Robert sat in an uncomfortably low chair facing Celestia and Fujiwara. It was like having a tea-party with his niece, and when he thought about it that way, it wasn't that bad. The thought was completely broken with Celestia though; she looked like a giant dog when sitting like that, and he had a hard time not laughing.
"Sorry for being a bit of an asshat," Robert grinned sheepishly while rubbing the back of his neck, "I don't know what got into me..." He looked at Celestia, " So... alien ponies, cool."
Fujiwara deadpanned at him, then sighed, "...fine... Anyway, we should probably introduce ourselves like Celestia asked." He brightened and looked at Celestia and Robert. No matter what happened, this was bound to be awesome; he was talking with an alien! "I'm Fujiwara Kaito, a senior at the University of Tokyo, or "Todai", majoring in applied mathematics... Also," He looked to the window, "I'm albino, so I sunburn easily, and I lost my umbrella falling through the portal to get here, so could we carry on this conversation some place out of the sun?"
Celestie turned her gaze to the windows and used some of her magic, darkening the glass.
"Wait," Robert interrupted, "how do you do that?"
"Hmm?" Celestia turned her head back.
"That- that sorcery stuff," Robert repeated, moving his hands around an imaginary orb.
Celestia looked at him for a while, trying to remember the word, "Oh, you mean magic." She sat back, "Every unicorn is capable of a certain amount of magic."
Fujiwara cringed at the word magic being used by Celestia.
"Wait a minute..." Fujiwara interrupted, everyone looked at him while he thought about what to say, "...Define magic. What is magic?"
Celestia raised an eyebrow, surely these creatures had some sort of magic... "Magic is the alteration of reality through-"
"Stop." Fujiwara held his hands together in a T for timeout sign, "You can't alter reality, once you do, your alteration is part of reality, and so was your "altering reality", so neither of those were "altering reality" at all."
Celestia stared at Fujiwara... He was definitely smart; it had taken Twilight a few days to come to that conclusion. Then again, Twilight probably only took that long because she thought voicing her thoughts would upset Celestia, and she was very young then. "Very well, I'll explain it to you in more detail later; I don't think Robert has introduced himself yet."
Robert sat up and dusted himself off, "Oh, I'm just your average auto-shop worker." He sat back, thinking, "You know, I never really got interested in much. I mean, I could talk about politics and economics for a while, but... Well, my job pays the bills well enough, and with stock trading I could probably do without the job, but it keeps me stable. I don't really understand putting myself through all that stress for some degree."
Fujiwara desperately wanted to promote the glory of higher learning, but he decided to hold back and talk about something else, "Oh, are Americans already out of that recession?" He smiled, glad.
Robert looked over at Fujiwara doubtfully, finding his smile creepy. How many years ago was that recession anyway? "...You don't really get out of a recession, it has lasting effects on the economy. People just adapt to those effects. Besides," he looked up, remembering, "I just got lucky."
Fujiwara nodded his head and stared at Celestia for a while.
Celestia got the message, "I am Princess Celestia, I rule over all the little ponies in Equestria."
Robert looked back down at that statement and grinned, "Sounds like we're meeting with the queen of the world!" Robert looked over at Fujiwara, but he wasn't paying attention. Instead, he had his hands folded on the table and was leaning towards Celestia.
"When you say 'Equestria', do you mean your city, your country, or your world?" Fujiwara asked, giving Celestia a piercing, almost predatory gaze.
Celestia sat back, a bit uncomfortable, "the Country," she stated. That gaze reminds me of dragons and griffons... Is he part of a predatory species?
Sitting back up, she forced herself to look at Fujiwara, "I'm sorry, but what is "applied mathematics"?" Then at Robert, "And what is an "auto-shop"?"
Robert spoke first, "An auto shop is where people take there cars to be repaired."
Celestia's expression remained the same. "...And what is a "car"?"
Robert blinked a few times, "...Self driven carriages?"
Celestia's eyes went wide at this, apparently he was a carriage repairpony, but how could a carriage drive itself without magic? It seems her assumption was wrong. "You creatures must have wonderful magic to have so many self driven carriages that it warrants a repair-pony for them."
Robert looked at Celestia skeptically, "...We don't have magic... Don't you ponies have engines?"
"...What are engines?" Celestia tilted her head.
"...Nevermind..." Robert sighed and held a hand to his head. Describing engines would take too long... Then again, he was kind of glad; this place would probably be completely without pollution. He heard stories of places without pollution: you would breath in and the air would taste sweet... then you would try to go somewhere and it would take forever...
Fujiwara held his balled up fists closed to his head, scrunching his face. Then he made other strange motions. Robert joined Celestia in raising an eyebrow at Him.
"Watashi wa-" He clenched his teeth "-Kore o shitte iru!"
Celestia turned to Robert for answers. He just shrugged and raised his arms. Then he heard a slam.
"Yatta!" Fujiwara held his arms up in the air.
Celestia and Robert both looked at him in alarm.
Fujiwara cleared his throat, "An engine is a mechanical device that..."
Robert and Celestia continued staring at him. He started to sweat; this would be tough.
"a mechanical device that transforms energy from heat into mechanical or electrical energy." He grinned, "The most common one, the "diesel engine", contains multiple shafts, attached to each-other at different stages to smooth and continue operation. The shafts first compress air and fue- burnable liquid, then expand when that mixture explodes." He made wild gestures with his hands, "All these shafts are connected to a central wheel, and have... joints that allow them to spin that wheel."
Fujiwara collapsed, exhausted.
"Aw man, Fuji-san..." Robert sat back. Fujiwara glared at Robert, he had worked so hard! He deserved praise! Not "Aw man, Fuji-san". Robert continued, "Now instead of ponies riding ponies, I won't be able to see in front of my own face."
Fuji-san chuckled, that one was kind of funny for some reason. Maybe it was the thought of ponies riding ponies.
"Hmm," Celestia sighed, slightly confused. The engine did seem interesting though.
She turned her gaze to Fujiwara, "And what is "Applied Mathematics"?" She repeated.
"Have you heard of mathematics before?" Fujiwara gazed back, slightly annoyed at the lack of technology. Then again, maybe he could become a teacher. He always wanted to be a teacher...
"No." Celestia met his gaze.
"2+2=4?" Fujiwara kept his gaze at her.
"Oh, arithmetic!" Celestia smiled, expecting to see a smile back from Fujiwara.
Instead, she saw a man scowling and clenching his heart, struggling to come to terms with a great horror, "Okay..." Fujiwara steadied himself, "What's the most advanced concept related to that?" He asked.
Celestia sat back, "Well, after algebra, there's trigonometry. And that's about it."
Fujiwara sat back and let out a breath of sweet Canterlot air. "Okay," He pushed himself back and stood up, "I'm going to teach ponies calculus." He looked at Celestia, "Do you have a chalkboard?" This was going to be nostalgic...
Robert and Celestia stared at Fujiwara once again.
"Dude," Robert spoke up, "Your going to lecture the alien leader on Calculus?" He stared at Fujiwara with a bewildered look.
Fujiwara stared back.
Robert kept on staring.
Eventually, Fujiwara pulled out his chair and sat back down.
"Sorry to burst your bubble kid," He sighed, "but we have to talk about trading before we just give them everything."
Robert turned to Celestia, blissfully unaware of the shit-storm he was just about to ignite with a fan.
"The things that power the trains of Equestria, your highness."
"Is it like the calculus we teach our foals?" she continued. (Unless Cherilee was just doing some recreational calculus in her own time. It's funnier to imagine the kids doing calculus with the same gusto and bravada as us when we were taught long division. Also Twilight does some as well, and unless she invented it...)
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The writers of MLP kind of suck at continuity sometimes. There are trains drawn by ponies along with those steam engines. Originally, My Litlle Pony was not meant to have any modern technology at all.
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Cheerilee and little ponies could use different symbols for algebra. (Besides, I'm pretty sure that was added as a joke.) And I could accept Twilight inventing calculus. Also, keep in mind that many words may not translate, for example: Celestia does not understand Japanese. Mathematics comes from the Greek word μάθημα (máthēma), which means "that which is learnt" (quick Wikipedia search). Note that names in many languages describe their owner in some language, and that Equestrian could be little ponies' first and most widely used language.
If Celestia for some reason didn't have a word encompassing the various fields of math and separating them from other fields, then she would not instantly jump to a conclusion about the subject that Fujiwara was talking about based on a word she had never heard before.
Further, calculus was invented in the 1670's by Newton and Leibniz, though there were many precursors to it. And most of Equestria's more advanced technology could be explained by magic; they wouldn't need to know anything about transistors if they had crystals that could do complex tasks, like the crystal heart.
Ponies wouldn't have anything to learn from humans if they had the same knowledge and technology, and that would take a lot of steam out of any story about them. I'm not going to deal with some Mary Sue Topia bullshit!
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Did anyone else laugh their ass off when they tried to repeat what he said? I did
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By this reasoning, Earth of late nineteenth century was some Mary Sue Topia ...bullshit. Equestria, as depicted in the show, is like a magic Victorian sort of place, with lots of mystery and darkness that contrasts with particular bright light of pony civilization. And possibly the civilizations of other sapient beings, but the equine tribes are in the spotlight for the show, naturally. Greco-Roman influence is predominately heavy, possibly to unify the world a bit -- correcting a problem the first generation had. If you don't find any of that interesting to write in, well, gods help you.
I'm curious what you mean by "Mary Sue Topia", anyway. Equestria has giant, flying fire-breathing dragons in it. Also multi-headed hydras the size of buildings. When one of our world leaders flip their shit, their careers usually take a downturn. When one of their world leaders threw a tantrum, she almost turned the world into a dark ball of ice. Problems, serious problems there don't patiently wait to be solved while getting worse and worse, they break down the door, roar, set your house on fire and kidnap your children. Furthermore, I'm not sure that a setting itself can be "Mary Sue". I don't think it works like that, but I'm willing to hear you out if you have some ideas about that, which you presumably do.
I understand that you want one of your protagonists to have something to teach the princess, but your choice has some flaws, judging by how, ultimately, you're taking it as a right and proper conceit. Fan fiction, particularly ones on a running source, tend to have a few, and that's okay. Sometimes the entire plot is an exceptional conceit, like, "What if Pinky Pie is actually an ALIEN FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION?" Perfectly intriguing, but you have to be wear them like a pin on the lapel of the story. There's no need to be defensive or aggressive about them. "Because it will make for an interesting story" is a just response. And a mature one, might I add.
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Okay, I'll stop with the exaggerated emotions for now.
First off, what I mean by Mary Sue Topia is a utopia in a story where any flaws intrinsic to it are ignored, and the only reason people suffer within it would be because they go against the established cultures or laws. And when I say “Equestria”, I mean the civilization Celestia rules over.
The reason having technology as well as magic (nineteenth century earth didn't have magic, at least not unicorn magic, and it definitely had its flaws) would make Equestria a Mary Sue Topia is because it wouldn't really have a way to become better. Equestria in the show might actually fit the definition of a Mary Sue Topia, since everything under Celestia's rule seems to be perfect. (That is, if you ignore the probability of Ponyville or some other city getting slaughtered before the main six existed or if they hadn't been extremely lucky, or that Trixie became homeless after some hecklers and two retards humiliated her and destroyed her home, which the show doesn't draw attention to. Otherwise there's no poverty and very good security against all the possible catastrophes we've seen.)
I might add something in the description to hint at Equestria's level of technology here.
3181148 I'm not sold on Equestria as a Mary Sue Topia. For one thing, the trope is more in terms of an imagined society based around some principle or ideology. Equestria doesn't have that going for it. A high standard of living due to the fact that the population has super-powers, well, that's not making much of a statement. Earth ponies have a connection with the natural world that means that food scarcity is easily averted, and pegasi can control the weather by directly physically manipulating it. To label the situation with "mary sue" seriously stretches the term to the point of rendering it meaningless.
Granted, I can see how the trope comes to mind. Equestria seems like a nice place to live, if you like horses. Everyone is free to be happy and pursue their interests, and the natives naturally get marks on their butts that gives them full social license to pursue those interests -- we humans don't get that.. naturally. There isn't that much prejudice -- except initially with everyone's favourite zebra apothecary, and historically there was a lot. The big threats are usually external, like super-powerful jerks and massive monsters. The threats do tend to come from the outside, like is common with the trope. However, the conflicts in the show tend to be between the characters, and stem from their behaviours and personalities. Friendship is magic, the show tells its viewers, and all forms of magic take a lot of hard work.
Excessive troping leads to seeing everything in fiction as elements in an RPG, I've noticed. Everything has to be balanced for the players, and the players are the characters. That's kind of silly. Because the ponies of the show are different from us doesn't make them poorly written, it makes them interesting. That was one of the failings of the second generation, by the way. Also, remember that tropes are not bad; they are elements to be used, many exist for very good reason, but an excessive over-reliance on them is a symptom of poor writing or a lack of imagination.
Anyway, that's beside the point: you want something that the ponies don't have and humans indisputably do? And something that Fujiwara can talk about, right there? How about that Star Trek tricorder he built? It would be, presumably, right there in his hands when he fell through the wall. Electronic circuitry would be quite interesting to an intelligent, analytical person that had never encountered it before. Presumably there's a really interesting one right there, from somebody that made it.
A very quite large bear destroyed her home and nothing else. It was dumb luck that a pair of children happened to even find one. I know what you mean about the heckling, though. She was sort of inviting it, though: her act had no structure and was mostly talk... which was inviting heckling, particularly those that knew, say, Twilight Sparkle, personal student of the princess, and resident of Ponyville. Furthermore, if she pulled this act in a much larger town, she's risking the possibility that a much more experienced and older unicorn (or other spell-shaping creature of similar capabilities) will be in ear shot of her act. She's literally inviting humiliation, and she got it. That's too bad, she does have some neat performance magic: the fireworks and the illusions are pretty awesome, and the crowd reacted very well to those. Her cutie mark is a star-shaped wand creating a streak of light, which I think implies a lot about what her talents relate to. But we both digress...
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I'm not completely sold on it either, I was just giving it as an example. Also, I don;t remember anything in canon that proved earth ponies had a special connection with the earth. The only real superpower they had that could help their society would be health/purification/etc. spells from the unicorns, and the pegasus' ability to control the weather. Humans would likely be able to have the benefits of both if they cooperated as much as these ponies do... That's one thing about the ponies that's strange, they seem to have an almost disturbing amount of order.
Though, sometimes it seems a bit forced. Consider "Mare-do-well": the rest of mane 6 teamed up to publicly shame their friend for what was probably months, and at the end, Rainbow Dash treats it like no big deal and writes a friendship report on modesty.
I'm not sure where this came from, but I agree with you on almost all points. However, it is sometimes necessary to balance sides to make sure one does not have a complete advantage, because that wouldn't be fun at all.
A Star Trek tricoder built off of fringe science and a few recommendations from his friends versus all of mans technology and science? One of these leads to a lot more conversation than the other. Though I do agree that presenting the device could be interesting.
She did invite the heckling, in fact, she specifically asked for twilight sparkle to come up on stage and show her her magic. If Twilight did come up, it could have been humiliating for her, but she wouldn't have had her house destroyed. She was inviting humiliation, not destruction of property. Competitions are pretty good ways to improve your skills. Lastly, the fact that she was not reimbursed for her property is why Ponyville did wrong, not the fact that it was destroyed in what could have been an accident.
Anyway, I'm now setting this story before the start of MLP:FIM, since that clears up any possible contradictions, has the possibility of involving the characters with stories in the show, and makes it easier to avoid being non-canon.