Author's Note

and now for something completely different!

"project emphenom" chapters may become a repeating occurrence within what if. ~~yes, it's just fractures again~~

Project Emphenom #1?

"Princess! Welcome, welcome," the stallion bowed as Celestia entered. "I take it you are here to assess the progress we have made since your last visit?"

A slight nod. "Indeed I am. I may not look much the part myself, but I have been fascinated by the inner machinations of the countless stars above us for a great many years. My sister, on the other hoof..." Celestia stifled a chuckle. "I believe she's seen enough stars in the past millennium to last a lifetime." She paused before a set of doors. "Regardless of our conflicting views on how enticing the research of stellar phenomena stand, I do believe this is the room you intend to show me into?"

"Yes, yes," the stallion hurried to the panel at the side and tapped a card against it. A mechanical whoosh escaped the sealed passageway as the doors slid open. "Right this way, Your Highness. I believe that this may be of particular interest to you."

Celestia eyed the hulking machinery--in particular, the building-sized array of laser emitters clustered like the spines of a sea urchin around a core of some kind. "You mentioned in your letter that you successfully synthesized a non-negligible amount of neutronium, is that what you intend to show me?"

"Oh, no no. We encountered something even more interesting during our follow-up runs. The neutronium that we produce fizzles out into plain hydrogen and helium in only a matter of minutes, anyway. What we'd like to show you today is the manipulation of probability itself."

Celestia slowed her steps.

"Stay right here," the stallion stepped out in front of her, his labcoat billowing with his movements as he strode toward a group of researchers standing with clipboards.

She couldn't quite hear what it was he was saying from this distance, but before long the stallion had returned to her side. He waved some signal at what she could only presume was an unseen group controlling the equipment.

A heavy thunk reverberated across the room, followed by an earsplitting hum.

"Those're the cooling jackets for the lasers!" the stallion shouted through the noise. "See, because our lasers aren't a hundred percent efficient, some of the insane amount of power that they draw gets wasted as heat, and if we don't keep that under control, this whole building turns into a heap of slag!"

"I see! Er, hear!" Celestia shouted back. "Is this the process to synthesize neutronium?"

"Part of it! We use the lasers to squeeze the sample while superheating it! We hope to recreate the conditions we theorize to exist at the center of neutron stars as closely as possible! The actual synthesis happens when we start bombarding the thing with electrons!"

The noise continued for several more minutes. Even without any visible moving parts, Celestia couldn't help but stare at the behemoth of an engineering marvel that filled the room--no, hangar. Pipes as thick as she was tall--presumably carrying coolant to nurse the lasers--snaked across every visible surface along two sides of the room; the other two, of course, being occupied by the machine itself and the very much non-mechanical beings such as herself and the researchers standing where they were.

The stallion waved another signal. A second thunk echoed out as the hum gradually diminished into inaudibility.

"And that's our run with experienced observers present," he turned back to Celestia. "These experiments we've been performing have somewhat distanced themselves from their original focus of synthesizing neutronium and related material, you see. We've instead turned our attention to the prospect of what, at least in this early stage of discovery, appears to be some kind of quantum effect capable of presenting itself on a macroscopic scale. I already mentioned that we have discovered a potential way to influence probability, no?"

Celestia nodded along.

The group of ponies from earlier shuffled past and out of the room.

"Now then," the stallion continued once the door had shut. "Observe."

He gave another wave, and the machinery once again roared to life.

"See any difference in the results, Princess?" the stallion grinned.

"Yes. Quite," Celestia placed a hoof underneath two highlighted readings. "With your so-called 'experienced observers' present, the yield of the run is nearly double that of a run without them in the room."

"Mm-hm! And I can assure you, this is no fault of measurement, machinery, or manual error. We thoroughly checked for each when we first encountered this phenomenon ourselves. The results only fluctuate with their presence or absence."

Celestia glanced at the group of researchers, who had since returned to the room. Then back at the printout. "What is it that makes this group special? You mentioned that they are experienced."

"Precisely. Those ponies were the ones that first conducted the experiment and saw success in the synthesis. They are the ones that know the process inside and out."

"And what of yourself? Are you not one of them?" Celestia cocked her head.

"No, no," the stallion laughed. "I'm just the one that does all the talking. I couldn't begin to wrap my head around how to do all of this. And before you ask, the equipment is controlled remotely as well, so the other group of experienced researchers running the show aren't ever present either. This whole probability manipulation scheme only appears to work if you have direct line-of-sight with the machinery."

~~idk where to go from here it's now 1:30am and this blurb was written as an experiment to see how some lore I wrote would play out in practice if it were to be written in full rather than simply referenced~~