chalk

[alicornucopia]

In Paraasilan, Esmaar, a pair of roommates are about to break a rule that, compared to the one about running in the corridors or even the one about unlicensed teleportation, is there for a good reason.

In unison, they complete their shared spell.

~~~

with Adarin (Aestrix)

with Ekador (kappa)

with Brilliance (kappa)

with the admin (kappa)

with Teah (kappa)

with Katran (lambda)

with Hall (kappa)

with Joy (kappa)

with Kalinda (Christy Hotwater)

Comments

[or_coincidence]

"From my perspective, Joy disappeared mysteriously a little while ago and I went and looked up some spells until I found one that told me where he went, sort of, and then I went and looked up some more spells until I found one that could get him back. But it isn't very good, so it accidentally got you instead."

[alicornucopia]

"Aaaand where did you get me to, pray tell?"

[or_coincidence]

"Equestria! Ponyville specifically. The Ponyville public library, even more specifically."

[alicornucopia]

"So I'm gathering I'm not in Elcenia anymore, is that right?"

[or_coincidence]

"If Elcenia is the world you were in a minute ago, yes."

[alicornucopia]

"Ooookay. And I am here because your spell is badly targeted."

[or_coincidence]

"Yes. I could've refined the targeting, but only by sacrificing important safety precautions, and I didn't want to do that. It's better to accidentally get the wrong dragon for a few minutes than to risk somepony getting hurt in the process of getting the right one."

[alicornucopia]

"Your language is really speciesist, did you know that?"

[or_coincidence]

"Yes, but it's the only language around unless you count animal speech and that's not learnable, so I have to put up with it."

[alicornucopia]

"Rrrright. Anyway. I would like to be put back eventually so it's comforting to know you think you can do that, but I am pretty curious about this place I find myself in, what with it being magical and unfamiliar."

[or_coincidence]

"You can ask me about Equestria if you want, I won't mind answering things."

[alicornucopia]

"Right, so is more or less everybody ponies and dragons?"

[or_coincidence]

"Equestria is a pony country. I don't know if there are any dragons living in it at all other than Joy, and if there are, they don't live in pony villages with ponies like he does. But there's dragons in other places farther away, and griffins, and certain kinds of sea monsters that can talk... I could probably look up a list of all the non-pony creatures who're known to use learnable language, but I might have to send away to another library in Canterlot for it."

[alicornucopia]

"Learnable language as opposed to?"

[or_coincidence]

"I mean, you can teach a dragon or a sea serpent Equestrian, but you can't teach a bear or a bunny or a bee Equestrian. But certain ponies who have the right kind of special talent can understand and communicate with bears and bunnies and bees; they just don't use a learnable language to do it. Someone who tried to learn how to talk to bears might get pretty good at it, especially if they were an earth pony to begin with, but they'd never be as good as somebody with a special talent for it."

[alicornucopia]

"Explain 'special talents'."

[or_coincidence]

"Every pony - and I only mean ponies this time; dragons and griffins and sea serpents don't work the same way - every pony has a special talent that's unique to them. With some ponies it's more like being good at chess or fashion or dancing, and with some ponies it's more like being able to talk to animals or cast a special spell nobody else can do, but everyone gets one. Most ponies start to figure out their special talents when they're a little older than me, and when they know what it is, they get a little picture on their flanks that represents it. The picture is called a cutie mark."

[alicornucopia]

"...this is almost interesting enough to convince me to learn to turn into a pony of some kind."

[or_coincidence]

"You could do that?" she asks, intrigued. "Which kind would you pick? There's three. Technically four. Unicorns like me have horns and can do magic; earth ponies don't have horns and are strong and good at some kinds of things; pegasi don't have horns and do have wings and they can fly and manipulate the weather. And princesses are like all three kinds of ponies together, and they have horns and wings and can do magic and fly and manipulate the weather and are strong and good at earth pony things. But princesses are very rare and I don't know if they're a kind of pony in the same way the other three are."

[alicornucopia]

"Well, I'd want to think about it more, I can only pick a new form a limited number of times and I've done," he gestures at himself, "one of five already. But probably a unicorn, unless it turns out princesses are in fact something I can turn into and not a - nonspecies."

[or_coincidence]

"Unicorns do seem like a pretty good choice if you're interested in magic. But if I were you, I'd wait and find out if there are any records of any other kinds of creatures turning into ponies, first. If there are, then you could find out useful information like whether or not they got cutie marks and how it affected them if they did or didn't. I could look that up for you, if you want! I might need a trip to Canterlot to do it, but Canterlot's not that far away."

[alicornucopia]

"I mean, this information would be interesting, but it wouldn't necessarily be a definitive guide to what happens if my kind of dragon does it," says Kaylo. "Since I bet you that's never been done before."

[or_coincidence]

"But I still think it would be helpful to know about, because even if the your-kind-of-dragon part hasn't been done before, the nonpony-turning-into-pony part has intricacies that nonponies turning into other kinds of nonponies wouldn't have to deal with. It wouldn't be a definitive guide, but it would be a pretty good hint."

[alicornucopia]

"Yeah. You will notice that I have not, yet, turned into a pony," shrugs Kaylo. "So what-all kind of magic can unicorns do?"

[or_coincidence]

"We can use telekinesis," she floats a scroll to demonstrate, "and cast spells. Usually our horns and whatever we're doing magic to glow when we do magic; I'm just weird. Telekinesis is just about as simple as it looks, and spells can do all kinds of different things and work all kinds of different ways depending on the spell, but it usually comes down to 'concentrate on the spell you're casting in the right way and it happens'."