5th New Dream

[its_decided]

[Written]

Everypony...

...how would you feel if you got to know what your future would be like and you realized that it'll never come true?

[Action]

[And long after the question, Nozomi's busy just being so melancholy. A teacher. She was a teacher. She had her friends, she knew more friends, other girls who bore the name "Pretty Cure" and the worst of all was that she fell in love.

But, that wasn't her. She was like the other Twilight Sparkle, just a program from Mayfield. She'd never experience that at all. And that's what is hurting her right now.]

...I miss everyone...

Comments

[written]

[morganknight]

Oh, well... Paradox is when you do something that really wrenches reality out of its comfortable little rut. On Earth, for example, common belief is that magic isn't real, so doing something obviously magical or at least believed to be completely impossible means Paradox. It generally hurts.

[written]

[magicalrealist]

Oh, so the literal definition.

(A pause.)

...But since magic is real in that Earth, wouldn't its use not trigger a paradox since it's still abiding by that reality's code? It'd only be a paradox if magic was somehow removed from that reality entirely.

...Or is it because they believe it to be a paradox that it's a paradox anyway? Because that in itself seems paradoxical.

[written]

[morganknight]

You're thinking a level too low. It isn't a question of 'is magic real'. The ability to alter reality by belief is something everyone possesses. The difference between an Awakened Mage and a 'Sleeper' is that the Mage's strength of belief and will is great enough to overwrite the reality everyone 'knows' exists with their own.

Think of it this way: 2+2=4, right? Well, Magick is being able to say "2+2=5" and have it be absolutely true, to some extent or another. But when you yank reality out of where everyone believes it to be like that, it backlashes in your face.

[written]

[magicalrealist]

You'd have to change their beliefs to make that kind of change.

[written]

[morganknight]

Exactly. A thousand years ago, "everyone" believed in magic and the supernatural, in ghosts and witches and mage-lords that protected the peasants with their might. Take a gun or a calculator into that age and you'd be the one straining belief past credulity with your 'science'.

[written]

[magicalrealist]

It must've hurt the mage headcount once technology reached a certain point. I'm guessing somewhere around automobiles showing up?

[written]

[morganknight]

Much earlier than that. At least with regards to a Eurocentric history, the real downfall of magick began when what was called the Order of Reason, at the time, first used cannons to destroy a mage's fortress. I forget the exact date, but it represented the triumph of technology over magic... and also putting artillery in the hands of the unAwakened.