Lyra Heartstrings - 1st of Leafdrop 13 EoH - EveningLyra Heartstrings - 1st of Leafdrop 13 EoH - Evening
Multiverse Location: Cyberquestria, Equis #3
At first, I thought that Bon was fascinated with Flutter’s stories because, well, she behaved like she was about ten or so. All little kids like to be told a fun story. Turns out it was definitely that, and Fluttershy was the single greatest storyteller I have ever experienced.
I’ve had people tell stories in person before, the art of the bard made a resurgence a few years before my mom was born. They sit in the center of a semi circle, and present their tale with AR projections only aiding in creating a warm and cozy atmosphere, no special effects, no mood manipulation, just their words.
Fluttershy would have been the world champion had she been able to compete with the rest of them.
Every word was used just right. Every stressed syllable conveying exactly the right emotion. The pace at which she spoke varied in the exact right way to keep you on the edge of your seat. She was a master at this. She could have been reading the ingredients of a nutrient block and it would have been more interesting than most AR novels.
I wound up spending the entire day listening to her tell what I was fairly sure was a tall tale version of her own life. It sounded like she had been a soldier, or maybe a knight, but the way she told the story made it like something Patrick F. McManus would have written. A tale you knew was true, but with all the details exaggerated to make it into something absurd, where you could laugh after being afraid simply at the silliness of what it turned out the scary thing had been.
I’d praised her as a storyteller, and asked her if she wrote or competed as a bard. Sadly she shied up and mumbled something about anxiety issues, and how she’d once met a counterpart to herself who was ‘built like a supermodel instead of a pillow’, and sang instead of told stories, but also never did it publicly. Apparently performing for a crowd was ‘something Fluttershy's just can’t do’.
Which was a shame. She’d be incredible.
Such a shame that I’d spent the entire walk to the park to meet up with Twilight, Chrysalis, and the rest of Fluttershy’s friends thinking of anything I might be able to do to help the poor girl overcome stage fright.
I’d never had a problem with being the center of attention. I’d never really sought to be it, but I’d never minded when I was. And that meant any advice I could give her would be generic and available from any psychology text. So I’d kept my mouth shut. Nothing is more annoying than someone telling you easily referenced information you probably already know. Especially if it didn’t work for you.
Fluttershy and I were alone as we walked. Bon had gotten sleepy, so Shy and I had tucked her into a round bed and quilt Shy had whipped up for her. The silly girl had spent the whole time apologising to me for having to use nylon to weave the fabric.
Like, what else would you use? Polyester? It’s a cheap quilt for a temporary guest. You’re not going to bust out the good synthetic fibers.
I’d asked if it would be safe to leave her there alone, and well, yes. Yes it was. Fluttershy’s house was more than capable of keeping dangerous things out, and Shy had shown Bon how to use a small radio to call for her if she needed help or got scared.
Just, damn. Shy was a better mom than my mom! I’d say she was a better mom than me, but frankly I hadn’t gotten a chance to mom yet, and I’d kept my unwittingly created daughter alive through a kaiju attack, a universe that seemed to want to kill me, a bandit raid, a prison break, and a psychotic AI’s…break down.
Most people would say It was my fault for bringing her into those situations, but um… No. I’d arranged for a pet sitter! She wasn't supposed to have come with me. I didn’t have control over where I went. So I think keeping her alive was pretty damn good, given the situation and my like, no resources at all.
I mean, I guess I was being a bit of a bad mom now for leaving Bon behind to sleep. But the fact that she was sleeping inside a solid foot thick, durasteel bubble with unbreakable windows, and magical wards made me feel it was okay to leave her for a little while. Especially since I was sticking right next to the cutie who was brain-linked to a radio Bon could call her with.
The two of us had walked quietly back towards town. I had lots of things I wanted to talk about, or ask. Her world was pretty fascinating. But at the same time, I knew how lots of quiet girls liked their little moments of quiet, and with how introverted she seemed to be Shy was probably pooped from talking all day. I figured I’d let her start.
“Oh!” Fluttershy said suddenly as we neared the edge of town. “Um, so… There’s a few things you should know.”
“Like what?” I asked, happy she was talking again.
“Well, my friend Pinkie Pie is very talkative,” Fluttershy began. “She can talk to fast for you to really understand. If you get lost, don’t pretend to listen, let her know right away. She gets upset when people ask her to repeat herself.
“Applejack is…a little gruff, and she can be very rude without meaning to be. But she’s nice, so if she says something offensive to you, just let it go… Or um, if you’re good at them, send one back at her. But don’t belittle her former profession as a farmer, or-”
“Why for the love of physics would I ever insult a farmer?” I asked incredulously.
Fluttershy’s ears drooped. “W-well a lot of ponies see it as a primitive profession suited for stupid ponies… I don’t, but um, it’s an elitist thing.”
I cracked a grin and squatted down to get on Fluttershy’s face level. “Shy, my homeworld is a wasteland… Not as bad as this one, mind you. But the rare chunks of land that can still be farmed, yeah the people who work them are some of the most wealthy and badass people on our planet. I’d never insult one, and especially not to their face. I have insurance, but getting a new eye is still annoying.”
Her ears perked back up. “Oh! Well, good! Er, not the wasteland part, I mean. I meant the-”
I gave her a smile and stood back up. “I know what you mean. No worries. Before you tell me anything else, is anyone upset about being synthetic now? Can I talk about that? Because I have a lot of questions.”
She shook her head as we resumed walking. “No, everypony’s happy with our new bodies. Even me. I can’t get sick, I don’t have to sleep if I don’t want to so I never have to be unaware of my surroundings. I’m a lot harder to hurt and can even turn off pain if I want to. And everything feels, looks, smells, and tastes just like I remember from before.
“The only scary thing is being able to um… Look inside my own body. But I got used to that over a few years. Honestly, being like this is an improvement… Except I can’t lose weight.”
“Why would you need to lose weight?” I asked curiously. “Are you so life-like… Er, sorry that’s probably a rude way to put it. Um, are you so anatomically correct, that being chubby means whatever coolant pump you use clogs up with fatty tissues or something?”
“Oh no! Nothing like that,” she admitted, sounding embarrassed. “I um, I’ve just always been overweight and it’s made flying hard for me, and um… Well… I-I think you’re female, right? You have to know what it’s like to want to look nice.”
I groaned, narrowly avoiding facepalming. “Fluttershy, first off, you are very very pretty. That might not mean something coming from a non-pony, but trust me, you look great. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but, as a mechanical person, couldn’t you just get stronger wing servos? If not, and you really want to be skinny, I’ve got a knife and a small sewing kit in my medical supplies. We can take care of this right now if you wanted?”
Fluttershy blushed a bright pink, stopping to embarrassedly shuffle her forehooves. “I um… Thank you. But, that’s not… I meant I can’t burn it off… I had dash take the padding off and um- I. It didn’t feel right. So I had her put it back. It’s not just being skinny, I- it was a life goal to burn that off.”
“Oh, I understand,” I said seriously, before my silly side kicked in. “I’ll see if I can’t find you a blowtorch.”
Shy’s blush deepened as a sweet smile split her lips. “You’re very different from our Lyra. She’s not as fun. Is everypony different? The other me I met was just like me, but different in little ways… Have you met your world’s me?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m not a counterpart to anyone here. I just share the name Lyra. My home is about, well, a long long time ago for you.”
Fluttershy gasped like a fangirl. “Is it in a galaxy far far away?”
Turning in surprise to look into her hopeful eyes I was forced to shake my head and feel her disappointment. “Sorry, but no… And how do you even know about those thirty or so movies?”
“Discord does movie nights sometimes. He’s a friend,” Fluttershy answered.
“Wait, Discord’s your friend!?” I asked right as Fluttershy exclaimed, “wait, thirty movies?!”
“Yeah, thirty. How many have you seen?” I asked.
“Seven,” she replied.
“Twilight said she talked to my VI, which means you guys can link to me. If you can get me five minutes to talk to Discord to claim a favor he owes me, I’ll give you the whole saga. I’ve got it all saved locally,” I offered.
“Deal! I’ll have him come over tomorrow,” Shy exclaimed happily, wings fluttering eagerly for a few moments before she frowned. “Um, wait, you can connect to machines?”
I nodded. “Yeah. My species genetically reengineered ourselves. Our brains are a lot more like a computer than the old versions. It lets us control our devices via thought, and save things to our brains. We also use it to communicate on, uh, did you have an internet? We made something similar with it.”
“We had a few radio networks, but only big universities and the Guard had computer networks. But we do have one now! If you can get on it, I could share memories of how our world used to look with you! I-I lost all my photos because they were printed on cellulose based film… But um, It would be fun to share!” Fluttershy exclaimed eagerly.
“That would be fun, and I probably can! Do you use microwave transmission, or Configurable Quantum Entanglement?” I asked as we entered town.
“I can do microwave,” she answered. “But what’s the other thing? I um, I’m not very into computers or science, but um… It doesn't sound like something you can do.”
Not surprising, since she said her people didn’t have a public internet yet. That meant some of their sciences were lacking… Or maybe just how they used it was different.
“You can, it’s just not at all intuitive,” I started. “I’m not a physicist, but the layman’s explanation is every one of us has a cluster of atoms in our comms organelle which are given a unique spin pattern. Devices we can link to get a microwave signal sent to them which tells the device our particular pattern, and then that device induces the same pattern in an equal number of atoms in it’s QEC port. Then I can send data to it instantly via QEC, and once I’m done, I can disentangle with it, and then someone else can use it.
“There’s a specific trick which lets you entangle atoms at a distance like that, but I don’t know the technical details. All I know is the atoms used in a QEC port are kept under conditions so precise that it was impossible to manufacture the device which does it until forty years before I was born, despite us knowing the physics for it for a hundred years before that.”
“That sounds like a magical effect,” Fluttershy mused. “You could have said you use magic.”
“Actually it's more like spooky action at a distance. Heh. Anywho, my species actually doesn't have magic… Well, apparently we have a little bit, but besides me, none of us know that magic is a thing. Hell, I don’t even know what it is, or how it works, only that it exists,” I mentioned, coughing in embarrassment.
“Y-you… But… How? It’s everywhere!” Fluttershy gasped in surprise.
“Well, I can see it if it does something visible, but humans just can’t sense it. Heck, I don’t even know what my own magic is, despite knowing I have some thanks to being able to make this baby,” I said, pulling my sword off my belt.
“That’s weird,” Fluttershy said sympathetically. “I can’t imagine not being able to feel the weather.”
“Heh,” I snickered. “Wanna know something cool?”
“Sure,” Fluttershy politely replied.
“Not one drop of magic, and our species spanned three planets, our own moon, and six other moons, as well as a few asteroid stations,” I said proudly.
Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Oh my! That must have taken a lot of smart people a very long time. How do you get between them? Oh! Is it spaceships?”
“Yes spaceships. I was a fighter pilot, flew one myself,” I boasted proudly
Fluttershy grinned happily, and moved to say something, but I accidently cut her off.
“And It did take a long time,” I said. “Like, over three hundred years. Which for us is a lot, not so much for you I know. We used to only live around ninety years. If we kept in great shape.”
“Just ninety!? My goodness that’s so short! I can’t imagine living only a third as lo- Right… I live as long as I can get maintenance now,” Fluttershy trailed off. “Oh, you said used too, did you fix that when your worked on yourselves?”
I nodded. “Mhm… But I don't know how long we live now. No one does. In theory, forever is possible, but well… Some old person disease like alzheimer's or something will probably kick in eventually and do me in. We can’t all be adorable immortal robot pony wizards, er- no offence meant by ‘robot’.”
Fluttershy giggled. “You know, if you really want to know about magic, you could ask Twilight. She’s an archmage, but um, she’s the teaching kind. So she can actually explain things instead of making things more confusing.”
“I am so going to do that!” I exclaimed. “You have no idea how much that’s been eating at me. Humans REALLY like to know things. So much that if we can’t figure it out, we make it up… And that’s where a LOT of our ancestors problems came from.”
That’s when I noticed we were in what had to be the park. Big open space between a few buildings and a street. Lots of ‘trees’, plenty of benches, artful rock arrangements, beds of little fake flowers, extra soft looking grass, and a lot of ponies walking about, chatting… A robo-park. For robo-pones.
Hehe! Best universe so far! Hands down. All this place needed was a pony with those fluffy pink leg warmers jogging down a tra- Oh, there he was. Awesome!
“Do what?” A voice I recognised as Twilight asked me.
Fluttershy and I turned around, apparently we had been so deep conversation that we accidently walked past her friends who had been sitting on a park bench near the entrance. Twilight had apparently gotten up to get us.
“Oh! Um, hello Twilight, sorry we missed you,” Fluttershy apologised. “I was just telling Lyra she should ask you about magic since she doesn't know anything about it.”
Twilight’s eyes literally lit up in excitement. Like, hidden LEDs actually added brightness to her eyes. It was cute, hilarious, and creepy all at once. Especially when combined with the delighted grin that spread across her cheeks.
The look need a new word… Culariepy. Yeah, that will do.
“But we should introduce her to everypony first!” Fluttershy added quickly.
Twilight’s ears drooped sadly. “Oh, yes. We should. Would you like me to do it or would you like to introduce us to your new friend, Fluttershy?”
Shy blushed. “Um, I think I can do it.”
Twilight nodded towards the group of four other ponies and lone changeling and we walked over to their rather nice spot.
I recognised Pinkie easily enough. She was sitting on a bench at the back of the group making balloon animals from some chewing gum. What was amazing to me is that she looked completely life-like! For a moment I wondered if one of the Pinkies had followed me through the portal, until I noticed something.
Of the six mares, each one was a different level of ‘natural’ looking. They formed a spectrum of sorts, with Twilight being the most synthetic, fluttershy in the middle, and Pinkie at the end looking completely indistinguishable from an organic pony.
Purple, orange, white, yellow, blue, pink. The spectrum of synthetic progress. Which begged the question, why didn’t they upgrade their looks? There had to be some hurdle there...
“Okay, so you’ve met Twilight and I,” Fluttershy began. “The orange one is Applejack, she used to be a farmer and is currently working on the forest restoration project. Aj, this is Lyra, she’s a fighter pilot.”
I saw the blue furred, rainbow maned pony’s ears perk up at the mention of my former career. She was a flier, I could feel it. For one small moment our eyes met, and I could tell we both knew, at some point, we would have to race.
I nodded.
She nodded.
It was on, at the next convenient opportunity.
The earth pony Fluttershy had been introducing to me, Applejack, was a rather plain looking by pony standards. Orange fur, blond mane and tail. Take off her weird looking hat and she’d probably vanish into the sea of pastel colors that made up her species. Even the apple cluster brand looked…standard
“Howdy,” she greeted.
“Nice to meet you,” I returned.
Fluttershy nodded and resumed speaking. “The white-”
“Alabaster, darling,” the unicorn mare corrected in an accent only appropriate for a high society jerkwad.
Oh. Joy. The condescending and annoying person of a thousand faces who inexplicably has friends. We meet again at last.
“This is Rarity,” Fluttershy finished.
Rarity tipped her head, expertly curled purple mane shimmering as she moved. “Pleased to meet you, Miss Lyra. I’m the pony Twilight entrusted your gorgeous ensemble too. I’m sure you’ll be glad to know I’ve managed to repair it, the fabric enchantment is top notch, it just needed a little help and expertise to repair a burn that large.
“I’ve brought it with me, naturally, but Twilight has informed me your people dress at all times. If you wouldn’t mind stopping in at my boutique sometime, I’d be glad to make you something more appropriate for daily wear. The Carousel isn’t what she used to be… But I still have a good variety of materials, and it’s been quite some time since I had the challenge of working with non-equine anatomy.”
God dammit… Why do I always wind up having to do something with people with her personality?
I nodded. “Yeah, all right. We’ll work something out. Thanks for the repairs.”
“Well, we can’t have you walking around in rags all the time, that’s just shameful,” Rarity said in dismissive agreement.
I narrowed my eyes slightly. Yeah. It was her. No mistake.
Fluttershy moved on, this time pointing to the blue pegasus pony. She was sleek as fuck. Like, literally streamlined. This mare was one hundred and twenty percent built for speed with a body that, if organic, would have absolutely no body fat. If I was understanding body shapes for ponies right, this was an olympic athlete. And given her rainbow dyed hair, tail, and cool lightning shaped brand, she had good taste in body art.
“This is Rainbow Dash, she’s the fastest flier in all of Equestria,” Fluttershy Introduced.
Rainbow nodded. “Yep! Maybe all of history too. So… A pilot huh? I’ve flown with a lot of earth ponies in a few different kinds of planes. Some of them do pretty well, but I’ve never seen anything that could keep up with me. What did you fly, how fast, how high?”
I couldn’t help but give her a cocky grin. “You first, Ms. I’m-faster-than-a-plane.”
The entire group broke out into laughter, except for Rainbow Dash. “Guys, she actually doesn't know. Come on, no need to laugh at her,” she said in my defense.
Twilight cleared her throat and turned to me. “Dash’s top speed, even when she was a flesh and bone pony, was eight and a half times the speed of sound. And yes, pegasi flight is aided magically.”
“Ah,” I said with a nod. “I did not know that.”
Dash nodded proudly. “Yep! I’m slower now… But that’s cuz my body’s not in perfect shape anymore. I had to relearn how to properly maintain a body all over again. Heck of a learning curve, but hey, now I can take stuff I know works on me and help other ponies out too!
“Also, still wanna know what you fly. I’ll see if I can’t get my hooves on one. I know you have some wings, cuz I built them, but since you don't know how to use those yet, well…”
I gave her a smirk. “You’re not going to find one.”
“Oh yeah? You might be surprised,” Dash prompted.
“I fly the Mark Seven Pegasus HiLo Space Superiority Fighter,” I answered. “She’s AI co-piloted, has four quantum vacuum thrusters for her main drive, a fusion power plant, and a solid rocket booster for clearing the atmosphere if you need to do it yesterday.
“She’s got a top speed of Mach five in atmo, mach thirty in space, if you don't mind using half your fuel to get there. Her maximum altitude, is well, space. And she can get there in less than sixty seconds from a vertical launch.”
“They’re going to race, aren't they?” Applejack asked rhetorically.
“Yepperoni!” Pinkie giggled.
Holy crap! She even sounded the same. Good job, Sky!
“Mach five huh… That’s about where I’m at right now. So it is on! As soon as you can fly, we’re doing this!” Dash insisted.
“Wait, these things will let me go that fast?!” I asked incredulously.
“Twilight said you remembered flying at least as fast as me. So I replicated my own flight systems and wings, scaled them up to fit on you nicely, and painted them green to go with your hair,” Dash said with a pleased with herself grin. “Makes you the closest thing to a rival I’ve got anymore. So, soon as I teach you how to fly, are we good for a race?”
“Damn straight we are,” I agreed with a nod.
“Awesome!” Dash said, clapping her hooves together happily.
Fluttershy giggled and politely pointed to Pinkie Pie. “And she’s Pinkie Pie. Pinkie um, well she mostly spends time keeping everypony happy. Same as before really.”
I nodded. “Seems legit, I’ve met two of your counterparts in my travels so far, Pinkie.”
Pinkie nodded knowingly. “I had a feeling we were already friends.”
Twilight noticed the confused frown my face warped into and gently reached out to grab my upper arm with a hoof. “It’s Pinkie Pie. Just let it go. You’ll never understand her.”
The entire group, including Pinkie, nodded in agreement.
“Um…okay?” I asked.
“Um, that’s everypony!” Fluttershy finished.
“Thanks for introducing everyone,” I said before looking over everyone in turn again. “So um… I guess I’m here because you’re interested in me, but before I wind up answering a million questions about me, is it okay if I ask one?”
Applejack nodded. “Ya’ll go right ahead.”
“Isn’t ‘ya’ll’ plural?” I asked in confusion.
Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, but Twilight said you have a near-sentient program living in your head with you, so um, well-”
“I just find it rude to exclude her, on account of what everypony is now. Though not everypony agrees,” Applejack explained.
“Ah. Gotcha. She can’t exactly talk to you guys though so there’s not much point in-”
“Actually,” Twilight interrupted. “In order to fix your spine I had to talk to her, and since I couldn’t do that, I had to actually use those jacks in the back of your skull and tweak her programming a little bit… So uh, yeah she can talk. Now. Barely.”
I turned accusingly towards Twilight. “Oh. Alright. Thanks for not telling me you messed with my brain before now!”
Her ears drooped. “You’re not mad are you? I mean, it was medically necessary…”
“I’m a little pissed off, yeah,” I said taking a deep breath. “But… I’ll let it go. If you tell me EXACTLY what you did.”
Twilight nodded. “Fair enough… I thought she would tell you herself. Like you know, a diagnostic module. Otherwise I would have. All I did was decode her programming language, and then add a bit of software so she can use your speech centers in order to improve her communications abilities. Before she could only talk to you, and only if the situation allowed. I had to be able to ask her things about you, so I enabled her to communicate with other people via your er, skull jacks, or whatever you call them. That’s it.”
“That’s it?” I pressed.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Okay,” I sighed to calm myself down. “Look, it’s fine. I forgive you. But only because you are not human, and well, medical need. Screwing with someone's VI like that is one of our biggest taboos. If you were a human, I’d be punching you right now.”
“I’m sorry,” Twilight apologized sincerely. “I can see how that would be seen as a violation, and I assure you I’d only do it under circumstances similar to those in which I did. Er, are we okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah, we’re okay.”
“Right, well, now that you’ve got that sorted out, what were you going to ask us?” Rainbow asked, tone urging everyone to move on.
“Yeah. Uh… Right!” I said remembering what I had been going to say. “Pinkie there is completely organic looking. But the rest of you are a sort of spectrum of progress. Is there any reason you haven’t upgraded?”
Rarity nodded. “Of course! While I firmly respect Twilight’s decision to wear her armor most of the time and remain as she is, I would much rather look exactly as I used to. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the improvements, but it’s a little hard to pick an eyeshadow which goes properly with these aperture marks in my eyes.
“The problem is simply that there is a difference between those of us who have been resurrected, and the ponies who have been newly made. See, they can freely change anything on them they wish, whereas we require parts to be built to very specific standards, they can’t be mass produced.
“Sky has promised to make us all bodies up to the standards set for Pinkie Pie, but as we already have perfectly good ones, we are at the bottom of the list. There are a few ponies who are revived, but right now are best described as…electronic brains in jars. Luna, Celestia, Cadence, and a few others whose names I forgot don’t have a body yet, so they come first. Since being bodiless is a rather cruel fate.”
Pinkie held up a hoof. “Actually Luna was finished two months ago… But she’s been helping Sky with her sister so she hasn’t left the lab yet. Um, we were going to tell everypony but she wants to be officially brought back with her sister. So shhh! We’ll see her in a few months or a year.”
“Ah, alright,” I said, satisfied with the explanation.
Twilight nodded. “Personally I like looking synthetic. Don’t ask me why, I never even thought about being like this. But I do like the look.”
Applejack nodded. “Yup. The metallic look suits ya. Probably because you already were a reading machine,” she teased. “‘Cides, could be worse, you could look like Sis.”
I winced. “You have a sister? I’m sorry if she got messed up or something.”
Applejack looked sad for a moment. “Ah did have a sister… But she hasn’t been revived yet. And may never be. Ah wasn’t talking about her, ah was talking about somepony named Sis. The prototype for all of us.”
“I thought you said you were the prototype,” I said turning back to Twilight and giving her a suspicious frown.
“I am, for resurrected people,” she elaborated. “Sis is the prototype for well, everything robotic Sky ever made. The Synthetic Inventing System was Sky’s first robot, and then later first android, and finally first synth. He made her at first to be a tool holding assistant… And things got out of hoof over time with upgrades after he asked his parents for a sister and they said no.
“All of our basic designs come from her. Heck, the assembly lines use some of her design too!” Dash added taking over for Twilight. “And the reason Aj calls her creepy is she’s she’s kinda a walking skeleton with visible ‘guts’. Before you ask, no. I don’t know why she doesn't transfer herself to a better platform. Or puts on a jumpsuit or something. But she’s cool, just well…creepy looking.”
I nodded. “Okay, makes sense, there had to be some overall basis for your tech. I understand now. So… Bring on the question marathon.”
“Sweet! It’s always awesome to hear about a new world!” Dash said eagerly.
“Yes, there’s always something useful to learn,” Rarity agreed. “With our own world a, blank canvas so to speak, we have the chance to remake it however we like. Hearing new ideas is helpful for any artist.”
Twilight cleared her throat. “Er, girls… Lyra here sort of um, her species doesn't know any magic so-”
“Twi,” Applejack interrupted with a deadpan expression. “Can you wait half an hour?”
Twilight’s ears drooped sadly. “W-well, alright.”
Fluttershy trotted from my side to lay down on the astroturf in front of me, looking up towards my face in a pose so uncomfortable looking, I sat down myself due to pity.
Blushing lightly, the buttery pegasus asked. “So um, how about you tell us all about your home?”
I nodded and did my best to tell them everything.
I told them about the meteor strike, and how all of our cities were built beneath domes so we could control their climates for health and safety reasons. I complained for a bit about the lack of darkness in cities, then went on to describe them as best I could before moving on to how we lived.
I spent the most time talking about AR. They couldn’t really believe how central to our lives the technology was. Even though they were literally made of technology, it seems ponies would rather talk face to face in the ‘flesh’ if at all practical to do so. The fact that we really didn’t care about personal or digital shocked them.
I went over our government and how most people hated the damn thing. But well, hey, the government may be shit, but it does keep the actual shit in the sewers and the lights running. Not that it really made up for keeping us in perpetual war…
Ah the war, that took up some time too. It wasn’t too hard to explain, I wound up saying ‘well our species did evolve from territorial apes’ and then Twilight compared us to griffons, I had to agree with the comparison, and they all just sort of understood.
I did spend a lot of time unnecessarily defending humans as good despite the wars we get into, and was told it was okay. Hell, Fluttershy had simply said. “Lyra, you’re a good person. Ponies have wars too. It’s okay.”
That had really helped me feel better about it.
I’d finished up with an overview of our technology, which to my satisfaction led to increasingly more distance put into dropped jaws.
“...and in theory, that drive should get up to twenty cee and work for colonizing other star systems, but well, with the war on, no one dares build more than a few months distance from reinforcements. And that’s about it for our tech,” I finished.
“All of that, and you don’t even know what magic is!?” Twilight demanded incredulously.
I nodded. “Yep! And lots of little things I left out for time’s sake.”
“You measured the universe, with infinite precision, and you don't have magic!?” She demanded, even more um…nerdgasmy? Yeah, nerdgasmy.
“That’s what they say,” I concluded. “And I would love to know about magic now, since you guys are up to speed.”
Twilight’s friends exchanged a series of looks.
“Go for a walk?” Applejack suggested.
“Yep,” Dash agreed.
“The Market?” Chrysalis's adjusted.
“Oh that would be lovely, darling. We should go right now!” Rarity agreed standing up. “Twilight, Ms. Lyra, excuse us while we step out… We’ll be back in, say, three hours?”
“Best make it four, she’s got no starting point,” Twilight said, making me worried.
“Um, I’ll stay here,” Fluttershy said to her other friends.
“Are you sure?” Pinkie Pie asked with a frown.
Fluttershy nodded. “Yes. If Bon wakes up scared, she can call me but not Lyra. So I’m going to stay here.”
“Alright, try not to fall asleep,” Applejack said as the others started to walk off. “She’s going to quiz you at the end Lyra, so pay attention. See you in a few hours.”
Oh no… What have I done!?
Rarity separated from the rest for a moment and handed me a small white hat box. “Here is your outfit dear, incase it gets cold. I added a warmth charm to the fabric. Silk tends to be very poor at trapping heat and without fur, well, I imagine it can get quite chilly out.”
Wait, what? She was nice!? “Er, um- t-thanks! I didn’t expect-”
She nodded. “I know. I saw it in your eyes.”
“I-I’m sorry,” I apologized.
“Apology accepted, though I do understand. Most models are quite rude. Besides, a lecture from Twilight is more than enough karma to sate me. Tata!” Rarity exclaimed coyly before trotting off to join her friends.
Fuck. Now I feel like an absolute cunt… Note to self, find out nice thing to do for her.
“Alright! It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten to lecture about magic to someone entirely ignorant of the subject,” Twilight began. “Let’s treat this as a college environment. Please raise your hoof, er, hand if you have a question, and please pay close attention. I will do my best to use terms you should understand given what you have described of your species's technology, and will define all terms critical to understanding the subject. Oh, and AJ was not joking, I will quiz you, because that’s the best way to ensure you are absorbing the information.”
“Um, you will?” I asked, frowning in despair.
Twilight nodded. “Yes. May I begin?”
I nodded, sitting back as comfortably as I could. Ah well. I’d literally asked for this.
Twilight cleared her throat, blushed, muttered “sorry, habit,” then began. “We will begin by defining the term ‘magic’ in the scholarly context. This will ignore the emotional and relationship factors, as it is the traditional definition. Those other versions will come later.
“Magic is the name given to the interactions between the Thaumaturgic Field, and all other things within the universe. The Thaumaturgic Field is a force field pervading all of space, just like the electron field, the gravitational field, and so on. This field, like all such fields, has it’s own fundamental particle, we call it a mana. Mana is also the name of a measurement of mana because old mages hate future scholars. Try not to confuse the two.
“The primary purpose of the Thaumaturgic Field is to impart the rules defined by physics onto matter and energy. It is the reason why physics is what it is. But the reason for it making physics work like it does remains unknown. However if you ever wondered why gravity works like it does, the answer is ‘the Thaumaturgic Field instructs it to work in that manner, for reasons yet unknown.
“Magic, as they lay pony would call it, occurs when electrons, and possibly also positrons, interact with mana in highly specific ways to create a current within the Thaumaturgic Field. This results in the natural physics being overridden in the local area, which in turn causes whatever effect the magic calls for to happen.
“Technically absolutely any interaction between the Thaumaturgic Field and other entities counts as a magical effect. But for the purposes of this lecture and the standard definition of magic, we will only discuss the ones which are induced by a living creature. Exception to this one mention here of wild magic, which is simply when under rare circumstance, naturally occurring electrons manage to form a spell. This is exceedingly rare.
“Now, as for the effects of magic itself. In theory, magic can do absolutely anything as it’s magic that makes physics itself work how it happens to work. But there are ‘engineering challenges’ so to speak. To invoke a magical effect intentionally and not by chance or accident, a person must focus on a spell. A spell in this context is a specific meditative mental state which results in electrons within your brain moving in a certain pattern.
“This process can burn a lot of calories as the focus required will cause your metabolism to burn more quickly, much like an intense workout. However, the energy for the spell itself doesn't come from the caster. All the caster of a spell does is create the appropriate flow of Thaumaturgic Current, that current does the rest.”
I held up my hand, needing to know where the hell the energy came from then.
“I can sense your question, and I was about to answer it,” Twilight said professionally. “The energy for the work performed by the spell itself comes from a source that took us millenia to work out. Basically, a spells’ work energy comes from the expansion of the universe. To easily summarize, the universe expands, the energy driving that is infinite, magic taps into it for power, so with every spell cast the universe expands just a bit less than it would have otherwise. The exact mechanism by which magic takes it’s work energy from it’s source is not yet known, though we can create ‘reactors’ to get lots of energy at once.”
I held up my hand. Twilight nodded.
“So just to be clear so far,” I began. “Magic can do anything because it’s what makes physics what it is. But magic is limited by the complexity of the pattern a person can hold in meditation as well as their personal stamina. And the energy for a spell to do what it has to do is bled off from what my people call ‘Dark Energy’.”
“Assuming Dark Energy is what you say is driving universal expansion, yes,” Twilight confirmed.
“Okay… If that’s the case, shouldn’t anyone be able to cast any spell?” I asked.
Twilight shook her head no very firmly. “No! Spells have an ‘Activation Energy’, and that’s how much of your own stamina the meditation needed to cast the spell will deplete. It’s exactly like physical activity, some individuals have a greater capacity for it than others genetically speaking, and others have trained themselves to work longer. Magic is no different, and all of the great mages are very similar to athletes in terms of training and practice.
“There are also exceptions, such as myself, who are um… Not to toot my own horn, but even before becoming an alicorn, I was a genetic anomaly. I had far more stamina than any unicorn on record, and as such, I could cast far more complicated or far more individual spells without rest than anypony else known to Equestria. As I am now… I’m still relearning quite a bit. It’s different with synthetic parts. It’s really fun to work all of this out again!
“Oh, and yes. You should take that to mean that magic and technology are perfectly compatible, and that mechanical devices can invoke spells too. But, back to the lecture. Ahem, a person can collapse or lose consciousness casting a spell if it consumes all of their available stamina. Which is why we still say that a spell ‘drains’ the caster. But this is untrue. It’s simply that the mage is getting tired due to the exertion of commanding the universe, and each individual has their own limit to just how much of that they can do.
“On to differences in magic between species of organic lifeform-”
I held up my hand again. Twilight nodded a second time.
“Before we move on, what are magics limits? Or rather, you implied that while magic can do anything, spells can’t. Why is that?” I asked.
Twilight smiled at me. “Because trying to get magic to do certain things is just way too complicated of a pattern to twist your mind into. Remember, you’re doing the casting via meditation and focus ment to force the bioelectricity in your brain to move in a certain way. Some people simply can’t cast certain kinds of spells because they literally can’t think of or in a way which would form that patten.
“In short, magic has no limits. People have limits, and some limits may just be universal. Like say, even at my best, I could never just conjure a planet into existence… That’s just way to complicated for any mind to conceive a pattern for, let alone make one for that purpose.
“Now, on to how genetics plays a role in magical ability of a given species!”
This was going to take forever…
I subtly scooted closer to Fluttershy, hoping she wouldn’t mind me using her cuteness as a comfort to get me through the sudden Intro to Arcana course that was being thrown at me. Fluttershy scooted closer to me as well, moving so I was using her super soft side as a backrest.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“No problem,” she whispered back. “We’ll be here a while.”