//------------------------------// // Minimum Octane Ratings // Story: The Best of Twilight Sparkle's Twilight Time // by Greatmewtwo //------------------------------// Twilight had already spent about two hours recutting, remixing, and re-recording some of the footage she had left from when her computer's hard drive was nearly obliterated in a citywide hack. While that was going on, the phone she had vibrated and chirped, notifying her that her brother, Shining Armor, had replied to a message sent via the Internet: @shiniearmor replied: Giddy up Derby Racers! We'll be right back after these messages! Seeing what Shining had seen, it was interesting, sometimes to an embarrassing degree, that he was very big on things that even predated him at least twenty years, from older comic books to obscure animated movies and video games. One day, he binge-watched a complete series on DVD of an old cartoon called The High-Octane Adventures of Derby Racer. Based on the comic books of the video game, the show centered around an adventurous race car driver and his quest to be the greatest racer in Derby County while being a hero and a gentleman; some episodes would even feature gangsters and saboteurs who wanted to see his end. Other days, he would be either playing a video game from the earlier days of video gaming, LAN partying with his friends as they played Transit Mogul, or playing tabletop games such as The Founders of Canterlot, Ogres and Oubliettes, or Hocuspocus: The Get-Together. Naturally, she had this little narration to go with this little segment about octane ratings: "Well, that was my brother, talking about how awesome Derby Racer is. My brother would watch it all the time when I wasn't watching Shuppet Babes during the day. Sometimes, like him, he would run fast about the house saying 'I got boost power!' But anyway, he actually figured out how to get his car to do that, and this was the segment I recorded in honor of his favorite childhood show:" "And so, this morning, Twilight Time comes to you with this question from @Crackle909. I was supposed to meet Rainbow Dash, but she had a...driving lesson." Dear Twilight, I just started driving and got my license. What's up with those three grades of gasoline at gas stations when you can always get the lowest octane-rated gas the cheapest? "Yes. I was supposed to have a driving lesson today, too, but here's the deal. Those three grades of gasoline are usually separated by what is called a minimum octane rating. These ratings are a means by which we express the performance of internal combustion fuels. In an internal combustion engine, fuel and air are mixed together and then ignited under high pressure by spark plugs in the combustion chambers. To get the maximum amount of energy out of the fuel, the fuel-air mixture has to resist detonation as much as it can and get compressed as much as it can, otherwise we get mistimed and/or premature detonations in the engine, otherwise called engine knocks. The presence of certain chemicals such as hydrocarbons, octanes, and methanes improve the gasoline's resistance to ignition so as to allow for the needed compression for the engine to function properly. Around here, these ratings are expressed as an average between two tests, one where the gas is used in a standard motor, and another where the fuel-air mixture is preheated and the engine is revving faster; a much more practical test to see how much it can take before you get engine knocks that can damage your engine severely. 87-rated gas is the cheapest fuel because it has so little of these chemicals that it burns rather easily, while 89 and 93-rated gas burn under much higher pressure and are actually more ideal for driving. All engines can use the most basic regular gasoline, but high-performance engines like the one in Colonel Griffin's car on the show, F-Twelve: GT Legends of Loud Village and Derby's car on Derby Racer have to use fuel with the highest octane levels available because they have to compress the air so much to work properly. Sometimes, you have to add octane boosters just to assure this. And now, if you excuse me, I have to help my brother, Shining Armor, with his nerd machine. He's installing new software in it that allows his radio to say that he's got boost power when he's doing over 55. It should be worth noting that shortly after recording that segment, after helping Shining with his new firmware for his car, Twilight returned to the basement and immediately restarted her apparatus. With a single keystroke more, she was back to recording. This was one of the "bloopers" she hoped to avoid. "And we're back with more Twilight Time," she repeated. "Today's question comes from @sc00tL00, who writes:" Dear Twilight, What chemicals would be good if we wanted to...improve our Filly Guide cookies and boost sales? "You know, I always knew something was wrong with those things. Every time those things go on sale, there's a sudden increase in hyperactivity incidents. Plus, I knew something was wrong when my mouth was all in different colors...and Twilight Time will be right back after these messages." Like that, Twilight reflected on the last Filly Guide sale of the year she recorded that video. She remembered reading in a teachers' bulletin that staff and faculty should be entirely aware of any sudden abnormalities in attention span and spontaneity following the Filly Guide cookie sale as the school year continued after the winter. Apparently, rumors about the cookies being laced with excessive amounts of sugar and other additives proved true when two children had to be hospitalized for diabetic attacks. She also remembered Lemon Zest and Sugar Coat in a similar situation when they were younger. She had taken that abrupt commercial break back then to reflect on how she had to hear those sirens and see the paramedics coming for them during a math quiz late in the afternoon when they fainted. Thankfully, they made it out of hospital safely and Sugarcoat realized that she was diabetic.