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[What's showing in this feed? Well, it appears to be a sword. A sword made entirely of golden light, flat and without distinctive marks or flaws -- a Platonic ideal of a sword, hovering in midair and swathed in the same golden light it is made of.]

Well. This is new. I am not certain if I could have created such an effect before I came here, but if I had the capability, I certainly never used it.

The question is -- did I gain something new, or is having my magic so weak leading me to find new ways to use it?

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_{[ He arches his brows as he watches it flick around. ]}

I've never seen telekinesis that strong before.

Ah, but you see, it isn't that.

[Celestia brings the sword over to her, then casually extends a hoof to touch it. Which she fails to do, because the hoof passes cleanly through it as if it were not there.]

It is simply an appearance, not a material construction. I am only wielding light.

_{[ Sorry, Celestia. This is all a bit much for him to wrap his head
around so, he's going to try and relegate it into scientific terms. Terms
that make sense. ]}

A holographic projection that you're controlling with telekinesis - that's what we call the manipulation of objects with the mind.

As do we, but this is not telekinesis -- the manipulation of the magic here is something entirely different.

Though I admit that is an equine definition which may be excessively specific in this interest. But suffice to say at present, I could only move a manifestation of light with this speed, nothing else.

_{[ Ugh, it makes his head hurt. He doesn't like it when he doesn't
understand things, and this whole magic business was not at all scientific
or obeyed any laws of physics that he could wrap his head around and thus
proper understand. ]}

I'm still not sure all of this is 'magic'. Surely there's a better explanation for it.

[Celestia abruptly turns her full attention on the communicator with a confident, though not unfriendly in the least, smile.] Why is 'magic' an insufficient explanation?

Magic is what you call things you can't explain. Even things like the way you move that sword have explanations, even if for a long time people didn't understand how it was possible.

Ah, we have a terminology problem here. There are multiple sorts of magic, but this kind is patterning mental energy into magical energy to cause a change in the environment external to the mind.

Right, exactly what I just said - telekinesis, but without the word 'magic'.

And yet 'magic' is the process which causes it. Would changing that to any other arbitrary word be more satisfactory?

Actually, yes, it would. Alchemy makes more sense than the world magic.

Alchemy is a specific branch of magic focused on the transformation of substances. It certainly doesn't encompass telekinesis or raising the sun and moon. And even after all that, I haven't even touched on the deeper magics.

"Raising the sun and moon"? That's definitely not magic - that's the world spinning on its axis.

_{[ Can't trick him with that one, Pony! SCIENCE! ]}

[Oh, you sweet human child. Celestia smiles brightly.] Perhaps here that is true, it certainly seems to be. But where I am from, the cycle of day and night is the responsibility of ponykind as surely as the seasons and the weather are.

_{[ Whatever, strange pony, that is science and that is so how it works.
]}

Seems an odd burden to place on a pony.

Such responsibilities have always fallen to ponykind. In fact, I cannot begin to tell you how strange it is not to be responsible for the coming of the day after several hundred years of managing it.

Seems kind of unfair, foisting a thing like that on you ponies.

_{[ Aka, he doesn't believe you, but he's not going to fight you overly hard on it anymore either. ]}

To my mind, it seems unfair that humankind has to constantly struggle with never knowing when a bad rainstorm will hit or when winter will end and spring will come.

Suppose it's like that for some humans. Where I'm from we can accurately predict that, so we're not as in the dark as we once were.

... So does that mean you've never once taken a vacation? Since, you know, you're in charge of the sun.

That's correct. I have raised the sun each morning for two thousand years or so.

[Barring some special circumstances, like being kidnapped by Nightmare Moon, but that definitely doesn't qualify as a vacation either.]

Doesn't it get... boring then? I mean, doing the same thing over and over - just seems kind of unfair that you alone shoulder that.

_{[ Still doesn't believe it, but what the hell, right? ]}

Oh no! Not at all -- I love raising the sun. It is a joy, it never gets old. Have you never felt there was something you were absolutely born to do, something that inspires and delights you no matter how many times you do it?

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