Proving Quantum Mechanics With Ponies

Sometimes, Good Things Happen After 2AM

A walk, a walk to clear my head. So many emotions mixed and mingled up there. I reflected on the events I experienced a half hour before. The dead of night was a good time for thinking, there wasn't much else to do. I strolled out of the forest onto a lake front. The trees were the only other things doing cellular respiration in a mile radius. I figured this was the Whitetail lake, right in the midst of the forest correspondingly named. The full moon's reflection shifted very slightly as the calm, black waters slowly flowed about.

I walked for a little while longer, until I came up on a small dock jutting out three or four meters over the relatively still waters.

As good a place as any to contemplate ones inner-self I suppose, I walked to the edge and sat down gazing out at the two heavens, one real and one fabricated. I had mindlessly picked up rocks during the forty minute walk and had stored them in my pockets. Seeing no better use for them at the dock, I began throwing them into the lake and watching the effect they had on the celestial bodies.

Plop. The rocks were hard to grip, given my hands were frozen solid. The first one slipped and landed only a meter or two out from the dock into the water. Back home it was never this cold, and there wasn't a lake either. This was the first time I was doing this sort of thing. Probably won't be the last either, accepting the irrefutable truth that there's no way home.

Plop. This one had gone farther, I had slightly adjusted for the delay in muscle reaction and the decreased static friction between a cold hand verses one of body temperature. Maybe I'm not supposed to return, maybe this is some kind of punishment by the universe. Forced to live here and screw everything up.

Plop. This one farther still.

"Screw everything up is right," I said speaking aloud, "Now I can't even talk to the one girl who has the potential to understand me. Screwed that up too, Theo. Stupid." I was about to throw another rock, my third to last, when I heard something.

It was easy to pick out because it was the only noise around besides cricket chirps and other insect sounds. A faint wooden creak. Like a stair underweight. My mind went on the alert, pulling me from my self-induced negative reflection. I turned slowly, half of me wanted to know what was out here with me, and the other half didn't, and still, a tiny piece of me wished it to be Twilight.

In the shadow of a nearby tree stood a darker figure. I slowly raised myself and turned towards the shape, in part to make myself look more intimidating and in part to give me the chance to run whenever I pleased. The whole situation was eerie and unnerving, but the figure soon took one step forward, bring it's forehoof, then face, into the silver light of the moon.

Luna.

The Princess of The Night stared at me for a while, sizing me up before bringing the rest of her body out of the shadows. Her beautiful starry-night mane flowed freely, even in the still night air. She stopped her strides about two meters before me, but kept starring, almost a puzzled look. Before I could open my mouth, she started the conversation.

"So what they say is true, we have a human among us," I didn't know what she meant by this. "News travels fast, here in Equestria. The speed of a pegasus in flight to be exact. Much faster than thine…I mean, ‘your’…silly running messengers," she said with an air of superiority. Now I was really lost.

"How do you know about humans?" I asked.

"I guess thou, ‘you’, couldn't know, what with the human's mortal qualities. Our worlds were linked once, a long, long time ago. Although it doesn't seem too long for me, I was in a sort of...stasis, locked up."

"We were...linked? And what’s with the medieval speak?"

"After being imprisoned for so long, it seems We-‘I’ have fallen behind in my colloquialisms and am trying to correct my speech. As to your first question, yes, and it appears as if that link has reopened."

It was beginning to make sense. An Einstein-Rosen bridge, or bridges, in the past, had connected this time and space to my earth's time and space. That was the machine's purpose. Well, it worked. I was about to start lamenting my old life when something Luna had said finally registered in my mind.

"News travels faster in our world now," I said with a small sneer.

"What? No, it cannot be," she said stomping her hoof and with an honest scowl, "We have always been faster. How is it that humans beat pegasi?" It was funny how serious she was taking this trivial fact. I guess there had been a dispute thousands of years ago that the ponies proudly won.

"It may take you days to deliver a message to the other side of Equestria where humans can do the job in mere seconds." I said with a smile.

"Impossible! I do not believe thou. Even the thousand years our civilizations were separate would not give thou the time to beat us." She looked genuinely pissed now, like she would strike me with some unpleasant spell if I said one more word about it. Not wanting to die in a universe other than my own, I took it as a sign to stop teasing her.

"Well, whatever, Luna. All I wan-"

"How do you know my name? Did Twilight and her friends explain everything about our world to you?" She asked rather quickly and accusingly.

"Actually, I already knew that, before I came here." I grinned sheepishly. For the second time today I explained the My Little Pony story to a pony of the show. It was quite strange.

"And this... TV show, it's made for little girls?"

"Yes," I said rolling my eyes.

"But you, a young man, and many other older men, watch it?" She asked with a confused look as she rubbed her chin with a forehoof.

"Yes, yes, we're all very strange, but that's not the point," I said hurriedly, "The point is: this link, the connection between our worlds, has been reinstated for some time now, but I'm the first thing to show up in Equestria from my world."

"As far as we know." The way she said it sent chills down my spine. Or maybe that was the cold air finally getting to me.

"You think there could be more humans here?" I asked, but already knew the answer.

"Equestria is a big place, and we don't have the liberty of your fake instantaneous news networks," she said with a twinkle in her eye, "No, we're stuck with the old, reliable system of pegasi. If anything were to happen on the other side of the kingdom, we wouldn't know about it for at least three days." This revelation induced two distinct, and rather conflicting, feelings. On one hand, another human might be good company, we'd share more things in common than me and some ponies; but on the other hand, I would never wish someone to be dragged from their home and family just so I could have someone to talk to. I mauled this over for some time before Luna spoke up:

"You seem troubled, care to say why?"

"Well..." I began, but it was kind of weird to talk about my life before yesterday to somepony I just met in the Forrest, in the middle of the night. Maybe that's exactly what I need right now, I though, a little vent session. So, I continued. "...I've never really been gone from my home like this before. Sure I've slept over at people’s houses, but that was in the same city as my parents’ house. I've rarely been out of town, not once out of state. This was such a big change in so little time and I'm having a hard time coming to terms with it." Once finished with my little sob story, I turned and sat on the dock with my legs hanging over the side, feet just centimeters from the smooth black glass below. I stared at the reflection of the stars and thought.

"From what I remember of humans, they weren't so different from ponies," She said moving closer. She sat down next to me and dangled a foreleg over the mirrored night sky, "No one would expect you to be able to give up your home in the mere second it took you to arrive here. It will take time to reconcile your thoughts and accept this as your new home. But it is an acceptance that must be made, if you are ever to be happy," she said staring at the other end of the lake, I followed her gaze. Even though I couldn't see the opposite shore, I knew it had to be there. She then turned to me with a smile and said, "Of all ponies, I should know a lot about captivity and a change of scenery."

She said it with a smile but her eyes were sad, mixed with regret or anger, I couldn't tell. I turned back to watch the moon and its twin grow closer to each other, ever so slowly. My eye lids felt heavy. It had been a rough day, sleep might be good. But there was one thing I still had to ask the nightly princess before catching some Z's.

"Luna, what could I do to...to...uh?"

"...help thyself survive?" she suggested.

"Yes, thank you, survive."

She moved her head slightly to the side so she could just see me out of the corner of her eye.

"I would suggest finding a friend."

"Is that what you did?"

"Me, no, there were no friends were I was, but every day I wished for somepony, anypony to talk to, even if I had nothing to talk about." This felt like a good answer, so I accepted it. "You must be tired, go to sleep now, and I will make sure your dreams are pleasant ones." she said dropping her voice to a whisper. I didn't need to be told twice, a simply slouched against her and she spread a wing to place over me. It was warm and cozy. The last thing I could say before sinking into my dreaming was, "Thank you, Luna." She mumbled something, I assume a 'you're welcome', but I don't know for sure.

******

I don’t remember the dream. Time has washed my memory of it. I only remember shattered parts: the stars, little sparks of light. As well as the feeling I felt when I woke up: a warm, snugness, despite lying under a tree in the cool morning air. I stood up to stretch. Luna was long gone; the sun peaked over the easterly mountains. It looked like it was going to be a great day in Equestria, funny how that works.

The recollection of our talk the night before reminded me of a task I had assigned myself the moment the words were spoken. And now I was prepared to do whatever it took to accomplish it. Collecting and psyching myself, I headed off at a brisk pace in the direction I hopped was Ponyville. I stopped only a moment to pick a violet flower, I had a plan for it. It will be a great day today.