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zaponator


If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it's another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity.

Comments ( 575 )

mmm. bit interesting. though the whole idea is iffy. ponies are a lot more than chemicals after all.

and that is more or less kinda fact considering magicks.

Hap
Hap #2 · Jun 4th, 2015 · · ·

This was exactly what I expected it to be from the description. And watching The Twilight Zone *snerk*


And this line was worth the entire story:

Spike nodded. "Yeah, y'know, the beep-whoosh machine."

You brilliant sonofabitch.

This is a simply beautiful way to explain teleportation.

~Skeeter The Lurker

6056748
Well, it does go beep-whoosh when you use it. :moustache:

6056756
:twilightsmile:

Adorable story.

6056788
Nifty! Not that I'm surprised the idea has been used before, I suppose.

6056799 and 6056807
Glad you enjoyed it! And yeah, I never really used to write stories this short, but it's a new thing I'm trying out before I kick off some new long-form stories. It was lots of fun to write, so I guess I'll do a few more. :twilightsmile:

Zap, you could have made this really, really sad. You did not.
...
Thank you very much.:ajsmug:

-Spirit (Yeast and Treacle)

That... was...
Holy crap.
I just got a new appreciation for life.




Just... wow.
Killing yourself, then resurrection?
No wonder it's banned.
It's the best type of necromancy.
The kind you don't know about.
The kind that kills you and brings you back to life in an instant.

The question I have is: did she ever use the teleportation spell again after that?

6056849
I had the very same thought myself. Decided that I didn't much feel like taking it in the sad direction. :twilightsmile:

6056856

I just got a new appreciation for life.

I never thought my writing would impact anyone so greatly. :rainbowderp:
Heh, but really, I'm glad you liked it. :twilightsmile:

6056861
Probably not! :twilightoops:

this story would probably be better if you weren't a smelly nerd
7.8/10 too much Duke Zaap Nator.

6056904
"Beautifully written. A plain and simple masterpiece of the English language. Never again will I experience joy the likes of which I experienced today."
4/10 - IGN.com

Funny, that's how teleportation works in real life.

Yes, scientists have discovered teleportation. But whenever they teleport a particle, it erases that particle from existence and creates a new one. The main reasons they haven't tested it on living things is for that exact reason.

Either you did your research, or you got lucky. Either way, kudos.

Hmm... further thoughts are occurring to me.

1) With the destruction component removed this would be a flawless cloning spell. And while I can understand her not wanting to teleport anymore (basic survival instinct) I can see her wanting to test a few theories.

2) Actually, without the safety components you mentioned, teleporting would probably be really hard, wouldn't it? The fact that the original is destroyed makes it irrelevant, but if she were to clones herself as I mentioned above, I'm guessing it would succeed but she almost certainly suffer some kind of backlash. Probably put herself in a coma or something.

3) Another thing I can see her doing is eventually coming to the conclusion that the teleport-death is better than actual death from something else, and using some kind of bottled cloning spell that, on her actual death, automatically triggers and creates a backup clone of her. She'd have to make sure the scan was as up-to-date as possible, but if she could do it then she could make death into a temporary setback of losing a few memories (depending on when she last backed up her Twilight-clonepad (TM))

This is a very old and common Sci-Fi idea... and it's not really explored very well here except to explain it to the reader. Such a technology/spell would have numerous unfortunate implications... which Twilight deals with by not thinking about it. :ajbemused: Seriously, with something like this you can make perfect clones of yourself, just remove the part about destroying the original and make a copy of yourself where you need to be. Really, this only creates the illusion that the teleported you is the same as the original. Imagine if the spell was misscasted so that it created a Twilight, but the part that destroys the original ended up going really slowly. The new Twilight has a few minutes in which to save the old Twilight from dying. Should she? Or, because they're perfect copies of each other, does it even matter that the old Twilight is dying an incredibly painful death? There's more discussion possible but I just used those examples because I want to be brief.

Judging by your comments, you came up with this yourself instead of reading it from somewhere else, which is impressive, but I'm afraid that you simply did not do your research. Also, in the context of the story itself, not having safety spells doesn't make sense since even the slightest error in the analyzing or creation parts of the spell could easily make an imperfect copy with enough errors to be dead on arrival. Any badly replicated organ (brain, heart, lungs, veins, skin, legs, neck, etc.) could easily be fatal very quickly, or even if not fatal very noticeable.

6056936
That's Quantum teleportation, which might not be the only possible form of teleportation but is the one Scientists have been experimenting with on extremely++ tiny scales. Infact, lemme quote the Wikipedia article:

Although the name is inspired by the teleportation commonly used in fiction, there is no relationship outside the name, because quantum teleportation concerns only the transfer of information. Quantum teleportation is not a form of transportation, but of communication; it provides a way of transporting a qubit from one location to another, without having to move a physical particle along with it.

You could use it to "teleport" something physically but only if you had perfect information of how to reassemble it and the 3D printer to do so. On the plus side, the theoretical range is unlimited!

This seems an unlikely way for a magic teleportation spell to work, but that's fine.

It's just that when you have temporary transformation and don't actually need to go faster than the speed of light, there are less philosophically troublesome methods you can use. :derpytongue2: Twilight should probably go implement one of them.

(in G1, it was pretty explicit that teleportation worked by travelling through hyperspace, since there was a whole episode where all the unicorns in Paradise Estate got trapped there)

Hap
Hap #20 · Jun 5th, 2015 · · ·

6056937 As to your point #3, you might want to look up a short story by John Varley called "The Phantom of Kansas."

In it, the protagonist wakes up in a new body, feeling grateful that he'd chosen to pay the exorbitant fees for weekly backups, as he had been murdered again. He sets out to find his murderer, and then it gets crazy.

This is exactly why I do not like the method of entry to equestria in Friendship is Optimal.

6056881 I was just... amazed. I was overcome with so many conflicting emotions. I will never look at teleportation the same again.

Killing and resurrecting yourself...

(Enters brooding room to think about life.)

The only reason is because my OC, (My Profile pic,) is unique in the fact that, even though, he's a shapeshifter, he's not a changeling. And thanks to said shapeshifting, he has the abilities of whatever he's mimicking. He always keeps a bit of unicorn in him so he can use other types of magic
Including Teleportation.
You can see where I'm getting at.

6056937
I would consider using this idea if it didn't make my characters a bit ridiculous.

I guess my only question is a minor one of characterization.

After a few more moments of futile struggle, Spike finally relented.

We've never seen Spike once try to break out of a hug or seem upset to be given one. Why did you feel it necessary to include it? Surprised by a hug in this situation, yes... but Spike frequently hugs and is hugged. Your not the first author I've seen go down this track with him, and I'm always left wondering why the author thought it was important to do so. Not "calling you out" or anything, just asking.

In all the respects, an interesting piece, and I hope it does well.

Quite plausible, though I wonder what her thoughts will be when she realises that Nightmare Moon/Luna also did it.

6057331
I saw him struggling only for show. Like he was happy to hug Twilight, but felt the need to act above such sappy things.
Funnily enough, I had originally included a line after he asks to be let go, mentioning that he desperately hoped she would say no, but decided the line was unnecessary.

All of that being said, I now realize that this may be more of a fanon than canon character trait for Spike. It is a common enough young boy behavior, to act tough and aloof in the face of sap no matter how much they enjoy said sap, but I suppose that behavior isn't exhibited by Spike much in the show. The closest example I could come up with would be his pretend disgust at receiving a Gala ticket, but it's not a perfect connection.

In all honesty, I think 'futile' was just poor word choice on my part. Might change that later to better indicate the struggle was for show...

Anyway, glad you found it interesting. :twilightsmile:
Thanks for the comment!

6057415
It really wasn't that big an issue, and I don't mean to blow it out of proportion. It didn't detract from the story, it's just something that I've noticed more and more authors doing. Even people like Cold in Gardez who are usually so careful about characterization have done it, so don't feel bad or anything. Yeah, most boys do stuff like that, but Spike is hardly "normal."

Best of luck with this story! It's climbing pretty quick and the Featured Bar is pretty vulnerable right now, so good luck!

Hopefully Twilight realizes that the end result is really no different than getting around the usual way, and stops being weirded out by it. :rainbowlaugh:

Or, at least, is inspired to develop her own, less-unsettling version... :twilightsmile:

I enjoyed it. 10/10, well worth the wait :twilightsmile:

Can't remember the exact time frame beyond it being years, but every atom in the body is eventually replaced with new ones. Twilight's spell pretty much does the same thing instantly.

I'm assuming Twilight will stop using teleportation outside of emergencies. If each one does send a soul to an afterlife, I bet this batch was confused:
derpicdn.net/img/2012/11/12/149353/full.gif

6057192 Ayup. Just remove the "destroy the original" aspect and see how willing you are to go for it now...

Awww... Twilight is missing out on the fun. Just rip that erasure portion out and you have a targeted clone summoning spell! A purple pony for EVERYPONY! :twilightsmile: :twilightsmile::twilightsmile:

And this does not merit a Dark tag ... why? :pinkiegasp:

(One would think Celestia would notice her student teleporting about... :twilightsheepish: )

6056936
I think you are confusing teleportation with quantum teleportation, which has nothing to do with the transmition of matter, just the quantum states of entangled atoms. Meaning you play with one atom at location X, and it's pair at location Y does the same thing. At this time there has been zero success in replicating this with anything above the sub-atomic level.

What the author appears to have used for his inspiration is the "Star Trek" theory of teleportation, which is exactly as stated in this story.

6057564
Not different for everypony but the original, who is destroyed.

Also, I guessed what the story is about before even reading it :twilightsmile:

I do not see why Princess Twilight Sparkle is upset. Her spell disassembles an object here and reassembles it there. I wrote about the physics of UnicornTeleportation, under the assumption that one displaces spacetime:

The Physics of UnicornTeleportation

Unlike your story, this kind of teleportation uses General Relativity and displaces, rather than disassembles reassembles.

The spell didn't teleport anything. It never had. The spell would scan any object, destroy it, and create an exact replica of the original object in a new place, all over a few milliseconds, of course.

And that is what real teleportation is. I can't imagine how it would feel to be Twilight right now. The way you wrote it, I felt dread just like Twilight did. Very emotional. You are a great writer to make me feel emotional for a story that is less than 10,000 words.

It would be amazing to have a sequel of Twilight breaking down while crying to Celestia. She has to tell her, especially if she wants the spell, and future creation of said spell, to never be used again. Telling her friends is out of the question though, it would break them.

6058515 You don't see how she is upset? In this story she dies and is cloned, anyone would be horrified to know that you were born the last time you teleported, and every other version of you died.

Imagine how happy she must of been the first time she teleported, and she was most likely a filly. Yet in reality, that spell was the end of the real Twilight Sparkle. Even worse, she killed all of her friends every time she teleported them. Think about that.

Still not convinced that she died? Imagine taking out the deconstruction spell. That would make two copies of Twilight, which means that the copy is a copy, and the original is real.

After reading the comments, I have come to the conclusion that some people just don't understand the implications of this and why she reacted the way she did. She just discovered that she was born the last time she was teleported. She has to live with the knowledge that she never existed until previous hers killed themselves over and over and over again until the end result was her. She was most likely close to using the teleport spell again as well, which means she knows that she almost died for good, and then someone else will replace her. Someone that is a carbon copy of her.

This is one of the darkest things I can possibly imagine. No... It is the darkest thing I can imagine.

Walabio #40 · Jun 5th, 2015 · · 7 ·

6058584

Everytime she falls asleep, her mind stops. When she wakes it restarts. She already lacks continuity of existence.

6058654 I see you still don't get it, do you? Sleep doesn't cause you to cease to exist, it causes you to go into standby mode. Your brain, which is you, is always running, even if you are not conscious.

Let's think about this in another way. Say you have two portable hard drives, and then you fill one with information. You then copy one of them to the other perfectly. Does destroying the original make the new one the original?

6058654

I am not the data of myself. If you created an exact copy of me, and then killed the copy, 'I' would not have died, but there was also a living person that was killed. You can't define a person by talking strictly about 'what' they are. Is the difference between when you are awake and when you are asleep sufficient to claim that the original you is dead? Maybe, but then you could claim the same thing happens whenever you have a haircut.

Come now, Twilight, you're a mad scientist. The obvious next step is to try disabling the destruction component of the teleport spell and seeing what happens!

:twilightsmile: "Magic!" :twilightsmile: "Magic!" :twilightsmile: "Magic!" :twilightsmile: "Magic!"

:pinkiesad2: "Aww. How come she gets to do that, but they put a big rock on top of the Mirror Pool when I tried it?"

6056936 Well, that and the fact that living things are substantially larger than atoms.

6058569 I second the sequel request. Or as an alternative, the mane 6 get into another dangerous situation. Twilight then teleports them out of instinct, to save them. Then she immediately realises what she just did and has a breakdown, resulting in her telling the others that she just killed them. The rest of the mane 6 then get really confused.

Incidentally, speaking as someone that doesn't believe in the existence of a soul or an afterlife, I find this somewhat less horrifying. I would probably stop using the spell except in life or death situations, but I wouldn't dwell on it. Of course, I'm not Twilight, and I could totally see why she would freak out.

"Disassemble, Spike, but you make a fair point.

missing the " at the end there.

Wait, I'm confused.
First there is a spell that thoroughly scans something, then a spell that destroys said something, a spell that brings to life something with the specifications the first spell got, and a last spell that that ties everything together... does that last component also determine where the new object is created?

Man, I love magical theory...

:rainbowderp: So the 'teleportation' spell copies the user's make up even down to the atoms in their body and probably the position of the subatomic particles in those atoms even if they were in the middle of doing something (because chemical reactions happen in us literally all the time) and every particle that's sort of not part of us but necessary such as clothing and the air in our lungs, utterly annihilates the user out of existence, rebuilds them cut and paste style in a new location determined by the initial user who no longer exists anymore, and brings the biological construct to life because the super important organs and functions probably need a kickstart since this new creation never had a beating heart or functioning brain to begin with until now. :derpyderp1:
No wait, this is EXACTLY like cutting and pasting stuff :derpyderp2: except in stead of a clipboard, you have to assume the magic will properly direct itself so you don't accidentally destroy yourself with the intention of moving six feet that way :rainbowlaugh:
Great Story! :twilightsmile:

6058411 Eh, it doesn't really matter that the 'original' is destroyed. Twilight isn't a noun, she's a verb, so to speak. People aren't things, they're what things do; there's still an indistinguishable collection of matter behaving like a Twilight, without divergence or lack of continuity. :twilightsmile:

6058959 Well, obviously.

...

OR ARE THEY?

*Illuminati music plays*

This reminds me of an old philosophical question: If a man in a swamp is struck by lightning and completely annihilated, but another bolt of lighting strikes somewhere else in the swamp and makes an absolutely perfect copy of him, is he truly destroyed?

Anyway, the way that I think souls work, she is neither sending hundreds of herself to the afterlife nor disproving the existence of souls. I believe that souls are extra-material entities made to operate a very specific selection of material components (ie, a body). If that body is destroyed, but then a perfect copy is instantly rebuilt elsewhere, that soul simply moves on to the replica.

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