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Post by Sugar Sweet on Oct 1, 2014 22:15:50 GMT -5
"Then you will teach me," Sugar said forcefully. There was no questions, there were no subtle connotations, just her. Outright. Telling Spirit she would teach her.
Finally! A subject she didn't know a whole lot about that she could incorporate into thaumo-mechanical engineering! Think of all the possibilities! Keeping cool the easily heated reintegration device! maintaining the heat of gears so they don't freeze in sub zero temperatures! The ability to simple teleport someplace at will! Simply infinite possibilities assaulted Sugar's eager mind as she decided, very one sidedly, that this mare would teach her everything she knew about glyphs.
Mhmm. that's what would happen. After all, the pursuit of knowledge was the noblest of quests! Nopony would ever refuse!
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Post by Spirit Weaver on Oct 1, 2014 22:28:04 GMT -5
Spirit was silent for a while when Sugar spoke. Honestly, she really didn't want to teach her for one, very selfish, reason. If Sugar learned Glyphs, Spirit would be cut out of the loop, completely.
She wouldn't get any glory for bringing back the art. She wouldn't get any fame or money after Sugar built incredibly magitech machines. She would get... well... nothing out of it at all, unless she cleared that up first.
"Well, that highly depends. What would I get out of teaching you?"
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Post by Sugar Sweet on Oct 1, 2014 22:41:15 GMT -5
Sugar blinked, and looked at Spirit like she was crazy.
"What do you mean?" She asked bleakly, "I don't understand. Knowledge is meant to be shared is it not?"
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Post by Spirit Weaver on Oct 1, 2014 22:54:46 GMT -5
"Well, yes, knowledge is meant to be shared. But... let's be honest here. Everything in this world has a price."
"So, tell me what you'd be willing to offer for lessons. I'm not necessarily asking for bits, though. Just... pitch something at me."
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Post by Sugar Sweet on Oct 2, 2014 1:02:30 GMT -5
Sugar blinked again, cursing herself mentally for not thinking of that.
"I'd... split profits?" She said weakly, "Anything with your teachings involved?"
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Post by Spirit Weaver on Oct 2, 2014 1:10:24 GMT -5
Spirit was about to jump at the offer to split the profits, but halted herself. Instead, she decided to pitch her own idea, "I don't necessarily need money. How about this: we put both out names on whatever magitech you make with runes. Let us share the glory. And when this makes it big, maybe just donate some of the bits to the Golden Hearts Orphanage in Canterlot. How does that sound?"
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Post by Sugar Sweet on Oct 2, 2014 8:55:18 GMT -5
Sugar actually physically winced at the prospect of donating any of her precious bits, and replied meekly with "Are you sure you don't just want some of the profits..?"
Clearly, she didn't like the idea of donating. Well, honestly, that's not it. Not really, she just thought that, if she was making the world a better place to begin with, why shouldn't she get something back? And then, why give it to somepony else? She wanted something for her troubles, not to give it to somepony else, but to use for herself, and to make things better again.
"I'll still but your name down but...?"
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Post by Spirit Weaver on Oct 2, 2014 9:17:17 GMT -5
Spirit honestly should have expected that. And hey, Sugar had no way of knowing that the place she was asking to donate to was such an important part of her life. After all, they didn't know the first thing about each other, save what they were good at (which seemed to both be making things that are either really fun or really dangerous, be they mechanical or magickal)
But, Spirit did one of the other things she was good at. Hiding emotion. Granted, she suddenly seemed rather apathetic as she spoke, "I guess I'll just take a bit of glory and profits, then." Yeah, she'd just donate it herself, later. She'd need an alias, though. Or try to do it anonymously.
"Regardless, when would you like to start these lessons?"
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Post by Sugar Sweet on Oct 2, 2014 17:39:17 GMT -5
Sugar giggled and clapped her hooves with glee. She didn't take social cues very well, and the apathetic nature of Spirits sudden mood swing went right over the self proclaimed 'genius' head. Though, she was a genius, just not in social fields.
"As soon as possible!" She said quickly, "It's always good to have a fellow genius share their field~"
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Post by Spirit Weaver on Oct 2, 2014 19:12:09 GMT -5
Spirit nodded. At least this was something she knew. Something she could delve into with her whole heart. Slowly, she began to pace back and forth, and her voice became reminiscent of a teacher, "Well, we can start with a few basics, now. Tell, me. What exactly do you know about magick?"
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Post by Sugar Sweet on Oct 2, 2014 20:11:44 GMT -5
Oh dear
Oh no
Hold on to your lugnuts it's...
TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME FOR AN OVERHAUL!
Sugar put one hoof up, closed her eyes, and began to speak.
"The theory is that magic is carried around the body in a set of leylines. These leylines differ in layout in each species and each pony. A larger soul means larger amounts of leylines, never forget this. In an Earth pony, they’re evenly spread out in general, enhancing muscle mass, endurance and giving the pony a natural affinity to the earth, even if they’re talent doesn’t lie within that field. They’re also distributed through the immune system and reinforce the heart and lungs. basically, the earth pony is a walking tank of leylines, designed to work longer and harder than any other species and still come back begging for more. Those are ponies like myself~"
She smiled happily at this, as though she thought it was the best thing in the world, before continuing onwards, soldiering inexorably forward.
"A pegasus is different again. Their leylines lead to the heart, lungs, wings and the tips of the hooves. Most pegasi are dainty creatures with weaker legs and bone structure, being that their bones are thinner to allow less weight. However, generally speaking, their aerial mastery knows no bounds. The leylines in the hooftips allow for the pegasi to touch, walk on and manipulate cloud and cloud matter, fog and such. The leylines to the wings obviously allow them to fly, since physiologically speaking, a pegasus shouldn’t physically be capable of doing so. This explains why a few pegasi are born with underdeveloped wings. They don't have the magical capacity to allow them to fly, or genetic mutation has rearranged their leylines to different parts of the body! I've heard rumours that there's a flightless pegsus who tends to the statues in Canterlot! But that's neither here nor there concerning Magic."
"A unicorn is unique in the fact that the majority of the leylines run directly to the brain and into the horn. Physically, a unicorn is generally much, much weaker than any other species of pony. Their limbs are weaker, their bodies are frailer and they’re much more prone to disease or sickness. However they are the only pony race physically capable of performing magic outside of passive magic. They’re born with the ability to take some of the magic from within them and make it tangible by using the entirety of their brain and the focal point, the horn. That’s not to say that a horn, once broken, nutrilises magic. This is not true. It’ll hurt like hell and you’ll have a very pissed off unicorn on you, but they’ll still be capable of magic. Unicorns are generally more intelligent or creative than their cousins, although that’s not true to all. Prince Shining Armour, former captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard, is a fine example of a unicorn with a strong, healthy body and a very powerful magical presence as well."
Not that she'd observed the Captain on a visit to Canterlot once. No, she'd never do that. That would be stalking, and Sugar didn't do anything illegal... right?
The brief pause was then filled again.
"Of course, the sub species of ponies are different altogether. The Sea ponies are an unknown, since they’re difficult to document. They keep to themselves, even from us. The ponies of the heartless realms of Godsreach, however, are easily documented, although they don’t seem to trust magic. Their leylines are in massive supply, and they all run to internal organs (Heart, lungs and stomach), muscles (Improving the resilience, heightening muscle density and such things) and their bone structure (Making their bones super strong and super heavy)."
She paused again as something else occurred to her, then continued right on running her mouth.
"Magic also courses through the planet of Equus in a series of leylines that, whilst constantly emitting passive radiation, are most powerful along their threads, and at junctions where leylines join together or cross paths. These are basis of many myths and legends, many of which include 'the source', a direct link to all the magic in Equus. Many of these are simply flights of fancy, but some have basis in truth. The energy of the leylines can be used by unicorns to strengthen their magic without using up any of their internal reserves by drawing on the power around them rather than their own magical wellsprings of power."
She paused again, her mind already running at a lightyear per second to try and remember everything she knew about magical theory and practice.
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Post by Spirit Weaver on Oct 2, 2014 21:19:47 GMT -5
Spirit smiled and cracked her neck. This was going to be a lot easier than she thought. Most earth ponies, when asked what they knew of magick, simply replied 'I don't know,' 'why should I care,' or 'what are you doing in my house at two in the morning?'
Err... that last one wasn't really as important as the first two. What Spirit really needed to say was that Sugar knew nearly as much about the Lines as she did! Hell, chances were, the only thing Sugar didn't know was how to utilize the lines in runes and glyphs! Which... actually made Spirit feel kind of inadequate.
Regardless, she spoke, pulling a piece of charcoal from her bag. Upon the ground, she began to make a rather large rune circle, complete with smaller glyphs within it, each connected by a serioes of smaller circles and lines, "You are correct on all of those. One thing you didn't mention, though was that these Ley Lines were actually rather commonly tapped into and utilized in ancient civilizations. One such place is where I learned everything I know."
Soon, she had a fully scaled diagram on the ground, "Step on this, please," she ordered Sugar, doing the same, herself. Taking minor control of your character, Sugar did so, probably with some sarcastic quip or other.
Then, the lines began to slowly glow, starting at one end and travelling across the runes and sigils all the way to the other end. As soon as the circle was completely lit, the world... changed. Every living thing emitted an 'aura' of magick. It was there in the insects that flitted about. It was in Sugar's hooves. It was in the grass and trees. Hell, it even emanataed from from crystal inside of the machine, though the metal and casing itself remained a dull grey. Lifeless and ugly amidst this world of colour.
Speaking of the colours, bright threads of colour ran this way and that across the world, in a mad spiderweb of power. Clearly, these were the worldy Ley Lines. A few of them seemed to have tributaries 'redirected' into the circle they were standing upon.
Spirit began to speak again. Strange thing, though. While every living and magickal thing gave off light and warmth, she was cold and colourless. A deadzone. "This is the Magickal World. Here is where we will begin. From here it's all a mental excersize of touching the untouchable and feeling the ethereal energy about you."
As an example, Spirit closed her eyes. A nearby thread bent and contoured it's path, until it flowed directly into her body. But, she still didn't quite absorb any of it. Instead, once it entered, it dispersed out of her body as small particles, which rejoined the greater stream of the Magick.
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Post by Sugar Sweet on Oct 2, 2014 22:22:34 GMT -5
Sugar had indeed stepped within the bounds of the sigil, and had indeed been paying very close attention to what Spirit was saying. So much so, that she'd actually brought out a pad and paper out of nowhere and had not only copied down the glyphs Spirit had drawn upon the ground, but had started taking notes on other things as well, colours, variations of aura, among other things.
"Okay... so, why is it you don't have an aura then?" Sugar asked curiously, "Is that a side effect of being on the glyph?"
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Post by Spirit Weaver on Oct 2, 2014 22:46:52 GMT -5
Yep. That was /always/ the next question when shown the lines. 'Why are you colourless?' 'Where's your magick?' etc. etc. etc. "The answer is actually rather simple, my dear," she said, as if it wasn't even a big deal of a thing to speak about, "I'm magickally dead. Born without the Ley Lines that suffuse the world and all living things. So, while going by Equestrian standards of death being 'when the last traces of magick leave a body,' I was technically born and live, even though I'm dead."
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Post by Sugar Sweet on Oct 2, 2014 22:56:35 GMT -5
Sugar paused for a moment, considering that for a second, before smiling brightly.
"Fascinating!" She exclaimed, flipping to another page and writing that down as well, "A pony that lives without magic... This warrants further study as well!"
A few more scribbles before she peered out once again at the world around her, then looked back to the first page, where she'd drawn a detailed mini version of the glyph she now stood in.
"So, how do they work? How does one go about using these glyphs?" She asked quickly, looking to each piece of the complex circle encased symbol, "How does one activate them?"
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