The Clarity of Darkness

by Trick Question

An Ending (For Those Who Prefer One)

Applejack and Twilight Sparkle groggily woke up together, lying on a couch in the middle of the library. Twilight lay beneath Applejack, breathing with great difficulty; the earth pony resting on top of her had at least three times her mass. Still, she thought to herself, this was significantly less cramped than a singularity.

On an end table next to them sat two empty glasses streaked with cider suds, and behind that table stood Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.

"Did it work?" gasped Sweetie Belle.

Applejack shifted her posture so Twilight could breathe. Twilight held Applejack tightly in her hooves, and she began to cry like a baby.

"Oh, shoot. We're gonna be in it deep this time," moaned Apple Bloom, shaking her head. "Maybe Scoots was right after all..."

Applejack kissed Twilight Sparkle's tears away and nuzzled at her neck. "I thought we already taught you foals a lesson about doin' this sort of thing," she said, looking over at the pair. Applejack's expression was stern, even though a few tears trickled down her own cheeks.

"We're sorry!" whined Sweetie Belle. "This wasn't like the other time! You two are like, I mean, everypony sees it except you," she defended. "I mean, come on! This was a public service!"

"It's okay," gasped Twilight, wiping her eyes with telekinesis so she could maintain her grip on Applejack. "I'm okay with this. I think I'm okay. I'm okay. This, this is really okay."

"The moment I stop cryin' and huggin' this here friend of mine, I'm calling Cookie and you two are both grounded. You hear me?" growled Applejack.

Then she looked back down at Twilight's face, and a silly smile crossed her tear-stained muzzle. Applejack quickly leaned down and kissed her surprised friend square on the lips. Twilight's wings struggled against the couch beneath her, but her legs only held Applejack closer.

"Worth it!" whooped Sweetie Belle as she bounced in place, her face shining like the noontime Sun.

"Eeyup," agreed a happy Apple Bloom, and the two fillies high-hoofed.

Twilight and Applejack weren't paying attention, however. Everything else around the mares faded to black in their minds, and time itself seemed to slow to a crawl. The two friends had crossed a threshold beyond which physics no longer bore any meaning: the event horizon of a shared future.

Comments

[Trick Question]

Oh horsefeathers. All of the comments were deleted when I resubmitted the second chapter!

---

Previous comments of note:

PresentPerfect posted a kind review over here.

bookplayer posted a glowing review here in the comments, which unfortunately I just deleted.

[PresentPerfect]

5988320
Wow, oops, don't do that I guess. :B I had no idea!

[Trick Question]

5988512
I knew it would happen; I just wasn't thinking. The comments were all tied to the second chapter, because if you post them on the main page they'll go to the last chapter. Apparently nopony commented on the first chapter without first continuing to the second. When I copied and deleted the chapter to indicate that the story had changed, all of the comments were on the original version of the second chapter, and so they flew the coop.

[PresentPerfect]

5988594
Ah. I guess the lesson is, just change the chapter, don't delete it. :B

[Trick Question]

5989201
It's my fault. I wanted it to pop to the "updated" section on the front page since the change, though minor, (guessing by several responses) might make the story read very differently for some ponies.

I deserve this bed, and far worse than it.

[PresentPerfect]

5989261
Power comes at a price. :B

[Trick Question]

5989374
Your emoticon comes at the price of me thinking you're John or Jade. And you're not Jade, because if either of us is Jade, it is most definitely me. ;B

[Misty Horse]

5988320

Lol!

[Silentwoodfire]

Interesting tale, but worth the time spent.

[Cross Lament]

Still absolutely brilliant.

[Ms_Fruit_Bat]

This was a really good read.
Thank you for writing it.

[Trick Question]

6595030
Yay! I'm glad you were able to find it again.

If you want, you can go read the first short story I ever wrote for Fimfiction, which I just revised today! I have a feeling you might like that one too.

[Trick Question]

6706760
It's difficult to go into depth without writing an entire book, which is why I'm writing an entire book. It isn't a 'reincarnation' of consciousness rather than a persistent probabilistic web.

As for the story, it's just meant to be enjoyed as a story. It might be better to take discussions to PM rather than get crazy technical on a shipping fic comment thread.

[Agent Fluffy]

I did a fanfic read of your fic! I hope you enjoy it! I almost cried in this story. It was so good.

I cut out some dialogue of the fanfic so it's like an tv episode.

[Trick Question]

7138221
I appreciate the read! I don't know about the edits but I'm glad you enjoyed the story. This is one of my favorites, despite the fact it's my one of my least-popular.

[Trick Question]

7238286
Thank you!

It may not be very popular compared with my other stories, but it's one of my personal favorites.

[gardrek]

This was a good story. I gave it a thumbs-up. Unfortunately, I am not feeling very creative right now, so this will be kinda short. I liked the terminology, going to the deep sky in your skyship, wearing deepsuits. I would love to use the terms deep sky and deepsuit for my own fiction.

---

I didn't find a single typo! Lucky you!

[Manly Man]

Astrophysics sure can make for some trippy love stories. I like it.

[Neece]

So basically they hacked reality with the power of love. That's so damn scientifically sappy that I can't but like it a lot

It's rather cute. Have a deserved like, good sir!

[Trick Question]

7798937
The way the spell works is it uses the gravitational pull of the black hole as its energy source (which I think the fic hints at). The closer they get to the event horizon, the faster they accelerate away from it, so it will barely keep them from entering the event horizon. Twilight doesn't have a way to increase the acceleration more than that, so they can't get back to the ship.

[mishun]

7798942
While they are not far away from the ship and far away enough from the black hole, in ship's free falling frame of reference compensating constant fraction f of gravitation pull is roughly equivalent to applying acceleration fGM/r^2 away from the black hole, which could be significant (in comparison to their speed relative to ship) even if f is tiny. If black hole is not rotating like crazy problem with angular momentum loss still persists.
In any case nothing of above can change the simple fact of this story being awesome.

[G-AB Acid]

8566391
Nice! Last question: why is Pinkie being able to look through all manner of bright lights your pseudo-leitmotif?

[Trick Question]

8566397
Not sure I understand, but when Chrysalis was defeated for the first time only Pinkie was able to watch the love beacon. Not even Cadence had her eyes open.

[G-AB Acid]

8566410
It’s just something I noticed in several of your stories. The bright lights always cause others to flinch, but not Pinks.

[Trick Question]

8566412
Yep, it's Best Pony's special personality.

[G-AB Acid]

8566431

Yep, it's Best Pony's special personality. 

Damn right it is, son!

Also, you’re cool, Author. And you write the goods goodly. Keep on bein’ awesome!

[mishun]

"Not if it's part of the simulation!" said Twilight, grinning.

This is good place to ask questions like: "how did they find such a silent supermassive black hole and how did they detect it?", "how did they get to black hole?" and "why Applejack didn't know what black hole is while being part of expedition to one?"

Still, she thought to herself, this was significantly less cramped than a singularity.

6706861
Is it somewhere somehow possible to read this book?
I've heard about quantum immortality but it has the same vague point as regular many-worlds: some worlds are more "real" that others. I don't really understand how this interacts with notion of "being consistent from pony's point of view".

[Trick Question]

8579937
Well, I have to write the book first. I'll definitely post on it someday when I do.

It isn't quantum immortality, not precisely at least. Quantum immortality actually doesn't work.

[mishun]

8580266

I'll definitely post on it someday when I do.

So awesome!
static.tumblr.com/n7ypjni/rvylshq6h/rainbow_dash_says_so_awesome-_n1304058326372_.png
You mean post here on fimfiction?
i.makeagif.com/media/9-27-2015/qcSyP6.gif

"Vanilla" quantum immortality from Wikipedia seems to work as good as "classical immortality". I.e. if I play classical russian roulette for some time (with nuclear bomb just to be sure) I would never end up thinking something like "Oopsie, looks like I'm dead. No more ponies for me I guess". Immortality!

[Trick Question]

8581285
If Fimfiction is still a thing, I'll def post here about it, yes.

[mishun]

8581308
That's one optimistic way to put it

[Trick Question]

7138221
Also, I rewrote the story for clarity since you recorded that (I think), just FYI.

[Agent Fluffy]

10500971
I might make a redux reading for this fanfic at some point.

[PaulAsaran]

You can has review!

[Mystic Sunrise]

Safe to say that this story sucks...

You know. Because there's a black hole in it and all.

[Variation]

"Oh, shoot. We're gonna be in it deep this time," moaned Apple Bloom, shaking her head. "Maybe Scoots was right after all..."

Evidently Scootaloo had the brain cell this time. Guess she didn't want to join in on accidently inflicting Twilight and Applejack with emotional trauma. What a baby.

Wasn't expecting TwiJack but I'm not complaining. Cute story.