The Blessed Traveller's Inn. A Roleplay for the Travellers blessing (No Jump-in)

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength sat back comfortably.  "Did you ever see clay split granite at an accelerated rate?" he asked, as though it were an everyday question.

[The Wandering Magus]

Dr. Scroll nodded.  "I happen to be a professor of Inter-Magical Forces at the Royal Academy of Magic, and have  doctorates of philosophy in several fields of both physical and magical sciences.  High-speed collisions are routine in our Macroscopic Mechanics classes and laboratory experiments."

He finished his lentils and moved on to the mushroom slab, sprinkling a bit more salt on.  "You've said that you're a researcher; what field is your speciality, Wavelength?"

[Bravo 658]

"Associate, really," Wavelength stated.  "I usually do the manual parts of any job.  Research-wise, I'm receiving training in the field of Geology at the moment, but I've been experimenting with a new field called 'robotics' in the past few years.  Automatons; things that move on their own.  I've been trying to replicate amputated limbs for disabled ponies, though."

[The Wandering Magus]

The professor chewed thoughtfully before swallowing.  "An entirely physical alternative to golems and regeneration spells, fascinating indeed.  The progress Equestria's been making in the field of electronics is astounding even to the researchers used to the breakneck pace of the Academy.  What sort of materials do you use in your experiments these days?  Conventional brass and wood?  Steel?  Aluminium?"

[Bravo 658]

"We tend to like aluminum for its abundant presence," Wavelength said slowly, giving Feather an odd look.  "You seem to be associating magic with a lot of things.  I haven't seen much of it, though.  What is it like?"

[The Wandering Magus]

Dr. Scroll looked over at his saddlebags lying against the wall on the other side of the room, and his horn began to glow softly.  Several small devices, a small flat rune-inscribed tablet, a box with little crystals jutting out at the sides, and a single crystal filled with intricate arcane lines of metal inside, floated alongside a few blank scrolls and some writing implements.

Placing a sheet flat on a clean part of the table, Feather began by placing the single crystal in the center and drawing a circle around it, then setting the tablet on one side and drawing a single line connecting it to the crystal.  Immediately, it seemed that a book was floating, visible and touchable, but instead of flat letters each page was like a doorway to an entire world of information in the form of objects and sounds and smells and sights.

"This is a simple information storage device that's popular around the Academy.  It's powered by the mana battery runestone, and has a tactile-graphical-audio user interface designed by yours truly.  It has several configurations, and can be utilized by anypony, magic or no magic.  The only part needed to make it run is the mana battery and a writing implement."

He sat back and gestured that Wavelength could play around with the device.

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength made no motion toward the device as though he didn't trust it.  "...Does that thing have radioactive emissions?  There's got to be some kind of rapid decay for it to be glowing like that without a visible power source..."

[The Wandering Magus]

The unicorn shook his head, pointing at his glowing horn.  "The power source is the runestone.  It stores magical energy, releasing it at whatever rate is necessary for the device to function at the moment, flashing red if it is about to run out.  Spell fields tend to have slight inefficiencies in conversion of one energy type into another, and this inefficiency often manifests as visible light and a quiet 'sparkling' noise.  The Academy performs numerous tests and experiments to verify the safety of any device before allowing it to be used by the general public, and this device is no exception.  It's perfectly safe, provided you don't try to smash it with a hammer or something."

He leaned back.  "If you want to know a bit about its inner workings, I'd have to explain a bit about the field of 'magitronics', or the combination of physical with magical science.  You see, to fully understand the complex idea of Spell Matrices, one must first consider the very definition of Magic itself.  Until recently, the specialized magics of different living things such as griffons, zebras and ponies have long been regarded as entirely separate phenomena which had no relation whatsoever with each other.  To that end, countless journals and manuscripts have been written detailing the specific properties of each field, but never comparing results or attempting to explain some overarching principle.  Alchemy, for example, would have been considered completely self-contained, and no amount of persuasion would have convinced a weather pony that it had any similarity at all beyond superficial points with weather magic.  It was during the transitional period of Equestria, around the time the Trans-Equestrian Railway was first being built, that my father Lightning Scroll, a professor at the Royal Academy of Magic, postulated that all magic, regardless of origin, was fundamentally the same.  He spent the next several years attempting to prove his theory, but it took a few decades before I was able to help formulate the Scroll Equations and the General Theory of Inter-Magical Forces.  These equations and the theory were the first such models to successfully compare and predict the behavior of different forms of magic in relation to each other relative to the theoretical fundamental unit of magical energy, the magitron.  This revolutionized the entire world of magical research and created an entirely new branch of magic known academically as Inter-Magical Forces.  Colloquially, this branch is known simply as Magitronics, named somewhat justifiably after the magitron.  Machines soon developed which utilized the properties predicted by the Scroll Equations through specialized networks of interconnected spells held together and channeled by tiny rune-inscribed pieces of jade and opal, commonly referred to as runestones, or simply Runes.  Due to the superficial similarity between these networked spells and the colloquial understanding of matrices, the machines and spell engines soon became known as Spell Matrices, or simply Matrices.  The effectiveness of any such Matrix depends greatly on the preciseness with which it is built.  High-quality devices used in research, for example, are accurate to within single magitrons, and can be powerful enough to create devastating effects.  As such, researchers are required by law to register for licenses before being allowed to begin construction of such delicate yet powerful matrices.  Common entertainment matrices, by contrast, can be millions of magitrons off without affecting performance.  Note that accuracy has little to do with size; weak magitronic toys and gift cards may be as small as a tenth of a hoof in diameter, whereas construction matrices may be as large as small houses.  Complexity and spell resonance frequencies are also factors which may affect the size, preciseness and power of a Spell Matrix."

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength appeared to space out halfway through Feather's descriptions, prompting the unicorn to wonder if he was catching everything.  Wavelength's expression took on a slightly worried tone.  "I don't think this sort of thing can be taught with nothing but words...," he said nervously, as though he feared a verbal test at the end.

He looked down at the device on the table and stared at it for several moments.  "So... this is for data storage?"

[The Wandering Magus]

"To put it simply, yes," confirmed the unicorn.  "Not just words and sounds, but three-dimensional visuals, tactile feedback, and other information that would be impossible with conventional techniques.  A simple scan would effectively replicate almost any object in its virtual reality, free for retrieval at any time, and without the hassle of trying to create a pocket dimension.  In some cases, one can even store information for transmutation and transfiguration spells in here, so that a unicorn doesn't have to remember every single detail on his own, just use the information already uploaded to the crystal."

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength's ears perked up.  "Wait, wait... you just made it sound like this is a compact matter storage device..."

[The Wandering Magus]

"Not exactly matter," clarified Feather.  "As you probably know from your studies of nuclear mechanics, energy is fundamentally equivalent to matter, or more specifically, mass.  The famous Clover Equation tells us that the total Energy within any object is equivalent to the object's Mass multiplied by the square of the unhindered speed of light in a vacuum.  These were in turn derived from the Starswirl equations defining relativistic motion and physics.  Magic is simply another type of energy, in a way, manipulating the quantum waves that make up all particles in the universe.  One could say in a general sense that the device does store matter in the form of energy, but a more precise and accurate explanation would be that it stores the quantum wave equations of the object, and recreates the effects of said equations when ordered."

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength sat still and processed that for a moment.  "...That actually makes sense somehow.  All right, so it makes an artificial replica using some kind of solid, structured energy?"

[The Wandering Magus]

Feather nodded.  "Solid, structured energy is a good description for what it projects.  Some might call it 'hard light', though the sheer inaccuracy of that statement is painful for most physicists.  It enables the user to sense output through all the senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch.  Any one property can be turned down or turned off if desired, such as turning off the tactile property of a flame projection in order to observe it without endangering oneself."

[Bravo 658]

"Then it could theoretically replicate radiation?" Wavelength added hastily.

[The Wandering Magus]

The researcher tapped a hoof on his chin.  "Not this particular crystal, no.  For safety reasons, general-purpose memory crystals such as this one are constructed so as to be as safe as possible while retaining functionality.  This device is created so that it is literally impossible to emit wavelengths smaller than ten to the negative eighteen meters.  So no, it cannot replicate radiation, at least this one can't.  Specialized research crystals and government crystals do have that capability, of course."

[Bravo 658]

"Eh, too many crystals... too brittle.  We've been working on a weird new roll-like memory board for portable data storage at the facility... you can crush the housing, but the data will still be safe and sound in the flexible yet almost impenetrable roll.  Just stick it in a new plug housing and you're good to go.  Of course, that's hardly the pinnacle of anypony's technology... just a funny uncommon thing."

[The Wandering Magus]

Feather grinned.  "I'll have you know that this particular brand of memory crystal is capable of withstanding drops from over three hundred meters, is completely functional under water and in a vacuum, can withstand temperatures equaling that of magma, and will function as long as there is a power source attached.  A million years later, assuming it's not crushed with a house or thrown into the sun, it would still function just as well as it does today.  Magical technology may require slightly exotic power sources, but they're built to last, more often than not."

To demonstrate, the professor picked up the crystal (which turned off upon leaving contact with the line on the paper), chucked it at the ground a few times, and set it back on the paper.  Almost as soon as it made contact with the line, it projected the user interface again.

[Bravo 658]

Wavelength nodded.  "All right, it's a durable crystal... that's better.  What was that you were saying about hitting it with a hammer?  Would that make it release energy, or is it not quite strong enough to avoid shattering from that impact?"

[The Wandering Magus]

"I'd be more worried about the hammer shattering and the splinters causing damage," shrugged the researcher.  "There have been cases where the things have been broken or overloaded, which is highly frowned upon, but those cases are rare.  Essentially, one is advised not to use it in a manner for which it was not made to be used.  One wouldn't try using a party cannon to get rid of a fly, for instance."