Unicorn Physics and the Laws of Magic Thermodynamics (MTD)? · 2:34pm Nov 27th, 2022
The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed: only transferred from one form to another. The second law states, however, that energy can be lost, increasing the overall entropy over time.
With that in mind, where do unicorn horns get their energy?
Blog Number 209: En Ergon Equestrialis Edition
Normally, magic is treated similar to a non-magical muscular equivalent: if you spend all day hauling books around, magically or not you'll get tired and have to stop, rest, and eat to get your strength up. But non-magically, the energy the muscles require comes from food, and that sets a physical upper limit on what you should be able to do.
So how does this work when we see e.g. Twilight lift an Ursa Minor in the air? That might not be so bad: the physical equivalent would have to be on par with Bulk Biceps or Rockhoof, which means you could plausibly invoke a broader version of the same "magical muscular equivalent" theory.
But then we get to the really extreme stuff. Transfiguration.
Twilight can conjure moustaches out of nothing, turn herself into an illustration (while maintaining her sapience all the while), and locally invert gravity. This requires, respectively, the spontaneous creation of organized matter, the partial and temporary destruction of matter*, and basically being a local antigravity machine.
* You could argue that Twilight doesn't temporarily destroy her mass in order to fit into a few ounces of squiggle on a page, but merely hides herself somewhere and casts some kind of puppetry spell on the ink. Maybe, but in "Bridle Gossip", we see the Poison Joke is capable of actually shrinking Applejack. Also, in "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies", Twilight herself does something similar by turning six pony bodies into far, far smaller breezie ones. Which means at least two spells - including one unicorn spell - are capable of some level of temporary mass reduction or mass destruction, and in that case the spell shown in "Amending Fences" could easily be of the same kind.
Any one of those feats has to consume enough energy to work on a futuristic industrial scale, way beyond even what our current real-world supercharged technology is capable of (creating matter in bulk alone would require something like or more advanced than a workable nuclear fusion reactor). No way you're getting that kind of power out of a cake slice, no matter how much sugar you put in it, so where is the extra energy coming from?
For now, I got two hypotheses. Both of them presuppose that unicorn horns normally convert the energy taken from food into conventional, small-scale magical feats. It's chiefly the extreme spells that need explaining.
I should also point out that "unicorn horns" are just the one obvious example of an organ or natural device required to translate energy into magical spells. The same argument applies for any other case of magical power, such as the Poison Joke flowers or whatever the hell you want to substitute for Pinkie's insanity.
Although that would explain her appetite... and her apparent immunity to diabetes...
However, the first hypothesis states that, for more advanced magic, they can draw upon energy from a powerful natural source, like the sun and the moon, or a local equivalent of background magic such as mana, BUT that this requires a level of natural "codebreaking" to unlock, otherwise literally anyone with a horn could tap into it.
This might also explain what unicorns are actually learning when they read books before casting spells. It's magical cryptography to crack the code required to receive secret magical signals.
"I call it the Casting Unicorn's Raw Induction Operation for Sourcing Information and Translating it into Yusefulness."
"Useful doesn't begin with a Y."
"No, but all good scientific questions do!"
Whereas the second hypothesis states that more advanced magic is not native to Equestria technically, but has to be imported from a characteristic parallel dimension. Take Discord's realm of chaos, for example.
One interpretation is that Discord created this realm himself so he had a little "me" space (we already know he can manipulate dimensions, as seen in "Make New Friends But Keep Discord"). BUT supposing instead that the realm of chaos was actually his point of origin, or the ultimate source of his power? Discord's specialty is chaos magic, so wouldn't it make a certain amount of sense for him to be able to channel it from a chaos realm because of his chaotic personality? It even ties in to how friendship magic only works if you demonstrate elements of friendship, or harmony magic and harmony. Some kind of "like for like" sympathetic connection.
Hence a "characteristic" parallel dimension. Literally "character-istic". Perhaps there's also a harmony realm, or a Twilightian supermagic realm, or something.
So basically, the energy is neither created nor destroyed. It's in a massive reservoir, either naturally provided or in a parallel dimension, and for both cases it's a thought's thickness away. You just need the right mental toolkit.
As for the entropy issue of gradually losing energy over time, I wonder if that implies that more such reservoirs could be out there, waiting to be discovered. If one reservoir is drying up, then it would be a good idea to look for another and draw upon a new source of energy, wouldn't it? Therefore, perhaps one of the main tasks of magic-crafters is - every now and then - to discover new reservoirs of energy (and therefore magic) by "creating a new magic".
Just a thought.
That's all for now. Impossible Numbers, out.
I just assume that magic is a energy source with a much lower rate of entropy, and that Equis is stepped in it.
This affects animals, since neurons and artificial substances filter magic at a much slower rate than plants or the environment.
This explains the slower rate of aging and the slower rate of maturity as biological processes take longer to achieve.
This is also why conventional magic is easier to develop then combustible technology, and why creatures and artificial constructs designed to hold them age so slowly on Equis.
By contrast, traditional plants filter out magic much more quickly, and as a result age and break down faster, which is the only reason combustible technology is possible at all.
It also explains why magic both breaks down faster in the other world, and more easily becomes a fuel source for biological processes, since it burns at a slower rate than the other humans' metabolism.
But that's just a theory. A FIM theory.
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I'd have thought it would've worked in reverse, as a parallel to the metabolism of animal cells versus that of plant cells. If, for instance, plants usually process magic much more slowly, with most magic just sitting there useless in saturated cells, then it might explain why hardly any plants show magical properties, or dramatic magical properties when they do so (Poison Joke being an obvious exception, given the range of spells it can cast, and even then it had to work overnight).
Whereas animals can burn through magic much faster, enabling someone like Twilight to cast multiple spells in quick succession. Similar to how neurons chew through a lot more energy than regular cells.
As for lifespans, I generally attribute Celestia, Luna, et al's long lives to being so magically charged they can surpass the usual biological-magical limits and effectively cast constant age spells on themselves, consciously or unconsciously. Sort of creating a runaway virtuous cycle, where casting the age spell means they can live longer, which means they have more opportunities for channelling more energy, which means being able to cast more age spells, and so on.
I have, of course, subscribed to the common acceptance that using unicorn magic is much like using any muscle, where being properly nourished and well-rested is needed to be at optimum efficiency, and much like bodybuilding and stamina, practising and training makes one more efficient. Heck, we can see this with pegasi numerous times – think Fluttershy's panting after the stagecoach chase in The Last Roundup. While that does involve actual physical muscle, pegasi flight does need magic, so…
I can buy into their energy drawing on other sources, though I can't say I have ever devoted much time to the logistics of that. Given the cutie mark magic principles (least at the show's start) make it clear every pony has something that excel in, and their magic is strongest at that and usually just acceptable in other areas, with unicorns like Twilight who's talent is specifically magic being the notable exceptions, I never felt the drive to. In my writing, long as I establish that every unicorn has a power limit and it's within reach in dire situations, I'm happy.
Still, I can't deny you going all multi-dimensional energy/physics logic on us, right doing to energy being loveable if not destructible, wasn't amusing here! So, you know, there's that.
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The problem is that regular plants go through a life cycle much faster than ponies do.
Given the amount of planting seasons ponies can go through without aging, either pony seasons are implausibly short for growing plants, or pony lifespans are implausibly long.
The latter fits better with how magic affects the Royal Sisters.
And magic that builds over time tends to generate more changes then when magic passes through something quickly.
Like how in EQG magic has to posses something in order to grant it abilities.
We see a similar dynamic in how those powers are removed with the theft of magic in the main show.
There's always “thaumodynamics”, though it's a bit on the nose.
Veeeery interesting…. Hohoho….