25 Magic Lessons
David - 23th of Plantation '15 EoH - Afternoon
It took a lot out of me, learning my entire worldview was wrong. I’d given up on there being a god during the war. I’d figured that no god would allow something like that to happen unless they were an evil bastard. Then I’d decided if god was an evil bastard, it would be best to just not believe in one. Why? Because it would be better for there to be no god than an evil one.
Turns out I was wrong. That’s fine, I can admit that. I do however reserve the rights to be pissed that the real actual gods, plural mind you, didn’t think they should step in and stop the worst war in human history.
I’d grilled Dusk about that after she got back from the bar with Lily. Apparently she's’ the only one who gives a flying fuck about us ‘bacteria’ as her fellow deities call mortal kind. Since war is her dad’s thing and ending life is he brothers thing, it turns out that the whole war was apparently the godly equivalent of a father-son bonding moment, and nothing she tried did a damn thing to convince them to stop making that conflict started by a displaced pony worse and worse.
But, at least everyone who fought and died gets to share an afterlife with their squad. So I guess Dusk really did do all she could. She told me the Rules that restrict her, and they're pretty air tight.
Gods are like computers apparently. If something is another god’s domain, they literally need its permission to do things in it or they simply can’t. Their powers just won't work. Dusk admittedly has found a few ways to break some specific Rules in certain circumstances, but those opportunities are sadly rare.
I did like it when she said if she did have control over when mortals died, that evil people would just be stillborn. She meant it too. At least one of however many deities out there cares and is a good person.
Well, sort of a good person. She did get like fifty pounds of clothes that I’ll be having to pull now… Lily might look more adorable than the god of adorable (whom I presume exists) in that little red dress. But as the cargo wagon puller, I reserve the right to complain about the suddenly added wardrobe.
At least the weapons were gone now. That would lighten the load a lot.
I’d gone back to the Changeling’s shop as asked. I’d still been working my way through everything. The whole deal had gone down on auto pilot.
If I had kept my head on straight, I would have probably wound up getting a better deal. That bug realy liked a few of the pieces I had, especially a longsword I’d found in a cave. Apparently that was a five hundred year old blade.
Ah well, Lightstride assured me we had enough bits for the train tickets, plus a little extra. Maybe it would be enough to get a meal or three in Equestria. We would need all the help we could get, especially since I had fucked up pretty badly.
I’d shown the token that the dying Swarm changeling had given me to the changeling running the shop. She pointed the way to a house in town, I’d followed it still on auto pilot. I wound up giving the token to the bug’s younger sister.
I didn’t know that changelings could cry in their normal forms. I wish I had been in the mind to convey more sympathy. Especially since apparently the mare hadn’t thought her sister was in trouble. Three was supposed to be attending a magic academy in Prance for the summer. She’d apparently gotten snatched up along the way.
The Topaz hive had a tradition, when one of their hive dies away from home, whomever brings the news back receives a gift in thanks for returning the news and any last words.
My error was not waiting till I could think strait to deliver that token. After crying for an hour, the poor girl offered to create anything I wanted with her alchemy. The exact fuckup was refusing a reward, and so she simply replicated an item she telepathically pulled from my memory, because apparently you don’t just refuse the ‘Messenger's Reward’.
As a result I’d spent the day sitting on the bed in the hotel room waiting for Lily to shake off her hangover so I could ask her to teach me some more magic. I needed something to help us get an edge. I could have gotten a suit of armor, or a shield, or some magic charm. I could have gotten a map, or a compass, or literally anything of use.
I’d gotten a copy of my old guitar.
Admittedly, it was a magic copy of my old guitar that didn’t need an amp. But it was still a motherfucking guitar. Somehow I’d made two major fuckups in my life, both of which were getting the same goddamn guitar. Maybe it’s a curse or some shit like that.
Still, it was nice to hold her again. Her rosewood neck, nickel pickups, and brushed silver Les Paul body were just like I remembered. The enchantment on her was pretty neat too, the knobs on her body worked like those on the amp. I could do just about any sound I wanted on her.
Maybe when I got to Equestria I could make enough as a street performer to get an apartment and build my way up from there. I’d done it once before in a world where everyone was some level of jerkwad. It should be easier in a world populated by ponies.
On the other hand, our lives were in serious danger and I’d gotten a motherfucking guitar!
“David,” Lily asked, snapping me out of my thoughts, “das lights are not stabbing my eyes now. Do you still want to talk?”
I quickly set my guitar against the wall. “Yeah… We’re going to have to make a run across desert with the Swarm on our tails. Sure I got Boomstick and my knife, but Jade’s useless in a fight, and Lightstride… Where is she?” I asked looking around in confusion.
“Oh, she went to book a train car. I’m sorry you're feeling useless, you’re not, you're why we are still alive!” Lily said giving me a sincere and oddly affectionate look.
That was a weird sort of look for a friend to give you. Meh, she was coming off a hangover.
I smiled for a small moment. “I’m not feeling useless. Just under equipped. My big weapon is too dangerous to use unless it’s a last resort, and my other weapon is a big knife. I just don’t have the right tools.”
Lily nodded slowly and stood up to lean atop the desk she had been doing her spell work on yesterday. “Ja… I know. I can make basic shields and wards, I planed on making protection charms on the train ride. They will burn out after absorbing one hit, but if we each have two or three, that may get us through.”
I gave her an impressed nod, “Not bad, Earchain.” I said mentioning her newest piercing.
“Earchain?” Lily asked with a surprised head tilt, making the gold chain that ran loosely from her left eartip to it’s base tilt down, putting two of the charm-bracelet like charms onto it into her field of view.
“Eep!” Lily exclaimed, eyes crossing as she tried to look at it.
I laughed for a few long moments as she did her best to get a look at it. “Don’t worry you silly pony! It looks good. Very you.”
“I-I don't have any more do I?” She asked with a sigh.
“Not that I’ve seen.” I answered. “Mabey tell Dusk no more though, it would make you start to look trashy.”
“Ja…” Lily sighed. She shuffled her hooves nervously and looked up at me with hopeful eyes. “It… it really looks cute?”
I nodded slowly. “Yes. Honestly it completes your… You’re going for impossible to not hug, right?”
The strawberry blush that spread across her cheeks indicated I was right, and reminded me of a question nopony could answer in Stalliongrad.
“Quick side question, how do you blush with fur?” I asked seriously.
“Oh!” Lily perked up instantly, an excited expression forming on -
Oh hell! I’d asked the biomancer a biology question!
Lily took a deep breath and quickly rattled off, “Pony fur is less like normal mammal fur und more like super fine, super soft, super silky cameleon scales. Early ponies und pony ancestors had a defense mechanism which consisted of chromatophoreic cells in their fur which allowed them to change color in order to camouflage themselves into any background! We’ve evolved away that trait because whatever our primary predator was, it died out. We can’t camo anymore, but our fur still contains those cells. That’s why we can have such vivid colors!
“Das cells still respond to our emotions somewhat, so a pony can appear more saturated in color when extra happy, or more gray when sad. Changes in the skin also affect the fur color, so that’s why blushes and bruises show up on our fur, the cells in each strand transmit the skin color beneath along their length!”
“That’s actually pretty cool!” I said honestly, wishing that I was free to talk more about a pretty interesting aspect of a rather unique species. But still, I had an important question. “Back to the topic at hand-”
“Er, you mean at hoof?” Lily asked in mock confusion.
I gave her a glare. “I want to know if you can teach me a few spells.”
Lily nodded and shuffled the papers on her desk around for a short moment. “Ja, I could teach you some spells… But not in three days. I uh… Gottverdammt! I don’t want to sound racist, but you’re not a unicorn. Ja, anyone can learn magic, but it’s very hard. Unicorns just… wir get it.”
I rolled my eyes and gave the silly pony a mane tussle, “Kid, it’s not racist if there really is a difference.”
"Was jetzt?” Lily asked giving me a concerned blink.
“Unicorns are naturally able to do magic. Dogs aren’t. No shit unicorns will pick it up more quickly.” I explained. “It’s true, so it’s not racist, it’s just fact.”
“It still sounds bad to say though.” Lily replied with a frown.
I sighed and sat back on the bed, leaning up against the wall. The room’s chairs were too small for me to sit anywhere else. “So what? If objective facts offend you, you should change your point of view. It’s like… Look my old people had a group of us known as Kenyans. They are fast, really fast, on average faster than anyone else. But if you said that, everyone would call you racist, even though it’s true, and science has even shown the genetic differences that make them especially great runners.
“Don’t be like those idiots. If something’s true, say it. If it’s false call it out. There’s no need for al the flowery skirting around everything. Just be honest, admit when you're wrong, and accept that you can be wrong about things. Now, bunny trail over, magic, what can we do to get me as far up to par as we can?”
“Er-” Lily paused for a moment, looking like she was about to ask something, but then shook her head. “I die grundlegenden Konzepte der Zauberei erklären kön- Oops! Sorry. I mean I could explain the basic concepts of sorcery to you. I know you can do a simple heat charm, maybe if you know how that works you can do a bit more with it. Oh! I could maybe also show you how to do telekinesis… But it would be very crude without learning proper wizardry.”
“Wait,” I asked with a frown, “there’s a difference between sorcery and wizardry?”
Lily nodded, “Ja! Einen großen unterschied!”
“A huge difference, can you explain it?” I asked irritably.
Lily facehooved, “I forgot you speak Germane. How did I forget you speak Germane?”
"Weil Sie sind Ein albern pony." I teased, flashing her a grin.
Lily cleared her throat and put on a bit of that distinct ‘professory’ air. “Sorcery is the simplest type of magic. It is simply the most basic way anything can interact with the Thaumaturgic Field, subatomic particles interact with it all the time, that’s how simple it is.” She paused, frowning, “I should explain the Field… The Field is an energy field which as far as we can tell, exists everywhere in the universe. The field interacts with everything, all matter, and all energy including itself. When a quanta of energy or a particle of matter interacts with the field, the field imparts properties to that energy or matter.
“A quark is a quark because the Thaumaturgic Field told it to be one.” Lily explained, rubbing her chin in thought for a moment, “Are you with me so far?”
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s pretty understandable.”
“Normally the field makes things work under what mages call ‘Natural Physics’, this is the ‘default settings’ of the universe. Now interestingly, energy can interact with the Field, it’s not just one way, but two way. Because of this, and the fact that biological process use electricity, organisms with the ability to arrange energy in very specific ways can change what the field will do with the matter and energy nearby.
“It’s very hard to make any of these changes, because the Field has a lot of… Was ist ein gutes Wort zu benutzen? Ah! Resistance to change. The Field wants to stay the same, so you take a lot of energy to change things. Physical and mental energy. You may have noticed unicorns get sleepy after casting big spells, that’s why.”
“So your thoughts affect the field, but because you need to think in a very specific way for long enough time to effect the change, you get fatigued?” I asked.
Lily nodded and smiled, “Ja! But it’s the electrical patterns in your brain from the thought, not the thought itself. That’s why even some plants have magical abilities. These patterns are very specific, which is why not everyone can or has learned magic, und even why some species don’t have any magic. They simply don’t think in a way which produces a pattern which interacts with the field.
“But you know a pattern already. That’s simply how the one you know works! If you want it to work better you need to put more energy into the pattern, which is best done by thinking less about what you want the magic to do, and focusing more on the thought behind your magic itself.” Lily explained.
“What?” I asked with a confused frown, “But that seems… backwards.”
“Oh! Nein!” Lily said quickly, “You still think about directing the magic, but you want to focus mostly on maintaining the thought pattern. Splitting your attention to do this is a vital skill for any mage.”
“Ah, I think I understand.”
“Gut!” Lily flashed me a smile, “Now, that is all there is to Sorcery. Using thought-patterns to override the Field’s natural state so it changes something in the world in a way you want. Wizardry is different because it’s Sorcery und Science. Sorcerer makes the fire in a camp fire by thinking of a pattern they found that makes the fire und lights the logs A Wizard makes fire by thinking in a refined pattern which induces an exothermic reaction in the logs, resulting in fire.
“Wizardry is refined by knowledge of the world und how it works. It uses less energy and can do much more because unlike Sorcery which brute forces the change, Wizardry works with Natural Physics processes to change things.”
“Allright, Sorcery is a axe and Wizardry is a scalpel. Makes sense.” I said with a nod, “How does this help me?”
“It takes you a lot of effort to make heat, ja?” Lily asked rhetorically. “You are doing it with Sorcery, if I showed you the Wizardry behind producing heat it would be much easier for you to do, und you could do more with it because you would have more energy available to you.”
“That’s what I assumed… Er- I mean more along the lines of ‘can you show me how now?’” I pointed out.
She giggled, “Well yes, but also no. You can’t show someone how to think in a certain way. But, do you know how heat is made?”
I nodded, “Yes, the atoms within a substance are moving more quickly the hotter something is.”
She paused and gave me an impressed look, “I honestly didn’t think you would know that… No offense meant.”
“None taken.” I chuckled, “Right, so instead of thinking about heat, I should think about making the atoms move faster or slower?”
Lily beamed me a huge grin, “Ja! You got it! You realized that the same pattern for making heat can also make cold because cold is simply the absence of heat! That is Wizardry! W-well it is once you actually do it with a spell. Till then it’s just Theoretical Thaumaturgy.”
“Wait, if the thought pattern aka spell I know can chill or heat things depending on how I apply it, can it do anything? Can I just think about atomic motion and push some photons off the atoms to make light?” I asked curiously.
“Well… nein… Where did you get your education? You don’t know magic but you know Natural Physics… That’s weird.” Lily said with an odd frown.
“Well, my original species can’t do magic as far as I know. We have to do everything the hard way, but we are damn good at it. A bit too damn good to be honest… Atom splitting and what not.” I grunted.
“Was? What would splitting an atom apart do?” Lily asked curiously, one ear perking up as she spoke.
“Release all of the energy stored in the-” I instantly realized that this was a very bad idea to tell someone who could just do it with their brain instead of a few million bucks worth of science stuff, “-Look just don't do it, we use it as a very very deadly weapon of mass destruction. Moving right along, so spells are very specific then? My heat one will only speed up or slow down atomic motion and nothing else?”
“Ja. Manipulating the Field needs very precise energy patterns.” Lily continued, looking distracted for a moment as I was sure she pondered splitting an atom.
Way to go brain… Shut up next time.
“Ah, anyway,” Lily continued, “when written down a spell is generally an explanation of the Natural Physics involved, as well as a meditative focus to help you find out what pattern to use. These two parts together are called a Spell Matrix or Spell for short. Learning a new one can take a very long time because simply mastering the pattern of thought to achieve the most basic of effects can take years for truly complex spells like teleportation.”
“This really doesn't seem too hard, just time consuming.” I mused thoughtfully.
Lily nodded and shrugged a bit, “Well… Sure it can be. But once you know das basics of a field of Wizardry you can absorb the rest easily and quickly… Or if you are lucky enough to be a unicorn and also have your special talent be that field of magic…”
“You just sort of read it and know it?” I asked with a curious head tilt.
“Nein, but close. I mastered Biomancy’s basics in a year and a half, faster than anypony I know of. But I’m still working on the advanced stuff after five years. It’s a special talent, not a flank stamp of auto-win.” She pointed out. Then with a frown admitted, “Unless your Twilight Sparkle and get the talent of ‘magic, all of it’.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sudden flare of jealousy in Lily’s eyes as she mentioned someone having that sort of help from their genetics, or however cutiemarks worked. To cover up my chuckle I quickly asked a question. “So how come when I heat something up with a spell, it cools back down. If I’m instructing reality to make that thing hot, shouldn’t it stay hot?”
“Nein,” Lily answered instantly, “the world is in Harmony, a balance between Order and Chaos. Over time, all things trend towards Harmony. All magic is invoking Chaos to alter the established world, and thus, after some time, it returns to as state of Harmony.”
I frowned and looked over at my backpack. “Why the hell didn’t the spellbook I got say any of this? This is pretty useful.”
“Well you did get it in Stalliongrad.” Lily said rolling her eyes. “They are-”
I sighed, a long, irritable, lonely sigh. “Behind the times. I know.”
Lily hummed a moment and picked my pack up with her magic and moved it over beside her, then took out the book in question. “Oh.” Her mouth pulled into a small grin, “Never mind, this is Prench. They teach magical theory since kindergarten, so everypony there knows the basics. This is just a list of spe-”
She turned to look at me, one eyebrow raised. “You learned to cast by reading this?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“But… It’s just a spell list.” She said ears drooping.
“Yeah.” I said with a grin, “I figured you just focused hard and willed stuff to happen while… thinking about the stuff the book said to… Hey I was right! Neat.”
“Uh no.” Lily said in a confused tone. “It’s written in Prench.”
“Yeah. I thought that was weird too but I speak French.” I said starting to give Lily a confused look.
“How many languages do you know?” She asked curiously.
“Let’s see…” I started to count them off on my fingers, “English, Equish, German, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, and well… Quenya if you want to also count constructed languages.”
Suddenly hit me. “Hold it! How the flying fuck do you know French?”
“I said Prench, not French.” Lily said looking at me and the book completely baffled. “Wait… Is this like Germane and German? How many languages do our worlds share?”
I nodded, baffled and creeped out. “Yeah that is pretty weird, even the names are similar.” Then Lily’s wording hit me like a ton of bricks, “Hold it! You said world.”
“Ja.” Lily said setting the book down. “I’m not an idiot, I figured out you are from another world entirely after a few days.”
“How?” I demanded. “I’ve been trying to keep that a secret for years!”
“You talk in your sleep.” Lily said with a light blush. “Also your aura is… off. Er- Auras are a unicorn thing. We can sense how things interact with the Field. It’s not very useful for more than knowing if something’s magic or not, but it can tell you about the arcane properties of something und yours doesn't have the normal Diamond Dog signature… It’s unique as far as I know. hence, you’re an alien. Which is neat!”
My ears drooped in mild panic. “Every unicorn I have ever encountered knows I’m not from this world!?”
Lily giggled, “Nein, nein! It takes days around someone to be able to pick their aura out from the background. Everything has one. Das air, rocks, trees, everything made of matter… It’s hard to pick one out and isolate it. I know yours, Jades, und my old History professors, but nopony else's. The other auras I know are all microorganisms, und I use them to identify was ist was while performing- Eh it’s not important. You’re fine David.”
“Thank god!” I sighed in relief.
Then I remembered that those were actually real things, and there was more than one.
“Uh, or thank the gods rather. Assuming they established physics to work like that, thus preventing this scenario…” I corrected with a frown.
I realized that next chance I got I needed to ask Dusk exactly how the whole god thing worked. Just to be sure I wasn’t pissing someone off.
Lily nodded sagely. “She said she would be over tonight to hang out… Something about wanting to avoid a party her brother was throwing. Anyways, you need to practice.”
Lily picked up a quill with her magic and floated it over to me. I picked it out of the air curiously and gave her a look, “You want me to burn this quill?”
“Nein. I want you to freeze it. You already know you can make heat, you need to understand you can remove heat too.” Lily explained.
“I’m not sure I can do that.” I said with a frown.
“Ja you can.” Lily said with a supportive smile.
She climbed up onto the bed and sat down beside me. “Okay, hold the quill out where you can see it. Be happy you’re not a unicorn, we have to float it while we freeze it.”
“Oh, this is a normal exercise for mages?” I asked, happy to see something of mage culture for a change.
“Ja. Now, close your eyes and focus on the magic you use to heat.” Lily said in a soothing tone.
I nodded, closed my eyes, and let my mind drift to that special place the magic seemed to come from. It wasn’t hard for me to find, that little part of the mind which seemed to smile whenever I played anything had been there since the first time I’d performed on the street. I know where it was, but not why it also served to let me do magic.
Remembering Lily’s advice I focused on the thought of atoms slowing, and the quill freezing, but also tried to focus on the feeling of the magic itself.
I felt my heartbeat speed up. It felt like I was lifting the back end of a truck!
Then I felt something cool on my fingertips. Opening my eyes I saw the Quill was covered in a silvery coating of frost. It looked just like the lawn on the first day of winter at sunrise.
“Damn…” I muttered to myself, turning the quill in my fingers as it glittered.
“Gut!” Lily praised, “Now, warm it up. Then, we freeze it again, only quicker. Then heat again. We do this till you can snap freeze and snap thaw.”
I winced, “This is going to take all day, isn’t it?”
“Mabey.” Lily giggled, “But you asked me to teach you spells. We start with mastering the one you know.”
“Eh, fair point.” I conceded.
Then I closed my eyes, and reached for the magic again. I had some training to do.
Jade - 24th of Plantation '15 EoH - Midnight
Nose... so... itchy!
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Wow, I absolutely love the way you've set up magic in this story! You've managed to keep it mystical while also making it scientific, and then you explained it well enough to understand the whole thing!
Jade is back(ish), I think
Now David is getting better with magic and Jade is waking up, we can finally get the buck out of doge!
Really looking foreword to how this will all work out for our friends!
DUSK STOP MESSING WITH AZUR'S LOOKS
Hmmm...itchy nose....wait, what was that? Why's that sounding so famili...
Aww crap, that's Pinkie sense for insects! *pulls out a plasma rifle* INCOMING!
6741139 It took me FOREAVER to work out just the right balance of mystic and science :) We know it's scienced out in the show, but I still wanted it to have a special, magicky vibe ^.^
6741377 Actualy, Jade's been awake the whole time. Science has shown that caterpillars can remembers stuff that happens during their transformation, meaning they are awake for that whole, break down into goop and rearrange thing...
6741718 "Nevah!" Dusk announces dramatically and runs off into the sunset.
6741935 Heh, somone got it!
Yay, Jade has a nose again.....but no hooves to itch it with! Poor buggy!
I think David's going to pick up spells faster than Lily would ever expect him to, since he knows physics quite well. And David, bombs are not the only use for splitting atoms! It's also a fantastic means of producing electricity so that you don't need as many people constantly maintaining the electrical grid.
I do very much like how you've explained how magic works, Meep. The best fantasy worlds that decide to actually explain magic tend to follow along similar lines, treating it as a science. I have always been a fan of doing it that way, and your explanation here was very nicely concise. (One book I read spent the better part of a chapter with some old magus lecturing on magic and basically saying little more than Lily did here.)
6741978 *Chases after her* "Oh yes you will, your uncle PALES! in comparison to ME!"
6742055
I have no nose and I must itch.
"Sure kid, and what's the first damn thing we did with that gift, eh? Vaporize Japanese children." David grumbled bitterly.
Thank you :) I spent a year on this, working over varrious explenatiosn and I figured making it work like a QUantum Mechanical effect and being simple as hell was the best option. It preserves the mystical feeling of magic while allowing it to be predictable and feel like a par tof the univerce.
oooh, sciency magic! too bad it doesn't work...
I can't wait for David to get the hang of it, I mean seriously, humans+magic, could it get any better?
...actually don't answer that...
hey! Jade has a nose, hooray! I hope her bug stuff doesn't smell bad
6742194
He said, unaware of my description of magic being Quantum Field Theory IRL + the possibility of manipulating that field with a thought, which would be the least weird thing about QFT.
Yes. A LOT better. You'll see after the train.
6742223
Here's the thing- if this is how magic works, is it possible that humans could evolve/be genetically modified for our brains to think in a way that would let us do this, if we don't already do it to some extent?
6742388 Yes, in fact that happened accidentally. It's what caused the ARC-Gaian war in the extreemly distant past, suddenly billions of humans could magic, and others couldn't. That sort of stabs the status quo in the eye with a salad fork.
6742223 vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/someordinarygamers/images/7/73/Thinking_face.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151013213422
I wonder how hard it would be to figure out how to recreate this phenomenon
6742449 We dont know. No but seriously science has shown that observing things on the quantum scale actually physically changes the outcome of what would otherwise happen, causality can be applied in reverse, and Quantum Entanglement realy dose send information FTL so... who knows? Quantum Mechanics are WEIRD.
6742480 maybe one day we'll understand it and even manipulate it...
then we could have thing with cool names! like quantum flux generator! or quantum drift ftl engines! or quantum computers!.... nevermind, we already have those!
6742501 Relay? I'm interested in what foreshadowed that for you.
6742507 We also have Quantum Flux generators. Since Quantum Flux is simply "the temporary change in the amount of energy in a point in space" a simple flashlight is generating more Quantum Flux along the path of it's beam.
6742517 so I'm a quantum flux generator!?
YAY!!!
6742529 Technically yes, as your presence in a n area imparts more thermal energy to that area.
6742541 I feel so important...
Who's a silly pony
who's a silly pony
who is, you is, applejack
...
*coughs*
6742480 only under copenhagen interpretation, and even then you can't send any useful information along those channels.
Under many-worlds, the FTL transmission dissapears.
6742774
Yay! Someone FINALLY translated/knows German!
6742781
Hey! Welcome to the party fellow Science Bro! And of course that only works under Copenhagen, but to be fair we still have yet to work out which one or which ones are correct and under what circumstances. It's all WIP.
6742480
"Observation" does not mean the same thing in quantum science that it does everywhere else, just like "Theory" does not mean the same thing in science and lay conversation.
A quantum observer could be a PHOTON, for example.
6743271 Yes, this is true. But still, if something is observed, it changes. That's WEIRD.
Hah, a guitar? Oh, Dave, you done goofed. I guess it's not only Azur who can manage to mess up some helpful resources while fleeing from deadly danger and Dave has earned himself a seat in that club
Selling all of his junk for too cheap shouldn't impair them too much though. At least I think so. Money's the least of their problems right about now anyway and if they get to Equestria safe and sound they would probably get help anyway.
Hell, sell Clover's book to Twilight - you were already planning on giving it over, so might as well get some cash from it - she'd probably give up the whole of Equestria's treasury for it
*Imagines Celestia's face as she walks in to the Royal Vault and finds it completely empty except for some spiderwebs and a scribbled note of "Twilight was here" left lying on the floor* :P
And Dusk really should stop taking Azur to places where he can get weird piercings. Any more and ponies will stop to point and whisper when Azur walks past and the more "high society" guys will probably turn their noses up at Azur's passing
I do wonder if they got them right there in the city, or did Dusk whisk him to Neighpon again? :P Poor Azur, two trips to a whole new country and can't even remember it ...
And holy cow, I loved that explanation about how ponies manage to blush and the biology behind it and how it explains all the other quirks of their coloration that we have seen in the show, that's bloody brilliant
You can't imagine how happy and giddy this stuff made me 
And the stuff about magic and differences between sorcery and wizardry and the science behind it were also great - of course a society which lives and breathes magic would have found a way to make a science out of it and institutionalize it over thousands of years. It's only a "spellbook" because it's a book that contains information about spells, not, you know, a spellbook in the context of having mythical mumbo jumbo in it.
And looks like Dave is decently good at least at heat manipulation. That's pretty cool and I can't wait to see what he does with it. Will come in handy when its time to kick some bug arse. So long as he doesn't become a battlemage overnight or something like that
And splitting the atom? That's the perfect idea to install into Azur's head - why do I get the feeling we will see some nuclear fire in the battle with the swarm? :P Though shouldn't some countries like Neighpon at least have that stuff figured out by now anyway? Or did their research never go down that path?
And ha, Jade's nose is itching? For some reason my first thought was "does she have hooves and/or magic to scratch it with just yet?" She might be stuck with a tortuously scratchy nose for hours yet
6743759
Never adventure while confused. Rule number 33.
So this? This movie inspired a bit of David by the way.
At least this one comes out and is not saudered closed XD
You're welcome! I enjoy working out stuff like this. Xenobiology is my jam!
Right! Spellbook, a book of spells. I imagine them being something like this amazing and wonderful book every human should own. A practical guide to doing certain things.
My good sir/ma'am, you wound me!
To even THINK I would make a character go from nothing to somthingon one scene with no good plot reason!
Neighpone did work out that enriched uranium can be used to create an explosive. They made one, detonated it, and realized that it's litteraly a bomb that kills the planet (the effects of a old school nuke can literally cover an entire hemisphere with weather changes.) as such they destroied the data and forbid the development of nuclear explosives. They sabotage or diplomacy other nations working on it as well. Sure the Gaian's have some, but they actually cant use them in an atmosphere (hardware locks prevent detonation if one is detected around the weapon), they are just for anti-asteroid defense.
Heh... You'll see.
This chapter was very funny, especially Jade's line at the end. Also I translated this Weil Sie sind Ein albern pony. When I read fractalman's comment, I had the song singing in my head...its still singing in my head.
6743954 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inaOz64_Q5k
No but seriously you have no idea how happy it makes me to know that people actually care enough about my silly stories to translate the things characters say if they need too. Hopefully my German is not too rusty XD
The-soup-that-is-Jade's-nose itches! That's gotta suck.
Huh, I wonder how many cities mysteriously vanished because some curious unicorn asked "What if I cut this atom in half...?"
So... magic is just thinking the right way with electricity. I wonder if David has much background in solid state semiconductor physics...
6743970 Your welcome, I like that song. Lets sing it!
6744028
Having once been in a upper body cast... YES!!!!
All of Neighpone actually. They had a mini-Fallout Equestria in their history. Fortunately you can't jsut split ANY atom and get a nuclear explosion (you do get a good boom but not more than say, a grenade), you need something radioactive, so that your splitting the atom causes the unstable material (that's what radioactivity is) to explosively chain react and convert most of it's matter directly into heat and light. There are not many elements which do this, so most places are perfectly safe. Especially since Neighpone (post recovery) has been sabotaging and diplomating everyone who might work on nuclear weapons to prevent anyone else from destroying their own homes due to "Do you know what this is? Nether do I! I built it last night in my sleep. I put a button on it... I want to press it but... I don't know what will happen if I do..." "Buck it! Boop ahoy!"
Well sort of. The moment of the electrons resulting from your thinking cause a quantum mechanical effect to adjust reality arround you. But fundamental yes, it's an electrical effect.
6744029 I totaly would if my voice didn't suck :P
6744047 Oh, I am sorry.
6744069 Don't sweat it ^.^ I uh... jsut dont talk much. Kinda the RL Vinyl in terms of talking.
6744046 Well... if you can manage it, anything heavier than iron will give you net energy if you manage to split it. Most aren't naturally fissionable (or fissile), of course. But hey, if you're just magicking them apart... On the other hand, you might just be spending more energy in magicking than you're getting back from fission, so... yeah.
David's just got to innocently discuss transistor-based computation with Twilight. What's the worst that could happen?
6744171 "Sure we used transistors for a while, but it's much more effishen't to utilize a Hayneigh Switching spell to achieve the same effect."
6741968
You succeeded!
6744381
6744222 I was just thinking an hydroelectric powerplant doesn't get tired.
6745916 "Yeah but see electrical devices need batteries, or wall outlets. It's irritating. Thanks to some key inventions and Arcane Physics discoveries over the last thirty years we've actually been able to make almost all devices self-powering. Electrical power generation is obsolete, and almost completely useless. We only still use it for things like hospital equipment that simply can't be replaced yet."
6745962
You know, with those tesla-coil thingys we see on Pnyville's hydroelectric dam in the mare-do well episode - and no wires of any kind - I wonder if Ponies have actually figured out some form of wireless power transmission
6747436 They could easily have done that. We have wireless power transmission IRL, WITHOUT magic. It's not even hard :P Tesla figured it out in the freaking 30s for crying out loud. It's just that J.P. Morgan was having none of this "free Electricity" shit and burned Tesla's first lab down, destroying that data. However MIT recently worked it out again, and now even hobbiestits can make wirelessly powered devices. Check it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHMKiajMZrM
So even Creativity herself doesn't really care that much about regular pony life?
Hahahaha! INB4 the day is saved in the end by David and his magic axe.
Neat pony fur details. I presume that's also the explanation for cutie marks?
Neat magic details, too.
INB4 the day is saved by Lily deciding to try splitting Chrysalis' atoms in a last second Hail Mary.
Heh, I'm amused that Lily is no fool regarding David's origins.
It must suck to have a brain that tells you your nose is itchy, and yet have no nose to scratch nor hooves to scratch it with.
6750890
She's more into planets, nebula, and other cosmic things, as well as substances, and natural formations and wonders.
No there is something much bigger in scope than simple biology for cutiemarks.
One can only imagine.
You're why we're still alive. Your is possessive, you're is you are.
O-ohh... lord no... not the itchy-yet-unscratchable nose... Mara preserve us.