The Ties that Bind

by the7Saviors

A Quick Lesson

Twilight sat a respectable distance away from the open fireplace as she read through the last few pages of her book on the dangers of Dark Magic and how to avoid them.

Once she and Sunset had come back from their walk, they had taken Trixie's example and returned to their studies. Both of them felt they could finally focus on their tasks now that they had dealt with their worries - at least for the time being.

With all the drama that had occurred in the last few days, Twilight had decided to start her studies from scratch. She spent the rest of that day and half of the next day re-reading through her book on the dangers of Dark Magic. She was sitting in front of the fireplace late in the afternoon doing just that when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

She looked up to find Trixie standing over her with one of her own books on Mind Magic in her pinkish aura. Twilight eyed the book for a second before addressing the blue filly.

"Did you need some help with something, Trixie?" she asked with a slight tilt of her head.

Trixie didn't say anything for a moment as she scanned the book being held in her magic. Twilight furrowed her brow and tapped her hoof impatiently as she waited for Trixie to respond.

"Trixie-"

"Trixie has gotten better with some of the larger words and their meanings," Trixie said suddenly, not taking her eyes away from her book, "but she still struggles with some of these concepts," she finally looked at the lavender filly as she spoke, "can you provide some ases... asi... assistance?"

"Sure thing, Trixie," Twilight said, rising to her hooves and trotting next to Trixie, "what did you need?"

Trixie floated the book in front of Twilight and pointed a hoof to the passage in question.

"Here," she explained, "Trixie is trying to understand the process of converting memories to mana when giving or taking them from other ponies."

Twilight read through the passage and nodded with a frown.

"Yeah, this is a bit of a tricky concept," Twilight agreed. She turned to Trixie with an impressed raise of her brow, "still, I'm glad to see you were able to make it to this point on your own, Trixie."

"Well of course," Trixie replied, looking somewhat offended, "Trixie may not be as smart as you or Sunset, and she might have trouble with bigger words, but she's not an idiot."

"You're right, Trixie," Twilight said nodding with an apologetic smile, "I didn't mean to imply that you were. I'm just happy that you're getting used to studying."

"Well," Trixie sniffed and gave a self-satisfactory smile, "Trixie may not look it, but she has a good memory."

"That's good for this kind of thing," Twilight said with a knowing nod, "it helps when you need to put something into practice."

"Yes, yes, Trixie is amazing," Trixie pointed to the passage impatiently, "now you were saying?"

Twilight blinked and looked back at the book.

"Oh, right... sorry," she said with a sheepish chuckle. She cleared her throat and straightened up, "well, Trixie, what you need to understand is that memories are very complex things that take just about every part of your brain to piece together. Even then, memories are unreliable most of the time," she paused and glanced at the blue filly, "are you with me so far?"

"Trixie is listening," the blue filly said, gesturing for Twilight to continue as she absently marked points down on a piece of parchment Twilight could've sworn wasn't there a second ago.

"Right... as I was saying," Twilight eyed the floating parchment curiously before continuing, "memories are unreliable most of the time, so to counteract this, unicorns in the past have come up with a way to perfectly preserve a memory using Mind Magic - the Memory Transfer spell.

"This spell is extremely invasive and, like many Mind Magic spells, can permanently damage yours or another pony's brain if not done correctly. If done correctly however, the result is the acquisition of a memory that can be recalled flawlessly at anytime for as long as that pony's brain functions."

Trixie nodded silently as she continued to write.

"This is where things get a little harder to explain," Twilight explained as she paced back and forth in front of the fireplace, "you see, when the spell is cast, both ponies need to have their minds completely open to each other."

"And if you simply try to just take a memory?" Trixie asked curiously.

"That's not how the spell works. If one pony tries to forcefully take or give an actual memory from another pony who wasn't prepared for it, well..." Twilight grimaced in disgust, "they would fail and the results would more likely than not be akin to a botched lobotomy."

Trixie winced and Twilight nodded before she resumed her pacing.

"Anyway, once both ponies have opened their minds to each other - which I might add is important for a lot of Mind Magic spells - the pony who's giving the memory needs to think of that memory. Once that's done, then you cast the Memory Transfer spell.

"Once the spell is cast, one of two things will happen depending on who's giving and who's receiving the memory. If the caster is receiving the memory, their mana is directly projected into the mind of the pony giving the memory.

"If the caster is giving the memory to somepony else, the same thing happens but the entire process is done within the caster's mind and the end result is transferred from the caster to the receiver. As I said, this is a very invasive process and can have potentially fatal repercussions for the unprepared.

"Once inserted, the mana kind of..." Twilight struggled to find an explanation Trixie would understand, "kind of... scans the memory within the brain and that's where the memory-to-mana conversion process comes in.

"After the scan is complete, the mana within the brain creates a sort of 'magic copy' of the memory in question. That 'copy' is then transferred from the giver to the receiver and is stored as pure mana rather than an actual memory in the brain."

Trixie finished her notes and gave an intrigued nod.

"This is actually more interesting than Trixie thought," she mused, "Trixie can think of a number of times where this spell would've been useful..."

"Well..." Twilight began hesitantly, "the spell itself isn't exactly perfect - far from it actually."

"What do you mean?" Trixie asked with a raise of her brow.

"I'm not one hundred percent certain on how it works, but when the spell creates a magic copy, it automatically tries to fill in any gaps in the memory with the likeliest scenario. The more a pony remembers about an event, the more accurate the magic copy."

"Not only that," Sunset suddenly interjected from where she was studying at the table, "but if you were adept enough with Mind Magic, you could create a copy of a false memory and place it over the real memory."

She glared at the textbook in front of her, "this is one of the reasons why the Memory Transfer spell is banned from use unless given explicit permission by Princess Celestia," she gave a derisive snort, "must be nice to be the one making all the rules."

"Right... well," Twilight turned her concerned gaze from Sunset to Trixie, "I hope the explanation helped, Trixie."

Trixie gave Sunset a worried glance of her own before looking back to Twilight.

"Yes, Trixie thinks she can handle the rest from here," she replied with a nod and a grateful smile, "thank you, Twilight Sparkle."

"Anytime, Trixie," Twilight responded, returning Trixie's smile, "let me know if you need anymore help."

Trixie nodded and took the book and her notes with her back to the table where Sunset was sitting.

Twilight gave her one last smile before laying back down by the fireplace and returning to her own studies.

Author's Note:

That's right, I turned an entire chapter into a Twilight lecture, wanna fight about it?

But in all seriousness this was surprisingly fun to write. I can only hope it'll be as interesting to read.

Comments

[tkepner]

You mentioned RD in a previous chapter about to do her famous Rainboom. According to canon it was visible all over Equestria, all the way to Manehattan at the extreme north east. Shouldn't Twilight and the others have seen it?

[the7Saviors]

8791549
It hasn't happened yet. Originally it was supposed to happen during their (Twilight and Sunset's) exam, but I've since revised the story and everything in the transitional chapter is being fleshed out, so the exam probably won't happen for a few chapters.

[tkepner]

8789785
As Ma Zadong said, there are a number of ways to make that sort of chapter into something more engaging.

[the7Saviors]

8791579
Right, and this time around I decided to do that by ripping out the transitional chapter and tackling each event one at a time. I'll worry about how to do the next timeskip/transitional chapter when I come to it. For now I'm going to just focus on the chapter at hand like I always do.

[tkepner]

8791593
Always keep your mind open to justified criticism! And don't worry about confusing the readers with rewrites. You've got about 550+ reads so far, rewriting a chapter into something better is for the reaming 5,000+ who will read that chapter in the future!

[the7Saviors]

8791610
I do keep my mind open to criticism, it was one particular piece of criticism that convinced me to do the rewrite in the first place. I'm not saying the criticism isn't justified or is unwanted - by all means, if you have issues or suggestions I'll be happy to hear them - I just may not always agree with what is said.

I'm taking your suggestions into account, and I'll try to find a better way to write those kinds of chapters - just not right at this moment.

I do try to keep readers updated on major changes via my blog. I know full well that not everyone's going to read them but the heads up is there. If the people that don't read the blog ask, I'll be happy to clarify.

[Venerable Ro]

The writer of this textbook appears to be working from flawed information, or is dispensing flawed information. Celestia's confrontation with sunset seems to directly contradict this book's assertions.

"That's not how the spell works. If one pony tries to forcefully take or give an actual memory from another pony who wasn't prepared for it, well..." ... "they would fail and the results would more likely than not be akin to a botched lobotomy.".

While sunset is certainly traumatized, she is not brain-dead. I suspect edited textbooks.

On an unrelated note, is there a limit to this memory spell? Otherwise Trixie can read a book, cast the spell, and repeat. she'd be a walking archive!

[the7Saviors]

8890598
The main reason a Memory Swap spell would be fatal for the unprepared is because the mind would resist during the process and the resulting struggle would wreak havoc on the brain.

The first spell Celestia used was an extremely advanced Illusion spell and she tried to overwrite Sunset's memory of it with the Memory Swap spell.

The only reason the spell worked on Sunset was because she was already trying to rid herself of the memory and couldn't. When Celestia came along with her Memory Swap spell and began replacing the memory, her mind almost instinctively accepted it as the only way out of the loop.

In regards to your question, Trixie couldn't cast the spell on herself. She'd have to find a pony willing and able to read the books and transfer the knowledge to her directly. Ancient Scroll certainly wouldn't do that and I'd imagine Sunset and Twilight wouldn't either if they could. Also casting the Memory Swap spell too many times would cause the brain of both parties involved to deteriorate gradually.

[The Cynical One]

While I will fight you over cereal... I am a Twilight fanboy through and through and loved this chapter. You write a good Twilight and make a damn good lecture. Will this be on the final exam?

[midnight arrow]

it was fun to read

[the7Saviors]

10394599
Glad you're enjoying it so far.