Steel Strut led me, Amethyst Dream and the rest of ponies gathered into back of her workshop in my Equestria dreamscape. Numerous workbenches, machinery, and racks of tools were set up. Scattered throughout the room were several different sets of stage props were in various stages of completion along with random bits of machinery.
 
The center of the room had been cleared out except for what I recognized as being a very large steam generator. There was a small one located in the briefing room of the Ponyville REWS headquarters. Rainbow Dash used it on occasion to aid her when giving briefings. With it she created small clouds of steam to mould into rough, three dimensional models of upcoming weather systems. Normally steam generators are straightforward devices. A water tank, a burner of some type to provide heat, and what was referred to as a flash chamber where the already heated water was quickly converted to steam. An expansion chamber that cooled the steam down a bit. Finally a valve to allow the steam to escape in a controlled fashion. Steam generators were usually fueled by either coal, wood, oil or recently there had been cases of experimental models using electricity to power them. But I saw no power cables running to it; neither could I smell anything burning.
 
Steel Strut sauntered up to the device and threw a couple of knife switches. As she did this various gauges started moving and from within the innards of the device one could hear muffled hissing. The earth pony moved a couple of control sliders and then stepped back, apparently satisfied with the state of the machine. Looking over she saw me staring at it with a confused look on my face. She grinned slyly.
 
“Trying to figure how it works feather flapper?”
 
“Yeah. It doesn’t appear to be burning anything, and it’s not electrically powered either?” I muttered as I walked around it slowly.
 
The mare started visually examining various seals on the steam generator as she replied. “Eventually I plan to make a electrical version of this, but too many venues Scratch’s performs at still don’t have electricity. Besides this device is a standalone and requires no infrastructure or short-term combustibles to operate!”
 
Apparently finding everything in order Strut advanced a couple of levers and from within one could now definitely hear the device coming to life. She monitored the gauges for a couple seconds. Then she wandered over to a nearby table that had a journal sitting on it. Grasping a pencil in her mouth she jotted down a couple of quick notes. Then she looked over at the wall clock and noted the time. With that accomplished she sauntered over back over to the steam generator and once again verified the device was operating correctly. With that accomplished she resumed speaking.
 
“So Sky Brush! Have you ever heard of something called crystalline polarity resistance?”
 
I actually perked up at this. “Yes I have! Um. Earlier this year my household traveled on the Equestria Airship Carrier Service’s airship the Sky Shad to Cloudsdale. I remember reading a pamphlet that mentioned that’s what they used to run the engines onboard it!”
 
The blue-grey mare stared at me for a second then looked back at the gauges. “Well…that’s what this steam generator is using here. There’s two crystals located in this device that have very strong magical fields to them, but also have radically different polarities to each other. When brought into close proximity of each other their magical fields resist the presence of the other and attempt to push to other away. In the process they generate lots of heat.”
 
Steel Strut fiddled with a couple levers before continuing. “Now on the Sky Shad they actually change distances between the crystals to regulate the reaction. However.” She gave the body of the steam generator a tap with a front hoof. “There’s not enough room inside this generator to do that. So instead I’ve devised a couple sets of steel and lead shutters to control the reaction. One for each crystal. The crystals themselves are housed inside heavy steel housings with a shutter on each one. That shield the crystals from each other when the shutters are completely closed. The more I open the shutters the stronger the reaction becomes and the more heat they generate.”
 
She step back and grinned at me. “It’s great! No coal, wood, oil, or external electricity needed. It makes no smoke or noxious fumes. Which means we can run it indoors without worrying about suffocating anypony.” She glanced over at a dormant steam engine sitting in a corner. “Unlike those things.” She muttered.
 
My face scrunched up as I racked my brain and tried to remember certain bits of information. “Um, I seem to remember the pamphlet saying the crystals they’d used were very rare, and very expensive, and eventually the crystals wear out from the stress.” I stared at the device that was already starting emit wisps of steam. “This seems like a very expensive way to boil water?”
 
Scratch’s set designer glared at me for a second. Then she looked back at her creation. “Yeah it is, but I convinced Scratch to let me do this so I could prove to her that my ideas are correct. If I’m right I might be able to bring the cost way down, and I’ve got way bigger plans for this idea. This here could be the future of Equestria!”
 
As she said this a valve released and a little whistle like that on a tea kettle started emitting a tinny, shrill whistle. Steel Strut reached up and shut it off; then she glanced over at me.
 
“Alright! The pre-heater is up to temperature, and the flash heater is prepped as well. She reared and tapped a large chamber at the top of the device. “This expansion chamber can create a cloud of water vapor large enough to fill the entire room! So stallion. Show us all why our boss decided to pay for you to come half way across Equestria to see us. Let’s see what you got!”
 
To be continued.