475 AL | 2486 CE
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HPOCAMP [Hyper-optimized Precision Orientation Across Multiple Portals]
[Work-in-progress excerpt, translated from data logs shared with us by Princess Sparkle; check footnotes for additional information. - H. Davis]
[Translator’s Note: Where referenced, pony units have been translated to human SI units for ease of understanding. Also, yes, somehow when I translated the name of their tech it turned into a horse pun. I swear to God I didn’t stretch this—the acronym in Ponish really is a play on their word for “hippocamp.” If anything, I had to stretch to maintain the pun—it doesn’t really roll off the tongue in English and I couldn’t think of a way to render it, as, say, CPNY.]
The central magics that power and orient HPOCAMP drives originate from the genius of Princesses Twilight and Luna respectively, but the actual hardware owes its design to a team of hippocampus/hippogriff engineers.
HPOCAMP’s basic principles are rooted in unicorn teleportation magic, for which Princess Twilight always had a notable gift. Teleportation is natively faster-than-light, but neither subjectively (that is, to the subject) or objectively (to the outside world) instantaneous, i.e., there is an observable span of time where the subject does not appear to “be” anywhere; the “faster than light” trait of teleportation only becomes observable over substantial, usually intercontinental, teleports. During the teleportation, the caster temporarily occupies an alternate, spatiotemporally compressed plane, classically known as “between,” but, once formal work on HPOCAMP began nearly 250 years ago1, has since been relabeled “arcane space.”
The precise nature of arcane space is not well-understood as, by definition, one cannot spend an indefinite amount of time inside it; but it has been observed as a generally bright “tunnel” through which the teleportee travels, with the direction one is heading glowing brightly in the color of the caster’s corona2, while the direction “behind” glows more dimly. It has been established that arcane space is essentially created and destroyed by the act of teleportation, meaning that it only exists while occupied and ceases to be when not in use. As a happy consequence of this, there is no fear of collision with other ships or stellar bodies when using HPOCAMP, as for all intents and purposes the ship and its occupants are isolated in a personal pocket dimension for the duration of the translation. Moreover, it is impossible to be stranded in arcane space; teleportation spells must by definition have an exit point. As a general rule, however, information, even fundamentally entangled3 particles, cannot independently enter or exit arcane space—while translating, subjects are explicitly isolated from reality.
In a fleet of ships, HPOCAMPs can be linked together to ensure entry and exit at relatively identical points, though such ships will not exist simultaneously in the same arcane space (i.e, they cannot perceive each other). This is a departure from the normal properties of teleportation, as all subjects of a singular spell travel arcane space together; however, in the case of HPOCAMP translation, strictly speaking, multiple spells are cast in parallel so as not to metaphorically put all eggs in one basket.
It is impossible for a teleportation spell to “telefrag”4 any participants or would-be victims. Normal teleportation spells will fizzle5 if the subject(s) cannot occupy the intended space or if the intended space is already occupied6. In the case of long-range teleports in general, and HPOCAMP in particular, if the intended space is occupied, subjects are shunted an arbitrary but safe distance away into space they can safely occupy. While such “near misses'' tend to be mildly traumatic for the subject of a standard spell, modern HPOCAMP engineering offloads the magical and kinetic strain into specially designed sinks; metaphorically, it is akin to a train stopping a short distance from its designated stop and asking the occupants to walk—inconvenient, but not necessarily dangerous.
Nevertheless, arcane space does not follow conventional thermodynamic or thaumidynamic7 laws, and without proper shielding, exposure over long periods can result in one’s inherent magic becoming incoherent and unusable, not unlike a radio broadcast distorting into static over sufficient distances8. Eye strain has also been noted as a side effect when accessed via ponies with bright coronas, so eye protection is recommended for those who intend to observe the space itself for sufficient spans of time. Furthermore, despite its appearance, travel within arcane space does not necessarily constitute travel in a straight line in real space, given inconsistent spatiotemporal compression between planes. Put another way, when teleportation is involved, the shortest distance between any two points may not necessarily be a straight line.
Thus the navigational aspect of HPOCAMP was devised by Princess Luna, whose affinity for the stars (and the charting thereof) and ability to seamlessly navigate her own personal “arcane space” in the Dreaming granted her a particular talent for finding a way through seemingly impossible mazes. All ships with installed HPOCAMPs have an arcanotech map that intelligently charts efficient routes through arcane space.
Though teleportation in principle is not a difficult spell, not all unicorns can teleport; the spell requires both a fair amount of magical stamina and that the user have a firm grasp of their intended destination, unless they are aiming at a “teleportation beacon” (itself the result of a highly complex spell). It is widely believed (though this has been proven untrue) that only those with a magical talent can become efficient teleporters. The fact remains that though the spell is widely known and inherently safe, few unicorns possess both the thaumic stamina and the necessary ability to envision their destination.
The earliest drives were powered primarily by stores of Princess Twilight’s magic, and thus the traversed arcane space was always noted to be a particularly soothing shade of magenta. Most recent personal HPOCAMPs are efficient enough to be charged by small groups or even singular ponies, allowing the traversed space to be any color, or even a spectrum of colors.
As the name implies, travel through HPOCAMP technically constitutes repeated small jumps through arcane space. The incredible distances between stars necessitate long stays in arcane space, and early colonizers did not know the potential effects of long-term extraplanar exposure. Rather than take the risk, early HPOCAMP models necessarily spent periods in and out of arcane space, dropping into deep space between stars both to recharge the drive and to give those on board a reprieve. As technology advances, Equus ships are able to better shield themselves from the pure magical energy of arcane space, as well as set up long-range teleportation beacons, allowing ships to travel faster and in fewer jumps.
Notably, despite being charged with a tremendous amount of magical energy, the very first HPOCAMP model, used aboard the Eternal Hope, had to be regularly recharged throughout the voyage, and ponies aboard were asked to donate small portions of their magic during regular physical checkups in order to keep the drive operating at full capacity. In effect, though this is somewhat romanticized, that first voyage was literally powered by ponies wishing to travel faster than light. It was also notably the slowest drive, taking slightly over a year to travel from Equus Prime to the closest star with a suitable planet for habitation, some six lightyears away. Even by the time the Eternal Hope had arrived at its destination, marked improvements had been made to the technology; by even a century later, the prototype HPOCAMP that moved the first pony settlers to another word was considered a fossil by comparison.
Some claim to hear the sound of the drive spooling up as a very distorted “shoo be doo,”9 but this is subjective and just as many cannot discern the sound. Nevertheless, the drive having been designed partially by seaponies10 and iterated upon endlessly by successive generations of hippogriff engineers, some prefer calling HPOCAMP drive translations “shoobies” rather than the more traditional “jumps,” “poofs,” or “pops” (themselves derived from slang for unicorn teleportation).
In comparison to human FTL drives, HPOCAMP drives are generally larger and less sleek, requiring more space and generating more heat than human drives of comparable power, but drawing less energy from the ship itself, relying instead on internal batteries which can be recharged by the latent or active magic of any Equus-native creature. In general, HPOCAMP is increasingly more efficient than human drives the longer the intended trip, while human drives are more efficient for shorter trips. Efforts to engineer HPOCAMP technology usable by humanity are underway as part of Princess Twilight’s technology-sharing initiative.
1[TN: They base their years on time passage on Equus Prime kind of like our galactic standard references Earth. You probably know this, but it’s pretty shocking that their years line up almost perfectly with our own. Strictly speaking, I think we drift by a couple fractions of a second, and they don’t have leap years because the whole geocentrism thing lets them define their own time, but we generally average out to about the same. I think there’s talk of us trying to establish timescales we can use together, but for now just assume their year is our year—let the historians and scientists argue about the accuracy.]
2[TN: “Corona” as in the glow around a star, not in the sense of a crown—though it is part of a phrase that refers to a unicorn’s horn. It’s the literal term Equestrians use to describe the magical glow unicorns have—can also be read as “aura” or “radiance” or “brilliance” etc. depending on context; diminutive variations of this word seem to be common unicorn names; think, say, Sparkle, Shimmer, Glimmer, Glow, or maybe Luster; seems to be used here as shorthand for the color of a pony’s magic, even for pegasi and earth ponies. Adorable trivia: They describe pregnant ponies as glowing not unlike we do in English, except that the word they use is one that otherwise refers only to magic. “The miracle of life,” eh?]
3[TN: “Fundamental entanglement” is their term for what we call quantum entanglement. So close, but so far.]
4[TN: “Telefrag” is our word, which I inserted for convenience—the original language dances around the idea, but they don’t have a singular word for trauma caused by two things trying to occupy the same space, presumably because their magic literally doesn’t allow them to do that. When I told my Equestrian equivalent that we actually had a word for that idea, she seemed surprised and a little disturbed. Made me feel bad. Note to self: Ponies are really good at the whole puppy eyes thing.]
5[TN: The actual term used is a form of onomatopoeia—it seems that a spell failing to cast really does make a sound not dissimilar to blowing a fuse.]
6[TN: There is an unspecific, arbitrary definition for what counts as “occupied space.” According to Princess Sparkle, unicorn scholars have been arguing about micromatter for centuries, but the upshot is that teleportation magic seems to be “smart” enough to distinguish between “empty space” (which doesn’t exist, of course, even in a vacuum) and “space that might as well be empty”—the point is that a HPOCAMP teleport can’t drop you on top of another ship, an asteroid, or even some unfortunate EVA victim in the wrong place at the wrong time. The magic actually can’t hurt anyone.]
7[TN: Literally “laws-of-how-magic-moves.” It’s hard to transcribe the native word they use for measuring magic, so we’ve taken to calling the unit “thaum” and anything related to measured magic “thaumic” or some derivative—we got the term from an old fantasy book, don’t sweat the details. As Equestrians define them, thaums can function like Joules, newtons, or volts depending on the context—I’m told it’s giving our physicists migraines. But to dig a meme up from its 500-year-old grave: It’s magic; I ain’t gotta explain shit.]
8[TN: This is their metaphor, not mine—it seems Equestria developed radio and then started making a beeline for networked terminals without stopping at TV on the way; doubly strange because they developed film and cinematic theaters, they just never thought to put them together like we did.]
9[TN: That’s as close as I can come to transcribing the onomatopoeia. Ponies like to use sounds to describe things and they can make phonemes we just can’t. As far as “shoo be do” goes, it seems like some kind of inside joke—whenever I ask an Equestrian, they break into giggles, but I don’t think the joke translates across cultures. We’ll just have to chalk that one up to “you had to have been there.” I did my best with “shoobies,” but translation is a game of context as much as it is one of correctness.]
10[TN: “Seapony” is a made-up word. In context it is an adorable diminutive of their equivalent of “hippocamp”—think of it like slang or shorthand. It’s surprisingly informal for this type of document, but not rude or disrespectful. It’s a pun that doesn’t really translate, but it contains idioms for “ocean” and “pony,” and “seapony” felt like the best way to preserve the intent. A more literal rendering might be something like “pocampie.” I dunno, I like “seapony” better.]
19:11 | TERRA Transcript Resumes [usercall]
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