Limits
The Ponyville market is strangely vacant as Twilight and I walk through it, as there seems to only be a few ponies out and about. This town is not comparable to Manehattan, or Canterlot for that matter, but I would have expected the stalls to at least be open. Heck, the sun hasn’t completely set yet! “Hey, Twilight, where is everypony?” I ask her, genuinely confused.
“Shops close much earlier in small towns such as Ponyville, and usually all at the same time,” She explains while we walk. “As a result nopony has much of a reason to be outside at night, and that makes it really quiet when compared to Canterlot, or other more developed cities.”
“Oh, that makes sense. I’ve never really thought about it, to be honest.”
We continue walking through the near-empty street for a few minutes, only seeing the occasional pony here and there. She looks to me curiously. “You’re from Manehattan, right?” How does she know where I used to live? I don’t think I ever told her!
“How did you know?” I ask aloud.
She looks away and says, “Princess Luna mailed me your housing records at my request-”
“What?! When did you have time to do that? Why would you need to do that?” I interrupt, raising my voice slightly. My housing records? That’s kind of creepy...
Her eyes widen as she briskly responds, “Oh no, I did that before I knew you were at Fluttershy’s, so I had a few hours. I was appointed by Princess Celestia to assist in analyzing the site of your, uh, experiment, and determine the potential effects, if any, it induced. I concluded that a good course of action would be to do some research on the scientist involved. Which is you of course,” She laughs awkwardly. “So, when I mailed Princess Celestia about getting information about you, she sent me a letter telling me to expect a few letters from Princess Luna within the hour. Within twenty minutes she sent me research papers, your housing records, your schooling, and-”
I cut her off, “Okay, I get it. Anyways, as you apparently know, I grew up in Manehattan. I take it you also know that I attended Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns?” She nods. “Well, I was in my final year there when you completed your entrance exam. Even though I wasn’t lucky enough to see the dragon you somehow hatched, I did hear the loud crash when it burst through the roof.”
She blushes, looking down. “Oh, right. That.”
“Don’t be embarrassed! That was pretty impressive for an adult, let alone a seven year old! There is no way I could do an age spell of that magnitude. Heck, I had trouble turning a chick into a hen during one of my final exams,” I admit to my own shame. Age spells are horrendously difficult and require immense power when trying to change the age of magical creatures. Chickens are different. They have no way to naturally produce magic, only absorbing some minor amounts from the environments, and as such the spell shouldn’t have been a problem for a unicorn ready to graduate. Anyways, it’s hard to imagine anypony could change the age of a dragon. Dragons have more magic than any other creature, as well as a natural resistance, so I almost didn’t believe it when I heard how it happened.
She grows bashful. “It’s not like it was something I did on purpose! I was only a child experiencing a magical flare!”
I smirk. “The most powerful magical flare in recorded history. I’m almost jealous by how much magic you have.” The jealously is very real, but it would be rude to whine that her thaum gland produces more magic than mine. Even if I am convinced she unfairly got that powerful due to the element of magic cheating for her ever since the entrance exam, if unknowingly. No way to test the hypothesis at the moment, though. I have a bit more than the average unicorn via practice, anyways, so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. Even if I don't genetically have very much...
She relents, “Okay fine, I admit it! It was pretty impressive. But I can’t take all the credit! I recently discovered that my friend Rainbow Dash, who I didn’t know at the time, performed a sonic rainboom moments before I took my test. I was extremely nervous, and as such I could barely produce a spark with my horn. When the shock wave washed over Canterlot it unlocked something in me, and for reasons unknown, my magic lost control and did more than just complete the test. The rest you most likely know.”
“Interesting.” And it really was, but I’ll ask her more when we reach her house. Wherever it is. “I’ll have to ask more about that later, but right now I’m curious; where exactly is your house?”
“Oh, it’s actually the town library.” Huh, that’s pretty neat. “It’s called the Golden Oaks, and is built within a tree.” That’s a new one. I don’t think I’ve heard of a library inside a tree.
We walk in silence for a few more minutes, but finally Twilight’s library comes into view. It may be growing dark, but the orange glow of the sunset is still enough to illuminate the absolutely massive trunk in the distance, a few windows dotting its surface. After another minute of traveling, we make it to the door, and I glance up at the healthy looking leaves attached to the thick branches, impressed that the tree can survive with an entire library built into it.
“I’ll admit, Twilight, when you told me you lived inside a tree I didn’t expect it to be alive,” I remark as she unlocks the door.
Twilight looks to me after the door opens without a sound. “I heard that the tree was fully grown into this shape using some extremely complex spell matrices, as well as a bit of earth pony magic. Post construction, some simpler spells were woven into the trunk to keep it healthy, and even allow somepony to remodel it if they redesign a specific sigil correctly.” She steps through the open door and beckons me inside. “Anyways, come on in!”
Once we both enter, the baby dragon she hatched comes into view, currently reshelving books. He lives with her? Did she adopt him, or are they like brother and sister? Hmm… I don’t think I really thought about that. His name is a mystery as well.
The dragon drops a book in surprise at the noise. He quickly turns around, but upon noticing Twilight he relaxes. “Oh, it’s just you, Twilight.” He glances to me, his weird spine things perking up. “Oh, hey. Are you the pony Twilight said she was out getting?” She planned on having me over before she even asked me?
Looking to Twilight, who smiles nervously, I say, “Yeah, that’s me.” I walk up to the dragon and hold out my hoof, offering to shake his, uh, claws. He wraps his claws around my hoof, which feels a bit creepy to be honest, and we both shake limbs. “My name is Illuminating Fabric, but you can just call me Fabric if you want. It is a bit long," I offer.
“I’m Spike!” He enthusiastically chirps. Dropping my hoof, allowing me to place it firmly on the ground again, he continues, “So, are you the one who blew up their house?” Twilight’s eyes widen. “It’s all Twilight would talk about.” Well, he’s blunt.
Twilight nervously glances between the both of us before trotting up to him and harshly whispering. My ears flick towards them, and I am able to just barely pick out what she’s saying, “Spike! Try to be more sensitive!”
Spike’s head fins lower as he apologizes, “Sorry Twilight.”
I step in. “Twilight, it’s fine. I’m not offended or anything. Let’s just go over what you wanted us to do, okay?”
She looks to the dragon. “Spike, Fabric and I are going down into the basement. Come knock on the door when it’s almost time for dinner, okay?”
The little dragon salutes. “You got it Twi!”
Walking up to me, she asks, “Is that alright with you? I have a few things I need to ask, and the basement would give us privacy.”
“That’s agreeable.” I say, nodding my head.
She grins widely. “Great! Okay, follow me. The basement is this way.” Her grin worries me, but I follow regardless.
She goes through what I assume to be the basement door, but before I enter Spike stops me. “She can get a bit crazy when she’s like this.” I give him a funny look. “It’s true!” he defends himself. “Her smile is exactly the same as whenever she gets a new book to study, or—”
Twilight’s voice echos from the basement, “Fabric! You coming?”
I give Spike an apologetic look, and say, “I have to go. Nice meeting you!” I then respond to Twilight, “Yeah, coming down now.” Walking through the door, and closing it behind me, I immediately come across a flight of stairs.
After I make my way down, I come across Twilight standing in the middle of the room, various machines in the corner. One is set up near Twilight, though, and at first glance it seems to be a thaumograph.
She turns around upon hearing my hoofsteps. “Ah, there you are! So, I planned on asking you a few questions related to your research. However, in light of new discoveries, namely your unique physiology, I was wondering if we could get some data in a controlled setting."
“I’m not sure I—”
“Oh come on!” She urges. “You said yourself that you don’t know how this happened! What better way to figure it out than the scientific method? I’ll ask you to perform certain actions, and then write down what I observe.” A couple of blank notebooks appear with a flash, and she scribbles something on the headers of each, an eager twinkle in her eyes. “It would also help if you describe any and all sensations you experience.”
I sigh, deciding there is no true reason not to. “Fine. However, I won’t do anything that makes me uncomfortable.”
“Great!” She exclaims, a huge smile on her face. “Let’s get started right away! This is going to be so much fun!” She giggles as she levitates the thaumograph's headpiece over to me.
As the device sits snugly over my head, she observes the thaumograph's readouts, a steady stream of data being produced. “Uh, I already said that I don’t use magic to transform, so why are you doing this?”
“I need to know if you are able to mimic a normal unicorn’s magical production, as well as if it gets interrupted at all when you transform.” She flicks a switch on the machine, halting the stream of data, and records the information in one of the notebooks. She turns the machine back on. “Okay, I need you to get rid of your thaum gland. You can do that, right?”
“Yes, I think I can do that. I didn’t have it when I was in the tub, after all. Tell me when to do it.”
She watches the papers coming out of the machine, and waits a few seconds. “Okay, now.” I quickly determine the parts making up my thaum gland and deform it, a slight tingle accompanying the change.
“It’s gone,” I tell her. The red lines on the thaumograph's readout quickly narrow as the magic within me bleeds into the background.
She turns off the machine and meticulously reads through the data, writing a note every now and then. “Amazing! This shows a sharp decrease in magic until it stabilizes and detects only background levels, as if you never had any to begin with! Tell me, what did it feel like?” She rests her quill on the other notebook, waiting for my response with a giddy smile.
“It felt tingly. That’s about it, really.” I say with a shrug. She deflates slightly, but writes it down regardless.
Her motions pause, her quill resting just above the page. “Hang on, you mean you only felt a tingle? That’s it? You lost all the magic in your body, but you are perfectly fine?” I nod, the implications apparent to me as well. “This means you do not require magic to live! Every single creature in Equestria needs at least some magic, even the ones that don’t produce it, so this is completely unheard of!” She breaths out, her expression quickly growing unhinged. Was this what Spike was referring to?
“Shouldn’t we wait to discuss the results after gathering the data?” I remind her in an attempt to calm her down. Luckily, it works.
Her ears perk up, and she concedes my point by saying, “You’re right!” A short giggle escapes her. “Silly me getting off track, we need to move on!” She levitates the equipment off my head and roles the thaumograph back into the corner with the other machines. When all the equipment is put away, she rolls out a portable microscope, looking pretty high quality if I say so myself. It’s obvious what she wants it for.
“So, you want to look at me under a microscope?” I deduce. “It’s hopeless you know. I doubt it’s powerful enough to be able to even catch a glimpse at what passes as my new cells.”
Her tail twitches in agitation. “This is a state-of-the-art optical microscope that can see things down to twenty micrometers. Almost at the limit of what can be seen with visible light!” She smirks, straightening out her stance.
“Sorry, but you would have to get down to ten nanometers to even begin seeing it, and even then you’ll only see a blob. A resolution of about two nanometers would be sufficient to make out some details, but a resolution of around five-hundred picometers would be needed to observe it in enough detail to even begin to understand it. So until Equestria invents a new type of microscope, you won’t be able to see a single cell.”
Her jaw drops. “What?! How is that possible?”
“I would love to explain it, but a lot of the details would go over your head.” Twilight’s ears fold back in frustration and she opens her mouth, but I quickly add, “Not that you aren’t smart enough, it’s just the terminology to describe this in full detail literally does not exist.” I pause, thinking for a second. A solution comes to me, making me feel a bit stupid. I facehoof. “Oh, duh! I could just create a three dimensional illusion and you could write down your observations. Simple!”
She looks dubious. “You actually know what your ‘cells’ look like? It’s a good idea, but how can you even know that?”
“I just know. I can’t explain- Well... actually, when this happened I learned a lot about what I am. If I want to know something, it comes to me instinctively. It’s not all there at once, but when I need it it’s there. Including vocabulary that doesn’t exist, but makes perfect sense to me regardless.” My weight shifts as I shuffle my hooves, tilting my head in confusion. “Strangely, this doesn’t include what created these machines or anything unrelated. No context at all.”
She squints, saying, “Let me get this straight; you now possess a phenomenal amount of advanced knowledge, but nothing unrelated to the tiny machines making you up, or even where they came from? That’s strange… Regardless, I think I’ll take up your illusion idea last, because it’ll be time-consuming to examine it. I’ve decided to save the microscope for later as well, which is what I should have done in the first place.” With a tail flick she turns around towards the microscope. She pushes it back into the corner with her magic and comes back to me.
“So, what’s next?” I ask her.
She bites her lip. “Well, I was wondering how detailed your disguise is. Is your equine form skin-deep, or are all the organs there?” She looks me over. “From a cursory examination, you seem absolutely perfect!” Her eyes widen as she realizes what she said. “Purely from from a mimicry standpoint!” I just roll my eyes. “A-Anyways, I know you have lungs, deduced from the fact you can talk, as well as a thaum gland, but I’m unsure the nature of other such areas. Do you have a functional digestive system? How about urinary? I, uh, was able to determine that you have an anus and external genitalia, but are those for show or functional?” She blushes slightly.
I sputter out, “O-of course they-” My throat catches. Are they? My digestive and urinary systems, um, excrete waste, but they currently are not processing anything. They don’t need to, after all. But what about reproduction? Would I even be able to have children? The answer comes to me quickly; my cells can make perfectly normal ovum based on my DNA as long as they have organic matter to construct them with. I wasn’t quite planing on having kids anytime soon, but still having the option is a relief. “Yes, my organs are functional, even my reproductive system.”
Twilight’s quill scratches down the information to her notebook, and then asks, “What organs can you function normally without, while still holding up your equine form?”
“Uh, all of them except the obvious?”
She raises an eyebrow. “Even your brain?”
“Of course not!” I hastily say, but then reconsider. “Well, maybe. But there is no way I am testing that!”
“I wasn’t going to ask that, considering it might accidently kill you. I was only wondering if you knew is all.” She turns the page of the notebook. “Anyways, how are your pain receptors? Do you feel things the same way as before?”
My mind flashes back to the timber wolf biting off a good chunk of my leg, and I grimace. “Yes, when my cells are configured to make neurons I can feel. When I deform them, however, it’s painless because the neurons themselves come apart. So don’t go asking me to cut off my leg without deforming first, because it would feel, and look, like it does for a normal pony.”
“Oddly specific example,” She observes, looking at me curiously.
I’ve already told her this much, no point in leaving the rest out. “I kind of got attacked by timberwolves in the Everfree. One of them got a good chunk out of my leg.” Twilight’s ears fold back as she flinches. “Yeah, it felt about as bad as you’d imagine. Luckily, I was able to get it back.” As well as the head of one of the timberwolves. No need to tell her about that minor detail, though. How would she even react to the fact I can deconstruct any organism, and apparently any material, to make more of myself?
“How did you manage to get away?”
“Uh.” Buck, what do I say? Maybe the truth, but with a few details omitted? Yeah, that’s not really lying… Right? “I was able to kick one of them hard enough that it dropped the piece of my leg, and then the others got scared and ran off,” I explain, shifting my weight with a nervous grin.
“Really? One kick and they backed off?” Her muzzle scrunches up in confusion. “That’s strange, from what I’ve read timberwolves are usually less skittish than that.”
“Maybe they sensed I wasn’t food, and decided I wasn’t worth it?”
“Maybe,” she says slowly, staring at me with an inquisitive expression. She then perks up after a few moments, grabbing the other notebook that I’ve come to associate with physical observations. “Anyways, we’re getting off topic. I want to test the limits of your transformations.”
“How so?” I ask, curious as to what she’ll come up with.
With a flash of light, a long piece of parchment appears directly in front of Twilight. “Well, the plan is for you to change into increasingly more complicated structures.” she levitates a quill, her notebooks floating off to the side in her magenta light. “Starting with inanimate objects, and ending with organic creatures, this exercise should shed some light, mostly for myself, on what you can and can’t do. So, give me a moment to finish this checklist, and we’ll start!” she says with a smile, before rapidly writing her list, humming a random tune.
As she writes, I can’t help but wonder what she’ll have me do. I know that I can easily turn into things my ‘instincts’ know about at the molecular or atomic level, or at least mimic well enough to pass, but I’m unsure on how well I can change into animals I lack genetic information for. I haven’t actually tried changing into anything that already exists yet, just variations of my own biology, so this testing might help me as much as Twilight.
“Okay, done!” Twilight says with excitement. She examines her list and then looks to me. “First things first, let’s start this exercise by having you turn your foreleg into various metals. Or if you cannot do that, just try to make the properties as close to genuine as possible.”
My limitations instantly come to the forefront of my mind. “I can replicate the electrical conductivity, tensile strength, and texture of most metals. However, under intense scrutiny you’ll find that the natural frequency, thermal conductivity, and energy needed for a phase change will be inaccurate.”
“That’s fine, we’ll just go through five basic metalloid alloys and elements. We don’t actually have enough time to test their properties besides basic looks and feel, so it’s optimal that you explained what you did.” She says, walking up to me. “I want to get this part over with quickly, so I’ll say the five metals now, and then you cycle through the list as I finish observing the previous. Got it?” She asks
“Yep, makes sense.” I say.
“Great! Okay, the metals are as follows: copper, zinc, brass, steel, and aluminum.” Taking that as the queue to start, I focus on the properties of copper. Sadly, my components are much too large to simulate the atomic lattice of true metals. Luckily, whatever it is that controls my transformations, because my brain is obviously not powerful enough, comes up with a workaround about as fast as I could inquire.
With a slight tingle, my right foreleg deconstructs itself before swiftly taking on the macro properties of copper, color and all. Taking my weight off the leg, I lift the off-red limb and observe it; the now rectangular surface is reflective, gleaming slightly in the low basement light. Twilight also comes up to it, absentmindedly writing down some quick notes, and observes my limb. She then lifts a hoof and knocks it against my leg. The gong that emits travels up my shoulder, and through my body, causing me to emit a yelp as I jerk away from the unexpected sensation.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Twilight quickly apologizes, her eyes wide as her ears fold back in distress. She sounds genuinely sorry as I shake my metallic limb to try and get rid of the sensation. “I-I wasn’t trying to hurt you, I swear! I was just trying to hear if it sounded like metal, or just looked like it!”
I cut her rapid babbling off, the tingling in my shoulder quickly fading, “N-no it’s fine. It didn’t even hurt, it just felt really, really weird.”
“You sure?” She asks, her ears perking up.
“Yep, I’m fine.” I lie, but only a little! It was in fact slightly painful, kind of like hitting your hoof against something, but telling her that would be counter-productive. Stupid oversensitive nerves. I need to make a shock absorber between where the flesh and metal connect if I ever do this again.
“Oh thank Celestia. I thought I might have actually hurt you!” She says, sighing in apparent relief. “So, what exactly did it—” her horn suddenly flashes bright-pink, causing her to groan in irritation. “Ugh, that was my timer spell, which means it’s almost time for dinner. No doubt Spike prepared some for you as . . . wait, do you even need to eat?”
“I can eat, yes.” I also can consume entire life forms from the inside out, turning them into more of myself.
She grins. “That’s great! Spike’s an excellent cook; I’m sure you’ll love his spinach and hay casserole! In any case, if we are going to have time to test your imitation abilities, we are going to have to skip the rest of the inorganic tests.” She concedes. “What do you need to be able to change into something organic? Visualization? Memory?”
I quickly summon up the knowledge. “From what I understand, visually I can mimic the external structures of something. However, if I have a sample of DNA I can make a complete transformation.”
“You can sequence DNA?!” She asks, her eyes going wide in obvious wonder.
“I can’t consciously do so, no. But my, we’ll call them instincts, can. Numerous cells surround each nucleotide from all points, and binds to it. Then each cell plugs in their small chunks of information into a massive algorithm to reconstruct the DNA, determining exactly how the organism functioned.”
“Fascinating.” Twilight breaths out, frantically scribbling what I said into her notebook. “You’ll have to explain the process in more detail when we have more time, but right now I want you try changing into me. After that, I’ll uproot a hair and allow you to use that to change more completely. I want to compare both versions and see what the differences are.”
“Change into you? Isn’t that a bit invasive?” I ask cautiously, slightly nervous at the prospect of transforming into another pony.
She honestly looks confused by my hesitation. “I don’t see how it would be invasive. I’m giving you permission, after all.”
“Well, if you say so . . . Should I start now?” She nods, reading her notebook in a magenta glow. I take in the shape of her body, her mane style, her tail style, the slightly different color streaks going through her hair, her eye color, her cutie mark, and everything about her in much less time than I thought it would take. I am even able to figure out the exact size and shape to make my larynx and tongue in order to produce her voice. However, I can’t seem to figure out how to make my magic the same color as hers. Oh well, this ought to be good enough. And with a nod to myself, I change into a superficial copy of Twilight Sparkle.
The transformation is much faster than I expected. A slight tingle accompanies the reorganization of my cells, but by and large I barely felt a thing. Heck, the biggest difference is that of my throat and tongue, and even then the sensation was a slight tingle. I swirl my tongue around in my mouth, getting a feel for the slightly smaller tongue.
“How do I look?” I ask the wide-eyed unicorn. The voice that comes out is foreign to me, slightly off from how Twilight sounds, but I chalk that up to hearing it resonate through my skull. I then give myself a twirl, showing off Twilight’s starburst cutie marks on either side of my flanks.
“Uncanny,” Twilight says, her eyes gleaming with focused intent, seemingly getting over her shock at seeing an identical twin quite quickly. “Now, hold still, I need to examine you in more detail; It’s crucial that I get a good look if I’m going to be able to spot any differences between this and the next version.”
I try my best to hold still as Twilight looks me over, pausing to make notes every few seconds. She gets pretty close to my face at one point and stares into my eyes, before summoning a mirror of her own, no doubt comparing her own iris’ color to my copy. After that she circles me, making her way to my behind, and inspects her cutie marks plastered on my flanks.
After a few more… slightly invasive examinations, she steps in front of me. “Everything seems identical to me, except the obvious exception of what I can’t see. But what of your thaumanetic spectra?”
“I wasn’t able to change my magical aura, so it’s the same.” I answer with a frown. “It’s weird. Everything else was easy, but it seems like my body doesn’t know how to modify a thaum gland. Maybe I’ll have better luck when I have your genetic information.”
She nods. “Right. So, what would be optimal: hair root, cheek swab, or a sample of my blood?”
I don’t even have to think, the answer coming to me instantly. “A hair from your tail and mane, as well as a cheek swab. Should account for any disparities between the samples, resulting in a more authentic copy. Blood would allow me to better determine various factors of your health I couldn’t know with DNA alone, which would produce an even better copy, but it’s not really necessary due to the hassle of needles.”
“No need for needles, I have a book somewhere in the library with a section on intravenous teleportation. It’s very fascinating, but I haven’t really read too much into it. But now I have a reason to!” Her horn glows a deep pink. “Just give me a second to find it.” The search takes about five seconds, but a fairly thick book pops into existence in front of her. I can just make out the title, which reads Common Medical Applications of Magic. “There we go.” She opens the book and quickly finds the page she was looking for.
After a half minute of staring at the page, she shuts the book and poofs it away. “Got it. Fairly simple modification to the standard teleportation sigil.” She lifts a foreleg and orients her charging horn towards it, a weak pink glow appearing around a small patch of fur. With a soft pop, a tiny amount of deep-red fluid appears within her telekinetic grasp, the volume comparable to that of a small marble. Twilight grins, the sphere of blood orbiting her head. “Yes! First try, and I barely felt a thing!” Huh, she learned that spell pretty fast. That’s pretty amazing, actually.
“Good job, now I just need a cheek swab and two of your hairs.”
She complies, and with a small wince she plucks out two of her hairs; one from her mane, and one from her dock. She then opens her mouth, a pink glow coming out of the orifice as she no doubt levitates a small sample of her flesh.
“So, do I just set these against your fur?” Twilight asks me, seemingly unsure as the various samples lazily orbit around her head.
“Yeah, just give me the samples and I’ll do it.” I light my own horn, and gently poke at her own magical aura, asking for permission to take over the hold of the samples. She complies, and the shimmer around the objects shift to my own light-blue glow with a flicker.
I first move the globule of blood to my back and press it against me. It stains my fur, but the surrounding hairs quickly split into numerous microscopic filaments, splitting again and again, ripping into every single cell nucleus, excluding the red-blood cells of course; they just get recycled for resources, only a few hundred being analyzed for various reasons. From the surface, it appears as if the bloodstain vanishes into a blur of obsidian.
I become vaguely aware of numerous aspects of what makes Twilight herself, but I easily ignore the data streaming into the back of my mind. Focusing on the rest of the samples, I consume them just as quickly, getting a slightly greater sample size.
Something stands out as her buccal cells get disassembled; a few bits of lettuce and hay, most likely from her breakfast. Numerous bacteria and viruses also get caught in my crosshairs, the machinery deconstructing them just as swiftly as Twilight’s own cells.
“Okay, done.” I tell Twilight as I finish, only a second after the process started.
“Really? That was fast.” She says.
“My cells are very efficient. Anyways, I’m ready to change when you are.”
She floats her notebook in front of her, resting the fully inked quill against an open page. “You may proceed.” Twilight says in a level voice, her fidgeting hooves and swishing tail giving away her excitement as she attempts to stay professional. I don’t know why she’s so excited, it’s not like I’ll look any different externally than I do now.
“Alright, transforming now,” I tell her.
My entire form ripples as all the cells in my body change into an exact replica of Twilight’s. Outwardly, this doesn’t result in any difference, but inwardly I feel every single shift as my organs liquify, reforming a split second later with a slightly different structure. As Twilight’s thaum gland forms, however, I am unprepared for what happens; my magical potential increases by an order of magnitude in an instant, making me gasp in simultaneous pain and euphoria.
“O-oh b-uck, that’s a lot of m-magic.” I stutter out as my new gland fills up, the sensation unlike anything I’ve felt before. Where before I could barely hold a pool’s worth of magic, now my thaumanetic capacity has passed that of a small lake, and it keeps on increasing! My legs struggle to support my weight, the limbs shaking as my body tries to figure out how to contain this much energy.
Twilight looks at me strangely as I start giggling with joy, pink static zipping across my fur as I barely hold back my new power. This is what it feels like to be Twilight? Celestia, this is amazing! Just imagine what I could do with all this magic! Hay, I might have even been able to stop my portal from collapsing into itself, or even stabilized it completely, if I had this back then!
“Fabric, are you feeling okay?” Twilight asks with a concerned tone.
I pant at the exertion of containing the power bubbling underneath my skin, the leylines throughout my body burning as my thaum gland fills to capacity. “You have so much magic! I-I can barely hold it back! It feels so good!” I almost moan, the electric tingle throughout my body making me feel more alive than ever before.
However, the event takes a turn for the worse as a painful pressure suddenly makes itself known behind my horn, causing my eyes to widen. Oh buck, my mind isn’t prepared to rein in this much magic…
The pressure gets exponentially worse, and a bright pink light fills my vision as my horn heats up, a phenomenal amount of energy forcing its way through the path of least resistance; my horn. “Twilight! I-I can’t control your magic!”
“What do you mean you can’t control my magic?!” Twilight exclaims, her voice full of panic as the light of my horn takes up my entire vision, and my forehead starts overheating, singeing my mane.
“My brain lacks the synaptic wiring, which is something I really should have expected! And as a result- ahh!” I scream as the magical radiation waving off my horn starts to scorch my retina. My eyes shut tightly, the pain excruciating.
Buck, buck, buck, what do I do?! Magic needs years to grow alongside said unicorn’s brain and body, but this instant transformation is forcing me to adapt in seconds. I may have Twilight’s magical capacity and the genetic layout of her leylines, but I don’t have the correct wiring in my brain, and that’s not something I can correct unless I can scan Twilight’s. But if I did that, would I even be myself? I-I can’t take that risk!
The pain starts to grow too much, so I shut off all sensation, causing me to gasp in relief as my body grows numb, my legs giving out as my body relaxes. “Twilight! Please, do something! I can’t think of anything that won’t result in a magical cascade!” I beg, completely out of ideas.
The information within the nanomachines cannot help me, because for some stupid reason they know buck-all about magic. I can’t help me, because anything I do would cause me to become a smear on Twilight’s basement. If I get rid of Twilight’s thaum gland, the magic explosively vacates my body. If I try to cast a spell without the proper internal wiring in my brain, I also explode. If I wait too long, I bucking explode. It’s like the portal all over again… What am I going to do?!
Suddenly, a high-pitched whine penetrates my skull, scattering all my thoughts, the light from my horn becoming blindingly white through my closed eyelids. And then... nothing.
“Twilight! Please, do something! I can’t think of anything that won’t result in a magical cascade!” Fabric begs of me, but I can barely even look at her due to how bright her horn is! How does she expect me to help her? Wh-what could I even do?
The energy rippling off her horn actually starts scorching my fur, so I surround her in one of my brother’s shields, the heat instantly vanishing. I bite my lip, trying to think of ways I might be able to save her, but I come up with nothing. This is unlike any magical flare I have ever heard of. Heck, the closest is my own flare during the entrance exam, but even then my magic wasn’t this volatile. Chaotic sure, but not deadly!
My ears fold back as the whine of her magic increases in volume by an order of magnitude, the light from within my shield becoming blindingly bright, forcing me to look away. My heart drops as I realize what’s happening; her magic is destabilizing.
Panicking, I raise my voice, “Try to control i— ”
I am cut off as a deafening bang reverberates throughout the basement, my shield barely holding back the shockwave as the magical feedback slams through my forehead like a sledgehammer. The flash is so bright that I can see an afterimage burned into my eyes, even though I wasn’t directly looking at the source.
I can’t even think of anything other than the sheer magnitude of the explosion that I contained, my ears ringing as sound slowly returns to me. The entire basement could have become a crater, the tree collapsing into itself, and crushing anypony inside! If I didn’t surround—
My eyes widen, and I start shaking, the implications too horrible to imagine. “Fabric! Oh Celestia, no!” With spots in my vision, I turn my gaze towards the flickering shield as my magic barely holds it up. I rapidly blink, and after a few seconds the spots fade away. I grow ill at what is revealed, my hind legs giving out in shock; the entire bubble is dark, blackish-red fluids seeping out through the cracks in the spherical barrier.
My magic sputters out with a whimper as I grow dizzy, my breaths coming in increasingly short bursts. The putrid smell of burnt flesh and blood seeps into my nostrils, the bits of Fabric clinging to the walls of the bubble falling to the ground with a wet plop as the shield shimmers away. A perfect circle of blood and burnt flesh is all that remains of Illuminating Fabric. Looking closely, it appears her pelvis and rear legs remain intact, or at least the bones are. The rest of her is in pieces, no doubt ripped to shreds by the raw magic.
“N-no...” I whisper, starting to hyperventilate, tears streaming down my cheeks. She’s dead. There is no way she survived that, even with her new abilities. She’s d-dead. My gut clenches up, and the small amount of undigested food within my stomach rushes up my esophagus, ending up all over the basement floor. I dry heave a few times, before it starts up all over again as I glance at the mess that was Fabric. Sobs escape me in short bursts, my body shaking as I take shuddering gulps of air.
“Twilight! What was that noise?!” Spike’s voice echoes throughout the basement as he slams open the door, panic in his tone. My eyes widen as I watch him rush down the stairs, heading straight for me. I want to tell him to leave, that nothing is wrong, but I think I need someone here right now. I don’t think I can deal with this alone.
“S-Spike!” I cry out. I get up off of my plot and rush into his arms, making sure to block his view of Fabric’s remains as I nuzzle him. A sob escaping me as he wraps his claws around me, brushing my mane in an attempt to comfort me.
“A-are you okay? Where’s the other unicorn?” Spike asks, sounding more concerned than confused, but nonetheless hugging me back just as tightly. His question only results in me bawling harder.
“W-we n-need to go upstairs. I-I have to contact Princess Celestia!” I manage to say, hiccuping every few words. However, I don’t budge, the thought of actually telling Celestia what happened is horrible. Instead of doing what I said, I just hold him tighter, my body shaking as I cry.
Where am I? What’s happening? Why can’t I feel anything? Did I explode? No, that’s impossible. I’m still able to think, after all. So, what does this mean?
Concentrating, I am able to bring up a mental hologram of my body’s current state, and it doesn’t look good. At all. I’m literally a fine paste right now, and the biggest piece of me that is intact happens to be my ass. And even then, it’s only my pelvic bones, my hind legs, and a small amount of flesh in various places. I guess that explains why I feel like I’m spread out, and also why I can’t feel anything with my nerves. I’m a literal pile of blood and bones.
Why I am so calm? Oh, right, I don’t have the brain chemistry to freak out. Because I don’t even have a brain. How does that work? What I’m using to think right now has motivations and curiosity built in, but no deeper emotions. Strange. No matter how hard I think, I can’t seem to get any information as to why this is. Oh well, at least I know what the issue is. Just have to pull myself together is all… Huh, not even a twinge of humor at that horrible joke. Shame.
I deform all my cells back into their component nanomachines, and then form myself into a singular mass as quickly as I can. Sadly, it takes a little over a minute, considering some of my parts are slightly damaged and have to be repaired. A few million were completely destroyed, but enough survived that the others can cannibalize them for molecular components.
Finally, I am a single mass again, and it feels great, but I quickly reform my original body. My entire body is complete, but I still leave my skull empty, hesitating as I think. It seems my brain’s structure is copied every couple picoseconds, and as such I can reform my brain to the same specifications as when it was destroyed. Doesn’t that mean I died? Or am I the same pony because the same parts are going to reform my brain the same way? The same atoms, with only a few changes… I still think, therefore I’m still me. With that final thought, I reform my brain, and instinctually figure out how to process my thoughts using it.
I gasp as I open my eyes, sensation returning to my body. I’m sideways on the floor, and I swear I hear sobbing. My ears swivel towards the sound, and as I turn my head I notice Twilight hugging Spike, her back to me as she cries into his arms. With a wince I realize she must think I’m dead, and no doubt saw my gory remains.
With a gulp, I decide I need to just call out her name and tell her I’m okay. So, I get up and say, “Twilight, I’m okay!” Said unicorn’s hairs stand on end as she jumps into the air with a shriek, unintentionally knocking Spike over. She turns to me with inflamed eyes, her coat stained with fluids. She quickly relaxes, and a huge teary smile appears on her face.
“You’re alive!” Twilight hiccups, giggling with joy as she gallops in my direction. She practically knocks me over with a hug, sobbing in relief as she hangs on my neck with her hooves. “How is this possible?! You were—” She shuts her mouth with a snap, and carefully glances to Spike, said dragon getting up off the ground while rubbing his head. “You exploded, and you were e-everywhere!” She whispers harshly, a slight sob escaping her. “H-how are you okay?”
“Twilight, what’s going on?” Spike asks, twiddling his claws as he glances at us with unease.
Twilight chuckles nervously, and let’s go of my neck. “Um, you see- well- ah-.” She takes a deep shuddering breath, placing her hooves against her chest. “It’s fine, Spike. We just had a misunderstanding. You can go upstairs, we’ll meet you for dinner in a second.”
He looks dubious, and seems like he’s about to argue, but sighs as he looks into her eyes, his spines deflating. “Alright, Twi, but are you sure you’re okay?” He stares at Twilight, showing genuine concern.
Twilight smiles. “Yes, I’m fine. I just have to talk to Fabric alone for a minute, and we’ll be right up!”
Spike nods, heading to the stairs. However, he stares at the scorched circle on the floor for a few seconds, before shaking his head and continuing upstairs, closing the door to the main floor with a soft click.
“So, turns out I can survive being blown to bits. Who knew?” I say after a few seconds of silence, attempting to alleviate the awkwardness. I immediately realize that wasn’t the best thing to say as Twilight turns around, disbelief on her face.
“Really?” She enunciates the word slowly, glaring at me. “Are you really going to joke about this? I thought you died! It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen!” A shuttering sob escapes her as she clenches her eyes tightly. “Oh Celestia! It was like you were inside-out, there was blood everywhere!” Her voice hitches as she breathes deeply. She sits down, and moves her forehooves in time with her chest, and slowly starts to calm down.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you! I assure you that the experience wasn’t pleasant for me either.”
Twilight takes another shuddering breath. “I-it's fine. Let’s just go upstairs and eat, okay? We still need to talk about your attempt at making a stable wormhole.” She looks to the scorched circle in the middle of the room, a slightly concave indent in the center, her breathing picking up slightly. “Let’s just forget this happened, okay? The sooner I get out of this basement, the better.”
Hearing the desperation in her voice, I am about to rapidly agree. Yet, I first need to get a scan of her neural pathways. Now that I know I don’t actually use my brain as my consciousness, I can modify it however I wish, and I really want to be able to use her magic. With a quick overhaul it could work! I just hope she understands. “I agree. However, I kind of have a favor to ask of you. Do you think I could get a synaptic snapshot of your brain?”
She gives me an utterly baffled look. “Why would you possibly need that?”
I bite my lip, my tail swishing in anxiety. “My magical capacity is kind of, well, small. At least compared to yours. And um, I just need your neural wiring to be able to use your thaum gland without exploding.” I paw at the ground with a hoof, hoping she doesn’t say no.
“Wait, you’re serious?” She asks in surprise. Her eyes then widen in apparent understanding. “Are you… jealous of my magic?”.
My face burns in embarrassment. “Yes, I guess I am,” I admit, to my shame.
“I don’t actually know what to say, Fabric. If I let you scan me, it would feel like I’m giving you magic without any effort, and that feels wrong to me. You also would get my memories, right? This sounds really invasive.”
“B-but you aren’t giving me any knowledge, just the ability to use what you were born with! And I promise I won’t even peek at your memories, even if I figure out how to! I studied my entire life to ration the amount of magic I have, and if I have more I might be able to do so much! I’d finally be able to teleport longer than short distances without being exhausted!” I plead.
Her eyes soften, and she sighs. “Fine.”
My ears perk up, and a huge smile creeps across my face. “Really? Thank you! Now, I can do it using a run of the mill scanning spell, the same kind you used to scan me earlier today. The normal limitations of this spell being brainpower means I can just tap into the massive computation power I now possess, and get a carbon copy of your brain, right down to the individual molecules. I’m only going to use the synaptic connections I need to use your thaum gland, though.”
“Fine, just hurry up. I’m actually pretty hungry, especially since I vacated my stomach.” She swishes her mouth with a look of disgust, and flashes her horn, the contents of her stomach on the floor being teleported away. “I also need to wash my mouth out, ugh.”
“Fair enough,” I say, crinkling my muzzle a bit. “I’m going to start the spell now.”
The familiar light-blue glow of my magic surrounds Twilight’s head, and the spell finishes in only a couple seconds, Twilight’s brain being copied in full. Okay, now I just need to pick out the right connections, and apply it to my own— a strange nagging sensation appears in the back of my mind, urging me to compute my consciousness using the sum of all the nanomachines in my body while I operate on my brain. Make sure nothing goes wrong. It’s pretty insistent, and it makes sense.
There, now my brain is running by itself. I can still experience through it, but now I have the strangest detached feeling. I access Twilight’s brain, and… Oh. I can easily experience her entire brain. Every single synaptic connection at once, and every single memory. No strain at all, it’s just there. I don’t feel overwhelmed, or any other emotion really. Just a detached feeling of awe through my own brain. My mind won’t be able to remember even a fraction of this when I return to processing myself with neurons again, but in this very moment I understand everything there is about Twilight. Her hopes, her fears, her goals.
I logically realize this is invasive, even if I don’t actually feel guilt for it, so I ignore it all and quickly find the connections I need to operate Twilight’s thaum gland. Applying the connections to my own brain only takes a second, and then I reform Twilight’s thaum gland. I also figure out how to change the color of her magic to mine. Done.
With a rush of sensation, I return to thinking with my brain, the whole experience feeling as if a dream. Wow, that was a rush. I don’t even feel overwhelmed as Twilight’s magic flows through me, the connections making me used to it. Good, I would hate to get distracted by the power.
I light my horn up, and my own glow surrounds it, except with a phenomenal amount of power behind it. “Yes! It works! Thank you so much, Twilight!”
“So, it works now? What exactly did you do?” She asks, her curiosity returning in spite of her previously emotional state.
“I just had to pick out the right synaptic connections for it to feel like I’ve always had this much magic, nothing too complex. Or at least, I remember it being simple. I did it manually instead of automatically, and as such I had to think using my base components. This means I cannot understand exactly what I did, the information too much for my brain.”
Twilight nods, her curiosity seemingly sated. “That seems to make sense. Now let’s go. Spike is no doubt wondering what’s taking so long,” She says, urging with her head to the stairs.
“Alright, but what are you going to tell him about the obvious explosion, and the mark it left?” I ask her. It’s a great question in my opinion, especially considering how Twilight reacted.
She shifts her weight a bit, biting her lip in obvious indecision. “I don’t know. I would tell him it was a failed experiment, which is true, but he won’t buy it. I’ve never gotten that upset before. Ever.” She looks at me with big eyes, pleading. “What do I tell him?”
“Twilight, you’re overthinking this. Just tell him you thought I died during a volatile experiment, but was mistaken. You don’t have to mention the gore or anything.”
She sighs, rubbing her temples with a hoof. “I guess you’re right. We’ll just say it was an accident.” she stands up and stretches. “Let’s go, okay?”
“I’ll be right behind you.” I tell her. She nods, and then turns around with a swish of her tail, heading for the stairs, myself just behind. Time to eat food I don’t even need. I hope Spike’s a good cook.
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Huh, Fabric operates on the picometer scale. She could conceivably manufacture quantum wells, which means she could convert parts of her body to quantum wellstone. Good lord.
7052792 I've never actually heard of programmable matter being called that before. Strange. But yes, she is able to manipulate matter on the picometer scale, and as such the atom-thick tendrils that each molecular machine has are able to, in effect, program matter.
I won't even pretend to understand how they do it, or even understand the current hypothetical ways such a thing could be done, but I will say that she is able to change many fundamental properties. Some of her limits were defined in this chapter, but others I'll have to carefully research later.
Yup. Now she just need to put her grabby hooves on some "pegacorn" dna. Heh.
Well.. and maybe on some brain snapshot. Or not? Because /"I also figure out how to change the color of her magic to mine."/ seems like she could learn by comparison and maybe figure it out later herself.
What to say? ZI POWAH OF SIENCE!
7052823 'Quantum wellstone' (or just 'wellstone') is a term coined by, I think, Wil McCarthy in his research of programmable matter. It has potentially hilarious consequences; electrons in quantum dots could be coaxed into 'fake orbitals' that wouldn't occur naturally, meaning one could set up 'fake chemistry' that has utterly unrealistic bond characteristics. Stuff like near-perfect superreflectors or insanely-durable materials (or both).
7054193 So... she could become stronger than Titanium? Who need armor when your SKIN can become stronger than the strongest of steel?
7057142 Pretty much, yeah. It is limited to some degree in that the quantum-dot substrate obviously remains unchanged (doped silicon, typically), it's just 'laminated' in a layer of make-believe chemistry. So hit it hard enough (or whatever) and the substrate breaks and everything falls apart.
So much fun to read this story.
7238506 Considering this is my first story, I don't blame you. I have trouble reading the first few chapters myself. I only had about 10k words of creative writing experience at the moment I wrote this, meaning it would be impossible for this to be amazing. I like to think the final two chapters are much better than the first, but that's not saying much. Heck, I've written a lot more on an alternate account, so now I cringe while reading those.
I admit my first chapters are a horrible impression... I tried editing the first chapter a few months ago, but the only things I really changed were the first few paragraphs, and a bit of the explanation of Omega. But you can only go so far when you polish a turd, while not replacing it with a flower. I've been debating if I should rewrite the story, with a completely different intro and plot, but I haven't been able to get myself into the proper mindset.
7239033
I come back to this story, and I kinda want to see it improved/"repaired"/rewritten. Any plans for it?
7573950 Funny that you should mention it; I just started a vague plan for a major rewrite a few days ago. The aliens will be scrapped (kind of), Omega's origin will be changed, and Illuminating Fabric will be overseeing the creation of the portal instead of making it all on her own. A theoretical physicist making something like that all by herself? What was I thinking! So other pony engineers and scientists will be doing all the heavy work, while she overlooks the project because her research led to it. She still has to activate the portal, though (which may leads to the deaths of the staff, leading to a much bigger impact on Fabric's psych than previously). I need to figure out the main details of that bit, but so far it makes much more sense than what I had before.
I'm debating on if I should make the portal a crown sanctioned project, a privately funded project, or an illegal project funded under Celestia's nose. All have their ups and downs, but the illegal aspect would make the story all the more interesting. The story will also be in past tense instead of present because I absolutely cannot stand writing in present tense anymore.
Anyways, it'll most likely be a while before anything comes to fruition.
7574192
Ah; cool. Most of what you said went over my head as I've only actually read one chapter of this story.
Well; I read it.
I want to see more.
7581208
Not brain dead, though. That's the key. Omega deconstructed and replicated Fabric's brain, in effect knowing everything she does. There was some minor brain damage due to the brain being without oxygen for a few minutes, but nothing too major.
7581169
Which was the intention when I first wrote it. However, now I have to agree that ability makes no sense. When I do rewrite this I will change Omega's abilities substantially to make it more realistic.
7581317
I guess I never made the reason known, huh? I can't quite remember my reasoning, actually. I do know that it was a logical reason, even if the exact specifics escapes me.
All in all, what were your thoughts on the latter chapters? The first four or so are pretty atrocious, but the last four do improve I feel. But they are still pretty bad compared to my standards now.
If you ever get around to re-writing this, you should have Fabric make a joke about becoming 'extra chunky fabric salsa', and later on in the series have Fabric use her super-brain to make a very delicious extra chunky salsa of the same name. (The wonderful new 'extra chunky Fabric brand Salsa[TM]')
After all, laughter might not fix all existential crises, but it sure helps make the best of a bad situation.
Thought I should let you know that I have really enjoyed reading this story, even though it is cancelled. It is very well-done for a first fic. I am definitely curious what would have happened to Fabric when Celestia and Luna came knocking to investigate.
;-; you should allow someone to continue this.. ;-; ;-; ;-; ;-;
8916100
First off; that comment was made two years ago, please take that into consideration next time.
Now, it wasn’t explicitly stated that it took her memories. So...
8916501
...
I’m confused as to why your saying “Take that into consideration next time.” I was merely saying what came to mind when i read that.
It really is a suped up Blacklight though.
9151692
I’m telling you to take into consideration how long ago the comments were made.
9153531
...
I’m confused as to Why though.
9153577
Because the person who wrote the comment might not remember the context, or the thoughts they were having at the time, and in some cases it can be annoying.
9154185
Alright, but i really do not see how that comment was in any way offensive, if you saw it that way.
If not. Thanks for the tip, i’ll be sure to put it in place.
9154398
Not offensive, no, sorry if I'm being an arse.
9156027
It happens, i’ve done the same thing from time to time.
I like this.
This story is quite good, I hope it gets updated soon.