Ch 5 - Words in Practice
My mind swam through a turbulent lake of information.
A set of statistics regarding mineral compositions would strike my consciousness before falling away to make room for a slice of logical theory to cut its way through my head with its dense ideas.
Pictures referencing anatomy would materialize before melting into magnificent depictions of geometric patterns that chipped away at the edges of reality and pushed or pulled at the strings of causality.
I rolled with the mental punches, trying to survive the skull-splitting headache that pounded the inside of my cranium.
I gritted my teeth as I barred the information from leaving, funneling the vast reservoir of knowledge through me and into a pit within my mind.
I heard a voice call out a message that barely pierced the sounds of crashing waves.
However, the ideas behind the words were caught in a swirling pool of contradictory voices that screamed at each other.
The circular argument pulled strands of thought from its surroundings, but it was always let go.
The voice called out again and it sounded clearer, but again, its message was lost.
I felt a pressure on my chest, not a sudden strike, not a crushing weight, just a reminder, a reminder of… something.
“The Reverse Thaumawave Theorem postulates that waves of ordered mana are passing through and interfering with each other constantly. This has been blamed falsely for many diseases, but it is almost positively the driving force behind entropy. In this essay…”
I shook my head as the voice shouted something. I shouted back.
“I can’t hear you!”
It responded with an angry screaming message.
“I don’t understand!”
“Crystalline Structuralism is a, in its current state, untested hypothesis that claims that all societies follow a fractal pattern in their progression in magic as magic itself is a self-policing natural construct that…”
“What… on… you… help?”
I heard the question, I felt the intent, but it came in patches broken up by the all-consuming white noise of a violent storm.
“The Yak Thingy Principle is known as a crude unscientific addition to the scholarly community made by the Yaks. However, thorough testing and minor revisions to the precise wording has made it a cornerstone of aura tracking spells.”
“What… going… do… need help?”
The voice broke through the maelstrom, and I heard enough to respond.
“No, I’m alright, just give me some time.”
I felt faint unease in the acknowledging response I received but I grinned as I finally managed to push the tides of ideas back, letting me chew on things at my own pace.
I bound the artificial lake with bars of solid will and left the contained sphere of liquid learning, returning to my mind at large.
Though, the last dregs of the ‘Yak Thingy’ principle echoed after me, saturating my mind with its final lines.
“Therefore, if we should ever find a being with a projected aura, we must immediately seek to contain it. Such abominations are not gods, they are not ‘spirits’ as they sometimes claim, but rather, they are monsters with unequaled potential for mayhem.”
I shook my head as I opened my eyes.
The echoes of some faint idea whispered a meaningless string of words into my ear, rendering my skinny dip in the pool of knowledge I’d just acquired moot.
“Seek out the stones of Fated Harmony, they are your only hope.”
I heard but didn’t understand, I knew the words, I knew they meant something while together, but I just couldn’t connect them.
Like a bunch of same-pole magnets, the ideas bound together in that language just would not fuse.
Before I could begin worrying, Clover tapped my side as she spoke.
“Are you alright Typhon? You sort of…”
Her face scrunched up as she finished.
“Collapsed.”
I blinked a couple of times before scratching the back of my neck.
“Oh dear, how long was I out?”
Clover’s lips pulled into a thin line before she responded.
“Only for a few seconds. What happened though? Did something go wrong? Did-”
I cut her off with a wave of the claw as I rose back into my usual position in the air.
“Oh no, everything went perfectly, I just didn’t expect the information dump to be that…”
I paused with a frown to find the right word.
“Overwhelming, I suppose.”
I shook my head as I continued.
“I got bits and pieces so far, but I’m going to need some time to assimilate all of that.”
I clenched my fists to force out nigh inaudible pops and I smiled as I twisted in the air to lounge.
Clover cocked an eyebrow, and her worried expression hadn’t completely faded when she began to speak again.
“What do you mean ‘assimilated’?”
She shook her head.
“And Typhon, please please please give me some warning next time if you’re gonna pull something like that!”
I bowed my head as I responded.
“Alright, I’ll let you know next time.”
My concession was rewarded with a relieved smile, but I continued on.
“As for what I meant by ‘assimilation’.”
I scratched my chin for a moment before continuing.
“I took a lot of knowledge that was just floating around in here and some of the stuff trapped in those books wadded it up and stuffed it into my head.”
I pursed my lips.
“Of course, now I believe that may have not been the best of ideas.”
My casual comment set off a series of twitches in Clover’s right eye.
“How the buck did you just grab the knowledge and stuff it in your head?! Do you have any idea how many unicorns would kill to be able to do that?”
I shrugged at the quickly frazzling Clover.
“Nope, what’s the big deal? I just manifested a metaphysical concept. You unicorns do that all the time.”
I punctuated the statement as I waved at a unicorn who had frozen with a book beside him in the air.
The stallion’s eyes were wide and glued on me but the scholar in him still managed to keep the text hovering in place.
Clover snorted and narrowed her eyes at me as I went on.
“I mean that guy is manifesting the metaphysical concept of force to hold a book while gawking at me and I don’t see you all staring at him as if he was a giant pile of bits!”
I shot several looks around the library at various unicorns who had their gaze locked on me.
Thankfully, meeting my eyes usually got them back to minding their own business.
Clover just sighed as she brought both hooves to cover her eyes.
“Typhon, Levitation is just a manipulation of basic thaumafields, no manifestation, no big complex equations, not even any foundations, it’s basically hardwired into unicorn biology for crying out loud!”
Her voice took on a distinct whine at the end of her statement but I just shrugged it off before moving on.
“Eh, I got what I need, I can just sift through the stuff later.”
Clover sighed again as she walked back out the large wooden door from which we came.
“Fine, let's go outside and try some stuff out.”
I nodded before floating after her: pulling the door shut as I passed it by.
…
It took us a few minutes to traverse the strangely winding corridors of the tower before we finally reached the bottom.
I tapped Clover on the shoulder and gestured towards the staircase that we just descended.
“How do you ponies fit so much corridor into so little room? I swear we were walking for almost half an hour, and we weren’t even anywhere near the top!”
Clover rolled her eyes.
“Something something, folding space, something something, nonorganic thaumaturgical foci, something something. It kinda went over my head when Starswirl gave me a multi-hour lecture about it when I asked.”
I flinched at the mention of such a long lesson.
I raised a claw to speak but was cut off by Clover before I could respond to her awful experience.
“Can we just get out of here, please? I’m itching to try out some pyromancy now that Starswirl lifted the ban on it.”
I cocked an eyebrow.
“Swirly banned pyromancy? I might be full of it, but I feel like that would be a very common school of magic.”
Clover nodded as she pursed her lips before responding.
“It is, he just banned me from doing it.”
I chuckled.
“Dare I ask?”
Clover’s deadpan could have killed a whole kitchen of cooking utensils with such intensity.
“No, you don’t.”
I shrugged before pushing the large metal doors of the front entrance out of the way.
I flinched as a blue bolt bounced off of an invisible barrier just feet in front of me, but I was back in the air and looking around in moments.
Dozens of unicorns were lined up off to our right; firing off various beams of magic that showed off effects ranging from a fresh-looking mustache sprouting from the target’s face to turning a patch of grass blue and rigid.
I swiveled to the left and almost tried to duck a lightning bolt the size of my entire body.
However, I resisted the temptation and watched with interest as the line of electricity fizzled out before even striking the ward structure.
I shook my head before turning to Clover.
“Alright, so where to?”
It barely took a minute for us to find ourselves on a barren circle of rock.
Gravel crunched beneath my toes and my eyes scanned the ring of stones that surrounded us.
It looked like a desert expanded a million feet in every direction from our arena.
Though, visible distortions in the air and nigh invisible lines of light spoke of the illusion that hid our true surroundings.
“You ready?”
I shifted my stance as I focused on Clover and responded with a nod.
I was met by a grin as her horn began to glow.
I stared at the glow surrounding it: lines were fading into reality and forming intricate geometric patterns.
The cage of magic cables solidified before sparks of fire flew outwards.
In a split second, the sparks became a flame, and the flame became an inferno.
The conflagration grew and grew as it spread out.
The ocean of fire washed across the sands, licking angrily at the air as it closed in on me.
A smile was plastered across my lips as I brought my hand up in this place of slowed time and clenched it into a fist.
As the fire was about to reach me, it froze.
The flames whipped against an invisible barrier, and I grinned as I watched Clover’s expression transition from smug to confused.
The fires spent what felt like minutes raging against the vacuum I created.
No air, no fire.
The unicorn shook her head, and I got a good view of each strand of her mane flicking in the breeze.
Sweat glistened in the sunlight but my attention was pulled back to her horn as she began casting again.
This time the air gained a misty quality around her, and fractals formed over her horn.
I cocked an eyebrow before tilting my fist and shaking it.
I watched the air in front of me contort beneath the pressure and I swear I saw sparks begin to fly.
By the time her spikes the size of my head had formed, my heat shield was ready. Her triumphant smile melted just as quickly as her icicles.
Rage burned bright on her face as sparks of electricity arced around her horn.
Ozone invaded my nostrils as I snapped my fingers.
She frowned as I grasped the metal pole for a moment before I pulled away.
While confident, Clover remained wary as she stared at my pole and me for a moment.
However, in my world, that moment took an eternity.
She sent one last glare at the steel rod before refocusing on me and unleashing a bolt of electricity.
The explosion of power was almost a foot thick and crossed the distance between us before even I could perceive its flight.
Fortunately for me, it decided that my metal rod was the more appealing target.
The world sped up as Clover huffed.
“I can’t even touch you!”
I shook my head as I responded.
“Nope! Not even close.”
She scowled at me before snarling.
“Then why don’t you take a shot? Maybe I could learn a thing or two.”
I stroked my beard before shaking my head again.
“I would either just blast you with more power or use concepts that you unicorns have no ability to abuse with magic.”
I smiled at her as I finished.
“Besides, I don’t want to hurt you by accident.”
She snorted as she began walking toward me. I raised an eyebrow as she got near but before I could open my mouth, she spoke.
“Look buddy, just because you’re a weird-looking guy with more power than intelligence doesn’t mean I can’t handle myself!”
My eyebrow remained where it was as I stepped back from the seething unicorn.
I raised my hand and snapped. For a moment Clover froze and brought a shield up.
She gave me a quizzical look before I shrugged.
“Oops,” I said with a smile, and for a moment there was quiet.
Then the world darkened in anticipation, and the air clenched in fear.
Every unicorn on the field bore witness to a second sun burst into reality above.
For the briefest of moments, the world went white before a roaring thunder struck the earth with the force of a falling mountain.
Everyone but me was thrown from their hooves and I grinned at Clover's face of frozen shock.
“I missed.”
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So did he throw a sun at her or a big ass lightning bolt?
11303045
Nuclear Explosions Compilation High Quality - YouTube
I don’t think it’s a very good idea of fighting a being the at casually bends reality
Well, now that clover has learned the scale of damage he could do, she can make the excuse of "fight me to learn control." However ineffective that would be.
I liked the cold open there, I was a little confused if I missed something at the end of last chapter for a second. And the metaphor in his mind was great.
I also loved how clover went off on him for calling applied force a manifested metaphorical concept. (Yes, I know it technically is, but you can't just treat it like it is)
Potential? Than kill all life so it's potentially never do harm again...
Starswirl and Luna are so far nothing but humocidal lunatics...
I hate it too when I accidentally miss with my nuclear explosion.