With a pronounced thump, Sumac’s head hit the table. Slumped over, he could feel the cool wood of the table against his cheek, against his muzzle, and his ear flopped over and rested against a book. His horn hurt from too much writing. He was just about done for and he wasn’t sure if all of the rock hard fudge in the world could save him now.
None of this would have been possible without Pebble. He heaved a sigh, his face still smooshed against the table, and watched as Pebble just kept going. He didn’t know how she did it. The entirety of the morning, the doldrums of noon, and then the long, slow crawl of the afternoon as real fatigue began to set in. She had somehow kept him going as well, coaxing him along, doing so with kind words, chunks of fudge, and telling him that his idea was brilliant.
But now, as much as it pained him to admit it, he could go no further. He had nothing left in him. He could not recall doing this much study in his life, ever. One thousand years of census information, with data taken from one hundred year points. Hearing the rustle of paper, Sumac’s ear, the one not resting upon the book, twitched.
“We’re done,” Pebble said in a low, bored sounding voice, which did nothing to revive Sumac. “I think the evidence here is compelling and what you are presenting should cause some interest, if not cause an alarm.”
“Do you really think this might cause a panic?” Sumac asked.
Sitting up on the table, Pebble shrugged, but did not reply. She looked down at the papers, the books, the notes, the pens, and the pencils. Turning her head, she looked over at Sumac, who appeared to have melted into the table. Part of his face was flattened, smooshed, and Pebble found the sight rather amusing.
“I think I’m going to die now.” Sumac tried to lift his head, failed, and then let out a groan. “What time is it?”
Pebble’s head swiveled and she looked at the clock. “It is almost four o'clock—”
Sumac let out another pained groan and closed his eyes.
“—and we got started at a little past six in the morning. That’s a pretty epic study time.” Pebble paused, cleared her throat, and looked back at Sumac. “I had fun. This has been great. We should do this more often.”
“Ugh, nooo,” Sumac whined, writhing against the table. “This isn’t fun at all and I don’t want to do this more often. I can’t even feel my butt. What is wrong with you… you had fun?”
Ears swivelling around, Pebble stared at her companion, trying to understand him. She could not comprehend his boredom, his state of agitation, she had trouble understanding just about everything about him. “This has been great fun. Sure, it’s not field work, but I like this. I haven’t had an exciting day in the books for a long, long time. School’s been putting me to sleep lately.”
“You’re weird.” Sumac sucked in a deep breath, held it for a moment, then heaved a sigh. “You are the weirdest pony I have ever met. Why are you so strange?”
Feeling a bit frustrated, her neck feeling both tense and warm from Sumac’s words, Pebble decided to let the comment about being weird slide. The room was now a bit warm for some reason, and she didn’t know why. She squirmed inside of her dress, feeling self aware, but not understanding why. Sumac was smart enough to have conversations with, real conversations, not boring conversations filled with boring foal talk. Sumac had ideas, Sumac could think, and the evidence was scattered all around her. Sumac was capable of rubbing his brain cells together… and Pebble found that she liked that.
Without warning, the door opened. Pebble turned her head to look at their visitor, but Sumac did not lift his head away from the table. Pebble saw Twilight Velvet standing in the doorway. After a moment, Twilight Velvet entered, stepping into the room, and the door shut behind her.
“Oh dear, somepony looks tuckered out,” Twilight’s mother said as she drew near the table. “It’s been a rough day for so many.” A concerned frown spread over Twilight Velvet’s lips. “Sumac, you need to pull yourself together, darling.”
“What?” Sumac lay against the table, unmoving. “Why?”
Twilight Velvet’s ears splayed out sideways and she tilted her head to try and look Sumac in the eye. It was important to have proper eye contact with foals, or so she believed. She took another step forwards. “Twilight Sparkle will be seeing you—”
“She’s supposed to see him tomorrow,” Pebble said, cutting Twilight Velvet off. Pebble stood up on the table, rising up on all fours, and she shook her head. “Look at him, he’s a goner.”
Nodding, Twilight Velvet’s frown tugged down the corners of her mouth a little bit more.
“We’re supposed to have more time… we’re done, but he hasn’t had the time to finalise his preparation… I’m supposed to help him. He has notes… we’re not ready.” Pebble walked to the table edge and stood almost at eye level with Twilight Velvet.
“This is all part of the process,” Twilight Velvet said in a patient voice. “Today, many potential students succumbed to the pressure. The single hardest part of this whole thing is making it to the interview.” Twilight Velvet’s brows furrowed. “Sumac, you’ve done so much work. You have put in so much effort already. Can you push yourself a little further? Can you do the interview?”
“If I don’t, I’m done, aren’t I?” Sumac asked.
Saying nothing, Twilight Velvet nodded.
“But that’s not fair,” Pebble protested. She sat down on the edge of the table and glared at Twilight Velvet. Frustrated, she stomped one front hoof against the table edge and the thump caused Sumac’s head to bounce.
“This is all about finding the best of the best. Twilight Sparkle had to perform a very difficult test to become Princess Celestia’s personal student. Not every foal is cut out for advanced academics. Many will try, a few will make it to the interview, but in the end, not many are chosen.”
“Sumac?” Pebble turned her head and looked at the colt collapsed against the table. “Sumac, you have to get up… you have to get moving… this is your chance to be somepony… don’t mess this up.” Pebble stood up, walked along the edge of the table, and then sat down beside where Sumac’s head was resting.
Leaning down, she lifted Sumac’s head away from the table, then began smooshing his cheeks, massaging his face, and trying to revive him. “Don’t be a dummy… you… you pull yourself together, right now, this instant.”
Sumac, limp in Pebble’s clutches, thought about Trixie. He thought about Big Mac. Much to his surprise, he thought about Pebble and how she was rubbing his face right now. His brain felt slow, sludgy, and more than anything, he wanted to take a nap.
But the nap would have to come later. It was time to square his debts. He owed Trixie his best effort—and perhaps Pebble as well. She had spent so much time helping him. He glanced at Twilight Velvet, who stood there, waiting, watching, and he didn’t know what to say.
The pleasant face massage ceased. One of Pebble’s forelegs wrapped around his neck and Sumac suddenly found it quite difficult to breathe. A constant steady pressure was being applied, and it was clear that this was no hug. Pebble meant business.
“Don’t be a dummy… if I have to, I will carry you to this interview. Now come on.”
Something about Pebble’s monotone sounded ominous—threatening even. Sumac gulped and found his voice. “I need a little time to get everything together. Can I at least have that?”
Twilight Velvet looked at the clock and then back at Sumac. “You have ten minutes and that is all. There are still other interviews this day and Twilight wishes to be done by six o’clock. Do whatever must be done and be ready… she will come here, to you.”
“Okay,” Sumac squeaked as Pebble’s iron grip relaxed from around his neck.
“Oh, and Sumac…”
“Yes?”
“Good luck.” Twilight Velvet turned tail and walked out of the room, her hooves clicking upon the stone floor.
Doom. Utter and absolute doom. Sumac’s throat felt as parched as the Palomino Desert. His tongue felt like a dehydrated apricot. His back muscles spasmed in the most painful way. His butt was still numb, asleep, and his spine ached from sitting all day.
He almost burst into tears when he heard the door opening once more. He could feel the pressure behind his eyes, the hot sting of tears barely held in check. He heard the rustle of papers as his vision blurred and fuzzed over.
Ten minutes were gone far too soon. He wasn’t ready. He quailed in panic, letting out a shrill, wordless whimper as Twilight Sparkle entered the room. Behind Twilight, Trixie came in. He wanted to run to her, he wanted her to hold him, he wanted her to make things okay, he wanted her to sing to him the way she did when he was sad or feeling blue.
But she did not come to him—instead, she walked to the corner, her hooves dragging, and Trixie looked as scared as Sumac felt. He could see it in her eyes. For a moment, eyes locked, they stared at one another, and through his tear filled vision, he saw her, and there was a moment of perfect understanding of one another, an experience that ponies could go through their entire life without having.
“Hello Sumac… I hope you are prepared.” Twilight’s head tilted somewhat and she looked at Pebble. “Pebble, you are welcome to stay, but you must remain silent. Sumac is allowed to have two ponies here for emotional support. Under normal circumstances, it is a foal’s parents.”
“Please don’t go,” Sumac blurted out in a panicked bleat. He turned and looked at Pebble with pleading, tear filled eyes. “Don’t leave me.”
Reaching out a hoof, Pebble placed it over Sumac’s mouth, silencing him. She nodded, looking solemn and wise beyond her years. Her ears perked forwards, leaning over her eyes, and she held her hoof over Sumac’s mouth, applying a gentle pressure.
After a moment, she pulled her hoof away, lept down off of the table, and went over to where Trixie was standing. She sat down upon the floor, tried smoothing out her dress, and then looked up at Trixie, who didn’t look much better than Sumac. Pebble patted the floor beside her with her hoof, encouraging Trixie to sit down with her.
“You may begin,” Twilight Sparkle said in a calm voice as she stood near the table.
Begin? Sumac panicked. Where did he begin? He and Pebble hadn’t finished the verbal presentation yet. He felt his heart thudding in his barrel. He didn’t know where to begin. He didn’t know how to start. Where did he begin? How did he open? What was he supposed to do? He turned and looked at his pile of notes, his research, and his fatigued mind betrayed him.
He had no clue of what to do next. He turned and gave Twilight a blank stare.
He was failing. He was stumbling right out of the gate. He glanced at Trixie and Pebble. Pebble was sitting there, looking bored, she had the same sleepy looking disinterested expression as her mother. Trixie had tears rolling down her cheeks and Sumac could see dark stains on the floor in front of her. Seeing the dark spots was a mistake and he felt his barrel hitching. He was going to start bawling like a yearling at any moment now.
And then, much to his surprise, he heard Big Mac’s voice inside of his head, the deep, vibrating baritone almost startling him. A stallion looks after the mares in his life. All of them. He puts their needs ahead of his own. He keeps his word to them. He is patient, he is gentle, and he is kind. He does what needs to be done. Sumac gulped.
He does what needs to be done. Shuddering, Sumac pulled himself together. His head swiveled and he looked Twilight in the eye, his green eyes meeting her eyes of evening violet. Sumac coughed and licked his lips.
“Well, I, uh, I had this idea while I was doing some study about unicorn magic,” Sumac said in a scratchy voice. “It was just one of those ideas that pops into your head. It started off because of a couple of vegetables, actually.”
Sumac drew in a deep breath and found the courage to continue. “Looking at a pile of potatoes, it looks like plenty of food when you are feeding only a pony or two.” Sumac paused, blinked away his tears, and kept his eyes locked on Twilight, knowing that if he looked at Trixie, he would start crying. “But that pile of potatoes starts looking like less and less if you have more ponies to feed. Pretty soon, you reach a point where there are just not enough potatoes.”
Gesturing at his books, Sumac continued, “So I had this idea that wouldn’t go away and I started trying to see if there was any truth to it. I didn’t have access to the sorts of books that I have right now, but I did find a little supporting evidence in my studies. It wasn’t very much to go on though.”
Twilight Sparkle’s eyebrow raised.
“What if magic wasn’t infinite, but was instead a pile of potatoes to be shared among ponies?” Sumac asked in a somewhat squeaky voice. “There are lots of stories of really powerful unicorns, but they are all from a long time ago. Unicorns used to control the sun, but they lost that power and Princess Celestia had to take over. Over time, our numbers grew and grew… with safety and civilisation, we went from being a tribe of hundreds to a tribe of thousands, then tens of thousands, and now millions. Star Swirl began a census of every unicorn in Equestria, he walked the length and the breadth of the land, and tracked down every unicorn he could find. Almost all of them had exceptional magic. But Star Swirl himself started to notice the decline of unicorn magic when they lost the ability to control the sun.”
“Intriguing,” Twilight said as she remained focused on Sumac.
“Star Swirl lived for over a hundred years and in his own lifetime, he saw a population explosion of unicorns. With the long winter ended, with the tribes living and working together, with an abundance of food because of the earth ponies, there were suddenly a whole bunch of unicorns.” Sumac pointed to one of the hard bound tomes on the table.
“Equestria had significant magical might. We carved out an empire with the strength of our magic. We had all of these unicorns and all of their magic and none dared to oppose us.”
One of Twilight Sparkle’s ears twitched and her tail swished around her hind legs.
“If you look at the graphs that Pebble helped me create, you can see how the population of unicorns increased, but you can also see the number of ‘low magic’ unicorns increasing as well. Unicorns went from being quite magical and knowing a lot of spells to not having very much magic at all, and only knowing spells related to their cutie mark, for the most part. Now, there are exceptions, of course, there are still some very powerful unicorns, but they are rare now, uncommon, and there aren’t very many of them.”
Using his telekinesis, Sumac lifted up one of the graphs he and Pebble created and pointed to the two lines that formed a crude ‘X’ on the paper. “About five hundred years ago, when the unicorn population was in the hundreds of thousands of known unicorns, we can see the line that shows population growth meeting with the line that represents the overall decline in magic.”
Sumac set the graph down as Twilight Sparkle scowled in concentration. He lifted up a sheet of paper. On this graph, the two lines did not touch. One line ran along the top of the paper, the other line ran along the bottom.
“On this graph, we see when the unicorn population was estimated to be one million. Census records are less than perfect, there was a massive population boom at the time. Equestria’s cities were growing at a rate thought impossible. Hundreds of thousands of unicorns were interviewed for the census, and the vast majority of them are low magic. The high magic unicorns are few and far between.”
Much to Sumac’s shock, Twilight Sparkle pulled the paper out of his telekinetic grasp, held it up, and studied it. Her scowl intensified a great deal and wrinkles appeared upon her brow. He could hear a low grumble of concentration in her throat.
“A while later, the unicorn population was estimated to be over two million. About one and a half million unicorns were interviewed in the census. There were almost no high magic unicorns found.” Sumac cleared his throat, wished that he had a glass of water, and thought about what to say next.
Before Sumac could say anything, Twilight Sparkle had snatched up the rest of his research off of the table in her magic and was looking at it through narrowed, squinting eyes. Words failed him and he couldn’t think of anything to say. Twilight, a fast reader, was scanning his notes, flipping through his notebooks, and examining the graphs.
His stomach did flip flops and Sumac felt like throwing up. He knew that he had to keep going. He felt like burping, but he knew that was just a clever ruse by his stomach. If he did that, he’d be sick. He licked his lips, wishing once more for water, and he screwed his courage to its sticking place.
“The more unicorns that are born, the weaker magic will become for most of us. There is only so much magic to go around. Pebble and I were talking about this and she mentioned her father, Tarnished Teapot, who has specialised magic… there are other unicorns with specialised magic. Now that magic, a finite resource, is getting scarce, I think that we unicorns are trying to adapt and evolve, and I don’t have as much evidence to support this as I’d like, but I—”
“That’s enough, Sumac.”
Sumac blinked. “Huh?”
“Sumac, you do not need to continue. I am impressed. You have succeeded. You have found evidence of a potential crisis most dire. You have found something that should have been noticed already, but hasn’t been for whatever reason. Sumac, might I take all of these so that I might study them?”
“I passed? I’m in?” Sumac could hardly believe his ears.
“Yes.” Twilight nodded and looked Sumac in the eye. “With this… you could get into Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns… you could get into Crystal Empire Academy Prep School, Princess Cadance’s school for exceptional foals. Everypony is going to want you, Sumac.”
Sumac blinked, unsure of what to say, and his ears filled with the sound of sobbing. He turned, looked at Trixie, and could no longer contain his own emotions. The floodgates opened and a wracking sob escaped him. He ran to Trixie, throwing himself at her, flinging his forelegs around her neck, and he felt himself being crushed by her velvet embrace.
Twilight Sparkle looked over at the pair, then at Pebble, and then, unable to help herself, her eyes found their way back into the research notes of a foal who had made one of the most important magical discoveries of the modern age.
That... is a pretty horrendous hypothesis.
it make sense nothing infinite it scary thought but a very valid answer
Sumebble OTP, even if they are related. But since the relation is so far apart it don't matter which makes it ok, just like MarbleMac.
6832035
It also makes a disturbing amount of sense in context to the show.
Oh almighty kudzu, please answer the prayers of thee common folk and since this story will soon end from the hints that are being left, please write another story with many chapter dedicated to the pony that is Sumac. Amenhallelujahpeanutbutter.
ib4 somepony suggests Eugenics.
The more unicorns you kill on a war, stronger they get.
Hrm... so when does the culling begin?
Larry Niven - The Magic Goes Away
You've written the unicorn equivalent of an energy crisis... Clever bastard! Very well done.
Could mana be used up like the "Warlock's Wheel", or for MTG players the Nevinyrral disk?
6832170 It's like the Law of Inverse Ninjitsu, only unicorns!
Obviously, they need to find a way to make more magic!
So... if there's only one unicorn left. ... Are they a god? Or does each unicorn possess a certain thaumatic and biological limit to how much magic they can personally draw on/contain, and it simply isn't being met anymore?
Where is magic generated from that only a few million unicorns could be spending all of it? If that's the case it surely can't be a universal constant, but rather coming from the planet or something on the planet itself.
inb4 martialartsactionmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/The-One.jpg
6832695
The Weed explains some of that.
6832702
Damnit Kudz! You ARE trying to sell me Weed, and it IS because I'm black!
No fighting the stereotype... looks like I'm going to have to go fawn over this sun-themed character.
Sol Dea-Imperatrix Vult.
6832488
Well, here on Earth when we started running out of terrestrial energy sources we started looking at ways to better harness the power of the Sun.
Quick! Put Celestia in a giant hamster wheel
6832729
That is arguable the silliest sort of solar power I've ever heard of. And I've heard - or read - a lot of them. The "let's burn a 80 km wide track across the equator of mars with a glorified giant magnifying lens to release CO2 to make an atmosphere" may still be my favorite, but the mental image of Celestia in a hamster wheel will be cherished.
Well i was half right Unicorns are getting weaker.
6832748 Is it really that much sillier than the project to put Superman in one?
terrariaonline.com/attachments/shitjustgotreal-jpg.5874/
6832695
Maybe it is a universal constant, but more like... the amount of land that exists. There is only so much land and there can be no more, and the more people the less likely each person is to own a large amount of it. It's a constant so much as there is a pool of magic everyone draws from that is about the same size no matter how many people are drawing from it.
For me, it's an interesting way to explain the whole "things were greater than they are now in the past" idea that lots and lots of fantasy has, even if it's not an idea I actually like.
Interesting, and it makes sense. I also like how you put out that Unicorns are actually adapting by specializing in their magic. It makes sense, if there's limited resources, then each will specialize in an attempt to maximize the bit that they do have. Like getting furniture from Ikea.
I'm kinda proud to say that with the clues the author gave us, I kinda guessed what the hypothesis would be.
It still is very interesting. Will there be magic restriction for the population ? Or will they go the way of magic generator technology ?
It kind of makes me worried just how many thousands of calories of fudge they just ate.
Initial guess about what the problem Sumac has identified is: a thousand plus years of intertribe mingling is doing something to the power of unicorn magic. I'm not sure I'd buy reducing without some good evidence since we still have ponies like Twilight and her brother around, but they could be relatively pureblooded exceptions to the general societal trend.
Huh, looks like this ship might be sailing after all. Good luck, Sumac, you're going to need it.
Oooo, interview time finally, too.
Okay, so it's not an interbreeding problem, it's a population size problem? Hmn. It does seem a little unlikely (maybe very unlikely) that nobody would have noticed this thousand year trend before now. Do they have nobody who studies population statistics and trends?
So, this comment will not be supported by facts or quotes or particulars
this is just how I felt about the story while I read it.
Sumac, as an impression of a child, is kind of off. You did a really good job capitalizing on the adorable bits, but it just feels like some sort of childishness-"uncanny valley". Like he doesn't really think like a child, even when being childish.
Also, during his presentation, he sounded almost exactly like what you would expect a formal presentation to sound like. The potato thing at the beginning was fairly good and rather silly, but he becomes really formal and coherent after that. Like, way to coherent for a colt that hasn't slept in 36 hours, or whatever (point is, he was supposed to be dead on his hooves).
It's probably to late, but I just have this idea in my head of twilight failing to take him seriously before slowly decoding a young colt's metaphors and explanations and figuring out what he is telling her.
Dammit. Hay fever.
Off course the one ship that set sail was a transport vessel, no containing that anymore.
And that is a good point, nothing is infinite (excluding space) and somewhere there is a limit. The more that have to share that limit, the less goes around. Applying this to magic as well is a horrendous thing.
factor not considered: That as agriculture and civilization progressed, more low-power unicorns lived to childbearing age. You would need to see what the average number of high-power unicorns in each generation were, the ratio of high to low power unicorns, and most importantly the OVERALL production of magic by the unicorn population. Are they producing the same amount of magic in kilowatts, so to speak, as a smaller population?
6843216 Kill off all the retarded unicorns. *puts Snails in the gas chamber*
But seriously, this story waited until practically the end to throw a really weak hypothesis out based entirely on a history made up for the story... and nothing else.
This would be like Lord of the Rings waiting until halfway through the 3rd volume before actually getting around the informing the readers what the One Ring actually is.
The overwhelming majority of this story has nothing to do with the hypothesis at all.
I think my issue with this story, while still well written, this does come out of nowhere. Ignoring that for a moment, suddenly our main character is talking like he's in college and not stumbling over any words what so ever. Another issue was the lack of overall conflict until basically now. Granted, it's a neat idea for their universe, but introducing it and then not addressing it within the time frame of what's left in this story is a bit of a flaw there.
7059077
So like with most real science the results are: A coralation exists but more research is needed to verify that there is causation.
7059077 It's not JUST about the Low Producing Unicorns. It's also back the LACK of HIgh Producing Unicorns. There's more and more Low Power, with fewer and fewer High Power Unicorns.
I mean obviously there should be more research, but the serious correlation alone bears significant weight for study. I mean just the fact that this is a SERIOUS POTENTIAL problem that NOBODY, not even Twilight Sparkle knew about says a lot.
7059077
That wasn't the point of what Sumac was saying. He's not talking about "Low Magic Unicorns" vs. "High Magic Unicorns", he's saying that there is only a certain amount of magic in the world, and with the booming population of unicorns, the amount of magic that they can cast is becoming less and less. Like his potato analogy- a pile may seem like a meal to a few people, but the more and more people there are, the less there seems to be. Eventually, there isn't going to be enough magic for unicorns to use, and they'll just be ponies with horns.
Edit: Yes, I am aware that this comment was posted over a year ago, I simply wanted to point this out.
8283517 And RealityCheck was pointing out that there might be other explanations. It's the old 'correlation implies causation' fallacy. The hypothesis might well be correct, but it needs much deeper and more thorough study than a single colt, no matter how gifted, doing a single project can provide.
Which doesn't detract one bit from the value of what Sumac did. Discovering a potential problem of this magnitude and bringing it to light, whether or not it turns out to be genuine is a stunning feat.
[reads hypothesis]
[looks at G5 movie synopsis]
O_O
This is a really interesting hypothesis though and in hindsight, it may have been a potential issue that was rather obvious. Yet, sometimes you just need someone to have that random thought and eventually bring it to light. I could see a potential danger, though, in how ponies react to this hypothesis, particularly if it ends up being proven to be valid. It would not surprise me if a crazed pony/villain heard this and decided to turn to genocide as a solution. Or maybe simply some sort of transformation spell from unicorns to another of the pony races.