A Different Viewpoint of Equestria

by Christopher28

Chapter 8

Johnathon had only started with Luke Skywalker's story, when he paused in mid sentence. Wait. He thought to himself, going through the details of the story in his mind. Maybe this story is a little bit too dark? For these ponies, war is from the history books, and at one point, the Empire blows up an entire planet to make an example. He shuddered slightly. OK, yeah... might want to skip that part....

Twilight's voice broke the silence. "Johnathon, are you alright?"

The middle aged man blinked and shook his head. "Yeah... I was just thinking that's not really a good story to start with. Let me just... think of another one." his mind quickly raced. OK... how about Watership Down? It's got bunnies, and finding a new home.... He shuddered again, oh yeah, because humans gassed all the rabbits in their original warren... and that whole last part gets pretty dark too. Er... do I know any good stories without massive amounts of death and destruction?

For some reason, his mind seemed stuck on violent movies and books. Indiana Jones? No. Lord of the Rings? Nope... er... the Hobbit maybe? He sighed. Come on, there has to be a story where nobody dies, right?

He blinked. "Ah! I have one. How about the story about Doctor Who and the Weeping Angels?"

Applejack blinked. "Doctor Who?"

Johnathon grinned. "Exactly." He couldn't remember all the details, and there were a lot of stories with the Weeping Angels in them, but he improvised a bit, putting bits and pieces of what he could clearly remember together to tell the story, certain he was getting it wrong in spots, but not really worried. After answering a few excited questions from Twilight about Time Travel, everypony settled down to listen.

An hour or so later, Johnathon concluded. "And the TARDIS faded out, leaving the four weeping Angels in a circle around where it had been a moment before, now staring with surprised expressions across at each other, frozen as they faced each other for the rest of time."

Applebloom was bouncing. "Oh! Because they can't move if anypony is looking at em, and they were all looking at each other!"

Applejack whistled. "Boy howdy, that Doctor is one clever fella!" she grinned at Twilight. "I reckon he'd give you a run for your money in the smarts department, Sugar Cube."

Twilight shrugged. "Well, he IS nine hundred years old." she looked at Johnathon in wonder. "Are there many Time Lords in your world, Johnathon? I've never heard of them before!"

Johnathon blinked. "Er... it was a story, Twilight. Fiction. None of it was real." he scratched his head. "Sorry... didn't I mention that?"

Twilight giggled nervously. "Heh... of course... silly me. Time Travel? That's ridiculous."

Pinkie giggled. "You say that every today, Twilight!"

Twilight blinked, opened her mouth as if to ask a question, then closed it. "Never mind." she finally said. "I don't want to know." she turned to Johnathon and smiled. "Anyway, that was a really good story, Johnathon. Do you know any more like that?"

Johnathon shrugged. "A fair few... but I think it's getting late, don't you?"

Cheerilee nodded with a smile. "Oh my yes, and it's a school day tomorrow!" Applebloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo all sighed.

"I'll just run Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell home." Rarity said with a smile. "And I'll see you all later." she glanced by Johnathon thoughtfully. "Do drop by my shop at some point, won't you Mr. Dwire? I can't imagine what it must be like to have only a single change of clothing, but I can't do much more without a proper fitting, darling."

Johnathon blinked. "Well... I'll do that, Rarity." he smiled. "I wouldn't dream of going elsewhere. I can't imagine there are many designers with your skill around. Your work is quite amazing."

Rarity blushed slightly, and nodded graciously. "You are most kind to say so." she smiled at her friends. "Goodnight girls. Goodnight Big Macintosh, goodnight Mr. Dwire." she glanced at Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo. "Come along girls."

There was a chorus of goodbyes, and Rarity and the two younger fillies with her were gone.

Applejack glanced at her younger sister. "You ought to be getting to bed yourself, little lady. Say goodnight, and get to bed, alright?"

Applebloom nodded, then smiled at Johnathon. "Can I come see you tomorrow after school, Johnathon?"

The man nodded with a smile. "Of course."

Big Macintosh followed his little sister toward the Apple family home, and Zecora and Cheerilee excused themselves as well. "Thank you for inviting me!" the lavender school teacher said as she followed Zecora out of the barn. She smiled at Johnathon. "Please let me know if you need any more help with your translations, Johnathon. I enjoyed working with you."

Johnathon nodded and waved. "I will. Thank you for coming, Miss Cheerilee."

Cheerilee smiled back at him. "Just Cheerilee, Johnathon. I'm only Miss to the children." she waved again and left.

Pinkie Pie came up to him then, looking anxious. "So... did you have fun at your welcome to Equestria Party, Johnathon?"

He nodded firmly. "I did. It was a great party, Pinkie. Thank you for organizing everything... and well..." he tried to put his feelings into words, but settled for the simplest truth. "It was pretty much perfect. Thanks."

Pinkie smiled cheerfully at him. "I'm just glad you had fun."

Johnathon gestured to the barn. "So... need any help cleaning up?"

Pinkie waved him off. "Don't be silly. It's your party, you're not supposed to clean up afterwards!"

Johnathon raised an eyebrow. "Well, if it's my party, I get to do what I want, right?"

Pinkie hesitated. "Well... I guess so."

He grinned. "Then I want to help clean up." he grinned. "So, just tell me what goes where!"

With Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Applejack all pitching in, the barn was restored to it's normal condition in a matter of minutes. Twilight's magic was especially helpful, and Johnathon couldn't help but marvel at the ease she moved multiple objects at once.

"I know you're the Princess's student, and your special talent is supposed to be magic, but... I can't help but be impressed, Twilight. I suppose I don't have much to compare it too... only the Princess, really, but you really seem to be good at this."

Twilight looked puzzled. "What, levitation? Oh, this isn't anything unusual. I'm sure lots of Unicorns can do this much."

Applejack chuckled. "Are you kidding, Sugar Cube? I ain't seen any pony able to move as much as you can at one time... not to mention all the other magic you can do. Even that Trixie only had a couple of tricks, and she was a professional magician!" Twilight looked a bit embarrassed, but didn't argue.

Johnathon picked up his gifts, and smiled at Applejack. "Thanks for hosting the party, Applejack. I had fun."

Applejack nodded at him. "No problem, Johnathon. I've been wanting to make up for the rough welcome you got when you first came to my farm. Wasn't right, treating a newcomer like that."

Johnathon grinned. "You've already apologized, and I certainly made my own share of mistakes that day." he put out his hand. "I'd say we're even, but we're not."

Applejack looked at his hand with a puzzled expression, not understanding. "We're not?"

Johnathon's face broke into a smile. "We're better than even. We're friends, or I hope we are."

Applejack grinned back at him, putting a hoof into his hand to shake. "That we are."

***********************

Johnathon, Fluttershy, and Twilight paused halfway back to town where the road split. One way lead toward Fluttershy's cottage, the other into town toward the Library.

"Is it alright if I come over after breakfast?" Johnathon asked the purple unicorn. "I'd like to ask you some questions about magic... and I'm guessing that it might take a while. Do you have the time to spare?"

Twilight nodded easily. "I remember that you wanted to know what sorts of challenges I'd be facing in trying to figure out how to get you home, and I did promise I'd tell you what I could."

He smiled at her. "Thanks, Twilight. I'll see you a couple hours after dawn, them if that's not too early."

Twilight shook her head. "That should be fine. See you in the morning!"

Johnathon and Fluttershy waved as Twilight trotted off before they headed toward her small home. "You've been pretty quiet tonight, Fluttershy." he commented as they neared her cottage. "Something on your mind?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "No...." She hesitated. "I mean... yes... maybe?" Her voice became quieter as she spoke, and her head drooped toward the ground.

"Hey... what's wrong?" the older man asked her gently. "I'm not going to get mad at you for saying what's on your mind, Fluttershy. I promise."

Fluttershy hesitated. "Could I ask why you stopped telling that first story? I could tell it was one of your favorites."

He blinked. "You could? I barely got the first bit out before I changed my mind."

Fluttershy nodded slowly. "It showed on your face. You were excited about telling it, like Rarity gets when she's showing of a new fashion design... but then you looked upset, and changed to a different story."

Johnathon sighed. "Well... I guess that's true enough." he looked at her seriously. "My world isn't nearly as peaceful as yours is, Fluttershy. Our stories, I think, are probably a bit less peaceful as well, at least some of them."

Fluttershy nodded slowly. "Twilight told us a little bit about what you and the Princess talked about. That... that some humans are aggressive, and dangerous."

Johnathon nodded softly. "Some of us are. Heck, I'm a little bit dangerous myself."

Fluttershy shook her head. "Oh no. You're not dangerous. You're a very nice human. I'm sure of that."

Johnathon smiled slightly, a faintly sad look in his eyes. "It's possible to be both nice and dangerous at the same time, Fluttershy."

She blinked, then nodded hesitantly. "I suppose." she looked at him with a small frown. "So that first story you were going to tell was... less peaceful that the story about the Weeping Angels?" she shivered a little when she said the name.

Johnathon put a hand on her back, between her wings. "They're not real, you know. It's just a scary story... and the bad guys get defeated in the end."

Fluttershy shivered. "It's still a scary story. It's almost scarier than what we went through fighting Discord... and that was awful."

Johnathon frowned. "I'm sorry... was it too much? I didn't want to upset anypony."

Fluttershy blushed, then shook her head. "Oh no! Everypony liked your story. It IS fun to be scared sometimes... and I liked the Doctor. He seemed nice. A bit strange, but nice."

Johnathon grinned. "That seems to be a typical reaction about him. So... not TOO scary then?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "No." she looked curious, although at the same time, nervous, as if uncertain she wanted to know the answer. "The other story you were going to tell. Was that a lot scarier?"

Johnathon hesitated. "Well... it's not really a spooky story, like the one about the Angels... but scary? Well, it's not so much that, as it's a lot more... violent."

Fluttershy shivered slightly. "Oh."

Johnathon shook his head. "I thought it might be a bit much for the little fillies. Maybe I'll tell you the story some other time... although it's got some not very nice parts." he frowned. "It IS a really good story, about a boy who turns into a hero, but sometimes to become a hero you have to face some pretty bad things."

Fluttershy shivered again. "Yes, that's certainly true!" she blushed again. "Not that I'm any sort of a hero... I really wouldn't know... I mean...."

Johnathon shook his head. "Fluttershy, if you're going to try and tell me you're not a hero, I already know about Nightmare Moon, and Discord, and apparently you've single handedly taken on a full grown dragon, according to your friends. You... and all your friends are heroes in my book. In anypony's book, I'd hope. Just because you're a little shy, doesn't make what you've accomplished any less heroic. Rather the opposite. It's really a honor to know as brave a pony as you."

Fluttershy shook her head. "I'm not brave." she lowered her face, hiding in her hair, and said something too quiet for him to hear.

"What did you say?" he asked gently.

"I'm always afraid." she said just barely loud enough for him to hear. "Applejack had to pull me all the way up the mountain to face that Dragon... I was so afraid, I couldn't even fly."

Johnathon smiled gently. "Everyone is afraid in times like that, Fluttershy. It's not about not being afraid... it's about doing what you have to do anyway."

Fluttershy shook her head again. "No... I couldn't do what I had to do. Everypony else went up there to face that dragon because it was what they needed to do. They each faced it in turn because I was too afraid to do what I needed to do. It wasn't until all my friends were in danger that I did anything at all."

Johnathon smiled softly. "Why did you act then?"

Fluttershy blushed. "I just got... so mad! That dragon was being so mean, and he hurt my friends...." her voice grew stronger as she said it, and there was a small light in her eyes. Johnathon could feel something... a strength, coming from her in that moment, and he couldn't help but nod.

"I wouldn't want to be the one who hurt your friends with you around, Fluttershy." he said seriously. "You're strongest when you're protecting them, aren't you."

Fluttershy frowned, then hesitated. "I... I couldn't let them be hurt because of me."

Johnathon smiled. "And you didn't. You stood up, and got the job done, because they needed you. You were scared, but you did it anyway. That's what makes a hero... and a friend."

Fluttershy just hid her face in her mane again, but he could tell she was smiling, at least a little.

***************************************

The next morning, as usual, Fluttershy was up at dawn to feed her animal friends. Although she had slipped downstairs quietly, Johnathon woke as she tried to slip past him, and she winced.

"I'm sorry to wake you so early, Johnathon." Fluttershy apologized quietly. "You can just go back to sleep, if you like."

Johnathon shook his head. "No... that's alright, I did want to get over to Twilight's place this morning while it's still early." he yawned. "Can I help you with your chores before I go? How about I handle breakfast?"

Fluttershy hesitated, then nodded. "Breakfast would be... nice." she said, then smiled at him with a nod. "I'll just start feeding the other animals.

As Johnathon busied himself in the kitchen, he was frowning thoughtfully. Fluttershy came inside in time for breakfast, with a pleasant, if similarly thoughtful expression. As they sat down to eat, both of them opened their mouths to speak at the same time.

Fluttershy blushed. "Oh... you go first."

Johnathon shook his head. "No, that's alright, what did you want to say?"

Fluttershy shook her head and continued looking embarrassed. "No, no, please, you first."

Johnathon hesitated, then nodded. "Well, alright. I was thinking... I know you said I was welcome to stay as long as I needed, Fluttershy, and I do appreciate it, but...."

Fluttershy blinked, then nodded slowly, her face slightly surprised. "Yes?"

He shrugged. "Well... I get the impression that I'm a bit in the way around here. I mean... your animals don't really like me that much... and I'm using your living room...." he shrugged. "Well... this isn't a very big place. Neither of us can really move around without disturbing the other, especially early in the morning or at night, we pretty much have to so to sleep at the same time, or keep each other up."

Fluttershy blushed, then shook her head firmly. "You don't have any place else to go, Johnathon, and I won't have you go homeless!"

Johnathon smiled. "I wouldn't expect anything else, Fluttershy. But Princess Celestia is giving me some money now. Maybe I could find my own place, or rent a room someplace?" he frowned slightly. "Although honestly I don't know much about how such things work here in Equestria, but I assume something along those lines would be possible."

Fluttershy blinked. "Well... I can't blame you for wanting your own room." she smiled at him. "I really don't mind your company, Johnathon, but I suppose it would be nice to have a bit more privacy, from time to time."

Johnathon nodded. "That's what I was thinking. Do you think I might be able to find my own place, or rent a room somewhere? I can't sleep on your couch forever, after all."

Fluttershy nodded. "I'm sure there will be something." she frowned. "I'm not sure where, but perhaps they may know some place in town?" she looked thoughtful. "I wonder if there is anything in your price range."

Johnathon wrinkled his nose. "I have no idea how much money the Princess is sending me. I would suspect that Twilight gets a pretty good stipend from her, being her personal protege, so it's probably a pretty good amount, but at the same time, I don't really want to spend it all on a house, when all I really need is a private room... maybe with a bath."

Fluttershy smiled slightly. "Well, I really don't know either, but perhaps that's something you can ask Twilight when you see her this morning? Perhaps she knows somepony who has a room to rent?"

Johnathon shrugged. "It can't hurt to ask, I suppose." they ate in silence for awhile, Johnathon eating quickly, thinking about the day ahead. He finished first, and stood up to go. "I'll see you later, Fluttershy. If you'll need me, I expect I'll be at Twilight's most of the day, if she has time for me. I've got a lot of questions, and even if she's busy, she does have a library full of books I'm dying to look at."

Fluttershy smiled and nodded. "I'll see you tonight then. Have fun, Johnathon." she shook her head slightly. "And don't worry about finding a place right away. I really don't mind having you here."

Johnathon grinned at her. "Not enough to say anything, anyway. But I do appreciate all the hospitality you've shown me, Fluttershy. Maybe you should be the Element of Generosity too?"

Johnathon heard her giggling lightly in embarrassment as he walked out her door. As he started down the path towards Ponyville, he hesitated slightly. So far, he had never gone into town alone... not since the first time, which had, he recalled, sent the ponies of the city scattering in every direction in terror. Hopefully his presence wouldn't cause as much of a stir this time... but he couldn't help but be nervous of walking through town alone.

Taking a deep breath, he lengthened his stride, then forced himself to breath evenly and deeply as he approached the town, trying to be as calm as possible, hoping that if he was calm, he wouldn't be quite as frightening. As he walked into town, he passed ponies here and there, most of whom stopped and stared as he walked by. More than a few seemed startled, and one or two either froze till he passed by, or tried to hide, but no pony ran screaming for help. A few smiled hesitantly at him, and he nodded and smiled back, giving them a polite wave.

As he passed through the main square, a pair of ponies walked up to him. One, a bright green unicorn pony with what appeared to be a harp cutie mark, headed toward him with purpose, while her companion, a white earth pony with a blue and pink mane, hung back slightly, looking quite nervous, but apparently not willing to let her friend approach the strange alien alone.

"Hello." the green unicorn said. "I'm Lyra." she looked at him closely from only a few feet away. "And you're a... real live human!"

Johnathon blinked. "Or... hi." he answered. "Yes, I'm a human. My name is Johnathon. Johnathon Dwire."

Lyra stuck out a hoof firmly. "Nice to meet you, Johnathon." he took hold of her outstretched hoof and shook it gently, and the unicorn watched his hand with an almost avid expression. "Those... are... so... COOL!" she finally exclaimed, grabbing on to his wrist with both hooves at once, balancing on her hind legs as she lifted his hand up to her face to get a better look at it. "Hands! He has hands, Bon Bon!" she exclaimed excitedly. "See! What did I tell you!"

Johnathon pulled his hand free and started backing away. "Er... well, it was... nice meeting you, but... I've really got to be going."

The white earth pony, Bon Bon, had grabbed on to her friend from behind to restrain her. "Lyra... let the... nice human go now..."

Johnathon quickly made his escape, distinctly uneasy. "OK... that was weird." he said to himself as he quickly made his way to Twilight's library. He knocked on her door, glancing around behind him to see if he had been followed. "I guess she likes... hands or something?" he looked at his own, wiggling his fingers. "I wonder why? Maybe it's just the novelty?"

Twilight opened the door after only a short while, smiling up at him as she stepped aside to let him in. "Good morning, Johnathon! Did you have an idea about where you wanted to start?" she levitated a book down from her shelf. "I was thinking we could start with Basic Magical Theory?" she floated a clip board with a number of hand written pages attached to it with empty boxes drawn next to a long looking list. "Or perhaps I could show you my checklist for how I plan on getting started with learning the theory involved behind dimensional travel!"

Johnathon hesitated. "Well... I noticed a handy looking book yesterday, I think." he looked at the shelves near him, then nodded, walking over to one. "Ah, there it is." he pulled the book free and held it up. "A Beginner's Guide to Magic." he showed her the cover. "I flipped through the table of contents when I was here yesterday. It seemed like a good place to start."

Twilight blinked. "Well... that's a little filly's book, Johnathon. It's for fillies in magic kindergarten." she explained.

Johnathon grinned. "I was using primers for little... er... little fillies with Cheerilee when she was helping me with putting down as many words from my language as possible. Since I have no experience with magic, aside from watching you, and the princess, and Rarity use it, I thought the beginning might be a good place to start."

Twilight blinked. "Er... well, yes, I suppose so." she glanced at her copy of "Basic Magical Theory", then frowned. "Hmm, I suppose to someone who's never been introduced to even the idea of working magic before, this might be a little difficult to understand." she hesitated. "Er... do you need help with that book?" she nodded to the kindergarten level text he was holding doubtfully.

Johnathon shrugged. "I don't know yet. Why don't I do some reading on my own, and if I have a question, I can ask you!"

Twilight blinked. "Oh... alright. That sounds like a good idea." she blinked. "Well, I suppose I can get some of my own reading done in the meantime, if you don't mind?"

Johnathon shook his head. "I don't mind. Sounds like a plan." he opened the book, and found a place to sit on the staircase. "You know...." he commented idly as he flipped through to the first chapter. "Ponyville seems like a nice place and all, but the one thing I really miss from my world?"

Twilight blinked. "Oh?"

"Not enough chairs!" he commented with a wry smile. "I mean, Fluttershy has like... two chairs and one couch in her whole house... and I don't even see a single chair in your place."

Twilight blinked. "Oh? I guess they're not that common. Most ponies tend to stand, or sit on the ground most of the time." she levitated a couple thick looking books from a shelf onto a lectern and opened one, flipping pages. "Do they have a lot of chairs on your world?"

Johnathon chuckled. "Well, yes. They're quite common. After all, humans tend to sit a lot, especially when we're resting, and chairs are much more comfortable than sitting on the floor, at least for us bipedal mammals."

Twilight nodded absently, already lost in her book. "Uh huh."

The archeologist grinned to himself and started reading as well. He read quickly. The text in question was in fact, rather basic, although it did explain the concept of magic quickly and simply, in a way that was easy to follow. Before long, he closed it.

"OK... now I think I might want a gander at "Basic Magical Theory." he said with a shrug.

Twilight blinked, then smiled, and floated the book over to him. "This one IS a bit more detailed. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have though."

Johnathon opened the considerably thicker book, and started to page through it. "I'll let you know."

For awhile, he attempted to struggle through on his own. In general, the concepts weren't difficult, although there were a lot of references that were obviously meant for a creature who was already able to use, or at least feel their own magical energies. After a while, he spoke up again.

"OK... I keep reading about 'thrumming' and 'building up a resonance' in here. It implies that the reader is already familiar with them... and while I could make an educated guess, I don't want to jump to any wrong conclusions. Could you tell me a little bit about that?"

Twilight turned toward him, frowning slightly. "Oh! Um... let me see. Well, thrumming... that's the feeling you get when you're trying to build up your magic... before you focus it on anything. It's like... you feel a vibration in your horn... a kind of pressure? And then you focus it on what you want to do, and let it out."

Johnathon nodded. "Well, I don't have a horn, but the concept seems simple enough. And building up a resonance? I'm guessing that has something to do with that vibration... and... finding a frequency that causes that vibration to increase?"

Twilight blinked. "Er... those aren't exactly the way I've heard it described before, but yes, that's about right. Finding the... frequency that our magic is strongest, and letting your magic get stronger? That's how we gather the magic needed to cast more difficult spells."

Johnathon nodded slowly. "OK. I can wrap my mind around that. Thanks." he went back to his book, and Twilight did the same. He was several chapters into the book, when he frowned thoughtfully. "Twilight." he spoke up, getting the unicorn's attention. "It says here that unicorns tend to all have the ability to levitate and manipulate physical objects to some degree, and most have a secondary talent that is usually linked to their cutie mark."

Twilight hesitated, then nodded. "That's right. For example, Rarity can cast a gem location spell without ever having studied it. It's her special talent. She's also... very talented with her telekinesis. She's learned to reshape objects in addition to simply moving them to an amazing degree."

Johnathon nodded. "I see. Is that sort of talent common?"

Twilight thought about that. "Well, not really, I guess. There were quite a few unicorns at the magical university back in Canterlot that I knew that had similar talent... or greater, but it's not really that common. There was one unicorn that came to Ponyville a year or so ago who was quite gifted. She was quite good with her telekinesis, and she could use conjuration, and even a limited amount of alteration magic! She makes a living as a traveling magician, I believe..." Twilight frowned slightly. "Well, I assume so. Her visit to our town didn't exactly end well for her."

Johnathon raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How so?"

Twilight blushed slightly. "Well... she was a bit... boastful, and she claimed to have defeated an Ursa Major with her magic. Unfortunately, two young colts believed her, and they wanted to see her do it for themselves. There is an Ursa cave in the Ever-Free forest, and they lured an Ursa Minor to town for her to vanquish...."

Johnathon looked curious. "What's an Ursa?" he wrinkled his nose. "I mean... that means bear in your language, right? Unless the translation spell isn't covering animals I don't know?"

Twilight shook her head. "No, it does mean bear. An Ursa is an... astral bear... or a bear made up of starstuff. The Ursa Minor that Snips and Snails brought into town was a little smaller than... er... the building we're in right now."

Johnathon blinked. "Er... OK. That sounds... bad. I take it they're dangerous?"

Twilight nodded. "Very much so, although only if they're disturbed. Usually, they're quite content to stay to themselves."

Johnathon nodded slowly. "I take it that this Trixie wasn't up to dealing with the Ursa Minor?"

Twilight shook her head. "I'm afraid not. She annoyed it... it probably would have hurt someone if... er...."

Johnathon raised an eyebrow. "If what?"

Twilight blushed. "Well, I had to step in at that point. Somepony was going to get hurt!"

Johnathon nodded. "Most magical unicorn in Equestria. So, I take it you were capable of dealing with it?"

Twilight shrugged. "Well, I didn't really defeat it... just calmed it. I made a wind blow through some nearby reeds to play it some soft music, then I... er... levitated the watertower, pulled off the top, milked all the cows in town, picked up the Ursa and gave it a watertower full of milk... and levitated it back into the forest."

Johnathon blinked. "You... levitated a watertower... and a creature as large as this building... over a mile?"

Twilight hesitated. "Er... around three? I had to get it back to it's cave, after all."

He shook his head as if trying to get rid of a fly. "You... milked all the cows in town? Quick enough to fill a watertower, and while playing music using reeds?" he shivered. "How do you use wind to play music? I mean... how did you know what velocity wind against the reeds would create any kind of harmonious..." the archeologist. "Wait... wait... don't tell me... some spells can... think for themselves to a degree?"

Twilight nodded slowly. "If you're talking about how some magical formulas can act on their own to a degree? Yes. The spell I cast to make the wind create music is a good example. That particular spell, you think of the music you want to hear while you cast it, and you can let it go at that point..."

Johnathon grinned at her, still shaking his head in astonishment. "How... how long did it take you to cast all those spells?"

Twilight blinked. "I'm not sure? About... twenty seconds, I think? It took another minute or so to get the Ursa home."

Johnathon blinked. "You moved it a... over a hundred miles an hour?"

Twilight blinked. "Er... on average, I guess that would be about right? The tricky part was the acceleration and deacceleration. I didn't want to crash the poor thing into it's cave too fast, after all. Once you have something moving it's not as difficult to keep it going."

Johnathon blinked. "Poor thing? A bear the size of a building?"

Twilight shrugged. "Well, it WAS only a baby, after all. An Ursa Major is MUCH bigger."

Johnathon's mouth fell open. "OK... you're just pulling my leg, right?"

Twilight blushed. "No... they really are much bigger when they're full grown." she turned, looked around for a moment, then levitated a book to him, opening it so he could see an illustration of a bear-shaped creature that looked like it was supposed to be made up of the night sky, with a tiny figure of a pony next to it as a comparison.

Johnathon blinked, taking the book and reading the entry. "Huh." after a minute, he looked at Twilight. "So when you mean, made up of starstuff... you mean they really look like this? Like they're made up of the night sky?"

She nodded. "Yes... they're actually transparent. You can see right through them, although for all that, they're solid as any other animal."

He shook his head. "That's...." he frowned thoughtfully. "Actually, if they're as big as you say, it actually kind of makes sense. Most creatures would be much smaller, so they'd see it above them, and if it wasn't moving, I suppose a creature like that might pass for the night sky above you... for a moment or so, anyway. Sort of a camouflage. I guess that only would make sense if they're nocturnal." he read on. "Ah yes.... they hunt only at night."

He put the book to the side, shaking his head. "I'm going to have to read this book all the way through sometime. I have the feeling that there are a lot of creatures in this world that are very different from what I could expect to find on mine."

Twilight looked curious. "So... I take it you don't have Ursa's on your world either?"

Johnathon shook his head. "Nope. Nothing remotely like that." he smiled faintly at her. "Still, it's hard to believe how powerful you are, Twilight! I mean... just the levitation alone must have taken enormous power."

Twilight blushed. "Well... magic IS my special talent. I'm sorry if it sounded like I was boasting... but you sounded like you were interested in the limits of unicorn magic."

Johnathon nodded. "I am. And don't apologize for your talents." he raised an eyebrow. "Assuming that you aren't exaggerating, there isn't anything wrong with being proud of your gifts." he grinned. "You don't seem like the bragging sort to me, anyway." he chuckled. "Mostly because I'm the bragging sort, and so far you've been quite modest in comparison."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Johnathon grinned. "Well, I do like to brag, but I always tell the truth. I just like to tell everyone how awesome I really am."

Twilight chuckled. "I see. You like to brag about things that you're good at."

Johnathon nodded agreeably. "You won't catch me bragging about things I'm bad about!" he pointed a thumb at his chest. "Except for modesty. I'm the most modest ever, don't you know?"

Twilight looked a bit confused. "Er... that doesn't make sense." she caught the grin on his face, then laughed. "Oh! I get it, you're joking!"

Johnathon chuckled. "Not very well, apparently." he hesitated. "So... are you the most powerful unicorn you know?"

Twilight hesitated. "Well... so far, yes."

He looked interested. "Is the Princess more powerful than you are?"

Twilight looked shocked. "Oh, much more! It used to take thirteen of the most powerful unicorns alive working in concert to raise the sun and moon... and the Princess does it by herself! For a thousand years, she raised them both, a task that used to magically exhaust over two dozen unicorns a day!" Twilight shook her head. "The princesses are both on a different level completely."

Johnathon looked thoughtful. "Huh. I...." he paused, thinking. Did I make a bad assumption the other day? When Twilight explained that Princess Celestia raised the sun and moon, I immediately assumed it was impossible... but if Twilight is correct, and the Princess is more powerful than a dozen... two dozen of the most powerful unicorns... could it be possible? He frowned. No... it still doesn't make any sense. If Twilight is at the upper limit of what a unicorn is capable here, then impressive as that is, even multiplied by a hundred it shouldn't be enough to move a moon, much less a star! He looked thoughtful. Well... perhaps a very small moon... but...

Johnathon shook his head again, and looked up at Twilight. "So... is what you did that night, in order to... return the Ursa it's cave, is that about the most you could do at one time, or are you able to use more magic at once than that?"

Twilight frowned. "Actually, at the time, I was surprised I managed to pull off THAT much, or at least, I thought I'd burn myself out for a few weeks afterwords... but while I was tired, I still had a little power left over after it was over."

Johnathon blinked. "OK... wow." he frowned. "I'm going to have to see some of your books on astronomy at some point." He shrugged. "But that can wait." he picked up the book on magical theory again. "So... this book describes several general categories of magic, broken up into...." he counted. "About three dozen different distinct types? And most unicorns can use at least one type of magic besides levitation?"

Twilight nodded slowly. "That's about the average, yes."

He looked curious. "How many kinds of magic can you do?"

Twilight hesitated. "Er... all of them? I mean, I haven't found a spell I couldn't do yet. Some were really difficult, and, well, a few I obviously don't have the strength for, like raising the sun and moon, so I've never tried, but so far, I've been able to use any type of spell I've attempted."

Johnathon nodded slowly. "Ah. Well, I suppose that means that if anyone can figure out a type of magic that no unicorn has done before, it'd be you."

Twilight looked thoughtful. "Actually, apparently there were a few unicorns who have tried to use dimensional crossing spells before, and even one who claimed to have succeeded!" she nodded to the book she was reading. "A contemporary of Starswirl the Bearded, Strangehorn the Mad claimed to have brought over objects from another dimension. He supposedly vanished soon afterwords, and according to this book, he was never seen again. He was apparently attempting to cross over into another dimension personally, and the most popular theory is that the attempt killed him, although since no body was ever found, it's quite possible he succeeded, and simply was unable to return."

Johnathon looked interested. "Well, that sounds promising!" he frowned. "It sounds dangerous too."

Twilight Sparkle nodded soberly. "I'll have to be very careful when...or if I figure out the formula to such a spell. Unfortunately, no copies of his working dimensional spells were recorded in any of the books I've been able to find so far, although there are notes on some of the failed attempts. I might be able to extrapolate what changes Strangehorn might have made to the formula with some more research, and a fair bit of trial and error."

Johnathon nodded slowly. "Well, please be careful. Getting me home isn't worth anypony's life."

Twilight nodded somberly. "I'll be careful, I promise." Johnathon and Twilight each went back to reading, and the next hour passed quietly as they each lost themselves in the material. Again, it was Johnathon who broke the silence.

"So... could you tell me a little bit more about how spell durations work?" he asked out of the blue. "This book says that the duration of a spell is dependent on a number of different factors...?"

Twilight blinked, turning to him. "Oh? Well... that's actually quite complicated, depending on the type of magic you're doing, and how much magic you're willing to put into it. Also, most spell formulas have durations set into the casting... although with a little effort, it's possible to change that."

Johnathon nodded. "Well... how about on the translation spell? How would you go about changing the duration on that?"

Twilight blinked. "Well, I did think about that after you asked about the spell yesterday. Changing a spell isn't difficult, so long as you understand all the principles involved. For the translation spell, I would have to change the formula sightly to either extend or reduce the duration, but it wouldn't be terribly difficult, I'd really just have to visualize the amount of time I want when casting it. As long as it didn't require more magic that I had to use, I could increase the duration quite a bit!" Twilight frowned thoughtfully. "It's a surprisingly complex spell, but I could probably extend it to a couple weeks at a time."

Johnathon nodded. "That's... quite impressive." he looked curious. "Does extending the duration of a spell increase the power needed in a linear progression?"

Twilight shook her head. "Not exactly. The initial push requires the majority of your magical energy, but simply maintaining a spell is considerably less taxing. Likewise, causing a spell to maintain itself costs a fraction more energy than it does for me to maintain the same spell directly, although it saves me having to concentrate." she looked at him. "Does that make sense?"

Johnathon frowned, then nodded. "I get the concept, anyway." he looked curious. "Do all spells constantly drain power? I mean... is any sort of magic permanent?"

Twilight hesitated. "It is possible to create a spell that will maintain it's effect indefinitely, or until another force acts upon that spell, but usually it requires some sort of renewing energy source." she shrugged. "Some magics have no inherent duration, like teleportation... or alteration magics, which cause an effect which remains afterwords."

Johnathon nodded. "When you teleport, you're there. You don't have to maintain the spell to remain." he looked curious. "What sort of effects can alteration perform? I mean... can you, I don't know... make a rock levitate six feet off the floor indefinitely?"

Twilight grinned. "No... at least, not that I know of. Alteration magics can change an object's properties... but those properties have to follow natural laws. Levitation requires constant energy use. You could make a rock oh... purple, and it would stay purple, at least until somepony else changed it back, but you couldn't make one float and stay floating."

Johnathon nodded. "OK." he frowned. "Er... not to be selfish, but what about the translation spell?"

Twilight blinked. "Um... I believe it might be... theoretically possible to..." she frowned lightly. "Well, no, not with the spell I've been using. That imposes a... sort of transformation to your ability to use language, and it requires energy to maintain it. Once that energy is used up, the spell fades. It would probably be possible to use alteration magic to do something similar, but... I don't know if it would be a good idea."

Johnathon frowned. "Hmm... I guess permanently altering someone's brain would be kind of dangerous."

Twilight nodded. "And, honestly, I don't know if I could undo something like that if I tried it. The translation spell imposes a change to your language ability... transforming your skill with your native language into equal skill in Equestrian, but I don't know if I could reverse it if it were permanent. To make it permanent, I'd have to change the way your brain works... and magically overwrite one skill with another. Without a template, I don't know if I could ever return you to normal."

Johnathon blinked, then nodded again. "Ah. You could, in theory, overwrite my ability to speak English with the ability to speak Equestrian, permanently, but since you wouldn't have an English speaker around, you wouldn't be able to change me back?"

Twilight hesitated. "Well... actually, that's only a theory. It might not actually need a template to work, but I think you're right that the spell works off the collective unconsciousness of the ponies here in Equestria, like you suggested, which means, without somepony who speaks... er... English, there wouldn't be any information to use to change your language back."

Johnathon nodded. "Well then, best not to take chances. Even assuming we never figure out how to get me home, I'd hate to lose my ability to speak, read and write in my native language." he shrugged. "Even if I'll never really get to use them again."

Twilight nodded. "I can understand that, I think." she shrugged, and started to read again before Johnathon spoke again.

"Just a couple more questions, Twilight, if you don't mind?"

Twilight Sparkle looked up again, hiding her mild irritation at the interruption with practiced ease. "Not at all. What else did you want to know?"

Johnathon shrugged. "Well, I guess, I just wanted to know what other sorts of difficulties you expect in trying to learn the kind of magic you'd need to send me home? You need to figure out the right formula for it first... what else?" he looked thoughtful. "Would it be anything similar to teleporting? They seem like they would be similar."

Twilight nodded. "Actually, there is a lot in common, at least theoretically. When you teleport, you visualize your destination, and then sort of... push yourself through. The actual theory behind it is that you create a sort of... shortcut between the two places, so that there is no distance involved, and you're just suddenly... there." she frowned. "If that makes any sense?"

Johnathon blinked. "Like a tessaract?"

Twilight blinked. "A what?"

Johnathon hesitated. "OK... this is just a concept from a science fiction novel I read once... but... a tessaract is what you get when you square... er..." he shook his head. "Let me start again... it's kind of a representation of a higher dimension..." he sighed. "Darn it... how do I explain?"

The archeologist shrugged, then started again. "OK, when describing where anything is in relation to anything else, you can use three sets of distances... length, width, and height make up three dimensions we use to describe a point in space. If you add a fourth dimension, time, you can describe a trajectory of an object moving through space and time, OK?"

Twilight nodded. "Sure. That's pretty basic stuff."

Johnathon frowned as he tried to find the right words. "Well, I'm no physicist, so I'm probably getting details wrong, but, this is how I heard it described. Say if you have a line, that's a one dimensional object. If you square that, you get a square... which is a two dimensional object."

Twilight thought about that for a second. "OK."

"And if you square a square, you get a cube."

Twilight nodded again. "I'm following you so far."

"So if you square that... you get a... er... I'm not sure what to call it, but a fourth dimensional object, an object described in three physical dimensions and in time."

Twilight frowned slightly. "Square a cube?" her eyes narrowed, and her nose twitched in an adorable way as she concentrated on the idea. "Er... I think I can follow the idea..."

Johnathon shrugged. "Anyway... if you square THAT... you get a tessaract."

Twilight's eyes twitched. "Er... I'll take your word for it."

Johnathon grinned. "Yeah, it's really difficult to visualize. Anyway... one theory goes that that's the key to, well, teleportation, that with a tessaract you fold space and time so that one point meets up with any other, so that there isn't any distance between them! So... you're traveling through a 5th dimension to pass instantaneously from one point in space to another, and even between one time and another."

Twilight blinked. "OK." She nodded more firmly. "Yes... yes, I think the concepts are quite similar, actually... although I haven't heard of teleportation explained in quite that way before." Twilight frowned. "But interdimensional travel... well, er... if you're using dimension to speak of the world we live in, and not representing a line... it seems to have some sort of extra factor needed to make it work... perhaps it's simply... as you put it, squaring the formula...."she shrugged. "But even if I could figure out how to do that, that's still only one aspect of the problem."

She hesitated. "You see, while a teleport is instantaneous, Strangehorn's formula for dimensional travel was apparently based off of Discord's portals, which stayed open.... and they apparently require a great deal more power."

Johnathon frowned. "How much more?"

Twilight frowned. "At least a couple orders of magnitude... maybe more. A hundred times more? A thousand? And that's just to keep a portal like that open for a few seconds... and for an object to to survive a trip through, the portal apparently needs to be open the entire time it's passing through... and an indeterminate amount longer." she shook her head. "I'm still not sure about that part, but the research notes did seem to indicate that while the size and velocity of the object when it exited the portal could be connected in part to the energy requirements, there was some factor that Strangehorn never identified that made the needed duration for a successful portal longer than the projections."

Twilight sighed. "So, I'm thinking, to be sure of success, it might be best to figure out how to make the portal self sustaining, or permanent, so that I won't have to try and hold them open. In theory, it should be possible to do that for a fraction of the energy cost of holding one open long enough to get, say, a pony sized object through to the far end."

Johnathon frowned. "OK, again, that sounds really dangerous."

Twilight shrugged. "Well, I'll have a counter spell prepared to close any portal I create... but otherwise, I don't see how I will be able to hold a portal open long enough to be useful, even if I do get the formula to open one correctly. You might be able to enter one, but you probably wouldn't come out the far side."

Johnathon shivered. "Er... yeah, that's probably kind of important."

Twilight smiled slightly. "It would be to me." she shrugged. "So... those are the problems I'm going to be trying to solve."

Johnathon nodded slowly. "Thanks. It sounds... well, fiendishly difficult, but at least I have a general idea of what you're up against." he smiled at her. "I appreciate the lesson. Even if I never will be able to use magic, it's nice to understand a bit more about it."

Twilight nodded graciously. "Not at all. You're a quick study, and I'm glad I could explain things to you a little better."

Johnathon grinned. "Well, I'll let you get back to studying. I'd like to finish this book as well. I'll try to keep my questions to a minimum."

Twilight smiled, then shook her head. "Go ahead and ask me if you have any more questions. I might not always know the answers, but I'm happy to try."

Johnathon grinned back. "I appreciate it." the two scholars returned to their studies, and for a while, there was little to no sound save that of pages turning.

"Twilight!" the little dragon, Spike, came out of their kitchen. "Did you want me to make lunch for you and Johnathon? It's getting kind of late!" Johnathon and Twilight exchanged surprised glances, and their stomachs both rumbled at the same time at the thought of food.

"I guess that's a yes!" Twilight said with a giggle. "I completely lost track of time!"

Johnathon nodded. "Me too. Happens when I get into a really interesting book."

Twilight nodded. "I know! I'm lucky I have Spike around to remind me to eat, otherwise I might forget."

Johnathon chuckled. "One time, In college, I forgot to eat for three days straight during mid terms! It just never occurred to me till I nearly collapsed in the middle of a chemistry lab. I was carrying a pretty strong acid in a beaker at the moment I almost collapsed, actually."

Twilight grimaced. "Eek."

He shrugged, grinning. "My lab partner had an apple in his bag, and after I ate that, I made it through the rest of the afternoon alright, but I learned my lesson. Always remember to eat!"

Twilight grinned. "That's a pretty good lesson."

Spike's voice came from the kitchen again. "Are you two going to talk about eating, or actually eat? I'm starving!"

"Coming!" Twilight called out to him. "We'd better go. It's not a good idea to let a dragon get too hungry, after all."

Johnathon grinned. "I can imagine." he rose, and followed Twilight toward lunch.

Comments

[Chill Mists(Chilly)]

Three days? Damn. Keep up the good work!

[Spark of Inspiration]

Oh, Lyra...

-Randomosity19

[St.Patrick]

Nice job.

[Blik]

"You're not supposed to clean up afterwards!"
"We're not even. We're better than even."
Johnathon shrugged. "It can't hurt to ask, I suppose."

I've never seen Dr. Who, but I've seen the Let's Play for Minecraft's Weeping Angels Mod and let me tell you, they scare the bejeebies out of me.
How did Lyra's fascination with humans become such a ubiquitous part of fanon?

Thank you for including the discussion between Twilight and Johnathon. It demonstrates all the Thought you've put into this story that you didn't just gloss over it and give a 3rd-party report on how complicated their jargon was. Yes, I've seen that before.
And I thought it was very sound of you to have him back out of Star Wars like that, regardless of the comments on the last chapter. But even more so, I was impressed on how Fluttershy picked up on his hesitation and change of topic. That shows you are getting inside your characters' heads and trying to give them an emotional depth they wouldn't otherwise have.

For another story idea, what about The Wind in the Willows? I think Redwall might be a little much, same as Star Wars. There are also sections of Narnia that he could use to great effect, as the battles are described fairly juvenilely.

[Christopher28]

312862. Thanks for the editing help. As for the Lyra thing? I have no idea where that started. I know her human facination, even her name, Lyra, are not strictly Canon, (that character is supposed to be called Heartstrings), but, I threw in the Lyra cameo specifically as an homage to those fans that went before.

[WorldWalker128]

311917
Lyra: She is a requirement at least as a cameo in every Good HiE story.

[Spark of Inspiration]

314201
Definitely makes it more interesting...

[Knighthawker]

312948 I sorta kinda know how that all got started. As far as i know, it all stemed from when Lyra was sitting on a park bench in the way a biped would.

[Knighthawker]

I dont mean to sound rude.... but where exactly are you from? I mean ive never heard of a primer or a stipend before, but i was able to figure them out given the context. If im right, a primer is basically low-level learning material, and a stipend is basically a paycheck. Again, not sure, dont use those words in that context over here in the states, sorry if I offended you.

[milk experiment]

"You say that every today, Twilight! "

Brilliant Pinkie line.

[Boss_Hoss1]

Twilight shrugged. "Well, he IS nine hundred years old." she looked at Johnathon in wonder. "Are there many Time Lords in your world, Johnathon? I've never heard of them before!"
Johnathon blinked. "Er... it was a story, Twilight. Fiction. None of it was real." he scratched his head. "Sorry... didn't I mention that?"

Heh, I would not be too sure myself in that situation. He's gone sideways to another world in a similar manner to the Doctor's TARDIS that goes uptime, downtime and sideways to alternate timelines. I'd really start to wonder "Welll...Maybe..."

[Time Squid]

The Doctor has been mentioned. .. I can tell he's going to pop up at some point!!!

[LightRay]

He blinked. "Ah! I have one. How about the story about Doctor Who and the Weeping Angels?"
ok ok you just passed 3 of my top 10 favorite authors on this site good sir!
btw that is my most favorite episodes of doctor who not counting the season ending episodes those basically count as mini movies

if you don't like videos in your comment section please tell me i'll take it down!

311917 i had the same reaction with Lyra
but thats why we love her

[pononymous]

Pinkie giggled. "You say that every today, Twilight!"//dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Pinkie_loool.png //dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Rainbow_dealwithit.png

[LunarRai]

How about the story about Doctor Who and the Weeping Angels?"

Hah. I just saw the episode Blink today, same day as I started reading this.

[Lucky424]

Weeping Angels

1.bp.blogspot.com/-OMLt0Rcp08U/TzmXMY-DCBI/AAAAAAAAe58/6hLCJe-RaXs/s1600/131365+-+animated+artist+di0medes+derpy_hooves+doctor_who+Doctor_Whooves+Weeping_Angels.gif

One, a bright green unicorn pony with what appeared to be a harp cutie mark

Crap.
rationalpolitics.net/forum/Smileys/rationalpolitics/AndHereWeGo.gif

[JBL]

They both like to blink and nod a lot, don't they.

[Fetch]

line, square, cube, tesseract. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract
There is no name for a 5D object as of yet.

[Pegos 1-1]

Behold the tesseract!upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Tesseract.gif

[The Crimson King]

2773284 That gif makes my brain hurt...

[World Theory]

Omagosh! Space folding spells! Got me thinking about that neat idea I heard about from a science channel show that suggested that you could create a kind of engine that expands and contracts space or gravity or something in-front of, and behind a space ship, to move it along. Maybe it was explained by saying that extreme gravity could be used to warp space?

[Leila Drake]

2773284 Are you sure? Looks like a 4-dimensional cube to me. Cool gif though.

[ssokolow]

4253583

The funny thing is, the fic actually disagrees with Wikipedia on that point. According to the fic's dialogue, a tesseract is a 5-dimensional hypercube, not a 4-dimensional one like on Wikipedia.

[ssokolow]

2771325

Actually, if you scroll to the bottom of the page and click "5-cube" in the "Fundamental convex regular and uniform polytopes in dimensions 2–10" table, you'll find that, in addition to "5-cube", a five-dimensional hypercube can also be called a penteract. (Among other names like decateron)

[Christopher28]

5379740 As Johnathon points out, the concept he describes is from a science fiction novel he read...

Specifically, "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L’Engle. Johnathon is in his forties, so this was a popular book when he was a kid. He's using the explanation he heard in the book, not the wikipedia entry, which is probably why it doesn't agree with the wikipedia entry.

FYI... even though it was written in the 60's, it's a great book. Read it.

[Officer Hotpants]

Twilight giggled nervously. "Heh... of course... silly me. Time Travel? That's ridiculous."

Pinkie giggled. "You say that every today, Twilight!"

Heh. I almost mistook that for a typo. Good one.

[PrinceJonathan]

"Hands! He has hands, Bon Bon!"

"Lyra... let the... nice human go now..."

Reminds me of that serial killer from South Park that collected the left hands of all his victims...or was it their right hands?

[A Tin Can]

2773284 That's some trippy st right there.

[Toobert]

5380432 I bet it's way better than Captains Courageous. I hated that book.

[zorolu]

Of course. You can't have a HiE fic without Lyra.

[zorolu]

Also how many times does the author says "twilight blinks" in the library scene alone? Just saying.

[DashieChad]

Ok I love this story but OH MY GOD HOW MANY TIMES ARE YOU GOING TO PUT "ER..." LIKE I LOVE THE STORY BUT SEEING THAT SO MANY TIMES IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!!

[furryman]

Did that Discord statue just move.

[Stainless Steel Fox]

5379740 That's what I was thinking. In pure geometric terms the squared cube is the fourth dimensional version. Of course geometry ignores time. An object exists or not, it doesn't have a duration. However, my take on a 'real world' tesseract would have the fourth dimension be the additional space dimension, and time as the 5th.

In fact that's a far more common interpretation, all the way back to 'Sideways in Time' the seminal sci-fi story by Murray Leinister. Likewise 'He built a Crooked House...' by Robert A Heinlein, and H Beam Pipers entire Paratime series.

[Kadigan]

"Anyway... if you square THAT... you get a tessaract."

Not... quite?

A tesseract is still in 1T (temporal), just 4S (spatial). It's not 5D - it's 4D + time still, much like a cube is 3D + time - and you can abstract time away... mostly.

The best way I've seen it explained, is with shadows. If a shadow of a 3D object is a 2D cast, then a shadow of a 4D object is a 3D cast. And much like how it's difficult to discern the real shape of a 3D object from just the shadow (and how it changes over time as you reorient the object in 3 dimensions), it's similarly difficult to describe a 4D object going just from its 3D "shadow". That's also why the 3D slices of a tesseract always seem freaky when animated - the actual object isn't changing shape, much like a cube isn't changing shape when you rotate it... but the shadow is.

I'm also not sure how you could shorten the travel distance by going up one dimension, really... I mean, an extra dimension adds a distance vector instead of substracting it, so it's much more likely you could look to be standing in place while you're actually moving (this would occur each time you were moving along the extra dimension but not along the one "visible" to the lower-dimensional cast). Try this with a 1D line and a 2D plane and you'll see what I mean. You could go from point A to point C without seemingly crossing point B that would logically be on the way (on a line), but the distance would actually be longer.

No, you shorten travel time by collapsing dimensions, not unfolding them. For example, a "portal" is two points in space sharing the same coordinates on their outsides. As such, a portal doesn't actually have a "thickness" - it's a "split" 2-dimensional object (and the word "split" isn't the most fortunate, because you can only "split" something that can be split up, and if an object lacks a dimension, you can't slice it up along that...).

Besides, the way Twi tells it, it sounds more like teleporation involves some sort of quantum bridges rather than portals, and besides... you still have to deal with information loss when you cross collapsed-dimension boundaries... You could come out all 2D, for all you know, and I doubt that's healthy... ;P I suppose we come to the decades-old question: how do you collapse and then restore a dimension, if you have to do it in an unreasonably short amount of time? Because being able to transmit two-dimensional slices - or even one-dimensional information packets - would make this thing much, much easier... but if you can't reassemble what comes out into anything better than 1-atom-thick slices of a corpse, what's the point? ;)

[Kadigan]

(...) there was some factor that Strangehorn never identified that made the needed duration for a successful portal longer than the projections.

I'm thinking that the factor is time. Or, rather, time differential. Time doesn't have to run at the same rate on both ends of the portal - and regardless of the sign on either end, it'd still have varying energy-to-time requirements (though depending on the method, I wouldn't be suprised if you needed to alter the frequencies instead... or both).

Another thing that's always been a fun thought experiment is anchoring. I mean, you may think the planet is firmly beneath your feet, but that's because of inertia. If you were absolutely still in the path of our fair Earth, it'd slam into you at something like 1000 miles per hour. So how do you keep teleports anchored to the point of reference you want to use? I mean, if you use an absolute reference system, the point you want to exit at is going to be in hard vacuum in about 2 seconds from casting, so... And conversely, if you want to use Equus as your reference frame, you're introducing double Lorentz transformations at the very least - and I'm not sure how you can keep that up... I mean, on Equus you can use your own inertial point as the calculation entry (and even then you'd likely go splat if you tried to teleport from one of the poles to the equator), but then translating that onto a planet that's moving on a nontrivial path relative to yours, in a universe that's moving on a nontrivial path relative to yours...

So yeah... if Discord is the one doing it, I can sort of accept the universe just bending to his will and figuring all of that out to bring about the desired effect (in his particular case, I'd even wager that the spell found a world on its own). Otherwise? I doubt even Celestia would be able to pull it off.

But on the bright side, I always wanted to use "Lorentz transformation" somewhere, and now I get to! Yay!

Also, this is the issue of trying to explain "magic" in scientific terms: where do you draw the line? The more you explore it, the more science no-sells your idea.

[Christopher28]

10506748
10506772
The tessaract quote is from "A Wrinkle in Time". Any science involved is decades out of date, and fictional.

As for Discord being the only being able to manage such a transfer... well, I'd say there is probably one other force that could manage it. Something that is stronger even than Discord, and capable of transforming an entire world in ways that defy all logic. Although in the Element's case, it's to make things more... Harmonic.

[-headshot123-]

He grinned. "Then I want to help clean up." he grinned. "So, just tell me what goes where!"

double grin

[-headshot123-]

He grinned. "Then I want to help clean up." he grinned. "So, just tell me what goes where!"

double grin

Twilight blinked.

bruh she blinked 12 times