//------------------------------// // Introduction: Where do they come from? // Story: Excitement = Twilight * Death^2 // by Needling Haystacks //------------------------------// "I have called together the greatest minds in Equestria to explore this exciting new frontier of science!" Twilight Sparkle said, rearing up and spreading her wings on 'science'. Sunburst looked around. Other than himself, there were precisely two ponies in the room. "Granted, most of them couldn't make it," Twilight said on seeing Sunburst's look. "Your letter did say you wanted to, quote, 'explore the practical uses for alicorn death,'" Starlight Glimmer, the third pony in the room, said, "That may have scared ponies off." "It's fine, we have enough to start with," Twilight said dismissively, "Sunset Shimmer said she and the other me would drop by to help after school." "They're still in school?" Sunburst asked. "Yes, time works a bit differently there," Twilight said. "Fascinating! Do you think I could..." "Sunburst, getting off-topic," Starlight said with a hint of exasperation. "Oh, right, sorry," he said, adjusting his glasses to hide his sheepish look. "Right, anyway," Twilight continued, "We are here today to boldly go where nopony... except maybe Luna and Celestia... has gone before!" "I'm assuming this has something to do with the pile of bodies outside your castle?" Sunburst said. THAT had been quite a shock. Thankfully, Pinkie Pie had set up an information/cake stand nearby to keep the populace from panicing. Though her insistence on adding a new frosting tombstone on the cakes for each corpse was probably running counter to that goal. "Yes! You see, I recently found out Alicorns 'respawn' when we die," Twilight said, "Here, let me show you..." "Twilight!" Starlight quickly said, grabbing hold of her friend with magic before she could teleport away, "I don't think that's necessary." "Yes, I believe you!" Sunburst said urgently. "Oh, right, sorry, it's just so exciting!" Twilight said, "Let's move on." She walked over to her chalkboard and flipped it over. A white line of chalk divided the board into two. On the left side was written 'practical uses'. On the other 'rules and limitations. Each side had several entries, written one above the other in clear precise writing. Under practical uses was written: "organ donation, blood donation, consulting dead ponies, medical cadavers, food source?, teleportation, visiting dead friends, interdimensional travel?", and then an erased attempt at writing something very small in the tiny space left. Under rules and limitations was written: "Have to die first, takes some time?, corpse decays like a normal body, can only talk to one dead pony at a time?, have to know the destination well to respawn there", and again erased markings of further ideas. "I take it you need a bigger chalkboard," Sunburst observed. "Always," Twilight said, "But for now... Spike! Bring in the scrolls please!" Spike walked into the lab, carrying a large pile of scrolls. He handed one to Starlight, one to Sunburst, then looked around. "Just put the rest behind the chalkboard," Twilight said. She smiled sheepishly. "I was expecting more ponies." "Any idea how long this will take?" Spike asked as he carefully set down the scrolls, "I'm supposed to help Rarity hunt for gems later." "Oh, don't let us disrupt your schedule," Twilight said, "We can manage for a few hours on our own. Just make sure you're home in time for dinner." "Right." Spike paused, looking at the board. "Um, it's not going to be pony meat, is it?" "Don't be silly, Spike, ponies rarely eat meat," Twilight said, "That's strictly for emergencies or for trade to other species." "O...kay...." Spike said uncertainly. He glanced to Starlight and Sunburst for support. Sunburst pushed his glassed up with a shrug. Starlight rolled her eyes. Sunburst looked down at the scroll he'd been handed. It was divided by a line, like the board, but had additional entries as he unrolled it. Practical uses: "Intimidating villains, pranking friends" (that one was crossed out), "quick escapes, healing injuries." Rules: "New body in perfect health but hunger, fatigue, etc. remain; Cannot contact living ponies while in afterlife; Celestia doesn't like the term 'respawn'." Sunburst was uncertain what that last entry was about. Below these was a new category: Unanswered questions. "Can I respawn in another dimension? (wait until Sunset is told to test this), How much time does it actually take? Can I talk to a group of ponies that are all dead at the same time? (I have not been able to, but is this just unfamiliarity?) What is the afterlife actually like? (I keep forgetting to ask!) Are there dead ponies that can't be contacted? Can contact environment be made something more familiar and comfortable? (Again, I can't seem to do so, but could I with practice?) What happens if I starve to death? (Not sure I want to try it!) What level of injury is actually required to trigger? (I don't think I want to lie in agony for hours!) What happens if there are no available places to respawn? What happens if the universe ends? Can I just stay dead if I want, or do I eventually HAVE to come back? (I'm not suicidal, just curious! Please don't worry!) What happened to any alicorns that predate Luna and Celestia?" "This is... something," Sunburst said once he had read the whole thing. "Now you know what I've been dealing with for the past two days," Starlight said in a snarky aside to Sunburst. "Now, of course I want to get to resolving all those questions," Twilight said, ignoring Starlight's comments, "But first, is there anything I'm missing? I have a sliiight tendency to go overboard and I want to be sure I'm not overlooking something important." "Slight?" Starlight said. "Where does the matter come from?" Sunburst asked before Twilight could react to Starlight's sass. Twilight looked startled. "Huh, I don't know," she said, "I mean if the corpses dissolved back in to magic we could just say it was recycled, but they don't..." "And as everypony knows, while you can exchange mass and energy at a rate determined by E equals m-c-squared plus h-k-cubed*, you still can't create mass-energy from nothing," Sunburst added. Twilight paced back and forth, her wings rustling restlessly. "What's the problem, then?" Starlight asked, "It's basically free energy." "Not if it's taking it from somewhere else," Sunburst explained, "She might be depleting some magic reserve, or the logcal magic field. She may only be able to respawn a limited number of times. Have you noticed it getting harder to come back at all?" Twilight shook her head as she paced in a circle. Sunburst noted the slight depression in the crystalline floor at that location. Clearly this was a regular habit. "No, not in the slightest," Twilight said, "I've even timed it a few times, and I'm actually getting back faster." "What about the local magic field?" Sunburst asked, "Do you have a thaumometer?" "Of course!" Twilight said with a grin, excited to show off her lab equipment. She trotted eagerly over to one wall. "Here! And the data book is next to it." "Probably organizing daily readings by pen color," Starlight said teasingly. "Pfff, whaat? Don't be ridiculous," Twilight replied, waving her hoof dismissively, "Aheh... Obviously they're by date." Sunburst started flipping through the book. He glanced at the thermometer-like device resting in its stand. "No significant drop right now," he said. "But she hasn't actually come back here," Starlight said, "Maybe it's highly location dependent?" "Gotcha!" Twilight said with a grin, spreading her wings and teleporting away before Starlight could react. "Twilight!" Starlight exclaimed, rather belatedly. "Where is she...?" Sunburst started to ask. Just then he heard a 'thump' outside. Thinking quickly, he started counting. "One Celestia... two celestia..." "Um, what are you doing?" Starlight asked. Sunburst held up a hoof an continued counting. "Oh, I see, you're timing how long it takes her to get back," Starlight said. "Seven Celestia..." Sunburst continued counting. "And now I'm distracting you... I'll just... watch the thaumometer," Starlight said. Sunburst had gotten up to "Fifty-three Celestia" when Twilight reappeared in a teleport-like flash. "Well?" she immediately asked. "A tiny drop," Starlight reported, "But no more than a standard teleport." "Write it down! Write it down!" Twilight urged. Starlight found the pen anchored to the table the book sat on and scribbled down the reading. "And the date and time!" Twilight said, grabbing the pen in her eagerness and accidentally pushing Starlight aside. "You took about fifty-three seconds," Sunburst said, "How long did it seem to you?" Twilight opened her mouth, then slapped her forehead with her hoof. "I forgot to count! Be right back..." "Wait! Where's a..." Sunburst began. But Twilight was already gone. "...Stopwatch..." he finished. "You know, sooner or later she'll run out of places where the bodies won't break her fall" Starlight commented. Thump! "...But apparently not yet," she added. Sunburst began counting again as soon as he heard the muffled sound of the impact. This time, he got to "Fifty-four Celestia" when the flash of light came. "Fifty-four seconds," he said as Starlight started writing down the numbers, "But I started right at impact this time instead of just after." "I got..." Twilight took a moment to give a number. She had probably started counting before the impact. "Twenty...nine seconds?" she said after a moment, "That's from when I hit the ground to when I showed back up here." "Exact same magic drop as before," Starlight commented, "Same as a standard teleport, and not a thaum more." "A thaum is actually a pretty big unit**," Sunburst said, pushing up his glasses again. He really needed to get a strap or something. He then noticed Starlight's look. "...And you weren't speaking technically. Sorry." "So I AM losing time," Twilight said, "That's worrying." "It's probably just the time it takes between when you break your neck and when your heart registers as stopping," Sunburst said, "The odd thing is it takes longer for the brain to die." "Right, a few minutes," Starlight said with a nod, "Before that you can use magic to restart a pony's heart and they'll be fine. Unless you're distracted and leave them under for too long, giving them brain damage..." The other two look at Starlight. "Not speaking from experience!" Starlight protested, "I know I used to be evil, but I was never THAT evil." "Hmmm, but maybe breaking my neck does something specific?" Twilight said, "So we'd need a way to stop my heart without damaging anything else..." "Oh that one's easy, you just need some electrodes and a strong current," Starlight said. Again, those looks. "Also not something I've done personally! I mean it's basic lightning safety, right?" "There's a more pressing matter," Sunburst said, holding up a hoof, "We've confirmed it's not taking magic energy from the uhh... respawn point... so is the matter created from nothing, or is it taken from somewhere else?" "Where would it be taken from?" Twilight asked. Sunburst shook his head. "I don't have any way of knowing. Another dimension maybe?" Twilight pondered this. She knew about dimensional travel, and there was one dimensions that she knew had very little magic. "You don't suppose a magic-free dimension could result, do you?" Twilight asked, her voicing now having a hint of worry. "I don't think so," Sunburst said, stroking his beard with his hoof, "You'd have to die an absurd number of times for that. But maybe it's taking a body from some other universe?" "What?!" Twilight interrobanged, "Are you saying I'm killing some other Twilight every time?" The others were appropriately horrified at the idea, but Starlight soon took on a thoughtful look. "Wait, if that were the case, and there were infinite universes, wouldn't all Twilights but one ultimately die?" she asked, "I mean infinite Twilights killing infinite OTHER Twilights..." Twilight (this Twilight) shook her head. "Not necessarily. Infinities are tricky. Even if the set of respawning Twilights has the same cardinality of the set of all Twilights, the respawn funciton itself can be injective without being surjective."*** "Fascinating," Sunburst said. "Forget about that! Did Twilight kill... however many other versions of herself?" Starlight said. "Forty-one at last count," Twilight said with a grimace. "I don't think so," Sunburst said, still absentmindedly stroking his beard, "While I can't be sure of course, it's likely that if that were happening the other Twilight's friends would come looking for her, which would eventually lead them here." "Unless they can't find us, or her friends are different there," Starlight said. She imagined a world where she had never met Twilight and also all of her friends had eyepatches. Eyepatches were a good way of distinguishing versions. That or goatees but those would probably only apply to Stallions. "They couldn't be THAT different," Sunburst said, "Her body comes back exactly the same, remember? Too much difference in her history would lead to noticeable physical differences." "This still means I can't kill myself anymore!" Twilight wailed, mourning the loss to science, "Since we can't even assign a probability it would be totally irresponsible!" "Hold on," Starlight said, frowning. "I seem to remember Sunset saying something about the other you having a way to detect Equestrian magic." "When were you talking to Sunset?" Twilight asked. Starlight grinned sheepishly. "We may have exchanged linked books," she said. "Starlight that's great!" Twilight said, "You're really taking the initiative at making new friends!" Starlight blushed. "Thanks." Sunburst looked back and forth between the two mares in confusion. "You lost me," he said, "But from what I gather, you two know someone who can detect dimensional anomalies?" "Right!" Twilight said, her enthusiasm renewed, "So we can find it and see if I'm giving off extra-dimensional vibes!" "We juuust have to wait until school is over," Starlight said. Twilight's mood dropped a peg. "Oh, right," Twilight said, "Well... I guess we wait." *In the presence of a strong magical field, the traditional Einstein relationship that prevails on Earth ceases to apply. While the full equation is more complicated, that given here is generally a 'close enough' approximation. The 'h' here is the magical 'weight' of an object (typically given in milli-thaums), while 'k' is a natural constant much like the speed of light. Working out k's units is left as an exercise to the reader. **Historically, a thaum was defined as the amount of magic which is needed to create a white pigeon or three billiard balls, depending on whether the author used Starswirl the Bearded's standard (former), or Rex the Magnificant's standard (latter). Rex the Magnificant, of course, being the semi-legendary mage of the Centaur kingdom. However as these definitions fail to specify the breed of pigeon or what number is on the billiard balls, it is now considered antiquated. The unit itself remains due to the inertia of tradition, but is now defined based on the constants 'k' and 'c', which are measured directly. For everyday usage, milli-thaums are typically used, despite efforts to redefine magic in terms of the amount of magic in the solarino. ***I'm not completely sure that that's correct. It's been a while since I dealt with trans-finite mathematics in any sort of comprehensive way.