• Published 23rd Sep 2013
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Our Girl Scootaloo 3 of 3 - Cozy Mark IV



Twenty years after her arrival on earth, the Mane Six have come to 'rescue' Scootaloo as they did Dashie... Her husband and two children might have something to say about this however... This 'rescue' is about to get complicated.

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Ch 3.10 Twilight's Turn to Teach

Our Girl Scootaloo

Part 3 of 3

by Cozy Mark IV & Jan. McNeville

Disclaimer: This is a non-profit fan-made work of prose. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro. Please support the official release

Chapter Three point Ten: Twilight's Turn to Teach, or, The Peaches are Broken


The next morning found Twilight back at the hospital library around noon. Technically she had never left, just fallen asleep on the cot sometime early that morning before sunrise, and as the morning sun climbed up the sky she finally woke and quickly jumped back on the computer.

“Morning, sunshine, got a bit of jet lag?” Dr. Gregerson asked as she walked in sipping her cup of coffee.

Twilight looked up from the PC. “What's jet lag?”

This led to a discussion of time zones as she explained with Google Earth, followed by an explanation of how the tilt of the earth's axis caused the changing of the seasons.

“So nopony raises the sun here? It all happens on its own?”

“You got it.” After a thoughtful pause, Betty changed the subject. “Now that you've learned the basics of how terrestrial biology works, would you like to study a little earth history?”

Twilight's face lit up with glee. “I'd love to! Lets start all the way at the beginning! I want to learn everything!”

Betty smiled again as she plugged 'Age of the Universe' into Wikipedia. “At this point, the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. Our solar system is about 4.6 billion years old, and the earth is around 4.5 billion years old.”

Twilight's found her jaw hanging open as Betty went over the background microwave radiation of the universe, the formation of the first stars and plants, earth's formation, followed closely by the moon's, and the start of life at around 4 billion years ago.

“This is incredible! I had no idea how old your universe is!” She looked a little sheepish. “I never even thought to ask... I wonder how old our universe is?”

“I imagine we will find out over the next few years. It took a long time to learn what we have about our world, but now that we know how, we should be able to get answers for you much faster.”
Betty turned away from the computer to face Twilight.
“Yesterday I had the pleasure of teaching you a lot about our world, but we still know very little about how your world works. Would you be willing to teach me?”

Twilight's smile lit up her face. “Of course! What do you want to know?”

“Hmm... Where to start? Well for one thing, we have long wondered how you make some of the more complicated things in your world. We build things with factories and chemical plants, oil wells and refineries. Even a simple plastic ball needs all those things to be made and show up on a store shelf, yet we have seen very little of that in your world.”

“Oh, is that all?” Twilight cleared her throat and began. “We do make a great many things in our homes and blacksmith shops, but some of the more complicated things like balls and video games are made by the unicorns and provide a part of their income. Now for something like a ball you would use a spell like this:”

Twilight's horn began to glow and she closed her eyes in concentration, but after a moment, nothing happened. She opened her eyes, gave Betty an embarrassed look and tried again, but with the same result.

“I'm sorry, the Princess warned us that some of our magic wouldn't work in your world. I know I'm using the right spell, but I'm not getting any answer.”

Betty looked intrigued. “Answer? The spell is supposed to talk back to you?”

“Well, yes, how else could I pick what I need to make? Normally I would start the spell, concentrate on the item I want to create, and the spell would show different options and possibilities for me to choose. When I get it right, I just finish the spell and the item appears here in front of me.” She looked annoyed. “I'm normally really good at this, but I guess your world is a dead zone, just like some really deep patches of the Everfree Forest.”

“Dead zone?” Betty asked as she started to get an inkling of how this all worked.

“Yes, in most towns and cities it's easy to do even complicated magic, but as you get further out, the odds of finding a dead zone, an area where some magic isn't possible, seem to go up.”

Betty smiled. “Well, even if you can't do all of your usual tricks here, we called in the experts last night after you arrived and they have a few tests they would really like you to try downstairs. Do you feel up for a little practice?”

She practically beamed. “Of course!”

They made their way down to the improvised lab space in the basement of the hospital office building and Betty introduced her to some of the physicists and engineers who had flown in for this event.

“Okay, let’s try the simple stuff first. Here we have a sealed glass ball with a glass marble and ball bearing inside. First try to lift the glass ball itself.”

Twilight reached out with her magic and did so with no effort as the researchers watched their monitoring equipment.

“Okay, now, without breaking the glass, can you lift either the marble or the bearing inside?”

Twilight concentrated, and the ball bearing lifted off, but the marble refused to budge.

“Sorry, I can't lift the marble. You probably let the glass get too hot for too long when you made it. We see this back home sometimes: Its easy to stir sealed jars of canned food with your magic, but sometimes blown glass containers get too hot, and the magic inside dies. It's an easy enough fix though, just poke a tiny hole in the glass to let in some magic, then anyone can reach in and lift the marble with no problem.”

Betty looked thoughtful. “So you can walk into any store, even one you've never been to before, reach out with your magic and stir the contents of a sealed glass jar of canned food?”

“Well yes, even an earth pony or a pegasus can do that.” She replied with a look that said this should all be obvious to someone her age.

“Without shaking the jar itself? You can just reach in and swirl the contents?”

“Well yes. Here, somepony find me a jar of canned peaches and I'll show you.”

There was a flurry of activity, and a grad student was dispatched to the store for canned goods.

“Um... We'll come back to that. How about we move on to the next test? We chose this basement because this is where they keep some very powerful microscopes. Could you try and reach out and put some of your magic under the eyepiece?”

“Sure, but it won't look that different.” Twilight replied as she took a slide and held it under the indicated instrument.

“You've looked before?”

“Well yes, but there isn't much to see.”

“How strong a microscope were you using?

“I believe it was a good one... 10x magnification.”

One of the techs chuckled. “That would be a child's toy here. Now please put the slide on the tray... now move it a little left...”

The instructions continued for a few minutes as he got the machine focused and began recording information.

“Okay, now I'm going to put this sticky slide cover on here and that should trap a few particles of whatever your magic is.” He did so with no ill effect, then collected a few more samples the same way and passed them to other researchers for more tests and shipping to other labs.

“You're trying to figure out what magic is?” Twilight asked.

“Well, yes. Everything Scootaloo is, everything she can do stems from very advanced technology. We have no idea what your magic really is, we never had the chance to study it before, but with a little effort, hopefully we can figure it out.”

Their conversation was interrupted as Scootaloo came bounding down the stairs and around the corner. “Guys! I have great news! Watch this!”

Reaching out with her hoof, Scootaloo touched a pen on a nearby desk which stuck to the bottom of her hoof. She shook her hoof hard, but the pen stayed in place, then as she held it up for them to examine the pen levitated a fraction of an inch and began spinning.

The researchers were mesmerized, and even Betty was gaping openly. Twilight just looked confused. “Uh, why is this a big deal? Everypony can do that.”

“I never could!” Scootaloo responded. “I've used a prosthetic all my life because I could never do this, but this morning, suddenly I could!”

“That's amazing!” Betty responded, “What do you think caused it?”

Scootaloo was grinning from ear to ear. “I think I know. Last night at the coffee shop Celestia was trying to transfer a memory to me, but it wouldn't work. She actually lifted me off the ground with her magic, but nothing happened and we gave up. Then this morning the memory finally came though as a dream.”

She grimaced. “Well, more of a nightmare actually. But it worked; I think Celestia must have somehow rebooted my ability to use magic!” She actually grabbed Betty's hands with her hooves and pranced about in the joy of the moment.

She paused mid step. “Oh! It's also perfectly safe for humans to go to Equestria.”

That did shock Twilight. “But the Princess said-”

“Yes,” She replied getting back on all fours. “but I know what happened now. The people she met were speaking Japanese, and if you work backwards from the time of the memory, the year in our world was 1945.”

The room fell silent as that sunk in.

“Yeah, it was bad. Two groups of 'visitors' about a week apart? Fat Man and Little Boy. They all died from a massive overdose of radiation.”

Twilight looked around the room at the worried faces. “I'm sorry, I don't understand.”

No one spoke.

After a long silence, Betty put a hand on her shoulder. “It was a dark chapter in our history. The two groups of humans your princess met were not travelers, they were victims of a horrific weapon.” She sighed. “The only good news here is that in the nearly 90 years since then, no one has ever used that weapon again.”

“A weapon?” Twilight asked with come concern.

Scootaloo continued. “You remember I told you that humans have wars just like ponies do from time to time. The difference is we don't have the safety features you do. When we have a war, its not like the changelings coming to town; People die. People suffer. There is incredible pressure to win wars and end wars at any cost. In the 1940's and 1950s the human race developed a doomsday weapon. A single bomb that could destroy a city the size of Manehattan in under a second. We only ever used them twice, about a week apart, at the end of the biggest war this world has ever seen.”

Twilight was staring at Scootaloo in shock.

“The humans Celestia met were among the first and last victims of that weapon. Within a decade there were enough bombs built to end all life on this planet. There will never be another world war, because if there is, it will mean the extinction of the human species. Everything bigger than a cockroach will burn.”

Twilight was speechless, and Scootaloo continued. “On the upside, we have never had another world war. Plenty of small wars and petty conflicts, but never again the massive world-uprooting conflicts like World War II.”

“You had two worldwide wars before you sorted this out?!?” She finally managed.

“Yes. And all it took was the threat of total extinction to bring them to a end.” Betty commented dryly. “No one is proud of this legacy, but you should research the details before you judge us too harshly. Our base impulses are not so very different; your King Sombra just didn't have the ability to burn Canterlot to the ground with the push of a button. It does say something positive that we could, but in all these years, since their last use, no one has.”

Twilight looked at them seriously. “I'm going to need to speak with a history professor.”

Scootaloo chuckled at that. “I think I know a few who would love to meet you. Give me a few hours and I'll make the...”

She trailed off as the grad student came running back into the room clutching a glass jar of peaches. “They had some in the gift shop upstairs!” He handed the jar to Twilight who picked it up with her magic and concentrated. Nothing happened.

“I'm sorry, I can't stir these. There's something wrong with them.”

“The peaches are broken?” Betty asked innocently.

There were a few snickers around the room as Twilight gave Betty a look. “I don't understand, the only way this is possible would be if these peaches had been cooked at a temperature near that of liquid glass or even higher.”

“I think I'm beginning to get this...” One of the engineers said. “It sounds like whatever this magic is made of, it permeates your entire landscape. Anywhere there are ponies you have magic in the air and in the water. If you add peaches and close the jar, the particles of magic are still there, and will respond when someone activates them.”

Another engineer ventured. “But that would mean that while some magic particles are associated with an individual, they could also tap into the larger network to perform more complicated tasks.”

“Like my item creating spell!” Twilight exclaimed. “I bet you're right!”

“Well if that were the case, any magic you can do here would be driven by your own abilities.”

“Twilight told me about this upstairs,” Betty interjected. “Apparently some parts of their world are 'dead zones' where they can't do normal magic”

“If you were tapping into a larger system for some tasks then that would make sense.” Scootaloo reasoned. “What magic can you still do?”

...

An hour later, a very frustrated Twilight was sitting at the lunch table grumbling to herself when Scootaloo brought out the tray of vegetarian sandwiches from the deli and tried to console her.

“Hey, it’s not your fault that most of your magic is system-dependent.”

“It's just not fair! I couldn't even make you grow a mustache! No item creation, no time travel, no teleporting; even the gem finding spell only worked over a distance as far as I could reach!”

“Don't feel too bad; when I travel way out into the country on a call, I sometimes lose data reception. That means no access to that amazing library upstairs, no calls to talk to anyone else... it can be frustrating when you're stuck in an area with no reception.”

She tried to keep her a conciliatory look about her, but it took an effort, and as she sat down to eat her own lunch a smile broke out across her face. She held up a tray with one hoof and spun it in a slow circle. “I just can't get over how cool this is.”

“Oh yes. Gripping things with your hooves,” Twilight deadpanned. “Such fun.”

“Hey, this is still new and cool to me! Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of tasks I can only do with my prosthetic, but magic at my hooves? That's an awesome addition.”

“I told you,” Twilight groused. “Only unicorns can do magic. Any pony can pick-”

She was cut off by a scream from the room next door.

They both dropped their food and galloped into the lunch room where Betty had her glasses in her hands and was staring at them in shock.

“Betty?? What's wrong?!” Scootaloo asked.

“The... The screw fell out... I caught it, and I... I put it back in...” She stammered in astonishment.

They both looked at her.

“I don't have any screwdrivers.”

As Scootaloo and Twilight exchanged a confused look, she held up her glasses for them to see and the offending screw began to turn all on its own until it came out completely. Betty held out a finger tip and it levitated at the end of her finger.

“Oh my God!” Scootaloo breathed. “It must be transmissible!

Now Twilight was really looking confused. “Is she supposed to be able to do that?”

Betty concentrated on the screw, and it spun itself back into its hole, allowing her to replace her glasses. “No. And I haven't laid a hand on Celestia either.” She looked seriously at Scootaloo. “I've had the treatment of your synthetic biology, it’s a large part of the reason I'm still alive, and that might explain this, but I think we had better track down anyone you've been in contact with since last night.”

The list was longer than she expected, and included her family, several friends and a number or researchers from around the globe, some of whom were traveling.

Back home, the foals were having a blast with their new-found ability, and David had his hands full trying to keep them out of trouble.

“This is nuts! They're getting into everything! Sophie Belle has already figured out how to open padlocks, and I had to ask some of the agents to come by and help!”

Scootaloo was staring into space as she talked to her husband over her personal audio link. “Padlocks!?

“Yes! We're moving everything nasty, all the cleaning products and such to the very top shelves.”

Her face took on a look of irritation: it wasn't easy for a pony to reach the high shelves, and she was still a bit sensitive about her height. David seemed to know what was coming.

“I'm sorry dear, I know that bugs you, but I don't see that we have much choice.”

She sighed. “No, I guess we don't. How are you doing? Are you okay with all this?”

“Oh don't worry, we'll keep the little terrors out of trouble until it's all fixed.”

“No, I meant have you developed the ability too? You have my synthetic cells as well.”

There was a pause on the line.

“Huh, I guess I did get it too.”

A longer silence passed.

“Are you okay with this?”

She heard a devious chuckle. “Oh yes, I'm fine. In fact I've already thought of a few things I can do with this...”

Betty was only hearing Scootaloo's side of the conversation, and had been following as best she could, but at this point Scootaloo's eyes suddenly widened, she blushed beet red and said nothing for almost a minute as though listening intently. When she started breathing harder Betty cleared her throat, making her look up and blush even redder.

“Anyway! Yes! I am happy to know that you are fine, dear husband. Goodbye!”

She re-focused on the world around her. “He's... fine, but everyone at home can now use magic. I don't know if we're going to be able to contain this.”