AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 526
ARES III SOL 516
TRANSCRIPT – VIDEO TRANSMISSION FROM ARES IV MAV, BEGINNING 13:04 HOURS (ARES III CLOCK)
STARLIGHT GLIMMER: Hermes, MAV, standing by for press event, over.
BETH JOHANSSEN: Hello, Starlight. I hope you had a nice lunch. Most of the questions you were sent overlapped, I’m told. So your interview will be the shortest. I hope that’s all right.
STARLIGHT: Um… sure! Sure it is! Busy afternoon ahead, after all! I’m sure you’ve got lots of tricky sims to keep us busy! Let’s do it!
JOHANSSEN: First question: “We’re told you’re second in command of the Friendship crew. Would you be ready to take over if something happened to Cherry Berry?”
STARLIGHT: … to be honest, I really hope nothing happens to Cherry. You know, she and Fireball are the only ones to get through this experience without a major injury? We’re lucky she was lucky. I don’t think I could ever fill her shoes. But I’d do my best if I had to. I have had some leadership experience before… er, with mixed results. Next question?
JOHANSSEN: “Are you looking forward to meeting humans other than Mark?”
STARLIGHT: I don’t know. Mark’s been so wonderful… when he’s not being annoying, that is… I’m a little scared that other humans might be so much worse. But if there’s one human I’d like to meet, it’s this Rich Purnell person. There are all sorts of experiments based on his proposed equations that are just waiting on this rescue! I’ve thought of eight or ten myself, as soon as I get somewhere with a working magic field! Mr. Purnell must be a very amazing human!
JOHANSSEN: We think he’s done some amazing work, making this rescue possible. Now, the rest of the questions are all related to magic. First, a general question: “tell us about magic.”
STARLIGHT: Huh? Didn’t everyone read my reports on basic magic? The schools of spellcasting? Spell array logic? What’s left to tell?
JOHANSSEN: This is for people who haven’t read the reports, or who tried but don’t understand them. Um, use short words, okay?
STARLIGHT: Oooh. Magic kindergarten. Okay. Magic is a force of nature in my universe. It exists in your universe too, but in a much weaker and more localized form. It’s a form of energy that can be stored and manipulated with the application of will or enchantments. My universe has a thick background field of it, plus local concentrations generated by life or other effects. In your universe it’s only made by life, with thinking life producing more than non-thinking life. We think. If we get to Earth, we'll be able to test that.
Where I come from, magic is in everything- and I mean everything. Some creatures are more inherently magical than others. Ponies are about middle of the range- we use magic, but we can function without it. I don’t know how to explain the difference except that, well, your world- even the bits we see on Commander Lewis’s television shows- well, it seems kind of bland compared to ours. Like there’s something missing.
Anyway, magic affects emotions, and emotions affect magic. In our world the most powerful magic comes from ponies working together in harmony- the power of friendship, we call it. Our ship was named with an ancient word for that power. My teacher is the princess of friendship, Twilight Sparkle. She could probably explain all this better than I could. Let’s move on.
JOHANSSEN: Next question: “I'm sure you've been introduced to how electronics work quite well at this point. Would you describe magic as something akin to computer code for rewriting reality? Or would you describe it like a fundamental force?”
STARLIGHT: Um… well, I’ve heard a lot of the theory… but… how to explain? There is magic in its raw form, as a force of nature. And then there’s the working of magic, casting of spells, like that. Casting spells is a bit like computer code, except that computer code works in sequence. Most spells are in a single casting- everything has to be resolved at once, or else you get a fizzle. All of this was in my reports, you know, much better explained.
JOHANSSEN: We know, Starlight. Next question: “What useful insights magically speaking, have you gained for your home world from this trip?”
STARLIGHT: Well, the biggest one is, “Never assume you’ll always have infinite magic available.” I’ve really had to learn to do without magic, which is really strange for me, since I used to do absolutely everything with magic. I just took it for granted, and when we got here, I felt so, well, handicapped. I don’t know if we’ll go to other worlds, but I think it’s a good thing if we learn to remember that magic isn’t everywhere.
JOHANSSEN: Next question: “What is the most fun you've ever had with magic?”
STARLIGHT: The most fun? Well, there was this one time… I like kites, rather a lot. Not the bird, the paper toy thing. that you send up into the wind on a string? Well, my friends Sunburst and Maudlin Pie and I made this tremendous kite, and I conjured up this great wind to carry it up! And we made it spin and dance with the strings, and we made it change colors and trail colored smoke, and it went so high it hit Rainbow Dash’s house! She got a little mad then, but then we played tag with her using the kite, and the rainbow trail and smoke trail was so beautiful, especially when Princess... um, Celestia... set the sun! I think that might have been the most fun I’ve ever had with magic.
JOHANSSEN: Last question, and it’s a complex one, okay? “We heard about the ‘Cherry Stone’ incident. While that may not have worked as intended, it does raise a lot of interesting questions. What are the limits of transformation magic? Is it normally possible to safely change non-food into food? Does transformation magic work on people? Could you, say, turn a human into a dragon? Asking for a friend.”
STARLIGHT: Oh boy. Asking for a friend, huh? You humans know that wasn’t exactly a proud moment for us, right? We wasted a lot of magic and nearly put a hole in the Hab to get almost one cherry.
All right. Transformation magic is expensive. It takes a LOT of energy, and it takes that much energy squared, or even more, to make permanent. Inanimate objects are pretty easy if you’re strong enough. My best friend can turn practically anything into a teacup, but she’s still working on turning things back. Living creatures, really complex, always changing- those are extremely difficult. Making a permanent change to a person beyond, oh, growing a mustache- well, even trying will exhaust even a powerful unicorn.
Non-food to food can be done, though usually nobody does it because it’s a lot less work to cook for yourself. Changing a human to a dragon? You’d need Chaos or an alicorn to do that, and I don’t think they’d be willing to help out. Either that or a really special artifact. Even then it probably wouldn’t stay. Sorry. Did you want to be a dragon, Johanssen?
JOHANSSEN: Um? Um. No, no I didn’t. I didn’t write any of these questions. But I am curious about magic. When you get up to Hermes I’ll have lots of questions of my own to ask. Will that be okay?
STARLIGHT: Sure! Do you want to begin now?
JOHANSSEN: Um, the sims are waiting. Good luck. Hermes out.
STARLIGHT: Oh! I completely forgot!
CHERRY BERRY: I didn’t! It’s been an hour and a half! Sign off and let’s go already!
STARLIGHT: Sorry! Sorry! Um, MAV out!
Got work at 7 am but i stay up for this. God this is so good
Asking the important questions.
Teacups is wuv, teacups is wife.
Magic cant be as bas as Interuniversal Teichmuller theorem?
Even if it is an N dimentional matrix over a fractal Mbrane in O space which unlike the space filling Hilber curve can cross itself with and or without interaction depending on its surrounding terms and which all have to be solved simultaneously?
I guess starliht forgot that thing twi did to be a Breezie Sure twilight needed a breezy there to cast the spell but it seem to stick until twilight cast the rehearsal
When I was torturing Twilight with time magic. Ah, good old times!
Well, Rainbow Dash is often pretty eager to hit other's houses herself
9195791
They've had other spells that explicitly last for 'a few days', so that might be a common duration for a long-lasting but non-permanent spell.
9195791
I don't believe Starlight was around for that event. And its possible that just as Starlight has revolutionized time magic, Twilight came up with new spells for Transformation magic.
That said, the other explanation is Starlight recognizes that the long term results of her interaction with humans is that even without her guidance they will start experimenting with Magic. This could have some fairly.....dangerous....ramifications, as they don't know what they are doing. ESPECIALLY given the asker in question said, "Asking for a friend."
As such, she may have given an answer directly to discourage people doing stupid stuff that would get them hurt....at the very least, people who want to change form/appearance will start off small and work their way up, developing magic batteries and the like in the process.
And their is some evidence this second theory is true. She claimed that Discord wouldn't be interested....but a huge bunch of people wanting to change appearance for various reasons and the chaos it would cause....Discord would love the hell out of that. And the claim Unicorns can't match up to Alicorns....even though she has done so, AND mana batteries could be used to take this further....
She is protecting the stupid from themselves.
Yes, I too am curious about turning into a dragon, for a friend.
Damn I was hoping she’d explain a little more about “Chaos”. Was hoping that maybe she’s make the comparison to Loki if she’d spoken to Mark about him or something.
Would be funny if he showed up on Earth dressed as Q like he has in MLP (or was that just fan art?), which would confuse the fuck out of everyone and the response being “just don’t question it, it’ll hurt less.” Not saying I want this, or expect it to happen, just that I’d find it funny.
TEACUP!
So, is the Equestria Girls universe mirror transform a "state secret"? Another example of a lower magic environment?
"thing. that you send up"
"thing, that you send up"?
Can someone sketch up what a pony flight couch would look like? I'm imagining something like a racing seat. But a pony would probably take G's the best in a standing position? So the flight couch could be something like a sawhorse, supporting the pony's barrel in a standing position?
9195914
Starlight and Starswirl can at least match up to an Alicorn. The Pony of Shadows did say that Twilight was almost as powerful as Starswirl. Meaning Starswirl is more powerful than Twilight.
For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, this is the video Kris was talking about:
And here's my recording of Cherry Berry's interview yesterday: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PggmkWp7768TYyWssXX6QnnzY6q7nmV5/view?usp=drivesdk
9195939
I always just say it has to do with tuning yourself to the local dimension. An 'if you'd been born on this world you would be...' sort of thing.
9195949
Did that a long time ago for Arrow 18. My friend, an Engineer, talked me through how to design the bracings to handle the load bearing.
(This seat is designed to be bolted to a side mount on the XR-2 Ravenstar from Orbiter.)
i.imgur.com/NIn5pTJ.png
The seat supports the barrel and hind quarters but is open on the sides to allow the legs to move. It angles slightly up so the pony is raised, and allows the forelegs to reach anything in front of them comfortably. The cushioning is thicker than human seats, as it is partially intended to snugly hold them like a taco. Pony necks have more play and are subject to greater injury if they're allowed to move, so the headrest is very thick and firm to make it accommodate. There are harness straps that come down over each shoulder and connect to a pad for the withers before anchoring in the lower half of the seat, but those aren't in the image. Think Skycoaster rides.
Another thing to note is that since their bodies are aligned on the axis of acceleration for forward travel, they may have issues maintaining consciousness at high G accellerations. Much like humans start having trouble in turning Gs of 3+, ponies likely can only withstand forward accellerations of about 3 Gs sustained unaided before their fitness levels start determining who goes into G-lock.
EDIT: Fairly accurate artist rendering of the seat before the actual schematic was made.
i.imgur.com/oDPCAvR.png
Oh dear, my question made it in.
Heh, "this one will be shorter" they said...
Hope you recover fully soon, Kris! Praying for you. Exhaustion definitely doesnt help and with how hard out youve been going it's no surprise youre feeling poorly. I hope you get a chance for a good long rest here soon!
You know what I'd like to see? One day someone walks into Purnell's office and he's scrawling equations across three blackboards.
While sitting and typing at his computer.
He looks up at his visitor, glances over at the levitating chalk, and looks back at them.
"I figured it out."
He then goes back to typing.
9195914
Admittedly most human advances have been archieved through the old formula of "let's see what happens when I do this".
Dear disease,
go away quickly please
I'm not a 100% sure, but shouldn't "the princess of friendship" be "the Princess of Friendship"? You know, capital letters?
Starlight talking shop with Rich does sound fun. Throw in Moondancer abd Sunburst and they'd probably revolutionize physocs and magic as both worlds know them.
9195939
Likely a case of a lower but nonzero background magic field. (Pinkie Pie exists there, after all.) Plus, the portal transforms visitors into beings without readily available magical manipulators.
9196329
And many others came from "Huh. That happened. Let's figure out how and why."
9195939
Well up until the whole world cracking thing in the gemstones debacle
huh. i don't remember that one...apparently Starlight tried to turn a small stone into a cherry...and...it changed back after Cherry Berry ate it?
I seriously wonder why didn't Starlight try to transmute a small potato into a cherry - temporarily. 1. Easier because it's an edible plant too, 2. Easier because it's a non-permanent change, 3. Doesn't matter that it reverts back to potato inside Cherry's stomach.
Write! Write like the wind!...when you are able and have time, of course.
Having trouble composing your Pony Fanfic thanks to con crud? Feeling like your characters will be trapped on Mars forever because a pesky rhinovirus has its horn in your back, like a blind unicorn running through a crowded hall?
You need Nyquil.
Nyquil: The nighttime sniffling, sneezing, sore throat, stuffy head, so-you-can-rest-and-write-more-about-space-Ponies medicine.
(Alondro gets bag of capitalist advertisement money!)
Even a universe away, Trixie can't catch a break.
Imagine her reaction to a world of folks knowing her foibles.
9196756
Nah, it didn't turn into a cherry at all. The spell failed completely and it just shot off like a bullet, luckily hitting a locker rather than the canvas wall.
9196661
I have the feeling that my dependence on Netflix is biting me in the butt of knowledge...?
9197206
Questria girls camp ever free
9197210
I'm current to the Tales of Canterlot High. Though magic was shown entering through the fissure in the statue pedestal, magic "pressure" is supposedly much lower on the Canterlot High side of the mirror, still, though catalyzed by the "geode" gems the girls have.
Asking for a friend, huh?
Leave transformations to the buggy professionals.
9196323 I could totally see that happening.
Starlight interview: https://drive.google.com/open?id=12uhpmKxKBA1Ul8nzblcUBfNYqTYamlUx It was hard to differentiate between three very similar female voices, me being a guy. Looking forward to Dragonfly, Fireball, and Spitfire, whom I can voice with much more accuracy and variation.
9197306
I guess the sirens proved it was a magic less world. Although on a side not I have no idea how they lived a thousand year. Oh well
9196875
Would that violate some magic law of magic?
9196088
It would have been cool to incorporate those designs into Riverfox's drawing.
Discord says hello.
It requires lot of concentration. When Twilight turned stone into a hat it looked like she needed to concentrate a lot, but she didn't need lot of energy. Also she turned four mice into horses without breaking a swet in blink of an eye. It didn't look like a spell that needs lot of energy. It realy isn't expensive, but it need intelligent and well learned mind.
9199966
Maybe you can compensate for a lack of detailed knowledge of both creatures with more power and vise versa?
oh, this made me think of the "Death Gate Cycle", a 7-book series by Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickman. it's magic system treats all of reality as a Wave of possibilities, and magic can alter the possibilities, making things happen that would not normally happen...BUT the Wave has a tendency to "correct bulges", which means...unintended consequences.
the most shocking one is Necromancy: "every time someone is brought back to life, someone, somewhere, untimely dies."
yes, something like a zombie apocalypse happens in book 3.
9331049
Ah, read that series when I was young. Loved the way "magic" is just quantum probability waveform manipulation. It definitely influenced my take on magic. And let's be fair, the only reason the zombie apocalypse goes down is because one idiot couldn't wait before trying to reanimate his lover and inadvertently created a homicidally insane lich rather than a perfectly subservient zombie. I'd mention the whole "all but one Sartan in one world died balancing death's books" as an example of unintended magical consequences.
Leading is easy! Just mind control them all!
Subtle
The end result of this is the chilling conclusion that the entire pony universe is in fact a living entity.
Discord already knew that, of course
Except for Twilight "O.P." Sparkle... even back when she was just a unicorn
Great Interview I missed humor but it was very fine lore
I would want to be a Changeling so i can be everything at some point of my life
Be a Ling to Ling around all day long
Changelings have a lot of fun i am sure.
11295961
And felt constant starvation like a poor african kid for your whole life?