Twilight and I finished her errands about an hour ago, and now we were sat in the library wing of her castle. Even though I said I would think about looking at the diagrams in those books, here we are. There are currently five books on the table, and she's still looking. Twilight told me to look through them, and I did. I just cant read the language. The diagrams are actually pretty detailed, at least from what I can tell, and the amount of theories in these books are astounding. If they are all theories at least. I heard Twilight find another book, and sighed. She did say this could be another magic lesson, but I think she's made that decision for herself.
After a couple of more minutes, Twilight walked up to the table with two more books. "How old are these?" I asked.
"Most are hundreds of years old, It's kinda hard to tell since they didn't date them." She looked at the book I was looking at. "I believe that one is one thousand years old." She tapped her chin.
I sat it down gently with a shocked expression. "Should I be touching them then? I don't want them to, like, disintegrate or something."
She chuckled. "It should be fine, as long as you're careful. But if you are really concerned about it, I'll handle them." She sat down next to me.
"Thank you. Sometimes, me being careful isn't enough." I looked at the diagram on the book I was just holding. "It would be nice if I understood what I was looking at."
Twilight looked over. "Ah, yes, that one shows one of the possible ways that a magic siphon could be used. In this example, they attached a spell matrix to the wooded leg," She was pointed as she explained, which was nice. "Then they attached the same matrix to the subject. Theoretically, how it would work is that the matrix on the leg would synchronize with the one on the subject, and draw from it's inherent magic, making it move as if it were a real leg."
Just about went over my head. "Wow, so what was the result?"
"Obviously failure but in this case, they needed something to regulate the magic being siphoned from the subject." She flipped through a few pages. "Which is what the next five pages are about. Anyway, the matrix drew too much magic from the subject and almost put it into a coma."
I raised an eyebrow. "You keep saying 'it', does it not say the gender?"
She nodded her head. "It does, but when looking at a diagram, you don't always need to specify. The actual results say that the subject was a male earth pony, twenty six, lost his leg due to a logging accident."
I hummed in thought. "Sounds like some high level magic." She nodded her head. "And no one's tried to revive this project?"
"There have been a few attempts, but most didn't work. And those that did, didn't work for very long and were really expensive."
I nodded my head. "Right, so, since they were too much money, no one was buying. And since no one was buying, the company wasn't making profit."
"Exactly, so they were pulled from the market." She looked up from her book, and then to me. "The last attempt was last year, but they had the same problem, cost."
I rolled my eyes. "Always about the money with these fucking companies." I shook my head, and raised a hand to cut Twilight off. "Yes, before you say anything, I know how it works. They have to take the cost of all of the materials and research, and all of that into account so they can turn a profit. But I almost bet you they had the price a bit higher than it needed to be." She looked speechless for a few seconds, before clearing her throat. "I know a little bit about business, I'm not stupid."
"I never called you that." She looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "I would never call you that."
I sighed. "I know, just... Nevermind." I looked back at the diagram that Twilight explained to me. "How couldn't have that worked? I mean, I know you told me, but it just seems like they were on to something here."
She looked at it again. "You really think so?"
I scoffed. "Well, shit if all they needed was a regulator, why the fuck they give up so easily? I know thats what the other five pages are, but please."
Twilight gave me an annoyed look. "I'll forgive the language, if you elaborate."
I gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry about that." I cleared my throat. "They didn't have many engineers back then, did they? Everything ran on magic?"
She nodded her head. "Except for a couple of countries, and few parts of Equestria, yes."
I sat there for a few minutes, thinking. "Hmm, I think it's an engineering problem and not solely a magic one." She gestured for me to continue. "You guys have electricity?" She nodded her head with a curious look on her face. "Well, there you go." I sat back in my chair with a slight smile on my face.
She looked at me for a minute. "I'm not sure that solves anything." I deflated a bit. "They've been using both magic and electricity."
"Oh..." Feeling defeated, I sank down into the chair. "Nevermind then." I said in a low voice and sighed. "Thought I was onto something, but I guess not..."
"Zane?"
I shrugged. "Forget about it, I'm fine." I sat back up. "So what now?" I asked. "Is it possible, or are we wasting our time?"
She shook her head. "These aren't, no." She gave me a weird look. "It sounded like you had idea? What was it?"
"Put an electronic regulator on it, but you said it's been done."
She raised an eyebrow. "No. What I said was that they have been using both. That's not a bad idea." She tapped her chin in thought. "I'll try to get a hold of one of the old prototypes from Canterlot, but until then I'll look into your idea."
"To see if it's been thought of, and tried before?" She nodded her head. "And in the meantime?"
I had to ask. Not that this wasn't expected, it's just kinda boring. We're going over basic levitation again, and I have a feeling she was glad that she left the diagrams on the board. I think I'm starting to get it, but the language barrier is a pain. I could be taking notes yes, but Twilight talks too fast. And I'm a slow writer(As you may know), so that option is out the window. Basically I'm still at the "concentrate really hard" part. I mean, I do need to start somewhere, but I'm more interested in elemental magic and the like. I don't plan on throwing anybody, but it's a start. I waited for her to pause, and sighed. "Not to be rude, but can I just try it again? It's good that you're explaining it to me, but I kinda want to give it another shot."
She turned away from the board. "I get the feeling that you would learn better by doing it, anyway." She then lined up various sized objects. A pumpkin, a watermelon, and a normal looking ball.
"Kinetic learning, I believe." I said, looking at what she picked out.
"Since we know that you can levitate objects up to the weight of a bowling ball, I've picked out some objects that are around the same weight. I want you to lift each off of the table ten times. Just don't lose your temper this time." I nodded. "Let's see how you do."
I held out my right hand, and concentrated on the watermelon. It wasn't too bad, but I noticed I was starting to struggle at the eighth time I lifted it. Next was the pumpkin. It was a little heavier, but I still made it to ten. Then, it was the ball's turn. It looked lighter than the other ones, until I tried lifting it. I only got to five before I practically dropped it on the floor. "Okay, that has to be a medicine ball or something." I looked at Twilight. "I thought you said they were around the same weight?" I said, slightly out of breath.
She chuckled. "Your guess was close. It's actually a cannon ball." She said. It doesn't look like one. "I'm impressed."
"Why?" I asked. "Because nothing exploded?"
She just gave me a look. "No, not many new magic users can lift a cannon ball."
"But why a cannon ball? Why something much more heavier than a bowling ball?"
She smiled. "I was testing you. We still need to work on the basics, but I believe you can start on your first field of magic. The beginning of each field almost always has the basics, so I don't see a problem with it."
I nodded my head and smiled. "Right on! So, what about elemental magic?"
She tapped her chin with a hoof. "Depends on which element you're interested in."
"All of them, really." I shrugged. "Even if I have to start with water, or air, or something."
She seemed to think about, then nodded her head with a smile. "We will begin Elemental Magic lessons tomorrow, but for now, it's dinner time."
My eyes went wide, and I looked at the time. It's six at night. "Where'd the time go?" I thought out loud, and followed Twilight into the kitchen to see if she needed help.