//------------------------------// // Observations // Story: Immersion // by Mark Britton //------------------------------// This is my first entry in three weeks. I realize now that I might not be the only one reading this, so I feel like I should tell you what has been going on. I only know so much about the universe I came from. Some anatomy, basic chemistry, very scattered survival skills, and basic knowledge of physics. In short, absolutely nothing that prepared me for being in an alien world where physical laws are completely altered and everything seems to be scheduled. I've been in meditation for three weeks, observing the interactions between the ponies. I waited and waited for some kind of event to happen to me again but... it didn't. Whether that was a one-off or not, I'm still not sure. Twilight Sparkle has had two additional conflicts full of contrivances and a presence of danger but a lack of injury. I've taken up dice-tossing in these events. Laws of probability still seem to exist. I get a one-in-six chance for every dice toss. What Twilight described was nothing short of miraculous and it came without injury or soreness. These laws bend for the ponies, but not for me. I was digging in the dirt three weeks ago, checking out the clay composition down by Applejack's farm. While I was digging and digging through all the soil, an especially sharp rock scraped my finger and I started bleeding. The most injured I have ever seen one of these ponies is a scrape. No flowing blood, just a red mark. And this event really got me thinking. Matter back home is particle-based. You can break things apart and pulverize them rather easily. Everything here is vector-based. Things start and stop cleanly and when I break apart the soil, it does so in very angular ways. I'm eating the food here. Drinking the water, breathing the air. I don't know what I'm putting inside my body but it's not the stuff I'm made of. It's kept me fed, somehow. Somehow all these sharp little angles of mashed up fruit and vegetables don't shred my insides out. And well, to keep it flattering, what comes out of me is particle-based matter. This is the only kind of bending of the laws I've seen for myself. Minor self-injury tests confirm that I can be harmed, and I can be harmed pretty roughly. I've taken it to see that my health is my primary goal. So in short, I might die. I haven't brought it up with Twilight yet, but I'm planning to. With a heavy sigh, I set my pen aside and closed the journal. I heard gentle hoofsteps behind me. "Is it home?" She asked. "No, not home." There was a thick silence as Twilight looked down at her hooves with a sad face. "You haven't talked at all about your friends or your family, and I..." She sighed, "...well, I... I know you must miss them a lot." "Oh, not at all actually." "Wh-what?" "No, I don't miss home at all." "Why?" "Twilight, you and your townsponies are nice. Where I come from, people are less nice. It's an easy decision to make." "If you had to go back..." "I'm not going back. My world was ending when I left. It's better for me to stay. Really." Twilight grimaced a bit. "I'm sorry." "Don't worry about it." She stood in silence for a couple more seconds before trotting over and sitting down next to me. "You've been very quiet these last few weeks." "Yeah." "If you haven't been thinking about home, what have you been thinking about?" My head swelled with thoughts that wanted to erupt out of my mouth in a rush of exhaustion and frustration. Instead, I closed my mouth, took a breath, and calmly spoke. "A human lives eighty years. I have about sixty years to do whatever it is I'm going to do, then that's it. It's done." Twilight's eyes opened a bit. "You're worried about death." "Not death, no. What I can do before I die. How many hearts can I touch, how many minds can I inspire? What will people know me for, what will remain after I'm gone?" "Well, you're not going to get much done sulking in my basement." "Yeah. Yeah, I'm not." "So... what are you going to do?" My mind began racing with endless possibilities. A world of knowledge that was only known to me, and I had a lifetime to tell it to Twilight and her people. Index cards lay scattered across the circular table in the middle of the library. Twilight's eyes frantically scanned each and every one that flew off the table as soon as I finished writing on it. She was a total bibliophile and it was probably her best trait. When I was quiet these last few weeks, she didn't press me on much information, but she was always there to listen when I had something to say. And now that I was writing out the bullet points of every detail of my world, she couldn't help herself. "Amazing. A sacred document passed down generation to generation to keep the spirit of the country alive." "Equestria doesn't have anything like that?" "No, we don't have any one document. Whatever Princess Celestia decrees as law is kept as law, and travels by word of mouth or through leaflets." "How is it living in a monarchy, anyway?" "It's very peaceful. She's a mother figure to all of Equestria and she does a good job protecting us." "Ah, I see." "But this idea of self-government... We have something similar on the local level with the mayor and the city council and town hall, but nothing of this size. It's very ambitious." "That's the human spirit for you." "Yes, from what you've shared, your people have a very expansionist way of life. Always innovating, always experimenting, reaching new heights and abilities from your science." Twilight sighed. "Oh, it's perfect." "I haven't read much Equestrian literature, but from what I've read, technology has been pretty stagnant." "Sadly, yes. We haven't had much reason to innovate. Our way of life is perfect. Everybody's happy." "Very happy," I grunted. "But hey, you could make a living sharing some of these designs with Equestrian scientists. I mean, some of these ideas are just crazy!" Twilight flashed a crude illustration I drew of various mechanisms. It was beginning to dawn on me just how much influence I might have, controlling the flow of information between worlds. Ugh. Gave me shivers. "Yes, it would be very profitable." I continued writing on cards before Twilight tapped me. "Hey?" "Yes, Twilight?" "I know you're fairly anti-social, but... we'll always be friends, won't we?" "Well, of course. I don't see why not." "It's just... I know none of my friends really impressed you and I was worried you might be a lone wolf. No friends, you know?" "No, everybody needs friends. Even quiet, crazy people like me. I always keep one or two people around, you know?" "Well, I'm glad we'll be together, human." "Me too, Twi." I turned back to my cards and Twilight turned away. If you're reading this, the one thing you should keep in mind about me is I'm quite mechanical. I don't bend much for my friends and I hardly keep any friends, but that's just a part of who I am. I'm all work and no play. This keeps me calm and level-headed in situations of extreme stress, and while my apathy might not win me social points with Twilight or her friends, it is for the best. Humans with emotions are unwieldy and more unpredictable than even the rules of this new world. Which is why I'm making sure if something goes wrong, someone else gets this journal. I will live for sixty years and then I will die. And then that's it. It's over. I have that much time to bring the best elements from my world into this world and keep these ponies' spirits elevated. I refuse to turn into the same poison that destroyed my world. However, it's not all that hard with Twilight around. Everypony here is so happy and friendly, keeping a positive outlook shouldn't be difficult. But if it is, slap me with this journal and give it to me to re-read. Right now, this positive feeling is all that matters to me. I have to keep spirits up. I cannot let hope die. And whether I get paranoid again or if all this power gets to me, I have to hold on to this one immutable truth. I am here to help these ponies as much as I can before I die.