Proving Quantum Mechanics With Ponies

I Fall to My Death

The next morning, I got up early, excited for the day's events. The air in the house-tree was quite cool at six so I decided to get dressed to stay warm. Funny, after sleeping on the couch for the past two months, not once did Twilight see me in my sleeping wear, or rather the lack thereof.

I pondered this as I poured a cup of grass-coffee. Maybe she has some spell that tells her when there's an impending awkward situation she should avoid. Just then Twilight walked in, rubbing her right eye with the respective hoof. Thinking about my clothes then quickly turned to thinking about her clothes, or again the lack thereof.

"Good morning, Theo!" she said delightfully, "sleep well?"

I shook my head to clear my thoughts, "Yeah, it was sound. No dreams though. You?"

"Yep, sound without dreams. Same here. Just like always." she poured herself a cup of grass-coffee using her magic and then jumped up on the counter and sat on her haunches with her back legs dangling off the edge. She held her coffee cup with the bottom of her hoof. She took sips every half-minute or so, tilting it slightly to get just the amount she wanted. To this day I still had not seen anything so weird. What she did was just so...human. I stared at her with my eyebrow raised, then decided to join her. I walked over to the counter and sat next to her. (No need for a jump, the counter was already lower than my waist.) We sat there and sipped at our coffee while staring at the other kitchen wall.

I tried to distract myself with things on the other side of the room: the cupboards that didn’t quite close all of the way, the slightly uneven counter tops, the faucet that dripped about every half-minute. These were the tell-tale signs of the earth pony heritage behind Ponyville. If unicorns had crafted the furniture, the surfaces would have been flat on an atomic scale and fit perfectly together. Although this was an amusing tangent, my mind came quickly back to the unicorn sitting beside me. I stole a glance from the corner of my eye: she looked straight ahead at nothing in particular, deep in thought. I guess I attracted more attention than I had hoped because her eyes darted to me and then her head followed suit. Her face now gave a quizzical impression as she looked at me.

“Yeah, I know my mane looks bad, I’ll brush it before we leave, I promise,” she said, assuming that was why I staring at her.

“Oh, no, it looks fine,” I replied weakly, “And where would we be going?”

“The test site of course,” she said trying to be excited but I guess the coffee hadn't woken her up yet.

“Why do we have to go out for that? What’s wrong with the basement?” I asked. My plan so far was to run an extensive test on the machine and the Firmagus examining its Einstein-Rosen Bridge capabilities and then extrapolate a way to sustain the portal for long periods of time. It seemed, despite keeping this plan to myself, Twilight had formulated a similar scientific test independently but had imagined it occurring in a different place than I had.

“Well, I figured if we are going to be tests with large amounts of energy and temporal disturbances, we should probably do it far away from civilization,” Twilight replied with another small sip from her cup.

I thought back into human history and replayed the footage of the first detonation of the atomic bomb. I recalled Oppenheimer’s famous allusion, giving new meaning to the old Vedic texts. They built a city in the middle of nowhere, then traveled three hundred miles away from that city in order to detonate the result of their hard work.

And our test is a lot more dangerous than the atomic bomb, I thought offhandedly. Then it hit me, Twilight did have a point about the severity of this experiment. She didn't just have a point, she was more right than she knew, than I knew. If done incorrectly or let out of control, it could have drastic repercussions for the entire world of Equestria as well as every other world out there. We were messing with the fabric of space-time here, the stuff beyond our comprehension. Literally, it’s impossible to comprehend the four dimensions of space-time (or eleven purposed by “M Theory”). This was way beyond us, beyond anyone. The only chance I had to return to my home was also capable of destroying it forever…

Twilight pulled me back to the present when she screamed my name. I returned with a start. The world appeared before me again and I was back in Twilight’s kitchen but I wasn't holding my cup anymore. That was the strongest zone out I had ever had. The purple mare looked at me with wide eyes and a very concerned look. That was the first time I had seen Twilight scared. It’s a damn shame it wasn't the last.

“What happened to you?” she asked getting closer, “Are you okay? Can you hear me now? What were you thinking about?”

“I…uh…I don’t know. I guess the floodgates broke and it call came crashing down on me,” I said, “You are so right. This is an almost impossible task we have to do, the margin for error is almost non-existent and there is a huge risk factor involved. How can we pull it off?” I asked the question as I turned to her.

“I don’t know, but we just have to take every precaution and give it our best shot.”

I couldn't believe this. I knew she had been with me on this every step so far, but now that I understood exactly what it would take, what both I and her had to risk in order to pacify a home-sick individual, a single, worthless ant in the grand scheme of things, it seemed impossible that she would want to continue.

“It can’t be done. Twilight, it isn't worth trying, putting everyone and everypony at risk. And I mean everyone. Our entire reality could be destroyed, gone in a second. No! A microsecond! Bam! Everything!” I was shouting now, “It’s madness! It’s selfish,” I finished sitting down in a chair that was just a little bit too small for me.

Twilight just stared at me for a little. She wasn't so easy to capitulate. “Well, we know it’s possible. That should be at least a little reassuring.”

“How do we even know that?”

“Well you’re here, aren't you?”

I lifted my head to look at twilight. A calm look had replaced her previously fearful one. My eyes darted back and for between her solid, unwavering ones. “But why is it important that I get home. The needs of the many out way the needs of the one. You’re risking everything too. There’s nothing I could do for you, Why do you even what to help me?” She stared at me for just a little bit longer before giving her answer.

“Because, if I were all alone in a world so far and so distant form my own, I would want someone to risk everything to get me back home too.”

She was really committed. More than I was. I didn't understand.

“Now come on, we've got a long trip to the test site.” She set down a cup on the counter and left the room to get ready for where ever it was we were going. I hadn't even noticed she was levitating a cup when we were talking. I stood up and walked closer to it. It was mine. I must have dropped it when I zoned out and she caught it with her magic. I picked it up and dumped it out in the sink before exiting the kitchen to gather the essential materials for the test.

*****

We took the Friendship Express Railroad as far north as it would take us: to the doorstep of the Crystal Empire. Twilight made me stop off at Rarity’s boutique in order to purchase some clothes appropriate for the weather up there. I was now decked out it freshly sewn ski attire and had a tightly woven, extremely warm wool blanket to boot. Until we arrived, I had no idea where we were going; just that it would be cold. Once the train stopped for the last time I was a little confused.

“The Crystal Empire? More ponies live here than in Ponyville and Canterlot combined. Why would it be safer to experiment here?” I asked.

“It’s not. We’re not staying in the Crystal Empire,” she replied coolly. From there, we took a hot air balloon (yes, the one from the title sequence) as far west as we could get in a day. We traveled a total of twenty-four hours, the sun set thirteen hours into the trip. The stars were so beautiful when their only competition was the small, steady glow from the hot air balloon’s burner. The night air was extremely cold and Twilight’s coat wasn't long or thick enough to stand it alone. We shared the wool blanket on the floor of the balloon as we drifted with the wind. She held the blanket close to her body, tolling me the origin myths that went along with the constellations. I would respond with the human interpretation. It was the best night of my life.

The next day at noon we decided to land. We had discovered the perfect glacial valley that was miles wide in every direction. The canyon floor was almost flat and would be an ideal surface for the experiment. It was a miracle we found the valley of ice when we did because we had spent more than half of the fuel already and the cold air was getting harder and harder to combat with our small flame.

This was where we set up our makeshift machine near the center. The sun had reached its apex, about forty-five degrees south of directly overhead. It gave off a warmth you wouldn't expect to feel in such an ice covered landscape. It took about an hour to set up and test individual parts of the machine for an accurate response.

On the piece we discovered was responsible for power, we fixed a box made out of solar cells that would serve as the extractor of energy from the Firmagus crystal. Our plan was this: teleport the crystal into the power cell and wait for something to happen. If something went wrong, there wasn't much we could do to fix it with our limited knowledge. That is why we had come all this way. Maybe it would tear apart reality, maybe it wouldn't work at all. But Twilight was right (as she usually was) that I had to try.

The moment came when we had finished the preliminary testing and had assembled the machine. We stepped back a couple of meters. I held out the heirloom that had been in Twilight’s family for so many years. I still couldn’t believe she was willing to give it up for me. She looked at the box and gave a nod. Her horn lit up with a dazzling purple fire that leapt up and around the projection from her head. The light grew in intensity until I needed to shield my eyes. Then, it suddenly burst, and in a flash everything was back to normal but I box I held now weighed less. Twilight looked weary; transporting such a magically dense object must have taken a lot of energy. We both stared at each other for a second before turning in unison to observe the machine.

A low, constant growling was now being erupted form the metallic canister. The fissures that were left from our repairs began to glow a pink-violet. The machine was now visibly shaking at a quicker and quicker pace every second; the growling rose in pitch and intensity as well. The ice below the machine reflected the pink-violet light as the source became brighter than the sun. Twilight and I covered our ears and crouched facing the other way in order to dampen the sound and protect our eyes. Then, right when I thought I would lose it, go blind, burst my eardrums, there was an explosion. I was thrown twenty meters across the ice. I rolled for the last eight or so and sustained only minor injuries. My elbow had a two inch gash that became red and dripped quickly. I pushed myself to my feet with my mildly scraped palms.

Twilight had landed about twenty-five meters from me and was having more trouble getting up. I ran to help her. She had also sustained minor injuries but the initial energy drain didn't leave her much to stand up with. She slowly came to her feet. I was looking at her face, but she was transfixed by something else. Following her gaze, I looked over at the machine. I expected to see nothing. I thought the explosion was the catastrophic failure of the machine. I was wrong.

The machine was still there, but the stand we had erected for it no longer existed. The machine gave off a dull violet glow as it floated above the ground…well, I guess it wasn't really the ground anymore. Directly below the machine, there was a violet circle about a meter in diameter that swirled with the turbulence of a raging sea. The loose snow and ice around it was drawn close and fell in.

“That’s…that’s impossible…” I whispered.

“We did it. We did it, we actually did it!” Twilight sprang up and began laughing; she was full of excitement, forgetting about the scrapes and her tiredness. She looked at me and did something I never expected. She ran at me, full speed, and kissed me on the cheek.

When she pulled away, she was blushing. I gave a noise similar to a whale song. We stared at each other for a little longer; it would be the last time I got to look at her so intently. She looked cold in just her scarf and boots. They did go well with her eyes though, it was the first time I noticed her pay putting thought behind what she was wearing.  Every time she breathed out I watched the cloud formed form the rapid condensation of the water molecules she exhaled. I felt her heart beat through my arms that I held around her back. I saw her mane spread in the wind with its pink and violet streaks in a perfect contrast with the rest of her black hair.

“Wind?” I said puzzled, “There wasn't wind before.” Then we heard it: the low growl had returned. We broke the embrace to look at the machine. It was shaking again and the snow was being pulled into the portal at almost twice the rate as before. Not only that, the portal had grown to more than one and a half meters in diameter and was visibly increasing at a greater and greater rate. We looked back at each other, and in our glance we made the decision together. We ran.

The hot air balloon was tied down a good seventy-five meters back to ensure its safety if anything were to happen. looks like we had the right idea, I thought. As fast as we could, we tore across the frozen earth towards the deflated balloon. Twilight hopped in and began to warm the burner up. It would take a while for the balloon to fill with enough hot air to get off the ground. I set myself upon the tethers that secured it to the ice. My frozen fingers fumbled with the knots. I chanced a glance at the augmenting portal. It now covered a fourth of the distance to the balloon. I tried to work faster but the large ropes were hard to untie when they were caked in frost and moving faster impeded the process. Eventually I got the three tethers undone and threw them into the basket. The portal was now two thirds of the way to us which means it was about a hundred meters in diameter and increasing every second. I jumped into the basket; the burner was on full but the balloon still had a little ways to go. Twilight looked nervously back and forth between the expanding portal, the fuel gage and the inflating balloon.

“Is there any way to use your magic to speed this up?” I shouted above the now roaring wind.

“I could try!” she yelled back. Firmly planting her hooves on the ground, her horn lit again with its dazzling flame. An intense beam of pink light shot at the burner and the flame increased three times its height as well as became the color of Twilight’s magic. The balloon inflated fully in no time and we left the ground seconds after. The wind being generated by the huge interstellar hole began spiraling around it and took us along for the ride, moving us around the outside the portal in a wide arc.

“If we get enough height, we can use the wind to sling shot us over the ridge and out of the Einstein-Rosen Bridge’s range!” I screamed over the wind.

“Perfect idea!” Twilight hollered back. She gave the burner all she had, the flame now as high as it would go, lifted us a little higher, but our ascent slowed, then began to reverse.

“What’s happening?” I asked holding onto the basket, bracing myself.

“I don’t know! We should be rising still!” she said, sweating form the strain on her mind and body. I thought to myself for a couple seconds.

“Crap!” I said.

“What?!” she asked looking at me concerned.

“It’s the portal, it has so much energy. It’s generating its own gravity field. And the bigger it gets, the more force it takes to get away from it.” I explained. The one time when I wish Einstein was wrong.

“So what do we do now?!” She asked, “The canyon wall is coming up fast!” She was right, the wind was pushing us faster and faster towards one of the glacier ridges that guarded the valley.

“We’ll have to go around again!” I told her, “The wind should swing us back.”

“Then what? We can’t get any higher, and the portal will just keep pulling us down!” Her voice was laced with fear.

“I don’t know…” I trailed off into thought. The glacier ahead of us slowed its approach as the circular wind converted our forward momentum to a sideways one. We came within centimeters of hitting the icy cliff. Just then we heard a bone rattling crack, like a thunder clap, that almost shook our balloon from the sky. Both Twilight and I jumped; I was shaken from my thoughts. It was a large slab of ice that had broken off of the canyon wall and fell into the portal. We watched it disappear into the swirling pink void, gone as soon as it passed through the event horizon. This gave me an idea.

“I've got” We were leaning over the basket to observe the ice fall in. She raised her head to look at me. Confusion was all I could see in her eyes.

“Got what?”

“A solution.” she looked even more confused, and just a bit scared.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Well, the machine opens a wormhole from one universe to another, but this wormhole can only be sustained from the universe it’s opened from; remove the machine form that universe and the wormhole closes.”

“Yeah, but how are we supposed to take the machine out of this universe?” All I did was look at her and point down. “Oh.” She replied, “Then how do we get close enough to push it in?” For my response I made a face. I don’t know exactly what it looked like, but from how Twilight appeared after she saw it, I guess it was a very sad expression. She reworded her question out of fear, “Theo, what are you thinking of doing?”

I looked down, at her hooves, “I’m going to jump and grab it on the way down. It’s the only way to ensure the machine makes it through.”

When I lifted up my head, for the second and last time, I saw her genuinely scared look. It was so full of uncertainty, fear and concern it was unbearable to look at. I lowered my head again.

“You can’t do-”

“I have to,” I interrupted.

“No, no, nononono, there has to be something else, some other way.”

“This is the only way to save your world,” I said sternly looking at her face. She turned away.

“It can’t be. There has-”

“There is no other way!” I raised my voice just a little. She looked back at me with misty eyes. The winds had carried us in a spiral towards the center. In just a few minutes, we’d be directly over the still levitating machine, the optimal time to ensure I take it with me. The portal was still growing and we were still descending slowly due to the growing gravity field. Twilight and I looked at each other for a couple of more seconds as the glacier walls began to crumble under the gravitational strain. Her mane was swept to one side by the wind. Her coat was a medium of turbulent waves, like the kind you see in fields of grain. Tears began to stream from her eyes, creating dark purple lines in the short fur on her snout. Only another minute now.

“I bet you've never had to say good bye like this before,” I said in a light tone, trying to make her tears stop. She just got closer and hugged me. I fought back the waterworks myself.  She pulled away; I placed my hands on her cheeks and tried to wipe away the deep purple lines. She rested a hoof on my arm, closed her eyes and leaned her head into my left hand. I massaged her cheek. Half a minute.

“Here, you’ll need these more than I will,” I said pulling off my ski jacket and pants. Underneath, I wore the same clothes I had been for two months, “For the return trip.” I tried to smile as I handed them to her. I draped the jacket over her shoulders. It complimented her purple scarf and boots. I turned around to see where the machine was. Just about fifteen seconds.

“Theo?”

I turned back.

Twilight was standing on her rear legs. She was almost as tall as me when she did this. Resting her fore hooves on my shoulders, she surprised me one last time. She came close and kissed me. A full on kiss. I never thought I would ever want a kiss from a horse so badly. She pulled away blushing. “Thank you.”

“No,” I said looking her in her dinner plate sized eyes, those amaranthine treasures, “Thank you.”

And with that, I turned, lifted myself to the brim of the basket, and jumped.

The whole way down I was smiling. I had left at the ideal time. My hands connected on the solar cell box Twilight and I had built and just to the left of the blunt tip at the top of the machine. My palms stung a little from the impact, but I didn't give it any thought. The machine and I passed through the portal microseconds later.

And my life ended.