A thousand words on special effects. · 8:49pm Mar 13th, 2012
When I described the visuals of the linear drive in 'Worlds Beyond', I was concerned that folks might not 'get it'; I had a very specific special effect in mind, but special effects can be tricky to describe in words. So, since I had an hour or two to spare, I decided to make a GIF showing what it would look like if Twilight Sparkle cast Linear Drive. (Disclaimer: this is in no way canon; I don't want to introduce the same headaches that personal transporter technology introduced to writers for 'Star Trek'. I just don't have the chops to make pixel art of Harmony City to do it to.) Credit goes to the developer of 'Background Ponies', who I nicked a couple sprites from to make the effect. If it doesn't play smoothly in your browser, I apologize; some of the frames are as short as 20 milliseconds, and this can lead to choppiness.
Yeah, I kinda knew what you were talking about in the story. Pretty much like when star ships come out of hyperspace.