Orion's Headcanons: Unifying Harmony

[Dust and Memories 557]

 

I was kind of bored one day, and so I wrote one of my OC's studies into magical theory. This will be one of my first Orion's Headcanon episodes, detailing my thoughts on Equestria in general.

 

On Unifying Harmony

A Letter To The Equestrian Academy of Sciences, by Wilhelm de Winter

 

Unifying Harmony is the understructure of the Equestrian universe. Some ponies have alikened it to a God, but it is in fact more akin to the electromagnetic force; equally as fundamental and omnipresent, but a force, not a sentient being. The Unifying Harmony, instead of manifesting itself through particles like other fundamental forces, manifests itself through the thoughts and actions of other sentient beings, creating a harmonic field (termed by Starswirl the Bearded) which influences all beings within it to act in a subconsciously harmony-effacing manner. The Unifying Harmony and its effects have lead to the unprecedented societal and cultural growth of Equestrian society, also causing the stagnation of military technology due to it being obstructive to harmony between races, creeds, and powers. Alicorns have the greatest presence of Unifying Harmony manifestation, and as such, are invariably good (with the exception of Nightmare Moon, which was an infection by a parasite that propagates through sentient being and feeds off of specific brainwave patterns that are akin to hate, rage, and sorrow, indirectly amplifying these traits in a way like growing food) and often extremely powerful due to fundamental changes in the fabric of reality around them, such as unicorn telekinesis and pegasus flight. While the two aforementioned races have much lower Harmony concentrations than alicorns, unicorns and pegasi are still able to affect changes in fundamental forces, such as matter and field manipulation and gravitational lessening/localized weather-related probabilistic increases, respectively. Earth ponies, meanwhile, have their Harmony predilections manifest in increased strength and endurance, which belies biological changes in the average pony body. With the notable exception of Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic, and Mi Amore Cadenza, the Princess of Love, ponies will not become an alicorn unless they possess already large concentrations of Harmony (manifested as increased power and above-average "goodness"). To a reasonable degree, Harmony manifests in probabilistically generated ways (see Chaos Theory (Non-Discord)), which some philosophers use to argue for predestination and predefined goodness or evil. The Elements of Harmony are unique artifacts which channel the Bearers' individual concentrations of Harmony (which are usually above-average but not too much so) and amplifying it with Equestria's underlying Unifying Harmonic Fields, usually resulting in at least several magnitudes of order higher power than using another artifact which merely channels normal concentrations of Harmony. However, due to the harmonic considerations of Universal Harmony, the Elements will never be able to be used against someone who has not disrupted the harmonic field in some manner; defined as a "evil" being such as Tirek or Sombra. Cutie Marks, in of themselves, are a manifestation of Harmony; once a pony discovers their unique talent, the Unifying Harmony gives them their Cutie Mark, which works as a sort of subfield tracker, causing the harmonic fields to guide that pony to quite literally do what they love doing. With a Cutie Mark, Harmony causes the average pony's surroundings to allow it opportunities to do what they do best. Due to the immense diversity of pony talents, there is usually a place for a pony everywhere in society, but if not, the Harmony-influenced Equestrian society will usually open a new position for them specifically. In certain sectors such as agriculture, this has lead to a noticeable bloat of ponies connected with the industry, but considering the rapid population growth forecasted to occur in further years (likely due to another influence of Harmony) the worker surplus will rapidly decrease due to increased demand. Scattered across Equestria are several temples which were created by primitive ponies to pray for rain or better crops or fertility; these ponies constructed these on existing Harmony Lines, where natural Equestrian harmonic fields are most present. Inadvertently, they also created foci for the harmonic fields, which many prominent Harmony scientists credit the rapid growth of Equestrian culture to its modern levels to. One formerly large but now ruined temple is located in Dunwall Province; this formerly possessed one of the greatest Harmony Line Points, but due to the wars fought over this piece of land (purportedly connected with the greatest failure of Harmony to date; namely, the chaotic destabilization caused by Discord), the Point has become shrunken and ineffective, manifesting its Harmony only in the still-immaculate condition of the ruined temple's pillars and the rampant plant life surrounding the area. Reportedly, the waters around it are also exceptionally clear, and the ponies who live in Dunwall over their lifetimes live a few months longer than usual, easily correlatable with similar results from other settled Points. It is unknown what the effects of staying within a few pony-lengths of such a metaphysically powerful object would entail, but it is theorized that it would lead to near-alicorn lifetime periods and a unquestionably good disposition. Speaking of alicorns, we may as well discuss them as our conclusion. Alicorns, while fundamentally good and also powerful, grow in power through influence of friendship and various other activities which are known to increase Harmony concentrations. Alicorns such as Celestia and Luna have lived for thousands of years, and as such, have made many friends and participated in many such activities, leading to immense growth in power over their lifetimes. Considering that alicorns are connected to things that fundamentally promote harmony, activities such as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's continuation of the day-night cycle lead to growth of concentrations of harmony in unprecedented amounts, which can be correlated with the two newly minted alicorns' demesenes of Friendship and Love. It is theorized that over time, the impressive statures, powers, and flowing manes of the elder alicorns will also appear in the younger alicorns as they grow older and more involved in the workings and propagation of Unifying Harmony. Strangely, according to the two sisters themselves, they were born with their powers over sun and moon, but this can be easily explained by Harmony being more easily facilitated with dedicated alicorns instead of a committee of unicorns to perform one of the processes most greatly associated with harmony over the ages.

[Dust and Memories 557]

Bumping this. I'd love some discussion or criticism on this.