Onto the Pony Planet--Chapter 16 notes · 4:45am Jul 15th, 2014
Onto the Pony Planet: Chapter 16 notes
A huge thanks to my pre-readers: Humanist, AnormalUnicornPony, metallusionsismagic, PunIntended Consequences, Woonsocket Wrench, and my parents.
Marked teleports:
We've seen in the show Twilight teleporting herself (often absurdly short distances); we've also seen her accidentally teleport Spike with herself.
In Dragon Quest, when the ponies and Spike fled from the teenage dragons, Twilight teleported them all away . . . but a discerning viewer may have noticed that she first cast a spell that marked all the ponies (and Spike), then cast the teleport spell.
From this, I conclude that in a normal teleport, the unicorn and anything she is carrying goes with her. Should she have the power to cast a more complex spell, she can move other participants, too.
Here's where I'd put a link to a YouTube video of that scene, except I've never been able to find one. It's too bad; I'd've liked to show it to my really geeky buddy.
Inductive kick isn't something that's ever been mentioned in the show, to my knowledge. It's used in electronics, occasionally. When an electrical field collapses, there is an upward spike in voltage—those of you familiar with an oscilloscope pattern for a spark plug firing will know what this looks like.
In some cases, it can be a bad thing. On a car with individual ignition coils, it has to be dealt with, because computers don't like voltage spikes. In other cases, it can be used. Gasoline Direct Injection requires high voltage to energize the fuel injectors; what some automakers do is boost the voltage by taking the voltage spike from the injector that fired before and adding it to the next one (oversimplified, but I'm a mechanic, not an engineer).
Given that in real life, a teleportation spell would have to be able to compensate for differing altitudes, planetary movement, etc., they must have found a way to absorb that in the casting of the spell—and it's a realistic limitation on how far a unicorn can teleport. It would be particularly ingenious to be able to save some of that energy and use it to cast the spell in reverse.
It's also worth noting that we've never seen Princess Celestia teleport from the ground. I assume that's because she's teleporting so far—Ponyville to Canterlot—she knows to reduce the strain on the spell by using the more-forgiving air, rather than the ground, to absorb some of her momentum (and I might add that after the teleport in Dragon Quest, everypony was still moving forward at the same speed as they were before the spell was cast).
Blocking a teleport. Well, as Professor Laureate says, a shield spell wouldn't be much use if a unicorn could teleport through it, and we know from Magic Duel that shield spells prevent Twilight from beaming down and saving everypony.EDIT: disregard this example; as the spell in question was a giant glass fishbowl. We also probably remember that Twilight was trapped briefly in Sombra's crystal prison [and presumably in the crystal mines under Canterlot, too—IIRC she could teleport around them, but not out of them].
And we all remember how the whole thing with Sombra was resolved.
(I am so happy that this is a thing. Faith in humanity: restored.)
Allie Way is of course one of the bowling ponies. While we have no idea what her actual job might be, I think it's reasonable to assume she can't make a living bowling.
Since we work on a lot of the local tradesman's trucks, I always take a look when I see one in somebody's driveway, at the mall, or whatever. Heck, when I drove wrecker, I always kept a lookout for our competitors, too. It would be quite natural for Allie to get a good idea of who was working (and, by extension, what was being done) before she even entered the building, simply by seeing whose wagons were parked out front of the embassy.
IRL horses can't vomit. This can be a problem when they eat something they shouldn't.
Fortunately, ponies can.
Even though most of the guards look the same, one assumes they have names. Since I'm terrible at coming up with names, I used a handy shortcut: paint colors. Many of them sound very pony-like; if you happen to live near a paint store, perhaps someone there will be willing to direct you to the color swaths. Or, you can find them online, too.
I had some trouble coming up with an appropriate name for the Buffalo chief. I wanted to use a Native American name, but I wanted to make sure that it fit in the style of show canon, as well as not insulting Native Americans. While it's true that some of them had names which we might consider odd—Geronimo's name meant 'he who yawns,' I assumed some of my readers wouldn't know, and would assume I was being disrespectful.
I also wanted to use a notable chief. One free internet to the first reader to figure it out.
EDIT: featured! I love my readers!
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
2286921
Are you suggesting that I was inconsistent in my capitalization of "buffalo?"
2286932 Negative, I am simply lamenting the vicious circle of Buffalo buffalo buffalo.
poni poni poni poni poni poni poni poni.....
I once used a reference book called Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. Even the teacher didn't believe it was real. The paper was about Poe's The Bells, which made it all the more perfect.
Is this your
cardchief?2286956
Yes! You win an internet!
2286949
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo?
That is a freaking AWESOME figurine of Shiny throwing Cadence! I fucking want one!
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37540750/_ponies/shiny%20i%20dont%20like%20mayo.jpg
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37540750/_ponies/shiny%20throwing%20cadence.gif
I just now noticed that he kicks is one leg up after the toss. The amount of detail the animators put into this show never ceases to amaze me.
I wrote a blogpost about the Physics of UnicornTeleportation:
The Physics Of UnicornTeleportation
The comments on the post also expand the physics too, so I recommend reading them too.
2286921 This is also a proper sentence... which worries me sometimes, isn't the english language fascinating?
Yay court drama! I miss the usual pacing for the story but this is interesting in its own way. Then again a break is needed every so often.
As usual I love the amount of effort you put into this fic.
The scene from Dragon Quest of Twilight marking the others can be seen around 20:25 in http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwqql1_mlp-fim-s2-e21-dragon-quest-hd-no-watermarks_videogames
2287134
After watching the scene in question, it seems that we have a failed teleportation followed by a successful teleportation. Rather than displacing 1 huge bubble of SpaceTime, Twilight Sparkle displaced 4 much smaller bubbles of SpaceTime. All conservation-laws seem obeyed.
Notice how far he threw her. Its safe to say he isn't very good at throwing anything.2286978
The only ponies that have been established to be able to teleport are Twilight, Princess Celestia and Nightmare moon, and most assume it is a very rare ability.
There was no shield in Magic Duel. It was literally a giant fishbowl. It made glass sounds when tapped. Further, the possibility of teleporting inside was not discussed nor attempted.
With an active anti-teleportation trap. She could teleport out, but she was teleported right back in.
2286932
2287361
SunSetShimmer also teleports. ¿Pinkamena Diane Pie?*
* Something is odd about Pinkamena Diane Pie.
2287361 I can't confirm this because I don't have the video, but didn't Sunset Shimmer teleport once as a pony in the beginning of Equestria Girls?
2286978
Me, too. If Hasbro released some limited-run toys like that . . . well, it'd be like printing money.
One of my favorite little details is the mine cart rolling backwards after Twilight and Cadance get launched out into the abyss in the Crystal Caverns.
2287089
I read it! I think there was a thread or two on the Worldbuilding and Science! forums, as well. While I don't entirely agree with all the conclusions (based on my interpretation of the show; I assume the math is correct), I have found that it is beneficial to the writer to read multiple theories. Celestia knows that I've dropped some of my older theories in favor of newer ones.
Plus, I'm not one who's particularly beholden to one headcanon or another; the rules I set for this 'verse might not be the same as the ones I set another story in . . . I feel that I need to do an HiE where Equestria is flat one of these days. And the human looks over the edge. Or maybe falls off.
Heck, it might not even have to be HiE.
2287094
It's horrifying. One of my sharp-eyed readers has spotted a mistake which isn't a mistake, because the past tense of the verb 'to bear' is 'bore;' since it appears in a sentence about drilling, he assumed I meant 'bore' as a noun, and suggested the missing verb. . . .
This is one of the few (nearly) Dale-free chapters. I did warn that they would appear every now and then.
Thank you!
2287228
That's not how I see it: by Lesson Zero, Twilight appears to be able to teleport with no warm-up time, something she did not do in earlier episodes--and when she does teleport them all, on what you'd call the second try, it's pretty much instantaneous.
However, I can also see how the scene could be interpreted as her casting one spell, which failed, and then tried again with a different spell and was successful.
2287361
That's true, but one could argue that the only unicorns who have been canonically established to be able to cast a light spell are Twilight and Snails (yes, I'm probably forgetting some). I also assume it's a rare ability, but it's hard to imagine that only those three ponies in all of Equestria can cast such a spell, especially since we know from canon that spells can be learned, both from books (gravity spells) or other unicorns (gem-finding spell). I do think that being able to teleport any distance is beyond most unicorns, and what's the point of learning a spell which is draining and can take you no further than you could walk in fifty steps?
I personally don't always give credence to sound effects: I assume that Rainbow Dash isn't powered by a jet turbine, nor is Scootaloo propelled by a two-cycle engine (although that would explain why RD can fly so fast and Scoots can't....)
If it really was a giant fishbowl, I wonder why nopony thought of tunneling out?
Valid point.
Yes; I probably should have been more clear on that.
I personally think that there are several types of shield spell which have different effects. Earlier in the story, Lyra cast a partial shield spell, intended only to defend the front. Although we've seen no such spell in canon, it seems like it would be a useful spell for combat, and simple enough that most unicorns could learn it and cast it repeatedly.
I also think that Sombra's trap was another entirely different type of shield.
Again, that's just my interpretation; it's not necessarily any more correct than anyone else's.
I did know the "James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher". and "Colorless green objects sleep furiously," but that one had never crossed my radar.
Huh. Now I've learned another new thing today.
2287732
SunSetShimmer did. I wish that I would have pointed that out 3 hours before you did.
SunSetShimmer teleports in Equestrian Girls:
2289104
I could be wrong in mine assumptions about the Physics. The basic assumption is parsimony. I used Occam’s Razor:
I obey all conservation-laws and use Relativity. It is a magical world, so the world need not obey these rules, but they are a useful starting point.
2290215
Given that Equestria is occupied by magical talking ponies, your mileage may vary.
Still, I like to mark on one end of the spectrum what's scientifically plausible, and the other is "it's magic, I ain't got to explain s
t," and find a decent middle ground.
Another philosophical user and I exchanged a long series of world-building e-mails, and IIRC we came up with eight different ways that the Equestrian 'solar system' might operate, each of them with its particular advantages and disadvantages. I don't feel that any one of them was more valid than another, given what we've seen in the show.
2290242
I always called it the Equine System because everything orbits Equus. The only explanation that makes any sense is that the Equine System is artificial. We basically know only 4 things:
* The Sun and Moon orbit Equus
* The 2 Royal PonySisters control the Sun and Moon.
* The Stars aided the escape of NightMareMoon.
* Equus is round.
Beyond that, we know nothing.
Quite a bunch in fact. Light appears to be alongside TK in the everypony knows it category.
Well, if you're agreeing on teleportation being in the domain of rare powerful unicorns, why do you have characters saying the equivalent of "a door isn't much of a door if any old SWAT team can bust right through" and then argue they're right?
The sound effect I meant as in "it's even made of actual glass!" Tunneling was an option since we know it doesn't extend because that thing was an actual physical object in the shape of a fishbowl conjured above Ponyville and lowered onto the ground. Trixie also physically lifts the edge to let the badgers out.
img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121207075229/mlp/images/1/14/A_dome_S3E05.png
I'd like to see those, because not a lot seems to be consistent with the Sun and Moon rising and setting on the same side, being made to zigzag at will, and the presence of the moon causing the presence of stars.
2290268
2290444
Bear in mind that this was written during the early part of Season 3..
Right, so... what exactly are the Sun and Moon?
I don't explicitly say in my story, since every theory I've come up with has problems.
1. They're the same as ours. Celestia doesn't raise the sun at all.
Problem: The sun didn't rise on the Solstice when NMM came back.
2. They're the same as ours. Celestia actually rotates the planet.
Problem: Tidal forces when the sun didn't rise on the Solstice. I doubt you could stop the rotation of a planet in a 12 hour period without massive earthquakes.
3. They're smaller and closer. Possible. If the sun were as close as our moon, it would still look the same size as our sun in the sky, and (assuming she has powerful enough magic) she wouldn't run into the equal-and-opposite reaction problem that moving the sun from a smaller planet would have.
Problem. A sun that small wouldn't work properly. There would be no fusion, so no sunlight or heat.
4. They're smaller, maybe Jupiter sized, and Equestria has really heavy gravity, because it's made of dark matter.
Problem. The physics of the sun might work, but pegasi probably wouldn't fly, and any human that came to the planet would be crushed flat in a trice.
5. There isn't a 'sun,' there's a portal to a different star. Celestia moves that around in the sky. This is the most practical suggestion, but it just doesn't seem fulfilling. It might be do-able in a sci-fi setting (a giant wormhole straw, with one end in a nearby star, and the other over the freshly-terraformed planet), but it just seems to violate the spirit of the show.
6. The 'builders' of Equestria left the machinery behind which allows magical control of the sun in their slightly unstable system.
Problem. Some technologically advanced spacefaring race would have had to get things going; what happened to them? Do the ponies know of them at all, even in myths and legends? Could they have been humanoid? Is that why even now ponies have saddles and bits and doorknobs?
7. They're on a burned-out star, too. It was part of a binary star system, and theirs exhausted its fuel and stopped burning. Their 'moon' is a planet orbiting their dead sun.
Problem. I don't know enough about celestial mechanics to know if this is even possible.
Of the choices, I've got to say I like 6 the best. In a lifting environment, four men with taglines can control a 200 ton load that a crane is carrying; why not have the sun be in a generally stable orbit, but the princess needs to make small corrections? This still leaves the problem of NMM, though. The only other possibility I've considered was that she mindraped everyone so that they thought it was an eternal night when it really wasn't, but that's a more horrifying explanation than any other. If Luna's capable of that, they should have killed her.
Three's a good close second. They could use magical energy to get the sun burning, even if it doesn't want to, and it could explain the instability of the system.
For the purposes of storytelling and worldbuilding, I don't think it matters that much, once an author has come up with a pretty good idea of how it works. I included a long section of astronomy in my story (like, how does Luna move the stars, and how do the ponies know about other planets, since an earth-centric solar system probably won't have other planets (yes, I know that in the 1600s they came up with an observational model that worked, but they didn't know about gravity)). They're not as advanced as we are, since they don't have mass spectrometery to know what the sun's made out of, and they don't have radio telescopes to know how far away the other stars are. In their world, their system would be the normal systems, and others would be strange by comparison.
--admiral biscuit
PT
Personally, here's one of my theories:
8. The sun, moon, and stars aren't even physical objects. They are instead non-corporeal magic optical phenomena. Therefore, since they aren't even material entities in the first place, there are no issues with "why isn't gravity affecting them" nor "how can Celestia and Luna move such massive objects".
...Of course, this raises the question of "how was Luna trapped on/in the moon", but... since the Elements of Harmony can do conceptual effects, that kind of throws out the conventional wisdom of science anyways! Maybe she wasn't physically on the moon, but rather trapped in some kind of pocket of space conceptually tied with the "moon"? Lolidunno, it doesn't make sense scientifically, of course.
...So what's next?
I believe she was "in" the moon in canon, not "on" the moon.
The problem with theory #8 is why isn't Equestria a frozen ice-ball?
2290444
While I agree with you wholeheartedly, my point was that I believe we've only seen two unicorns cast specific light spells in canon.
I believe shield spells have different levels of potency (based on the level of the caster), and different techniques can bypass them--or not. I don't think that Shining Armor's shield spell would have failed, if he hadn't already been weakened by Chrysalis, for example. And while Twilight's shield spells are proof against anypony in Ponyville, they might not hold against a group of military unicorns. It's like the level of protection on one's house: you can have a wood door, a steel door, cut-resistant screens or bars over your windows; if you want to spend the money, you can even live in a nuke-proof bunker (and I might note that there are examples of people building--for lack of a better term--fortresses that the SWAT team can't easily get into.
I should have re-watched the episode before making an erroneous point in my blog post. You are, of course, absolutely correct that it was a giant fishbowl. I have struck through the text in the blog post.
2292800
My take, which is just mine headcanon —— ¡nothing in the show backs this, so take it with an huge grain of salt! —— is that the sky and everything in it is illusory. That is not to say that the Sun is unimportant:
Without the energy from the Sun, Equus will freeze and die. NightMareMoon would have caused half of Equus to burn under the Sun, and the other half which includes Equestria, would freeze.
¡I have nothing backing mine headcanon! Please take mine headcanon with a grain of salt.
2292800 3. I remember when talking with Admiral Tigerclaw about something like that - using magic to create a small fusion reactor like that would still be less of a feat than what he has in Arrow 18.
4. Pegasi shouldn't be able to fly in the first place with wings this small, the problem is more that such a planet would have an extremely large and heavy atmosphere with multiple layers of clouds obscuring the sky and the air near the surface would behave like liquid due to high pressure.
7. This however does have 4s problem. I could accept Jupiter's dozens of gs gravity with sufficient magical strength, but a typical brown star has hundreds of gs - and those are the ones that still glow. The Age of Iron Stars is still a ways off and by the time that happens the night sky is going to be empty indeed.
I actually once had a 5&8 combination idea, with the real sun being weak or distant and Celestia controlling a cosmic magical lens focusing light on the world.
Obviously, with Season 4's data the only way is the one from Sharing the Night - there is no outer space as we know it, only a sort of sky dimension containing the Day and Night.
2292800
Those answers are not mutually exclusive. In particular, I remember proposing in a comment that Equestria was a planet being transported between star systems. That would have neatly explained how such a system could have arisen, and would have dictated a very small artificial sun.
2296048
I seem to remember that I thought that was a hella good idea for a story, and I still intend to write it. Once I get caught up with other stuff. I've been mulling it over . . . well, ever since that comment exchange.
Sorry for commenting on such an old blog post, but I have a theory that’s taken from The Elder Scrolls video game. I’m not good at explaining things, but I’ll try. It’ll be a little simplified and I don’t remember all the specifics, but I think it’ll be close enough. I don’t think it could be compatible with your story, though, or most stories.
In the game, the heavens above the world the games take place on isn’t outer space like we know it; it’s more like a veil stretched across the sky. In ancient times, the world was created by a myriad of powerful beings called the Aedra. One of them defied what the others wanted and created the mortal races. The other Aedra slayed the treasonous one, casting its bifurcated body into the sky, creating the twin moons. The rest of the Aedra abandoned the world, retreating back into their home realm, creating tiny holes in the sky, where light and energy pour out, giving the appearance of stars. The most powerful one also retreated, creating a giant hole, which turned out to be the equivalent of what we would consider the sun. The game’s world, Mundus, rotates like our earth does, the holes in the sky moving as if they’re revolving around the planet.
What if a similar veil exists around the world Equestria is on? A veil that has been damaged, either intentionally or accidentally, creating holes into another realm, a realm where an exotic energy emanates from, giving the ponies a unique source of power that they have been able to evolve to use over millennia? The energy would be a source of their magic, as well as heat. A transparent veil, allowing them to see past it, into the vastness of the universe that their world, and the enigmatic veil, reside in.
Luna would be able to control the moon, as well as the tiny pinpricks in the sky they see as the stars, while being unable to touch actual stars in the distance. The moon could simply be what our moon is; a rock in the sky. It doesn’t have to be very large or even far away.
Celestia would be able to move the giant rift in the veil, a difficult task to move such a big rift in space, compared to the small spots that Luna can move, although Luna does still have to move a whole moon.
The planet itself would not rotate, causing all the stars that Luna can’t manipulate seem as if they’re static in the sky. Celestia would have to move the giant rift evenly around the planet to not give too much heat or energy to any one place for too long.
That doesn’t explain why Luna would have to move the moon, though, because their world obviously has gravity, so why wouldn’t their moon move around the planet on its own like ours does? The veil in the sky is a problem, too, because why would it be there? How could it be there? Is it some sort of pocket dimension that can see through to our dimension that’s adjacent to it through the transparent veil?
I don’t know. I honestly just came up with it after I read this post. It was fun to think about, though, even if it was largely from a video game. It does feel a little half-baked, though, but it was a hasty theory I just came up with, so I guess it makes sense that it would be a little sloppy.