• Member Since 19th Sep, 2015
  • offline last seen Apr 16th, 2019

Cursed Quill


Afflicted with the Editor's Curse. Corrections offered without malice. Unrepentant Discord fangirl.

More Blog Posts24

  • 259 weeks
    S9 Bingo Contest snippets, retrospective

    So, I drew a card for the S9 Bingo contest.

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    1 comments · 330 views
  • 313 weeks
    UnDeserved: FiM/EqG's terrible moral

    I watched entirely too much pony this morning. It got me thinking.

    EqG 1: Sunset Shimmer not granted higher power by Celestia, takes Element of Magic, becomes demon.
    2(RR): Sirens not granted magic by default, must take it, are demonized for their acts. (weakest version)

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    1 comments · 351 views
  • 324 weeks
    Explaining Pinkie Sense: Pwny Pony Pinkie, Brainhacker Extraordinaire

    So I've produced several (mostly scientifically-worthless but possibly making for good stories) hypotheses here:
    1. Pinkie's social powers and memory derive from memory-hacking everypony she meets. Ponies, specifically.
    1b. This is pid (pony ID) based, so pool clones do not benefit; this is whgat Pinkie actually acts like without her mental powerup.

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    2 comments · 373 views
  • 338 weeks
    7.7 unicorns and the Dumb Story Idea

    I initially thought, on seeing the Starlight Glimmer tag, what with th

    Sunset Shimmer. Twilight Sparkle. Starlight Glimmer.

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    2 comments · 349 views
  • 339 weeks
    Points of Canon mini: ❧ s7e20 "A Health of Information"

    ❧Polymorph effects are getting more and more common, yet we keep running into things that they should solve ("It Isn't the Mane Thing About You").
    ❧Swamp Fever doesn't require the whole lifecycle to reproduce…or Zecora just had some of the spores still on her to give the doc. (On the flipside, kudos for actually making it infect those it came in contact with.)

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    0 comments · 422 views
Aug
12th
2017

Crystalline Efficiency: Crystal Heart Magic Theory · 7:54pm Aug 12th, 2017

The Crystalling is a very simple and magically-sensible way magically to create a city-state mana battery, and all of its properties make very good sense, mystically-speaking. Really, any community could do it, had they the magic-material supply…so, let's examine it.
Do consider the principles of Similarity, Contagion, and also Synecdoche (part-associates-to-whole).

Whenever a baby is born in the Crystal Empire, the parents bring it before the Crystal Heart. They get the purest shard of crystal they can find, then pick a crystaller to present the baby to everypony who comes. Then they all share the light and joy they feel, feeding it into the crystal that joins with the Heart, and increases its power! And this is going to be a royal Crystalling, so pretty much the whole empire will show up.

Every person gets a shard. It is associated with them. The parents (and a sponsor) connect to others in the community; at least one of these is likely to have a shard already in the artifact. These [principle-of-contagion, also similarity because same-material and repeated ritual] links and fuses the new shard into the artifact. The joy and love of everyone, produced as a community in a community ritual for a community artifact, powers it, and protects the community. (It also flows back into them as they use the Heart as a love-network-hub, which then imbues them with Crystal because the energy is then associated through the Crystal Heart). The association with love and child-bearing then feeds back and affects said child-bearing.

The crystals, being grown by, of, and in the city itself, as well as sharing composition with it, make the city the natural boundary of the barrier, and the barrier will naturally protect the whole city. Laying down more crystal streets and including more crystal shards for more people expands the barrier without any muss or fuss.

What is notable is that this creates a seemingly-harmony-based structure…that in truth is community/nation-based, and isn't actually opposed to in-group/out-group weaponizing. It being so strongly tied to all identities of the citizens, being at their namings, links it strongly to them.


The weather-barrier function of the Heart makes most sense when it is, in fact, Windigoes producing that awful winter, as such projection/association of love would harm them and keep them out of the city.


The hiding/theft of the heart by Sombra literally hides their love and joy away until it is recovered…and also suppresses their crystalline nature, for it was the primary mystic conduit thereof (at least, by this reading). He uses crystals, yes, but a foreign crystal, dark and (at least very heavily implied to be) of negative emotion, which is what lets him cut it off while still keeping it basically central.


Flurry Heart breaking it is a bit odd, but she's not in the network, she screams (anti-crystal mechanism, as well as something creating negative emotion), she's naturally divisive :trollestia:, she's born of ponies not of the Crystal Empire, not really properly integrated (probably, we have no callouts of adoptive/immigrative Crystallings), so she's an outsider…in the ruling family. Her status as alicorn just further makes her an anomaly, at discord with all kinds of things, and thus anathema to the loving heart.


Fixing it is more complicated because of course fixing a network-based thing you broke is harder, especially because a lot of those contributing ponies are (probably) dead.

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