We also got in contact with the nearby companies and some of them were glad to help and get free power in doing so. So the only thing left to do was to separate the factory grid from our own solar panels.
This way we produced solar energy that went back into the national grid and then we get the power we need from the national grid. It’s is definitely not a good solution by any means. But it was only temporarily.
It took us about 5 hours to get where we are now and we are exhausted. The only thing left was to close the connection between the panels and the factory.
“Ned can you make sure there’s no power flowing throughout sector C? Else I won’t be able to uncouple the grids safely.”
“Sure thing,” he said. “I’ll call you when it is done so that you know when to start.”
After about 5 minutes, I got a call from Ned telling me that there should be no more power flowing throughout sector C. I cut through the wires and installed a massive switch for future purposes.
“Ned I’m about done here. But try and start up the grid again to see if there is anything we missed,” I told him through the phone.
“Sure thing. I’ll let you know if there is still something going wrong,” He responded.
I heard the tell tale sign of the power switching back on. The first thing that happened were the lights that jump back on. I was a bit blinded at first. But I was able to adjust to the new light. I noticed that nothing horrible was immediately happening. Fingers crossed this worked.
“Hey bro. We did it. And about damn time too. It’s 8 pm on the dot. I’m tired as hell though.” I heard from the phone.
“Everything should be fine now Ned. I think it’s about time we go home. Come down here and help me clean up,” I told him.
“You got it!” I heard him respond.
While we were gathering our gear I see the same lavender static field creep on top of the switch I just placed. Fascinated by it, I decided to take a closer look. I tried to touch it with my heavily insulated gloves. It harmlessly danced on the glove.
Suddenly one of the cables from the solar panel grid jumped lose from the large switch I placed. It stabbed through my safety vest and hit my soaked clothes underneath. The last thing I remember is being enveloped by the purple field.
Author's Note
Characters are based on a couple of friends of mine.
The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
Chapter 1: A shocking Discovery (edited)
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. View Online
The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
Chapter 3: Directing my Current life (edited)
***POV Jordan***
As Twilight and Shining were walking down the stairs with me on her back, I noticed how their house was really homely and comforting. It was comparable to the houses humans made. But they were a bit outdated. They looked more like an ordinary grand-parents home than it looked like a recently built family home, only in way larger proportions.
I also noticed the strange absence of basic electrical equipment, like wall sockets, decent switches and other things. The only thing I saw were a few ordinary light bulbs which are a bit outdated and even banned where I live. Probably one in each room. Maybe they rely on their magic to do more common things for them in the household environment? Just like humans rely on technology.
The closer we got to their parents, the more nervous I got. How tall was an adult pony? Shining armor towers over me and he is only twelve.
Also, their behavior around me when we just met was pretty strange. It was almost like Shining and Twilight were approaching a cat or a dog. How would their parents react or approach me? Another question that was bugging me: how long was I knocked out for? The last thing I remembered was passing out at a pond in a park.
Anyway, I guess it is time to face the music. Because we just reached downstairs.
“There are our sweethearts with their little cutie,” I heard a more mature female voice comment. When I looked over Twilight her shoulder, I was mortified.
They are huge. At least twice as tall as twilight or me for that matter. And that is only in height. Most of their size is in length unlike humans where it is in height. They may call themselves ponies but they got nearly the size of regular horses.
First we got the female who commented on me. Once again a unicorn with light grey fur. Purple/lavender hair and tail with white highlights in them. Gray/cyan eyes and trippel purple stars as a cutie mark.
The second one was a bit taller and also a unicorn. I assume that this is Shining and Twilight’s father. His fur was blue. And his mane/tail were a deep midnight blue. He had a white crescent moon inside a yellow crescent moon as a cutie mark.
I waited for Twilight or Shining to introduce me to them before I would start to talk. I didn’t want to frighten them unnecessarily.
“Mom, dad. You might want to sit down for now,” Shining started
“Sigh. What did you two do this time?” asked their dad.
“Nothing, but there is something we should tell you,” Twilight said.
“What is it dear?” Their mother asked.
“Well...” Twilight took a decent pause before continuing, “Mom, dad. Can I introduce you to Jordan Eckhart.”
“Apparently he can talk,” finished Shining.
I decided that I was going to make myself known and confirm the claims both siblings were making. “Hi,” I squeaked.
“...” No answer from both of them. Both their eyes were as wide as dinner plates. I decided not to tell anything else until they ask for it. I would rather let them calm down on their own terms, than to shock them even further.
“Well, this is one interesting development.” It was the mother who first started to speak again after a minute or so.
“Hello Jordan. Nice to meet you. My name is Twilight Velvet and this is my husband Night Light,” She said with a shaky smile.
I Jumped off of Twilight to greet both parents like I would greet any other human.
“Hello Mrs. Velvet. It is nice to meet you too,” I said while I gave her a handshake. It looked a bit stupid because I needed 2 hands to shake her hoof. But I was not about to be impolite in someone else’s home, be it either a human, pony or someone else.
“Hi Mr. Light. It good to meet you as well.” And I gave him a handshake as well.
You felt the atmosphere tense up the longer everyone stayed quiet. But I didn’t want to impose so I waited for someone else to break the ice.
The first one to break the tension this time was Night Light. “Aren’t you a polite one. Even though this is not what we expected. Kids, when did you discover that Jordan could talk?”
“Just after you guys left. He woke up shortly after that. And that’s when we found out.” Shining was the first to answer this question.
“Ok. Jordan could you tell us a bit more about yourself?” asked Velvet.
I told them the same things I told both siblings upstairs.
Quite an explanation later they started asking more relevant questions.
“And do you have an idea where you came from?” was a dreaded question asked by Night Light.
I asked if I could talk to both parents alone for a minute or two. This way I thought that it would be easier to explain certain things.When both siblings were back upstairs again, both parents gave me a look to signal the floor was all mine.For some reason I was a bit compelled to give them the whole truth. And that was what I did.
I gave them a warning that everything I would say would be the utter truth and nothing else.
With that in mind I started my explanation of where I came from. I told them about who I was back in Belgium. I told them that I didn’t know where Equestria was compared to Europe or if this was another world or even another dimension.
After the explanation of my life, I started to recall the past day. With the incident at work up to where I woke up with Twilight and Shining next to me. Both of the parents stayed quiet throughout my entire story.
I didn’t notice that I was crying again. God damn, I’m such a wimp. With the explanation done, I waited for a reaction from both of them.
Both of them had tears in their eyes.”My dear,” Velvet started, “That is just awful. And with the ridiculousness of the story, I highly doubt that you would make something like that up.”
“It must be pretty terrifying for you to be in an entire new environment completely alone,” Night Light commented.
“Also, judging by how you got here in the first place, I don’t think you could return to wherever you came from even if you wanted to.”
That was a hard truth that I didn’t want to hear because of the overwhelming sadness it brings. But at the same time I knew in my heart he was speaking the cold truth. I put my head down in sadness.
“Look dear if you want, you could stay here. I can already see that you, Shining and Twilight get along quite well,” Velvet said trying to cheer me up.
“If you are offering. I mean I really don’t want to impose.” I really didn’t want to seem rude.
“Nonsense. A little guy like you could never impose. We can hardly leave you on the streets now can we,” Night Light chuckled.
“Thank you so much,” I answered.
“Now with that out of the way. We have something to discuss with you as well,” Night Light continued.
“Light! Not now!” Velvet interrupted.
“We have to tell him honey. So far he’s only been honest with us. We should do the same in return,” Light argued back.
Sigh . “You are right.”
“Glad you think so,” Night Light said a bit proud. It looked like he had finally won an argument for once.
“What is the problem exactly?” I asked.
“Right here we have documents for an appointment with a veterinary,” Night Light pointed out.
“Why?” I asked again. I didn’t like where this was going.
“We planned a visit to the veterinary somewhere next week, probably after Twilight’s exam to see if you are healthy. We didn’t think that a normal doctor would be familiar to your anatomy. Also we didn’t expect you to be sentient really. There is no known sentient species of primates.” Night Light finally dropped.
Son of a gum-chewing funk monster! Why the fruit does all of this funny stuff happen to me?! It’s like this whole world just likes to bend me over, and find me in the alps, like I’m some sort of shuck receptacle! Well as far as I care, fate’s miserable cows can have a fancy barbecue, with a god damned pig!
Sigh . This explains quite a bit though. Like Twilight’s and Shining’s behavior when I first woke up. Light’s and Velvet’s behavior right now. They just thought that I was an animal or an exotic pet of some kind.
“What exactly happened when I was out?” I was hesitant to ask but I needed to know.
“First you must understand that Twilight and Shining depend a lot on each other’s company. But Shining has friends he goes out and has fun with, while Twilight doesn’t really have those. So earlier today they both came in really excited and asked if they could keep you as a pet and a friend,” Velvet explained.
“Look,” she continued, “We might have also acted upon impulse. We should have checked first if you could talk or not, but you were knocked out. We have also never met anything like you before so we didn’t know any better. And we can’t expect Twilight and Shining to make that judgement on their own. They are just children after all.”
“Can we cancel it? Or is it just a one time visit?” I asked quite confused with the situation.
“It is a one time visit. We can ask the vet to make some document for you and you will be able to give your input on those so that he knows what is important and all,” Night Light said.
“Can we go after that to a normal doctor, just to be sure that he gets the info as well?”
“If you really want that, sure. It will be no problem.”
“I know you’re probably not happy with what we just revealed, but it is a one time only.” Understatement of the year from Mrs. Velvet.
“If it is only one time, then I can live with it. One problem as well, I don’t have any documents for staying permanent in this country with you guys,” I said with a bit of worry.
“We could look to get you citizenship here in Equestria. But that could take a while,” Velvet said.
“That would be great. Thank you both,” I said with gratitude.
“Now if you are going to stay here, then I have only one rule as well,” Night Light said. Both Velvet and me were looking quite strangely at him.
“What is it sir?” I asked.
“Be a really good friend for my little Sparkle. She never had any real friends. And with her entry exam nearing, she’s going to need support of a friend of some kind at the very least. Also in the future you will do your best to make her as happy as you can. I only want the best for my little sparkle.”
Damn, I didn’t see that one coming. And neither did Velvet judging by her facial expression.
“I can’t promise that because there will be moments that I will disappoint. I am not perfect. But I can promise that I will try my hardest to do so,” I vowed.
“Then that is all I ask of you. For now, I welcome you to our household, Jordan.”
That quote just hit a heart string I think.
And then we heard hasty hoof steps back up the stairs.
“I think we had a few spies during our conversation,” commented Velvet with a bit of a smile.
“Kids you can come down now. We know you were eavesdropping. Also it is time for dinner and then off to bed with you three,” Night Light said with authority.
When they came down, they looked really sad. I think they heard the entire conversation. They probably thought that I blame them for anything.
“Twilight, Shining. I just want you to know that I don’t blame you for anything. You guys did nothing wrong,” I said. Sometimes a direct approach is a good one. Immediately they looked relieved. I think that was a lot of weight removed from their shoulders with just one sentence.
**TIME SKIP**
After dinner we got sent to bed. Apparently I was going to sleep in Twilight’s bedroom. They gave me a very large pillow as a mattress and a small blanket to sleep comfortably. The pillow was placed on the nightstand on the right hand side and they relocated the alarm to the nightstand on the left.
“Goodnight Twilight.”
“Goodnight Jordan.”
And with that she fell asleep.
This was one crazy day. I really hope fate can tone down the amount of crazy. Because I can only handle so much in one day.
With that final thought I dozed off as well.
Author's Note
If you have any criticism on anything. Please feel free to tell me what you do and don't like.
Have a good day.
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The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
Chapter 4: Tension but no resistance (edited)
***POV Jordan***
Torment was all that I was experiencing for the moment. Ruthlessly locked in darkness while trying to run towards the light of a narrow tunnel.
I ran as fast as my small legs would let me.
All while wisps and voices around me repeated messages of doubt, confusion and fear.
“Never accepted...”
I continued to run towards the end.
“Always alone...”
For some reason I had the feeling that the tunnel was expanding in length and that I wasn’t really getting anywhere.
“YOU WILL NEVER BE ACCEPTED!” Screamed a voice in the far distance. The scream was followed with a loud thundering noise.A massive boulder exactly the width of the hall was rolling after me. It was like Indiana Jones except that there was no escape from the boulder.
I tried to step up my pace but I wasn’t getting any closer to the exit.
The faster I ran, the more speed the boulder had.
The harder I breathed, the faster the thing rolled at me.
Even if my heartbeat went up, the boulder came closer.
It would only be a short time till the boulder squashed me. With no direct escape, I just stopped and let the thing hit me. I closed my eyes and waited for the impact.
With a heavy breath I sat up on the pillow. I was sweating like I had just ran a marathon. My heart pounding in my chest. I checked the time, it was only 1 AM. That was one heck of a nightmare. I haven’t had nightmares like that in years. Usually my dreams were pretty tame, just my imagination running wild with whatever game I played that day or week.
But nightmares like this only appeared between age five and twelve for me. After that I never had them again. I know that it may not seem like it is that scary, but for a small child it is pretty horrifying. Also I only had when I was really sick or really nervous. Right now, I can already guess the reason for it.
Was I really that worked up about this situation? Yea, pretty much. I mean when you really think about it, I will never see my friends again. Never make it up with my dad. Never say goodbye to the rest of my family I still had. Right now I was completely alone. I will probably never see another human being again.
But these ponies remind me so much of the people I used to know. Twilight Velvet acts just like my own mother. Sweet, kind and caring. Night Light like my best friend’s dad. Shining just like my nephew. But I couldn’t compare Twilight Sparkle directly to anyone I knew.
With all these distracting thoughts, I didn’t notice that I was crying from the nightmare. I cleaned my tears and I tried laying down again to get back to sleep.
My idle thoughts wandered again to the comparison between Velvet and my own mother. Just remembering all the good moments I had with my mom brought tears to my eyes again. All the times she helped me with an issue (homework or something else). The times when we went to an amusement park. Just baking some deserts together.But her medical condition was pretty severe. She had a chronic muscle disease that stopped her from working at the farm I was raised at. So she started a daycare for school children.
My dad didn’t like that, so he decided to divorce her. My mom never saw the decision coming. One day everything was fine, the next arguments broke out. At one point they nearly killed each other. After a grueling five year divorce, she couldn’t take it anymore and she took her own life. Pretty stupid reason but she was broken. And broken people do stupid things.
That was 3 years ago. In that time I decided to at least make her proud.I finished my education with my own funding, got into a job I loved doing and was busy looking for a girl, but that was still pretty hopeless. Now I think I could totally forget that.
With these sad thoughts still lingering in my mind, sleep overtook me once again. But not before a warm embrace ensured that the doubts and sad memory’s left my head. And I could sleep peacefully for the remainder of this night.
***POV Twilight***
I woke up in the middle of the night. I was really thirsty so I decided to get a glass of water. I started thinking about yesterday again. It was such a crazy day. It started with me doing something that most ponies would consider dumb, I tried to summon a friend. I got a magic surge from just trying the spell. I was lucky nothing had happened. Then we found Jordan next to the pond in the park, the public part of the Canterlot royal gardens. When I think about it now, our first interaction was pretty funny. But understandable when you consider that neither parties had seen one another before.
Then the quite sad story of Jordan. It really sounded like he had found his calling in life but was ripped away from it.It was strange. Even though he is more than three times my age, when you see his emotions he is like a seven year old colt or filly. Just like me.But it probably comes from the fact that he is in a seven year old body. I really hope he is going to be alright.
He made me a bit excited because of the new things we can teach each other and the promises he made. But right now I was really nervous for the entry exam. What if I wasn’t good enough? Maybe Jordan can help me study. But he probably has his own issues to take care of.
I put the empty glass in the sink and went back upstairs.When I got to my bed I noticed that Jordan’s pillow was rather damp. Has he been crying? It seemed like he really was not going to have a comfortable night. It didn’t help that his pillow was completely soaked from the tears.
I decided that I could at least comfort him in the only way I knew. I picked him up and snuggled him close to me next to Mr. Smarty Pants. You could notice the relief on this face the moment I did that. He even hugged me closer and buried his face in my chest fur. It felt funny but good.
“Sleep well,” I whispered to him.
And soon I found myself asleep with the smaller human in my hooves.
*****Time Skip: next morning, POV Twilight Velvet*****
It was 7 o’clock, time to start our morning routine again. While I was setting the table for breakfast, I thought back and noticed that Jordan only took a few different items to eat for dinner last evening. Did he simply not like the other things? Where they not healthy for him? I’ll ask him when I wake him up with Shining and Twilight.
“Good morning dear,” My husband said. He probably just got done cleaning himself up for his day at work.
“If you want the bathroom is all yours,”
“Sure thing. Can you finish the table? I’ll wake the kids up after I’m done,” I answered.
After a few minutes, I got done showering and cleaning myself up. I went to Shining’s room first, since Twilight always takes the most time in the bathroom and I wanted to give Jordan a few more minutes of rest. I hope he had a comfortable night.
I knocked on Shining’s room to see if he was already awake. No response, typical. Just like his father, Shining is not really a morning pony.I went inside and gently woke him up.
“Shining wake up. It’s time for breakfast.” That certainly had his attention as his ears twitched back and forth.
“Good morning mom,” he yawned, “Are Twilight and Jordan already up?”
“No not yet. I was going to wake them after you showered.”
“That’s not like Twilight to still be asleep at this time. Maybe for the better, you know how twilight is when it comes to time in the bathroom,” he snickered.
“And you are about to miss breakfast if you don’t hurry up. You know how your father is in the morning,” I responded. Sometimes they acted so much alike. At those words he went a bit pale and hurried himself to the bathroom.
I went to check up on Twilight and Jordan. Usually Twilight is already wide awake and studying. Sometimes she really overdoes it so that her health might be a bit of a concern.
I knocked on the door of her room. No response. That was strange. I opened her door to see her still sleeping, but the pillow provided for Jordan was empty. I went a bit closer and saw one of the most precious scenes of the past week.
Both Jordan and Twilight were cuddling each other like they were either very good friends or like you would cuddle a teddy bear. Probably more like a teddy bear. It made me almost sad to know that I had to wake them both up.
I decided to at least make the moment last a bit longer and call my husband upstairs. He just had to see this. When he had seen the position they were both sleeping in, it instantly put a smile on his face.
“It nearly breaks my heart to know that I have to wake them up,” I said.
“Yeah, I see what you mean. But Twilight still has to work a bit for the exam and we still have some questions for Jordan. We never asked for what his kind eats,” Night reasoned.
“Yeah, I was thinking about the same thing. Well, let’s wake them up,” I responded.
***POV Jordan***
I was softly lulled out of my sleep by whispers. Yet for now, they were still inaudible. The soft fur combined with the comforting warmth made it difficult to escape the grasp of sleep. I can also hear a soft thumping sound that nearly sent me back asleep.
“I... ...ime ... Brea...ast.” The voices were persistent. And kept pulling me softly out the land of sleep.
“Twil..., It’s ti... To wake up.” I could almost hear them.
I opened my eyes to see just one overwhelming color. Purple. I didn’t remember that there was anything purple at home. I turned around to see two ponies who were very familiar to me. Night Light and Twilight Velvet. So yesterday wasn’t just a bad dream. This was reality. That meant that the purple thing was...
I looked back to see that I was cuddled up against Twilight Sparkle and that she was cuddling me. That explained at least a few things. Did she pick me up after I had my nightmare? Questions for later.
“Good morning,” I murmured quite sadly.
They seemed to pick up on my mood. “Did you sleep alright dear?” asked Velvet with a big smile on her face.
“Yea. It didn’t start so well. But I guess Twilight decided to give me some comfort?” I half asked.
With all my moving around, Twilight started to wake up.
“Good morning,” she yawned.
“Now that you two are awake. You can clean up and join us for breakfast,” Night Light said. That was an idea that my stomach agreed on with a bit of rumbling.
Little Twilight decided that she was going to use the bathroom first after Shining was done. With Twilight in the bathroom, Night Light decided to approach me while I was waiting.
“So, how come you two were sleeping like that?” he softly asked. I think he wanted to make it seem like he wasn’t accusing me.
“I had a really bad nightmare. It was about all the doubts I had which kept me restless throughout the first bit of the night. Then I guess Twilight must have noticed it and decided to give me a bit of comfort. I can at least say that it helped,” I explained.
“Oh. Must have been a pretty rough nightmare,” He inquired.
“Yea, I was in a pitch black tunnel with wisps and voices around me that confirmed my doubts. A bit later came a boulder down the hallway that I couldn’t dodge or outrun. When it nearly hit me, I woke up.” I decided to give him a short summary of the dream.
“Were you able to sleep peacefully after the nightmare ended?” he asked.
“Yeah pretty much.”
“If you need to talk to anyone, know that we are here for you. Okay?” After I nodded he went back downstairs.
**TIME SKIP**
After Twilight and me used the bathroom, we joined the rest downstairs for breakfast.
“So Jordan. We forgot to ask what humans eat yesterday. Would you mind telling us? Because we saw you just kind of cherry picking at dinner yesterday,” This question came from Velvet the moment I sat down on one of the chairs.
“Well, humans are omnivores if you are wondering,” I answered.
“Oh my. That means you eat both meat and plants, right?” Velvet said a bit surprised. I noticed this and eased their doubts about that. Obviously ponies are herbivores. But I noticed that they are not strictly so. They also consume dairy products and sometimes eggs.
“It means that I can eat both meat and plants, yes, “I answered, “But I was raised as a vegetarian. In fact, it is not mandatory to eat meat for us. There are enough suitable replacement for everything, like beans and peanuts. I’m fine with most fruits, vegetables and bread. I also like some dairy products and eggs from time to time. The only thing I need to watch out for is salt and sugar. A human body only needs a small amount to be healthy. And plants like flowers and hay are indigestible for humans so I can’t eat that.”
“Oh, It is a bit surprising. Apes and monkeys are strictly vegetarian,” commented Night Light.
And with that we started breakfast. “So, what are the plans for today?” I asked
“I got to go to work,” Night Light said.
“I got to go to school,” followed Shining.
“I’m home. I took the week off so that Twilight could study at home, instead of with a foal sitter,” Velvet finished.
“Yea, I heard some of you mention some sort of entry exam. What do you actually have to do for it Twilight? And so Twilight started her explanation.
“The exam is divided into 2 parts. An intellectual part and a magical part. For the intellectual part I have to make a presentation of something that I want to study further. And for the magical part, I have to perform an intermediate spell.”
“What kind of spells can you cast now?” I asked. I was really interested in this magic. The word magic for humans is used for something that science can’t immediately explain. So as a man (Boy now I guess) of science, I was intrigued with the way they would define magic.
“Right now I am at novice level,” She said quite sadly. “And at this rate, I’ll never get admitted to the school.”
It seemed like she was really worked up about it.Maybe I can help you study for the exam? That is of course if you would want that.”
“Really?!?” she nearly screamed.
“Yeah, why not?” Never in my life would I regret those words more than I did then.
Author's Note
Chapter 4 done. It is a bit longer that expected.
The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
Chapter 5: Lightning quick thinking
***POV Jordan***
At this moment I was starting to doubt my decision to help Twilight prepare for her entry exam.
We are about one hour after breakfast and both Night Light and Shining Armor have left for their job or school.
Twilight Velvet was going to cleaning the house today. She probably already started on the windows downstairs.
Meanwhile me and Twilight were studying. I was studying the basics of magic while Twilight was trying to perform an acceleration spell. An acceleration spell speeds up a certain process for a certain time. For example: when you put a piece of clay out to dry, you can use the spell to let it happen in an hour or so, instead of a few days (depends on the size of the clay).
For me it was going quite good. The basic were quite easy to grasp. Together with the things I already knew, I was able to get a decent idea of what magic actually was. The reason why I was studying magic was simple. I just really wanted to. Just the thought of studying something that might get my attention just like electricity did back when I was in Belgium, just made me feel like a child again.
Magic in and of itself was a kind of energy that is accessible for these ponies nearly everywhere. It helped the normal or earth ponies with their normal lives, like make them more durable and give them more strength. But it also gave them a more natural feeling with the land around them. It’s probably why the majority of earth ponies are in manual labor. Or that’s what I found out from the books Twilight gave me.
Second were the pegasi, which I still can’t believe exist. It’s like this world is nearly made up from Greek mythology. Anyway the pegasi use the magic energy that they can acces for flying because otherwise their wings couldn’t hold them airborne. It also gave them the ability to stand on clouds which probably have magic in them as well, and let them manipulate clouds to affect the weather.
That was an interesting thing to know. These ponies can literally create the weather they want. Must be handy for agriculture and all that.
And last but not least, the unicorns were able to directly manipulate the energy to perform spells and stuff. Or they can command the energy to perform certain acts like levitation of objects. The way they do this was interesting. Over time they store this dormant energy in their own body’s that the can then command to perform these spells. They use their horns as some sort of focus point. I think the structure of the horn allows that. If they are overtaxed than they have to wait a while to regain the they lost energy. They do need some energy for survival.
The ponies probably drew the energy directly from the surrounding molecules and atoms. Otherwise I can’t think of a way that they can acquire that energy. But I quickly dismissed that thought because I don’t know the required quantum mechanics to know what I was talking about.
And that was literally like 20 books I went trough. Damn, this is going good. I quickly wrote everything down on a small notebook that I got from Twilight and then continued on the books of beginner spells.
I heard a loud groan. It appears Twilight her spell was not going so well as my studies. It appears that she just couldn’t get the way to cast the spell right. And she was frustrated about that, that much was clear.
“What am I doing wrong?” She nearly shouted.
“Twilight, I’m going through these books as fast as I can so that I can try to help you. Just hang on for a moment,” I tried to comfort her.
“I know. But it’s just so frustrating to know that there is something wrong but not knowing what,” She responded with a pout.
“Trust me Twilight, I know how that feels,” I said while thinking back on my programming classes from back when I was still in school.
With a heavy sigh she started to try the spell again without much success. And I continued to study the books that Twilight gave me.
The books I studied now were those that covered spellcasting. It seemed that there wasn’t that much necessary to cast a spell. Primarily will power and enough stored energy. I have also read that adult ponies even most of their children can at least cast one intermediate spell without any problem at all.
That is strange because twilight is struggling to cast an adept spell. It also seemed that it was only those two factors that determine if a pony could cast a spell or not.
Maybe I was overlooking something. Or was Twilight really lacking in magic potential?
“Hey Twilight. Is there a way to measure how much potential magic that you can store? Or have you tested that already?” I asked.
“I got a test from my doctor once. In that test he concluded that I was able to store an abnormal amount of energy. Why?”
“I was just trying to limit my options for a possible solution to your problem,” I replied.
“It’s because I have so much magical energy that I have bad control over it. Sometimes it becomes a bit too much to handle for me. So having not enough energy is not really a problem for me. It’s having too much,” She clarified.
So that was not the problem. Can having too much energy cause a problem? The books I had here suggested not. Maybe I was really missing something else. Let’s see.
To cast a spell, You needed will power. Will power, intense focus on a particular object or process and willing a change on it. I think I got the root of the problem.
“Twilight? What are you exactly thinking when you are casting the spell that you are trying now?” I asked
“What? Why do you need to know?”
“Just answer the question,” I said a bit more forceful now.
“I’m just thinking that I want to accelerate the process,” She answered.
“What process?” I pressed.
“The process of the clay becoming solid.” And there we have it.
If you wanted a spell to work as it was supposed to, you needed to know what you wanted to change and how it worked in the first place. Maybe some thinking outside the box could help.
“Okay thanks. I think I know what your problem is Twilight” I said with excitement.
“Oh, you do? What is it?” She asked genuinely confused.
“It is the way you are thinking about the spell and the process,” I answered.
“I don’t think I can follow what you are trying to say.”
“You want to let the clay harden faster into a solid hard piece, right?” I said, “But the clay is already a solid piece, so you can’t accelerate the process of it becoming solid.” I paused a bit.
“Right now, you want the clay to become a hardened piece. Well, how does clay become that way?” I asked.
It took her a minute to actually put the pieces together. You could literally see the gears turning in her head.
“It dries out?” she said quite shakily.
“Good, and how does it dry out?”
“Because the water inside evaporates,” She finished.
“Excellent, now try the spell again but focus on evaporating the water in the clay faster,” I instructed.
She started up her spell again. This time however you could see the clay hardening up into a hard piece. She did it. She looked at me with tears of joy in her eyes. I guess she was really frustrated with the spell.
“If you change the way you think about certain things to a very basic level, I think that you can perform any spell you want.” I encouraged her.
And with that she hugged me. “Let’s take a break for a while. After that you can try some new spells, just to exercise that way of thinking.”
She agreed. The first thing she did was tell her mother, while I cleaned up the books. Velvet was really happy for her. It turned out that little Twilight had been struggling with similar spells for quite some time.
When she came back I decided to confront her about what happened last night.
“Twilight? Do you know how we ended up like we did this morning?” I asked. I decided for a blunt frontal approach.
“That’s easy silly. I put you in my bed with me,” She giggled.
“But why?”
Now her mood darkened a bit. “I saw that you had cried again, probably about the home you lost. So I decided to comfort you a bit. Why do you ask? Did it not help?” She asked with a bit of concern.
“No, it really helped. In the first part of the night I was having a really bad nightmare. While in the second part I slept really well. Thank you for that,” I said. I was really grateful for her act of kindness.
“Anything for a friend. But would you mind telling me what the nightmare was about?” She asked.
I gave her a small summary of the dream.
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” She said, “But if you really want somepony to talk to. Just know that I’m here to listen.”
“The same thing applies to you too, okay?” I replied.
I was just shocked with how friendly these ponies were. But at the same time, I’m really grateful that they were giving me this help.
And with that said, we continued our studying session.
With some spells, she could do it all by herself. With others I had to just push Twilight in the right direction of the solution. Probably because she hadn’t seen the physics behind certain things.
“Twilight? Do you have trouble with keeping your mind from wandering?” I asked after I completed a few other books.
“Sometimes yeah. Why?”
“It is stated here that is is one of the probable causes of magic instability. Also next to it they mentioned a magic surge. What is that exactly?
“It is basically magic’s equivalent to adrenaline. Put anyone in a certain situation and they will release all their held energy,” She explained.
“Wow. Hey. Maybe I can teach you how to meditate somewhere this week. That way your magic will be more stable and will get out of control less frequent.” I offered.
Next thing we know, Twilight Velvet came in to tell us lunch was ready. It was nice to have a home cooked meal once again. I can’t cook to even save my own life.
After dinner, little Twilight thought that she could practice more spells. I even had some questions about some things that weren’t clear to me yet. She happily explained those.
But after that I had other plans.
“So Twilight. Do you have anything for a presentation about something you would want to study further?”
“What?” She asked with a bit of panic.
“Well, you told me that there were two parts to the exam. One was the magic test, and the other was a presentation of something that you would want to study further. That’s at least what you said. Do you have anything in mind for that?” I asked.
“I haven’t really thought about it. There is just nothing that immediately gets my attention besides magic,” She explained.
“Can’t you do it about magic?”
“No, you have to have at least one side subject that you want to be studying. But I can’t think of anything that gets my attention.”
“I have an idea, but I don’t know if you are going to like it,” I said.
“What is it?” She asked with a bit of enthusiasm.
“You could give a presentation about electricity. That way I can teach you what I promised and help you with the presentation,” I suggested.
“It that the thing you kind of explained yesterday when we just met?” She inquired.
“Yes it is.”
“I might try it. But if I don’t like it, we might want to find something else,” She proposed.
“Seems fair. We would need some books that Equestria has on electricity.”
“We could ask mom to take us to the library tomorrow. If you need those books,” Twilight said.
“I mainly want to see what this place its advancements are in the field of electricity. I can already teach you what I know from home.”
“Sure go ahead, then we will already know if I like it or not,” She said with some excitement.
With that said, I grabbed an empty notebook. And started with the lessons I had in high school.
I started with the basics, Ohm’s law and such. She was pretty quick to grasp those idea’s. After each small chapter I gave, I made some exercises for her and let her solve those. If she had troubles, I was there to help.
The afternoon quickly went by. We went at it without any breaks. It turns out that Twilight enjoyed it quite a bit. The more difficult the chapters got, the more she liked it.
We didn’t stop until it was 8 PM when Twilight Velvet came in to tell us that it was dinner time. We didn’t even notice that Shining and Night Light came home.
I had given an absurd amount of notes, formulas and electrical diagrams. We probably went through 2 years of lessons in an afternoon.
But now we were both tired.
At the dinner table, Twilight was excited to tell of her progress in the spell department and how I helped her with it. Both guys looked at me with a smile. You could see the happiness and pride in their eyes when they saw how much little Twilight had progressed.
After dinner it was straight to bed. They didn’t need to tell me that twice.
As I prepared myself on the pillow, I got picked up by Twilight and placed in the same position like last night. Just as I was about to ask her she was already out like a light. Only a big smile on her face. Happy with all the knowledge and progress she gained. Just like me.
Author's Note
I hope you guys are enjoying this.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
Chapter 6: Knowledge is power
***POV Jordan***
Today was going to be my first look around the city of Canterlot. Twilight Velvet had agreed to take us to the public library to get us some books for little Twilight and some for me so that I could study Equestria a bit more.
Needless to say, I was a bit excited. I had a lot of questions about their society. But most of my curiosity was in seeing how similar or different they were compared to us humans.
“Are you two ready? I would still like to get some groceries from the market before it get’s too crowded.” Twilight Velvet pulled me from my own thoughts with that sentence.
We agreed to go the the library first and then help her with bringing the groceries back home.
“Yes mom, we are ready,” Responded little Twilight.
“Good. Also, I’m not spending an entire morning with you two at the library. We can stay there for one hour maximum, okay?”
“But mom,” Twilight tried to argue.
“No arguing young lady. We go frequent enough to the library as it is. So you better not complain about it.” Velvet stated.
“How many times do you go to the library?” I asked.
“Two times a week for little sparkle her studies mostly. And you?” Velvet answered.
“Where I come from, libraries are a disappearing phenomenon. Usually when we need info, we just search on the internet,” I said.
“What’s the internet?” Little Twilight asked.
“Only the most disturbing worst best thing to have been created by humans.” And with that I started my explanation of what the internet actually was, while we were walking through the city.
This city was really beautiful. It had a nice unique architecture, but it was huge. Vibrant colors everywhere compared to what we use. Canterlot really looked like a more colorful 17th century city.
I also noticed that it was build on the side of a mountain. Which I found interesting. From a strategy point of view, I had two opinions about that. One, either no one could damage the mountain and it was really safe. Or something could destroy the cliff side of the mountain and destroy the entire city in one swoop, but I left those thoughts for what they were.
It’s inhabitants were even more colorful than the city. Even tho I got a lot of stares at me for being what I am, they seemed friendly enough. Even kids were openly playing outside on the street.
There were more guards on the streets than I would have thought. Maybe this is common here? But I found it unusual. They were actively helping the populace, helping kids stay away from the more busy streets. They were helping adults load up a cart. Cops could sometimes act like that but most of the time they were ignorant for this kind of stuff.
With my explanation complete and me observing the city lifestyle, I didn’t notice that we arrived at the library. It was a huge white building with probably 3 or 4 floors.
“I’ll wait for you two here at the checkout entrance, while you find what you need. But no more than an hour Twilight. After that we are leaving. Understood?” Said Velvet.
“Yes mom,” Was Twilight’s usual response.
Twilight then put me on her back and started running.
“We need informational books and encyclopedias. Those are all on the third floor.” And with that said, she made a beeline towards the stairs.
This place was even larger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. Hallways with hallways of books and quite a lot of ponies visiting/reading.
When we finally got to the third floor, Twilight started to walk towards this specific section of the library. It was the section dedicated with info about Equestria.
“We need some beginner guides, some geographical books, ...” Twilight started to ramble.
“Twilight, just basic books will suffice for now. I can always return and get a more detailed book on a certain subject,” I interrupted her.
“Don’t forget we need some books on electricity as well.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” she said with quite a sad tone.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. It seemed that something really got her down.
“I just want to teach you something about Equestria in return for you teaching me. You have been teaching me so well, I just want to return the favor,” She answered.
“Twilight, after you ace that exam, you can teach me anything you want about Equestria. Top priority right now is furthering your education. Besides, our study sessions are a team effort. And I have to say that we make a pretty good team. Especially after yesterday’s work, I learned a lot from that too,” I said trying to comfort her.
“You’re right,” She said with renewed vigor.
And so we got some basic guides of Equestria from this section of the library. Those were 5 books in total.
It was a bit of a hassle to search for the books on electricity. They had to have some at least. Otherwise how do they get those light bulbs to work?
After about half an hour of searching we found something. In a small abandoned corner of the third floor we found some dusty books. When we looked inside the books they were indeed about electricity and some theories around it. But we didn’t look any further in the contents of the books. These were the guides we were looking for. But I got a bad feeling about the state of these books.
We got back down to Velvet just in time before the hour was over with 8 books in total. We checked those out and headed outside.
Velvet still needed her groceries from the market. That gave me more opportunities to have a look at the city and ask any questions I had which Twilight was quite happy with answering. For example, How do they keep their merchandise fresh at the market? I know humans use these big refrigeration units for that. But how did these ponies do it?
Apparently they used these enchanted boxes. These boxes kept the fruits and wares in good shape.
It took Velvet about half an hour to get all that she needed to supply the family for a few days.
While on our way back home I started to notice more details in the city. There was literally no garbage in the streets. They were spot clean. The trees also look like they are getting cared for at least once a week. The animals looked happy and content. It really was a nice change of pace compared to the city I used to live.
When we got back at their home, we helped Velvet to put all the groceries away before hurrying upstairs with the books that we got from the library.
“So what do you want to start with?” I asked.
“I thought that you would want to get at least a bit more acquainted with Equestria. After that we could continue with my presentation for the exam in two days,” Suggested Twilight. She had a point. This way we could see how far we can take this presentation.
“Alright, let us begin.”
The study session about Equestria was nice, but pretty disturbing at times.
It started with the founding of Equestria. It seemed like the ponies had a Game of Thrones style winter coming for them. Only the ponies knew how to solve it, unlike game of thrones. After they banished the wendigo’s, Equestria was formed.
Shortly after the creation of Equestria, two princesses rose to power. The solar princess Celestia, and the lunar princess Luna. It is said that they could move the sun and the moon respectably on their own to continue the day and night cycle. Ponies ven based a religion around both of these princesses.
That was just ridiculous. How can somepony move the sun or the moon? Is the capability of magic that insane? Or is it just make believe? If so, then they both have this world basically as a hostage. They can just make threats like ‘I’ll make it eternal night’ or something like that to keep invasions at bay. Maybe I was just thinking too far and magic is actually that insane.
It was also pretty disturbing that the solar princes was still ruling today? Unless that it was a descendant, that means that their ruler is like a few thousand years old. She must be the loneliest pony on the planet.
On geographical terms, this world was strange yet somehow familiar.
Still, You could see that they had yet to discover a few things. So who knows what else is out there?
Their educational system was awesome and nearly free so that anyone could study. Their economy was basic and stable. It looked like a nice country with few enemies and a good social system. The few enemies that I could find from these books were maybe the griffons and the changelings, whatever those were. There was a bit of a skirmish with the griffons after the banishment of the lunar sister. And with the changelings it never went well.
And that was what I learned about Equestria.
“That was a lot of info Twilight,” I said.
“Did you enjoy it? I know it’s not much in detail but it is the basics.” She asked.
“Yeah, there are certain thing I don’t believe or don’t agree with but that is my opinion on the facts that I have learned about. It was really interesting. I would like to learn what kind of technological advancements you guys have.”
“Those old books had somethings about electricity. Maybe we can look through those and continue with my presentation?” Twilight proposed.
my stomach rumbled. “I think we should look if you mother has finished preparing lunch first,” I said with a laugh.
We both agreed on that decision. It was already 12:30. When we opened the door we saw that Velvet was already on her way upstairs to come get us for lunch.
**TIME SKIP**
After lunch we continued with Twilight’s presentation.
We started by going through those books we found in the library. And we were disappointed with what we found.
It turns out that Equestria doesn’t have much in terms of electrical advancements. Then again they probably rely more on their magic than on technology. Still it was pretty underwhelming what they had.
They only strictly had a small low voltage DC network that linked 3 houses together maximum. The highest voltage they had was around 50 Volt. There was no safety regulations. No insulation. They generated the power with these magic generators that converted magic energy into electrical energy. But the efficiency of that process was really bad, around 10%. They had no other more advanced machinery.
The other things we found were strict warnings about the usage of AC power, how unusable it was and the apparent danger around it.
Twilight was even more disappointed with the find than I was. I basically taught her things that weren’t even developed yet in Equestria. But she still decided that she wanted the presentation to go about electricity.
So I continued my lessons about electricity. More specifically about safety, all the ways to generate green power (solar panels and how they were made or how they worked, windmills, etc...). They had windmills in Equestria, but those were the old medieval ones to make flour.
We even made a theoretical case for a small solar panel installation.
Twilight really quickly caught on with the material I was giving her. I once again gave her some exercises, she was able to solve most of them on her own this time.
I decided that we would make the presentation only about the solar panels case we made. If these ponies really had near to no advancements in the electrical field, then we would already trump them with what we had made.
The evening quickly came around without us noticing.
After we finished the presentation, we were called down to eat dinner and went to bed.
The few days after that quickly blurred together for me. I was really busy asking and answering questions to and from Twilight. We even did a small study on my species.
But we also got some free time with Shining Armor. We played some games or sports together, even tho hoofball was a bit of an issue with my size and all. We still had a blast.
And then the day for the entry exam came.
Author's Note
Any fair criticism is always appreciated. I hope you guys are enjoying this as much as I am.
Have a nice day.
The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
***POV Jordan***
Twilight was running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off. She was nervous like crazy. Today was the day for her entry exam.
We prepared her presentation perfectly and had honed her spelcasting skills so that it took nearly no effort.
Still she was nervous. She was imagining every ‘what if’ scenario possible and how it could go wrong.
“Calm down Twilight. Relax, we studied together for this remember, everything will be okay. We’ll even come with you to cheer you on. Just be calm, you can do this.” I tried to comfort her with those words but it fell on deaf ears.
“You don’t understand Jordan. What if I fail this test? What if our presentation isn’t good enough? Even the Princess will attend the exam. What if I can’t impress her?” She rambled on.
The exam was going to start at 10 AM. Right now it was 8:30 AM, time enough for some small preparations and a good breakfast. Still Twilight even refused to eat. She was just too nervous.
Everyone else was staying calm because they had faith in her. Everyone except for herself.
I was able to calm her down a bit and got her to meditate for half an hour. Her nerves were calmed a bit, but you could sense that she still was a bit uneasy.
With her calmed down a bit, we all left for the exam.
During our little trip, no one said anything, afraid to give Twilight a panic attack with her being on edge as she was. It took us about half an hour to get to the school.
When we arrived, we got a small info session about how the exam was going to go. First up was the presentation. If it was necessary, Twilight could ask for some help from someone. But she herself should do the most work, she was going to get graded on that.
Second was the magic test. They would get a miscellaneous item on which she had to preform a given task on. No help was allowed with that part.
There was going to be a jury of three ponies. But the solar Princess would arrive either when Twilight was giving the presentation or when she was preforming the given task in the magic part of the exam.
Twilight looked real tense. But she insisted that she was going to give the presentation alone.
“Okay Twilight. But if you need help, don’t hesitate to ask. You can ask for help if you want it,” I said.
“I really want to try alone first. If I can’t do it, I’ll ask for help.”
“Just relax, you are going to do fine. If you need me, I’ll be sitting with your parents and your brother to the side.” With those words said I backed off a bit to let her family comfort her a bit more.
It was a while before we were led to a large room where the three ponies were going to grade Twilight on her performance. Apparently they were teachers in the school here. One pony was even the headmaster. I guess it was the guy in the middle.
“Miss sparkle I assume? Your exam will start in about ten minutes. Please prepare accordingly,” One of the teachers stated.
“Yes sir,” Twilight said shakily. Her nerves were really getting to her. She took the copies of our case out and read one, just to recap what we had been studying. I really hope that she can pull this off without much trouble.
“Okay miss Sparkle. Time is up for preparations. If you are ready to start please begin.”
Twilight nodded but didn’t answer. She just wasn’t sure of herself, yet I’m sure that she could do it. All she had to do was believe in herself. But now she wasn’t even starting with the presentation. After a few minutes she still was refusing to start.
“Miss Sparkle, if you didn’t prepare a presentation, I’m afraid that we can’t continue this exam. Or if you need some help, please ask one of your loved ones for support. It’s allowed for a reason,” The stallion in the middle remarked.
Twilight looked back at us with some hope that someone could share the burden.
“Who should help her?” I asked the family.
“Well Jordan, you two get along great and you are the only one who really knows what the presentation is about. It’ll be best if you go I think,” Night Light said. Both Shining and Velvet were agreeing with him.
With a heavy sigh I stood up and walked towards her.
The first thing I did was give her a hug. She really needed it. Tears were already in her eyes. This was harder for her than I thought.
“Twilight just relax. We can do this. Do you want to start off? Or do you want me to start so that you can follow up?” I asked.
“Can you just start please? I really don’t know how to start or where to start. I’m just so uncertain.”
“Okay, but I need you to pick up after me. I can’t do the entire presentation for you. Just think of it as giving the presentation only for your family. It’ll be easier that way,” I tried to comfort her.
“I’ll try.”
“That is all I ask. Alright let’s do this,” I said while giving her a fist bump. I grabbed the extra copies of the case we made and gave them to the teachers.
I was about to start when the doors opened up. A massive pony came through, at least twice the size of an adult pony. From the way her face was shaped, you could tell she was female. Her fur was this perfect white coat with a massive horn, way longer than a normal horn. She had wings as well. Her mane and tail was made out of four colors (Light blue, pink, light green and a more deep blue). Both of these were flowing in a non-existent breeze. She had a cutie mark in the shape of a radiant sun.
This was like the big mamma of all ponies. This was probably Princess Celestia.
“I hope I’m not too late,” She said.
“Of course not, your highness. Both miss Sparkle and this creature were about to start their presentation,” The middle stallion said.
“Oh, good.” And with that she sat down next to one of the teachers.
“Now sir. Before we can allow you to aid miss Sparkle, we need to know your name and your relation to miss Sparkle,” The middle stallion stated.
“My name is Jordan Eckhart. I’m a human. And I’m a friend of Twilight Sparkle,” I responded. I could see the curiosity in the eyes of the Princess. But it was hidden behind a mask of neutrality.
I gave her a copy of our case just for good measure and politeness which she thanked me for.
“Greetings everypony. I would like to ask you to hold your questions off until the end of the presentation. After the presentation Twilight and I can take turns answering your questions. And then we can continue our presentation without any interruptions,” I started off with.
“That seems fair enough, " The Princess commented. The teachers quickly agreed with her.
“Okay, thank you. Today Twilight and I are going to talk about electricity.” That’s how our presentation started.
“We are going to talk about AC specifically. Since there are pro’s and cons for both AC and DC. But we saw that AC was left out in the books we researched, so we chose AC.” I said just those sentences and you could see the doubt in their eyes. Time to ace this.
I talked about how an AC power grid could connect the entire city without any problems. The improvements that could happen to the existing train network. I needed a part in our presentation where I could just sell this to them and get their attention. Let’s just say I really got their attention.
“So we calculated a small case for the connection of a few homes with a stable power grid.” While I was explaining, I looked at Twilight. She needed a bit of guidance for this.
“Twilight could you write down the different formulas we used for the different calculations,” I asked trying to involve her into our presentation.
She got her piece of chalk and started to write them down quickly on the blackboard while I explained a bit further.
“The biggest problem was trying to figure out what we would be doing and how. And for that we needed a theoretical base. Twilight could you please explain what the different formulas are and what they are used for?” And with that she took of.
She explained every formula perfectly. From the preservation of energy to the calculations of electromagnetic fields. Each one carefully explained what they were and how they were used.
With those explained I took over again.
“Now that we know the basics of our case. We still need to think about a very important aspect. Safety. We need to make sure that our power grid is secure enough so that no accidents occur,” I continued.
I started to explain everything about safety and other regulations. How to deactivate a circuit safely when it’s overloaded ( with the use of a bi-metal that starts to curve when it heats up, that way you can push open a switch and open up the circuit). How to deactivate a shorted circuit (With a electromagnetic switch). Insulation around wires. Etc.
And then came the last part. I let Twilight handle this part.
“Now that we have most of our power grid down, we still need the most important part of our grid. A power-supply,” Said Twilight, “We decided that we could use solar energy, convert it and make it stable enough for a power grid.”
With this sentence the teachers and the Princess their eyes widen. This was probably a alien concept for them to understand.
Still, Twilight explained the concept of solar panels and how they worked. How they could make for a stable power-supply. How to manufacture them. Etc...
And that was our presentation. (Stop music)
“Any questions?” Twilight asked.
Middle stallion: “How efficient do you think these solar panels, as you call them, are going to be?
“If you place them in a efficient way with the correct angle and everything it could be from 15 to 22% efficient, but we haven’t thought about implementing magic to boost these panels,” I answered. I think he became a bit pale with that answer.
First mare: “Is it really necessary to change our existing network to this? Is what you are suggesting truly safe? Can we make it work on DC?
Twilight answered these. “Our existing network has quite a few flaws, there is a realistic chance that every little network can cause a fire or other issues because of the ‘no insulation problem’, which could be disastrous. What we suggested has way more safety regulations than anypony thought about implementing in our current power grid. We thought about a lot of different things that could occur and tried to solve them, which is more than we can say about our current situation. And as final answer, we can’t make it work on DC. With DC we have nearly no access to electromagnetic fields which are necessary for most of our equipment.”
Damn she just destroyed her questions. It even appears that the mare in question took a bit of offence to the answers.
Final question came from the Princess herself. “From where came the idea of using solar energy? And how much time did it take to make this presentation?”
“We noticed that the sun gave off heat. Heat that went to waste in certain places. So we thought if we could convert the heat together with the solar rays into a useful energy, that it might be something worth doing. It took us about a week to create this presentation,” I answered. Maybe not the complete truth, but it was the basic idea behind it.
“It was a very good presentation. I think both of you are suitable for joining the school,” She said. Wait, wut?
“But Princess, only miss Sparkle was entering the examination,” The middle stallion said.
“I know, but it is obvious that the little one taught miss Sparkle what she knows about this subject. Am I right in assuming that little one?” She is good.
“Yes, that is true. For the past week he has taught me all I know about electricity,” Answered Twilight.
“So it is true. It seems the little one is quite intelligent. You see headmaster, he seems like top student material as well,” Celestia continued quite smug.
“Sigh, very well,” said the middle stallion, “both of you passed this part of the exam.”
The smile on Twilight her face was worth gold at this point. She was so happy that she even did a bit of a victory dance.
“I told you you could do it,” I said.
I got a bear hug from her as a response. “Thank you so much Jordan.”
“It really was no problem, but you are not out of this yet. But I think that the second part of this exam is going to be much easier. Just relax and you can do it.” We really needed to get her self esteem a bit higher in the future.
“Okay, you’re right. I can do this,” said Twilight with some new found courage, “Do you have an idea what spell that I would need to perform for the exam?”
“I have no idea,” I said.
“We are going to take a ten minute break from the exam. After that we will resume the exam and start off with the magic examination,” Said the headmaster.
I took this time to relax, while Twilight went to her family. I could hear them congratulate her while she got hugged by both her parents and her brother.
Maybe I can do what I loved to do here in this world. I always wanted to be of significant technological value to the world. Maybe I can implement certain things in this world.
**TIME SKIP**
After the break the teachers, the headmaster and Princess Celestia sat back down again, while Twilight and I waited in front of them.
“Now we will start the second part of the exam. Your assignment miss sparkle is...” The headmaster waited so that he created some suspense.
“...To hatch this egg,” he said.
From behind their desk they levitated a very large egg forward. It was even larger than an ostrich egg.
“Twilight? What kind of egg is that?” I asked.
“It’s a dragon egg, the shell of those eggs are really magic resistant. I don’t think I can do this Jordan,” she said really afraid.
“You can do this, just think of the basics that we learned. If that doesn’t work, think outside the box. You will pass this as well,” I said with some doubt in my voice.
And so Twilight started on her spell to hatch a dragon egg.
1...2...3... Nothing was happening
4...5...6... Twilight got frustrated and put more power in her spell. No change.
One minute had passed. Twilight put even more power in her spell. Nothing happened.
Suddenly a massive explosion happened somewhere outside. Everything was shaking like there was an earthquake. I recognized the sound and the effects of the blast. Something broke the sound barrier really quickly. Fighter jets did this one time near where I used to live. Windows nearly shattered and electrical equipment broke.
This time however, the windows just shattered. I was pushed off my feet and onto the ground. This explosion scared and disrupted Twilight so much that she instantly had a magic surge. Her magic went haywire for a little while.
Everything was enveloped in this purple static field, the same field I saw at the company I worked at. Twilight her parents were changed into plants. The egg hatched a very large baby dragon instantly that broke through the roof. Small things got blasted across the room. Chaos was everywhere.
It was only for a few seconds until Princess Celestia made a barrier that dispelled most of the rampaging magic. She then used her magic to reverse some of the effects. First Twilight her parents back to normal. The next thing she tried was turning the dragon back into the egg or make it a lot smaller.
The dragon was shrinking. While it was shrinking it turned around to face Celestia and hit me with it’s tail. I went flying across the room into the wall.
The last thing I could see was Twilight’s surge ending and her calming down.
After that everything went black.
Author's Note
This was actually the first chapter I started writing for this story.
Have a good day.
The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
Chapter 8: Solar's decision
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
Chapter 9: Start-up sequence
Author's Note
Hello everyone. I had some technical difficulties with my PC last week, so this chapter took me a bit longer to make than anticipated.
Also everyone that follows either the story or me, I don't know why you are doing it but thank you anyway.
Chapter 9: Start-up sequence
***POV Jordan***
Today were our first lessons with Princess Celestia.
The few days before we spend getting ready for our teachings. We got Twilight and myself some gear like notebooks (A lot of note books), writing utensils, but also some clothes for me from a local tailor. It only took a few measurements and about 10 hours to get an entire ensemble, it was pretty cheap as well.
We were going to be studying under Celestia’s guidance for five days in a week. So I needed some new clothes to live comfortably.
With the need for clothes came the question of why I needed clothes from Twilight. I gave her the brief explanation that ponies their fur were the humans their clothes. I know that there are some social norms bound to clothing and all that. But I wasn’t about to explain that to a seven year old filly. It just would’tn make sense to her.
Anyway, it was 8 AM when we were approaching the main entrance of the palace. We decided that we would leave a bit sooner so that we give off a good impression.
The palace looked gorgeous. It was mostly white with many ornaments and towers. Many of the roofs were decorated with golden patterns. It was somehow similar to a medieval building style but way more polished.
It seems as if the guards were expecting us. One of the entrance guards walked up to us with a stoic exprespion.
“Miss Sparkle and Mister Eckhart I presume?” He asked us.
“That is correct.”
“We were expecting your arrival. Even tho you two are a bit early. We were told to expect such a thing and were instructed to give you a tour of the castle and show you the room that both of you will stay in for the time being,” He explained,
“Both of you are expected to see the Princess at noon for lunch and to start your lessons from the Princess then. The lessons will be from 1 PM up until 6 PM at the very least. There is nothing scheduled between the end of the tour and start of lunch, so both of you will be free to explore the castle but only with a guard escorting you. This is the schedule for today, is this acceptable?” He asked.
“It is perfect. Thank you good sirs,” Twilight answered.
“Good, then let’s begin.”
Both guards led us inside. The inside of the castle was decorated very nicely as well. A lot of vibrant colors were used to make it seem cheerful. And it did, just looking at it made me smile.
“We will first show you your room so that you two don’t have to drag your luggage around.”
“Thank you sirs,” I responded.
The room was perfect. It had the same basic design as the castle but with a few twists to make it unique. Two tall bookshelves full of books and a large desk in the middle of them, two normal sized beds, some other standard furniture and in the back was an entire separate room, which was probably a bathroom.
All in all, this was not a bad place to spend five days in a week at. Not a bad place at all.
“I hope the room is to your liking.”
“Yes, thank you very much. It is perfect,” Twilight answered.
“Good. Now if you would follow us, then we can start the tour of the castle.”
The tour was wonderful. The entire lay-out of the castle was shown to us. Every single room and it’s purpose was explained to us.
We would have to be careful in the future, because it would be very easy to lose ourselves in this castle without any real guidance. It would certainly take a while to learn all the twists and turns to know where some of the more important rooms were, like the dining room, the kitchen and the library.
The castle basically had a room for nearly everything. Name it, they had it. Music and entertainment, relaxation, dinner, lunch, breakfast, library, chemical labs, a physics lab, a magical lab, little rooms for the staff to take a break in. Speaking of staff, there was nearly no staff, or at least not as much as I expected. Every hallway only had one maid that we could see and a few guards. And these hallways were long.
The tour around the castle took a few hours until eventually we ended back at our room. It was 11 AM already.
When we were back at the room the guard finished his explanation.
“I think that was everything. Do you have any questions?”
“No, not immediately I think. How about you Twilight?” I asked.
“Me neither. At least for now.”
“Good, then you both have about one hour of free time before you have a meeting with the Princess. My colleague, Stone Might, will escort you for the time being. Have a nice day,” The first guard said.
“Thanks for the tour,” We both said back to him as he made his way out.
The guard known as Stone Might took his place outside the door.
“If you two have want to go out, just let me know,” He called back to us.
“Thanks but I’m pretty beat from that tour. We still have our lessons in the afternoon. What about you Twilight?” I asked.
“Yeah, let us just relax for now. I’ll just rest a bit and maybe take a book from the shelf here. I wonder what kind of books these are,” She mumbled a bit.
“Only one way to find out Twilight,” I said while pulling a book out of a shelf.
**TIMESKIP**
One hour and 15 books later it was noon.
“Wow, these books were so interesting. I never knew that astronomy was so fun. I always loved stargazing but never knew that it was so intriguing,” Twilight concluded.
She found ‘some’ books on astronomy. And she was hooked.
“I noticed,” I remarked, “Judging by the books all around the room, I don’t think that you left a single page unstudied. But interesting or not, we have to clean this up now and we have the meeting with Princess Celestia if you remember.”
“Oh. How will we make it in time?” Twilight asked.
“Don’t worry about it. Just start cleaning up,” I said while gathering up some books and putting them on the desk.
“Are both of you ready for lunch with the Princess?” Might said while looking inside.
“We might be a bit delayed,” I answered.
“Oh boy. You two made a mess in here,” Stone said.
“She did,” I answered before I could process it. It sounded like a little kid pointing a finger, which it technically was.
“It doesn’t matter who made it. But don’t worry I’ll help you two youngsters out,” Stone said while putting books back in the correct order in the shelf.
After a few minutes the entire room was back in order, just like it was before we entered.
“Alright now, let’s meet up with the Princess for lunch.”
It took us a few minutes to get there. We were a tad bit late. The clock in the massive hallway read 12:30.
We entered a large room with a massive table in the middle, with at the head of the table miss white sunbutt herself, Princess Celestia. The rest of the room was void of other ponies, just the Princess which gave of a bit of an intimidating aura.
“Have fun,” Stone Might said with a bit of a smirk as he closed the door behind us.
“...”
Silence was all that there was in this large room. Both me and Twilight were waiting for Celestia to greet us or at least do something. But she just sat there at the head of the table with her eyes closed.
Both of us were unsure of how to approach this.
“Euhm, Hello Princess?” Twilight tried.
One of the Princess her ears faced in our direction.
“Just a moment,” Celestia said.
It took another minute before she opened her eyes and addressed us.
“Ah yes. Twilight and the little one as well. I was just ordering a cake for... one of the political meetings this week, yes a political meeting,” She rambled a bit.
It took a while before she regained her composure.
“Anyway, thanks for coming, both of you. Did you enjoy the tour of the castle?”
“Yes, it was excellent your highness,” Twilight responded.
“Good to hear. Now dears, come. Join me for lunch,” Celestia invited us.
I had a feeling that she was not all that she was supposed to be. Maybe a bit more carefree than I thought. Or at least more normal and caring.
Both of us took careful steps toward her.
“Now now, don’t be scared. I don’t bite ... hard,” Princess said while sipping a cup of tea or coffee. Probably the first.
Both me and Twilight took place on either side of the Princess.
The moment we sat down, staff started to come in with the items for lunch. They came in with large trays of food. Each one filled with at least a dozen different items. One tray would have been enough to fill us up, but they came with three whole trays.
They set down the trays and left the room. The Princess started to take a few items and addressed us.
“Go ahead, help yourselves. There is enough for each of us.”
During the lunch we talked about our interests. Well more like the Princess asked questions and we answered systematically. But it looked like the Princess was actually enjoying getting to know us a bit better. I also had to answer some questions about human society. It was mostly random trivia like fashion or our educational systems. You can’t blame her for trying to learn some new stuff that might be useful.
When we were done with eating the Princess asked us kindly to follow her. The moment we stood up the staff came in and started to clean the table. It was unusual but nice to see staff respond so quickly. Maybe they are paid well?
The Princess told us the learning schedule for this term. It would mostly be based on magic and studies around magical energy specific, with a bit of electrical projects on the side and ,because Twilight liked astronomy so much, there would be a few hour a week devoted to that as well.
Astronomy is not a interest of mine but I would be there just to support Twilight.
When we arrived at Celestia her study she started to lay a few small ground rules when studying under her guidance. Every teacher has those so no worries there.
“Now the first lesson will be spent making a base with all the knowledge you two already have. So let’s start with the basics of magic.”
And that was how this lesson went. We wrote down all the knowledge we already had of numerous different subjects. Math, physics, chemistry, magic, electricity, even language. It is logical because then Celestia can know where she could start with her lessons.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in this manner. Before we knew it it was 6 PM which was the end of our first lesson. So after that we had dinner and went to bed early.
It was a bit strange to see such a colorful personality shine through Celestia her facade. But it was a comforting personality, almost like a mother. I can definitely see why she is loved by her subjects.
But with her aging slower than normal ponies and her being separated from her sister, one can not stop and imagine the sheer loneliness she has to endure in all her life. One can only imagine what goes on behind that mask of hers.
I hope for her sake that her facade does not shatter before our eyes.
The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
Chapter 10: Component replacement
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. View Online
The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
Chapter 11: It hertz to remember. (song edited)
Author's Note
Another chapter.
Chapter 11: It hertz to remember. (song edited)
***POV Jordan***
Cadance brought us up to one of the towers that was nearly not used except by Celestia herself. The room with the piano was on the third floor of the tower.
But good were these stairs annoying to climb. Have you ever tried to walk up an escalator while it was broken down? It’s like the steps are just that tiny bit larger than a normal staircase so that you have to use three times the force to climb it. These stairs were exactly like that and it was torturing me.
“Are we there yet?” I asked clearly exhausted.
“Only one more floor to go. You are not getting tired are you?” Cadence mocked me.
“I don’t know if you noticed but these stairs are not made for a guy of my stature. So yes, I am having trouble,” I admitted.
“Well, don’t stop now. We are nearly there,” Twilight said trying to comfort me.
“Thank goodness.”
It took me a few more minutes to get to the room.
“Here we are,” Said Cadence as she opened the door.
It was quite a large room with a large queen sized bed (for ponies), probably its own bathroom, quite a lot of furniture. But the best thing about the room was the jet black piano that stood in the middle of the room. It was just beautiful. A black base that transited into a deep blue closer to the legs. The blue even had a night sky pattern to it. On top of the piano a large symbol was painted on it.
Exactly like this (but without the purple and the stars). It was just magnificent.
Without noticing I started touching the piano, feeling it’s curves and smooth surface.
I heard giggling behind me.
“What?” I asked.
“You look like a kid who got his first birthday present,” Cadence said in between giggles.
“Maybe I do, but you can’t deny that this thing looks absolutely beautiful,” I said.
“Yes, we can’t deny that. So what are you waiting for?” Twilight asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked confused.
“Go and try it out. Try and play something,” she said as she pushed me with her head towards the seat.
“Okay okay. No need to be impatient. I just wanted to admire this piece of art,” I said.
“And you looked completely silly while doing that,” Cadence quipped in.
“Oh haha. Like you two don’t have something you absolutely love. In fact Twilight, I know for a fact that you start bouncing up and down when you find a completely new book to read,” I responded.
“I do not,” She said while her cheeks tinted a bit pink.
“You do to.”
We were both to busy to notice that Cadence just lost it. She was dying of laughter.
“What are you laughing about?!” Both me and Twilight nearly screamed at the same time.
“You both argue like a married couple. Haha,” She continued laughing. I face-palmed and started laughing as well.
“Anyway, I promised you two that I would play a piece. And I’m not backing up from a promise that I made,” I said as I took a seat in front of the piano.
The piano was slightly larger than a human piano but the difference was very small. I wonder how earth ponies or pegasi played a piano? I had to ask that at some point.
I slightly touched the keys and played some idle notes to feel how the piano played. I played a small test piece. It wasn’t very good but it’s a piece designed to test and feel out the instrument. I took a small pause after the test piece because I had no actual idea what song I would play.
“Was that it?” Cadence said mockingly from behind me.
“That was just a test piece to get a feeling of the piano. I actually have no idea what to play for you two,” I explained while turning around.
“Oh, but that ‘test piece’ wasn’t even good. How can you think that you can play a song for us if your test is bad?” She concluded with a smug smile.
“A test piece is not meant to sound good,” I tried to explain.
“Or maybe you are not as good as you hoped you were,” She continued.
That was it. No I was getting angry. She wanted to hear something great? She’ll get something great.
I turned around while remembering quite a nice tune. It was from an anime I used to watch. With my mind made up I carefully pressed the first few notes and started the song.
It started softly with a melody that would be repeated quite a few times throughout the song.
I enforced the melody so that it would sound more complete. (0:22)
I made sure that there was a soft transition between the melody and the main body of the song. (0:30)
With the transition over the song took more of a sad tune which kind of felt like it was carrying a message. It also made the song fell a lot slower than it actually was. (0:39)
It wasn’t long before another transition came around. (0:55)
The sad tune of the song continued but a bit more pronounced than before. (1:00)
But after that the melody was back again and lifted the mood of the song a bit. And it repeated itself but with a bit of a higher pitch to it. (1:16)
The sad tune returned but it became more and more accented and louder that it was building up to something. (1:33)
The melody was back again after a while but only very silently and subtle as it slowly started to build up again. (2:06)
Until the melody was back to normal and built up a tiny bit more until it finished rather abruptly. (2:16)
The song was complete. That was exhausting, I was panting and sweating just from playing.
I looked behind me and saw two faces with the funniest look on their face. It was a mix of surprise, shock and awe. This was so worth it.
“So I guess I can’t play well. Can I?” I asked mockingly, “Guessing from the look on your faces, I played great.”
It took them a little while to to realize that I had stopped playing and the song was over.
Twilight was the first to react. She shook her head and started mumbling.
“How do you even know a song like that from the top of your head?!” She asked clearly confused.
“Did you like it?” I asked.
“Yes it was good. But how do you do it? Do you have your sampler nearby or something? How do you remember something like that?” She rambled on.
“I’m glad you liked it. But Twilight? A performer never reveals his or her secrets,” I told her. That shut her up and gave her something to think about.
“Now,” I said, “I believe that you owe me an apology Cadence.”
“I’m sorry. I thought that you were making yourself seem better than you really were. I thought wrong,” She apologised, “But this song, it carries so much meaning it it’s tone alone,” she said implying an explanation.
“I tend to get quite emotional at times. But not in outward appearance, in my actions. And when you called me a liar when I was being honest about something like this, that is very close to my heart, it triggered me. I love playing music and if that gets insulted, you might as well have insulted my mother,” I explained.
“I’m sorry,” She repeated.
“Don’t be. All is forgiven. Did you like the song tho?” I asked.
“Yes I did. Do you follow music lessons or something?” Cadence asked.
“No I do not. I would love to do so, but my current learning schedule is already pretty full,” I responded.
“What about after your lessons with my auntie. I heard that there will be given some music lessons for ponies after the usual school hours. Maybe you can check it out?” She suggested.
“I don’t know. I would have to drop the astronomy lessons that Celestia gives.” I said.
“Don’t worry about it Jordan,” Twilight said trying to reassure me, “Both Celesta and me noticed how you don’t really pay attention to those lessons anyway. I don’t think that astronomy interests you in any way what so ever. So it would probably be best for you if you found something like this
to be passionate about.”
“You two know that I don’t like astronomy? How come Celestia never said anything? She is the teacher after all,” I asked for clarification.
“Well for starters, you never told the princess you liked music like this so much, so she didn’t know how to replace your lessons with something you would like. She can’t just smell what you like, you know?” Twilight explained.
“Indeed. It would also be good that you have something you can do that really interests you. Maybe sometime in the future you could audition to play music at some of the big events in Canterlot like the grand galloping gala,” Cadence added.
“That could be nice. But I would be alone in these lessons without anyone I know. And me trying to make new friends will become really awkward really quickly,” I said with some concern.
“Well, you are already really awkward to begin with,” Cadence responded with a giggle.
“Hey!”
“But that wouldn’t matter. You would be sharing these lessons with ponies that would have the same interests as you. It would be relatively easy to make friends with them if you already share something in common with them.” She explained.
“Alright. I guess there is no real harm in checking it out. Where are these lessons anyway?” I asked.
“They are organised by Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. They hired a small community hall in order to give these lessons after the official school hours so that everypony could attend to them if they wanted,” Cadence responded.
“How about this. We will go down there in the afternoon and when you have seen it, then you can make your decision. Is that okay?” She added.
“Sure, that sounds great,” I said filled with excitement.
“If I may ask,” Cadence started. I really didn’t like the way this question would start.
“How did you learn to play the piano like this?” She asked genuinely interested.
And there it is.
It may have been a harmless question. But that harmless question sparked some memories I rather kept buried.
***Flashback***
“Mom? I want to follow some sort of music course. Can I?” Little me asked.
“Jordan. You know that those courses are expensive to follow. What if you get bored of them when you start? It’ll be money down the drain,” my mother said.
“But there are free tryouts at the music school in the village this evening. Can we at least go? Please?” I pestered her a bit.
“Alright, alright. But don’t get your hopes up about joining,” she said giving in.
**Time skip**
In the community hall that was used by the music school were all kinds of instruments in different places. And every few instruments had an instructor.
I was guided through all the instruments and introduced to them together with all the other kids while our parents trailed behind. We each had a few tries on every kind of instruments until the point came that I could have a turn on one of the two pianos.
I started playing a small simple piece, not more than two or three notes at a time, like it was natural to me. While behind me I heard my mother and one of the instructors have a small conversation about me.
“Your son is a natural,” The guy said.
“Yes, he is,” My mother answered.
“This may seem a bit forward but are you planning on enlisting him for the course?” The guy asked.
“I fear that we don’t have that kind of money to pay for the lessons,” She said.
“It is not very expensive at all to join the school. It’s only between five or ten euros a month” the guy said trying to persuade my mother.
“Then there is no harm to it I guess,” my mother said.
The memory was fading and warping into another one.
*Jump*
Now I was much older and playing the same piece that I had played at the tryouts many years ago.
I was playing in front of a large crowd. We were all inside a large building that looked old for some reason. Statues were everywhere in the building as were some old paintings.
When I was done a guy in some white dress came closer with a microphone.
“Thank you my son. I there anything else you would like to say before we finish the ceremony?” He asked me.
“Yes please,” I answered as he handed me the microphone to address all the people in the large room.
“I know that it was not the nicest piece I played just now,” I said to everyone in the crowd. I could recognize a few, like my aunts and uncles, in the crowd.
“It was in fact the first song I ever played on a piano. Joy filled me when I first played it, but now it only brings sorrow. It was her favorite song you know. So every time I hear it, it’ll remember me of her. This time it was in her honor that I played it. Mother, may your soul rest peacefully in the heavens,” I said as I gave back the microphone to the guy in the white dress.
The memory faded again as I remembered.
***End Flashback***
I saw Twilight shaking me a little. Apparently I had zoned out while having the flashback.
“Are you alright Jordan? Cadence only asked you a question,” She said noticing my tears.
I noticed that I was crying a little again.
I tried to form some words after trying and failing to process the memory I just relived.
I swallowed and said: “Today was the day my mother died.”
The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
Chapter 12: Emotional Sparks
***POV Jordan***
The silence that came after my small reveal was really uncomfortable but it was welcomed for me at least. It game me the much needed time for me to recollect myself after reliving such memories. It wasn’t until a few minutes after that Twilight started to ask if I was alright.
“Yes Twilight. I’m alright. She died a few years ago, and I got over it. Mostly,” I answered. I was definitely not over it but it is something that I’d rather deal with on my own. And with this reveal these two were giving the death of my mother more attention than I want them to.
“Are you sure? You still sound a bit distressed,” she said.
Twilight was nagging me a bit because my emotional outburst. She’s really concerned for me but it was a bit unnecessary. All I needed was a bit of Time to be alone, that way I could find or make a spot to pay my respects and get my thoughts straight.
“All I need is a bit of time alone. Please, it’s all I need. After I’m done, I’ll meet back up with you girls at around noon. Okay?” I said while trying to walk out the door.
“At least take somepony with you? Even a guard will do,” pleaded Cadence.
“I’ll see if I can get a hold of Stone Might. Don’t you worry about me. I’ll see you two at lunch,” I answered as I hurried my way out.
I always had trouble around this time. Whenever I remembered that day, I would feel very self conscience about paying my respects to my mother. For I knew that next to nobody would remember her, so I felt like it was my duty in order to keep at least a memory of her alive.
And now that I had next to no stuff with me from home, it would be very hard for me to be able to remember her properly as time would pass. Maybe if I made a proper memorial spot here in Equestria, then I might be able to keep a good memory of her for a long while. But doing so would take time.
My mind was racing as I made my way through the halls, I could hear Twilight and Cadence calling for me, but I paid no attention to them. I would finally have some real private time to sort this a bit more out.
First priority would be finding Stone. Knowing him, he would either be at the barracks or at our room. Second priority would be finding a nice spot to create a small memorial stone or something.
And last but not least, I would be finding some flowers and have a small prayer. Even though I’m not religious or anything, my mother was. So this would be a small service just for her.
As I walked through the different hallways I nearly stumbled into a few maids because I wasn’t really paying attention. A few minutes passed and I found myself in front of our room, next to it as usual was Stone Might. He was trying to nap while standing up. I still don’t really know how he does that.
“Stone? Could I ask a favor of you?” I said as I approached him. He stumbled a bit while he was acting like he didn’t sleep on the job. A useless effort but funny nonetheless.
“Hu, be, Who’s there?” He asked while he was trying to recollect himself. Then his tired eyes landed on me.
“Oh hey my little dude, how is it going?” He asked while yawning.
“Stone, what did you do? You look awful,” I asked him. He was really not looking to good.
“There was a part with the other guards last night. It went pretty wild. But nevermind that, why are you here? I thought you were hanging out with Twilight and Cadence,” Stone said.
A party? Probably a small festivity for the guards who left together with Celestia a few hours ago.
“I’m here to ask you for a favor,” I told him as I walked inside to get my bag with my sampler.
He followed me inside. “Oh, explain.”
“Today is the day my mother died a few years back,” I said to him while I was grabbing the bag. I also tidied up the room while I was busy. It only took about a minute to put back all of Twilight her books in the shelf.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said genuinely saddened by what he heard.
“Don’t worry about it. The reason I came here is that I want to ask you to accompany and maybe help me find or build a small memorial place somewhere,” his eyes widened at what I just said, “Do you know anywhere where I could set something like that up?” I asked him.
“Maybe,” he said, “There is a small unused part in the back of the royal gardens, maybe there? The gardner will be thrilled the know that the unused part will be kept clean again.”
“Who kept it clean before it became unused?” I questioned.
“There are only rumors about that. No statement with any real evidence to back it up. So don’t worry about it. I would be glad to help you with that though. Besides, I could use some ‘fresh air’ after last night,” he explained to me.
“Okay thanks man. You don’t know how much this would mean to me,” I said to him.
And so we started walking towards the royal gardens. I noticed that Stone was walking slower than normal, probably because of the party. Because I was able to follow him without any real problem. Usually I have to walk quite faster than normal due to the ponies having longer legs than mine. So I either lag a bit behind or I get tired way faster than the ponies. This problem is next to nonexistent with Twilight, but gets just ridiculous with Celestia, which is obvious due to the difference in height.
As we were walking through the castle and to the exit in the back to the gardens, I noticed that the castle was pretty empty. Usually you would meet at least two or three staff members in a hall. Now it was a miracle that we ran into two of them with the exception to the guards of course.
As we exited the castle Stone started talking to me again as he was recovering over time. He also started speeding up his walk again which was kind of annoying and uncomfortable for me.
“So,” he started, “What were you doing with Twilight and princess Cadence if you don’t mind me asking.”
“We were in one of the lesser visited towers playing the piano that was there. Cadence told me I could play it. She wanted to see if I was as good as I said I was,” I explained to him as I remembered the feeling of playing such a beautiful instrument.
“Really? You were playing on the royal piano?” He asked quite mystified.
“Yes. Is that a problem,” I asked confused by his reaction.
“No it is not. But that instrument was once a gift to both the pony sisters. Or so it is rumored. In fact there are records of princess Luna playing that instrument a lot before she disappeared,” He told me as we walked into the gardens.
“What happened to her?” I asked with genuine interest.
“Nopony knows. But shortly after her disappearance Equestria got attacked by this evil mare called Nightmare moon. But Celestia beat her with the elements of harmony and banished the Nightmare to the moon. Or so the legend goes,” Stone explained to me as he pointed to the sky by the end of his explanation.
“Strange,” was all I could say as I remembered the legend from the history books about Equestria Twilight and me studied a while back.
As we came to the edge of the maintained part of the garden I could see a small archway filled to the brim with ivys of every shape, size and going in every possible direction. Behind the arch the garden became a bit darker but not much. There would probably be more shade because of the trees that didn’t were maintained. I was right with that assumption.
After we went through the archway we could really see why this part of the garden was left as it is. The only thing that was maintained here was the grass and even then, most patches were cut unevenly. It was almost like only some parts of it was cut while others were left to grow. The trees were almost as wild as they get. No imediat structure. The roots had ripped open what used to resemble a path. Ivys, moss and vines were all over the place. I could see that there are some statues in this place but was unable to see what the statues were because they were so overgrown and covered. You could clearly see that this place was maintained but only at a bare minimum.
“This is what you were talking about I assume?” I asked Stone for clarification. He only nodded.
“We can easily have a look around if you want. This place is only a fraction of the size of the real garden,” Stone informed me.
“Alright, sure. Why not,” I answered while we continued further into the ‘wild’ garden.
As we walked I could see that at most there were five statues in this part of the garden while the actual used garden had a lot more. But the statues here were in a really bad state. One of them had already completely fallen apart. While two other statues were on the brink of it. One that resembled a pony fell down and got nearly completely overgrown. There was no way of actually telling what it was. Even if we would try and uncover what the statue was I think that the vines and moss were the only thing really keeping it together.
But there was this one statue that was only covered in ivys. Besides that it seemed fine, which was fine due to the state everything else was in. I was unable to really tell what the statue really looked like. But you could see that it was more recently maintained than the rest.
Intrigued by this statue I decided to get a closer look. There were a lot of ivy covering and constricting said statue but with some equipment it wouldn’t be a hazard to clean it.
“Stone?” I asked trying to get his attention. He was clearly also entranced by this part of the garden. It was almost like this was painting and telling a much darker side of Equestria’s history.
“Yes?” He answered after examining some pieces of a fallen statue.
“Could you get some gardening tools for us to work with?” I asked,, “Maybe we can tidy this place back up again.”
“Sure thing. I’m going to get some drinks as well, cause I have a feeling that we might be here for a little while.”
I watched as he left the area. I expected Stone to be gone for a maximum of fifteen minutes, but after waiting twentyfive minutes I was getting impatient. I went back to the statue that peeked my interest. But I was still unable to see what it exactly was due to the overgrowth. Tired of waiting, I just started to pull down the ivy and the vines by hand. It was a difficult task at first. But as soon as I freed the top of the statue from the overgrowth I was able to just pull down all of the plants in one go. Now that I could see the statue completely I could see how large this thing really was. It was a statue of three ponies. Two smaller ones to the sides and a very large one in the middle hugging both of them close.
My guess was that the middle one, which I could identify as female, was the mother hugging both her daughters close with her wings. The smaller pony daughter on the right was only slightly larger than the one on the left, but neither of them had any distinguishable features, no cutie marks or names anywhere on the statue.
I walked around the statue to observe more details and saw that the big pony in the middle had a cutie mark. An inkwell with a feather in it. Peculiar but I didn’t recognise it.
The two smaller ponies didn’t have a cutie mark but I did spot some wings while I was walking around the statue. The statue seemed in prime condition even though it was overgrown, it seemed like someone or somepony has been taking somewhat care of this throughout the years. When I came back to the side I saw that all three of them had horns, making all three of them alicorns.
As I finished my examination of the statue I found myself straight in front of the mother who was staring straight at my position. The stare of the statue seemed almost captivating me. The way her eyes held this comforting affection and this warm smile. It all seemed very familiar, too familiar almost and yet alien at the same time.
While both daughters had pretty similar characteristics, the mother was pretty unique. Her hairstyle was similar to Twilight only a bit more wild. It seemed familiar, familiar enough that I could safely say that the color of the mane would be a brownish red. The same went for the eyes, even without the color on the statue I could tell that her eyes were a greyish blue. I didn’t know how I could tell these things but the reason was the same as why I was so drawn to this statue.
Then suddenly it all clicked. Her smile, her eyes, the hair color, the hairstyle, it all made me whisper a real heavy word for me.
“Mom?”
View Online
The loophole in a Shorted Circuit.
Chapter 2: Alternating my Current life (edited)
***POV Jordan***
First and foremost, this was one really comfy bed.
Second, never in my life did I expect to see what was in front of me now. A PURPLE UNICORN was standing next to the bed. It had Purple hair with pink highlights and these big purple eyes.
It even felt like it was examining me, almost like it was studying me. I was scared to even move. My childlike emotions took hold and I just sat there frozen just like the purple (or is it lavender, I don’t know) unicorn sitting there. I felt like this was a stand-off, both of us daring the other to make the first move.
I saw something else move. An even larger white unicorn with blue hair and light blue highlights stepped into my view. It was at least 2 heads taller that me. And it did the most surprising thing. It talked.
“Hey there little guy,” said the white one, now identified as a male.
I did the first thing that came to mind. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!” I exploded into noise.
“Just great Shiny, now you scared him. How did you know it was male anyway?” The purple identified female asked.
“His name seemed like a male name. I don’t think you can name a female Jordan and not make it seem ridiculous,” White said.
“How do you know my name?!” I half yelled.
Both: “AAH, he can talk!?!”
“Well, you both talk. And you’re horses? Ponies? I don’t know anymore,” I said while trying to find logic in this scenario.
“We are ponies and everypony can talk. What is so strange about that? You are the weird one here. We never even seen something like you before,” The purple one countered.
I was stumped. “Everypony? Ayayay, my head is not capable to handle this. Logic doesn’t even exist anymore.”
The white one looked a bit concerned. “Look, just relax. We will try to answer the questions you have if you feel you are up to it. Do you need some water?” He asked.
“We?!?” Purple yelled. “Yes, we. We both brought him here. We might as well help him. He’s clearly not from around here.” And with that he shut her up.
About a minute of really awkward silence passed before I was able to completely calm down. “Sigh, OK. Let’s start this again and do this properly.” I stated. “My name is Jordan Eckhart. Nice to meet you. Sorry about the yelling, I just really freaked out.”
“It’s no problem,” The white one said. “My name is Shining Armor but friends call me Shiny. And this is my little sister Twilight Sparkle nice to meet you.”
Both me and Shining noticed that the purple filly Twilight hadn’t moved yet. “Come on Twily. You asked for a friend and now you are just gonna leave the opportunity? Just say hi to the little guy.”
“Hi,” she squeaked.
“Hi there.” Was my genius awkward response. I was never the best at making friends. Can you tell?
“If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.” Shinning said breaking the awkward silence again.
“Well, how about trading questions and answers?” I proposed. “I am sure you two have questions for me as well.”
“Excellent idea, don’t you think Twily?”
“...”
It appears someone was more shy than me. YES! Sorry, I just don’t like my own shyness.
“Where are we now?” I asked, starting our little information exchange game.
“Right now you are at our home, which is in Canterlot, which is in Equestria. Does that answer your question?”
I nodded. “Alright, an obvious one. What are you?” Was Shining his first question.
“I am a human. Which is a bipedal hairless monkey.” I saw both of them exchange a look. “No, wait. A species of hairless ape. Monkeys have tails.”
Once again they shared a look and Twilight looked quite smug now while Shining was annoyed.
“Scientific name Homo Sapiens Sapiens.” I continued.
But I heard scratching. Like a pencil was writing an essay on paper. I looked around and saw just a floating pencil and some paper doing just that.
“What is this?” I asked fascinated.
“That is just a pencil and some paper,” Shiny said like it was the most obvious thing.
“Yes, I know that. But how is it doing that?”
“Twily is just levitating them to write down what you say,” He said it like I was as dumb as a bucket of bolts.
“With what? Magic?” I asked sarcastically for clarification.
“Yes.” This time Twilight answered with a completely straight face.
“What? How? Why? I have so many questions!” I said a bit panicked.
“Twily, I don’t think he knows about magic,” Shiny said stupefied.
“How can anypony not know about magic? It is inside every living being,” Twilight asked.
“I’m not a pony.” I cheekily pointed out. “But I really do want to learn more about this so called ’magic’.”
“If you want, I can teach you,” Twilight offered.
“Yeah sure. Thanks.” I said. I saw her about to start her lecture on magic but I stopped her just in time. “But not right now Twilight. There are more questions to be answered.” She quickly nodded. You could see the happiness in her eyes though. And she seemed a lot more eager to join in on the conversation.
“So how old are you guys anyway?” I asked to further our conversation.
“I am 12 years old,” Shining said. “And she is 7. What is your age?” He continued.
I didn’t know how to answer his question. Should I tell him my mental age or the age of my physical body now, which I didn’t even know. I decided to say what came most natural to me.
“I am 7 as well.” That was surprisingly quick that I came up with an answer to that question.
“You seem to act a lot more mature than most of your age I believe,” Armor commented, “In fact, I am surprised you are taking this situation so well.”
“Wait a few more days until you really get to know me and then get back to me on that statement Besides, I think I’m going insane anyway,” I quickly countered with a bit of a cheeky grin.
“Hah, I can tell we are going to get along just fine. And I think the same can be said for Twilight,” Shining snorted.
The next few hours were spent exchanging questions and knowledge about ourselves like hobbies and things we like. They explained how their country and social system worked, well at least their understanding of them. I was pleasantly surprised about both of them.
Shining armor’s interests are more broad than I thought at first. He is an adept at defensive spells like barriers and force fields. He wants to join the royal guard. Those are like our policemen and army men mixed into one job. He likes all kinds of sports, even chess and checkers. He kind of has to like those because Twilight is really into the intellectual stuff and he really cares about his sister.
Twilight’s interests are a tad less broad. Everything that has to do with learning and books. In her spare time she reads books meant for ponies double her age. And they are not novels or fictional stories. I am talking about real studies meant for 14 year old ponies. But everything is based around magic in her life. It appears that she does not have a lot of control when she wants to use some of the more advanced spells. Which in turn got her a bit frustrated.
They also told me about this thing called a ‘cutie mark’. I still can’t keep a straight face when they say that name. It sounded absolutely ridiculous. It’s like a little girl came up with the name or something like that. But the concept is pretty neat. Getting a tattoo that resembles what you are good at and love to do is pretty helpful to figure out your calling in life. Shining showed his, a cobalt blue shield with a purple star in the middle (and 3 stars above the shield). It looked pretty cool.
Then I noticed that Twilight didn’t have one. When I asked her about it she got a bit sad and murmured that she didn’t have one yet.I guess it must be some sort of teenager or maturity thing and that they only appear at the right time.
“Maybe we can search for it together? I don’t have one either. I doubt I can get one but it would be fun to explore what our special talents are together,” I told her. Immediately she was beaming with happiness.
“I would love that,” She said enthusiastically.
Seeing as they told a bit about themselves. I might as well return the favor and tell them a bit about me. But the bit about me dying and more about my past is something I will only tell someone whenever I felt I was ready.
I told them that I like learning new things. I told them I could speak 3 languages and promised Twilight that I might teach them to her to the best of my ability. (English, Dutch and French).
I explained a bit about electricity and that I really like learning and testing with that stuff.
I also told them that I like music and named the instruments I love to play.
“Speaking of music. Do you know where my backpack is?” I asked.
“It’s right here,” Shining answered. I took my backpack and took out my sampler. With standing up I noticed how tall these guys were. I was a tiny bit smaller than Twilight in height, but Shining was towering over me like a giant.
I sat back down on the bed with the sampler on my lap.
“What’s that?” They both asked.
“This is my sampler. A simple electronic tune machine on which I can play music, record it and replay it. I just love to mess around on it,” I said while getting ready to give them an example.
“What kind of music?” Asked Shining. For some reason Phoenix Wright kept popping up in my head.
So I decided to play this .
When I was done I looked back at Shining and said “Did that answer your question?”
“That was pretty cool,” He answered back with a grin.
“Yep, I can play a nice variety of genres on this thing when I change up the settings. I think there are even some songs in the memory of the sampler from where I came from,” I commented.
“Where do you come from?” Asked Twilight.
With a heavy sigh I tell them: “I have no solid idea, but I have a few hunches. Right now I feel that it is a bit of a sensitive subject and would rather not tell.”
“Oh,” Twilight said.
“Maybe I will tell you two in the future, when I feel that I am ready to share that story with you.”
“Don’t worry,” Shiny said, “But if you ever need us, we will be there.”
I was a bit shocked by that answer. Humans are usually wary and cautious when it comes to strangers. But with these two ponies it felt like I was talking to good friends that trusted me. Either pony nature is a lot better that human nature. Or it is their childlike innocence that made them so accepting of me.
We continued our conversations with random anecdotes from embarrassing moments of their lives so far. We had an absolute blast.
We were busy laughing at a silly joke I made when the door opened and I heard multiple hoof steps.
“That might be mom and dad,” Twilight said, “I can’t wait to introduce you to them.”
A female voice then said said: “We are home dearies. Could you come down and bring the creature down as well? We have a surprise for you.”
This might not be something that I was looking forward to.
Author's Note
I don't own any music I will post in any chapters.
Anyway, have a nice day.
