How do you think magic works in Equestria?
So last week I asked what people thought were the objectively best choice is taken to Equstria; Stay human or become a pony. That spawned a sub-conversation about general magic usage, which I thought raised an interesting question: How does magic actually work in Equestria?
Now, I don't mean how ponies learn magic. We can pretty definitively say magic is learned like anything else (for unicorns); You practice a spell, and depending on how good you are, you learn it at some point. I mean in terms of the actual world. How and where does magic exist? How do unicorns cast magic? How does it affect pegasi and earth ponies, who we know have some kind of magical properties since earth ponies are the strongest kind of ponies, and pegasi can fly with a pretty small wingspan relative to body size, as well as control the weather (And they can stand on clouds somehow). There are also other beasts, such as the timberwolves, who are obviously magical in nature. How does it all work?
Personally, I am a fan of the idea of "Leylines". For those who aren't familiar with leylines, they are a kind of underground "Network" of high densities of magic. Kind of like the rivers on the surface, but for magic. I like to think that especially magical areas, such as the Everfree Forest, are located in places, knowingly or not, where leylines overlap or meet and create "focal points" of magic, where magic is very readily available in larger quantities than usual. This gives an explanation for why magical beasts like Timberwolves aren't a plague actively being dealt with all the time; They are relatively few in number, because they require a diet that either is only available on such focal points (Such as a plant or animal that is only found there) or they siphon, at least partially, directly from focal points to sustain themselves, therefore requiring them to stick to those areas to survive.
On the topic of magic for pegasi and earth ponies, I believe that all creatures and plants, due to the presence of the leylines, are naturally born with an affinity for magic of some kind; Everything is created from something else that was already affected by them. Pegasi and earth ponies are different genes of the same original pony race, and evolution allowed them to split into different ponies with different "results" of magical exposure. I believe all creatures, to some extend, can manipulate magic. However, most creatures aren't consciously aware unlike unicorns casting magic. Perhaps this is the reason why some cutie marks, such as Fluttershy's, allows her to understand animals despite not changing her speech pattern to match them. When pegasi are flying, or moving clouds, they are actually manipulating the magic within the clouds and the air. But they aren't aware because it occurs as naturally to them as breathing or walking.
On the topic of unicorn spell casting, I believe their horn functions much like a limb, but for magic; Unicorn horns contain some kind of substance that attracts magic, perhaps like a magnet to attract or repel it. And just like your brain send signals to perform delicate movements with your limbs, unicorn brains send signals to manipulate this substance very delicately to affect the magic around the unicorn to coalesce or dissipate around whatever the unicorn is trying to manipulate. The reason I say this is because a unicorns horn seems to be a focal point for magic; It seems to me like unicorns use their horns as a "sight" for it. The alicorn amulet is part of why I believe so. The amulet glows alongside the wielders horn, as if the amulet is functioning as a secondary focal point. This would make sense if we assume unicorn magic is manipulative, since more points from which to manipulate the magic in the world would allow for more "delicate movement", just like using both hands for something usually makes it easier. This also explains why the spells that seem the easiest are based on movement, while the hardest are based on alteration. Magic can be seen as the act of manipulating atoms. Moving an object is the same as moving atoms around to do what you want. In terms of magic, this falls under the "shove the thing around" category, which is pretty straight forward to understand, even if not understood literally. Alteration, such as an aging spell, instead requires the spell caster to understand, to some degree, what new atoms they need to put together, or what they need to take away. It's a much more delicate movement of atoms around them, and therefore is much more difficult to do.
Submitted August 24, 2017 at 03:09PM by AkoranBrighteye
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