Electro Swing

by Rego

Primer: On the Sound of Magic — Unabridged

By Archmage Cacophony

Annotated Excerpts from Chapter 5: The Cacophony Rune

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Fundamental principles of magical implement design, as well as practicality, dictate that logical use of any enchantment magic should result in a magical craftwork with predictable behavior. However, the spontaneity found in creative expression is what gives music the novelty we enjoy. There exist artistic styles where the individual endeavors to let harmony guide them within a free-form state of oneness with their muses.

This begged the question: If music is an expression of sound and magic, then would allowing harmony itself to enchant a rune result in its purest form?

The result of this was further proof of harmony's musical nature, as well as a paradoxical rune both phenomenally useful and catastrophically useless. While the implement successfully produces several sounds at once, without a guiding medium to give it proper form, it ultimately destroys itself. Nevertheless, it serves as evidence, as the sound is always different, even when inscribed within the same medium.

It does this by absorbing power from any and all magical sources, including ones thought to only influence the expression of magic. Examples beyond conventional wisdom include such things as weather manipulation, remarkably strong emotions, and most importantly dragonfire. The amount of magic absorbed determines both the sound emitted and the point of failure. Whatever is taken within the medium the rune has been inscribed is forever lost as it is reduced to pure energy.

Correction: The medium determines how much can be absorbed before becoming too saturated with mana. Sapphires have proved to be ideal with excellent thermal conductivity for heat dissipation while bearing a strong lattice work that is both easy to manipulate with guided magic and incredibly resistant to the mess of mana inside.

Correction 2: Cacophony is wrong about the entropic nature of the mana within the crystal. While the source is stored inside, it is not lost unless heavily compressed together, which results in a resonance cascade failure. However, trying to draw whatever has been put inside out in any meaningful way is incredibly difficult and puts far too much stress on the crystalline lattice, which also results in a similar resonance cascade failure when the medium or rune is weakened to the point its capacity is reduced. Thank Celestia for shielding when that happens!

I remember writing that. I wish I would’ve just stayed in my lab.

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The rune itself has proved theoretically effective against dragon raids if disposed of immediately upon dragonfire absorption. However, being affected by strong emotions, the fearsome presence of such foes can instill a great terror within the hearts of ponies, which the rune can both feed upon and exacerbate. Those that have experienced deleterious effects from items inscribed with these runes have reported their emotions “running wild” as it were, with even the most hardened soldiers succumbing to the grip on their hearts.

Hypothesis: Maybe changeling emotional feeding works similarly?

Hopefully Confirmed: I can feel it draining my emotions right now.

To avoid this, other magical shields must be placed upon any enchanted item or medium to prevent accidents when used. A rotational, multiphasic barrier must be used to isolate the inscribed object and physically suspended by a nonconductive support to reduce the risk of the barrier itself being absorbed through contact. Furthermore, up to three additional runes can be inscribed to increase the storage capacity of the medium in question, but this results in larger cascades. Thus, the instability and danger of accidental exposure has proven to be impractical for further weaponization.

Correction: Six in total seem fine when placed on a near-perfect sphere. Please, for once, just work.

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Despite the magical forms being lost when reduced within the rune, the medium usually takes on aspects of the source. Tests using different types of magic have resulted in different colorations and properties. Draconic manaforms take on a green coloration. Illusion spells can cause hallucinations in the observer or render the crystal invisible. Further examples in detail can be found within Table 1A.

Weird. It doesn’t mention negative emotions. It’s blacker than obsidian now. I wonder how dark it will go.

Because of the rune’s sensitivity to any form of magic it encounters, anypony working with such crystals must use the utmost caution. Clarity of mind, along with proper shielding and focus, must be maintained at all times. Not doing so risks the rune latching onto the source and draining it directly.

Hypothesis: Linking a second, intermediary crystal that can reflect and refract the state of the Cacophony crystal without storing the mana itself could facilitate easier imbuing and channeling magic from within the paired crystals. It’d function like an echo that can be called upon to reproduce whatever is inside the primary crystal.

Confir Why am I even bothering? I was right about at least putting things into it, but it’s not working fast enough. I still feel everything and the drain is making it feel even worse. It’s so hard to focus on what I want gone, so I’m going to just keep writing everything in hopes that it will take everything. Maybe if I’m lucky, it’ll even destroy the memories.

You shouldn’t have tried, Vinyl Scratch. You should’ve known better. I can’t believe you were so stupid. You know you can’t do anything right. When you thought for once you could actually love somepony, you messed up. You always mess up.

I hate you.

I hate how you hurt the ponies closest to you!
I hate how you’re always wrong!
I hate that you thought you let your desires would help
You always make everything worse!
You hurt everypony!
Stop it!
Just Go away!

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It's been forever, but there’s still more. How is there still more? Am I really that greedy? I'm almost out of space to write and I can't think of anything else. I just want to put this all behind me. Is that greedy too? Just work, please. I don't want to remember. Take it all away.

Author's Note:

Comments

[ShadowLDrago]

Vinyl needs serious therapy.

[FridayPie]

Does this mean that malfunctioning devices may bleed or drain on their users?

Speak of cursed music box meme...

[cogwheelbrain]

Uh-oh. This is gonna get messy.