Magyck

by legionbrony

An unnamed plot setup scene, and a narrative explaining my personal head-canon.

Europe, Late 15th Century

"Kill the witches!"

"Burn them! Burn them!"

"Make them pay for their sins!"

"Kill the magicians! Kill the witches!"

The group of mages was tied around a stake; there were about 10 of them, an unusually high amount to be found at the same time. The mages looked at the crowd, who shouted more hate, spit upon them, threw rotten food and rocks, and did other unspeakable things.

The worst part is, thought the lead mage, they aren't even infected by Darke. This is them, all on their own. She shook her head in despair, and shed a tear as the smoke started to rise.

"You know what to do," she whispered to her neighbor. "I regret that it had to come to this." Her neighbor nodded, and passed on the word.

As the flames gained strength, the lead mage shouted, "Now!"

All the mages raised their hands. Conveniently, they had been placed in a ring, which enhanced the strength of their magic. They began to chant, and as the flames reached their torsos, they uttered one final word in Latin that reverberated through the small village they were in. The villagers flinched and dove for cover, but nothing seemed to happen except a slight breeze that rustled the leaves of the trees. The villagers exhaled; the spell had failed. At least, they thought it had.

"It is done," said the lead mage, but she did not look happy. "The Barrier is in place. Ambrosius will be most pleased." She began to lose her vision; this was a side effect of using such major magic when her Ring did not wish it. Her sight blurred, and she began to lose consciousness as the flames and smoke overcame her.

Long live Equestria. Long live...Magyck.

---

You may be thinking: What the heck? What happened to Brandon? What about the Ponies? Did you accidentally put a chapter of some other weird fantasy story in here? And why did you misspell 'magic' in that last sentence? You need an editor! Well, just wait. All will be explained.

First things first: Magyck. It is very different from magic. In fact, it is often the source of magic. Magic is, as has been theorized, a form of energy. However, Magyck is not just energy. It is living energy, capable of thought and, more importantly, capable of reversing the role of magic and magician. Often, a wizard with Magyck is not in control of themselves. The Magyck is in control, so much so that the magician does not even realize it. Magicians are rarely able to weild Magyck for this reason.

It may seem that this explains nothing, but be patient. Magyck is extremely prominent in Equestria, a prime example being the Darke Magyck that inhabited Luna. This is a characteristic of Darke that is fairly disturbing; unlike most other Magyck, it tends to inhabit a living being almost permanently, altering their personality and causing them to slowly become more selfish, violent, and power-hungry the longer the Darke remains in them. The Darke then feeds off the negative, or dark, energy that is given off by these actions.

Lighte Magyck typically works in a very different way. It inhabits an object, such as a weapon, article of jewelry or clothing, etc. This object will give immense power to any being that wields it, but only if the bearer contains sufficient positive, or "light", energy within them. Take the Elements of Harmony, for example; they contain an ancient Lighte that has unimaginable power, but it only allows one to use it for something good. Another thing about the Lighte: It destroys the Darke on contact without any resistance, similar to the way actual light will brush away the darkness effortlessly.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rules. Darke can sometimes inhabit objects, which are often regarded as being cursed. Terrible misfortune befalls the owner of such items, and this negativity is what the Darke feeds off of. Likewise, Lighte can inhabit living creatures. Princess Celestia is often regarded as an Alicorn that has been possessed by Lighte. In fact, some Magyck does not even need a physical object to inhabit. Take fire elementals, for example; they are pure, sentient fire Magyck.

Now we get to the point of all this explaining. Something that would be helpful to know first, however, is that Equestria and Earth were once the same world. There was an abundance of Magyck, and it existed in a mostly unchanging state. Occasionally an Equestrian would stumble into a human village, or a band of nomadic humans would wander into Equestria. This usually did not end well for the Equestrians; they were usually forced to work for the humans or kept as entertainment or pets. They were rarely killed, however; at that point, humans could still recognize sentience when they saw it.
Magyck, and thus magic, are very rare on Earth in modern times, because, starting during the days of the Roman Empire, humans began a war of sorts against Magyck. This is because humans fear what they do not understand. Inquisitors burned witches at the stake, magicians were killed out of fear, and technology gave humanity the tools to continue their crusade.

Ironically, magic is what caused science to advance. Humans are inherently magic-absorbent; therefore, once humans abandoned the use of magic, the absorbed energy had to be used for something, as the population was becoming massively saturated with magic but were using none of it. So, adaptive as ever, the human body used the excess to increase the learning capacity of the mind. For this reason, humans are highly intelligent, with knowledge of magic being the exception by their own choice, while Equestrians are highly magical, but still live with fairly rudimentary technology.

As Magyck was persecuted, it began to retreat into Equestria. A few mages, the only ones who understood the true nature of Magyck, could do nothing but erect a powerful World Barrier, separating Equestria from Earth, before humanity destroyed the beauty and innocence of the planet's magical denizens.

They have remained separate ever since, but similarities remain: The same languages, written and spoken, exist in Equestria and Earth, with English being the dominant language. This is a result of the Equestrians having contact with the humans, and absorbing a bit of their culture.

However, quite recently, the barrier was disrupted. The repercussions of this are still to be seen...

Comments

[legionbrony]

Heh, and now the story finally gets interesting. Sorry about all that setup stuff before now, but it was necessary for the rest of the story, trust me...

Plus, this is where I finally got my head on straight and started writing a proper storyline.