Just catching up on this story now, but I did have a question... What would happen if somepony other than Twilight drank the vial? Would Twilight's conciousness sort of merge with theirs, or only her memories? Or nothing at all, with the liquid just being absorbed? Or potentially, would it be magically resilient enough to resist that, and Rainbow would have to restore Twilight via watersports?
9659300 It likely won't ever be explored in anything canon to this, so I may as well answer it here. But first, a bit of clarification.
Twilight Sparkle's Rune of Alteration allows her to cast a charm of Mental Alteration and Manipulation, specifically as it refers to intelligence. Her Intelligence Spell does not change her memories or her knowledge, strictly speaking. Just her intellect, which is a very intentionally vague and abstract concept in the way that I'm electing to use it for this story. For all intents and purposes, Twily knows everything that Twilight does, or at least she did. The spell doesn't take out her memories so much as it just reduces the speed, intricacy, and complexity of her thoughts. She's not dumber because she knows less things (although Twily, being so willingly stupid, has chosen not to know important things like how to read). She's dumber because she's... Well. Dumber. I'm treating intelligence like an RPG stat. As it goes down, the character is just dumber. Sorry if that's not a super scientific or logical answer, but that's how I imagine the magic works.
Now, to answer your original question. If someine, say Rainbow, decided to drink Twilight's intelligence, they would become as smart as Twilight was, plus their own natural intelligence. If Twi has an INT stat of 10, and Dash has 5, drinking the vial will give Dash an INT of 15. This won't give her new knowledge or anything, like she won't suddenly become a brilliant mathematician. She just would have a greatly expanded capacity for learning and understanding. She'd be able to master calculus in like two hours, but she'd still have to study it. She would also be smart enough to realize how bad of an idea it was to drink Twilight's intellect in the first place, and likely go mad with grief and guilt as she tried to find a way to fix the woman she loves.
Suffice to say, I don't plan on going down that route. Creative thinking on the watersports thing. People have asked about Dash drinking the vial befire, but you're the first to suggest she give it back with a golden shower. Not a bad idea, for what it's worth.
I was about to throw down, before reading it was grape juice. I seriously HOPE she won't go that far.
9618514
It probably doesn't matter, but if you could spoiler tag that, that'd be great
9640109
See, what you have to understand about me as a writer is that I'm fucking illiterate.
Thanks for catching that
Just catching up on this story now, but I did have a question... What would happen if somepony other than Twilight drank the vial? Would Twilight's conciousness sort of merge with theirs, or only her memories? Or nothing at all, with the liquid just being absorbed? Or potentially, would it be magically resilient enough to resist that, and Rainbow would have to restore Twilight via watersports?
9659300
It likely won't ever be explored in anything canon to this, so I may as well answer it here. But first, a bit of clarification.
Twilight Sparkle's Rune of Alteration allows her to cast a charm of Mental Alteration and Manipulation, specifically as it refers to intelligence. Her Intelligence Spell does not change her memories or her knowledge, strictly speaking. Just her intellect, which is a very intentionally vague and abstract concept in the way that I'm electing to use it for this story. For all intents and purposes, Twily knows everything that Twilight does, or at least she did. The spell doesn't take out her memories so much as it just reduces the speed, intricacy, and complexity of her thoughts. She's not dumber because she knows less things (although Twily, being so willingly stupid, has chosen not to know important things like how to read). She's dumber because she's... Well. Dumber. I'm treating intelligence like an RPG stat. As it goes down, the character is just dumber. Sorry if that's not a super scientific or logical answer, but that's how I imagine the magic works.
Now, to answer your original question. If someine, say Rainbow, decided to drink Twilight's intelligence, they would become as smart as Twilight was, plus their own natural intelligence. If Twi has an INT stat of 10, and Dash has 5, drinking the vial will give Dash an INT of 15. This won't give her new knowledge or anything, like she won't suddenly become a brilliant mathematician. She just would have a greatly expanded capacity for learning and understanding. She'd be able to master calculus in like two hours, but she'd still have to study it. She would also be smart enough to realize how bad of an idea it was to drink Twilight's intellect in the first place, and likely go mad with grief and guilt as she tried to find a way to fix the woman she loves.
Suffice to say, I don't plan on going down that route. Creative thinking on the watersports thing. People have asked about Dash drinking the vial befire, but you're the first to suggest she give it back with a golden shower. Not a bad idea, for what it's worth.
9659404
I would fukin guzzle that intelligence juice.