Frackin' magics. How do they work?

[KaityKat]

Scientific theories, mystical ones, lore ideas, origins, futures, pasts.

Lay it on me like a pasta noodle.

 

I'm interested to hear y'all's ideas, and discuss.

o3o

 

Also, check out my "The Basic Theory of Magic" thread.

[KaityKat]

Fine.

I guess I'll start.

I have my own unofficial Lore thread about this subject, but I can expound with how I think magic propagates, and what it takes to make it tick.

 

(please excuse my "stream-of-consciousness" style writing. this is what it's like to live in my brain o3o)

 

If you want to cast spells, it's more like flexing a muscle. You need only do it. You don't have to know why it works, or how the muscle cells do what they do, you just do it. (edit: I was going somewhere with this, but my train of thought derailed.... I'll get back to it)

The magic is, as Starlight has pointed out, tired to your emotions. It's telepathically controlled and as such can sometimes be done subconsciously. Tho it doesn't happen often. Mostly it requires conscious thought and intention, but especially with powerful unicorns, it can sometimes happen without meaning to.

 

For instance, when Twilight had the magic of all the alicorn princesses, at one point, she accidentally levitated books across the room. Seems small, but the implication is not small. With how much magic she had, she had a hard time keeping it from doing things without her say so. it could be she was thinking about looking through her books for something to help her, and her magic was just like "books. can do." Does this mean the magic had a mind of its own that was just amplified by there being so much of it?

 

this would stand to reason given how the tree of harmony evolved. It seems powerful magic can just manifest itself into a mind. It could be conceivable, then, for some powerful unicorn(s)/alicorn(s) to just use raw magic to host straight up create a being of ultimate power with a mind of its own.

Maybe this is how discord was made. Or maybe it happened similarly to the creation of planets. that is, chaos magic exists spread out and insignificant. chaos magic attracts chaos magic. It congeals into more and more concentrated and powerful chaos magic. The magic gets powerful enough to begin forming a mind. after forming a mind, it begins to concentrate to the point that it gains a form. viola. discord.

 

 

(here we are back to that train of thought)

So casting spells is normally like flexing a muscle, right? but if you study magic enough, and know how it works, you can make magic machinery. gizmos that either use magic as fuel (which are relatively simple) to do largely mechanical tasks, or contraptions that can take an input magic, alter it into something and use it to augment magical artifacts. That's much more complex.

 

Examples of this would be The Flim Flam Brothers' Super Speedy Cider Squeezey 6000.

The brothers simply shoot magic into it, and their magic fuels the machine. It would also appear that there's a built in spell that analyses the Apples to be sure they're good before squeezing them, so just slightly more complex than just "magic fueled machinery".

 

and then there's Twilight's machine in Equestria Girls that pulls the magic out of one magical artifact (the book) and puts it into another (the portal) to make it function when she wants it to. It takes the magic that transfers writing and uses it to augment the portal which transfers matter.

This level of magical engineering would likely be about equivalent to making a precisely machined mechanical watch by hand without any reference material.

Pretty nuts imo.

 

Anywho, I'm done, for now.

 

Lemme know if you're interested to hear me ramble on some more about magic theory. o3o

 

(also, I'm not 100% sure I'm using this section properly, so if an admin sees this and I'm not.... please let me know)

[Flooberoid]

Eh, I'm just kinda absentmindedly typing away on my phone at work so probably gonna get something wrong here. But here are some random thoughts. 

 

First of all, I doubt the writers have fully thought through what magic really is on a fundamental level. Don't get me wrong, though; I don't expect them to. Scientific explanations make the supernatural natural, which makes it not magic by definition. 

 

However, just because it can't fundamentally be explained doesn't mean it can't be studied and produce consistent results. I actually find the example of the magic from the book powering the portal interesting. It would certainly be a stretch to say they contain the same spell. One is a linked pair of books that are enchanted to always replicate whatever is written on the other's pages. The other creates a portal which teleports (notably does not replicate) whatever passes through it. But why are they still compatible? I could see it two different ways. 

1. Magical spells are made up of multiple types of magic working in harmony. It's a bit like chemistry, mix a bit of this, a bit of that. So Twilight could produce the "relocation" magic herself (and does quite often) but the "transdimensional" magic, property, whatever, eludes her. 

2. The properties of a single "mass" (however that's quantified) of magic are fluid and can be manipulated with some effort. Twilight doesn't have the knowledge to create a portal to another dimension from raw magic, but was able to convert existing magic to something else. 

 

I think it's likely that magic is generated by living creatures, possibly by emotion though I believe emotion only causes it to manifest. At the very least it's not only unicorns that produce magic, but that much is obvious. Objects can be infused with magic, which seems to last indefinitely and may be self-replicating considering I can't recall a time when a magical artifact ever ran out of power without being destroyed or otherwise disenchanted. I think the unicorn's horn is not used to create magic but to project it from the body. It's likely connected to the central nervous system so creating an artificial horn would be quite difficult or impossible. 

 

This was just a dump of random thoughts I didn't proofread, so sorry for any typos or logical errors. 

[Bellosh]

This Unofficial Lore article (which I helped co-write) pretty much establishes my headcanon thoughts on how Magic works: 

 

[KaityKat]

No, that was sufficiently gathered thought. I understood.

 

I'm not speculating on what the writers intended, since they likely just thought "it's magic. it just works" or sommat. I'm trying to theorize how it _could_ work. Things that make sense too me, and can be used to enhance rp when it comes to magic, and to keep the enhancement consistent.

 

As far as magic being "like chemistry", I am 100% with you, there. If you have any time, you should read what little ice written in the "Unofficial Lore" thread I made entitled "The Basic Theory of Magic"

 

It's a work a work in progress, and I haven't updated it in a while, but there are some ideas I put into it.

[KaityKat]

@Bellosh I read your thread.

 

That was great.

For the most part, I would agree completely. Only I would expound on the mysterious nature of Magic. Its true that the vast majority of creatures find magic to be mystical and inexplicable, but a creature who dedicates their life to understanding it could conceivably learn a great deal.

 

also, it's just fun to pedantically speculate as to all the intricate inner workings of magic known or otherwise. o3o

[Bellosh]

Something that wasn't mentioned in the linked article is my headcanon that ultimately, the Sun is the ultimate source of all Magic (at least for Equestria). Just as leftovers from our Sun's creation constitute our Solar System, the natural processes that allow Equestrian magic to happen would ultimately require a greater cosmic origin. Thus in the FiM universe according to my theory, stars naturally produce Magic, and ALL leftovers from star creation (including Life) are inherently magical in turn.

 

As for the mechanics of spell-casting, if you don't mind reading old RPs, here's a story (featuring my Magic Guild mare Moony) about what it could entail to learn complicated spells like Teleportation: 

 

[SilverStarApple]

My Magic headcanons:

 

"There's Physical Magic, and Idea Magic. Idea Magic works that way because it does, meaning an ice spell can freeze fire solid if it's strong enough. And Physical Magic works that way if it makes sense, so an ice spell will just make fire cold and put it out. Magic has no rules. But generating magical energy by converting your own physical and mental energy into it, that follows rules. Moving heavy stuff takes more energy than moving small stuff, and magical energy is amplified by your emotions, your determination, and your reason to do whatever you're doing. Trying to lift a massive boulder with magic for no reason? Hard. Trying to lift a massive boulder to free some ponies trapped under there? Easier. Trying to lift a massive boulder to free ponies you know and care about trapped under there? Much easier."

[KaityKat]

I was playing my magic-sighed, light-blind unicorn Mythic Vision, and kind of wanted to revive this topic.

 

I find this discussion to be fairly stimulating and others insights on the topic to be fun to discuss.

 

@IceStorm and @Alivda are involved in said rp, and i would love to hear their input of they have any.

 

[Alivda]

Well, you'd think with me playing a magic researcher, i'd have a better grasp, but... nope, lol.

 

I will say, that my theory has also been that most magic uses a spell formula, which is what allows magic to be taught and learned, as well as be a field of scientific research. However, that's not the only way to cast, and Raven her self can't make the spell forms, as with her horn cracked, her magic constantly fluctuates in power. Basically, if spell A requires 10 magic units, she'd almost never hit the 10 units on the head. So, she free forms the spells, brute forcing the magic to do what she wants rather then taking the easier way. Also, small thing you, @KaityKat, might not know, she's almost constantly leaking a small amount of magic units through the cracks in her horn.

[KaityKat]

oof.

 

Myth would've seen that. o3o

 

no matter tho. I just thought it might be fun to talk about the theory.

 

When you mentioned "weaving the Aether" in rp, I started thinking about this thread and my own musings about Equestrian magic theory.

 

I hadn't thought about it before, but in that moment, I started thinking about what "Weaving the aether" might entail. And i concluded that it would make a lot of sense for a pony who's never seen light, but sees magic to learn how to use magic effectively much differently than other unicorns. That it would make sense if she would use her horn to manipulate the fabric of magic like a seamstress manipulating cloth.

 

She is extremely interested in how magic works and what she and other ponies can do with it.

 

She's watched earth ponies till the soil and seen that they use their own type of magic to help the plants grow. and pegasi controlling the weather with their magic. Her favorite thing of all time is the Crystal Faire in the Crystal Empire. You think there's a show for light-sighted ponies, just think what it looks like for myth. She makes sure to make it to the Faire every year.

[KaityKat]

I'm just imaging myth having a casual conversation with somepony in Canterlot, when the magic from the crystal empire (in the episode "The Crystal Empire") spreads across Equestria and she stops mid sentence and gawks at the sky "Woah! did you *see* that!" the pony responds with "What? i don't see anything..." "You can *not* tell me you don't see that! It's amazing! I have to go find out where it's coming from!"

 

lol the Crystal Heart is probably blinding to her. like looking directly at the sun.