Twilight’s Short and Incomplete Guide to Equestrian Magical Theory

by ReaderReads

Chapter 2: Magic Proper

Magic proper is what many magical theorists call any theory about magic itself. For example, if you were to say that you think magic came from aliens that gifted it to us, then regardless of how absolutely ridiculous and unlikely that theory was then it would be a theory about magic proper.

In this chapter, I'll go into a bit of detail about just what magic it is- or, at the very least, what we currently know about it, what we don't, the theories for what we don't, and the theories that cut out what we think we already know. For example, many of you have heard of the Theory of Magical Limitation, which is a paper written by Joseph Hooves (the most famous earth pony scientist) on the world having a limited amount of magic, and with each raising of the sun/moon or any other minor, major, or ambient magic it is slowly being used up. It isn't widely accepted in the magical science community, but it is the most popular outside of it mostly due to the dramatisation of it in multiple novels and, now, films.

First of all, what most of us magical scientists think is definitively proven to be a fact about magic. We know, absolutely, that magic is not a kind of matter as everything else- it doesn't take the form of anything along the lines of an atom or quark. Instead, magic is a type of protonormal matter- the only of its kind. For anyone who doesn't know, a protonormal thing is something that we know nothing about and was supposedly around before anything considered 'normal', from gravity to the weak force to the strong force to, well, the universe. An ever-encompassing infinite wave, or particle, etcetera. This is the main reason the Theory of Magical Limitation isn't accepted- it presents magic as something that can run out, and we're all- to put it lightly- pretty sure that it won't.

Apart from that and that everything on this planet can interact with magic, ponies still just aren't sure about magic. However, there are a whole lot of theories that discuss it, and I'm going to shorten a few down to fit them in this chapter- I want you to be able to comfortably read one at a time, after all- though I can't tell you about them all since there are so very many. Because of this, we'll be going over the most popular and widely-accepted first and foremost.

To begin, there is the Theory of Portal-Based Magical Leak which presents magic as something that has leaked into our universe from the void. The void is a legend that has been around for tens of thousands of years, telling of a place beyond our sight that extends forever while being completely and utterly empty, ruled by a single cold yet wrathful being. However, most ponies actually still believe in this and there is ground for a belief in the void. Multiple attempts at artificial magical teleportation has resulted in everything going through it appearing at the end node with strange, unidentified, black wisps hovering around them and then fading. Ponies report magic being stronger around these areas, specifically by around 1 meigtrel, a unit of measurement for the strength of magic- the typical average around the world being 1000, occasionally stronger around artefacts or certain plants and creatures that have adapted to manipulate magic in some way, usually drawing it closer and extending their lives- more on this in a later chapter.

Otherwise, ponies that have tested this have disappeared for a length of time instead of instantly appearing in the next spot- an entire second goes by, and when they reappear they are found dying for no apparent reason, unable to talk with the same wisps of black fading away. The Theory of Portal-Based Magical Leak uses a lot of proof for the existence of the void and then goes on to explain that magic entered into this world through a portal opened by early ponies momentarily by accident tens of thousands of years ago that supposedly caused the mass extinction event colloquially known as 'The Falling' simply because we don't know what killed most things.

Theoretically, without having evolved to handle the presence of magic and interact with it, organic creatures died off, with only a few being forcibly evolved by the magic itself. How this happened is unknown, and is really the only thing that doesn't make this definitive- magic doing something without being used is unheard of, and otherwise a thousand years ago the mad scientist 'Sociopath' did multiple experiments on removing magical organs from creatures and finding that they died rather violently. As well as this, magic moves at speeds that couldn't possibly ever be measured while in a raw form, and it's very possible that a momentary hole between the void and our universe could've caused this.

Another theory, Coltlington's Teoria della Simulazione, or Theory of Simulation, presents us with a rather simple thesis. He states in his paper that, absolutely and positively, the world we live in does not exist. That magic is unknown because we're not meant to know about it and so will never learn anything about magic because the simulation we live in forbids it. A rather popular theory, it can't exactly be disproved, which leads to this disappointingly being a theory that could be true.

Finally, and arguably most importantly, is the Onsigbare Filosofie van Interaksie, or Invisible Theory of Interaction. This theory is still influential today while being passed down by spoken word one-thousand years ago by a supposedly mad family wondering the Sahayra Desert of early Zebrica. It forms a solid theory that magic is actually not something that exists- though not in the same way the Teoria della Simulazione says. In fact, it says that creatures throughout our planet actually manipulate with the fundamental forces of reality- gravity, the weak force, the strong force, the speed of light, and others. It doesn't explain how, but in reality it doesn't have to. Since magic is completely unknown and we supposedly 'interact' with it while not being able to explain what it is or even, after this, being completely sure it exists, why do we say it exists? Surely it's possible that instead of interacting with what is basically a mythical thing, we interact with something that we can actually say exists.

Well, those are the three most influential theories in the scientific community to this day. If you want to know which one I believe in most, it would be the Onsigbare Filosofie van Interaksie- the zebras really do know both science and magical science, and have long before us ponies, though arguably we advance faster today. Please, if this inspires you to investigate magic further, then there are multiple books referenced at the end- go ahead and check them out at a library or book store.

Author's Note:

Not sure about this one. Definitely need an editor or something, please say if you would like to help with this. Especially in science stuff, I'm horrible at that. Please do share it if you feel like you enjoy this, otherwise criticism is always good. So are funny comments and angry/troll comments. Next chapter will be either a more in-depth look into what judges how much magic every pony can use and how certain materials interact with magic, or more theories. Still not sure if this is a good idea, but I'm enjoying it, and I think you guys are as well.