Rising Sun 25th 3473 EE
It appears that the Ancestors took me at my word when I said I would endure any punishment to atone for my mistakes. The last two days have been enlightening, both figuratively and literally. Though it appears I am the one doing the enlightening.
We should have been prepared for the situation. It was a clear consequence of the Third Corollary to the Law of Sympathy, namely that any action upon a subject affects the actor as well as the subject. In the case of our personal ley-lines to the sun and moon, that means that we affect them as much as they affect us, and unfortunately the same relationship exists for Atlas.
The areas of new knowledge this relationship opens up would be fascinating, if the consequences weren't so serious. The correspondence is properly to our most basic life processes. Theoretically, if someone did find a way to destroy me without unbinding me, the sun would simply vanish. It seems ludicrous that an entity as insignificant as a single creature could have that effect, but the arithmantic calculations bear me out.
Actually, if you turn the proposition around, it suddenly becomes so clear why the two or rather three of us are so nearly indestructible. To destroy me, you would not only have to destroy this physical form, but the sun as well. The same holds for Luna and the moon, and Atlas and our own world. Since that is beyond the scope of any magic our present knowledge can conceive, I don't believe it is a major worry.
However, the arithmantic formulation also allows for the results of one of us being unconscious, or simply asleep. Both of these slow the life processes, and this echoes onto our anchor entities. In my case the sun would not be destroyed, but it would dim and eventually go out, and our world and the other planets would simply float away into the void, as it would no longer attract them and keep them in their orbits.
It is not so much that the sun needs magic to run, I can sense the processes within it, and they are entirely physical, but that my magic suppresses those natural processes in the same way that a body slows it's physical processes when it sleeps.
Side note: While it's normal processes are not magic, the sun is an immense source of magic. How is this possible? Well it was believed since the very beginnings of magical theory that life generates magic, and intelligent life, sentient force generates it most intensely. Of course, in recent times, that aspect of magical theory has been ignored as it gives ammunition against the unicorns are the only true 'magical' race.
It had also been hypothesised that that any form of change produces magic, but the simpler physical or non-living processes like a running river, or a volcano create it at a much lower intensity. Too low for our present detection spells to properly sense, which is why the hypothesis has remained unproved until now.
In the case of the sun, vast processes of change, non-magical transmutations have run for uncounted ages. At that level even a non-living process can build up an incredible pool of manna, and I am the first to be able to tap it. It's also running on a large enough scale that I can feel it being generated.
Side side note: Yes transmutation, like the standard lead into gold process, only without magic! This in itself opens vast new fields of research. Philostogen is put under immense pressure and heat, and transmutes into a new gas that has no name, but makes my light headed when I sense it. I'm thinking of calling it Celestigen, when I have chance to publish my findings.
The process also produces incredible amounts of heat and light, and indeed that is why the sun shines. It might be possible to capitalise on that, reverse the standard lighting spell that every unicorn foal knows and capture the light energy of such a transmutation, turning it into manna. We may have need of that, in the near future.
Focus, Celly, we were talking about what happens when I sleep, that the sun starts to 'go to sleep' too. As above, so below and vice versa. Fortunately thaumic hysteresis comes into play. The decay in natural processes is very slow at first, decreasing exponentially as the effect continues to run.
By my calculations we would have over a century before the sun guttered out completely, and no significant change in solar output or the orbits of the planets for the first few weeks. So I can get a good night of sleep without everything falling to pieces, thank the ancestors! For smaller objects, such as our own world, and the moon, the decay happens more rapidly. Indeed, the evidence of this was what led me to discover this whole idea.
After my last entry, we went to sleep, with some artificial assistance, but when we awoke, it was still night. This seemed odd, as the draught we'd taken should have put us on the shelf until mid-morning. At first we assumed that it was an part of our being resistant to the potions, that even though we'd let them affect us, they wore off more quickly.
Then I went to the balcony, and noticed the stars seemed to confirm the time was towards the end of the night. Back when we were helping Atlas investigate the paths of the planets we plotted the positions of many of the brighter stars ourselves, working from older star maps, so I know what I'm talking about.
Then Luna looked shocked. Her moon was out of position, floating further away than it should be, and behind in its path across the stars, and its position in relation to being viewed from the world's surface. We immediately set to investigate.
Between our newly expanded senses and powers, our skills, and the rather complete magical laboratory we had available, it didn't take long to determine the empirical facts. The earth had slowed down, and was continuing to slow down. Its gravitational force was decreasing in proportion (that took some ingenuity to test, as every balance relied on fixed gravity to work. I finally set up a long springy pole with one end supported and the other weighed down. By measuring how far it was drooping, I got an independent measure of the force). Also the moon had more rapidly suffered the same effects while Luna was asleep.
It didn't take long for me to determine that the same changes had happened to the sun, to a much smaller extent. The slowed rotation of the world explained the night and the stars, and the changes in mutual attraction explained the moon being out of position. Fortunately, the sun is the overwhelming component in keeping the world orbiting, so there were no significant changes in that orbit.
It was only then that we realised that others might have noticed, and spread our senses abroad. Well, at least Luna did, as her moon was in the sky, but she let me follow her thoughts. It was chaos. All of Equestria was in a panic. There were fires, and riots, and general insanity. Not that they didn't have good reason to, even if they didn't know why.
The changes in our anchored entities suggested an obvious hypothesis. As soon as Atlas was bound into the earth, the natural processes of the world started to decay. Since he wouldn't be waking up, they would continue to decay until they came to a stop. This would pretty much be the end of the world, or at least the living parts of it.
Fortunately, there was a way to fix it. All three of us were together in the original spell, and all three of us shared our powers. That link still existed, though it was quiescent. That meant we might, to an extent affect each other's domains, though normally that would be impossible, as the existence of the primary entity linkage would suppress the others. But if the primary was unconscious, it was possible.
So it was with my cousin. Since he was not in control, together, Luna and I could draw on our own power sources and haul the world back into alignment. We also needed to make it clear that things were going to be okay to everyone, so no-pony else would get hurt. We flew once again to Ponyville, and landed in the middle of the square.
Ponies of all types begging us to stop punishing them, to help them, immediately besieged us. We had wrung some coherence out of the terror, and it had started with Blue Mane, though she hadn't intended it. Obviously, she'd been the go-to pony after we left for information on what was happening, as everybody had seen us visit her.
I don't think either of us would have blamed her if she'd placed the blame for the mess squarely on us, but instead, she'd told the story in a way that placed it on the unicorn supremacists among the nobility. The accident had been as side effect of an attempt to destroy our family that had almost succeeded, except for the two of us.
The news had spread on pegasus wings, and our own vengeful rampage had cemented the story in every-pony's minds. A number of panic-stricken and vengeful mobs had laid siege to castles of the worst offenders, even though they were quite thoroughly dead. And there were a lot of incidents where bad things had happened to ponies, unicorns that'd shared their beliefs.
It took a considerable display or power to restore order, but eventually we managed to get ponies to listen to us. First we made it clear that all the guilty had been punished, and the remaining families were innocent, and that we would be unhappy if anyone innocent was harmed. Second, the unreasonable night was another effect of the disaster, and most importantly, we could make it better
We ordered pegasi to spread the word, to prevent any more panic, and then we set to. Since that day, it's been a few minutes effort twice a day to realign things, as we never let it go out of synchronisation that far, but this first time it took hours. Luna pushed the moon back into its correct orbit, and then joined me in spinning up the world.
The sign of the moon visibly moving calmed people, which shows just how out of control things were, but they still stood vigil with us as we worked. Not too close, handling that kind of power created massive auras around us, but at least it showed them we were doing something. There was relief as the sky lightened in the east, and when the first rays of sunlight appeared above the mountains, there was wild cheering.
There was an equally wild celebration when we'd finished, the sun was almost at noon and the moon had set. I felt like I'd gone hoof to claw with a whole flock of dragons, and Luna looked worse. I swear the poor girl's horn was visibly drooping at the end. I packed her off to bed for a well-earned rest, but I couldn't join her. My solar sight (solar sight, I like that, much better than sun based clairvoyance) showed me that some ponies were still being idiots, or hadn't gotten the message.
Besides, I had to get away from Ponyville. Ponies were acting like I was an avatar of the first cause, or an ancestor reborn. I'm not a deity, I'm just a very silly pony who made some dreadful mistakes, and receiving worship for fixing them made me feel unclean.
I did later arrange with those members of the Citizen's Council who were in Ponyville to set up a ceremony for the oath of fealty, where Luna and I could take the titles we were entitled and comfortable with, Duchess of Maresia. As the eldest surviving member of the direct line, I was theoretically the one the duty fell too, but I was not going to go it alone, or shut out Luna. Hopefully, if they saw us as Duchesses, they wouldn't go around acting like we were anything else. Plus, we needed to formalise our status before we tackled Canterlot.
But at that moment, I did a flying tour, solar flare tour? The thing where I go all flamey and go really really fast, I'm going to have to come up with a better name than that, of the hot spots, which were temporarily hotter when I got there. Thankfully I didn't have to hurt anyone to get my point across.
However, making a line of lava out of a cobbled path as a way to prevent ponies assaulting a unicorn who's only fault was that he'd mouthed off about being superior, or other similar tricks usually got their attention. One particularly truculent mob I simply lofted into the air en masse and dunked in the nearest lake to cool off.
Finally the commotion had dropped to a dull roar, and I could wend my own way back to Ponyville. Of course, there had already been hundreds of casualties before we woke up, and hundreds more while we were pinned down in Ponyville, pushing the planet. More lives for me to atone for, but I acted as fast as I could! At least this responsibility I can keep of Luna's shoulders, the sun, or lack of it is my fault.
When I got back, I roused Luna, who had recovered enough to help, to give the sun and moon a little additional course correction as they rose and set respectively, and then I crashed for the night.
Since then the days have been insane. Between getting fealty oaths from the towns that remain along the edges of the blast area, further research at the Keep, and spinning up the planet twice daily, we've been rushed off our hooves. And things are going to get worse before they get better.
While the most obvious process affected is the world's rotation and gravitation, but if the relationships are as the arithmancy says, even the seasons, creatures' natural instincts and the hydrological may be affected. We will have to work out substitutes, or ways to counter the suppressing force of Atlas's unconsciousness.
And we'll require help, lots of it. While our power sources are as near infinite as makes no difference, our power handling ability is vast but finite, and our wills and consciousnesses even more so, or rather less so, or is it more so? Our sentient force is the bottleneck, there that's clear enough.
Anyhow, we'll have to work out ways to substitute for the natural processes. The only way I can see is getting ponies to manually drive some of them. Their will, or sentient force as they do it can counter the magical suppression. Pegasi moving clouds around to make weather, Earth ponies waking up hibernating animals and shaking the leaves off of trees during Leaf Fall. It sounds like something out of a filly tale, but it's our best hope.
The only good news is, if we can get them running for Equestria, we may be able to leverage that to drive the rest of the world without having to micro-manage it. This is a consequence of the Law of Sympathy working for us for a change. But it will require a great deal of experimentation and development to get the best return for the least effort.
Note to self: Cloud creation, this is priority one! A way must be found to manufacture cloud if natural processes will not. Pegasi cloud manipulation powers? Make time to experiment! Could reifying the potential rainbowishness implicit in the thaumic matrix cause the cloud to form as the manna shifts to an equipotential state?
Additional Note to self: Review my notes on dye creation from rainbows. In the mean time I guess I can fly out to sea and blast areas of seawater with concentrated solar energy to provide some cloud cover. It would be better if we could create weather manufactories in central locations and create permanent 'wink-bridges' to draw purified seawater to them. Normally it would require too much power to maintain, but if we can create a siphon effect, we could get thaumic hysteresis doing most of our work for us.
Of course, substituting for natural processes is only a palliative; our ultimate goal must be to recover Atlas, not just for the good of our own souls, but the good of the world. Only then will things return to normal. But we will need some source of power far greater than the combined power of two alicorns.
I have some vague notions, converting solar energy directly to manna, or duplicating the solar transmutation process on a small scale here and capturing energy from that. Some more powerful hetro-thaumic triune or even a pentagram, possibly even a hexagram (two overlapping triunes, something no-pony's ever managed to make work for more than a few heartbeats).
But research into that will have to wait. I suspect it will take years, decades to develop the elements of something to do the job, and we must first make sure that Equestria survives. Still, we have as long as we need. Our bodies are ready, they can stay the course, but the question is, can our minds, and souls? They will have to, for it is this world's only hope. So no pressure.