Knowledge Arcana
Knowledge Arcana
“Princess Luna! Welcome to Ponyville... again!” Twilight came to a slightly awkward stop on the last word, remembering the circumstances of her last visir. “It's an honour to be working with you on this project.”
“A fie on formality, trusty Twilight!” The moon princess's face had a broad grin. “After all, for the next little while we are to be 'study buddies', as the modern cant has it.”
She gave a hoof towards the closed carriage that was parked outside the library and a fedora and tan jacket clad earth pony that was stepping down from it. “Fortunately, Master Bluehills was in Canterlot at the time, doing research and gathering resources for his next expedition, so as you can see I gave him a lift.”
“Just bein' around yourself gives me that, princess,” the light brown stallion said in a broad Appleoosan accent.
The dark blue alicorn grinned, “I wonder what Miss Rarity would say about that?”
Twilight giggled and pointed behind him, “You can ask her yourself. She just arrived.”
“Yes, and I'm absolutely fascinated by the conversation.” The exquisitely turned out unicorn mare came trotting up as Bluehills turned around to see her. Her voice had a sharp edge, but the line of her mouth showed she was holding back a smirk.
His expression started towards panic for a fraction of a second, then he chuckled and said quietly in a completely different voice, “I would have some explaining to do, if any-pony actually thought I was flirting with my own great aunt rather than just maintaining my alternate persona.”
“Fifty three times removed, dear nephew.” Luna teased. “In ancient times, much closer relationships were ignored in the interests of social status, or even simple dalliance.”
Her voice turned mock sorrowful. “Or is it that my vast age doth make me a crone, unworthy of romantic attention?”
Rather than firing off the loaded question, Bluehills just sighed, “I'm surrounded by crazy mares! Shall we go inside? You can embarrass me more thoroughly where there's no-pony to overhear...”
“Where is the fun in that?” Luna asked, but moved in through the door. “I'm sure fair Rarity has some choice barbs she wishes to plant. With the two of us working together, the fun shall be doubled!”
Once inside the library, 'Bluehills' dropped his illusion and became Duke Blueblood. Rarity followed him in. “I've got other things I wish to plant on him right now!”
She trotted up close and put a fore-leg around him, pulling him close to plant a steamy kiss right on the lips. He enthusiastically returned the kiss, bringing up his own hoof to hug her and tilting his head so their horns just brushed, eliciting a spark of magic between them and a squeak from Rarity. After a comfortable time she pulled back and said, “Oh, I've missed that! Nothing but letters from you since the Royal Wedding!”
Blueblood sat back on his hauches, face slightly flushed He sighed and looked downcast. “Unfortunately,'Prince Blueblood' is too well known to vanish from Canterlot society for long. And you yourself can only make so many trips to the capital on business. What's worse, the aftermath of the invasion has meant even a worthless fop like Blueblood is needed, mostly to calm the fears of our more excitable nobles. The sooner I can drop this charade and we can finally be together openly the better, but that won't be until things have calmed down.”
Rarity looked deep into his eyes, and saw the longing that matched her own. She smiled and hugged him close. “I understand, darling, we both have responsibilities. At least you'll be here for the next few days.”
He leant into the hug. “Not as long as I would desire, my dear. Once I'm done translating the spell description, I doubt the team will need me any more.”
“Actually, there's another reason I asked for you in particular.” Twilight interjected, looking pleased. “Once we work out how to follow the Crusaders, we're likely to need a full fledged expedition to find them. It's going to take several days to develop the spells needed, and they may have wandered far from their arrival point. As Maresia Bluehills, you're highly experienced at putting together expeditions, so you're the logical one to plan this one.
“Normally I'd assist you with the logistical side of things, but I'm going to to need to be working full time on the magic side of things, hooves and horn. I was hoping that Rarity could help you instead. Running her own business means she has the right skills to do it, and your adventure together while gem hunting shows you work well together. I've found that good friends make for the best teams.”
“Of course!” Rarity exclaimed eagerly. “I shall be only to glad to. I just hope I can afford everything we'll need.”
Luna waved an airy hoof. “Worry not about matters of coin, fair Rarity. My sister and I have declared this project Priority Alicorn. You shall have access to whatever funding and craftsponies you require.”
There was a clattering from outside as another carriage landed and Twilight looked around, surprise on her face. “That must be... but they weren't due for several hours!”
She galloped to the door and cleared the closed lower half as neatly as Applejack might have, muttering about how not being there to greet him would look bad.
Blueblood put his disguise back on and followed her out at a more sedate pace, as did the others.
The carriage door was just being opened by one of the Royal guards who'd towed it, and a pegasus emerged, sprawled on a cloud similar to Scootaloo's. He wasn't anything to look at, a grey coat and a black thatch of a mane. His cutie mark was just visible, a black circle with swirling white rays radiating from it. His wings were folded by his sides, bound there, but twitched occasionally.
He wore a harness fitted with various appurtenances, chief of which was a magically powered fan mounted on his back. He used his chin to nudge a brass lever, and the fan pushed him forward with a whirring hum. The lever was one of several emerging from a brass bound box attached to some sort of neck brace. It also had a brass and tortoise shell speaker horn emerging from it.
Twilight was there, looking on with awe. “Professor Hawkwing! It is such an honour to meet you face to face!”
Hawkwing's lips moved, but his dry, slightly echoing voice emerged from the speaker horn. “If you really want to meet me face to face, I should raise my cloud up a bit.”
He gave raspy chuckle as he nudged more levers and the fan adjusted position to point more downwards, raising his cloud as he moved forward. Twilight looked a little non-plussed at her idol's flippant reply.
“Uh, thank you? But I didn't mean to impose...”
Her reaction got another grin, or possibly the same one with extra sprinkles. “Sorry, I couldn't resist. I hear a lot of far more florid praise for my achievements, mostly by ponies who have no actual understanding of them. I like to remind them, and myself, that I'm simply a pony like any other.”
“But I've read all your papers! Your work on non-linearity in thaumically warped hyper-dynamic environments was amazing. I've managed to double the range of my teleport spells by applying your arithmantic analysis to my spell matrix. And your work on the thaumo-dimensional basis of sub-spacial diffusion... I could almost see the endless parallel universes you describe, though understanding the mathematical proof you gave of their existence was challenging to say the least.”
Hawkwing beamed with approval. “You have done your research. I shouldn't be surprised, your own papers on the magic of friendship are impressive in their own right.”
“You've read those? Oh, but those are just my preliminary findings. I'm still working on a truly rigorous description. I'm surprised the Canterlot Journal of Magic printed them.”
“But they seem to hint towards a Unified Harmonic Theory. To have an analytical description of the relationship between magic and the five fundamental virtues would be one of the biggest leaps forward in magical theory since the amniomorphic spell.”
Twilight looked away, embarrassed. “I've got along way to go yet, and far more to learn before I'm anywhere near that level. I hadn't realised you were interested in general magical theory?”
“I dabble. There is some overlap with my own field, after all. However, my compatriot knows more. He provided me with the references when we found out we were going to be working with you.”
A second pony had stepped down from the carriage, an earth pony stallion with a dark green coat and white mane. Though he was the same age as Twilight, he wore a bow-tie, collar and pince-nez glasses that made him look older. His cutie mark was three differently sized squares, red, yellow and blue, joined at the corners so they formed the edges of a right angled triangle.
Twilight's eyes were getting a lot of practice at widening in surprise. “Professor Hippotenuse? Oh my gosh, I hadn't realised you were joining the team as well.”
“I hope I'm not unwelcome?” he quipped.
“Yes, I mean no! I mean... I don't know what I mean! What I do know is that we are going to be delving into the most abstruse parts of magical theory, and trying to develop a new spell based on reverse artificing both an ancient one, and one that Sweetie Belle somehow invented by accident. The arithmantic constructs required are likely to be brutal, and the aid of one of the greatest mathematicians of our era will be incredibly useful.”
He chuckled at her flustered state. “You flatter me, but I'll take that as a yes. I'm only too glad to help, and to be a part of such a team. I'm honoured to be working with you and Princess Luna. Arithmantic theory is a hobby of mine, though obviously, my ability to develop practical applications is limited to earth-pony magic.”
"I'd love to hear more, but now you're flattering me. Princess Luna I can understand, her contributions to the field of magic are quite literally legendary, but I'm still working towards my own doctorate. I've been developing several potential theses, but none of them is even ready for a first round of peer review, let alone submission."
"I think he's referring to your practical demonstrations of friendship magic." Professor Hawkwing suggested. "As Princess Celestia's student, and one of the most skilled and powerful unicorns alive, you are no less worthy to be a part of this company than any of us. Excessive pride may be a failing, but so is false modesty."
“Hey Twi!” A voice from above called down. It was someone for whom false modesty would never be a problem. “So these are the egg-head types who are going to help you figure out a spell to go find Scootaloo?”
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight was mortified. “These are Professor Hawkwing, and Professor Hippotenuse. Professor Hawkwing has revolutionised the field of dimensional physics, and Professor Hypotenuse got his cutie-mark for developing an elegant proof of Matted Coat's final theorem, something that mathematicians have been seeking for centuries, while he was still in school! They are not just 'egg-heads'!”
The pegasus stood up on the cloud she'd been resting on.“Woah Twilight, no need to get your feathers bent out of shape.”
She turned her attention to the two stallions, gliding down. “Heh, sorry guys, didn't mean anything bad by it. I call Twi an egg-head all the time, because, well she is! She's really smart and loves books and figuring out really hard stuff. I figured you guys are the same way, so no offence.”
“Actually, I quite like it.” Professor Hawkwing grinned. “So you are the redoubtable Rainbow Dash. The only pegasus to have performed a Sonic Rainboom. I hope to see you demonstrate it at some point in the near future.”
Rainbow looked a little uncertain as to whether she was being complemented or insulted at first, but praising her signature trick was an easy way to get on her good side. “Any time! But I wouldn't have figured you'd be interested in fancy flying, what with needing that stuff to fly.”
She waved at the cloud and the gear. Twilight gasped. “I'm dreadfully sorry...”
“Don't be.” Hawkwing's magically amplified voice cut across her apology. “I dislike prevarication as much as I do insincere praise or false modesty. A pony must face their own strengths and weaknesses honestly if they are to accomplish anything of note. I find Miss Dash's directness refreshing.”
He turned his attention to Rainbow, who'd been looking a little unconfortable herself due to Twilight's reaction. ”While it's true I will never be able to fly of my own accord, I have an excellent imagination. But I'm interested in your feats from a professional point of view. Your friend wrote a paper on your exploit at the Young Fliers Competition.“
“She did?!”
Twilight shrugged. “After the show I asked around, and found out that the first time you did one, some skeptical science minded ponies claimed it was some kind of illusion or fake, and stopped you from getting the credit you deserved.”
She saw from Rainbow's distant look and scowl that she'd been correct.
“So I sat down and did my best to give an account and some thoughts into what you'd done and how you'd done it. That way if someone tried to claim it was a fake this time, you could show them the journal and say, 'Ha, take that, it's right here in black and white.' It seemed the sort of thing a friend should do.”
“Heh, thanks Twi. That's really cool of you.” The rainbow pegasus replied.
Professor Hawkwing carried on. “I heard what had happened, and eventually found Miss Twilight's paper on it. Your Rainboom is far more than just an effect of exceeding the speed of sound. Pegasus magic by it's nature affects gravitational and inertial forces, that's been long established, but there is no way you should have been able to make right angle turns at several times the speed of sound carrying four times your own weight by any regular application of pegasus magic.”
He forestalled Rainbow's protest by carrying on. “Since it clearly happened, some new effect must have been in force. Gravity and magic can deform space-time, that's the principle behind fold boxes and teleportation. Sufficient quantities could theoretically form a warped bubble around an object and render it practically immune to external effects of gravity and inertia.
“Miss Twilight could not explain the rainbow wave that exploded from you at the point of transition, other than being some release of your characteristic magic, but I believe it may have been a harmonic wave distortion caused by the formation of such a bubble. I find it hard to believe that any pegasus has that much power, but I would love to find out!”
Twilight looked thoughtful. “Huh, You know that could be it! She may have been drawing additional power from her linked element, since she was showing loyalty to her friend and idols.”
Seeing Rainbow was looking a bit dazed at his explanation, he simplified it, “Your flight magic was powerful enough to reshape space so you could fly at super-sonic velocities and carry your friends without them being hurt. That's the sort of thing I study, how space, time and the fundamental forces fit together. In short, you punched the sky so hard it broke.”
“Hey, I like that!” Rainbow looked pleased. “Y'know, you're a pretty cool guy yourself, Prof. It's a pity you can't get your body fixed up. Maybe Twilight could magic something up, or Zecora.”
“Unfortunately, my neuro-muscular degeneration is a systemic condition of my nerves and brain. While powerful enough magic could probably cure me, over-writing my morphic field and reformatting my entire nervous system would almost certainly kill me. I prefer to concentrate on the things I can do, rather than those I can't.”
“Woah, that bites. And I figured Scoots had problems.”
“Speaking of which, we've got to get working to work out how to get Scootaloo and the others back.” Twilight gestured with a hoof to Golden Oaks library.
After seeing Rainbow off, she led the group down to the basement laboratory, which had been considerably altered. While the scientific and arcane instrumentation was still there, it had been moved to the walls, which had clearly been dimensionally expanded to fit all the new stuff.
There were work tables and comfy pad chairs, mechanical calculators and a cupboard full of stationary, and one wall was selves of books and scrolls culled from the library above, with plenty of space for more. A coffee and tea maker, all brass pipes and glass, took pride of place in one corner. It had all the necessary ancillary gear to provide hot drinks for a company of regular ponies, or a half dozen scholars.
On one table were a row of white metal cylinders with warning symbols on, indicating that they should be handled non-magically. There were also some incongruous items, a scooter and helmet, a couple of red ribbons, and a hair brush and tooth brush. There was also the magical tome that had started the trouble.
Twilight lifted a series of document folders from a nearby table with her telekinesis, and distributed them to the team. Then she grabbed some extra paper from the stationary cupboard and emptied out her own notes, tiling them side by side in mid air. A line of light swept down each page, and an exact copy appeared on it's blank neighbour. She slid the newly created documents into a spare folder and levitated it to Professor Hypotenuse, who'd been missed out.
“This is everything I've been able to get so far. Exact copies of the pages of the manuscript, photos of the accident site and the ritual diagram, thaumometer and thauodolite readings taken at hourly intervals after the event, and my own top level arithmantic decomposition of both spells, working back from the ritual diagrams. It's only a first pass, but it should allow us to focus on specific areas.
“We also have artefacts that were some of the three fillies' personal possessions, to use as foci for any scrying or guidance spells we may develop. We also have samples of wood and nails taken non-magically from the centre of the ritual diagram and stored in denatured orihalcon containers. Hopefully, being at the centre of the event, they may have been impressed with some trace of the destination, which we can use as a signal to follow.”
Princess Luna had leafed through the pages in the folder, and spoke as Twilight paused for breath. “This is impressive work, considering you have had less than a day to prepare for our arrival.”
Twilight coloured slightly at the praise. “I felt I shouldn't let the grass grow under my hooves.”
She looked around at the other ponies. “At the moment, all we know is that the destination must be habitable by ponies, since the three fillies have to survive to get their cutie-marks. They've already been there for over a day, and may have moved away from the emergence site to find food, water or shelter.
“We need to find a way to send a party there, find them and bring them and the party back. The party will include the six Element bearers at a minimum, and probably as many more other ponies for support purposes, along with supplies for several days or even a week, depending on how long the task takes us. We'll likely need transport to cover ground as fast as possible.”
She looked around, inviting questions. When she didn't get any, she continued.
“Mr Bluehills will work on translating the spell description, while Princess Luna and I work back from the ritual diagrams to refine my arithmantic decomposition of the spells they were designed to generate. When Mr Bluehills has a translation, Princess Luna will double check it and we will incorporate that into our analysis.
At the same time, Professor Hawkwing and Professor Hippotenuse will attack the problem from the other end, working from the theoretical requirements of a spell that would produce the observed effects through to arithmanic equations of that same spell.
“Hopefully we will meet in the middle with a set of arithmantic equations that describe firstly the original spell, and secondly Sweetie Belle's modification of it. From there we should be able to extrapolate a new spell design that use the power of the Elements to create a more powerful, dirigible portal or effect that can carry our recovery team.”
She looked around again, checking the team fully understood. “Alright then, let's work the problem every-pony. We're on a tight time-line, every moment we take is another moment those fillies have to survive. Failure is not an option.”
The various ponies split up into smaller groups and went to work with a will.
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You despicable, deplorable, darned developer of dastardly deeds! You thought you could sneak an update at a time it would normaly take me hours upon hours to learn of it, but HAH! I'm in insomniac mode, so there!
All kidding aside, I didn't even know how much I needed this chapter until I had it before me. I devoured it two times in a row, then went back, and read all 'back in equestria' bits to give myself a better context.
In laymans terms - darned fine doin' mine vulpine friend. Jolly good!
I think Pierre Fermat might be more than a little mortified to be called "Matted Coat".
Star Trek has Technobabble, MLP has Magicbabble. And the scary thing is I got about a quarter of it. I do want to see the scientists witness a Sonic Rainboom though.
4520116 I've always called it Thaumo-babble myself.
New chapter, ~yay~
Someone that actually casts blueblood in a positive light?
Good on you. Most stories I've read take the easy way out, and just make him this ineffectual douchy fop.
So the mane six will be following the crusaders?
I can't wait till they find them all decked out in thier new gear, I imagine AJ is gonna flip her cool at Appleblooms new ear scar ( I am assuming of course, that you have a plan of some sort to explain why Sweetie belle cant heal it or something. Like, "Oh no, the wounds already closed, theres nothing left to heal!" or something like that.) I cant imagine Rarity will be as shocked at her sisters new horn, but Scoots full size wings should cause some jubilation.)
4521255 Add in the fact they'll have been hearing of the Crusaders' exploits over the course of their journey and the big sisters will recieve praise for raising such wonderful young fillies. But just imagine all the humans going, "Oh, you're *Insert Crusader's name here*'s sister *Insert mare's name here*???" and admiring the younger sisters more.
Nice!
This is good!
Really great fanfic!
I love this!
I love this.
I'm finally caught up with the latest chapter! And I'm not too sure about Blueblood's inclusion, since I haven't read any of your other stories, and I've never particularly cared about Blueblood. But I'll give your other story a chance if it's part of the same continuity.
I do like how it takes a team of Equestria's most brilliant magi-scientists and mathematicians to figure out a spell that three little fillies cast. Of course, the tricky part is getting back to Equestria.
5052416 Yup, but there are forces at work as yet only hinted at that made it work for the filly trio.
Also, it's one thing to launch yourself into the ether and end up somewhere, it's another thing to 1) Track the original trajectory. 2) Devise a stable, dirigible portal that can be used to send a properly equipped rescue team after them. 3) Figure out a way to get home afterwards.
They're sending the Elements of Harmony and their bearers to another dimension. Maybe the show hasn't done a very good job of it (sending the group to face a dragon, really?) but in such a case, I would make sure they had a full expedition with elite guards, a supply train and experienced pathfinders/explorers backing their play. They don't know about the time dialation, but even so, it's been long enough that they know they're going to have to search on the other side to find the CMC. Hence the peparation.
Hope to see an update to this soon now.
A nice story so far. You had my curiosity when I saw the title and description but now you have my attention. Can't wait for more.
4847570 SweetieBard ftw.
7582389 Apple Bloom is actually a monk. Sweetie Belle is a Bard and Scootaloo I'm not sure about.
At first I thought she was an Air Element aspected Druid, but she's chaotic good if any of the three are. Now I'm thinking more Sorceress with an Elemental [Air] bloodline. Though she hasn't actually been casting spells, just using her innate bloodline abilities. Plus she's the one case where the racial template overlaps her class. I suspect she's going to multiclass into Paladin or possibly Fighter as you say.
As to alignments, Apple Bloom - Lawful Good, Sweetie Belle - Neutral good, Scootaloo -Chaotic good.
That would preclude Scootaloo being a paladin in 3.5 D&D, but Pathfinder doesn't require paladins to be lawful anymore.
Me as I was reading this:
"Oh, this is so cool!
So awesome!
Oh, this is so cool!
...
...
...
...
Where's the 'Next' button?"
Professor Hawkwing IS BEST PEGASUS!
Please tell me you will eventually write more for this awesome, amazing story??
Are you even alive over there??
8371307
Yes, just doing Luna's Return Trajectory right now. I have a couple of pages of the next chapter of this written, but I can only do one thing at a time.
8371327
I understand, was just wondering if you were alright.
Please keep up the awesome work (both this and Luna's return)
Are you OK? Just wondering cause you haven't posted much lately. I sincerely hope everything is going well for you IRL. Hope to see more of your amazing work soon!!
Is everything going OK for you IRL??
8788572 Suffering from major writers block. Have something new coming to try and shift it.
8788992
glad to hear it isn't being caused by anything bad IRL.
I like this just as much the second time through as I did the first. I'm looking forward to more.
Even nearly 5 years later this is still a good story. I'm sorry it doesn't continue as I would love to see where this goes.
Any plan to continue this fic?