33 - Sunset
Sunset crossed her arms as she leaned back in her chair. "That's pretty intense. Most of our big problems involved one specific monster, maybe three at the outside."
Twilight nodded. "Considering an entire space-faring galactic empire is a bit of a jump." She clapped her hands. "I want to know more!"
Starlight suddenly burst into a fit of giggles. "You really are Twilight." At her quizzical look, Starlight waved it off. "The other Twilight. I can see how you two are mirrors."
Spike hopped up into Twilight's lap and settled there. "This is my Twilight. I don't care much about the 'other' one. Besides, they smell different."
Laud sniffed in reply to those words. He could smell things that he couldn't before, but he had little experience sorting it out. He could smell Starlight vividly, being beside her. There were so many things he could identify, he was fairly sure. There was some denim, and some sweat, perhaps from their walk... A few other things were harder to place. Was that the raw smell of Starlight?
He blushed at the thought of it. A man did not learn a woman's scent unless they were already being quite personal, but a horse could detect it from a polite distance. "This is a very strange world, but so far seen, not an... inherently bad one. Let's not allow it to come to harm through no fault of its own." Besides, no matter what the church said, Hawkwood would want access to that world's technology and information. They would boost the productive knowledge of technological creation considerably and tilt the scales of balance in Hawkwood's favor. The church would be a thorn in the side, but not the first Hawkwood ever dealt with...
Starlight reached over and rubbed Laud between the ears and then along them, making them twitch and jump as her fingertips felt through the soft fur. "Are you alright? You look nervous."
He hadn't blushed. Horses don't blush. How had he expressed his moment of awkwardness? He couldn't remember, having internalized it as a blush. "O-oh, I'm fine. It is just different seeing a world with this body and this height, to say nothing of the other senses."
Spike rolled his eyes from his elevated perch. "You get used to it. Can't say I've tried being a tiny horse before, think I'll pass."
Pinkie suddenly grabbed Laud's handle. "That must be super cool, being all fuzzy and cute, but you can't really make a cookie or throw a party like that."
Laud directed an ear back at her, but said nothing in reply to what sounded to be obvious truth.
Applejack looked towards Sunset. "So, what do ya think?"
Sunset huffed gently, accepting the responsibility thrown at her. "I think our friends need to get back to their world and handle this. There's nothing here that will help them."
Laud raised a hoof. "I disagree. There is something you could provide that would give me leverage later."
Sunset hiked a brow. "And that would be?"
Laud rose to his hooves. "Tell me you have books with instructions of a scientific nature."
Twilight shrugged. "We have the Internet for most of that, but you can't take it with you."
Laud sagged. "Internet? Do you not have some books? The more, the better."
Twilight wriggled her fingers. "Internet, a grand connection of computers across the world."
Laud felt his entire body tensing. They had so many computers they had blanketed their planet with them and connected them all together? He had seen starships with similar networks, but an entire planet?! He sank to his haunches, feeling rapidly boneless in the face of it. "That is... astounding, but, please, have you any books?"
Sunset waved at her bookshelf. "Sure, but I'm not collecting the kind of book I think you're looking for. Twilight?"
Rarity suddenly raised a hand. "I have a collection of fashion magazines you could have?"
Applejack tilted her hat down in the front. "Ah kinda doubt that's what he's aimin' fer."
Twilight stood up, sending Spike jumping to the ground. "I know where we can get what you're looking for, but I can do even better." She put a hand at her chest. "I happen to be a whiz at putting things together."
Laud looked up at the practically grinning female that wasn't even a full adult yet. Despite that, she had knowledge he wanted. "And you propose...?" He knew what she would suggest, but left it in her court. Let her say it first.
"I'll bring one of my computers with me and we'll go to Equestria!" She clapped her hands together and looked down at Laud with a huge grin. "We'll get this sorted out in no time at all!"
Starlight suddenly hopped up. "No way! No no no no! None of this is 'no time at all'!" She pointed at Laud. "Nice guy, but his projects are not small, or fast. You're still in school, right?"
"Yeah?" Twilight shrank back a little before stomping a foot and leaning forward at Starlight. "But this is a chance of a lifetime, no, even smaller than that. Nobody gets a chance like this! If I don't take it, I'll regret it forever."
Starlight threw her hands down with an angry grunt. "I've heard Twilight, the other one, go off on rants about 'dimensional balance' and things like that. This is not a good idea."
Laud glanced between the two ladies. He had his opinion... "We will take every precaution to assure her safety." As if he'd allow any harm to come to what could make all the difference.
Twilight pointed down at the small horse that was Laud. "See? It'll be fine. You're worrying over nothing."
Spike raised a brow. "I'm coming too, right? You're not going anywhere without me."
Starlight put her hands to her head. "Enough. This is getting well out of hand. Twilight, you know this is a risky move, and is going to throw your class schedule right out of whack." She crossed her arms then, giving Twilight a look. "You're basically dropping out. I'm not telling you which way is right, but this is a huge decision and you have to give it the consideration it deserves."
Fluttershy shook her head slowly. "It sounds scary to me... Besides, won't you be a pony if you go through the mirror?"
Twilight's grin faded a little. "That's true... but I'll be like the other Twilight. What kind of pony is she?"
Spike waved a paw in the air. "I'm coming too!" he yelped insistently.
Twilight reached down to pluck Spike from the floor. "As if I'd even dream of leaving you behind." They pressed face to face in a moment of solidarity and affection.
Starlight looked to Laud. "She's a girl. She should be in school, not... this."
Laud looked up at Starlight in kind. "Did you remain in school?" Starlight looked puzzled, but Sunset flinched. He spotted it and turned to her. "You seem to have a story."
"W-what, me?" She laughed nervously before she sagged. "Look, I ran away from school when I was around Twilight's age, and it was a terrible mistake looking back on it. I don't want Twilight just rushing ahead into it."
She smiled then, some of the tension leaving her. "Besides, I was given a second chance, with a second school, and a great set of friends to help me through it." The other girls gave a soft aww and came together for a group hug without further prompting.
Spike popped free from the middle of the hug and landed beside Laud. "The other, you know, me. I heard he's a dragon. Does that mean I'll be a dragon, because that sounds kinda awesome. Can he breathe fire?" He rose his paws and wriggled his toes in a fierce display. "Rawr!"
Laud considered his words carefully. "He is the only dragon in Ponyville. Your presence would bring it to two. He can breathe fire." Truths were the best course of action. "He also has hands and the ponies there are not surprised when he speaks."
Spike clapped his paws together. "I can just talk to people? That sounds amazing! Twilight, let's go!"
Laud began to more easily see where the two Spikes diferred, and it was a powerful difference. Spike really was a dog, a loyal companion to Twilight. He would go where she went, because he literally could not envision a world where he did not. He was an extension of her, and, as a dog, this pleased him. Going to Equestria would be a strict upgrade in his options.
He wondered how Spike, the original, handled becoming a dog. He couldn't imagine it was with joy.
"So, what kind of pony is she?" repeated Twilight as the group hug faded.
Sunset gave a quirk of a smile. "I've seen her, in the equine flesh. She's an alicorn, which means she has the full package; Wings and a horn."
Twilight nervously giggled as she seemed to imagine it. "I could learn to fly, and I already know how to use magic to move things around."
Laud blinked. "You have magic?"
"It's a long story, but yes." Twilight reached out a hand, spreading her fingers as she stared at a remote control on a small table. It lifted into the air and began to float towards her until she snatched it. "See? I can't do a lot with it, but moving things around? Easy."
Applejack rose an arm into a curl. "Ah'm strong."
Rainbow Dash suddenly did a circuit around the room with a rainbow trail. "Fast."
Sunset held up her hands. "Now's not the time for showing off. Besides, I already told you, Laud, what I can do, and that's not something you just 'show off'." Her face twisted in disgust. "That's a horribly invasive way to show something, and I'd rather we be friends."
Laud felt his estimation of Sunset rising cautiously. She had the most obviously horrible magic, able to plunder a person's mind, but she was also showing restraint and even disgust at the idea of using it. She had decency, and that had to count for something. She had also been a voice of gentle reason, even if what she said ran counter to his own desires. She was a good friend to the others, it was clear. "If she came, could she not return when she wished?"
He tried to clop his hooves as he'd seen ponies do so many times before, but his body refused to let him bend his legs in that fashion. The best he could do was clop the ground. "Nobody said she has to stay on a permanent basis. Even if she only came during her off days from school, her presence would be a tremendous boon."
Twilight smiled so wide her face squeaked with the effort. "I can visit on the weekends! I'll get my homework done ahead of time and be there in a flash!" Her hands clapped rapidly with building joy. "I won't have to drop out of school or anything dramatic like that and, oh!" She leaned in on Laud. "Tell me you have a working spaceship!"
Laud's ears rolled back from her outburst, but he faced her evenly. "We have the parts of my vessel, currently being studied. Your eyes may lend new insights."
Twilight clasped her hands together. "Yes..."
Spike nudged Laud from the side. "Hey, that's great. I'll get to visit you on the weekends and try being a dragon. Are you friends with other-me?"
Laud suddenly wondered if the two Spikes had met previously or not. "We are friends." Not peers, but friends, surely. "I will introduce you to him if you haven't met before. I'm sure he could give advice on how to function as a dragon." He snorted softly. "I'm sure it is much easier with another of your kind around to lend a hand." He had to learn how to be a small horse mostly on his own.
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I'm always up for the Human characters making a trip to Equestria, should be fun. I also love the idea that while Laud's people are clearly more Advanced in some ways, the Human world still manages to have things that impress him.
Yes, it was rather puzzling when they assumed SciTwi would just up and move to Equestria. Like, why would that even be remotely necessary? Heck, if they manage to quantum entangle an Ethernet cord they could even like the Internet over and reduce the whole "oh no imbalance too many people crossing over" nonsense...
It's interesting to see how fully the Church abhors both science and technology. We've seen hints at it before, but his feelings on future annoyance is very telling... Maybe having Ponyville be the spacedock is a good idea after all...
Keep going! ;)
Twilight, don't steal your princess counterpart the spotlight.
The greatest joke would be, after he finishes preparing everything, the princesses come and announces that only the visitors she approves can land and if they disobey, there will be... "accidents".
Oh boy, time paradoxes ahead me thinks!
In before Sci-Twi never wants to leave.
I think Laud would do well to not underestimated Equestria. The princesses are more powerful than what he think (does he know that they can move the moon and the sun?) And he didnt even meet Discord, yet (I can't wait.
)
...I'm not going to lie, I think SciTwi's in for a bit of a disappointment. Laud's society seems... restricted, somewhat, compared to what SciTwi is familiar with. And not just socially.
Well thats stupid. There would still be libraries and books even if they had the Internet, Twilight doesn't need to come.
Laud is having an existential crisis over amount of information, just at the mere mention of planet wide computers, and he hasnt even been told the actual Numbers yet. More processors than there is population, pulling a sizeable percentage of Global Power.
On Earth, there is a special offline distribution of Wikipedia, including images etc, that I think is about 250 gig. you can buy, suggested, 250 gig MicroSd cards for the nintendo Switch. Or any other device that has the SDXC drivers. Thats multiple Library of Congress, on a plastic encapsulated memory chip te size of your little finger nail. Ive seen a 512 Gig.
There are many ways of making XBar memory, even simple designs at home, with copper, aluminium etc, one anounced version used Titanium dioxode. Or white paint. Or rutile, found as inclusions in gemstones.
My personal hope for neurosynaptic memristors is to use optical population pumping and relaxation in multispectral sapphire nanofibres. that is, pumping a Rainbow into a 3D array of Maidens hair gemstone. But, thats for totally over the top fantastical magical land creations.
Oh dear. Super SciTwi is wanting to take the Internet, science and tech, to Equestria. If her Pendant was misbehaving like it had a mind of its own in Freindship Games, just how big a processing boost would it get in Ponyville?
I'm so looking forward to this. Something about what you've built up promises to appeal to me more than any of the other "EQG cast visit Equestria" fics I've read.
8560838
I'm assuming that they're like the kids just going through school now in the real world... no reason to collect print reference books because they're expensive, bulky, and can't be updated as new discoveries are made.
(And I do mean bulky. I'm a bookworm and I'm having to resort to creative solutions and custom-built shelving to avoid being crowded out of my room by my own book collection.)
As for libraries, if it didn't initially occur to them that Twi could visit only on weekends, it wouldn't have occurred to them to borrow said books from the library temporarily. (And, once they're caught up in the idea of SciTwi visiting, they're caught up in it.)
8560838
8560851
Neither of you are wrong. Twilight wants to go. Could she think of ways to not go? Sure. Does she want to go? Yes. Why would she prevent herself from going?
And so we have a new engineer on board. And really, it's not like Twilight's learning anything in class. She was on track to being Crystal Prep's valedictorian; the only lessons she's learning at CHS are remedial social interaction and applied telekinesis. Still, I can only imagine what her parents are going to think of her weekend job at an extradimensional spaceport...
In any case, minor typo to iron out:
Differed. Homophones are nasty buggers.
8560824
This is Twilight Sparkle we're talking about. She's not going to be disappointed; she's going to see a problem she can solve. Granted, the sheer scale of the problem is daunting, but surely a well-constructed, rational argument will sway them.
8561047
Sneaky typos, thinking they can sabotage this great plan! Thank you for doing your part. No one noticed Twilight's flutter-squee though.
Sci-Twi, paving her path to galactic prowess as engineer extraordinare. She has a more than brilliant path ahead of her, that's for sure
Something Id like to see.
Take survival blankets. A few micron thick mylar plastic with aluminium coating. Etch microfiche style optically reduced text into it. Put lots of sheets together to form a book, Put a holographic fold out reader in the cover.
I estimate you can be looking at 10 million to one compression. Before you start using graphene sheet and gratings with metamaterial optical lens readers.
Did you know there was proposed a holographic information search technique proposed many years ago. Part of the class as massively parralel, quantum processing, neural net search systems.
Think you meant restraint.... but, <shrugs> might be a local variant.
8561643
Fixed!
well this will be a supersize for Twilight and Spike to meat Twilight and Spike in Equestria.
i wounder how this is all going to play out?
this story just keeps getting better as it grows.
Going to see some double midnight sparkle action as both Twis decide that knowledge can be transferred faster via mental fusion and realize that space travel is much faster if you just bend the warp around you.
8563770
I must agree with that statement. I've had many a trouble with stairs
What's with the random "it" here?
I believe this should be "she."
If Sci-Twi goes to Equestria she should be a unicorn and not an alicorn since she never did anything that she deserves being made an alicorn for. Sunset should be an alicorn in Equestria and that's something the writers did wrong IMO. Ponies and Dragons: Just have fun is a story that actually has all the Humane7 visit Equestria including Spike and that does it right. It did have an influence on my opinion but it still makes sense.
8903090
You are not wrong, but you are also not canon.