Synch

by sunnypack

59 - Magical Mystery Mayhem

I hastily remembered to get Luna and Twilight free, for which they had thanked me by glaring at me, much to my chagrin. After that, I had resolved to take the opportunity of my downtime from either healing, surviving, imprisoned or being in otherwise unfavourable circumstances, to learn more about magic.

Magic was actually an interesting subject and I was surprised that the majority of the target audience reading this subject were just unicorns. Not all unicorns were interested either. The main body of literature stemming from magic came from scholars like Twilight, those that were interested in the application and theory of magic.

I figured it was similar to science, for example, we all use the fruits of the technology to help us with our modern conveniences, fast cook microwaves, optical air pathways and network communications are all things we took for granted. The number of people interested in how it worked however…

Which explained Twilight’s immediate enthusiasm in teaching me this broad subject.

I had made arrangements to visit her once a day after I unofficially discharged myself from the hospital. The doctors were not happy with how I simply had gallivanted out of the hospital without a word and I had to sheepishly apologise for my absence.

But that didn’t last long because magic was awesome.

I mean the things that it could accomplish were not extremely insane. Levitation and otherwise was fascinating, but it wasn’t world-changing. I could levitate some objects; just give me some magnets and a superconductor. Those things cost nothing.

But the power to move celestial objects, change the weather and manipulate medicine within the body?

World-breaking.

If only humans could use magic.

One of the things that worried me was the fact that I was a null being. Did that fact extend over to my whole race or was it just me being a null being because I was infused with Star Swirl the Bearded’s spell?

That reminds me of another thing.

Star Swirl the Bearded? Really? I know I said I wouldn’t judge names but that name was just too funny.

Twilight of course didn’t really appreciate me pointing the fact that Star Swirl the Bearded was not a serious name.

She told me to be quiet and pay attention to her lecture, which she spent a solid two hours on her idol. I had to bite the inside of my cheek in frustration.

When I looked into the literature on the way magic worked, it intrigued me. A lot of it was very consistent on the principles of thermodynamics. Magic flows in and out of a system and maximises some version of magical entropy. To retain the low-entropy state of magic within their body, mages like Twilight had to focus on their internal reserve, which consumed effort and that energy was expended after achieving a spell.

It was complicated but no more so than the power systems behind Synch.

I was fascinated by the fact that flows of magic apparently were what powered spells. If I could somehow provide the power through pre-constructed spells, then the spell could be cast. In fact, that was how the majority of enchantments worked in Equestria. Power up a gem, put a spell diagram somewhere and BOOM! Instant spell.

Since I was an artificial energy sink for magic, all I had to do was to touch a spell diagram and the ambient magic in the air would provide the mana flow to power the diagram. It would be very small and very weak but if I had access to a higher energy gradient then theoretically I could channel an unlimited amount of mana.

I had approached Twilight with this idea that had initially excited her, until she realised that the magic I nullified would be gone forever. If I ‘cast’ any serious magic it would just shoot Equestria along the line of destruction all the more faster.

So I had to shelve that particular line of thought.

Another project I had been working on was a shielding mechanism for me. If a magical force field could be erected around me I would no longer be draining ambient or otherwise magic. Any magic coming too near me would be reflected away. Unfortunately, this would no doubt require a constant supply of magical energy, something nobody here could provide.

So I stowed away that project.

My final line of research had been the necromancers.

They were a shady group and not much has been published about them. Some of the ancient history referred to them as the ‘gatekeepers’, mainly because they thought of them as the gatekeepers for their version of the afterlife.

Raising the dead had prompted within me a sort of fascination. We had slowed the degradation of telomeres, but we hadn’t perfected death defying, at least not yet. The necromancers had brought back life but without the soul. The soul was an interesting concept, as a scientist there had been no evidence to believe there was a soul. Apparently, it was the last ingredient to add to the batch of dead raising. The thing that got me was that other souls could be substituted to bring forth that life. So souls weren’t some personal thing that belonged to you, but something that could be casually interchanged to bring back your loved ones.

I didn’t know if the soul was exchanged or if it was moulded to fit the personality and body of the lover, though I wasn’t someone to believe that a soul existed, the thought of my psyche or something mine just casually deformed and transformed into someone else gave me the shivers.

After reading a bit more about necromancy I finally deduced the reason why they wanted me so badly.

Necromancy relied on a constant absorption of ambient magic to keep the soul bonded to the body. If a null being was sucking the magic out of everything, then eventually the necromancy spell would fail and raised dead would go back to being just dead.

Their method of dealing with the null problem was probably not sending me back to my universe, but probably dumping me into another cosmos where I could wreak havoc there. They wanted me gone as soon as possible and they weren’t going to wait for the pony princesses to find out a solution.

I didn’t like the implications this held so I approached Luna and Twilight and asked for their opinions.

Twilight was reasonable.

“Whilst that would certainly solve the problem, it doesn’t deal with the fact that you got here by some unknown mechanism. I would really not like to see what the effect of a collapse of another universe would have on ours”, she articulated, giving her chin a thoughtful tap.

Luna nodded in agreement.

“We will protect you in the meantime, you need not worry”, she responded casually.

I nodded, put at ease, for now. As I walked away from them I couldn’t help but feel a small tingle of trepidation creep down my spine, shilling me.

Who knew when the necromancers would strike, though?

Author's Note:

Oh the chapters keep on coming but the sickness isn't going!

More chapters when I feel better.

Next Chapter: Lightning finds out he's adopted, Hardy finds out he's not. Spike eats insects and finds them slimy but satisfying. Hakuna Matata.

As always, my incredibly tuned-in readers, thanks for reading!

Comments

[sunnypack]

4889280 Thanks! I really hope it goes away fast!

[PiMan]

You are among the fastest writers I have ever seen on this site. If you want to slow down some, then go right ahead.