In the beginning, there was a planet. A beautiful sphere glistening in the void with a wide variety of biomes and fauna. From dry deserts to cold tundras everything could be found within this singular biosphere. In these various environments, a great many plants, trees and flowers thrived. Yet, there was one thing missing on this wondrous planet. Somebody to appreciate it.
When six beings of great power happened upon the planet in their travels, they were stunned by its beauty. For a long time, they traveled and marveled at the sights provided by nature.
At some point they decided that it was a pity that they were the only ones able to enjoy their findings, so they decided to bless the planet with life.
Each of them created a creature to inhabit this wondrous planet and live in harmony with the nature found upon it.
From that day on, Griffons, Minotaurs, Yaks, Diamond Dogs, Dragons and Breezies walked the face of the planet. Which was, soon after, dubbed Equus.
The beings loved their creations so much, that they bestowed part of their powers on them. Those gifts manifested with each race in different ways, such as allowing the dragons to live an extraordinarily long life, or diamond dogs to rule the subterranean earth they walked upon.
Over the centuries that those six heavenly beings inhabited Equus, their very presence caused a change. The energy they radiated was partly absorbed by the planet itself, causing it to transform.
It started to produce faint amounts of that energy to help sustain the life living on it, which had become reliant on it to survive. These trace amounts of energy are what would eventually become known as mana.
They lived together in harmony for a long time, until the six beings felt that it was time to move on. As a last gift to the planet and it’s inhabitants which they had grown to love, they created one more race; a race with the purpose of making sure that harmony would continue to exist long after they were gone. Pooling together all their different powers, they created the ponies.
Upon the Pegasi, they bestowed the gift of control, allowing them to create and control everything nature would need to persist.
Upon the Earth Ponies, they bestowed the gift of life. They would be able to help plants as well as other living beings to lead a healthy life.
Upon the unicorns, they bestowed the gift of creation. With their horns and unique mana pathways, they'd be able to access the energy of the planet, forming them into whatever spell they needed.
Before they left, they tasked the ponies with keeping harmony, imparting their gifts to tend to the planet and its inhabitants in their absence.
With a great celebration, they parted with their creations, wishing them the best of luck and leaving them to their own devices.
Millennia passed and the six heavenly beings passed into legend until their existence was nothing more than a tale one told to their children.
The memory of their creators faded, and the creatures living on Equus became independent. And slowly but surely, harmony started to crumble, as the task bestowed upon the ponies was forgotten.
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In today's times, everything on Equus is saturated with magic. The planet continued to produce mana until it became an essential part of the life on it.
Six distinct types of mana exist, their properties allowing them to influence a different part of life. Eventually, the creatures inhabiting Equus attuned themselves to the energies flowing around them, until their very essence was connected to a certain type of mana.
Unicorns call this connection "Affinity". Every unicorn would be able to instinctively control the mana they were connected to a lot more effectively than the other five types.
Soon realizing that different types of mana had different purposes, they created the six schools of magic.
Blue mana, the school of Illusion
Unicorns practicing Illusion spells gained access to a wide variety of spells. Low-level spells could let them display pictures from their mind. They could change the color of light and other minor changes in how others saw something. High-level spells could even change how others perceived reality itself, tricking them into seeing what wasn't there.
Pink Mana, the school of Manipulation
One of the low-level spells of this school became immensely popular, through its wide range of use; Telekinesis, or Levitation as some called it, a spell which allowed the user to manipulate objects in close proximity. Few unicorns achieved the higher levels of this school, which allowed them to terraform their surroundings, creating mountains and ravines as they pleased.
Red mana, the school of Combat
By far the most versatile school of magic became the school of combat. Quickly it was discovered, that instead of just using raw mana to attack, introducing one of the four elements of nature to a spell could bring forth more effective or destructive spells. The four elements of nature, Earth, Water, Fire and Wind could be combined to create a wide variety of spells.
Orange mana, the school of Energy
Since everything on Equus was saturated with mana, the energy mages could influence almost everything. Low level spells allowed them to check objects and living beings for anything out of the ordinary. Scanning spells revealed the true nature of the world around them. High-level mages were able to manipulate and influence the mana surrounding them.
Green mana, The school of Life
Life mages are the most respected amongst the different practitioners. Their spells allowed them to mend the wounds of the injured. While a low-level mage would only be able to regenerate a simple cut, a high-level mage could slowly bring back critically injured ponies from the brink of death.
Purple mana, the school of Magic
Purple mana, a mystery to this very day and age. It remains largely unmapped since a low amount of unicorns are born with this specific affinity, meaning research hasn’t advanced nearly as far as the other schools. Mages which were blessed with this affinity were able to control the other five types of mana almost effortlessly. While a unicorn with a green affinity would have trouble controlling blue or red mana, a unicorn with purple mana could control all types equally.
Blessed with higher mana reserves than the usual unicorn as well as control over all types of mana, this meant they made for excellent mages. The true nature of purple mana has not yet been discovered. Not yet.
Combination/Fusion Magic
This type of magic can be used by two or more unicorns, or one unicorn blessed with a twin affinity. A complicated, difficult to learn process is used, where the casting point of the spell is changed from the horn, to an outside point. Most commonly used is treated thaumium (a metal highly receptive to mana). Two or more spells are channeled into the new focus point, where they mix and create a new spell, usually not castable to a single unicorn. Unicorns with a twin affinity may use their horn as the focus point, as usual. (Thanks for handily demonstrating this, Starlight Glimmer).
Megaspells
Similar to combination magic, but on a much larger scale. Instead of mixing and matching different spells, multiple unicorns can be used to power a single spell. Usually reserved for highly potent spells that require an absurd amount of mana to be cast, unicorns can learn how to share their mana with others. When unicorns start their studies on high level spells in their own respective fields, it often requires a group effort to pull off the desired spell. Note: there are documented exceptions to mega-spells being performed by single exceedingly talented individuals.
True Megaspells
True Megaspells have not yet been invented as of chapter 37.
Chaos Mana
T̎̓̎̒͗̅ͦͬ̒҉͇̘̳͙͇̬̭h͍̦̳̝͙̮̫̘ͫ̆̀̚̕͝ͅe̝̺̜̠͙͇̺̓ͦͣͣͫ̽̈ͅr̶̦̻̱͈̔ͭ̒̑̆̌e̮̮͕̠̓͋̇ͦ́ ͒̽ͮͣ̂̓̉̓͢҉̜͚c̤̪̖̻͓̦̔͐́ͤͬ͗̄ͅa̸̡̩͙͎͙͂ͨͣ̾̀n̶̩̣̗̫̤͂ͫ ̧̲͇̟̞̳̜̟̅̑̔̈́̎ͩb̶͉̖͚͓̦̜͔͖̽̽̔̿̍ͤẽ͎̗̀͜ ͚͓̯͕̰͔ͮͯ̎̊n̸̠̤̹ͨͨ̌̍̊ͩoͥ͌̃̑̎̈́̑̈͏̭̹̺̹̞̫̼̀ͅ ̛̞̳̳̗̑͐̄͐̋̓H̸̡̟͔ͪͪ̃͗̎̾͘ḁ̴̡̞̻̳̟̘̰̩ͩ̔̽ͮr͎̾́ͪ̓̾ͦ͋̈ͅm̧͕͈͉͙̬̭̙̜̫ͦ̃̀ͣ̓̈͠o͖̲̻̫͈͒͆͘n̬̥̺͚̘͓̓ͧ̀ͭ̌̓̕y̠̹͍̬̠̣̮̤ͨ͒̀͛ͩ͋̓̀͢ ̡̭̟̣͕̠̿̂ͥŵ̷̬̖͍̫͈̘̹̪́̋͢͠ͅi̸̺̹̻͎̺̙̫̹̓̎̒̇͘t̵̷̠̙̳̳͉̄̓͆̀͛̋́ͥ́h͚̫̣ͯ̾͐̓̓͐ͣ̆ͣo̡̮̩̼̜̜͆̓̕ư̶̡̦̮̩̮͇̟ͦͬ̃̃̓ţ̧͍̻͇̯͖̣͍ͪ̾͒͛ͨͪ͗̐͐͡ ̺̻͇̩̥̽̊̀͆͛͠C̢̢͖̞̆̾̒h̰ͣͤ͘a̠̪̘̪̳̞̽ͩ́͛ͬ̒̏o̔͐ͨͮͦͮ͏̦͈̞̪̫̻̥̱̀s̶̯̺͔̜̳̼̑̉̽!̨̫̙̏̎̅͛͆ͫ̀
Could you elaborate as to how Starlight Glimmer used two spells? I am guessing there are no Alicorns yet?
Ah but Harmony is the balancing of Chaos, and its manifold wonders and terrors, with Order, and its rigid, unchanging, unfeeling control.
Is there no order to this world? Or is magic itself Chaos brought into harmony by the caster's will?
Apparently donkeys, changelings, and zebras are an invasive species.
Gonna build a wall to keep them dang changlings out. They're gonna take our jobs,
7622874
I think in this, Harmony is meant to intrinsically good, so the harmony you're thinking of would better fit along the lines of Balance.
Ah, Discord. Already breaking in I see? Well let me as a reader welcome you-you'll definitely make this party more interesting
You know, I genuinely hope that Discord is a completely unexpected byproduct of the world's creation and surprises the living fuck out of the Olympians, or that he just shows up and they have no idea where he came from, mortal pony or god.
It just amuses me that everyone from the lowliest mortal to the highest god might suddenly find their pubic hair replaced with cotton candy and ambrosia replaced with habanero chocolate soy sauce.
7622869 She does so in episode 21 of season 6.
7622874 ah, but the definition of harmony is "a state of being in agreement or concord" or "The quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole". So chaos can be as much a part of harmony as everything else, it's just a matter of what you're trying to make harmonius :D
7622902 I was counting them more along the lines of... an evolutionary byproduct. Since ponies are not religious they have no problem believing in the power of Darwin.
7622994 That would be funny indeed :D best I can do is have him knock on the "TV" though ^^ ...wait... When we're watching it's like... Are we all actually gods?
7623065
But... if there was enough time for evolution to churn out those creatures, then why wouldn't Ponies, Yaks, Griffons, Minotaurs, Diamond Dogs, Breezies, and Dragons have evolved into completely different species by then?
Well, considering their extremely long lifespans, maybe not Dragons.
7623075 Well, considering there is an entire school of magic called life magic and I'm sure dark magic exist (even if it hasn't been mentioned yet), then you could make the argument that those species are the product of either genetic experiments or magic induced mutations.
Honestly wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen in Equestria. (That title goes to either Pinkie or Discord-and they're still competing for the title of "weirdest fucking thing to ever happen involving Jam and guitars ever")
7623075 media.giphy.com/media/ujUdrdpX7Ok5W/giphy.gif
But seriously, though, since ponies as a race are much more attuned with the magics/mana of the six beings as well as the earth they are evolving on a faster "schedule" than the other races. While other races are definitely evolving too, they didn't have much more time than to kill off a few of their bad traits. Also by "evolutionary byproduct" I'd say the zebras are a subspecies of the earth ponies and changelings some form of corrupted unicorn. Donkeys... would require a bit more thought on my part.
I never meant to go this far into detail with the whole creation of the world, just outline it, so I'm making those details up as I go. I hope that answer was satisfactory to you.
7623107
Last I checked, when some of a species evolves into another, the part that didn't was simply evolving into something else.
Evolution is a forked path, not a branch that keeps going straight with offshoots.
Such as how humans didn't evolve from apes, humans and apes had a common ancestor that died out quite a while ago.
You should have learned this in high school mate.
no, bad FoE, stay in your universe!
7623127 It seems to me you're complaining about the zebra being a subspecies of the earth ponies thing. Subspecies here meaning they're a form of an earth pony, not an entirely new species. The only thing changed from normal earth ponies is the fact that their fur colors behave differently, as well as a cultural difference.
Kinda like we have whites, blacks, and asians, but we're still humans, even though we're different.
As I said, the creation canon was never meant to go much deeper than what is written in this chapter, so everything I'm adding to it on the fly here is not even canon to my universe, just a way to try and explain a few of the holes I left open.
Also, I'm aware how evolution works, even though I never went to High School.
7623284
I was talking about changelings and donkeys, actually. the zebras made sense for the reasons you mentioned.
7623154 wtf is FoE? does it have megaspells?
7623301 Fallout. Equestria.
megaspells and balefire bombs killed everything
7622994
inb4 Discord turns out to be the Greek goddess Eris, cross-dressing.
7623309 Or the reverse is true and Discord is Eris rather than the other way around and fucked with time in the most literal way possible to make that happen.
Honestly, I think we should stop here. When it comes to chaos and stuff like this, we can only get more disturbing.
7623289 well then, I hardly believe "corrupted unicorn" falls into the category of proper evolution. And I've come up with a solution for donkeys as well by now. Looks to me like they could fall into the same category as the friggen cows(which I hadn't mentioned either) and belong to those weird grayzone "how intelligent" are animals in equestria and what qualifies as an animal in the first place bs the show has going on...
7623301 Oh for fuck's sake, whatever you do, don't look it up. As it turns out there's two subpony cultures related to that. One is based on Fallout and the other, considering you haven't been exposed to, I will not fucking mention. Seriously, don't look them up. You will regret it. And likely be enraged.
7623313
That makes sense.
Though I'd always thought that changelings made more sense as a corrupt crystal pony.
I'm not arguing to change the canon, I'm just arguing for the sake of arguing.
7623308 Oh the fallout universe, the one mlp universe I avoid even more than the displaced one.
7623309
7623312 Isn't it fun how chaos has almost infinite options in fantasy?
comment section starting to feel like a chat here :D But I'll go to sleep now, since it's almost 5AM :P
7623314 lol, sounds fun ^^
7623317 Well my true headcanon of them is just that they're bugs. nasty, nasty bugs...
Ya, me too...
7622874 no emotion without peace, no ignorance without knowledge, no passion- wait, that was something else. My mistake.
Nice having an in-universe expanation for all of that. My question is
what of the Earth Ponies?
7623326 It isn't. I'm not trying to be funny anymore. The other one which I still won't name is about as disturbed and fucked up as you will find in MLP fanfiction in general. Hell even among disturbed fanfics overall I'd say it's still pretty damn fucked up.
Okay, I've warned you and done my part. If you look it up, the rest is on you. Good night/morning wherever you are.
7623332
???
7623321 you know, I feel like I should be insulted. not because you avoid the fallout universe, but because you compare those fics to the displaced ones. the differences in quality are bloody massive, you see. Fallout fics are generally better written, and actually get completed. whereas displaced fics are mostly written by illiterate teenagers, and don't get finished.
what you have here is apples and oranges, they might seem similar, but the differences are enough to matter.
Finally the chapter on a deeper explanation of magic!! The chapter we've all been waiting for; well at least I've been waiting for.
When I first read this I got really excited because I thought this was Twilight Sparkle personal notes on Magic. But then I realized it wouldn’t it make sense chronologically since these notes would have to take place further in the future after Atlas’s Awakening. At that point I would think Atlas would explain some aspects of magic she wasn't familiar with. Unless he was purposely being secretive about it.
Well I guess Atlas is going to be the first to cast such a spell. The name keeps making me think of world class Magic in the end it's all the same; just OP magic.
One: I need to learn how to do this
Two: yay, Discord!
Harmony without Discord would be pure Order; which would be dull and tedious. Pure Discord without any Order would be incomprehensible and Incapable of sustaining itself.
7623127 Okay normally I would agree with you but you have to keep in mind these species have achieve sentience/intelligence in their creation. Early common ancestors of man didn't name themselves humans did, and I find it difficult to believe in the future a time where all human up and say "hey we are no longer humans we should change our species name". As they evolve/developed they would have no reason to change there species names but if sub species happened to pop up through natural means, magic (accidents or not), cross breeding, or Discord I believe they would be given different species names. Even if the first ponies, Griffons, Minotaurs, Yaks, Diamond Dogs, Dragons and Breezies looked different from modern ones they may find that abandoning the names given to them by their creators would be insulting to them; it would just be another reason to keep the names.
It makes sense if you look at it from that angle at least for me.
Another note the other species could have been made by others or found there way to Equus from a different world/reality(...maybe I've been reading too many HiE fics).
7623321
I actually found the Fallout: Equestria story to be an excellent read. However, I can understand and respect the fact that some might not be into that sort of story, no matter how good it might be. After all, there are genres that I can't stand to read, so I'd be a hypocrite if I said some bs like "Reed it or ur gay". (Poor grammar intentional to indicate hypocrite alternate universe me's extreme lack of intelligence. ) If you ever do decide to read it I hope you enjoy it. Either way, I am looking forward to the next chapter in this story.
How does one do this
7623321 The Displaced universe is bad I cant argue with that, how ever Fallout:Equestria is vary good it even has a game in development FO:E covers a large range of topics like PTSD and drug addiction, to the point that I agreed that she needed the drug. The ending left me satisfied like Littlepip's story was done and no more was needed. so if you have the time you should read the first few chapters, at least until she leaves the vault. I have read it at least 3 times.
7623347 My mistake. Though that should really be a separate paragraph.
7623530 It's an artifact of Unicode that allows you to stack accent marks on top of a character, and even on top of themselves. There's an online generator that will take any text you give it, and "Zalgo-ize" it.
https://eeemo.net/
Here's a bit of history about it.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/zalgo
and
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebOriginal/Zalgo
Hope that helps.
...Wait, can you invert each of the types of mana to act like an opposite, like using life mana to suck the life out of something?
7623065 to be more clear I meant when does she show twin affinities or are we referring to the self levitation while casting other spells
7623530
7623407
That's Zalgo text I believe. Google it up, there are generators for it.
7623366
7623434
7623563 There are actually several reasons I avoid the FoE universe, one being I'm just not that interested in the fallout setting, which is probably the biggest reason. I'm sure it's good, amazing even, but I'm not willing to read the 600k original plus spin-offs about something I don't really care about. I'm not exactly comparing FoE to Displaced, they just fall into the same category of: I don't wanna read em. The reason I think displaced is slightly better is because sometimes, displaced fics are actually interesting to me. Breath of Fire comes to mind.
7623530
7623611 Zalgo text, as EdBecerra pointed out.
7623698 no, levitaion plus other spells is more along the lines of multicasting. Have you seen the episode? She literally combines the spells: cogeria, duchia compellus and persuaderi into one new spell while narrating what she's doing. (forgive me if I butchered the spell names)
UGG, everyone knows you explain chaos magic with triangles... why does everyone insist on explaining it with a square matrix? Just because two triangles fitted together make a square doesn't mean an isosceles, scalene and obtuse triangle can fit not only on the same plane nor in the same perspective to make a square. I mean that's like calling an inter-dimensional portal generator a moog without explaining that the synth is a brand of synthesizer.
7624096 eh, very well then. you just phrased it to sound like you were calling it bad.
7624096 No I haven't seen season 6 yet. Waiting until it all comes out on Netflix.
7624096
In regards to the Starlight Glimmer and a twin affinity when she combined all those spells they were all focusing on manipulation of another's perception or something like that. Isn't that just a single affinity for the school of illusion?
I'm not really bothered and if the story says starlight has twin affinity then she does. I just wanted to point that little tidbit out.
I like that last line!!! Kinda sent a shiver down my spine!!
truth, life would be boring without it as well
7623317
7623326
Maybe some crystal ponies were cursed somehow and being so close to the Crystal Heart so often, they became twisted to their current form, need love to survive, and evolved their disguises as a form of taking it? Then one pone became Queen and then changelings start to come into being. Either that or a crazy genetic offspring of a breezie and an alicorn.
7624096 There are a few good/okay-ish Displaced fics out there, BUT(and its a big butt ) chances are you'll either find a
Or the
type of stories.
Kkat wrote over 620,000 as to why megaspells are a bad idea.
Kkat called, she wants her nukes back.
Also, missed a call from some DeLancie chap. Didn't leave a message.
wouldn't "Arcanokinesis" fit better?
-Warning. Bionicle reference detected. Masks of Control, Creation, and Life referenced. Awaiting further instructions.-
What about Heart?
8385943
While I see where your coming from, and what your saying, I'm pretfy sure that Arcanokinesis would just be the manipulation of mana, and, to an extent, you're right, but they call it Telekinesis instead because they use it to manipulate objects(anything really) at a distance. So, I think Arcanokinesis would fall under telekinesis because it would be the direct manipulation of mana/magic over a distance. If they were only moving magic, Then it would be called Arcanokinesis. (Unless I've got the definition of arcanokinesis wrong, I could only infer the meaning, couldn't find any easy info on google on it.)
Ah, time travel, I wonder if she would make it back this far.