5. Physics Kindergarten
Rainbow Dash flew east. Only a short distance she flew, until she reached that large, inland body of water. Her curiosity easily satisfied, she then headed south. Those big flying machines needed a closer look, and who better qualified than Equestria’s best flyer to do the looking? Without Twilight to slow her down, it would take but a few minutes to reach the spot where those “airplanes” arrived and departed.
She stayed within a few hundred feet of the ground, having noticed that those flying machines stayed far off the ground when not landing or taking off. Her keen eyesight spotted a few much smaller—and much quieter—flying machines, going off in various directions. But they were too slow; her interest was in big, fast ones.
Upon arriving the pegasus instantly noticed the long, thin roads the airplanes used. Soon it became apparent that they only appeared thin due to their length. Are they that big? At the far end, one of those machines was turning a corner onto that road. She quickly flew towards it, but stayed well off to the side, heeding Steve’s warning.
It really was that big. Equestrian airships may be that long, but they were mostly giant bags of gas. The most sophisticated and expensive used some levitation magic, but even those relied partially on lighter-than-air gasses. That long line of windows revealed that this machine was all passenger-carrying space. How could something so massive get off the ground? Yeah, it had wings, but there was a reason non-magical birds didn’t get very large. This thing was bigger than many adult dragons!
Once it had completed the turn, the airplane came to a complete halt and just sat there. What’s it waiting for? Rainbow Dash decided to get a close look. She headed towards the windows just above one of the wings to get a look inside. Those “noisy bits” weren’t very noisy at the moment, and since they were under the wing she figured she would be safe enough being above the wing.
There was no longer any doubt it was machine made of metal. As she passed over the wing, she could see the seams between the metal sheets comprising it. The whole structure had a precise curvature to it, but there were no joints, no way for the wing to flap.
After reaching the long, cylindrical body of the airplane, she peered inside a window. Humans were tightly packed together in closely spaced rows of seats. They didn’t look very comfortable. The flight must last a very short time for them to tolerate it. Rainbow Dash was glad she would never need to tolerate this.
Her ears flattened as they were assaulted by an ear-splitting noise. She then noticed the airplane was beginning to move, quite slowly at first, but steadily accelerating. As the wing passed under her, an intense heat radiated against her underside, forcing her to reflexively leap dozens of feet upwards. She looked down to see a superheated stream of air leaving that “noisy bit.” Steve wasn’t joking. It must be pushing the machine forward, as hard as it was to imagine something so massive being moved by merely blowing air out the back.
She moved far off to the side, if only to lessen the noise, but matched its speed. It wasn’t hard to do. Still, considering its size, it was impressive. And it was still accelerating. She looked down the road, eyeing the barrier at the end. It wouldn’t take long to reach if it kept speeding up like this. It had to be airborne by then. Her adrenaline started pumping. Let’s see just how fast and high these things can go.
The acceleration continued. It was now going what many pegasi would consider fast, yet it remained solidly on the ground. The barrier was seconds away. The increase in speed was relentless; it was committed. Suddenly the nose lifted up and it started to climb, rapidly, still gaining speed. Now it gets interesting. She followed as the airplane climbed several thousand feet, then started to bear left. It must have been going at least two hundred miles-per-hour, and it was still accelerating. Not many pegasi could do that, but Rainbow Dash was just getting warmed up.
A few minutes later they were over the ocean, at least a mile high and still climbing and still accelerating. The pegasus continued following. Presumably it was going to cross this ocean. How far did it have to go?
Still higher the machine climbed, gaining ever more speed. Nothing she couldn’t match—except for some reason it was becoming difficult to keep up. The air pushed back at her with increasing ferocity. Her wings pumped harder to compensate, but they became less effective with each beat. The airplane moved ahead, leaving her behind. She was slowing down! It was like—I’m running out of magic!
Panicking, the pegasus did her best to come to a halt as fast as possible. It would be suicide to return to the library while traveling at these speeds. Too late she realized that was a mistake, that she was rapidly using up what little magic she had left. The fail-safe triggered, putting her back in the library on a collision course with way too many books.
But she now had magic! Her wings produced thrust, bringing her to a halt just in time. She wiped her brow, exhaling. That was too close. Twilight would have killed her if she had gone splat against her books. Her wings exhausted, the pegasus set down on the floor, only to discover her legs had turned to rubber. Her belly was unceremoniously dumped onto the floor.
Rainbow Dash looked up at the pill dispenser, eyes full of contempt. Those plaid pills couldn’t match her awesomeness. She would never find out how high or fast or far those machines could go. She placed her head on the floor.
“This sucks.”
Twilight followed Steve into the kitchen. “Care for some tea?” he asked, as he filled an electric kettle with water.
“I would like that.” But then he probably already knew she would. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to see what their tea was like.
He put the kettle on its stand and switched it on. It appeared to run on electricity. Using electric power as a source of heat was common, but putting a dedicated heating element into a kettle? That seemed unnecessarily extravagant. Celestia, of course, had long ago taught her how to heat water to the optimal temperature using magic. Not coincidentally, it also taught her precise control over high magical exertion—high for a young filly, anyway.
Steve opened a cupboard, grabbed several small boxes out of it, and presented them for her inspection. “Which one do you want to try?”
Twilight had half-expected the tea varieties to be familiar and she wasn’t disappointed. Some were in fact familiar, like Chamomile, but not all. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tea made from ginger before; I'll give that a try.” He removed two bags from the box and set them aside, returning the boxes to the cupboard. Pre-measured, with integral filtering. Interesting. She could already smell the aroma.
As Steve fetched a pair of cups from another cupboard, he asked, “Could you give me an example of something your magic couldn’t do?”
She got the magic probe out of her saddlebag. “One of the first things I tried to do, on arriving in this realm, was to extend the length of this handle so I could poke it through my magic containment bubble.”
“Magic containment bubble?”
Oh, right. She had never mention that. “It allows us to bring some magic with us and not have it dissipate into the environment. It also makes us invisible and inaudible.”
“Which is why you were shocked we could see and hear you.” He put a bag into each cup. Each bag was attached to a string with a small paperish handle on the other end. It was quite convenient, no doubt, but seemed more trouble than it was worth to make. “What happened?”
“The magical field from the hole caused them to shutoff,” she explained. “I suppose it all worked out for the best.” The probe positioned itself in front of Steve. “Anyway, I couldn’t extend this handle. When I got back home, it extended just fine. It’s such a simple morphing spell I can’t understand how it could fail.”
Steve stared at the probe for a while. “When you extended the handle, did it keep the same cross-section?”
“Changing both length and cross-section is more complicated and not worth the trouble,” she explained. “Why would I want to?” Twilight couldn’t imagine what he was getting at.
The water had began to boil and Twilight noticed the kettle had shut off automatically in response. How was that done? Steve poured water into the cups. “One of the fundamental physical laws of our universe is the conservation of mass and energy. You were trying to create mass out of nothing, which is impossible.”
Twilight blinked. Impossible? “I’m familiar with conservation laws, but magic, back home anyway, has no trouble overriding them.” So, theoretically, if she had reduced the cross-section to exactly compensate for the increase in length, it would have worked? But it would have had to be exact and that wasn’t realistic. “What makes the conservation laws magic-proof here?”
“I could just as well ask what makes them not magic-proof there.” He tugged on the little paper handles, stirring up the water in each cup. “All I can do is try to explain why the conservation laws are fundamental here. Fortunately, being a post-doc in physics, I can do that.”
Her ears went fully erect, facing him. “I’m listening.” She hadn’t felt like this since she was a young filly trying to absorb everything she could about magic. A “post-doc” sounded like some kind of scientist—just what she needed.
He continued swirling the tea bags as he began lecturing. “Conservation laws are implied by the mathematical symmetries describing physical systems. Conservation of energy is implied by the symmetry of time invariance, which basically means that the laws of physics do not change over time. Magic here evidently does not have the power to change the laws of physics, even temporarily, so it cannot create or destroy mass and energy. Magic must have that power in Equestria.”
Of course it does. Magic can override just about all physical laws. Discord has proven that often enough. “You said Rainbow Dash and I broke your physical laws. How do you explain that?”
Steve avoided answering at first, suddenly preoccupied with the steeping bags of tea. “Rainbow Dash, I cannot. Even if I assume her incredible acceleration was fueled by the magical energy you brought with you, she still violated the conservation of momentum; there was no equal and opposite reaction. That’s just as impossible, yet I saw it with my own eyes.
“Your teleportation is as hard to explain. Best I can come up with is some sort of quantum mechanical tunneling, but that’s probabilistic and impossible to control, and the probability of it happening would be indistinguishable from zero anyway.
“But there must be a logical explanation consistent with our physical laws, because if you could change them you could also violate conservation of energy.”
That would logically follow, Twilight thought, and Discord did say this realm was a stickler for rules.
The tea was ready. Steve used those convenient paper handles to pull the bags out of the cups and dispose of them. After taking hold of both cups, he walked into the other room and set them down on a small table in front of a sofa, next to the Pinkie Pie doll and some confections they also brought with them from the office. Meg was still in the office, enjoying the company of the earth pony, her pet baby alligator, and one baby dragon.
While waiting for the tea to cool a bit, Twilight decided it would be a good time to do some more measurements on the magical field emanating from the doll. As Steve watched with interest, she got the flow meter out of her saddlebag and placed it on the floor. A lavender glow surrounded the doll as it joined the device on the floor, positioned a foot away. Finally, she retrieved a quill and notepad, and set them down on the table so as not to contaminate the measurements with their levitation.
“That’s a different device,” Steve observed.
Twilight walked over to said device and waited for the needles to settle down. “This one measures the velocity and viscosity of the magic flow,” she explained. “At the other end, the flow velocity is high, the viscosity is low, and the field is very weak; but here the velocity is low, the viscosity is high, and the field is much stronger than normal.”
“I guess that says something about the geometry of the hole?” he asked, as Twilight levitated the quill and pad just long enough to write down the numbers.
“I would assume so,” she concurred, as she moved the device a few feet away from the doll. “There must be a bottleneck that compresses the flow.” While waiting for the needles to settle again, she looked at the doll, contemplating Pinkie’s signature. She had insisted on signing the doll before allowing Twilight to take it—just in case it somehow got into a box full of other, otherwise identical, Pinkie Pie dolls.
“Not much difference,” she said as she again levitated quill and pad to write down the numbers. “Just a bit faster and a bit less viscous. I know from the measurement I took outside that the magic does lose its viscosity and speed away once it thins out enough.”
“What happens to it eventually?”
“Magic is inherently unstable here. My understanding is that it will eventually break down into some non-magical form of energy consistent with your physical laws.”
Steve sat down on the sofa and took one of the cups of tea, carefully taking a sip. Satisfied it had sufficiently cooled, he took a longer sip. “You asked us to keep an eye out for anything unusual,” he said.
Twilight remained on the other side of the table, as she took the other cup with her magic. “And?” Waiting for the answer, she took a sip. The ginger taste was quite pronounced, with vanilla in the background. She wondered if she could take some back with her, confident that Celestia would be quite intrigued by this tea.
“There has been some unexplained interference with UHF digital TV broadcasts. Not in an actively used channel, but close enough to one to attract attention. It’s being investigated, but so far the source of the interference cannot be tracked down. That’s highly unusual. It also seems to be getting worse over time.”
There were several words just used she did not know, but Twilight got the gist of it. “You think it may have something to do with the breakdown of the magic into another form of energy.”
“Yes,” Steve said, nodding. “If this breakdown is occurring throughout a very large volume, that would explain why the source cannot be tracked down.”
“And getting worse over time, as the hole gets larger,” Twilight said, connecting the dots. “But this is all just speculation for now.”
They both drank their tea in silence.
“Is there any chance the authorities here could locate that doll, the way you did?”
It hadn’t occurred to Twilight that might be a concern. After pondering the matter for a moment, she delivered her conclusion. “I don’t see how. My probe measures the effect of the magical field, or lack thereof, on a substance that can only be created magically. The substance is relatively stable in a strong field, but the weaker the field the faster it decays. A substance like that cannot exist naturally here, and I don’t see how you could make it.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Me too,” she sighed. I have no idea what their technology is capable of.
They drank in silence some more.
“I apologize in advance if I’m out of line for asking this,” Steve hesitantly said, “but have you tried fixing this with the Elements of Harmony or your Rainbow Powers yet?”
Twilight wasn’t sure how to answer that. It was obvious, of course, that either she had tried and it failed, or she had a good reason not to try—but she still didn’t care to mention The Mirror. “You shouldn’t be afraid to ask me anything,” she began, smiling. “No, we haven’t, because we have good reason to believe it won’t help—it might even make it worse.”
“Have you considered using them here, on this side of the hole?”
Actually, she hadn’t. There was certainly plenty of magic, and magic can definitely affect that doll. Her ability to levitate it proves that. But what would be the consequences of using the Elements in a realm that’s alien to magic? It was her use of the Elements in that mirror realm that caused this problem in the first place. It was far too risky to even consider except as a last resort.
Her eyes went wide as she realized that three of the Elements were here, right now, in this realm. She, herself, was now the embodiment of the Element of Magic. It was true that nothing of consequence had occurred as a result—at least nothing obvious. But that hole wasn’t obvious at first either; she needed to be sure.
Twilight closed her eyes and focused inward, sensing the Element within her. It did not seem to be troubled being in this realm. It didn’t seem to be aware of it at all, if that made any sense, but it was aware of the disharmonies of that hole through which Equestria’s magic drained. Maybe it was possible, but at what cost? What would the Elements do to this realm if they became aware of it upon being activated? Or, she grimly considered, remembering that Discord could not exist here, what this realm might do to the activated Elements.
“Twilight?”
She opened her eyes. Steve was looking at her, a worried look on his face. “I’m fine,” she quickly said. “I just realized the Element of Magic is in this realm with me and I was checking on it. It’s fine, too, and behaving itself.” He was about to ask the all too obvious question and she saved him the trouble. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea to use the Elements here. It’s not my first choice.”
“Gummy, no!” Pinkie Pie shouted in the other room.
Twilight sighed. “Don’t ask. I don’t know what she sees in that alligator. She’s just being Pinkie Pie.” More as a distraction than anything else, she moved the flow meter a few more feet away from the doll and took another measurement. Steve took this as an opportunity to help himself to another muffin.
Once he finished it, he tried to change the subject. “Can you help me understand what magic is?” he asked. “Is it even really possible for a non-magical creature living in a non-magical universe to understand it?”
Twilight put the flow meter back into her saddlebag as she thought about it. He knew literally nothing about magic, apart from what he may have seen in that cartoon, and that didn’t really count. Even a unicorn foal just starting magic kindergarten would know more, would have at least experienced magic and most likely have used some trivial magic.
However, neither was she explaining magic to a foal, but to another scientist—even if he was an unbelievably ignorant scientist by Equestrian standards.
“We don’t really know what magic is. It’s an energy dense field that permeates our realm, but we don’t know where it comes from, how it replenishes itself, or why it even exists. Our magic science focuses, mainly, on how to use it.” Twilight was a bit concerned that left a less than favorable impression.
“Nice to see we have that in common, too,” Steve said. “I could easily say something similar about aspects of our universe.” That made Twilight feel better and she smiled in relief. “So how do you use magic?”
“Only a living being can use magic; inanimate objects cannot use magic, though such objects through advanced techniques can be magically charged by a living being to perform some task.”
“Why does, say, a unicorn use magic differently than a pegasus?”
“The short answer is that different body plans have different magical abilities, different ways of utilizing the magical field. The long answer requires terminology and knowledge you don’t have.”
“Fair enough, but doesn’t this all just beg the question? Living beings are made of the same atoms as inanimate objects. Why is one collection of atoms considered animate and able to use magic and another collection is not?”
“One has conscious self awareness and the other does not. A deceased pony can’t use magic either.” Which on occasion has led to awkward situations involving pegasi in Cloudsdale. In any case, that was an oversimplification and she hoped she wouldn’t be called out on it. Some plants, such as poison joke, were also magical, powerfully so, though one could argue they were conscious in some sense too, despite lacking a nervous system.
“But how do you define conscious self awareness?”
Twilight’s ears sagged. “We can’t, other than we all self-evidently possess it.”
“Same for us,” Steve admitted. He helped himself to another cupcake. “So what allows a living being to tap into the magical field?” He took a bite as he waited for the answer.
“The two are coupled. Normally, the coupling occurs at conception and remains unchanged throughout life, though truly powerful magic can alter it.”
“Like how Tirek took all your magic and the Elements restored it.”
“Yes,” her voice having a distant quality to it. That cartoon again. But it did have its advantages too, she had to admit. She didn’t have to explain everything to him. She finished off her tea as Steve finished the cupcake.
“How do cutie marks tie into this? You ponies lost them when you lost your coupling to the magical field.”
You wouldn’t be saying that so casually if you knew what it was like to lose your cutie mark. Twilight gazed longingly at the muffins and cupcakes. It was getting close to lunchtime. She resisted temptation and answered the question.
“The magical field gives destinies to us ponies, which manifest as cutie marks magically projected onto the coat. A destiny may also come with a special talent. It’s a deep and fundamental form of magic, almost immune to manipulation by other magic. Most ponies have mundane destinies. The princesses, or my friends and I, on the other hoof…”
“I can imagine it must be a burden at times. We have the concept of destiny, but I couldn’t say it actually exists for us.”
Twilight thought about that for a moment, as she gave in and selected a muffin, taking a bite out of it. “I honestly don’t know whether to be happy or sad for you. When I got mine it was the happiest day of my life, but I had no clue what was in store for me.” She saw the look on his face. “Don’t tell me you saw that too,” she sighed.
“All six of you, your destinies linked when you all got your cutie marks at the same time, when Rainbow Dash did her first sonic rainboom. They were shown as flashbacks as the Cutie Mark Crusaders asked each of you for your cutie mark story.”
They saw me turn my parents into potted plants? For the nth time Twilight wondered why this was happening, how could it be happening. “Sounds about right.” Steve was about to apologize but she cut him off. “No, don’t. I need to just accept it as a fact of life and move on.”
Before Steve could reply, Pinkie Pie, Spike, and Meg entered the room. Pinkie was her usual joyful, carefree, untroubled self, as one would expect of the Element of Laughter. Meg looked a little overwhelmed. Be glad you met her here where her magic is constrained!
“Twilight, I’m heading back,” Pinkie informed her. “Meg, Steve, I’ll throw you a proper Pinkie Pie party when you visit Ponyville!” Gummy poked his head out of the earth pony’s saddlebag, blinking first one eye then the other. Pinkie Pie invoked the return spell and vanished.
Oh, Pinkie, why did you have to say that? Twilight thought as she face-hoofed.
“I take it she wasn’t supposed to say that. Should we just pretend she didn’t?”
Twilight looked at Steve. The offer seemed genuine, but it would only put off the inevitable. Maybe Pinkie did me a favor. “I believe I mentioned something about us princesses not being morons,” she said with a wry smile. “The possibility already occurred to us. May I assumed you’re interested in visiting Equestria?”
“Of course,” Steve replied, “but we’re not morons either. It’s apparent you’d rather we didn’t.” It was a simple statement of fact.
“The truth is I haven’t decided yet.” She paused before continuing. “I do have the authority to grant you entry and the ability to bring you across.”
The humans were holding their breaths, waiting for the inevitable but.
She sighed. “I know you’re excited at the chance to visit what you thought was a fantasy. I understand, honest I do. You know about Daring Do, right?”
They nodded.
“I’m a huge fan of her books; I’ve read every one of them. I thought she was fictional too, until one day my friends and I actually met her.”
“Season four, episode four, Daring Don’t,” said Steve.
Twilight couldn’t help a small laugh. “Cute play on her name… anyway… Rainbow Dash felt much like you do now, and she learned the hard way there was a difference between fantasy and reality.” And for Daring Do to learn that some things ought to be brought to royal attention before they got out of control. After all, who would have been called upon to clean up the mess had Ahuizotl succeeded?
“Point taken,” he conceded. “You’re concerned we’ll cause trouble, even if unintentionally, and you don’t need that right now.”
“That’s part of it.” There was also Celestia’s preference, and she couldn’t have humans walking the streets of Ponyville, never mind doing so while talking about that cartoon. “But I do appreciate the help you’re providing.”
Meg sat down in the chair adjacent to the sofa. “Thanks for being upfront about it,” she said. “Why don’t we change the subject?”
Good idea, Twilight thought with relief. Continuing that subject would be counterproductive. “Let’s,” she concurred. Getting back to physics would be productive.
“I’ve gone through the physics book you lent me.” She had meant to return it but it’d slipped her mind. Next time… “Much of it was familiar to me, but there were two topics that weren’t.”
Steve raised his eyebrows in curiosity. “And?”
“Relativity and Quantum Mechanics,” she stated. “I don’t know why those are unknown to Equestrian science. It could be because they don’t apply to our realm, or simply because we never had reason to suspect their existence.”
He leaned back. “I can’t know for sure, of course, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t apply. The fact that you can come here and remain in one piece, never mind alive, says that. If QM didn’t apply, then whatever material substance you’re made of couldn’t possibly exist here in any recognizable form. If Relativity didn’t apply, then it’s not clear how you could cross over into our universe; I’d assume it was some kind of connecting wormhole.”
“I see.” It had never occurred to her that their very physical forms might have been incompatible with this realm. Or that they might not have been able to so much as breath its air. Did Discord know that wasn’t a problem, or were they just lucky? But then, what are the odds they could share a spoken and written language but not physics?
It seemed all but certain their physics did apply, but that did not exactly please her. “I have to admit that I find… QM… bizarre. How could anypony come up with it, much less know it actually described reality?”
“That is a perfectly sane reaction,” he assured her. “Nonetheless, for nearly a century, countless experiments have been performed and not once has either theory been falsified. I see no reason why those experiments couldn’t be conducted in Equestria.”
I shall do that, if only to discover how magic interacts with Quantum Mechanics and Relativity. No physics book here was going to address that. Star Swirl’s work on time and space related spells would be a good starting point for the magic aspect. “It’s already on my to-do list,” she chirped.
“I bet it is,” he said knowingly. “I have a few books specifically on those subjects you can take home with you.”
“I’d appreciate that.” Wait, wasn’t he a scientist of some sort? “You said you were a post-doc in physics. Could you elaborate?”
Steve leaned forward, welcoming the invitation to talk about his research. “My area of research is gravitational waves, something predicted by General Relativity. I’m helping to design a next generation detector that hopefully will be sensitive enough to detect them.”
“I work on the simulation software for the project,” added Meg. “It’s how we met.”
Software what now? Later… “It sounds like these waves have never been detected. Isn’t that a problem for the theory?”
“Not yet. We know our existing detectors aren’t sensitive enough unless we got lucky. Plus there’s indirect astronomical evidence they exist.”
“There’s no way to artificially generate them?”
“Generating them is trivial. The problem is generating waves powerful enough to measure. That requires literally astronomical masses and accelerations.”
Whatever that means. Based on her knowledge of Equestria’s realm, that didn’t really make any sense. So much to learn.
Spike got her attention. “We need to head back.”
Right, lunch with Applejack and Rarity. “I’m sorry, but I have other commitments right now,” she apologized. She put away her quill and notepad.
“Sure, no problem, but before you go…” Steve quickly ran to the kitchen and returned with the box of ginger tea. “You can have this,” he said, handing it to her.
Twilight accepted the gift with her magic and put it in a saddlebag. “Thank you.”
They went back into the office, where Steve gave her two more books. Twilight told them not to expect Rainbow Dash to return; the adventurous pegasus would probably keep on flying until she ran out of magic and was forced to return home. Soon she was back home herself.
“Do you think we have a chance?” Meg asked as she looked once more for shed feathers or fur. At least this time they had a photo, a letter from Celestia, and Sugarcube Corner packaging.
“A chance, yes,” Steve said, as he watched her search in vain. “I dunno… We should keep being helpful and avoid giving her the notion we’re loose cannons.” She checked the sofa. “Still nothing?”
“Nada.” She stood up, but continued staring at the sofa. “I guess if they brushed their coat and mane every morning, there wouldn’t be much to shed during the day.”
“Funny how cartoon ponies don’t seem to worry much about personal hygiene.”
“Yeah… the disadvantages of being real.” She looked at her husband. “Too bad we can’t show that picture to my brother.”
“Trying to pass off a photoshopped picture as real? You know he’ll only see it as further evidence you have an unhealthy obsession with ponies.”
She looked off to the side, averting his gaze. “Why does CGI have to be so damn good now,” she complained. “Even bronies wouldn’t believe those pictures.”
“Twilight could personally appear at a convention, sitting next to and having a conversation with Tara Strong, and most of the audience would still be convinced it was somehow faked.”
“You’re probably right,” Meg sighed. “Not as if we have the option of booking Her Royal Highness anyway.” If it’s even a good idea to have her in the same room with the people behind the cartoon, she thought, being still fresh in her mind Twilight’s reaction to her ascension in Magical Mystery Cure.
“We did find out Derpy was a mailmare,” she remembered. “Fan fiction consensus was right about that. That was never in the cartoon.”
“Then we better avoid Lyra like the plague,” Steve joked, “if we do visit Equestria.”
That would be a nice problem to have, she thought. “Let’s get lunch.”
“So you’re ruling out the Elements for now.” Applejack took a sip of her apple juice.
“I have to consider it a last resort.”
Rarity subtly tossed her mane. “I quite agree. It wouldn’t be proper to put their realm at unnecessary risk.”
Twilight took a bite out of her sandwich, focusing on how the pickles complemented the daffodils. After washing it down with her lemonade, she continued. “I still hope I can figure out a way to plug that hole once I learn enough about their realm’s physics.” She stared at the sandwich. “It’s just so different. It’s like being in magic kindergarten all over again.”
Rarity gave her a considered look. “I should think all that learning would make you happy, darling.”
Twilight looked back at her sheepishly. “Ordinarily, yes. I’m just not used to being so… clueless, and to make it worse there might not be any difference between their physics and ours, apart from us having magic.” She helped herself to the shared plate of hay fries.
“Does it matter?” asked Applejack.
“It does, a lot,” she replied. “First, it would be a huge advancement in Equestrian science.” Not that it meant as much to them as it did to her. “Second, it would mean their technology would work here. They are far advanced compared to us.”
“I suppose, lacking magic, they would have good motivation to pursue alternatives, “ observed Rarity.
“But we do have magic,” Applejack pointed out.
“They have machines that can do things we can’t even imagine doing with magic.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Rainbow Dash did spin quite a tale about a flyin’ machine.”
So, despite Steve’s warning, she went and did that anyway. At least she got back in one piece. “I don’t know what she told you, but I doubt she had to exaggerate much.”
Green eyes peered into lavender eyes. “Yer wonderin’ what to do once that hole is fixed.”
No point denying it to the Element of Honesty. “Yes,” she admitted. “We could simply forget they exist, but there’s so much we could learn from them.” Her ears flattened. “If only they didn’t know so impossibly, embarrassingly much about us.”
“Kinda gives ’em an unfair advantage, don’t it?”
“Then we find a way to turn it to our advantage, darling.”
“It is why they’re willing to help us,” said Twilight, before finishing off her sandwich.
“And they want nothin’ in return?”
“They did ask to meet Derpy”—the other two mares reacted with raised eyebrows—”but she wouldn’t do it. Can’t say I blame her. No doubt many ponies would have felt the same way.” She munched on a hay fry before continuing.
“They also had questions about certain events here. It turns out that show takes liberties with the facts occasionally.” Her voice dropped to a mutter. “…sometimes in a less than flattering way.” She munched on another hay fry.
“Yer holdin’ somethin’ back.” Applejack was glaring at her.
The alicorn sighed. She again checked on the spell keeping their conversation private in the busy restaurant. “They’ve expressed an interest in coming here.”
“You’re seriously considering it, aren’t you?”
“Yes, Rarity, I am.” Looking her in the eye, she then droned, “But remembering how everypony reacted to Zecora…”
“Yes, well, indeed,” she blushed, “but everypony has learned their lesson…”
“Regardless, we’ve decided not to reveal their existence until we’ve decided to establish relations with them.” The other mares, of course, knew who she meant by we.
“So how will ya learn enough about ’em to make that decision?”
Twilight drank some more lemonade before replying. “I’m not sure. We’re only directly interacting with the two we’ve already met. It’s unwise for us to simply mingle with the natives, all things considered, and observing while invisible leaves a lot to be desired.”
“Why not simply turn ourselves into humans, like we did into breezies?” the fashionista suggested.
“I did consider that. The problem is, humans are not magical. I don’t know what would happen if an embodiment of an Element became non-magical. That wouldn’t have been a problem a few months ago, but we are what we now are.”
“I reckon that would be an unacceptable risk.”
“Another problem is that we know next to nothing about their realm. Even my experience with the mirror realm is of limited help. Mostly it lets me know how much I don’t know. We’d be at the mercy of those two humans, with no magic at our disposal.”
“Then the solution is obvious, darling!” The other two mares looked questioningly at Rarity. “Bring them here and turn them into ponies. They know all about us, so they’d fit right in!”
“That sounds like a mighty fine idea. It’d give us all a chance to see what they’re made of.”
Twilight looked back and forth between the two. “It’s an option,” she said hesitantly. It was an option not without a serious flaw. “They might not care to be turned into ponies.”
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And suddenly, Steve and Meg recall the Conversion Bureau fanfiction. Bad reactions are had by all.
5429109
Those two are quite familiar with fan fiction, including the dark/grimdark genres. Though it will never be explicitly stated, due to a rule against meta-stories, they have been reading Fimfiction for years. Beyond that… spoilers.
...nice.
5588650 Finally! Someone picks up the reference
I'm liking this so far. Wibbly wobbly fourth walls are fun.
5588672 ..... I don't get it.....
6307743 Austraeoh.
Huh, considering the date of this chapter... it's quite funny to read it after gravitational waves were first observed.
8531005
Can they really generate small gravity waves?
8553535
Not only can they, so can you. Actually, so are you, right now.
It's just that those waves are so tiny it would be like detecting that a single atom fell into Tokyo Bay by watching for the waves on the Texas coast. Except, not quite so easy.
Did she now?
Someone doesn't know their fans...
Pinkie should have been able to use her magic. If for no other reason but to push Twilight over the edge of sanity.
9184394
Discord? Why are you on here?
Also, I agree 937465%
Just found this fic, and loving it so far!
Thank you, Pinkie!
Shouldn't that second "I" be "I'll"?
Even though you made a point not to explain an issue and question they had from the games. You won't answer something minor yet you have no issues talking about something important like the elements.
Great, not only is she a magic lying detector, but she can even tell when someone is holding something back. Come on that's too op. You can tone it down a little.
They’re missing the obvious solution… bring the hole back to Equestria. Magic flows out of Equestria, and flows back in through the plushie. Total magic present remains constant.
11603794
Already addressed in an earlier chapter. Destroying or removing the anchor does not destroy or remove the hole. It would just leave the hole without an anchor, allowing it to travel freely with no way to control it.