Extract of "A Beginner's Guide to the Melodic Method" by Ley Lines

I created this fictional textbook extract after getting a writing challenge from Pureheart 352, and I rather like the result. While it doesn't really count as a story, I figured it would make a good first blog post.

One example of the advantages of the Melodic spellcasting method over the Revised Star Swirl method is in one of Star Swirl's own spells from his early days: the Amniomorphic Spell. This is one of those spells that so many young unicorns wish they could do, yet if one sticks to the traditional Star Swirl technique it requires either a related Talent or techniques one usually gets in fifth year of magic school. How can this be, when tradition says that it was one of the first spells Star Swirl formalized? I believe this is because of his skepticism of the String Theory of Magic, so he was able to focus on the formula rather than what the spell was actually doing.

When you get down to it, the Star Swirl method is counterintuitive when you think of the world in String terms, since it would be impossible to quantify the vibrational energy of the "string" you are interacting with, if only because you'd have to know the past and future of the "string" in question, which just goes to show how much of a genius Star Swirl was for figuring it out. These days, when even those who still hold to the String Theory use terms from the Quintessence Theory, this mental roadblock doesn't come into play, which is why most schools start with the Star Swirl method. However, when using this method on the Amniomorphic Spell, most users quickly get bogged down calculating the tensions and pressures. It takes years of experience before you can crunch the numbers in a reasonable time frame, and if you want this spell for the same reason most do, you don't have that long. Fortunately, simply by focusing more on the desired end result and "tuning" the subject to match, the Melodic method allows the spell to be cast by almost anypony.

1. Make sure you have either all the pieces or a good substitute. The less you have to change, the less power you will have to use to finish the spell and the longer it will last. If necessary, use telekinesis to hold everything together.
2. Picture a series of parabolas forming a wire frame close to the desired shape. Unlike the Star Swirl method, you can keep everything at second order, you don't have to make the frame precise.

3. Start the spell, as demonstrated in Fig. 3.2, but keep it on phase one for now. Your aura should Feel like it's in the shape of your parabolas, if the spell starts to cascade simply bring it back to this shape.

   1. It may help your first time if you allow the subject to shift to match the spell, so you can track your progress both by Feel and visually.

4. Begin adjusting the "frequency" in each parabola as explained in chapter 2, monitoring how it shifts the shape. You can start either at the top or bottom, but it will probably be easier at the bottom.

   1. Remember, once one part matches the desired end you'll need to make a node along the parabola to keep later shifts from undoing that part.
5. Once one parabola is finished, copy the result to the symmetrical parts of the subject, and repeat step 4 for any remaining parts.
6. Let the spell cascade, finishing the spell.
7. Hope the spell holds the vase long enough for you to find a new one before your parents find out you broke it.

Note: See appendix C for how to do the color and material parts of the Amniomorphic Spell.

One thing I've noticed that a lot of writers do is "explain" magic and how it works, and it is always completely "accurate" within the story. This doesn't quite match how real life science works. While we've understood, say, Newton's Laws of Motion for a long time, we now know that they aren't quite perfect, they just tend to work on the scales we are used to; we need to include Relativity and Quantum Physics to get a more complete picture, and most of that work was done in the last hundred years. Even now, there are debates in the scientific community regarding how these things work, such as whether separate possible events collapse into a single one or split into multiple universes. It only makes sense that magic would have competing theories about what magic is and how it works, and I've tried to capture that here.

I also know that the theory about the Amniomorphic spell being a subtle Harry Potter joke was debunked by M. A. Larson, but I can't think of a better one, and it makes for excellent joke opportunities.