Chapter One—Big Ith and Little Ith
"At the very moment of cosmic creation, there were two beings of unequal mass but equal power," The Teacher said loudly to the loons, "Both were named Ith, but had differing attributes."
"Like what?" said a filly in front with a mane that shrouded her face.
"If you pulled your book out, maybe you could read along."
"But I lost it!" she said.
"How?" the Teacher said, "I gave it to you guys yesterday!"
"You just don't know how much can happen in a day."
"Well, then, can you explain how you lost it?"
"Sure!" she said, flipping back one side of her liquid blue mane.
The Teacher pulled his stool to the front of the chalkboard that they never use and sat on it. From the way the moved, it must have been an uncomfortable chair.
The filly, Wulette, cleared her throat, "I was riding the carriage home from school, as usual, but then something happened. I looked to my side, screaming at a cloaked figure outside my carriage until the carriage itself stopped. I heard the sound of fighting, punches colliding with skulls, for an hour or two," everyone closely listened, "Then, not a moment after I had calmed down, the beast on two legs burst into my carriage and looked at me with evil eyes. We stared at one another for a few minutes until I flinched," she looked horrified, "then the beast took off its cloak and covered me with it. I had worried I would be abducted, but a few moments pass and nothing happened. I removed the cloak from me, seeing nothing there," she looked calmer, "then I looked to my backpack and saw it was thinner—"
"Wait wait wait," the Teacher said, "are you saying that a Diamond Dog ate your book?"
She pondered for a second, then exclaimed, "Yes!"
The Teacher facehoofed, "Just share with someone, but your parents will have to pay for the missing book if it was really eaten."
She looked shocked, as she nodded lightly, "Sure..."
The Teacher pulls out his book and fixes his slightly cracked glasses, "Now," he said, "where were we?"
"The first sentence," said a nice colt in front as Wulette scoots her desk by his to share his book.
"Oh," The Teacher said, he cleared his throat, "The Bigger Ith was one of logic and the known while Little Ith was unpredictable. The two fought over how the universe should be created during the time before our time-space came to be. Their last battle ended with the two smashing into one another at intense speeds, releasing all of their interior magic in a ovular pattern. The fundamental forces of magic propelled the tiny specks, impossible to see even by magic, to collide into one mass. The mass of the possibilities and impossibilities could not hold together, though, so they bursted. The logical pieces of the universe were annihilated when touching the illogical, but the illogical had much less pieces. In the end, the logic of the universe, Big Ith, won, but lost. The universe created from the final battle had been given the beautiful atrocity of probability, for it turns out that a new fundamental force allowed illogic to be created in the new universe. Big Ith, angry, waged war with the tiny specks of Little Ith around the universe, which would only take a moment in Big Ith's eyes, but as Time and Space were created at the same time, and are linked in some way we cannot ever know, the time to defeat Little Ith is another impossible amount, so long that, in fact, the universe began to take shape. It is at this time that I have lost my vision, but my fellow scholars are studying it as I write this journal," the Teacher sighed, "Signed, Professor Ein of the Crystal Empire."
The Teacher gets up and gets a stack of paper, "Now, before the quiz, does anyone have a question they would like to be answered?"
A dark-blue colt in the back, who looks somewhat mean, picks up his hoof lightly.
"Yes, Lyre?"
"Was any of that true?"
"Well, some parts of it, yes. The part of there being particles and antiparticles that annihilated each other, the part of the fundamental forces of magic, which was actually matter, and the theory of the beginning of the universe, but you'll learn that in your science classes when you finally leave me, er, graduate from Canterlot Magic Kindergarten and go to Magic GradeSchool somewhere."
"When do we graduate?" a green-colored colt who sits in the front left-hoof corner named Herc said.
"Well, from all of the classes' grades so far, I am guessing," The Teacher rubed his chin, "fifty years."
Everyone scowled at the Teacher.
"Alright, alright, sheesh," he yawned, "You'll graduate as soon as your cutie mark arrives, which we will then enlist you in the actual magical school to let you pump your genius," the Teacher laughed a bit, passing out the papers,"if you have any that is."
They scowled again, but immediately looked at the papers and passed them down their columns.
"Just write down your answers in simple words, they don't have to be sentences, but things must be spelled correctly."
The sound of paper meeting ink and the humming of horns reigned throughout the room for quite some time. Time passed for about half an hour before the students finally let their quills down, for the bell had rung.
"Pass them up and fix your rows," The Teacher said, relaxing on his desk, "and you can leave the class."
The sound of desks moving back to their rightful places and the sound of papers piling fill the room as the students leave to go home...
"Why are you still here?" The Teacher asked a student way in the back-right corner, whose gray fur was charred at the hooves.
The Student stood up, still writing in his journal, and said, "Sorry, sir, but my parents do not get here for about an hour, so can I just sit and chat with you?"
The Teacher nodded in his chair, "Fine, but you have to go as soon as possible."
The student smiled, "Sir, may I ask an important question?"
The Teacher looked slightly surprised, "Sure."
"What are the fundamental forces?"
The Teacher smiled,"Well, we may as well pass the time explaining things."
He went up to the chalkboard,"The strong interaction is very strong, but very short-ranged," he made a dot of chalk, " It acts only over ranges of order one ten-trillionth of a centimeter, much smaller than this circle, and is responsible for holding the nuclei of atoms together," He smiles happily, "It is basically attractive, but can be effectively repulsive in some circumstances."
"What are the Nuclei of an atom? I know what an atom is," the student asked.
"The nuclei are the positive center of an atom, consisting of neutrons and protons, which determine the element of an atom."
"Oh."
The Teacher smiled, "There is also the electromagnetic force that causes electric and magnetic effects such as the repulsion between like electrical charges or the interaction of bar magnets," he coughs a bit, "It is long-ranged, but much weaker than the strong force.," The Teacher readjusts himself, "It can be attractive or repulsive, and acts only between pieces of matter carrying electrical charge."
"How do things get an electrical charge?"
"You remember the atom?" The student nods, "Well, think of the the electrons, which are the particles flying around the nucleus, and they carry a negative charge. They are attracted to the positive nucleus, but since nothing ever truly touches, it just revolves around it," The Student understands, "Well, if a certain element had more or less electrons than it is supposed to have, it carries a charge of negative or positive, er," he looks at his watch.
"What?"
"it is about time for you to go home," he said with a slightly saddened tone, "I wish I could teach you more today."
"Why do you never teach us this much during class, sir?" the student said, putting everything but the journal away.
"Well, I have to follow the plans for general education until I finally get a promotion to a more specified teaching job."
"When will that be?"
"When I get fifty students to graduate."
"Really?"
"Yeah..." The teacher said, getting off the desk and walking back to his desk, "and get home safe, kid."
"Thank you, sir," The Student said, putting his journal away.
