Stories set in the Oversaturated World, some silly, some less so.
See The Sparkle Census for full context. TL;DR: A whole bunch of Twilights got together and formed a multiversal lab/social hub/sprawling bureaucracy.
âName?â
âTwilight Sparkle.â
The instance of Twilight at the desk heaved a sigh. âPlease remain calm, miss, Iââ Her train of thought almost visibly came to a screeching halt. She actually looked up from her computer. âWait, what?â
âTwilight Sparkle,â said Twilight Sparkle, looking around the room. The theme seemed to be âinstitutional beige,â both carpet and walls different shades of the same almost-color. The desk was more of a brown, and the computer was Model-T black; by obligation rather than choice. âMy worldâs fairly multiversally aware, so Iâm already familiar with the Census.â
âOh, thank goodness.â The deskbound Twilight ran a hand through her bangs. The other Twilight held back a wince when she recognized the Crystal Prep bun. Rarely a good sign. âYou wouldnât believe how long it takes to get the average human Sparkle to calm down. And thatâs assuming one of her parents doesnât open the envelope first.â
Twilight wouldâve been lying if sheâd said she hadnât considered some of the issues with the Sparkle Census since first hearing about it. âHave you considered an alternate method? Or waiting until theyâre living on their own?â
That just got a shake of the head. âIâm really not the Twilight to talk to about that. Just go into the door on your right, fill out the questionnaire on one of the PCs, and youâll have your run of the facility and your complimentary bookmark. Right now, I have a quota to fill.â
That got a shudder and an unwanted memory of working retail. Twilight hastened towards the indicated door. âGood luck!â
âNormally, Iâd say luck doesnât exist, but right now, I could use all I could get.â The Twilight at the desk pressed a few keys, took a deep breath and said, âNext.â
A third Twilight dressed in a Crystal Prep uniform manifested in a flash of light. She blinked, darted her eyes about the room, and took a deep breath.
Twilight zipped through the door and slammed it shut just a few moments after the scream started. A good dozen familiar faces looked up at her from the tables scattered around the equally bureaucratic-looking waiting room and another desk at the front of it.
She cleared her throat. âSorry.â Then she realized they were still staring.
Then, after a moment, she realized why.
âWhy are you an elf?â
âWhy do you have a bindi?â
âOh my Goddess, Twilight, you canât just ask someone why sheâs an elf.â
She was far from the only Twilight in the room, but she was definitely the only unicorn aspect. Almost everyone else was an unaltered human. Two sitting in a corner of the room werenât even chromelanic. There was one more shaded girl with raven wings and a glowing horn of pure energy, but she seemed as unsettled and confused as anyone else, so Twilight wasnât going to hold that against her.
Fortunately, Twilight had also spent some time thinking about how to explain the peculiarities of her universe. âLong story short, magic-induced spacetime decay repaired by amending the laws of physics. The ears and headgem are part of the side effects. And the gemâs biological, not religious.â Twilight tapped it with a finger for emphasis.
The browner Twilight of the nonpurple pair scrunched up her nose. âDo we have to call it âmagic,â though? Itâs just so⌠unscientific.â That got several nods.
Twilight couldnât help but smile at that. âHereâs the thing: Magic is just a label.â
Several Twilights traded uncertain looks. The more beige Twilight said, âI mean, technically, butââ
Twilight pressed on before the other could build up momentum. âGravity is just a label.â
That got a few jaws to drop. âWell now youâreââ
âElectromagnetism isnât just a label, itâs two labels we had to smash together after Mathwellâs equations made it clear that the same force governed angry clouds and sticky iron.â
That nearly silenced the room, aside from the one Twilight with glowing energy glasses sputtering out, âA-angryâŚâ
Twilight shrugged as she took a seat at one of the unoccupied desktops. âItâs all words at the end of the day. Imperfect but more human-parsable representations of theories better expressed through math and data.â
âI see,â said the Twilight whoâd spoken up first. âIâll⌠try to bear that in mind.â
âAnd if itâs just because saying âmagicâ in a scientific context makes you feel silly, remember, there may be lasagna, bucatini, and antignocchi phases of nuclear pasta in the depths of neutron stars.â Twilight grinned. âItâs okay to be silly as long as the data backs you up.â
A chorus of giggles broke out at that, and the others turned back to their work with smiles on their faces.
âIâm going to have to remember that one.â
Twilight blinked and turned. The Census functionary had walked up to her, an impressed smile on her face. âIt can take some Twilights the better part of an hour to accept the existence of magic even after theyâve been teleported to a pocket universe.â
Twilight returned the grin. âIt helps that my mentor was Mr. Discord. Iâm given to understand thatâs rather uncommon.â
The functionaryâs eyes went wide as she gave a shaky nod. âUm⌠Yes. Yes it is.â
Twilight managed to keep the smirk off her face as she watched the bureaucrat stumble back to her desk and slump in her seat. She had a feeling the Census didnât know what was about to hit it.
Page generated in 0.073 seconds
Total duration
1,007 users online
1,582,796 hits today, 2,156,967 yesterday
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I guess the browner Twilight made her objections about magic, even as the Winged Twilight was there, and everyone else just ignored her to concentrate on their work, instead of responding, like Oversat!Twilight did.
I wonder what happens to Crystal Prep Twilights once they learn of the upcoming Friendship Games / Midnight Sparkle stuff...
----
Typo:
Several Twilight > Several Twilights [?]
The funny thing is, take science far enough and it becomes indistinguishable from magic. If you took a smart phone with you hundreds of years into the past and got it to work, it would be seen as deific witchcraft. Heck, even now, with all our advances in technology, teleportation is still seen as more like magic than science.
I love this.
10388241
And even without the time travel, do you even know anyone who knows and understands all the specifics of how phones work? Because there are people working tech support for them who don't.
10388176
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to notice...
10388260
Same
10388241
Technically teleportation is a plausible thing its just were not up to the quantum levels of data storage and energy manipulation that is needed for live transport. Admittedly who knows when if live things will ever be portable like that since non living material would be much easier to move than something like a biological being because your brain is a quantum computer in some ways so how can you truly make a copy and move it without making large errors in biology.
10388324
I also just finished an E&M course in the spring which included a book on Faraday and Maxwell. Very interesting people. Maxwell also figured out what light our eyes processed in a great way. We have RGB because he figured it out. Also proved purely mathematically that Saturn's rings were a bunch of small rocks.
casp.phy.cam.ac.uk/images/colour_wheel/image
10388325
That's precisely why I said teleportation is still considered more magic than science.
Magic Incarnate Twilight - 1
Sparkle Census - 0
Teehee, nuclear pasta đ
By royal decree, all nerds are henceforth required to include nuclear pasta in their word salads at least once per month.
10388460
Scary thing? Nuclear Pasta might be among the most nearly indestructible form of Baryonic matter theorized.
WHY do they have to make such good single chapter stories that I would literally drop money on (If I had it) to see like 5 chapters of the insanity that would happen.
Very nice. I'd like to see more of our twilight interacting with the sensus. I'm going to assume sunset knew beforehand the envelope was meant to borrow the purple girlfriend of the universal maintenence Bacon Horse.
I know what happens if sunset leaves, but what about the element/embodiment of magic?
Less side effects, surely, but something probably.
I wonder how bad the Census damaged the universe with their teleport?
10388812
if there was a probably Ms. Harshwhinny will deal with them. We know she keeps out uninvited guests, seeing her reaction to kidnapping from a distance will be very interesting
10388161
Oh, they were all listening in, but most either didn't want to interrupt or felt it would be too awkward to do so.
As for the Midnight in attendance, the two more conventionally hued Twilights were sure there was a perfectly rational, nonmagical explanation for her, and they'd happily start looking into it after they finished their Census paperwork. As for the question of how pre-FG Twilights feel when they meet their magic-maddened dark sides... That's actually a very good question. I'll have to get back to you on that.
10388241 10388276 10388325
One can have a lot of fun with Clarke's Third Law, especially in a setting like the Oversaturated World where the line between magic and science gets blurrier by the day.
10388260 10388324
Thanks! I'm quite proud of it myself. It was originally going to be just "weird iron," but then I hit on the best way to describe the phenomenon as goofily as possible.
10388400
The Human Division is very poorly equipped for handling savvy, snarky, Discord-trained Twilights. Even ones from sword-and-sorcery worlds are two out of three at worst!
10388473
It does make for some excellent technobabble. "Activate the lasagna plating!"
10388758
I may do more with this concept, though I'll definitely confer with Skyward Shoe first. I'm stepping on their toes enough as it is without actually involving them.
10388812
Fortunately, pocket dimension 5P-4RKL3's flow of time is wholly detached from much of the multiverse, which means they can send OW!Twilight back where she came from within Planck times of when she left... though that may still make Sunset a bit concerned. Not much, though. It certainly won't imperil the universe's stability.
The single letter-port did negligible damage in and of itselfâTwilights are nothing if not careful around delicate spacetime continua as long as Starlights aren't involvedâbut Twilight won't make a habit of popping into the Census on a frequent basis for at least a few years.
10389382
Harshwhinny vs. the Census would be a duel of red tape neither side wants to deal with. Even professionals know when to let one slide.
10389434
Yeah you could always ask. I would love t9 see what twilight and sunset.think of it.
10389427
I meant when conventional Twilights first arrived, they made a fuss about magic, but everyone else had work to do.
But more importantly...
Having multiple timelines all talking to each other throws plots into chaos. I'd totally be in for a sequel!
... Sword and Sorcery, huh? ... Magiville Twilight! ... I sooo wondering how the Census would react to that...
I just realized this is Oversaturated Twilight's first canon encounter with a Midnight Sparkle. I was really hoping someone would do a story where Sunset got to dress her up, since Sunset did have a run in with a Midnight Sparkle in an alternate Sunset's dream
10389382
"Kidnapping from a distance"
I'm totally going to spread around this beautiful quote.
10389959
thank you
10389427
10388241
Might be worth using the Alcatraz Smedry definition of the terms: If it's something that anyone can use with the proper training, it's science. If it's something that only specific people can use, it's magic.
Alternately, a lot of the splays I monitor use "magic" to refer to abilities drawn from an external, intelligent, source. So something like the Elements of Harmony would be magic because the power is not native to those who use it, it's gifted by a third party with its own mind and objectives. Aspect powers, on the other hand, would not be "magic" under this system because the power is innate to those who use it.
And then you can go one step further and add in the Weak Nuclear Force to get the Electroweak Force (above 246 GeV)!
10429188
True, but the parts of the Census at that energy level are off-limits to humans for very good reasons. Mostly the whole "vaporized flesh" thing.
And OS Twilight's explanation of magic just confused everytwilight.
that's what I'm SAYING