Charles Nicholson is inventive, slightly eccentric, and soon-to-be unemployed. He uses what little time and money he has left to run one, final experiment before his employers come to shut his beloved lab down.
Twilight Sparkle has discovered Multiverse Theory, and is fascinated with the implications. She experiments with some new spells to see if she can contact another universe.
What could these two have in common, and how different can they be?
I can't guarantee that I will be updating this regularly. I write when I am inspired, which could mean as much as three chapters in one day or as little as three words in a month.
UPDATE: New cover art! This image has been brought to you by my good friend, Dustygrafix. Go commission something awesome from him; the Greater Good demands it!
I like it so far it's good I hope to see more soon but since your the writer take as much time as needed its best at least to me to space it out a bit and write when inspiration hits you but then again I've never wrote anything remotely interesting since grade school to save my life so I could be wrong in my advice in this matter however I like very much to write down what I dreamt the night before and if it stays in my head long enough depending how much of the bits and pieces I retain....only to realize I don't have a computer just an I pod and unfortunately I gather I can't ost stories of ponies anywhere on my iPods memory banks
yeah i've read and fav'ed this a long time ago, its a great story and i'm waiting for updates
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And I apologize so much for that. I started college a little after posting the first chapter, and it's seriously cut into my writing time. That being said, chapter 2 is nearing completion, and knowing that people want to read it is helping to inspire me to write faster.
I looked at the cover image and immediately thought; Middle aged man with beer gut wakes up at 2am and heads down to the kitchen wearing nothing but his boxers for a late night snack and discovers a portal to Equestria in his refrigerator.
I can't stop giggling.
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Finally read the 3rd chapter. It's eerie how I close I called it.
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Just wait until you read
part bchapter 4. It's a real mind bender.Ooooooh, eldritch abomination style! I approve wholeheartedly! =D I think I'm going to have reread both chapters a few times to really take in everything, which suggests you've done it right!
Very interested to see how this one goes...
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I'd be ever-so-grateful if you put that in spoiler blocks.
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Thanks.
I would assume that Charles didn't LOOK like Charles on the Equestria side - humanoids are already known of there, a la Minotaurs...
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He sort of did. He had four extremities, two of which he stood on, one head, and no tail. However, Twilight was more preoccupied with his blatant disregard for the laws of physics. His body is based on his own universe's geometry, which is different enough from the MLP universe's geometry that they literally do not mix.
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Mind bender? More like mind blender.
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I just had a thought. Can Discord talk to it? He's the closest thing to an Eldritch Abomination Equestria has.
That would be interesting to see.
It appears again. Twilight panics and calls Celestia. Celestia arrives in full battle gear ready to fight the invader. Magic has no effect on it. Celestia calls in Discord. Discord talks to the creature in a language that causes everypony's brains to hurt. The creature responds and Discord translates. "His name is Charles. He wants a hug."
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Perhaps, although I think even Discord would be left with a splitting headache.
...oh...that's not good.
If Twilight's spell is successful, and those scientists try to recreate the experiment to show their work, it'll most likely fail and they'll be reduced to laughing stocks.
So...sequel?
I'd like to see one where they manage to punch through and fully materialize in Equestria.
I feel like the whole reality destroying abomination thing is a side-effect of crossing over.
Their deformed appearance for instance could be due to simply being out of focus as if one were looking at them through a sheet of water.
Once fully over, they'd snap into focus and look pretty much normal and be safe to touch.
Of course such a thing would just be another generic HiE story then.
The eldritch abomination angle is what makes this story unique.
tfw this all happened because humans live in 3 dimensional space, while ponies live in 2 dimensional. So we are extra dimensional being by default, which is basicly equals insanity fuel.
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Actually, the device is only meant to teleport things through a single universe, kind of like a Stargate. It was successful because it teleported Charles by several inches in the laboratory. Also, remember that he didn't visit Equestria until several hours after the experiment was done, and he got there through his fridge. It's entirely possible that his experiment had absolutely nothing to do with his dimension hopping, and it was all Twilight's fault with her summoning spell. Alternatively, Twilight's spell may have been too weak to actually accomplish something of that scale, and the fridge portal was a temporary fracture in reality caused by the teleportation device. Or it may even be that neither of them actually caused the portal to appear, and the stars just happened to be aligned just right.
A sequel is unlikely. That being said, I may right a bonus chapter, if I feel up to it. We shall see.
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This is quite well-written, even if the pace is somewhat slow. One thing though:
According to My Little Pony: The Art of Equestria the ponies' technology is comparable to Earth's as it was just past the 1900s, so there should be no computers. Although, that same book mentions that they'll sometimes use higher examples of science for dramatic or comedic effect. Even so, I like the story so far.
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This is an interesting topic you bring up, because depending on how you define a computer, they've been around during, and even before the 1900's. The first mechanical computers were built in the early 1830's and are still used even today, usually in the form of analogue vehicle consoles (speedometers, RPM meters, odometers, etc).
thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/vintage-car-dashboard-1861085.jpg
However, the more interactive types, such as adding machines, fell out of use with the invention of the electronic pocket calculator.
hpmuseum.org/americ.jpg
The first computer to use electricity was the Harvard Mark I, designed in 1937. It was actually a mechanical computer that used electric relays and switches as part of its process, allowing it to be both smaller than a computer of similar computational power and larger than a typical mechanical computer (it is classified as an electro-mechanical computer). The five ton machine had to be operated by a 5hp electric motor. It was instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb, as it could perform calculations with greater speed and accuracy than a human, even with a complex adding machine.
cs.auckland.ac.nz/historydisplays/FifthFloor/LogicAndSwitching/HarvardMark1/HarvardMark1A.jpg
The first computer that was digital, programmable, and electronic came about in 1943, in the form of the Colossus. It was used during WWII to decode heavily encrypted German messages.
i.ytimg.com/vi/knXWMjIA59c/maxresdefault.jpg
Anyway, this is the machine that I was referring to when I mentioned Twilight's computer:
i.ytimg.com/vi/d5GP5-gLYZI/maxresdefault.jpg
By the looks of it, I'd say it's probably an electro-mechanical, or possibly even a digital (albeit by some type of alternative circuitry) computer of some type.
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It actually looks electronic, but most likely quite analog. In order to read anything as finicky as brainwaves using digital circuitry, you'd not only need to process a high-frequency signal with generous amounts of noise twice (once DA, once AD), but you'd also need fairly hefty processing power (well... relatively speaking).
In contrast, this thing seems to run purely on analog, and it looks more like a fairly straightforward converter machine - I suspect there's a fair amount of discrete components inside, but they're mostly intended to tune to a specific frequency and then adapt the output band towards it, I guess.
At least that's what I get just from how it looks. I also assume that, despite its seeming advancement, it still probably runs on some form of magic, at least in the key areas (like the dome) - wherever the technology is simply not advanced enough. I mean, if there's one thing they do well, it's magic.
Funny story, too... When computers were just becoming a thing, they were sometimes considered far inferior when contrasted with more mature technologies, most (if not all) in the analog area. I mean, it took something like 50 years before digital computers could process analog signals just as well as contemporary purely-analog systems. Like it or not, analog was fairly mature at that point, and we knew what we were doing. Digital - not so much... ;)
So, um... I know you're not around right now, but I'd love to see a sequel to this. For starters, Charles could avoid opening doorways, and could instead (on Dimitri's advice? he seems to see things at their simplest, it looks like) focus on some sort of remote-sensing. I mean, they already have something common (ie. "2D-enough") between them - moving pictures. And I'm sure Twilight would relish actually being able to communicate, especially when there's no real danger of eldritch abominations (to ponies, anyway) passing through and making everypony insane...
Also, first contact math sounds like something they'd both enjoy...
And I have to admit, that bit about Twi getting checked into a mental institution was just sad... Twilight's mind is a natural resource, if not an outright national treasure* - seeing it damaged in any way brings this profound sense of loss that I can't quite shake. So, with that in mind, I'd actually like to see her somehow mend what was broken - perhaps with a little bit of "the more I understand Earth, the less I understand Equestria" to it?
If she could examine objects from our 3D world, maybe she could learn to wrap her head around it? Something as simple as a rock would do. I mean, anything from over here would be "3D enough"... They'd have to solve the issue of "shit from your universe is melting shit in mine" first, though... Actually, I never picked up on why that happened, either - differing laws of physics?
* +1 Internets to those that can figure out the reference here ;)