Fault Beyond Reason

by PettyPonyDearest

Beginning of the End

Magical Study Lecture; Advanced A History of Equestrian Cognitive Release

Higher education in the sciences of magic has been prominent for centuries. The growth of the mind is just as important as the growth of the body, and arguably even more important because you can never unlock your full physical potential, while your magical potential has limits. This lecture will be an overview of the history of the royal line's ability to use the cognitive release as well as the basic theories surrounding the performing of such rituals.

Now when I say the royal line, I'm not just referring to the current royal family line of princesses rising from Celestia and Luna, but rising all the way back to Ancient Solus, who scholars believe was the first alicorn in our history to possess this ability.

A common misconception is that every single alicorn was able to use this ability. While it is true that most immortals can use this ability, it's only due to the fact that they choose to do so.

Most true alicorns, like princesses, are born, not made through some magical process. The main difference between true and citizen-bred is the amount of magic that flows through their veins. Only an elite few citizen-bred are able to rise up to this level, most are only able to use the most basic of telekinetic spells without fail.

Most citizens are only able to carry objects with their magic, while the more skilled among them are able to levitate themselves for short periods of time.

It takes much training and meditation to be able to levitate for prolonged periods.

It's much easier to lift yourself up without objects, but not impossible with them which will be a necessary skill when performing advanced magic.

Most unicorns cannot use any other spells that might require more energy than usual, but this is mainly due to the fact that they never push themselves and always rely on their natural ability alone. Only a true unicorn from a pure bloodline is able to use the same amount of magic as a royal without augmentation.

Royal magic is a form of heightened concentration and focus due to their breeding, but is very taxing on the body. This is why sometimes a royal might look tired or sick after casting a particularly difficult spell. In some cases, they may even faint because of the over-exertion of energy. Also as I said before, most true unicorns cannot use this ability as effectively as those of royal bloodlines. But that doesn't mean it isn't possible.

Over the centuries, there have been many, LEARNED unicorns who were able to cast spells on par with the average royal. The only problem with these so-called "great" unicorns was that they had no incentive to help the royal line or even be associated with them. More often than not, they either wanted to overthrow the kingdom, rule in place of it, or just didn't give a damn about it ruling over them.

These are the ones that tarnish the name of unicorns in general. They are the reason why common folk throughout Equestrian history often disliked the idea of having someone with a horn living in the same town. Once these wizards see that they aren't going to be allowed to rise up or take power, they often times go into seclusion to work on their own goals.

However, there is no need to fear these "rogue" wizards, because whenever one of them tries to make themselves greater than the princesses, they always fail spectacularly.

The magic society always seems to know when one of their fellow wizards is getting too powerful or is misusing the arcane arts and they always take them down before any damage can be done. And that is how we know the current system of having an all royal line of magical rulers works the best, and why Equestria has never had a successful magical uprising in all of its years of existence.

The Science of the Mind; So you might be wondering, what exactly does cognitive release do? Well, that's what this lecture is going to explain. Basically, the mind is a complex organ that does many different things. It regulates everything you think, everything you do, everything you feel. When one thinks of magic, the first thing that comes to mind is waving your hoof around and throwing fireballs at your foes.

But magic is so much more than just that. It's about changing the world around you to suit your needs. Sometimes those needs involve annoyances such as repelling borders, and sometimes those needs are for much more complex things such as altering one's physiology.

While much is still not known about the pony mind and how it works, we do know that there are many parts of it and that the interactions of these parts create our personalities and ultimately who we are. We talked earlier about the brain and its eventual decay, this is no different for me or the royal line.

Now due to certain circumstances of my birth and upbringing, I am able to tap into different parts of the mind that most ponies simply cannot reach due to natural barriers or other mental blocks that have developed to protect them from possible harm.

While I am able to reach into these parts of the mind, I cannot access all of them. Only the ones that are necessary for me to reach for this process. I will be creating the drug within the large chamber known as the pineal gland. This part of the mind deals with the release of hormones and chemicals that allow you to access certain abilities.

The large blood vessel in this area allows for a much higher concentration of this natural drug to be released into your system at any given time. While this method is not preferred, due to the dangers of having the pineal gland destroyed during the process, I have taken many precautions that I believe will prevent such an event from occurring.

The second part is the cerebellum, the lower back portion of the brain that deals with motor functions. By channeling magic energy through this part of the mind, I am able to increase the reaction time of the drug in your system, causing an increase in reflexes, speed, and general physical abilities. This part is less dangerous than the first as long as you don't overdo it with the magic energy.

The third part deals with the subconscious. By channeling magic through this area of the mind, I can cause an increase in your strength, speed, reflexes, and health due to the nature of the subconscious but this is more a result of conditioning than it is purposeful. Unlike the first two parts of the mind, this area is very hard to reach. Furthermore, the effects of this process are much less accurate as it is difficult for me to decide what changes to your body are going to take place.

This is because many of the changes are based upon your thoughts, personality, and past experiences. The changes are random but controlled by the amount of input you have in your mind via magic energy. This process is also dangerous if done wrong because it involves altering part of your body's makeup at the cellular level.

This can result in anything from your hair turning a different color to much worse things happening, so again I have limited what I do to increase the safety of this situation. This process can be helped as well as examined by the extract of "Poison Joke" as the plant has properties that allow you to alter parts of your cellular make-up without being too intrusive or permanent. Only take it in small doses, as you may want to avoid unwanted side effects while casting.

You are also able to channel magic through your senses of taste, touch, hearing, and smell. These are much safer than the first three methods, as they don't involve major changes to your body. They are mostly only appealing to the mind, but allow for slight changes in your body to occur. Now I will explain some of the things you may experience after this process takes place once you learn it.

You may notice things in your vision being clearer or more defined. You may also see flashes of light, these flashes will allow you to increase your visual range and allow you to see farther, but this is a temporary effect and will only be in effect while the drug remains active within your system.

You may notice an increase in hearing as well, this effect is similar to the visual effect and can allow you to hear at greater distances, but again this is temporary. What we are trying to accomplish through this process is to reach the amount of focus and magic that the royal bloodline has naturally. Essentially simulating a fraction of Alicorn power.

However, due to my own limitations, I can only enhance certain factors of your mind that will allow you to cast spells with less effort. You may feel changes in your body as well. These will include random spurts of energy, rapid healing, an increase in strength and speed, however, these effects will only be momentary at best. Do not rely on them, as they are only givens for this process. This process will also tire you very quickly, so you can only repeat this so many times.

You must remember that the magical energy is very taxing to the mind, and you may experience some lightheadedness after it is over. I don't wish to diminish the capabilities of your mind, but only enhance what is necessary in order for you to succeed. You may experience other things as well, but those are the main effects you should see from this process. If all of this sounds overwhelming that's because it very much is.

You must be cognizant of not sending yourself into sensory overload as you may accidentally develop a form of mental paralysis, which if prolonged can be very dangerous.

In addition to this, you will most likely be very tired from the energy exertion. I will, however, teach you a few methods with which you may alleviate some of these problems in the future.

Firstly, you can imbue your own equipment with a bit of your magic in order to cast certain magic effects without needing to channel as much energy. This is a great way in order to conserve more energy for other spells or whatnot. I will go over this with you later. This process may also have benefits later on, as it should greatly improve your ability to channel energy into other objects or living creatures that you have an affinity for. This process will mainly be responsible for that, so it should prove very useful to you in the future.

You should also take the time to learn how to cast some of your magic effects through other parts of your body. Although the horn is the most focused and direct source of energy we must remember that magic comes from all parts of the body and can be channeled into other areas as well. This ability will take practice and it isn't necessary, but I feel it will be useful to you in the future.

I have a small list of abilities that I will teach you in due time, but some of these things I will give a bit more information on as they will help you in the next few steps you need to take.

One of the things we have to be careful of is Magic Fatigue. This is a real thing and it can affect you if you overuse your magic. In some cases, mages die from this because they push themselves too hard or they aren't training properly. Remember that energy must be used wisely and not wasted. The unicorn body is very efficient at adapting and it is very rare that one's abilities are too much for it to handle. Most of the time, problems with stamina occur when a mage-in-training does not take the time to learn the proper skills and techniques to use their powers. This can lead to a dangerous situation, as many mages do not realize that they are taxing themselves too much and end up collapsing during battle or worse.

When we are dealing with things like Immortality Spells, this becomes not only become more frequent but an occupational hazard. I cannot stress this enough. It is very possible that you could be on the verge of death and not even know it. If you begin to feel weak, tired, or even sick, using any of these principles you need to back off and rest immediately. Do NOT try to cast a spell or continue your work. This will only cause your body to shut down and cease functioning altogether.

If this does happen, I will attempt to revive you, but in most cases, this is very hard to do and requires a lot of energy. Usually, it is best to just let nature take its course. It is important that you remember this. Be sure to keep yourself hydrated and fed so that your body's resources are not drained unnecessarily. Also, if you are doing something like an extended ritual, make sure to get sleep in between your sessions of work.

Your mind and body still require rest, no matter what your work is. Remember this. Overall though, you should be fine if you follow my advice.

Everything that I have just mentioned is only the first step in mastering one of the necessary spells to be able to perform Cognitive Release. If we can master these principles, we'll be able to move on safely. But we'll constantly review these steps as we go. These skills are a muscle and they have to be flexed constantly to keep them. We'll be starting simple and we'll build up from there. "Magic is the fuel that powers the impossible." Those words should always be in your mind when you're working with magic. Fire burns under its own power. Electricity flows due to the nature of electrons. Magic works in a similar way. It has a lifeforce of its own and tends to respond to the will of someone who has an affinity to it. But just like any other part of the universe, magic requires energy in order to work. We've covered what you need to do in order to store energy inside of you. But this will only get you so far. To cast really powerful or complex spells, you're going to need more energy than your body can provide on its own.

Now that we have the basics out of the way. We can review some of the instances of Cognitive Release over the years.

Luna just recently went through this method after her time on the moon. As a few of you from Ponyville may know this is why the Princess seemed a little... odd when she came back. Of course, in her case, it may have also been the fact that she was sealed on the moon for a thousand years. Who knows how much of an effect that may have played. This is something you may not know, but Nightmare Moon was created from a LACK of cognitive release, as during her reign she refused to revert or relinquish her memories resulting in pure knowledge tainting reason and tolerance, this has caused much contention over the years as there are some who don't believe any knowledge or wisdom should be lost through 'Cognitive Release' or 'Alicorn Reason'.

However, those who have witnessed the reign of Nightmare Moon beg to differ.

This is why it is so important to have these sessions. If too much purity of knowledge takes over, you can lose your mind. It can drive one mad, drive one to suicide or even cause one to take irrational actions that are out of line with their normal behavior. Of course, this doesn't happen to everypony and the effects are different for each, but it's common enough that these are steps are necessary for all using these methods and practices to be kind to your mind.

One particular immortal being is a good example of what can go wrong should one live forever and refuse to use Cognitive release. That being, of course, is Discord.

Discord's reign of Chaos was ended by the power of the Elements of Harmony and since then he has been reformed but until just recently was also sealed inside of a statue for thousands of years and it is unknown what Discord did to deserve such a fate in the first place but from Celestia's and Luna's refusal to speak of it, I could only assume it was an unimaginable nightmare. Recently had his prison expanded and altered because one of the elements elected to be his guardian. This was a blessing in disguise, as it allowed him to once again gain access to books. As it turns out, trying to read with disregard for comprehension of what you're reading can lead to a lot of interesting experiments and new ideas. I've enjoyed quite a few thought exercises and debates that arose from these events.

Unfortunately, these new ideas only reaffirm his anarchist behavior and have made him even less fond of those who still like order and reason. His new goal now that he's free is to prove that the sun and the moon are the same and of no importance. But I digress, Discord was imprisoned because his lust for information made him lose control. He accumulated knowledge at such an unprecedented rate, that he had no choice but to twist what he already knew into obscurity. His mind became so twisted with this practice that he soon was unable to tell reality from fiction. This is why some say that he never reformed at all, just that his mind had devolved into that of a petulant child who refused to leave his new nursery.

Of course, this is just a theory, just like the one, I gave you earlier about the nature of alicorns being predisposed to madness. After all, alicorn reason is merely a method to keep order and there's no telling what our society would look like or how it may have evolved if knowledge ran as rampant as Discord, Tirek, or even possibly Nightmare Moon would have preferred. But then, that's just one possible reality of many.

That's enough of that though. Let's get back to the practical. You must always be in control of it, never let it in control of you. Letting it in control of you will only lead to the corruption of your body and mind. And each new day the corruption will become more apparent until one day you won't even notice it.

Insanity is funny that way.

Now then, can any of you tell me why I had my first cognitive release?

A tall, blonde unicorn raises her hoof.

Yes Glittering?

"Because you wanted to die?"

Ah, wrong! But a nice guess. Maybe your life experiences are coming in handy after all. The correct answer is because I was bored. Yes, bored. Think about it. To be forever unchanging yet witness the world change all around you must be quite boring after a while. So some of us do get tired of living. Not all of us want to go on and on forever as the rumors suggest.

I for one, never get tired of living, but before my first cognitive release, I was bored with knowing. I spent so much time, worrying that I didn't have enough time to learn, I hadn't considered that learning too much could be a bad thing. I hadn't considered that I had an eternity to do so! But after a while, I got tired of it all. So I decided to do something about it. I did a lot of things actually, not all of them nice, but all of them necessary.

Each time I released my cognition, I did something different. I played with the fabric of reality, I even played around with my own mind. Each time making changes, big or small. Of course, I'm ahead of the game compared to the rest of you, but you will eventually come to understand that there are too many things that you will never understand. For every answer, there are a dozen more questions. For every door you open, there are hundreds behind it. Your head will be filled with knowledge but you will never be able to remember it all. You'll drive yourself mad trying though.

And now I have finally tired of even this form and have decided to release my cognition for a final time. Of course, I could just leave this body and move on to a new one whenever I wanted to, but how would I know the new mind could handle what I have if I didn't push it to its limits first?

But if there is one thing over the years that has remained constant and it is worth mentioning. It's the magic of friendship. Having lived so long I now understand Celestia's fascination with the concept. It really is a powerful force in this world and one that can never be dismissed.

So much so that I have a theory that friendship isn't just a source of magic power, but actually an intrinsic part of it. In fact, I think reality bends to friendship quite a bit. And as I've mentioned before some of those changes have been good, some bad, and others simply questionable. I believe that it is the very nature of friendship that allows reality to stay consistent despite the changes we wreak on it.

I've seen worlds without friendship and they are dark, desolate, and (from my observations) filled with suffering. I do not think, I know this for I have visited such worlds in the past and the scars of those experiences will never fade. Friendship is the source of both creation and life. Creation in the form of new ideas, life in the form of new beings. Without friendship, individuals are simply alone trying to wage an unwinnable battle against anti-social behavior.

It's no wonder some become criminals with no hope. And on the other end of the spectrum, you have those that are so obsessed with their idea of friendship that it turns toxic. A type of poison that warps everything into its own image. Friendship is a powerful thing. Like a force of nature, it must have a counter, a natural counterbalance. A dark force, if you will. But the brightest things of all come from the darkest places. As such, the most powerful of friends must have the most powerful of enemies.

But getting back to you and why I released my cognition. You have been chosen, all of you have. Think of this as a final exam of sorts or the last test of your resolve. If you live long enough, and you will if you succeed, you'll come to see the results of friendship for yourself. Because I'll tell you this much, true friendship will outlast everything else in this world.

Author's Note:

I always wanted to include this, so I did. Also, my writing style has changed drastically since the beginning of this story. You are NOT ready for what comes next.

Addendum: You may experience some unusual feelings for a day or two after this chapter. These feelings will continue for a few days and will eventually wear off. If they don't, well I guess you can consider yourself one of mine now. Also, if you're in the market for a new religion and live in the Zalan Empire, feel free to join "Melcar's Church of Infinite Entities". I'm sure Melcar would love having a following again.