Love Is A Miracle
Chapter 3: Through the Looking Glass
“- Therefore, by tuning the harmonics I was able to compensate for any missing dimensional features. The formula explains how I calibrated the device. Current power sources are insufficient to produce the amount of energy needed without it. This limits my range but the fact you’re here more than makes up for it!” Tiffany explained. Her obvious excitement animated her movements while drawing out the formulas on a white board.
Twilight Sparkle followed along without missing a beat. She understood the basic principles, allowing her to keep up with the technical discussion, despite being unfamiliar with certain terms. Her hoof went up to her chin, eliciting more reactions from the scientists studying her physiology. “So this is how you’re able to bring beings from another dimension. I knew you had to be doing something to allow me to arrive and still use magic.”
“Originally this started out as a window into other dimensions. I could see into them without interacting. When I realized there were energies latent to other dimensions not present in ours I had to find a way to make up for this lacking element. In your case, magic would seem to be the energy field covered by this formula,” Tiffany stated and pointed to one of the unknown variables in the formula.
“That’s just brilliant! What gave you that idea?” Twilight asked while rubbing her hooves together in excitement.
Tiffany beamed proudly at Twilight’s compliment. “It was while I was peeking into your dimension actually. I noticed the magical auras the unicorns made and it hit me you may need some way to compensate for it. For all I knew, you may be unable to survive without it! And the last thing I wanted to do was bring someone over here just to have them suffocate to death.”
Twilight rubbed the back of her head with her hoof and chuckled nervously. “Yeah, wouldn’t want to do that now, would we,” she said while her eyes traveled across the floor. “So why did you decide to bring me over? Didn’t you see lots of other dimensions with your window? Why pick Equestria?”
Tiffany sighed a bit. “Unfortunately, a lot of other dimensions did not look very, er, appealing,” she said. “I found several dimensions parallel to human ones but they were either post-apocalyptic or too primitive while others had beings who didn’t appear to be friendly at all. On top of that the cost in energy limited me to only one hour of viewing a day. This is all cutting edge technology and today was our biggest breakthrough yet. I don’t even know what all the ramifications are going to be when we announce this to the world.”
“IF we decide to announce it. Remember Dr. Sparks, while this breakthrough is historic, we don’t want to just announce it without proper clearance. There are people, governments out there, who would steal and abuse this,” Sean interrupted.
“I know, I know!” Tiffany sighed in exasperation.
“We just need to let things run it’s course between legal and the State Department,” Sean concluded.
“So until then I guess no Nobel Prize for science” she lamented with a pout.
“Sorry Doctor. I need to run through some other matters. I’ll leave you and Twilight to continue your information exchange,” Sean said with a shake of his head. “By your leave Miss Sparkle.” he said with a nod and stepped out.
Twilight waited until Sean had left the room before looking back at Tiffany. “He’s kind of a stick in the mud isn’t he?” she whispered conspiratorially.
“That’s exactly what I said when we first met. He’s not so bad after you get used to him.“ Tiffany giggled. “He’s also another reason we chose your dimension to contact. After seeing some of the nastier dimensions he suggested we find one with sentient life that appeared to have a pleasant society and atmosphere. He was concerned I might bring over some horrible monster that would eat us and we couldn’t stop thereby dooming our world to destruction. When I found a dimension full of colorful talking ponies who appeared friendly I decided this would be our best bet.”
“Well you don’t have to worry about me eating any people. We ponies eat mostly grass, vegetables, flowers, plants and the like,” Twilight said with a laugh. “Actually I guess you could say our world is very peaceful. Except for maybe the occasional dragon sighting or Changeling invasion.”
“You have dragons!? That’s so cool! You have got to tell me more about your world. Why don’t we go to another room. I arranged it to be more comfortable and it has a computer set up so you can learn more about our world!” Tiffany exclaimed and pointed to the doorway.
“That sounds great! I can’t wait to see what your world has. This is going to be one of my best reports to Princess Celestia yet; making friends with beings from a whole other dimension!” the unicorn said as she was led by Tiffany.
---
The conference had continued despite Twilight’s disappearance. Celestia decided it would be better to help everyone remain calm if the presentations continued to run their course. More than a few ponies glanced nervously around until she announced that Twilight was okay despite a mishap with a teleportation spell. Some of the ponies just shrugged and carried on, gossiping and making comparisons to previous accidents during these conferences.
“Just like the big noodle explosion twenty years ago.”
“Dese conferences always have da incidents. Ya know dere was da time I singed all da hair on mah face clean off!“
“So, what do you think happened to Twilight?” Spike asked. He had just finished delivering the letter when he cast his worried face upon the princess. “Do not fear, Spike. Twilight is well, I can determine that much. However, the place she has gone to is out of touch from my magic. The only reason I can think of is that she is in a place without magic,” she concluded.
“Without magic? You mean there’s no magic there? Where in Equestria could a place like that even be?” Spike gasped, almost too loudly. Celestia motioned with her eyes towards the audience to remind him not to be so audible. Spike eep’d and covered his mouth with his hands.
“To answer your question, Spike, she is not in Equestria right now. In fact, given what I could sense from the spatial rift on the stage, this was not a magical event but one caused by science. Whether it was accidental or not I can not determine. I am confident that Twilight is fine. A moment before the rift closed I could detect Twilight alive and well on the other side,” Princess Celestia said with utmost confidence. She maintained her aura of calm and in turn was able to soothe the baby dragon by it. Celestia was familiar with crisis and remaining calm despite them. Her confidence had been forged over time but she remained cautious and summoned the other Elements of Harmony.
Spike, on the other hand, had a hard time sitting still. He tried to watch the other presentations but couldn’t help fidgeting. His motions were noticed by the alicorn and she placed a wing on his shoulder for comfort. Spike looked up and blushed as he realized what he had been doing.
---
“What a strange world. So without any magic you built cities all around your kingdom. All around the different continents of the world,” Twilight remarked as she looked at a satellite image map of Earth. Tiffany guided Twilight on the use of the computer terminal. The unicorn immediately picked up how to manipulate the mouse with her hoof which made the scientists gasp in awe.
“How is she clicking the mouse with her hoof?”
“Is-is she made of rubber?”
“Wait, did she just TYPE?”
Twilight barely noticed their remarks while she pored over different databases of information. Her fascination led her to examine events such as world population, history, nations, governments, technology, ethnicity, and even military. “Hm, maybe it’s a good thing you guys don’t have any magic. There sure are a lot of wars in your history,” she remarked.
“Well, yes, we haven’t always really gotten along unfortunately,” Tiffany sighed.
“But look at everything you’ve achieved without magic! You have machines that travel through the air, underwater, even into outer space! Now you can observe other dimensions; you humans are going to be so fascinating to tell everyone back home about,” the purple unicorn said with a hint of eagerness. “Especially this space travel stuff. That you can actually send someone to the moon is amazing. Why don‘t you have more stuff built there?”
“Well, we’re still working on it. In fact the president of this company was looking into expanding into the realm of space exploration.” the scientist explained. “There are actually a bunch of private industries working on space travel and building a base on the moon so she decided to try going a different angle. I was working on theories of spatial teleportation and moving objects around the world via matter transfer when President Canterbury approached me.”
“President who?”
“Oh, President Stella Canterbury, she’s the president of the company I work for, E-quest Corp. This is her science division where we work on projects she’s invested in. Originally she wanted to develop the means to teleport objects to the moon. I was just a graduate student looking for research grants to prove my theories…”
---
“….which I have calculated allows us to teleport matter from one point on the Earth to another,” Tiffany concluded. The woman looked out from the stage in the auditorium to a small collection of five raters sitting in the theater chairs who grumbled, nodded, and shook their heads while writing on clip boards. She stood in front of a large whiteboard which had formulas and calculations written on it. She was dressed in semi-formal attire with her dark hair cropped just above her shoulders. “You see, by addressing the neutrinos in an oscillating pattern and-”
“That is quite enough Miss Sparks. Thank you, again for your spirited presentation.”
Tiffany swallowed down her sigh as she became silent. She felt waves of defeat wash over her as she collected her notes and thanked the panel for their time. Her voice rang hollow while she struggled to collect herself upon departure. Tiffany had grown familiar with the rejecting tone in their voices. She did not allow herself to show any emotion until she had put the auditorium behind her by several paces, only then bringing a hand up to wipe her eyes. She detoured into a nearby restroom to hide herself.
The distraught woman briefly glanced to ensure the bathroom was completely unoccupied before she broke into a sob. Tiffany let a few more escape before choking down the rest into a few rough breaths and finally into a sad sigh. She reassured herself the emotion had passed and cleaned up to hide any signs of crying. Once satisfied she walked out and nearly crashed into a middle-aged man wearing a suit.
“Whoa!”
“Oh-! I’m sorry!” she quickly.
“No harm done Miss Sparks. I was simply waiting for you to get done,” he replied and began pulling out a cell phone. Tiffany looked at him in distress and shook her head.
“Ah, n-no thanks, ah, I don’t give out my number, I don’t have time to talk and I really need to get going-” she stammered before the man pulled the phone up to his ear.
“I’m not the one looking to talk to you but Miss Canterbury insists on speaking to you.”
“Miss Canterbury?”
“Miss Stella Canterbury, president of E-quest Corp,” he explained before bringing the phone up to his ear. “Yes ma’am I found her. You want me to put her on? Yes ma’am,” he said before offering the phone to Tiffany. She cautiously took the phone and put it to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Is this Tiffany Sparks, the lady who recently gave her presentation on teleportation theories?” answered an elderly but firm woman’s voice.
“Speaking.”
“I apologize if my representative startled you but it is difficult for me to walk about sometimes. Would you like to have some lunch together in five minutes? I have a room reserved and want to hear more about your thesis, that is, if you are not too busy.”
“I-I guess. Is this really-?”
“Stella Canterbury, owner and president of E-quest Corp, venture capitalism, trade, and financier. I also happen to be very keen on certain subjects pertaining to science. So please, if you can, I would truly appreciate it if you could attend,” Stella answered.
“Okay.”
The man gestured for Tiffany to follow him as she handed the phone back. They walked together briefly to the next building over on the campus. Tiffany soon entered a small conference room. There was a small buffet table with food set on it, a round table with two chairs and a whiteboard nearby. Two servers were preparing two plates with food. Seated at one of the chairs was a mature woman who smiled upon recognizing Tiffany.
“Welcome Miss Sparks. I hope you do not find this too ostentatious. I did offer lunch but I had no idea what you may enjoy. Please join me,” Stella said and motioned to the other chair. Tiffany hesitantly walked over and sat down. The servers immediately began waiting on them and set out plates with food. “Now then, Miss Sparks, I have already seen your presentation and read some of your thesis, your intellect is not in question here. What I want to know is why you have not already received some form of research grant or position in a facility.”
Stella took a bite from her dish to signal she was waiting for a reply. Tiffany was still rather speechless and confused. She looked like she was about to talk, stopped and looked down at her plate. Her silence persisted until Stella finished chewing and set her fork down. “Is it because of that piece you submitted a while back?” Stella offered. Tiffany looked into the older woman’s eyes with a hint of shock. “Of course I looked into your past works, a little background research is necessary before looking into any investment. I just found it odd I could not find anything else after that point.”
Tiffany sighed at Stella’s mention of her past article. “I’ve been blacklisted.” she said and began to shudder.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I did not mean to upset you.” Stella said concerned.
“It doesn’t make me upset,” Tiffany stated firmly and pounded her fists on the table, “it makes me angry!” Stella tilted her head and allowed her to continue. “All I did was publish a piece questioning ‘climate change’ and pointing out how inconclusive the evidence is and I get shunned from the scientific community! Science is supposed to be about the free exchange of ideas, testing and proving theories, finding answers to mysteries! Instead it gets locked up so tightly by some ‘establishment’ and any differing opinions get silenced! I‘m lucky to get anyone to listen to me at all now and I can forget about being published. I‘ve submitted my thesis five times already and everyone refuses to publish it. They tell me to ‘recheck my math‘ and submit it again. Well I‘ve done the math and then some! I‘ve been going all around the country just trying to get someone to take me seriously and its like I‘ve been excommunicated for blasphemy!”
The young woman let out an exasperated shout. She realized Stella and both servers were looking at her and composed herself. “I-I’m sorry. You didn’t need to see that.” she said meekly as familiar waves of defeat began to flow over her again.
Stella picked up her tea cup and took a light sip from it. She set the cup down with much dignity upon the table. Tiffany noted her motions were very refined and sophisticated, almost as though she were royalty. “Do you still believe you were correct in your findings?” Stella asked.
“Huh?”
“Do you still stand behind what you wrote?”
“Well, yes, I mean, not that I couldn’t be wrong but at least what I found I believe in. There’s just not enough data to prove anything yet no matter how many models and theories are put forward. At least not enough to make it a ‘fact’ we should be acting on when we still don‘t even have enough evidence to support a solution. I can’t find any real evidence that points to the root cause of the problem and all the solutions put forward we don’t know if it will even solve it! There’s just too much politics involved and it has no place in science!”
Stella nodded and sipped her tea again. “Miss Sparks, have you ever considered recanting what you wrote? Maybe even compromising your beliefs just so you could get back ‘in’ to the scientific community?”
“What?” Tiffany was surprised by the question. “Well, the idea had crossed my mind but no. No way! Unless I can get some real empirical evidence then I refuse to acknowledge something being pushed as fact when it hasn’t been proven.”
“And despite your situation you will not stop trying to receive grants or find a facility willing to work with you? If it is as you say then you have a lot going against you. Are you sure you never thought about giving up?”
“I can’t give up. I have to keep trying. I know my theory is valid I just need to find the means to get published or prove them. That’s why I’ve been traveling around the country talking to anyone who will even give me a chance. I’ve spent all my money on travel and I barely have enough to get home as it is.”
The older woman calmly nodded along while she sipped her tea. “Have you ever considered teleporting matter into space? Or rather a point in space, such as say, the Moon?”
Tiffany was confused again by the sudden shift in topic and had to think for a moment. “Uh, well, no not really. Not yet I suppose. I guess I hadn’t thought of the notion of doing such a thing. Or even why someone would want to.”
Stella smiled mischievously. “You are aware that our country’s space program has been essentially gutted, correct?” she asked. Tiffany nodded. “Currently there are several private industries, private investors and entrepreneurs who are picking up where NASA has left off. Many commercial ventures have even successfully created space craft and are working towards making space flight readily available. The notion of a Moon colony is not at all too far off.” she said with a self-contained tinge of excitement.
“I want to let you in on a little secret. I have been fascinated with space travel all my life. I once endeavored to become an astronaut but circumstances carried me in a different direction. Now I am looking to get into the space industry in a different way. Rather than carrying objects into space I thought, what if we could just teleport objects there instantly. When we do build a Moon colony how are we going to supply it? If we had a teleporter it would take moments rather than days!” Stella continued, her face lighting up.
Tiffany thought about what Stella stated. “Well, I guess that does make practical sense. We’re still a ways from such a thing even if I adjusted my theories. Then again I don’t know how the effects of space would factor in so I would have to recalculate everything and then there’s proving it. That would require engineers, planning, designs, research and development, funding - I‘m almost out of money as it is - resources that are out of my reach!” she said at a rapid pace before sighing in defeat.
“Then what would you do if I said I wanted to make this happen. I understand the investment will not yield anything just yet. However, if you are able to prove your theory and adjust it to traveling into space, then E-quest Corporation would be on the ground floor to developing the first expressway to the Moon. Forget shuttle travel, we would have the capability to send supplies, building materials, perhaps even people to the Moon, eventually even to the entire Solar System,” Stella stated proudly with a triumphant smile.
The younger woman felt somewhat overwhelmed by the ambitious proposal. “You certainly like to aim high,” she nervously said.
“That is what my competition tells me before I outpace them. You have to think big and you have to be creative. It is what separates our country from all others; the free market which allows for the ability to go out and achieve your dreams. Even if you have to fail a couple times on the way; if you never give up then anything is possible. That is why I asked you about your situation before making my offer.”
“Offer? What offer?”
“To work for me, Miss Sparks. I have a scientific research facility where I invest in new endeavors that interest me. What good is making money if not to pursue the things I want? Space travel is one of those endeavors and I want to hire you on as one of my scientists. You will still have to work in your line of expertise on some of the current projects but once you submit your plan I will have it reviewed for resource allocation. As your project grows you will receive the appropriate resources that allow it to reach the next stage of progress. Does that sound like something you would be interested in doing?”
Tiffany suddenly felt faint. She was in the throes of despair just moments ago but now she was being given the opportunity of a lifetime. She managed to stay conscious but now doubts crept into her mind. “But what if, uh, what if I’m wrong? What if my theory doesn’t work? I, I-”
“Then you will go back to your equations and try again. I was not just interviewing you for your ability and theories. I wanted to know who you are and if you were willing to strive to succeed. That you hadn’t given up despite being shut out and your willingness to stick to your principles is exactly the kind of person I want working for me. So what do you think, Miss Sparks, or should I say, Doctor Sparks? Are you willing to take my offer?”
Stella observed the stunned scientist. Tiffany deliberated in silence before leaping out of her chair.
“YES!”
Stella watched in bemusement as Tiffany began jumping around the table shouting ‘yes’ in excitement. Tiffany carried on for almost a minute before catching herself. She abruptly stopped and turned to face Stella.
“Um, I mean, yes.” she said while blushing.
---
Tiffany was still blushing while reciting that particular moment in the story to Twilight. “Since Miss Canterbury hired me I’ve been working on teleportation ever since. Instead of discovering how to teleport objects to the Moon I ended up figuring out how to observe other dimensions and transport objects into ours,” Tiffany concluded.
“So you discovered dimensional teleportation by accident?” Twilight Sparkle asked.
“Well, yes, I guess you could say that,” Tiffany said with a hint of embarrassment. “But some of Earth’s greatest discoveries were made by accident. Our project refocused on this and we progressed until we were able to reach today’s breakthrough.”
“There’s one thing still puzzling me though,” Twilight said and began perusing the formula notes. “I was going over the calibration formula in my head and the range limits involved,” the pony began.
“In her head? Just how smart is she?” muttered one of the observers.
“The formula is limiting because it requires a specific component to compensate for missing dimensional elements. What component is this?” Twilight asked.
Tiffany smiled and clapped her hands together. “It’s funny you should ask since I’ve been trying to figure out how to approach this. We were limited to using dimensions where instances of parallel existence occurred. The component we need was a genetic sample of this dimension’s being, or anchor, who is in parallel dimensional sync with the target. Since this was my project I decided to use my own.“
“Your genetic sample?”
“Yes and because I used mine this means we are in parallel dimensional sync with each other,” Tiffany explained.
“But if we’re in parallel sync with each other then,” Twilight repeated before her eyes went wide with realization, “you’re ME?”