I got a Rock!
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Sorry for the long wait and a late Merry Christmas to you all.
If you want to know why I didn't write during Christmas then well...it was Christmas. My cousins came over. I didn't sleep until three AM everyday and never had time to even read much, not even mentioning trying to write haha...
There was also some Modded Minecraft mixed in-between, and now I got a cold or something because I'm coughing and drinking my...you know... So not fun. But despite the sickness I wrote a chapter for you so praise me hahaha!
Hope you like it and like always EEEENJOY!!!
//
Diamond Tiara pouted and stomped her hoof in frustration, having once again lost the sight of her target...
Her Hearts and Hooves day started on a typical note. There was some school stuff to complete, which she'd done easily enough after asking Mrs Cheerilee for a bit of help, and then there came the bundle of letters she received from her not so secret admirers, that she read politely despite having no intention of becoming their special somepony anyway. You know. The usual...
Throughout all that, she kept her patience, even though deep inside, she urgently wanted to be somewhere completely different.
That being...at the side of Him!
So it was not hard to imagine, that when the school finally ended for the day, she instantly grabbed the small red gift card she meticulously prepared yesterday, and then dashed into town, her target being the Golden Oak Library...
What followed her departure though, was an exhausting and grueling journey throughout the entire Ponyville, chasing clues and trying to put together confusing information from multiple ponies she had asked for help.
It almost seemed as if Starfall appeared in multiple different places at the same time! And every time she went close to his supposedly most recent location, he would simply vanish, making her start the chase allover again.
In the end, the young filly slumped onto the ground in defeat, and sighed to herself in disappointment. Her eyes moved onto the gift card with a red heart she drew on the front, and she felt her eyes moisten slightly... A small tear trickling down her cheek.
Could this day get any worse?...
Suddenly, she felt the soft touch of a small, familiar hoof on her shoulder, and she instantly turned around, only to find Silver Spoon looking at her from under her glasses with that soft, reassuring smile she treasured in her best friend.
Silver Spoon then proceeded to hug Diamond Tiara, who finally couldn't stop herself and let out a few sobs, releasing her accumulated frustration.
Silver Spoon didn't say anything and just waited for Tiara to finish, while gently caressing her back.
It was a few minutes later that she finally calmed down enough, that her friend judged it fine enough to speak.
"There, There. It's okay now...Let's go home Tiara. You'll have another chance in the future. I'm sure." She said with a smile, and Diamond Tiara felt her emotions calm down slightly.
Though something else started to bug her.
"Spoon...What are you doing here... weren't you supposed to be celebrating the Hearts and Hooves day?..." She asked, as she already told her friend about her plans for today, hoping that the girl would do just that instead of following her and wasting her time.
Spoon just shook her head, giggled, and then looked away with a tiny blush.
"I...I don't have a special somepony. You know that... and also...There's nopony I would rather spend my time with today than my best friend..." Silver Spoon said, causing Diamond Tiara to feel a slight stirr of warmth in her chest. Somehow, Silver Spoon's words made her feel a confusing happiness...
Her expression brightened and she nodded. Silver Spoon was right too. Tiara would have other chances to pursue Starfall, so she might as well go and enjoy the rest of the day with her best friend...
The two young fillies went onward towards Tiara's house, the idea of a sleepover already forming in their minds, and neither realised that they were walking a few centimetres closer to eachother than usual...
___________
"Umm...I couldn't help but notice...but...what, pray tell is the creature on your head, my dear Draconequus?..." Dr Whooves said during one of their particularly intensive games of Scrabble...
Discord, who at the moment tried to decide between using his letters to form the word "Birch" or try blocking a few of other's options on the board by placing "Rich", looked up in confusion , before understanding the question and looking upwards, where a certain fluffy bunny was currently enjoying an afternoon nap.
"Ah...This wretched thing?...Don't pay attention to it. It would only encourage it..." Discord said, instantly trying to change the topic and keep the fact of having gotten used to the fluff ball's presence so much that he forgot about it sleeping on his head a secret...
Whooves decided to just shrug his shoulders after taking a glance at an amused Starfall who send him a conspiratorial wink.
The week and some that Discord spend with the Bunny, had been pretty rewarding in Starfall's opinion, as his magical monitoring caught Discord calling the Bunny Fluffderic and giving him a carrot from time to time... That of course, required Starfall to "accidentally" leave the Draconequus unpetrified after their last game session. The fact he failed to figure out a way to remove his bindings and even went so far as to act nice towards the Bunny, while looking all over the atrium, made Starfall feel quite happy with his accomplishments...
Though he wouldn't put it past Discord to bluff it all in order to free himself...Starfall wouldn't let his guard down and was already working on a magic formation that could check somepony's psychic state in real time. Discord would only see the light of day when Starfall is one hundred percent sure of his improvement. It wasn't wrong to say that half of the bigger problems that would have happened in the future, came along because of Discord not being resocialised good enough...
The funny thing about all this was that Discord never once asked Starfall about Fluffderic after Starfall made a show of getting surprised by its appearance in the Lab the day after he let it loose in the atrium, and taking it with himself for research. He then proceeded by bring it back in in the evening, stating that it was just a rare and VERY fluffy bunny, and he might as well stay here to keep Discord company...
The ruse was a bit more complicated than that but that was the essence of it...By the time Discord was next unfrozen, he got completely used to the Bunny and didn't even comment about it, which might have something to do with his pride of not wanting to admit that he got to enjoy it's presence...
All was going as planned...
__________
Starfall looked at the small lump of blackish ore laying on his table in unmistakable curiosity.
The material had come from a far off land behind the ocean, brought over by some Zeppelin traveling merchants at the South-Eastern border. Had he not made an inquiry regarding it, the rock would have probably gone to some curious pony living by the shores.
But as it stood, Starfall was quite pleased with the purchase. It might not have been a large amount, but it was certainly enough for Starfall to study, what he quickly identified as the magically resistant metal of the Storm Kingdom... Which as it seemed, was a metal, that very closely resembled Tungsten...
_________
Well...It wasn't Tungsten that's for sure...Just the melting point of 4.1 thousand degrees Celsius put it's resistance to temperature above any material that existed on earth.
Starfall had no idea how the Storm Kingdom actually managed to melt it to form cages, put they needed a REALLY big and powerful furnace or some kind of magic to pull it off...or maybe they actually used Lightning?...It's called Storm Kingdom. There's probably a reason for it...
Deciding to leave the unanswered question for now, Starfall Tried to cast a spell on the ore, only for the metal to absorb his magic and heat up from the accumulation of energy.
It didn't actually took him much to understand something about the metal. It wasn't that it resisted magic, but more that it absorbed the to generate heat! And going by that assumption it wouldn't be wrong to assume that they indeed used magic to melt it in the first place...though actually melting it with magic required one to use a particularly large amount in a relatively short period of time. Not something actually possible for your regular pony that wasn't an Alicorn...
...Or at least not for one with a normal horn...
Starfall's thoughts went to the broken horn residing in his storage and he wondered whether Tempest actually melted all the metal the Storm Kingdom used to make the thousands of cages... he very much doubted it.
There must have been a simpler explanation he wasn't getting...
So leaving the unanswered question once again...Starfall went deeper into research trying to find how much power he'd need to melt the basketball sized rock...
________
The answer was...A lot...
Way too much for it to be a viable option for an Industrial usage, that's for sure. So having ruled out the usage of magic, Starfall decided to assume that a non-magical method had to be involved in their manufacturing process. He'd have to go for a reconnaissance sometime in the future. He might be living in a peaceful country inhabited by friendly magical Ponies, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't use espionage to spy on hostile countries...
As for the melted blob of metal that was currently burning away on the tiles of his
lab's floor...He had a good idea of how to use it...