//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Dreams' Horizon // by DrakeyC //------------------------------// Twilight rolled her eyes and waved a hoof in the air. “I told her that she was putting too much silver sulfate in, but Twinkleshine was adamant she had done her calculations properly.” Head balanced on her hoof across the table, Sunset smirked. “She hadn’t.” “Nope. But I let her do it because I could tell she hadn’t measured out enough to do any serious damage. Just made a big blast of black smoke that sent her coughing and stumbling away.” “And you let her do this.” “You haven’t tried to talk Twinkleshine out of being certain she’s right. You’d have an easier time convincing the moons to stop orbiting Equestria.” “Fair enough.” Sunset giggled. “And it is funny. I’d probably have done the same. In fact, I’m sure I would. And I’d have rubbed it in.” “I didn’t.” Twilight shook her head. “I helped her up and waited until she stopped hacking, and then she mumbled ‘where did I mess up’ and I showed her where. Then Luster got going with advice on how if she was trying to blow up the classroom, she should have used this mixture instead, and of course we all got on her.” Twilight laughed. “Then of course when Lemon tried to make fun, Twinkleshine just had to bring up that time she got her head stuck in a flask, and Lemon got super-embarrassed because she hates that story…” “She got her head stuck in a flask?” “She was trying out a growth spell and used a flask as a test subject. Twinkleshine dared her to see if it was big enough to fit her head in, and well, turned out she hadn’t properly calculated how long the growth spell would last.” Twilight shrugged. “She was fine. Just had a headache for the rest of the day.” “Hah.” The two were chatting inside a recreation of Twilight’s alchemy classroom. For some reason the dreamscape had generated the classroom with experiments still in progress on the tables, which had set Twilight off on an anecdote about her friend’s experiment literally blowing up in her face. Sunset had been patient to listen. Twilight noticed Sunset looking at her curiously. “What?” “So what magical mishap story about you would your friends tell me?” “I don’t have one.” Twilight sniffed and raised her nose. “I measure everything carefully and double-check my work before casting or mixing anything.” “Uh-huh.” Sunset sat back. “Here’s one of mine, then. About midway through second year, we’re in the middle of alchemy class, and one of my friends starts talking about how she’s about to master teleportation and she’ll probably be better at it than any of us.” “Oh no.” Twilight put a hoof to her forehead. “Me, being such a good, caring friend, dared her to show us right there and then if she’s so confident.” Sunset raised her eyes to the ceiling. “It didn’t exactly work out how she tried.” “Where’d she end up?” “Oh, she was fine. But the table teleported into the middle of someone’s dorm room.” Sunset snickered. “Lucky for us the alchemy experiments went with the table instead of just crashing to the floor. But the six of us still got detention. As far as the instructor was concerned we were all culpable.” “Detention.” Twilight gave her a disapproving look and shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m friends with a delinquent.” “Hey, you said you and Luster got detention too!” Sunset shot back. “That was different; we got detention for being friends.” Sunset’s expression softened. “So, how are things going with Luster now? I remember you said you weren’t sure about her being part of the group and it was rough.” Twilight nodded. “At first. But she’s really opened up to us. I can’t say I know her as well as the others; I’ve known them for years and Luster for just a month. But having her with us feels normal. Like the six of us were meant to be friends.” “I know that feel.” Sunset smiled wide. “I guess I was the ‘Luster’ to my friends. They all knew each other, but I was an outsider who got welcomed in. Not because of the Princess, it was just chance. Then over time I realized I wasn’t a sixth wheel anymore, I was one of the group.” She looked away and rubbed her left hoof against her right. “I’d never really had friends growing up. The occasional playmate or classmate I spoke to outside of school sometimes, but an actual group of friends to hang out with? That was new.” Sunset’s chest swelled and closed her eyes. “I remember when I realized that during lunch when two of them couldn’t make it but the other three were still chatting with me and I was chatting with them. It suddenly struck me, ‘these are my friends. I belong with them. They accept me’.” She blushed and gave a small laugh. “It’s a wonderful feeling.” Twilight watched Sunset reminisce, the light from the windows playing off her coat and her face looking peaceful and content. Twilight darted her eyes down. “I wonder if Luster has had a moment like that.” Sunset opened her eyes and sat up. “I would be surprised if she hasn’t. And if not, it’s definitely coming. Regardless, you’ve done a great thing for Luster. I know that better than anypony. You should be proud.” Sunset began to reach across the table to take Twilight’s hoof, but when her eyes lowered to them she stilled. Twilight looked down and the two silently withdrew their hooves. Don’t need to make that mistake again. “Things are good for me, too,” Sunset said instead. “I got my thesis for researching the magical properties of sunlight approved and can start actually working on it.” “Oh. Congratulations.” Twilight scrunched her face. “I’m kind of at a dead end on mine.” “What are you studying?” “Long-range teleportation.” Sunset shrugged. “That doesn’t seem so complicated. I mean, teleportation isn’t a basic spell, but most students can master it by second year.” Twilight sighed. “It’s not that simple.” She sat up and lit her horn. A beam of magenta light drew out a sphere in the air. “A teleportation spell temporarily converts a pony’s body into a wave of magical particles, transfers them to a set point, and reforms them.” As Twilight spoke, her magic orb turned into a series of smaller orbs, floated through the air towards Sunset, and then reformed into the larger orb.  “Right. So what’s the catch?” “The further you travel, the longer you exist only as a wave of magic, and the more magic it takes to cast the spell. Magic waves travel fast enough that the difference between teleporting two meters or twenty meters is less than a microsecond, but it’s a lot in terms of the amount of power and concentration it takes to do it safely and successfully. And eventually, there’s a point where a unicorn just can’t channel that amount of magic.” She scowled. “I’ve known I wanted to do my thesis on this topic since second year, I thought I could come up with at least some idea of how to crack that problem by now. But I haven’t.” “Hey, don’t sweat it.” Sunset smiled. “You’re a smart pony, and you’ve got the entire year to think of it. And I can tell just from this you’re passionate about it. So trust me when I say – you’ll find a way.” Twilight blushed lightly and looked away. “Thank you, Sunset.” “Any time, Twilight.” Twinkleshine waved a donut with white icing in the air. “Do you want the last one?” Sitting on her bed, Twilight looked up from her journal and shook her head. “Go ahead.” Twinkleshine bit into the donut and sat down at the table with a glass of apple juice and a small bowl of fruit. Twilight took a sip of milk from her nightstand and went back to writing. She first focused on transcribing as much detail of the room and its contents as she could recall; her conversation with Sunset would come easy enough after. A week into the school semester, Twilight had come to expect dreams about her two or three times a week. She noted the dates in her dream journal, of course, but there was no pattern or schedule that she could discern; she had once dreamt of her twice in a row, another time it was a full week between dreams. That time, she had been surprised to find herself worried that she might not see Sunset again. When she opened her eyes on the dreamscape of the cafeteria and saw Sunset, she had almost hugged her before she remembered better. Attempts to locate any sign of Sunset in the real world had failed. There was no record of anyone with her name attending the school, no one she had directly asked recognized the name, when she had gone across the city to visit her parents for the day they said they couldn’t remember her ever knowing anyone with even a similar name. Twilight had only seen Sunset outside of the dreams once or twice after that day in the library with Luster, but she always vanished when Twilight closed her eyes or turned away. While the occasional sighting was still a bit perplexing – the best explanation Twilight could come up with was that it was her mind playing tricks – she had become quite happy to dream about Sunset. Even if she was just some figment of Twilight’s mind, she was a good listener and often had good advice. And Twilight found her very easy to talk to. Sunset was assured about her choices in life and where they were taking her, and she claimed she preferred to tackle problems head-on without fear. She had been a voice of support and confidence and courage when Twilight needed them for matters great and small. Is it strange to consider a pony who only exists in your head a friend? Twilight’s pencil stilled as she pondered the idea. Was it all that different from how so many fillies and colts had imaginary friends? Twilight would have thought herself far too old and mature for that, but perhaps not. She couldn’t think of any significant stresses that might cause her to hallucinate such a thing, her third year was going well so far. Surely if she was under some sort of pressure that would cause her to hallucinate an ideal friend, she would be self-aware of it. “Twinkleshine?” She asked. Twinkleshine paused while biting off half of what was left of her donut. “Hm?” She looked over at Twilight as she chewed. “Do you think I’m stressed over anything?” Twinkleshine’s eyes darted to the side. “Well, wouldn’t you know that better than me?” “One would think.” Twilight returned to her journal. Her writing had subconsciously devolved into her speculations on what Sunset meant, as often happened when she wrote these. She began transcribing what they had talked about, hearing each word in her head being spoken with Sunset’s voice. When she was done she read it over – there was nothing of significance there, just idle chatter like she might have with any one of her friends. She began a new paragraph for a final thought. Can one’s own mind keep secrets from them? And if it could, how would you know? She frowned and shook her head. No. That is the road that leads to paranoia and madness. I must be rational about this. Every mystery has an answer. You just need to piece together enough clues. Her cherry cheese poutine forgotten beside her on the cafeteria table, Twinkleshine scribbled furiously on a notepad. She smiled when she finished and held it across the table. “How’s this?” The magic aura around the pad shifted from blue to pink as Moondancer took it and looked it over. She speared a clump of curled noodles on her plate and chewed as she thought, then nodded as she swallowed.  “Presuming this is a rough concept, it has potential. But you’ll need to be very careful etching into the crystal. One mistake and the entire audio-visual output could be compromised. Encoding information on this level of compression means a much lower margin for error.” “I don’t make errors. And thank you.” Twinkleshine beamed and took the notepad back. She set it down and took a sip of her drink while looking her notes over. Twilight watched and waved a fry at her. “Regretting not taking Runes and Symbols with the rest of us now?” “Nope.” Twinkleshine shook her head. “After enduring a Monday of classes capped by Mathematics, sleeping in is worth it.” She wrinkled her nose as she flipped through her notepad. “Although considering all the free time I’m spending reading books on the subject anyway, maybe it doesn’t matter.” “But you’re having fun, right?” Lemon Hearts said. “You bet!” Twinkleshine grinned and flipped her pad shut. “A crystal movie projector? It’s like something out of science fiction!” “Assuming you can actually make it work,” Luster said. “We’re talking about converting sounds and images into magical data that can be imprinted on a crystal, stored for long periods of time, and then converted back into sounds and images later. The runes for a basic projector crystal reading from a cassette are complex enough.” “I’ll figure it out,” Twinkleshine vowed. “Moondancer is the biggest egghead this school has ever seen. If she says it’s plausible, it can be done.” Moondancer lifted her eyebrows. “I believe that is a compliment, so, thank you.” Setting her half-eaten hayburger down, Minuette opened her mouth to speak, and was interrupted by a loud plastic clatter. The girls turned their heads to a stallion several hooves away that was staring at an upside-down cafeteria tray, fries and the parts of a fully-dressed burger scattered across the floor. He glanced at the nearby tables of ponies watching him and looked sheepish.  “Sorry…” His horn lit pale orange and he levitated the tray and began to clean up his mess.  “Here.” Lemon Hearts climbed down from her chair with a napkin and began helping. “Thanks.” The stallion frowned. “Dunno what happened, just lost my concentration and it dropped.” “It happens.” The floor cleaned, Lemon smiled and stepped back, and the stallion dumped his tray into a garbage bag before heading back to the lines. “At least he didn’t have a drink,” Moondancer said. Minuette brightened. “Back to the subject, I got my approval for my thesis!” She grinned and clapped her hooves. “Congratulations!” Lemon leaned over to her and patted her on the back. “What are you studying?” Luster asked. Minuette smiled proudly. “Alchemical cooking!” Luster and Twilight shared a look of confusion. Moondancer raised her hoof. “That isn’t a thing.” “Exactly!” Minuette leaned in, her eyes shining. “Of course everyone knows alchemy, but I’m interested in how it affects the properties of food. Sure, there’s been some research on preservatives and increasing the nutritional value, but what if alchemy could lower cooking times or enhance the flavor? No one really knows, because no one has ever cared to find out. I do.” “As long as you don’t end up baking cupcakes that turn us into newts,” Twinkleshine said. “So, that’s all of us who have received approval for our thesis, right?” Lemon swallowed a mouthful of salad and looked around the table. “I think so. I’m studying the effects of the sun and moons on unicorn magic, Twinkleshine has her projector, Moondancer…” She paused. “Er, what was yours again?” Moondancer gave a small smile and adjusted her glasses. “I’m going to do a paper on Hoofenberg’s uncertainty principle.” The table fell silent as the other five ponies all looked at each other. Twilight coughed lightly. “Pardon?” “The very words make my head hurt,” Twinkeshine muttered, stabbing her fork into her poutine. “It’s not very hard to understand.” Moondancer lightly cleared her throat. “The laws of magic transference clearly state–” “Moony, sweetie, no,” Minuette interrupted. She gave a gentle pat to Moondancer’s hoof on the table and smiled. “We love you and we’re sure it’s important and you’ll do well, but please no.” Moondancer frowned and lifted a fork of pasta from her tray. “Well, yes, it is important. Expanding our understanding of Hoofenberg’s theories could revolutionize numerous fields of advanced magic.” “We’ll take your word for it.” Minuette patted her hoof again. Moondancer popped her fork in her mouth and chewed without a response. Twinkleshine spoke up. “I don’t think Luster got confirmed on hers. Or if she has, she hasn’t told us.” A spoon of soup in her mouth, Luster paused as everyone in the table looked at her. She pulled the spoon out and swallowed. “Pardon?” “What’s your thesis on?” Minuette asked. “Oh. Um… it’s a pretty uninteresting topic, and rather obscure. You guys would just be bored if I explained it.” Twinkleshine scoffed. “Boring, obscure magic is practically Moondancer’s favorite subject.” Moondancer began to reply, then stopped and gave a small shrug. “I was about to protest that joke but I can’t entirely disagree with it. Fair enough.” Twilight looked at Luster as she took another slurp of soup. She’s never mentioned her thesis that I can recall, either. Just something to do with mental magic, I think. “Well?” Lemon prompted. “If you don’t want to tell us that’s fine, but we’re just wondering if it’s been submitted and approved.” Luster lowered her spoon and nodded. “Yes, I submitted it last week and got approval yesterday.” “Woo-hoo!” Minuette cheered. “Then we’re all confirmed,” Lemon finished. “With almost the full year to finish, we’ll be sure to pass. Plenty of time to research and organize our thoughts.” Twilight frowned and glared at the bite of hayburger she had left. “Yeah, good thing.” She shoved the food into her mouth and chewed. Luster watched her. “Something wrong?” “I’m still stuck on mine. The long-range teleportation?” The group nodded and murmured. “Still stuck on breaching the Psilomb barrier?” Moondancer asked. “Like I’ve been nailed to it.” Twilight slumped onto the table and sighed. “If I can’t crack this, I can’t even theorize how long-range teleportation would work, and I’ll fail utterly.” Lemon leaned over the table. “Hey, look at me.” Twilight turned her eyes her way. “You will not fail. The thesis is about you demonstrating your knowledge and proficiency in a particular field and how you plan to explore it when you graduate. They don’t expect us to all successfully pull off what we plan to do. I mean, we’re students, and some researchers out there have spent decades on the topics we’re researching.” “I know, but still.” Twilight eyed a hayfry by her mouth and lapped out her tongue to scoop it into her mouth. “It’s still frustrating.” “Have you considered applying wormhole theory?” Moondancer said. “Huh?” “Wormhole theory,” Moondancer repeated. “If the distance factor is limited by how much magic a unicorn can muster, then why not circumvent it? I’ve not delved into teleportation much myself, but I’m sure the theories of trans-dimensional travel could be of at least some use. I know a few books that may be promising.” Twilight gasped and jumped up. She grinned and clapped her hooves. “Moondancer, you’re a genius!” Moondancer gave a small smile. “I hear that a lot lately.” Twilight looked at her saddle bags on the ground beside her chair. Her horn lit magenta and opened the flap. “What books do you recommend?” She saw a small notebook and pen in her bag and willed them to float up to her. The items glowed momentarily and wobbled, but didn’t lift up. “The one that would probably be more helpful to your research is A Treatise–” “Hang on.” Twilight frowned and focused on her horn. The notebook and pen flickered for a moment before lighting up in magic. She smiled and floated them onto the table and flipped the book open. “Go on.” With classes concluded for the day, the main concourse of SGU was full of ponies coming out of the main building and splitting off to go to their dorms, into town, or to the library. Twilight bumped into a few of them and mumbled apologies without looking away from Moondancer’s recommended reading. “This is exactly what I needed.” She rolled her eyes and grinned at Luster. “I can’t believe I didn’t think to ask Moondancer for leads before, that pony knows everything.” Keeping pace with her as the two circled the central fountain, Luster smiled at her. “You’re sure excited. At least you’re not moping anymore.” “Of course I’m excited!” Twilight slipped the notebook back into her saddle bags. “Long-range teleportation could solve so many societal problems.” She turned her head behind them and pointed to the elevated platform across the campus grounds. “Think of all the out-of-town students that have to get up an hour earlier than us every morning to be flown in by the pegasi. With a long-range teleportation spell, maybe an escorting unicorn could just teleport them all here in a moment. It’d be quicker, safer, and the SGU could accommodate way more students from outside Canterlot.” “True.” Luster nodded. “I guess with cutting-edge research like that, it’s not always easy to immediately envision all the ways it could be applied.” “Exactly.” Twilight took a breath. “But, I’m not going to get carried away fantasizing about the possibilities until I can actually make real progress. Which I can now!” Her grin widened even further. Okay, maybe she had lied to Luster just a little, because her mind was racing with the potential applications her breakthrough could mean. The two stepped through the doors of the Royal Canterlot Archives. The crowd was a bit thinner here – most students right out of class didn’t come to study more. Twilight scanned the rows and rows of bookshelves spread throughout the archives. Her gaze stopped on the card catalogue. “I have to go look up where to find all these. Moondancer said they’re a bit spread out.” “Okay. I need to check some books out for my thesis research but I know where I’m going.” Luster waved to Twilight and began walking deeper into the library. Twilight turned to her. “Did you want some help?” Luster stopped and looked back. “No, I’m good. I know which books I need, just have to go grab them.” “I meant with your thesis in general. Moondancer and I are pretty smart – er, not that you’re not smart!” Twilight winced. “I just mean, if you need any help with the project, at all, for anything, you can ask. There’s no rules against getting help on the thesis as long as the pony submitting does the majority of the work and writes the final paper alone.” Luster smiled and shook her head. “I don’t think that’s necessary. I’m pretty confident I’ve got this covered.” Twilight approached her as she spoke. “Well, you said it was on obscure magic, which implies it might be difficult to research, so I just want to make sure you know that we’re here for you if you need a hoof. That’s what friends are for, right?” “Right.” Luster kept smiling. “I know you’re here, and thank you, Twilight. But, really, I’m fine. I’ve got this.” “Good to know. So, what are you studying?” Luster gave a wave of her hoof. “Oh, you know, stuff. Really, it’s uninteresting, you wouldn’t care.” She turned again and waved. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay!” Twilight waved back until Luster turned down an aisle out of view. You’re my friend, of course I care what you’re studying. Why didn’t I say that out loud before she got away? She pulled aside to let a stallion pass by her, then turned and walked back to the library entrance where the card catalogs were. She looked at Moondancer’s list and saw only Luster smiling and waving at her. A perfectly happy friend going on their way. Except... I may not be a social expert, but I know fake smiles when I see them.