Twilight likes books. Twilight knows that not everyone does, but Twilight knows that everyone loves knowledge. So, the obvious conclusion is a short guide to her favourite subject, yes?
Hello! I am the late Twilight Sparkle. The book that you will coninue on to read is my knowledge summarised into as little a package as I could possibly manage! I hope you, dear reader, find this to your liking and that it advances your knowledge of the magical field. Who knows? Maybe I’ve inspired the next me!
Twilight likes books. Twilight knows that not everyone does, but Twilight knows that everyone loves some level of knowledge. So, the obvious conclusion is a short guide to her favourite subject, yes?
Spoiler, Twilight is dead, giving up her alicorn immortality as Pinkie Pie, the final Element of Harmony, died. Her will includes three books of compiled knowledge meant for the reading of your average Equestrian, and not for prodigies like her; the first has been released, and it is magic.
Many Equestrians lack a basic knowledge of magical theory- some unicorns, yes, but mainly earth ponies and pegasi. For this I cannot blame those that are not aware of this important field, since they have mostly no use for it. However, what not many Equestrians know is that even as an earth pony or a pegasus it is very possible to manipulate magic. This is on a lower level than most unicorns, but a skilled pegasus or earth pony can easily levitate, for example, a book.
Maybe you're asking why you've never seen any ponies apart from unicorns use magic, but the answer to this is a simple one. Ponies don't know this. The education system in Equestria has been on the rise for many years which has resulted in more educated ponies, but most ponies still aren't very well educated compared to your average pony in Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns or another private Canterlot, Manehattan, or Cloudsdale school. These schools are rare and most ponies instead choose to enter a state run school.
These schools have recently been sent more funding as the need for an Equestrian military force dies down and the economy of our country rises; but I digress. We are not here to talk about Equestrian politics. The fact of the matter is that it is mostly unicorns who go to private schools, and knowledge of magical manipulation is exceedingly rare- it is knowledge I have stumbled on only a year ago, and kept for this book.
See, the average pony body accesses ambient magic via a series of vein-like objects underneath the skin. Magic is ethereal, and so passes through the fur and skin and is 'caught' by these veins. This magic is then transported through the body and concentrated in certain areas of the body which have thicker magical veins. In a unicorn, it is obviously concentrated in the horn which manipulates magic with the 'horniglymphene' organ- this organ is located directly underneath the thick, chitinous shell of the horn, which is why hitting the horn of a unicorn can be so painful. A magical vein, the thickest of any, is completely encompassed by the horniglymphene, which allows the horniglymphene to absorb and manipulate the magic when it phases through.
The horniglymphene uses a process called 'de-etherealisation' to turn the magic from the raw form it arrives in to a refined, gas-like form that can be manipulated by the horniglymphene with the will of a unicorn. However, more on de-etherealisation, the horniglymphene, and other unicornic magics in a chapter later on. This is, after all, a chapter on magic by pony type.
Now, though the horniglymphene is what allows unicorns such polished and efficient manipulation of magic, all ponies in Equestria know that pegasi and earth ponies have some sort of ambient magic- an earth pony's helps them work the earth and the magic of a pegasus is what allows them to fly with their wingspan and weight as well as interact with and manipulate, mainly, clouds. This is not all their magic does.
The magic of a pegasus is sent through their magical veins- henceforth modes- and is evenly distributed throughout their body. This magic in its raw form effectively lightens the pegasus, making them weigh much, much less. There is no special concentration at any point in the body. The manipulation of clouds, in the meanwhile, is actually caused by the equivalent of a horniglymphene located in the hooves, which is why the hooves of a pegasus are often much harder than your average pony of another race.
This organ is called the hooviglymphene, and effectively acts the same as a horniglymphene. However the hooviglymphene is much less refined- a magically skilled and knowledgeable pegasus can still levitate, maybe make a simple bubble shield and cast a stun spell, but never in Equestrian history has a pegasus been able to access higher level spells such as teleportation or materialisation. As an upside, the hooviglymphene has a sort of passive effect- it interacts with the magic trapped in cloud matter, more on that in a later chapter, and allows a pegasus skilled manipulation of the cloud. It does the same with rainbows and others.
An earth pony, meanwhile, has magic concentrated in slightly thicker modes near their organs, effectively sending them into a sort of overdrive. Again, more anatomy in a later chapter. This allows blood to be pumped around the body faster, proves the myth of earth ponies being heavyweights true, and is why earth ponies are generally related to things such as stamina and nature. As pegasi and unicorns, an earth pony also has a magical organ located in the exact centre of the body.
This is the baseglymphine. You may notice it is not spelt as the hooviglymphene or the horniglymphene, and this is because it is different in purpose, albeit not incredibly different. The baseglymphine actually acts as a magnet for magic, attracting it in raw form to itself through the body. It then pumps most of the magic through the modes, but leaves some to itself- a calculated 10% or so. This 10% is used to interact with any living thing, accelerating their growth or making their own organs more efficient; though this effect is lost on larger creatures such as ponies, griffons, etcetera, the effect on smaller creatures such as plants, maybe dogs, is clear. Plants receive accelerated growth as the magic leaves the baseglymphine- not something a horniglymphene or hooviglymphene can do- and interacts with its own modes in a similar way to the earth pony's.
Dogs and other small animals will receive extended lives as the magic flows through their modes, fading away slowly but making their bodies more effective in general- in short, the effect is like what the baseglymphine does to an earth pony, except temporary, lasting between a week and a year depending on the strength of the baseglymphine and the amount of time the earth pony spent with the animal before leaving.
On that note, I think I shall end this chapter here. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and learnt a lot you didn't know. One final thing, just to clear it up, an earth pony cannot perform magic like a pegasus or especially a unicorn, since there is no magic-refining organ in the body. Take a break from reading, my studious reader, and come back when you're ready!
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.
Mana, as many ponies call magic itself, is a separate term. In fact, mana is the word that's actually assigned to describe the refined form of magic I described in the first chapter of this book. Many of you reading this have probably heard of the term 'mana pool', handily used in famous works of fiction to explain away why a certain pony can use a lot of powerful magic when compared to others. You may expect me to say that this is wrong, but it is technically right. For example, I, compared to your average pony and especially unicorn, have a very large mana pool, giving me the ability to use teleportation as freely as I do, to nearly exclusively use magic in place of other things, and to- as many of you may have heard- time travel, though not too far back without a complex spell structure.
A mana pool for a pony cannot, contrary to popular opinion, be improved upon after birth. The size can decrease, but never can the mana pool of a pony get larger. The mana pool of a pony is judged by first of all what kind of pony they are- a unicorn will often have a larger mana pool in order to manipulate magic in such a fluid way, though will have their mana pool regenerate much slower than an earth pony or pegasus, which is why a unicorn can suffer from afflictions from IMB (Intense Magical Burnout) to MAD (Magical Absorption Disease).
See, a mana pool being completely empty- obvious via the intense heat of the magical organ of any pony species- will result in whatever magical organs they have ceasing to function. An earth pony will lose their increased strength, resilience, etcetera, a pegasus will fine it is nearly impossible to fly properly or even have an empty mana pool lead to permanent deformation of the wings, while a unicorn can be afflicted by any kind of magical disease, degeneration, or pain- such a large list, in fact, that I will definitely have to cover magical diseases in another chapter.
Secondly, the size of the mana pool will be taken from the surrounding area; being born in a magically rich area such as Canterlot will often result in a significantly larger mana pool than a pony born in Ponyville, though there are exceptions to this rule, such as the infamous thief Amethyst Star twenty years ago, a Ponyville-born unicorn with a massive mana pool who later died from IMB.
Thirdly, and finally, the size of a mana pool is influenced by the parents in the same way as genetics do, though not to the same extent. However, though these all influence the size of a mana pool, it is also quite random, which is why you'll see random fillies and colts born in Ponyville with massive mana pools and vice-versa for Canterlot. The size of a mana pool, for anyone curious, can be seen via a Thaumaspectometer, represented as a bubble in the centre of the pony- however, since mana pools are in essence ethereal things, it isn't truly possible to see a mana pool in full form at the moment, the bubble being only a representation of how much is leaking out of the pony and creating an image from that, since a mana pool is always leaking, though drawing in raw magic faster than leaking refined.
Basically, mana is the plural, in some ways, for magic. This isn't a language book so I won't go into too much detail, but if referring to multiple spells from one pony it is 'magic', if multiple spells from multiple ponies then it is mana, and the refined unused magic inside a pony also as mana, though there are more intricacies with the word that I won't go into any more detail with. Now, let's move onto magical interaction for the final part of this chapter, which I'm sure many of you are interested to hear about.
Magical interaction is how magic interacts with certain materials- because it does interact with everything in some way, shape, or form. Every element interacts in a different way, no matter how different. Halogens, for example, will react incredibly violently if forced to interact with magic in anything more than passing by a pony. Transitional metals with special notice to iron, silver, scandium, palladium, silver, and gold will not react with magic at all- iron, chromium, scandium, palladium, silver, and gold are, in fact, the easiest to fuse with magic- this is done by using refined magic and, in essence, 'sticking it' in-between the very atoms of the material. This is a tedious process if not done by a professional, taking hours, while a trained enchanter can speed through thousands of objects in a day.
These 'threads' of magic intertwine with the electrons and neutrons of the atoms, changing them in a way we still don't fully understand, possibly replacing them with a different, more flexible object. Depending on the type of magic used- again, apologies, something to be discussed in a later chapter- these materials can be effectively 'enchanted'. Gold interacts best with psychic magic, silver with anti-magic, palladium with dark magic, chromium with light magic, iron with harmonic magic, and scandium with chaos magic. Any transitional metal can be used for any type of magic though. This interaction can, for example, increase or decrease the density of an object, repel magic entirely, drain or give off light, multiply the atoms in order to basically enlarge or shrink the object, or interact with the magic flowing through the air and manipulate a pony.
The famous image from the old theatre play 'Trot von Trassen' of a pony holding an iron long-sword which lights itself on fire is the achievement of an enchantment that both increases the resilience of the material and the temperature, to the point of which a small area around it- not the material itself- will light on fire. Alkali metals can also interact with magic, though to a lesser extent with the atoms trying- and failing- to actively reject magic being forced upon it, while noble gases react with magic most interestingly.
Noble gases will actually absorb all magic. There isn't anything else known about this, just that noble gases will literally take magic and make it disappear. Research is constantly being done into this interaction, though much progress is never made. This is a slow interaction however- magic can harmlessly otherwise pass through noble gases, but bit by bit that magic will be attracted towards the noble gas and, when touching atom-by-atom, destroy itself. I can't tell you much else; the noble-magical interaction is, rather simply, unknown, like most parts of magic.
We all know what magic is- even if you happen to have not been taught about it in school, which you should've been, there's no creature on this planet, and especially no pony, that doesn't know what magic is, especially considering to the extent of which it is used by, obviously, unicorns, but both earth ponies and pegasi as well- either way, the last earth pony, pegasus, or unicorn-only villages have been discovered and introduced the wider world already, so there isn't any way that ponies haven't encountered the most, for lack of a better word, flamboyant magic user, that being the unicorn.
However, even a few unicorns don't understand the extent to which magic can vary. They use spells, they learn basic or even slightly advanced magical theory, but often don't care enough to continue classes in magic, often resulting in only a basic or, again, slightly above basic understanding of magic. Spells, however, branch into multiple different 'types' of magic; that being said, there really aren't separate magics, but different ways to utilise magic. This is turned into the branches I earlier mentioned.
This chapter is going to be entirely about those branches- now, before you understand branches, you must understand that they all spring off of the main 'type'- ether magic. This is what every branch of magic, in some sense, embodies- from light to dark, from harmonic to chaotic, from technological to fantastical, every branch is directly related to ether magic. Now, branches of magic are rather simply described- first we have light magic, the most commonly used magic and in fact, most ponies rarely, if ever, learn spells not in the light or occasionally white branches of magic.
Light magic can be described by talking of spells that feed on low-level positive emotions, such as joy or anticipation. Basic telekinesis, which takes the strength of a unicorn and funnels it through the air to 'grab' an object, is powered entirely by happiness. White magic can be described by talking of spells that feed on high-level positive emotions, such as love or nostalgia.
Then, the infamous dark magic- fed by low-level negative emotions, such as nervousness or sadness. Black magic, however, is often confused with dark magic- this is not a mistake that should ever be made. A pony making use of dark magic is not evil, or misguided, or anything of the sort- dark and light are both fine to use, and should in fact be used together to achieve maximum efficiency. In fact, a lot of ponies have nearly definitely accidentally powered spells via dark magic, since telekinesis- for example- can easily be powered by either.
Anyway, black magic is powered by high-level negative emotions, such as rage or loss. Now, overuse of a certain magic can lead to an 'infection' of emotion, which is why ponies are generally happy creatures, though not caring much about procreation; we are practically powered by light magic. This isn't a good thing, and is actually a slight problem- we are too happy, and our over-reliance on light magic should be fixed.
Both black magic and white magic, however, are not recommended. High-level emotions 'infect' you both easier and faster, as the spells powered by them are always, with no exception, more powerful- a one-time use of black or white magic to lift a boulder off of a pony, or to perform incredible feats in general, is fine, but even twice in a day can lead to too much of whatever emotion is being used. Before saying anything, too much love is bad because you basically become, pardon my language, a sexual machine stopping at nothing to forcefully... well, yeah.
Nostalgia will put you into a coma unless you have a high mental resistance or magical tolerance, rage will make you incredibly violent, and loss will sink you into a suicidal state that only more high-level spells can break you out of. Of course, there are other high-level emotions- lust, hate, etcetera, but these are the most commonly used. Sombra, for example, was powered by black magic- a mix of anger and loss mingled in his brain overwhelmingly after he was analysed post-mortem. Dinky Doo, the rapist of nearly a thousand? A one-time use of white magic to save her mother when she was a filly and therefore with a low level of mental and magical resilience transformed her.
Needless to say, the other branches are so much harder to access. Most ponies don't access harmonic magic since you must strike a balance inside yourself- an interesting magical concept covered in a later chapter- to use it. Chaotic magic is incredibly specialised, and is comprised nearly entirely of reality-warping spells; a pony must be magically diseased while striking a balance to use it, and these spells put a massive strain on the horniglymphene, modes, and can empty a mana pool in seconds.
All other branches branch off of light, dark, black, white, chaotic, and harmonic. There are also natural magics- these are such as the alternate magic, which lets a pony talk to the dead, spirits, temporarily at their order. Ponies with this are either caught and taught to use it early or they degrade into a rambling mess due to information overload. Stellar magic is fairly self-explanatory, and known to be wielded only by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna in recorded history, though multiple myths unconfirmed by the sisters circle that Discord, Cadance, and other demi-godly creatures can access it.
As of now, no other magics have been turned into branches directly sprouting off of ether, though there's a large possibility that one day a pony will enter a certain state or use a certain thing and a new branch will be discovered- harmonic magic, for example, was my discovery after weeks of studying the Tree of Harmony and all notes we had of the Elements of Harmony.
Before I end this chapter, let me quickly clear something up: pegasi and earth ponies do not use any branch of magic to fuel their own naturally-occurring abilities- when utilising unicorn-style spells actively they do, but otherwise their abilities are left without influence from emotion. They are, however, still joyful simply due to exposure to mass amounts of light magic casting. Now put the book down and stop for a tea break or something- I know not everyone likes to read as much as me!
Though, I certainly wouldn't argue if you continued!
