"Well, as history tells us, in one great battle the forces of Science and Technology broke the back of Magick, and for hundred of years since it's been in a sharp decline. In my modern day, it's secret knowledge. Most people -- almost all people -- don't know it exists. Don't believe in it. It's a fairy tale, a fantasy story, everyone knows there's no such thing as magic."

This is where it stopped working quite so well as an analogy, since as he understood it, all ponies who could do magic had horns. Kind of hard to hide that.

"There's an entire secret organization dedicated to keeping it that way, too. If they find someone who can use magic -- a '"reality deviant' as they'd say -- they'd do something to take them out before anyone could find out the secret."