Sonata giggled to herself as she and Lex walked along the tracks, tossing between her hooves the rock that she’d enchanted to cast light. “This is so cool!” she gushed. It had been maybe ten minutes since the train had left, and she was eagerly looking forward to some excitement after three days of staring out the train windows. “Just you and me against a big, nasty dragon! Ooh, I can’t wait until we beat it and tell everypony how we did it! Hey, do you think we can have a concert afterwards? I’d, like, totes love to sing about-”
“We’re stopping here,” announced Lex suddenly, cutting her off.
“Huh? Why?” Sonata blinked in surprise, looking around. As far as she could see, there was nothing particularly notable about the place Lex had picked. “Are we near the dragon’s lair?”
Lex sighed. She had been going on nonstop about dragon-this and dragon-that ever since he’d put forth his theory as to what had ruined the rail line, and while he enjoyed hearing the sound of her voice, that didn’t mean that the content of what she was saying was at all worth listening to. “Sonata, we haven’t conclusively determined that it was a dragon that did that to the tracks. It could be something else entirely.”
“Really? If it’s not a dragon then, like, what is it then?”
“I don’t know; that’s the point.” Lex spoke slowly, as though trying to explain the concept to a child.
“But then it could be a dragon, right?” asked Sonata with a grin.
Lex closed his eyes for a long moment before grudgingly replying. “Yes…”
“Cool! So, like, what’s around here?” she checked the area again. Just like the last time she’d looked around, whatever had enticed Lex to stop here eluded her, making her turn to face him again in expectation.
“Nothing.”
“Awesome! Then we-, wait, nothing?”
“Not that I can see,” shrugged Lex, before stepping off of the tracks and moving towards the treeline.
“But then why are we stopping here?” Sonata rushed to keep up with him. “And where are you going?”
“‘Why are we stopping?’” echoed Lex with a slightly incredulous tone in his voice, as though he couldn’t believe she needed to ask. “We’re stopping because it’s the middle of the night and I’m exhausted, that’s why. And it seemed like a better idea to move away from the track before we settled in, since that’s the area with the least cover.”
“Oh, right. I forgot you hadn’t gone to sleep before the train stopped.” The memory reminded her of how he always insisted on sleeping alone, and it made her frown. She shooed the unpleasant thought away, focusing instead on something else. “I get the whole ‘cover’ thing, but isn’t going into the woods just as dangerous?”
“White Tail Woods isn’t like the Everfree Forest,” explained Lex as they reached the edge of the trees. “It’s rare for monsters to be found here. Since whatever tore up the rail line was most likely flying, it’s more prudent to camp out where we can’t be seen from the air.” He kept walking as he spoke, leading them deeper into the forest…but only about thirty feet before he stopped. “This should be sufficient.”
Reaching into his pack, he pulled out a ball of thick string. Unwrapping several feet of it, he used his telekinesis to break it off, replacing the ball in his haversack. He adjusted his circlet before making several gestures and muttering the words of the spell, tossing the length of string he’d cut into the air. Rather than falling, it hung in the air, anchored in empty space.
“Oh, I remember you telling me about this!” exclaimed Sonata. “At the other end of the rope is a magic tree-fort, right?”
“‘Tree-fort’?” muttered Lex quietly to himself, a pained look crossing his face. Deciding that it wasn't worth getting into, he waved a hoof towards the rope. “…right. So anyway, you go ahead. I’m going to cast some more defensive spells.”
Sonata started towards the rope, but stopped at the base of it, her eyes moving back toward Lex. The way he’d told her to go ahead of him had brought back her earlier thoughts about how he never wanted to room with her, and it was enough to suddenly make her suspicious. “You are going to come up here too after you finish, right?”
“Once everything is secured,” he nodded. It was enough to dispel Sonata’s fears, and she smiled as she began climbing, her anxiety put to rest. Reaching the top of the rope, she gave an excited squeal as she passed through the faint shimmer at the top of it, and came out into a plain, featureless room.
“Huh. I didn’t think it’d be quite so…empty,” she remarked aloud as she stepped further in. The room was about fifteen feet in each direction, and the entire thing was an icky, off-white color, like milk that had started to curdle. Extinguishing the light spell she’d cast on her rock, Sonata noted that the room was bathed in soft light, though it didn’t seem to come from any particular source.
Moving over to a corner and settling down, Sonata glanced back at the entrance to wait for Lex. The area around the edge of the rope was completely black in a large area, and it took her a moment to realize that it was showing her the outside, which was now completely dark since she’d taken the only light source with her. She debated casting another light spell on the rock and tossing it down to Lex, but decided against it. He probably had some other means of seeing in the dark, and she didn’t want to do something dumb like hit him in the head just when he was climbing up to join her.
Congratulating herself on her foresight, Sonata lowered her head to the ground, but kept her eyes fixed on the entrance, wanting to wait for Lex to arrive before going to sleep.
After what felt like a few minutes, she rolled onto her back, idly kicking her hooves in the air in boredom. How long could it take to cast a couple of spells? Frowning, she sat up. Maybe she should go check on him, just to make sure everything was okay? Or would that bother him if she did?
Deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt, she settled back down, turning onto her other side to try and get more comfortable. Long seconds ticked by, or was it minutes by now? Sighing, she turned back onto her hooves. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to just look in on him really quick?
“Lex? Everything okay?” she called tentatively. When no response came, she could feel herself starting to become worried. “Lex?” Still no answer.
Worried, she got to her hooves. Did sound even travel through this place? What if something had happened to him after she’d left? Oh no! What if the dragon had come back?! Alarmed, Sonata cast another light spell on her rock before kicking it through the entrance of the room, diving after it as she practically leapt down the rope. “Lex!”
“Wha-?!” Lex’s answering cry instantly got her attention, drawing her eyes to where he was…sitting up from where he’d been resting his head on his pack at the base of a tree. No, from where he’d been sleeping at the base of a tree.
“What were you doing down here? I thought you were going to join me up there once you were done?” There was a harsh edge in her voice. He hadn’t been planning on joining her at all!
Bleary-eyed, Lex tried to get a handle on what was happening. “Sonata? What are you-”
“You lied to me! I can’t believe you!” She could feel herself getting angrier, and she didn’t resist it. It wasn’t so much that he hadn’t done what he said, but rather that his apparent determination not to sleep near her felt like he was keeping her at forelegs’ length, and that hurt.
“Hold on!” Lex protested, more fully awake now, but Sonata would not be stopped.
“I really can’t believe you!” She was yelling now. “You tell me you’re glad I’m here, you kiss me like you’re head-over-hooves for me, but you can’t stand the thought of sleeping in the same room as me?! What, do you think I’m going to try and cast a spell on you while you’re asleep?! Is that it?! You don’t trust that somepony that was a Siren won’t try and use her oh-so-immoral magic to-”
“Sonata! Calm down and listen to me!” Lex went over and put his hooves on her shoulders, demanding her attention. “I didn’t go up there with you because I realized that there was a problem, and I was trying to figure out what to do about it!”
Sonata shook him off, taking a step back, clearly not completely mollified. “What problem?”
Lex pointed a hoof at his haversack. “I realized that this pack and the space I created were both extradimensional, and it’s dangerous to put one extradimensional space inside of another. I sat down to try and figure out what to do about it, and I must have fallen asleep.”
“That’s all?” Sonata frowned. “Why didn’t you just, I dunno, just bury it in leaves or something to hide it and then come up?”
“If something happened to these supplies we’d be in a pinch. It was too risky.”
Sonata’s frown deepened. Something didn’t add up. “What do you mean ‘too risky’? You’re the one who said that this place is supposed to be safe, remember?”
Lex started, clearly caught off-guard by having his previous words thrown back at him, and Sonata couldn’t resist giving him a nasty smirk. “I may not be as smart as you, but I know when someone’s trying to mess around with me. I have a lot of experience with that thanks to my sisters.” She trotted closer to him, and this time it was her turn to reach out with a hoof, putting it under his muzzle and making him look her in the eye. “Why don’t you want to sleep with me?”
Neither noticed her inadvertent double-entendre, and Lex paused. Sonata, who could feel her anger abating, waited patiently for him to collect his thoughts.
After a moment, Lex stepped back, looking at the ground. “I wasn’t lying before, there really is an issue with taking the bag into that space I made,” he muttered. The way he was pouting and refusing to meet her eyes made Sonata think that he looked like a little colt who had been caught doing something bad.
“But that’s not, like, all there is to it, is there?” she prompted. A long moment passed, and then Lex shook his head.
He didn’t seem to want to say anything else, so Sonata went over and nuzzled him. “Tell me,” she said softly.
Lex looked up, obviously surprised that she had suddenly taken a soft approach, before glancing away again, looking supremely uncomfortable. She didn’t press him again, and after several seconds he quietly spoke. “…I have nightmares.”
Sonata blinked. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected him to say, but it hadn’t been that. “Nightmares?” He nodded, and the mortified look on his face only confused her more. “But, everyone has nightmares sometimes. I had one last week where a giant taco was eating me. They’re scary when they happen, but they’re not a big deal.”
“I have them every night,” Lex admitted in a small voice.
Sonata’s eyebrows went up. “Every night? Like, every single night?”
He nodded again, and she went over and hugged him, causing him to stiffen in surprise for a moment before he slowly relaxed. “That sounds totes awful, but why does that make you want to sleep alone? I’d absolutely want someone there if I had nightmares all the time.”
Lex sighed. “I don’t know if I thrash or cry out in my sleep, and I…I didn’t want you to see me like that.”
Sonata didn’t respond, and they stayed like that, with her embracing him, for a minute before she finally let him go. Trotting over to where his haversack was, she started to push leaves onto it.
“What are you doing?” asked Lex.
“I’m burying this so that it’ll be harder to find, and then we’re going to bed,” she responded matter-of-factly.
He started to protest, but she cut him off before he could get a word out. “No but’s. We’re going inside that tree-fort you conjured up and then we’re both going to get a good night’s sleep. Period.”
Lex started to say something else, but couldn’t manage to get the words out. He was physically exhausted, mentally spent, and emotionally drained. Normally, none of that would have been enough to make him back down from a conflict, but this just…felt different. For some reason he couldn’t conjure up his usual stubbornness and indignation. So when Sonata finished burying his pack under the leaves a minute and nudged him towards the rope, he didn’t protest.
Climbing up it, she followed behind him. He glanced back at her in a silent question, and she smiled at him reassuringly. “Go on.”
Moving over to a corner, he slowly settled down, and an instant later she was by his side, gently leaning against him. He softly let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, and felt his muscles release their tension. He closed his eyes, and a few moments later his weariness caught up to him and he fell asleep.
Sonata watched him for a little bit before leaning over and planting a kiss on his cheek. “Sweet dreams, Lex.”
I thought Haversacks and Rope Tricks were fairly safe -- the inner extradimensional space is inaccessible but it doesn't explode or anything. That's weirdly specific to the portable hole.
6608238 You're technically correct, but there are some interesting points to consider. One is that, while the Pathfinder version of rope trick doesn't have any warnings against bringing other extradimensional spaces inside it, the 3.5 version does have a general warning that doing so is "hazardous."
Given that I'm using the game rules as guidelines, rather than absolute rules, that's something I'm keenly cognizant of. Throw in with that that a handy haversack's description says that it is "like a bag of holding" (which has its own note for what happens if it's placed within a portable hole), and you can start to see how there's room to be uncertain of what might happen if one is brought inside the other.
Now consider that that magic item (and possibly that spell as well) are from Everglow and so still relatively new to Lex, and it's easy to see why he considers the entire thing to be more uncertain than he's comfortable with.
6611957 Historical parallelism with Earth is very relevant to understanding the world of Equestria. Yes, the cosmology and biology of Equestria are significantly different, but there are also broad biological similarities that manifest themselves in historical parallels. Ponies are still social creatures with basic biological drives, and that manifests itself in the societies they create. It's not "cosmetic" or "superficial" that the three tribes of old bear such striking resemblance to peasants, soldiers and nobility, its because there are only so many ways you can organize a society at certain technological levels, and we can infer broad strokes about their development from our own history.
The train, for example, comes into being from the need to move large amounts of goods long distances at a rapid speed, something you see come into play in large developed nation states, where a unified authority can make people on one side of the country confident they will be able to buy and sell from people on the other side of the country. It's also highly dependent on a huge number of other industrial-age technology involving materials extraction and metallurgy, as well as a fairly advanced understanding of physics so the steam train doesn't blow up as soon as you activate it. You can't jump to trains without 50 other useful inventions in between a society would also have built, scaled and sold widely, and those take decades to dissipate throughout society. The existence of trains, and other major inventions like them (power lines, automobiles, the internet) serves as a helpful marker of the approximate level of technology and political/economic development of a society as a whole. The trains we see in the show aren't there in the pilot, and at first they are run on pony-power to save precious coal. Clearly trains are in their early stages in Equestria.
Now, trains were already advanced by the time we'ed harnessed hydroelectric dams and a lot of the necessary building techniques you see on display in Manehatten, because Equestria and Earth are very different, and things like the existence or practice of magic and controlled weather create different economic conditions and political needs. Trains can't tell you the exact year, but they can help you guess which century you're in, metaphorically speaking.
As for the gap between Hearth's Warming and the Two Sisters, I go off the handbook saying a teenage Celestia and Luna were appointed by an aging Starswirl the Bearded, who taught Clover the Clever and the Royal Sisters both. All the events we hear about are roughly a thousand years ago. I doubt they were actually in the same year, but I really doubt Luna ruled for more than a few decades before she got banished.
I do agree with you that Celestia and Luna are an extremely conservative force on society, focused on preserving the status quo much more than economic or technological growth. I think Celestia deliberately keeps the inefficent Pegasi Weather Industry running rather than just having wild weather with irrigation for crops and emergency weather management, for example, primarily to give jobs to all those Pegasi now that the army is smaller, and since new pegasi are always getting weather cutie marks, she keeps things the same so nobody has to see the industry they're destined to work in disappear. However, human governments were also anti-technology for much of history, that slows the rate of technological growth but doesn't stop it, there's too much money for too many people. As long as Celestia doesn't actually ban new tech outright, you get slow technological change and reduced but still real economic growth, which is what we see.
One final thought: Other countries, like maybe the minotaurs, could well be the ones developing the technology and selling them to Equestria, it would explain how the technology in health care is so advanced (something Celestia would support) while the weapons technology is so primitive (something I doubt Celestia is eager to spend her budget on.)
Another chapter down, and they're being cuter, yay. I've been typing a storm to ignore the sickness I'm still recovering from, blech, Keep it up! No grammar bits jumped at me.
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Or the train was broken. From a TV-writing perspective, the single appearance of the pony-pulled train was probably an attempt to be cute that didn't work out, and was abandoned in later episodes.
Most of the differences between pony and human technology are consistent with the different problems they have to solve. Technologies like cars, trains and weapons are a low priority since the ponies all have superpowers. Technologies like microphones and medical devices are high priorities because the ponies are social and accident-prone.
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I don't believe that to be true. Moreover, I don't believe that you've demonstrated that it is true, beyond a general appeal to determinism.
You haven't demonstrated how, exactly, we can make such inferences. More notably is the lack of a clear reason for why those inferences must necessarily be, if not true, then at least more likely than any other possible explanation. Simply pointing out that ponies have "broad biological similarities" does nothing to explain why they've invented the steam engine but not the telephone, for example. In fact, saying that their biological drives "manifest" in the societies that they create seems, if anything, to contradict the idea that those societies can be reasonably compared to any on Earth: there's no depictions of wide-spread competition for land, food, or any other resource that's limited by scarcity. Even when the three tribes were apart they still worked together to a degree that humans would find stunning, at least according to what we're shown.
Albedo has the right of it in pointing out that the one instance of a few stallions pulling a train is not indicative of anything. We weren't told why they were pulling the train in that one scene, and then every other scene subsequent to that had coal-powered engines. As such, there's no particular impetus for assuming that this is because coal engines are new (quite the opposite, since the train they were pulling had a recognizable boiler on the engine).
Likewise, the ponies can indeed jump to trains without following the technological progress that characterized their invention on Earth, because the ponies have magic. We see this demonstrated directly when Flim and Flam power the Super Easy Cider Squeezy 6000 with a blast of magic from their horns. While the trains don't run on magic, this completely undercuts the assumption that they can't have developed trains without paralleling Earth's development of train; hence why you can't use major technologies as benchmarks for where their society is as a whole. There's a reason why nobody is surprised that Appleloosa is essentially the Old West, whereas a tiny town like Ponyville has a modern-era hospital, for example.
Again, no they can't. The ponies don't have any sort of long-distance communications technology, despite having advanced medical technology and middling long-distance travel technology. Moreover, if you grant that "Equestria and Earth are very different," then you seem to be ceding your central point, which is that they're similar enough that you can presume a parallel between their technological and sociological development.
More telling is that this doesn't tell you anything about the pace at which progress has occurred. There's nothing to suggest that the trains must have been invented in the last century, for example, or that the skyscrapers in Manehattan can't possibly have been there for a thousand years. Is there any reason why we can definitively, or even reasonably, assume that all of the technology in Equestria today hasn't been there for over a millennium?
If you mean "The Journal of the Two Sisters," I find it to be a very poor resource, and I'm definitely not using it for this fic.
That's not what we see; the show never once demonstrates anything that resembles "slow technological change" nor "reduced but still real economic growth" in Equestria, and you haven't persuasively demonstrated that anything like that has occurred. Likewise, the comparison to human governments being "anti-technology" isn't a parallel to Equestria - being "anti-technology" means actively stopping new technologies from being developed and/or distributed, but we don't see any such active suppression in Equestria. Rather, we simply see a lack of impetus to develop any such technologies in the first place. The closest we ever see if Flim and Flam's magical Rube Goldberg device, and after they leave, we never see nor hear from it again (despite the fact that it actually worked very well) and instead see them moving on to their next money-making scheme.
This is true for Princess Celestia as well. We don't see her actively keeping things stalled; rather, we don't see her doing much of anything at all. All she does is sit around and apparently host parties and galas (though to be fair, we know she does talk to foreign officials when they visit), and otherwise not engage in anything except writing letters to Twilight. Beyond that, she only steps in when there's some sort of crisis going on. She isn't trying to prop up any industries - she doesn't have to, those ponies that are destined to work in them are content to copy her laissez-faire attitude. Nopony is interested in making money unless it's their destiny to do so (e.g. Filthy Rich), since pony society places a premium on personal fulfillment and satisfaction, which they can afford to do because everything else (e.g. adequate food, housing, social respect, etc.) follows after that as a natural consequence.
In other words, there's nothing actively stopping progress in Equestria; there's just no reason for it, since their society is already an idyllic one.
I find no indication that Celestia has a budget to begin with, since there's no evidence that Equestria has taxes of any kind. When she and Luna want something, they likely just ask for it, and ponies will rush to comply out of sheer goodwill. (As for the ideas that Equestria's technology is entirely imported, that goes further to the idea that they've stagnated more than anything else.)
6612742 Thanks! I hope you feel better soon!
Heward's Handy Haversack? Rope Trick? Portable Hole/Bag of Holding singularity collapse?! I'm in love!
8887127 If you like this, you'll definitely love the rest of the story!