Chapter 5: Experiment
I wasn't allowed visitors for the remainder of my hospital stay. Solar Power and Solid Stalwart traded off watching over me during the day. Solar Power was talkative and told me a great deal about Equestrian society. Mostly about recent history, the return of Princess Luna, the various heroics of Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and an organization called the Wonderbolts that seemed to be a mix of an aerial stunt team, a mobile rescue squad, and a military branch. Solid Stalwart was less garrulous, but their Night Guard counterparts barely spoke a word at all. I never got their names. All four soldiers were gone when I woke up the last morning of my hospitalization.
I left the hospital in a wheelchair. Some traditions span universes. This one was poorly proportioned for me, but I only had to sit in it long enough to get through the door. Lero escorted me out, along with his herd. I had met Twilight Sparkle, but this time he brought along the other two, a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and an aqua unicorn with a harp for a mark. Rainbow Dash and Lyra Heartstrings were their names, respectively. I couldn't tell at all what Lyra felt, but Rainbow Dash was sufficiently expressive that even I could register her potent dedication to Lero. The other two as well, but she was showing it primarily towards him.
"Where will I stay?" I asked. Food and shelter hadn't been considerations while I was in the hospital, or while I was in the assisted-living facility before that, but now I was outside of the medical establishment for the first time in a long while. I trusted that Lero had some place he was taking me. If not, I would have to make some sort of arrangements.
Lero smiled at me. "You've got a place of your own. Lyra and I offered to let you stay with us, but Twilight had another idea, and Princess Celestia funded it." He ran his fingers between the lavender unicorn's ears. She smiled at me too. Her smile was different from Lero's and I tried to catalog why. Hers was pulled wider, but that could have been due to differences in facial structure. Her body was tense, but there could have been any number of reasons for that. "It's not quite done yet," Lero added. "We'll get there later. Until then, we're going to give you a tour of Ponyville."
"Thank you," I said habitually.
Rainbow Dash flew in front of me in a side-sliding movement that was more like a hummingbird than anything her size should have been able to emulate. Hovering in front of my face was a trick of similar impossibility, but magical flight was no harder to accept than magical horns. She stared at me briefly, then darted back aside.
"Gyah!" she exclaimed. "Sorry, Lero, but this is just seriously creepy." She waved a forehoof. "I know, I know! You told me! But come on! If I was in a strange new world and met the most awesome ponies in existence, I'd be totally into it!"
"I'd say I'm sorry if I could," I apologized. It would have been a lie to say I was sorry, or that I wished I could be, but if I had the capacity to be sorry then I would, so that was true. I did have some sense that it was somehow a betrayal to be insufficiently appreciative, but I had no basis to figure out what could resolve the situation.
Twilight Sparkle started to say something, but Rainbow Dash shook her head. "No, Twilight, I get it. I'm sorry, Gus, that was rude, I know. See?" She stuck out her tongue at the other two mares. "All civilized and everything. I'll help ya out, Gus, getting settled in and stuff. You can't help your voice and you're a good guy."
Lero laughed. "Close enough to civilized, at least."
"Closer to civilized," Twilight agreed. "And this is going to be so great!" Her body quivered. I decided to connect the tension to the positive verbal expression, so that would mean she was excited, not nervous or strained. She was enthusiastic about my scientific knowledge, so presumably she anticipated something in relation to that.
Rainbow Dash stuck out her tongue again. Lyra had begun to fall behind, but none of the others made any comment or changed their pace.
"First stop, Sugarcube Corner," Lero pronounced. I regarded the structure. It would not have been out of place in a theme park. The roof was reminiscent of a gingerbread house, complete with icing around the edges, and a cupola on top was shaped like a cupcake with three burning candles on it. I applied 'magic talking ponies' to the observation and left open the possibility that the roof was not simply designed like gingerbread, but the details were not particularly important. Twilight Sparkle's horn glowed as she opened the door for us. Lero gestured at me to lead the way.
I walked in. I didn't have time to register my surroundings before a barrage of voices chorused out, "SURPRISE!" A pink shape again tackled me to the ground and stood over me, grinning in my face.
"Surprise, Gus!" she added to the prior call. "I know you said you can't feel anything but I thought maybe that just means..."
Her voice accelerated and I lost the thread of what she was saying before she finished the first sentence. She wasn't hugging me this time, so I wasn't at risk of asphyxiating. I waited for her to finish, but Twilight Sparkle did not. A purple hoof went directly into Pinkie Pie's mouth. She continued talking for several more seconds anyhow.
"He literally doesn't know what you're saying, Pinkie," Twilight told her. "You have to speak slowly."
Pinkie Pie blinked at her several times, then nodded. Twilight's hoof came out and I had a smiling face nose-to-nose with me again.
"Like I was saying," she enunciated. "I thought maybe that just means you haven't had the right kind of party yet, so I thought about it a whole lot and decided to throw you a Welcome-To-Ponyville-And-First-Song-And-Psychic-Powers Party because you probably never had one of those before so it's a good place to start." She dropped back onto her rear and threw her forehooves into the air. "Argh! This is taking way too long!"
I had no time to react before she was pulling me back onto my feet. I have no idea how she was able to grip my hand with her hooves without crushing my fingers while still exerting that much force. More magic. "Let's get you some cake! It'll take FOREVER to tell you all the different kinds of parties we can try to find the kinds that you like so I'll just make a list later and you can read it and then tell me which ones made you smile, okay?" She was physically vibrating with the effort of speaking clearly enough for me.
"I can do that if you want," I told her. It would have been unkind to reject her efforts as useless. The least I could do would be give her some of my time. And I couldn't honestly reject the idea that there might be some sort of party that would in fact spark an emotional reaction in me. As unlikely as that seemed, anything could be possible in a magical world.
She had a plate in my hand before I was finished talking. There was a thick-cut wedge of some sort of yellow cake with white frosting on it. I tried a bite. It was the most perfect cake I had ever tasted.
"Do you like it, Gus?" Pinkie asked me. The optimism rolled off of her in waves.
"It's delicious," I told her.
She looked at me, and the curled mass of her mane somehow reduced in volume. "But do you like it?"
I was caught. It would be cruel to remind her of the truth, but a lie to do anything else. I froze, unable to come to a conclusion.
Her mane straightened further. "Do you like it?"
It was not a conscious decision to set the plate aside, nor to bend down and hug her, or to tell her "It's delicious" again. It was a truth I could tell her and a reparation I could make.
She wrapped her hooves around me and bawled. I think I might have felt something, the slightest flicker. Or perhaps I imagined it, knowing how I should be feeling. She only cried for a few seconds, then put her hooves on my shoulders and pushed me back until she was nose-to-nose with me again.
"I am going to make you smile, Mister," she vowed. "I don't care how many parties it takes or if it's not a party at all, but I'm going to find what it takes to make you happy and I'm going to do it."
I tried to help. I smiled at her. It's just pulling the corners of your mouth back. It doesn't require an emotional state.
Her eyes watered. I could actually see waves in the tears sloshing around the bottom of her eye. "That's not a smile," she told me. "I'm going to make you smile a real smile. One that comes from inside, where it counts." Her hoof left my shoulder and pressed against my chest. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."
I had a sensation I didn't recognize. A physical sensation, not an emotion. When she said that, I felt something shift. Not like the feeling of a rubbery hospital breakfast shifting, but something more nebulous. There wasn't a particular body part associated with it. It was a little like when the numbers came, without the pain, but I could still see and hear clearly.
For some reason it felt like a blue balloon.
***
The rest of the party went off without any crying ponies, attacks of synesthesia, or internal sensations of party decorations. I never had a surprise party before, so I had little to compare it to. A cake-and-ice-cream party with Pin The Tail On The Donkey was something I hadn't had since I was still in elementary school, but somehow all of the presumably adult ponies in the room were apparently having a very good time, as was Lero. The refreshments were unquestionably and possibly literally fantastic. When Pinkie Pie came out of the back room with a fresh tray of cookies, it was obvious she was responsible for the catering as well. Regardless of her obsession with smiles and mercurial personality, she was clearly an extraordinarily talented cook.
Lero and his herd took charge of introducing me around. Even Rainbow Dash cooperated, however creepy she might have found me, bringing some of her weather team around to exchange greetings. My memory for names was never perfect, but I caught some of them. Fluttershy was a yellow pegasus with long pink hair and a butterfly mark; I recognized the name from Solar Power's stories about Twilight Sparkle's heroics. She talked very quietly and stayed against a wall. If Rainbow Dash hadn't steered us to her, I likely wouldn't have seen her at all. Given her name, I expected shyness, but she visibly relaxed when Lero and I started to talk with her. I guessed that she was only socially awkward around ponies, but it wouldn't have been nice to ask her directly.
Mayor Mare extended an official Ponyville greeting. Their friend Rarity insisted that I visit her store, Carousel Boutique, first thing in the morning so she could provide me with a proper wardrobe. I explained that I didn't have anything to pay with and she was very firm that she wouldn't dream of accepting a bit. A pair of unicorns named Chuckwagon and Shimmer introduced themselves and expressed a hope I'd be happy in Ponyville, but they kept looking at Lero while they talked. Some sort of history there, and they didn't stay to talk past the well-wishing. Pinkie Pie brought me a sample of every new treat she produced from the kitchen, all throughout. There was a pony with a Southern accent whose name I missed at first, but I told her so forthrightly and she repeated it. Applejack. An extremely muscular stallion named Snowflake was easy to remember. There was a tan stallion with an hourglass mark who made a comment I didn't quite catch about appreciating hands. I didn't get his name. There were a lot of ponies whose names I couldn't keep track of.
The party ended at lunchtime. I'd eaten so many of Pinkie's treats that I was fairly sure I would have an experience with reverse peristalsis if I tried to fit anything else into my stomach, and even Rainbow Dash had taken to walking alongside us instead of flying. The rest of the town tour was much more sedate. The town library, which doubled as their home. Town Hall, the road to Sweet Apple Acres, several bookstores, a shop selling the unusual combination of sofas and quills, the one-room schoolhouse, and a number of other civic landmarks.
And then there was my new house. A team of hornless, wingless ponies in hard hats were still finishing the roof. It was on the edge of town and very clearly built to a different scale than the pony homes, but following the same basic style as the rest of the town. Mostly. It had some sort of garage attached by an extended covered passageway. The garage dwarfed the house itself by a significant margin, and it didn't have any sort of driveway leading up to it.
Twilight Sparkle cleared up the purpose when she started bouncing around on all four hooves at once. "It's your very own cutting-edge scientific laboratory!" she sang out. Not the sort of singing that made me sink into the numbers. "I warded it myself so it's as totally isolated as ponily possible from any outside magical interference so we can really properly compare human physics to real physics and you can teach me everything about how your world works!"
Lero coughed. "Real physics?" he inquired.
Twilight Sparkle blushed. I couldn't tell whether her fur actually changed color or if it somehow showed through, even when I looked closer. "You know what I mean! Physics here."
Lero patted her on the back. "Just checking. All right, Twilight." His voice took on a flatter tone I interpreted as 'serious.' "Now, you said this is a research project. And we all agreed. But you're also helping Gus learn how to get around in Equestrian society." He knelt down to look her directly in the eyes. "And you are not abandoning the herd, and I still love you, and you are going to come home right away any time you start thinking the slightest bit otherwise, you got me?"
Her face reddened again, but she nodded at him. She lifted her right front hoof and waved it over her chest, then her face. "Pinkie Promise. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. OW!" She blinked several times the eye she had just jabbed with her hoof. "Why do I never learn to stop that short?" she muttered.
Rainbow Dash laughed boisterously at that, then abruptly flew down and hugged her friend. "Seriously, though. You're part of this herd and an awesome friend, and this is an egghead thing you're doing for fun, not ditching anybody. If you need help or just want company with anything, you come tell me and I'll be there in one second flat."
Lyra didn't say anything, but leaning in to nuzzle Twilight's cheek was obvious enough. Lero's kiss was extended and clear, too. Then they said their goodbyes and left me with Twilight.
She smiled after them, then looked up at me and resumed bouncing on the spot. "Okay! It's your new lab, and you know the human physics, so you can pick the first experiment to do, Gus!" she declared.
I watched Rainbow Dash flying circles around Lero and Lyra as they walked away. "One comes immediately to mind."
***
It was a well-stocked lab inside, for certain definitions of 'well-stocked.' Lots of elaborate glassware, weights, pulleys, anchors sunk into the walls and ceiling, plenty of shelves and cupboards, bunsen burners, and two lab coats complete with goggles, one human-shaped and one set for a pony. There wasn't a single electrical device in sight, but I hadn't seen any of those at the hospital either. I noticed the lack of a periodic table on the wall, but that might have been a decorative choice, or she was so familiar with it she didn't feel the need for a reference. The glass-fronted cabinets against the side wall had neatly-arranged vials and packages of various substances, but most of those were things like 'iron' and 'copper' and various sorts of rock. No sodium, no potassium, no aluminum, no jugs of hydrochloric acid, though there was a bottle marked 'ammonia.'
Twilight was literally vibrating when she put on her labcoat. I honestly don't think I've seen a kid in a toy store so blatantly eager to play. "So what are we starting with, Gus? Making a computer? Radio? Jet engines? Oh! Space telescopes!"
I found a board in one of the cupboards and took it out. "I thought we could start with gravity."
Twilight stopped bouncing and tilted her head at me. "Gravity? What's scientific about... Oh!" She resumed her enthusiastic activities. "Gravity is a magical force, but it can't be in your world, so of course! We can find out whether it behaves the same way! With hundreds and hundreds of tests and data points and I can make graphs of everything! Squeee!"
I don't think I've actually heard someone say 'Squeee!' before. I started looking for a hammer. Doing an inclined-plane experiment would be a good starting point, and the rig wouldn't be hard to build, but I did need tools. "We can start with theory. How does gravity work here?" I asked while I searched.
"According to Apple Neighton's theories, gravity is a magical force caused by fundamental friendship in the universe," Twilight Sparkle told me. She went straight from energetic bouncing to lecturing at the chalkboard at the front of the room in a blink of an eye. "At the very most basic levels, things 'want' to be together, even things that aren't capable of 'wanting' in any sense ponies would recognize. Such a weak form of friendship makes for a very weak force, but when you have a lot of weak friendships, you still have enough force to tug ponies and air and water and everything else down. Professor Cuddlesworth of Trottingham theorized that gravity in fact reflected an immaterial and highly diffused effort at hugging absolutely everything, but that's really getting into philosophy instead of science since it's trying to interpret motivations of inanimate objects. Some ponies used to claim that gravity is Princess Celestia's personal will, but she shut that down two centuries ago by imposing the Stop Worshipping Me Tax on anyone who said so." To her credit, Twilight spoke evenly enough that she never outran my ability to parse her words. She sighed. "She once made me pay that tax," she noted. "I had to give her my desserts for two months. Just because I made some very valid hypotheses for a little filly about whether 'as Celestia is my witness' actually meant she could see everything that went on anywhere in Equestria and then asked her to not raise the sun until I'd brushed my mane in the morning so it'd be too dark for her to see me with bed-mane."
I gave up looking for the parts and tools I'd need. Twilight was likely the one who designed and organized the lab, so it would be much simpler to ask her. I went to the chalkboard and sketched the plans, then pointed. "Not to interrupt, but can you help me put this together?"
It was a very simple, purely mechanical design. An inclined plane with an apparatus at top that could hold two spheres next to each other, then drop them simultaneously. Two spring-loaded flags at the bottom positioned so that a falling ball would hit the trigger on one side or the other. If the two spheres hit bottom at once, the two flags would collide. Otherwise, whichever ball hit down first would trigger its flag first and the second to hit would flip its flag on top of the first.
That purple pony knew exactly where everything was. She took one look at the blackboard and her horn lit up, and all of the parts floated out and clicked together in midair, then dropped into my arms. "What's this going to test?" she asked.
I set it up, leaned against a wall, and found some suitable test objects in the cupboards. A lead block and a wooden block. "Whether gravity is constant, to start with. Can you reshape these into balls?"
A whirl of magic surrounded both materials, and two shining round orbs landed in my hands. "Lead and wood?" she asked me. "How are those going to test whether gravity is constant? To do that, wouldn't you want two lead balls or two wood balls, and some way to drop them at different places at the same time?" She gasped. "Or is there a hidden ratio between the falling speeds of lead and wood and you can use that to calibrate something else?"
"A ratio of one," I clarified, and set the two balls into the apparatus. I hit the release to let the spheres fall.
The lead ball won the race easily. Twilight Sparkle looked up at me. "Um. Are you sure, Gus? Heavy things fall faster. How could that be any different? If it wasn't more affected by gravity, it wouldn't be heavier."
A clear physical difference. Obvious different rules. Still. "Let me try that again," I said. A single experiment on freshly-built equipment is no guarantor of accurate results, and I somehow had it in my mind that it'd be both incorrect and disloyal to my education to give up on my physics that readily.
Twilight gave me a look I couldn't connect to. "Okay. I think I need to make a little stop anyhow." She looked over her shoulder at me as she exited the room.
The moment she was gone, the balls started landing at precisely the same time. The flags flipped out and ran into each other, neither one on top. I repeated the experiment twenty-five times to verify it. Every time, except a pair of outliers, one each way, the wooden ball and the lead ball tripped the flags simultaneously. I wrote each one down on the blackboard.
The door opened and Twilight came back in. The lead ball clunked down first.
"So... are you feeling all right, Gus? Was the party maybe a little much?" she asked. I repeated the test. Lead ball first.
I formed a new hypothesis. "I'm not in any pain, and I don't perceive any problems with my thinking," I told her. "I believe I've isolated the difference."
Her horn flashed and she was at my side, staring up at the blackboard. "What? They hit together? That's not possible. Unless..." Her face twisted in thought. I couldn't adore it, but I could recognize the expression as adorable. "Well... if you're not having any trouble, and since we know you can't use magic... then that means... the results were different depending on who was watching? But this is balls sliding down a ramp! How can watching it influence that? And why would you think they hit at the same time anyhow? That's not sci..." She trailed off and took a deep breath. "Or maybe it is. Scientific. Redefining possible. So. Are you sure you're feeling all right?"
It was a valid concern. "We can ask Lero to observe," I suggested. "I can verify that he's familiar with our world's physics, and then he can perform the experiment. If he gets the same results I did, not knowing your results, we can assume that gravity is influenced by observer bias."
"Right!" Twilight said, and vanished. She reappeared a few moments later with Lero. She was panting. His eyes went wide and he doubled over. He retched on the floor. Twilight let out a shriek and grabbed onto him. "No no no no no no no no no! Lero, I'm sorry, are you okay? No no no no no no no no!"
Lero wiped his mouth and breathed hard, then sat down. "I... I'm all right, Twilight," he said. "That was... a rough trip."
Her horn flashed and the floor was clean, and she was pressing against him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I got excited and I teleported faster than I should have and I forgot you sometimes react differently to physical stimuli and I should never have done that and oof!"
He hugged her very firmly, then reached up to pinch her ear. "Deep breaths, Twilight," he said in a tone I took as 'stern.' "Now. What is it you need me to do?"
Twilight pointed a hoof at me. I gestured at the ramp and balls. "We need you to run an experiment, Lero."
***
I explained to Lero what we wanted him to do, and then Twilight and I left the room. He came out twenty-five drops later to get us. Twenty-two times the flags intersected; twice the wooden ball hit first, once the lead ball. Twilight stared at the tallymarks on the chalkboard. Lero hugged her while she gaped.
"But... if observer bias is present to that much of an extent..." she sputtered, then trailed off. She shook her head. "I don't think anypony ever thought about this," she said. "Who would? It's just so... obvious that heavy things fall faster. And... anyone who thinks they fall faster, sees them fall faster." Her head lifted and she turned to smile at me. Her teeth may actually have been glowing. "And I owe it all to you! This is going to be a research paper they'll be talking about for years! Decades! Centuries! We're going to make scientific history! How did you think of this?"
"Do you remember that gravity spell you cast in the hospital?" I asked. "Altering gravity would be effectively impossible from a pure energy perspective, in our world. Then watching Rainbow Dash fly made it clear that there are other factors at play. It seemed like a useful place to start."
"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," Lero said, and smiled at me.
"Yes!" Twilight exclaimed, and hugged me. It didn't seem like such a rough hug, but I saw stars anyhow.
One star, at least.
Stats
Page generated in 0.027 seconds
Total duration
968 users online
1,672,087 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
One star. Her butt? Also, it's obvious why Lero is more qualified for the experiment: he and Gus are better at playing with balls.
2915474
You'd think the amount of time the mares spend with him in the bedroom they'd be equally qualified.
2915481
They closed the curtains on me, so I wouldn't know. Besides, their hooves are really hard. If I were Lero, I wouldn't want to get my mint condition balls getting scratched.
I feel like this is going to end up with Twilight trying to get Gus into the herd. I don't see her abandoning her other herdmates just because she and Gus have more in common -- she isn't that cruel. But I do think she'll start to enjoy having an intellectual peer enough that she'll want to take it farther.
Lovely story. Very well written and characterized, particularly Gus. The idea of a scientist/engineer in Equestria isn't new by any stretch of the imagination, although this setting does lend itself well to it, considering the sheer amount of backdrop developed in the original story and the journal-style guide.
I absolutely love the way you're developing how the physics of magic work... the observation bias bit is actually really clever and jives with the established canon of the universe. I am less in love with - some might even say: dubious of - the jarringly sudden inclusion of "Humans used to be magical", as that heavily deviates from the original story's intent and feels like set-up to a "the human gains magical powers and is awesome now, hurray!" scenario. I have never seen someone manage to pull that off without it becoming groan-inducing and, frankly, your main character is interesting enough without the sudden acquisition of extraordinary powers.
Being fair to you, however, the rest of your writing gives me hope that I'm merely being paranoid. What's more, such a nebulous concern is certainly not going to stop me from continuing to enjoy future updates, in any case.
In short and overall, I love the story so far and I look forward to future updates.
2915474
One star: Twilight's cutie mark.
One balloon: Pinkie's cutie mark.
This leads me to believe that they've appeared in his magical vision upon their befriending him.
As such, I believe that Fluttershy will be represented by one butterfly, AJ an apple, Rarity a diamond, and RD a rainbow.
This is a great chapter! I hope to see more experiments like this in future chapters.
2915786
I didn't create the 'used to be magical' bit out of whole cloth, actually; there's another Leroverse story explaining how he got to Equestria that I'm taking more or less in its entirety as backstory. As for Gus and magic, well, you'll see pretty soon where that's going. I'm not planning to do any spoiling here, but I promise he is not The Chosen One (Twilight has that spot already), and it is my intention that he will not break the 'verse either.
Also, regarding another comment, I think Rainbow Dash has demonstrated that she really enjoys getting into armor (Commander Hurricane, jousting) and might already be somewhat ready to brush off the horrors of war in favor of the idea of being seriously badflank, while Twilight is more prone to thinking about the details... and also responding to the fact that Lero intervened on the point, which he did because he's protective of his ponies too.
2915839
I should, perhaps, elaborate on my points. On the first, I made the "humans used to be magical" "complaint" - and I put complaint between quotes because it's merely nitpicking on my part - on the basis of only the original Xenoverse story. The only other Xenoverse story that had any oversight or approval from the original author is the guide. The rest of them occasionally make little additions or alterations... but I do happen to know that the original author's intent was for humans to be entirely non-magical in nature. Not ex-magical. Non-magical. So, when I see a deviation in the world-building, I tend to point it out because that is significant portion of the reason I loved that original story so much.
That being said... it's not a major point, nor really a count against this story. My main concern was your character developing a The Chosen One syndrome, as you put it, and you have allayed my fears on that.
As for the second. It is explicitly stated in the original story several times that Lero spends extended amounts of time discussing comparative earth and pony history with Twilight. It is heavily implied that he holds absolutely no details back, because while Lero is protective of his girls, he is also aware that they are more than perfectly capable of dealing with the harsh realities of... well, reality.
In fact, Halfway through Chapter 11, this conversation takes place:
Twilight clearly has no problem analyzing and explaining the concept of an absolute slaughter and mass death on an academic level. She even expresses interest in it from a historical viewpoint. Now, that does not mean she wouldn't react badly to being physical witness to that level of violence... but that's something else altogether. As she is a consumate academic, I doubt Leroverse Twilight would have any issues whatsoever handling the idea of an atomic bomb from that same angle. And Lero would never assume her so emotionally/mentally fragile as to try to withhold that information from her. In fact, they've almost certainly already covered that bit of human history in detail by this point in the timeline, because it's pretty freakin' major.
The main point I was trying to get at here is that the old story continuously broke the ponies-are-naive/squeamish archetype that I see... well... pretty much almost everywhere else. Thinking about it more, that is a far bigger deal for me personally than "The Chosen One" concern.
Nevertheless, I have stated that I have so far thoroughly enjoyed the story as written, and likely will continue to do so. I merely felt the need to inform you of a a minor concern (The Chosen One) and a character interaction that briefly broke my immersion (Knowledge Averse Twilight).
2915790
I completely missed that! Thanks for explaining.
Dat gravity theory. Newton and Einstein are spinning in their graves, raping thermodynamics.
Okay, there is obviously a huge quantum effect here. For a macroscopic force like gravity to be affected by observation like the strong and weak nuclear forces would require that h-bar, the constant that defines at what scale quantum effects apply, must be gigantic in the MLP universe. This may also be the physical underpinning of how magic works too.
Twilight's right about one thing - Once this process is clearly quantified and expressed in scientific terms, it will be the most important breakthrough in Equestrian scientific history, as important to them as a Grand Unified Field Theory would be to us.
2915890
I'd imagine that Lero had previously described he war and the bombings, it's just this is the first time she put things together- she is very used to thinking of things in a magical context- as suggested in this very episode with the, "oh, right, gravity isn't magic on earth" bit here.
Hmmm.... a bit of jealousy from Lero?
2917442
There was a prior incident where Lero tried to give Twilight privacy and uninterrupted time alone to work on a research project, and she misinterpreted it as being shunned. I believe going through that once would be a valuable lesson.
"Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that Twilight is in fact capable of ripping the entire library out of the ground and that it was not hyperbole when everyone said she could. This is an extremely important lesson and I will take great pains to not ever need to learn it again.
Your chaetophobic immigrant,
Lero."
"Dear Princess Celestia,
Today we learned to make it really clear to Lero when we're being literal.
Your loyal subjects,
Rainbow Dash and Lyra Heartstrings."
"Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned AGAIN that I should not jump to conclusions and should not assume the worst of everypony I love yadda yadda yadda. Some day I'll remember this BEFORE causing major civic damage. That will also be the day I remember not to poke myself in the eye when Pinkie Promising.
It will also probably be the day Mister Oinkers over at Sweet Apple Acres joins the Ponyville weather team.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle"
The Galileian gravity experiment working wonkily.
More than observer bias affecting the experiment, I would believe on passive magic fields.
Whatever.
Liked the inclusion of shimmer and chuckwagon. Maybe the honey sisters will make an appearance.
If ponies know so little about gravity, I'm wondering how Twilight will react to Gus telling her about the Eldritch non-Eucledian geography of black holes.
2919409
I'm waiting for him to explain quantum physics, where the basis of existence stops being concrete and starts being dice rolls.
2920561
Yeah, science makes magic look perfectly sane a lot of the time.
Mostly the reason I want Twilight mto try and wrap her brains around black holes is because of this.
Source.
2920561
<Twilight> "Dice rolls? You think I have a problem with the nature of reality coming down to dice rolls? I live in a world with PINKIE PIE. Having a FINITE number of possible outcomes would be a simplifying assumption."
2915890
I don't think he's afraid of them learning about the devastation the bombs caused so much as the knowledge behind creating them. Twilight would likely want to record that information someday for scientific purposes and if the wrong being ever got the knowledge to build one....
2915786
Where did it say humans used to be magical?
the Apple Neighton theory sounds disturbingly valid somehow for how it would work in that universe.
I doubt he'll be allowed to ask Luna if she ever dropped a hammer and a feather at the same time while she was on the moon, though...
Ack... Physics caused by assumption. Does this mean if enough ponies expect Rainbow dash to survive a fatal crash into the ground she would, because they assume that she would walk away from it?
Also, Gus is reminding me more and more of Datta of off Star Trek NG.
BEST LINE in this chapter. Laughing myself silly!
2923772
I thought for sure you'd go for the Stop Worshipping Me Tax. ;-)
2924141
Comes in close second!
You know, if I were Celestia and I imposed a 'Stop Worshipping Me,' tax... Well, THEN I'd worry about ponies going the OPPOSITE extreme, forming a 'Tyrantlestia' interpretation... An 'Every-Seemingly-Good-Deed-She-Ever-Did-Was-Actually-Evilestia.'
I know someone mentioned that Twilight wanted Gus in the herd, but I think she will being doing great just to be a friend. His emotional capacity is stunted and just being a friend with him will be tough. Still such a simple experiment and already an amazing breakthrough.
2940732
I'm very tempted to put in a 'misleading dialogue' section...
"Ow! Not so hard!"
"Oops. The rope slipped."
"Too much lubricant?"
"Maybe. I think we're in position now, anyhow."
"Okay, then. Let's get started!"
"So what should I do first?"
"No need to complicate things. Just stick it in."
"All the way?"
"Of course all the way!"
Rarity fainted. Lero opened the door. Rainbow Dash burst out laughing and fell to the floor on her back. Gus and Twilight looked up.
The Party Cannon had oil on the wheels and a rope still tied around it from where Twilight had hauled it into place. A target was set up on the far wall, and Twilight and Gus were busily loading a mixed bag of confetti and sprinkles down the barrel.
Twilight waved a hoof. "Hi, everypony! We're going to try some chemical experiments today. We'll start by seeing how much of a bang we get from a Party Cannon's usual load, and then we'll try this mixture Gus knows about with charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter."
Cloud Kicker stuck her head in. "No fair! You're all gonna bang twice in a row and nopony even invited me!"
2940830
"The internal capacity of Ms. Pie's machine defies logical explanation."
"I know right. I've tried forever to try to understand that filly, but she is too hyper to stay still for any kind of experiment."
So, Equestria exists in a belief-based universe. No wonder Celestia imposed that Stop Worshipping Me Tax. If she hadn't, she might have ascended to true godhood, and then she'd have far bigger problems than those of one nation...
I'm eagerly looking forward to more. Between exploration of the mechanics of the pony world and Pinkie's existential crisis in trying to bring smiles to someone neurologically incapable of emotion, this is gonna be good.
>gravity is a magical force caused by fundamental friendship in the universe,"
>At the very most basic levels, things 'want' to be together
>gravity in fact reflected an immaterial and highly diffused effort at hugging absolutely everything
That is adorably precious.
3055014 Cutest theory evah.
2972302
Damn. If everybody believes she is all seeing, she might actually become all seeing. That would be a special kind of hell. Worse, if enough ponies get it into their heads that she has a certain kind of personality, fondness or hatred, it might just shift her towards having it. Imagine being a immortal goddess with literally zero say in anything down to your very own mind. We must be very careful with this knowledge. Also: everybody think "Molestia". Do it! Now!
You know... this would explain how Pinkie's abilities and antics have grown more outlandish over time: the more ponies there are that believe she can do things like hide under a small rock, instantaneously blink from place to place or pull a pony-sized cannon out of thin air, the more often she does such things and the easier they become for her to do, leading ponies to attribute even more such abilities to her. An ever escalating spiral 'til she either reaches a point of pinkularity and morphs into a party pony such as we lesser organisms can neither fathom nor properly perceive or she exceeds the limits of what even a belief-based reality can sustain, destabilizes and explodes, flinging semi-sentient confetti to the far corners of the world and possibly forming a new universe in the process.
3064998
That story exists. Highly recommended.
3064998 Just think about this. If Celestia's omnipotence or omnisience were reliant on otghers believing she had such powers, how badly scarred would she become mentally from seeing EVERY SINGLE ACT OF COITUS where someone screams out her name?
IIRC, Heinlein's story "Waldo" presented our world as just this sort of consensus reality, complete with a suggestion that maybe heavy objects had fallen faster than slow ones until Galileo decided that was silly and convinced everyone else he was right.
This must be the funniest thing I've ever read. Goddamn but pony science must be a mess, you did an awesome job writing that paragraph of friendship-babble.
The Pinkie Promise. That is some mysterious magic you're seeing at work, there! Twilight would be so jealous to know you you can actually pick up any of Pinkie's magic
At least with Flutters you can be sure she'll talk slowly enough
Oh, nobody gets his name
Newton, here we come?
Ohgods. They actually think heavier things fall faster. and their magic makes it happen, too
This totally offends my inner scientist
we all float down here.
6041232
Consensus based reality
6363061
0.0 NO! NO! NO! I DON'T LIKE CLOWNS!!! KEEP THAT MOTHER FUAAAAAH-
*Windows critical error sound*
INTERNAL ERROR DETECTED|
FORCE REBOOT? Y/N|
REBOOTING|
REBOOTING|
REBOOT COMPLETE|
Sorry about that I have a thing for them
6382800
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/728/500/e80.jpg
6041232 Well, if Heisenberg's uncertainty principle applies to macro scale experiments because of magic, maybe it just means magic is mental manipulation of quantum mechanics.
We can still have a
unifiedunicornified theory of physics, just gotta work a bit harder at it!7445408
But what about the observation factor? If there's nobody around to believe either way, and there's just completely automatic measuring equipment, then how will it behave?
Hm there is one issue with heavy thing falling faster than lighter things...
If one thinks about it even it can't be.
I have one block that weighs 1 kg and one block that weighs 2 kg and i let them drop next to each other, a that point one is going slower than the other, if i connect them together we get a block that weighs 3 kg and so should fall FASTER than the two blocks separately... and that does not make sense. So even without the test it is going to be iffy...
This is Aristotle's explanation of "Why things fall"
Modern explanation
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=schoolhouse+rock+gravity&&view=detail&mid=D65FA0D2E0E76AFD30BED65FA0D2E0E76AFD30BE&FORM=VRDGAR
F = G (M1xM2)/D2
Left out the fourth rule: Distance is more important than size
You mean, some countries' traditions span universes. As far as I'm aware, that's common only in the US. Otherwise, if you're discharged and able to leave the hospital, you're expected to do so by your own power - unless you were originally unable to do so, or are subsequently unable to do so (though in both cases you will likely be expected to procure your own wheelchair and transportation, unless specifically arranged for you on a case-by-case basis).
What??? just applejack. A single word. I don't think that counts as a sentence. Applejack would be very mad. I can imagine her bucking someone in the nards... That someone is not me *cough* writer*cough*