Testing on live animals, entry #1
According to the books, of all the things that bugged me about runes, the fact that you weren’t supposed to inscribe on living beings was always curious to me. Of course, Brown Diamond’s experiment failed spectacularly and served as an excellent example as to exactly why that rule was established. Yet, we lost almost a whole bookshelf of tomes detailing the art of runes. The chances of there being an entire book or two dedicated to putting runes on living beings being destroyed was pretty high in my opinion.
Now that we have the new cave addition for large scale experiments, I feel like it is finally time to tackle this particular subject once again, in a controlled and secure environment, of course.
Starting today, I will dedicate all my time towards the research of this topic, and keep writing down my findings in this journal. Maybe there are some hints hidden within that research I stole from the Crystal Empire? After all, a lot of their spells involved enhancing a ponies abilities…
Testing on live animals entry #2
I have finally managed to actually read the stolen research without feeling… too guilty. The unicorns of the Empire have created some amazing spells and I’ve hungrily absorbed their teachings once I got past the first hurdle of actually starting. I do believe that some of their basic principles could be incorporated into the practice of applying runes to living tissue. Of course, this will require extensive research, as well as maybe the creation of two or three more runes.
I will ask Starswirl for help on the matter as always.
Testing on live animals, entry #3
Starswirl was not happy with my proposition. He chewed me out for almost half of the day after I told him of my plans. Discord, of course, caught wind of it because of Starswirl’s shouting. Considering Discord’s origins, he wasn’t too sure of my idea, though, he said he trusts me to not repeat the incident. It took some convincing, but I got Starswirl on board as well.
For now, we decided to study up on anything regarding the mana pathways and mana manipulation within the body before trying to apply it to the study of runes. Apparently, Starswirl was already doing that for a personal project of his, which he refused to tell me about until he was absolutely sure of his theory.
Testing on live animals, entry #14
We finally managed to perfect our first mana manipulation rune. By applying everything we learned over the past few months and learning from our countless failures, it is finally complete. I decided to call it Mahnwa. By adding additional, pre-existing runes, the flow of nearby mana can be programmed to flow in certain directions, or even in simple patterns.
To make actual tests on anything living thing feasible, we estimate that we need at least two more runes to support the Mahnwa rune. In order to not… overload the organism, the mana will have to be manipulated with extreme precision, and currently that’s just not possible.
Recently, Discord has been trying to help out as well. He still doesn’t really care about runes in general, considering the nature of his magic, yet I think he understands the scope of what we’re attempting here. It’s also possible that he just wants to make sure we don’t recreate a certain accident by keeping an eye on us. It’s actually kind of cute and heartwarming.
Testing on live animals, entry #22
Not really related, but Starswirl managed to royally fuck up one of the experimental arrays. Today I learned: Ponies without fur look hilarious.
Testing on live animals, entry #42
We’ve just completed the fourth rune, Flaguz. This presents us with yet another milestone towards achieving our goal. After the success in manipulating the flow of mana with pinpoint accuracy after creating the third new rune, Kurwah, excessive testing revealed the need for a fourth rune that acted as a stabiliser.
Flaguz has been thoroughly tested and proves to be stable, interacting with the runic arrays without issue. Now that we finally have the necessary framework figured out, we can finally move on to the REALLY interesting part.
Actually creating an array that will be applicable to a living, breathing being. Of course we’ll have to thoroughly test anything we create, even before attempting to actually perform a live test. Wouldn’t want to kill a poor chicken or something similar just because we didn’t make sure what we created would work one-hundred percent.
Oddly enough, the way we program the runes to manipulate the flow of mana reminds me of that card game I made back at the academy. I might have to make a new and improved deck in my freetime soon. I’m sure Starswirl and Discord would love to play every now and then.
It took us almost two years to get to this point, let’s just hope it wasn’t all for nothing…
Testing on live animals, entry #56
The chicken… it just… imploded…
Back to the drawing board…
Testing on live animals, entry #65
We figured out what we did wrong the first time, and it only took another five months and yet another new rune to fix it. We were so concerned with creating a stable flow of mana that we completely forgot that all that extra mana would need an outlet. The new rune, Drayn, was created to do just that. When added to the rune, it functions as a sort of “reload” mechanic by cycling the mana that is used for the array. By constantly expelling and drawing in new mana, an overload should be circumvented.
The otherwise occurring mess as well, of course.
Testing on live animals, entry #68
THE ARRAY WORKED!
For the first time ever, a runic array was successfully applied to a living being! There is still one last kink that surfaced upon our success, though. As it is currently, there is no way to actually turn off the array, since it’s constantly resupplying itself with new mana. This problem should be easily circumvented by writing some more, already existing runes into the array, thus eliminating the need to create yet another new rune.
Thank god.
While we are getting the hang of creating new runes to fulfill specific purposes, they still take us months and a lot of singed fur to make.
Testing on live animals, entry #74
It is finally time to test the theory on an actual pony. After three years of hard work, we are finally entering the final stages of this project.
Seeing as I was the one who proposed this research, I obviously volunteered myself as the guinea pig. I have confidence that we’ll get it to work, but seeing as we were confident with our first chicken experiment as well… You get the point. Even if something should go wrong, I’ve got a pretty good insurance, which neither Starswirl or Discord have, so I technically never really had a choice either way…
Testing on live animals, entry #75
Explosive disarticulation hurts.
Testing on live animals, entry #80
After the horrifying experience last month, we’ve slowly approached an array that worked for ponies, or, at the very least, myself. I can also very much confirm that losing a limb hurts a lot more than exploding… twice. At least not completely combusting was a sign of progress. (I never thought I’d ever say that.)
By now, we’ve agreed that we’ll probably never apply an actual array on anyone else than myself, since the risk is just too great. Oh well, I might get to make some cool permanent enhancements to myself in the future, so, worth it? I guess?
Anyways, we’re just about to start our, hopefully, final test.
Testing on live animals, entry #81
Great news everypony! The array worked perfectly, and I can now jump ten feet into the air effortlessly. More than three years of research and pain, finally bore fruit. The actual enhancement might seem insignificant, but for us, the success of the project is the greatest reward we could get.
This is just one more step towards mastering the runes left behind for me by Hades(who I didn’t even get to meet after the failures). I’m sure Brown Diamond would’ve loved to see us succeed. Well, in a way, he did, I guess.
As such: I declare this experiment a full-blown success!
I just picture him exploding and starswirl just saying "well fuck"
I keep thinking hes going to pull a doc brown and create celestia and luna on accident or on purpose by experimenting with ponies.
Maybe I guessed the future?
8390014
Re-read the prologue.
8390020
It just says that atlas is their father. Not how they became his daughters or how they came to be.
Thanks for the update!!
Yes, exploding does hurt Atlas. . . . dumbass.
8389987
Nah. it’s probably more like this.
Atlas: “It’s working! It’s actually worki-” encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTsBxktN24ldd68oTzl-5G8o4rY52qM4OTGOh4rmMYG2imdKKonqob3_TM
Starswirl: “Welp, back to the drawing board. Hope he doesn’t mind if i help myself to his treasure collecti-”
Atlas: Hey guys, I’m back; And Starswirl? Stay away from my stuff.
8390028
Since Celestia and Luna aren't exactly mutant abominations like Discord, I'd venture that he finds a mare and ploughs her the old fashioned way
And we are officially in Professor Farnsworth territory.
Everyone slowly back away while humming Ave Maria, it might calm him down.
8390043
Maybe... Just maybe. Or are they really just aliens from the forth dimension bent on taking over all the minds of everything in the world and just magically popped in the 'prison' that Atlas is being held in.
I mistook that for manhwa: It is the general Korean term for comics and print cartoons (common usage also includes animated cartoons). Outside of Korea, the term usually refers to South Korean comics, although the comics industry is emerging in North Korea as well. It
8390074
( I know)
(that's very much a reference)
(Don't tell anyone tho)
PFFFFFF HAAAHAHAHAHAHA
Well no shit.
Now I'm wondering just what kind of runes were were placed on Pinkie Pie...
8390148
One Rune of Bottomless Stomach
One Rune of Don't Question It
One Rune of Cartoonier Physics
One Rune of Etcetera
That poor chicken.
Soo, this here is putting us three years forward, huh? Even short chapters are worth to read ASAP when they show their heads. But I can't wait to see chapter where the time will move to, so to say, future, and we'll get the reason why he decided to visit them in Canterlot castle.
Mahnwa.... you wouldn't happen to be Korean by chance?
8390892
Not really, but I do like reading them ^^
8391273
I see all the comments anyway, I just don't respond to all of them ;D Yes, I'm well accustomed to the curse that is TvTropes... you can never leave...
By now the best bet to communicate with me is sending a message or joining the discord btw
So, Starswirl gets a runic array that gives him a beard, yes? Or is something going to happen that gives him his aging abilities back? (Methinks discord does it...)
So is there any pattern behind the rune names or do they just sound cool?
8391716
they're just derived from words that describe what the runes are supposed to do, and changed to sound more rune-like.
i.pinimg.com/736x/08/32/c6/0832c631801ae2bf422d8b19e6c6fda4--norse-runes-tarot-runes.jpg
Ah, the good old Kurwa rune. An old friend of the Polish ones
omg i caught up i think im going to cry
8411914
don't feel sad, I update somewhat regularly :3
Also, thanks a lot for that comment on the last chapter of DE, I feel like I don't deserve such high praise, since I basically bullshitted through 90% of the story(still do). But if you really liked it that much, then I guess I did some things right :D
Enhanced leg strength or decreased weight?
Atlas should have kept exploding for a few decades. He deserves it for what he did to that poor chicken.
I want him hurt after this chapter. Make him suffer until he forgets his own name (again).
8425018
I'd guess leg strength cuz these are enhancements.
Chunsch du eigentlech us de Schwiiz, oder kännsch du dech äfech zuefälliger Wiis echli us?
Are you actually from Switzerland, or do you just know your stuff?
9282974
I nähm gärn option 1. wachächtä eidgenosse.
Ha Ha chicken go boof
10432147
;]
10742909
"Enterprise" reference?