All-Powerful Hoof-Bandsby lolz potionChapters%i%. An intro to Carbon2. Nothing to do3. Ghost of Ponyville%i%. An intro to Carbon1. An intro to Carbon Two years had passed since Carbon the black pegasus pony escaped the crystal, and he wasn't particularly eager to recall any of it. He was moderately pleased with the new name he picked for himself, though. He had spent these years doing nothing in particular, at the same time he felt a little bit worn out. the strangest thing was he still didn't have his cutie mark. This was unheard of among ponies at the age of 22. Celestia generally left him to his own business, but she did ask him to start going to magic school. her letter was so encouraging he couldn't refuse. Carbon felt terribly awkward attending the classes, being seemingly the only pony in Equestria with a shiny black coat. If anypony thought anything about it, they never spoke it. At the same time he was beginning to suspect that he was some sort of apple vampire. He had already sucked a couple hundred trees worth of wild apples dry in the valleys north of Ponyville. It was certainly a relief to know he was an apple vampire, and not a normal pony with a terrible apple eating disorder ... and fangs. It was also a relief to know the evil crystal seemed to have failed in its purpose. Looks like that fear of blood Carbon acquired as a little foal had come in handy, albeit those events better be left to themselves. Whenever Carbon felt stressed the apple craving doubled up. In fact, before Celestia sent him to magic school he found it quite manageable, but now he had to fly down to the wild apple valleys almost every night. In the past he was quite scared about it, like he might turn into an actual vampire. Now he was beginning to suspect that Celestia knew more about his problems than he did. If Celestia was cool with it, he was cool with it. It was certainly nice of her to get him a house in Ponyville of his own. And the hoof band with the royal crest on it. Yesterday Carbon decided to put it on, go down to the bakery, and ask for a free cake. Out came the biggest, most delicious cake you can imagine. He tried to look as gracious as possible, as he carried it home to pig out in private. Fancy those Ponyville ponies thinking he's somepony important. He still wasn't gonna talk to them, being a weird apple vampire and everything. Yeah, that band best be used sparingly. Although ... it could have some proper uses; the royal library would no longer be off limits. Tomorrow he could put it on and strut straight in there like like a big, bad magician pony; walk into the forbidden section like he was Twilight Sparkle or something. Hopefully there'd be some good books about apple vampires there, and without too much technical magic rubbish. Maybe the band wasn't really that royal, but the thought alone made for a good nap. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Carbon was surprised to find out how easily he was admitted into the "forbidden" section. Jolly well didn't seem to be that forbidden altogether. Too bad the only vampire, changeling, or anything leecher-pony-related was some dusty old book by some crotchety old pony full of graphic descriptions of vampire pony and changeling victims. Most of them were from hundreds of years ago and the book claimed that king Sombra was the last of the lot unaccounted for. Good to know he was accounted for now, getting practically dismembered and everything. As for the book it probably could've been discarded, but Carbon put it back on the shelf. The only thing concerning apples in the forbidden section was the appropriately titled "Forbidden Magic With Apples", which (as the note indicated) was taken out just yesterday by ... Twilight Sparkle. Celestia knows what she was doing with it. In any case, it probably wouldn't be possible to get it back from her for quite some time. Carbon had tried several times before with other books, but it seemed like he had some sort of spell on him that made everypony oblivious to meeting him. That would explain why it didn't bother anypony that a black pegasus was studying magic with unicorns. Why hadn't he ever thought about that before? Must have been some sort of residue from the crystal wearing off of his mind. It certainly felt like an enchantment, especially now that he had a couple years away from it for reference. The origin of hatred in Equestria remains undiscovered ... The plague has appeared at rare, turning-point events in history and sometimes takes the shape of black crystals. The crystals have always appeared sparsely and are most commonly found in dark and unlikely places ... Ponies who have lingered long around the crystals for study have been known to come under strange and chaotic enchantments ... Nothing else is known of these crystals save that they disappear within a few decades of the turning of the age. Well, there it was in a nutshell; good old practical enchantments encyclopedia. Carbon put the heavy volume 47 tome back on the shelf. Eight years encased in hatred, to think of it! The pegasus pony shuddered. No wonder he didn't want to remember it, but it already seemed to be lost in the past. At the same time he was quite sure that he reduced that bit of hatred to nothing. He paused for a little bit as the first bits of morning light came through the tall windows over the even taller, eerie, ancient, stone library shelves. So what now? Should he just stick around in Ponyville and study something he had no interest in until the enchantment wears off? Maybe he could make some friends and have a nice, peaceful life. The age would turn just like any other time and be completely forgotten about within his lifetime, wouldn't it? Carbon didn't even wonder about it much more than that. He had some curious feeling that everything would work itself out soon, so he decided to explore the library a bit instead. He wandered around soaking in the space of the room for a little bit. Then he skimmed through some entries for black ponies, which weren't of much help either. Something about an extinct race, king Sombra again, something about some fairy tail half-blood ponies that didn't actually have skin and weren't really ponies at all...what, an eastern unicorn festival that involved dying one's skin black for a couple days. Carbon chuckled about being extinct a little bit while he put the books back. He was on his way out now and he looked through the dusty cracks in between the shelves as he passed each stack of books, hoping he'd find something that fell in between the shelves. He wasn't sure why, it just seemed like a fun thing to do all of a sudden. To his delight one of the cracks had some paper at the far end, near the wall. It's no trouble for a pegasus to carefully move a bookshelf, even if it is the size of a cathedral. The paper itself was old and dusty, as expected. It looked like a map of the library - worth one look, maybe, but not a second. What's this? It looked like the map was outdated; it had a passage drawn where there was clearly a wall. Celestia found herself feeling worried all of a sudden. Of course she would be, Twilight was just about to become an alicorn, a monumental occasion. Everything was prepared, did she miss something? She found her mind shifting toward Cotton Cloud. She'd almost forgotten about the young stallion. Carbon is what he called himself now, after having cycled through about 10 names or so. What a troublemaker. It really was remarkable that he managed to wake Sombra from his slumber prematurely. With one of his crystals destroyed Sombra felt threatened and decided to attack the Crystal Empire immediately, which left him so vulnerable that the elements of harmony could easily overcome him. Come to think of it Carbon had a forgetfulness enchantment on him, which was one of the strangest side-effects a hatred crystal had ever had on a pony. The enchantment was bound to wear off one of these days, and then... . Oh, what was she worried about? No use losing your peace over one pony so much. All these royal preparations for Twilight compounded with all her responsibilities were probably getting the best of her. If Carbon could just stay out of trouble for a day or two everything would be fine, might as well just forget about it. _________________________________________________________________________________________ At the end of the secret passage was a spacious underground study. Judging by the trashy antiques on the walls the study belonged to prince Lionhoof. Hold on, why would he have a large image of himself on the wall? More likely than not, this was his burial chamber. Carbon knew just enough about him from history books to feel quite comfortable in the room, dusty and torch-lit as it was (he had just lit the torches). Lionhoof was notable for always wearing a strange pair of plain hoof bands on his forefeet that he never took off, even when he went to sleep. Sure enough, here were the hoof bands inside a display case on top of a high stone slab. Carbon put on the hoof bands, pushed the display case aside, and stood upon the stone slab while mimicking the poster and addressing an imaginary crowd. "Dear Equestrians," he bagan. The crowd cheered. "I declare that under my rule we shall have 5 years of peace. After that we'll have a couple years of wars just to mix things up, followed by an indefinite amount of peace until my death, which will be at least 15 years," the crowd cheered. "Furthermore, you can all kiss my flank," the crowd went wild with acclamation. "We love you, Carbon!" yelled a group of filly sluts from the front row right under the balcony. Carbon became indignant all of a sudden. "You don't want me, you want prince Lionhoof," he yelled back. "No, you retard," the ponies yelled back, "If we wanted Lionhoof we'd go to his daydream, but we're in your daydream cause we want you!" Carbon remained in his kingly pose for a moment, wondering what the buck he just imagined. Well, that's enough fun for one day. He was going to put the hoof bands back in place, but they wouldn't come off for some reason. Carbon stood still for a little while pretending to be angry with himself. This was the proper thing to do if one didn't want to be a wise-flank. Truthfully he didn't really care. Eight years in a dark crystal sort of trumps any sort of fears you might have about enchanted hoof bands. So there's that. That's why Lionhoof never took his hoof bands off. He bloody well couldn't. They were quite comfortable though, couldn't even feel them there. Carbon sighed. Better check around the room to see if he could find something about the hoof bands. Almost immediately he found a letter from the prince lying on the book case against the wall; how convenient. He blew the dust off of the parchment and began to read. Dear explorer, it is my sincere intention and enchantment, that whoever finds these hoofbands will be the pony destined and qualified to have them ... These hoofbands grant the bearer unlimited power at will and will not come off by any means until the life has departed from their host. The power of the bands has no restriction, but beware: it cannot remove the wearer from the divine order of reaping what he sows ... If you would wish to have the artifact destroyed before putting it on this can be done quite easily now, but not afterwards; and I can't hold it against you, but I didn't feel it right to have it destroyed by my order ... Instead, I'm having a trusted friend place these bands over my tomb inside this enchanted burial room for safe keeping. May the authorities that be decide who should have this gift, your good friend, prince Lionhoof. "Ah ha hah," Carbon thought, "an artifact that gives power with no restriction. That's a good joke. If that's what it did I could just teleport straight to my h..." He was in his living room. He teleported into the bathroom and splashed some cold water in his face. "All right, play it cool," he thought, " this might be a whole another mess to deal with. Probably some sort of spell that imprisons the mind in some sort of enchanted replica of the real world." He teleported back into the dusty room and put out the torches. The passage was already sealed behind him when he came in. Then he teleported back to his bathroom and splashed some more water in his face. "Derp, could've just put out the torches from here. Well, that's enough teleporting for one day." He walked to his bedroom. "1:39? Let's make it 7:39." Time jumped forward 6 hours, the sun outside had gone down. "No, that's messed up, back to 1:39." He went back to the moment where he left off. "1:40 in the afternoon. Can't think of a better time to take a nap." Carbon lay under his blanket in a nasty state of shock for quite a while before snapping off to sleep. _________________________________________________________________________________________ He woke up late in the evening and teleported to the apple trees. The hoofbands probably could have taken care of it, but he was starting to take pride in not using them overmuch. Plus it's not like the hoofbands knew how to fix the apple issue. They were still a dumb artifact and the wearer had to make all the decisions. Trying to cure irrepressible desire for sucking apple juices, which bloody well nopony understands, could easily prove disastrous both physically and mentally. After that he flew down to a cliff he liked 700 miles east of Ponyville. Fast pegasi have been clocked at over a thousand miles per hour in a dive (Equestria is a big country), so it didn't take very long. The cliff belonged to a plateau with a wheat field in the middle. Carbon settled between the wheat stalks not far from the bare rock of the cliff's edge. He tested how powerful the hoofbands were a little bit by moving some stars around and turning them funny colors, even black light, but he put everything back in its place in the end. He made a little light rain fall down over the wheat field. Wouldn't bother anyone. It was a warm night. Now that he could do everything he didn't want to do anything. He just wanted to sit on top of the cliff and soak in the endlessness of everything. And it didn't seem to matter if it was a hoax, or enchantment, or test of some sort anymore, either. Why did the bands come to somepony who didn't even need them? Just so he could have fun with them? He shot some lightning bolts out of his eyes just to see what it was like and immediately wished he didn't. It made the air smell funny for a few minutes. After a while he got up. Depression, that's what this was. Just because he had no social skills after spending 8 years in a crystal and was a little on the skinny side didn't mean he couldn't find somepony special. Not to mention he had unimaginable power in his hooves. Confounded hoofbands. They probably lost all their power as soon as one got a girlfriend. He still didn't trust the things. Of course, if the hoofbands were reliable, he could just jump back in time if anything went wrong with his relationships, couldn't he? Or would that make... Another Carbon appeared next to him. "Yep, two instances of the same pony simultaneously," said the other Carbon and disappeared. "Sweet, now i don't even have to check," said the first Carbon. Wait a second, how is that possible if he never went back in time to begin wi... . Carbon woke up in the field several minutes later with a skull-splitting headache. That's it. No more messing with time travel. Period. He could, supposedly, just turn the entirety of time backwards and erase it, but if he turned time back how would he know he ever did anything? Wouldn't it just end up exactly the same? He'd have to go back in time and tell himself to... . No. No messing with time travel of any sort. Period. Wait a second, who needs friends when you have a destiny? Couldn't he just wish his cutie mark to appear? He did so. It was a long, thin vial with strange bubbling liquid and two snakes curled around it. He was scared about the thing for a while and trotted around uneasily. Was that really his destiny? Consequently he realized it looked sort of like the sign at the doctors, except with a potion in the middle instead of the staff thing. Did that mean he was some kind of cure maker? He wasn't sure if that was it. He never even imagined his destiny would be anything like that. If it was he'd be one of the few ponies in history to discover their destiny without trying. Carbon decided to sleep on it and teleported to bed. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Nothing to doThe forgetfulness enchantment was finally wearing off. Carbon would walk around town and occasionally a pony would say hi, before their eyes would glaze over and they'd obliviously walk away. Pinkie even came to his front door and started blurting out how excited she was to hear that somepony new was in town when her eyes glazed over and she walked away like everypony else. If Pinkie heard about him that meant somepony actually remembered him after seeing him. Excellent news. Carbs spent most of his time designing a mansion near the ocean. What else would he be doing? Adventuring had finally lost its flavor when the idea that he could do practically anything he wanted sank in. The castle was sheltered on two and a half sides by a steep, tall mountain, which separated it from the water. Dense forest hid it from view on the ground. It was altogether fairly difficult to notice if you weren't looking for it from the sky. On the third floor there was a walkway around the entire house with columns supporting the walls. On the fourth floor there was a platform and some balconies next to a fat, square tower near the middle that went up three more floors, losing some of its space to more balconies nested in the corners as it did so. The whole thing was made of stone with some colorful decorations, especially in or close to the windows. It almost looked like a cathedral sometimes. Carbon wasn't sure where all the materials came from when he wished them to appear, but he was fairly confident he didn't steal anything. The only thing the house was missing was a cute wife and kids ... and some nice neighbors ... really, all of Ponyville should be just picked up and planted here, and all the houses could be turned into mansions or castles ... and the water should be clearer, you should be able to see everything you want ... and ... . Carbon sighed. Some distance inland was a small mountain lake. He was watching the rain fall on the water and he was already soaked. A thunderstorm was starting to pick up. He jumped back home and got a towel. The weird cutie mark with the vial had almost faded away completely by now, how strange. He didn't really care about it. One of these days when the enchantment wore off he'd go to Cloudsdale and visit all the best restaurants and make up some sort of hilarious street performer act using the bands that would mess with everypony's head. It could be a good way to make some bits to buy pizza with without just wishing them into existence. Ah, wishing them into existence, so what? Doesn't that Rarity cutie just dig up more gems whenever she wants? No one ever complains about the way she sends Spike to dig up gems and then buys whatever she wants with them. No one probably thinks about it, either. That's a really cool gift. Being able to sense gem stones underground. Carbon drifted off to sleep again. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Meanwhile, all of Cloudsdale was eagerly anticipating the next Cloud Festival. A grandiose event held once a decade, the very purpose of which is to find all the best and most fun things a pegasus, or even anypony can do with a cloud. This year Cloudsdale would be the host and every cloud fanatic from all of Equestria would be attending. Prominent unicorn magicians would be responsible for helping groups of earth ponies walk on the clouds, and some simple ward spells would be placed to make sure nopony falls off, or through, or in any fashion unless intended. Rumors of a ghostly black pegasus appearing in Ponyville only fueled the excitement. It was natural that something strange would begin to happen at this time, since almost every unicorn was planning some sort of surprise. There were a number of conspiracies, but some unicorns wanted to keep their act a secret until the last second. Once the festival was officially opened on the first of June anything and everything would happen. Indeed, Ponyville had never seen so many talented magic users in one place as long as it existed. There were already kiosks on every corner selling strange magical knick-knacks. Among the most popular was the hover necklace, which made a pony float several inches above the ground and move fairly quickly in any direction they wanted. It had to be recharged after six or seven hours or so, but the refills were free. Some of the unicorns had figured out how to recharge them themselves. Pinkie certainly had her hooves full with all the new names. The latest newcomers were two pegasi named Silver Wing and Breeze. Silver was an off white stallion with a clean, white mane. Breeze was an honorable blue-green mare with a green mane that had some highlights. At first glance she had the feel of a foggy lake in a mountainous forest, right after a thunderstorm. Both pegasi had their hover necklaces on and were floating over water on the Ponyville river, just outside of town, as they talked. "If I didn't know better, I'd say someone found the bands, put them on, and did a lap around town with them every other day," said Silver. "Are you sure the tracking device isn't broken?" "My father spent a decade fine tuning and fool proofing this thing. If it broke already we're probably bucked." "Well, either the chamber is a huge cavern under the town or someone took the bands already." "That's it. I give up." "You say that every day, Silver." "And I mean it every day. I still can't believe I've wasted five years of my life, already, chasing some sort of fake artifact from the dark ages. You'd think the council would have a little more respect for my talents." "And what do you care? Chill out and enjoy yourself. All the other pegasi are stuck in weather factories making snowflakes." "All my peers are stuck in weather factories, and I'm pretty sure it's not snowflakes they're worried about. And another thing, you're seriously enjoying all of this drifting, aren't you?" Breeze smiled. They floated in silence over the clear blue water, past the welcoming green river banks in the fresh air. Everfree forest loomed in the distance among the tall purple mountains with round caps that Ponyville countryside is famous for. A small group of pegasi just above the horizon was flying towards Cloudsdale. Silver hadn't noticed how beautiful and familiar the place felt. "So," said Breeze after a while, "What do you say we fly over some of those mountains?" "All right, but you're not gonna talk me out of stopping at the bakery next time." _________________________________________________________________________________________ "Wake up Mr. Carbon." Carbon opened his eyes and got up. It wasn't a problem even thought it was 2 AM on the clock; he spent a lot of time oversleeping recently. The room was lit by a dim lamp. He felt some sort of cloudiness in his head and couldn't really recall what had happened recently. Next to his bed was a grinning blood-red unicorn stallion. "Sir, those hoof bands have been eating away at your memory again," said the unicorn in a soothing voice. The voice itself didn't sound soothing, but it felt so, like a younger brother concerned for an elder. "Hoof bands?" mumbled Carbon, looking at his hooves, "I don't remember getting these." "You said you wanted me to take them to the safe house tonight, but it's your call," said the unicorn. Carbon tried to remember what happened yesterday, but some sort of malevolent cloud hung over his memory. Everything was blocked. "What are these bands? And what's your name?" he asked. "Amber, sir. You hired me as an assistant several weeks ago. You told me to give you this if the bands don't work properly." Amber handed him a letter in Carbon's own handwriting. The letter explained how the experiment with the hoof band devices may interfere with memory, at which point the bands have to be stored in a safe place and the user has to take several weeks off to recover before attempting it again. Most of it was unreadable nonsense that looked scientific. "How do you get these blasted things off?" said Carbon, trying to pull off the bands. "That's strange, may I see?" Carbon handed Amber his hoof. Amber examined the bands intently for about a minute. He was about to do a spell, but he stopped in the middle of it. "May I?" he asked. "By all means," replied Carbon. Amber sighed, and focused a little bit. His horn glowed a bright purple color and fired off a small spark at the bands. The spark exploded, giving off a sharp, burning smell. Amber jumped backwards with a slight shock. "Oh dear, I'm afraid I must be going at once," he gasped, trotting toward the door. "My sweet assitant, I believe you forgot something." The door slammed shut. "Your mouth." Ambers mouth became smoothed over. He hadn't expected that his simple diagnostic spell would cause the bands to backfire. Not only did the bands cancel the spell, but they cancelled all his magic on the host as well. "3 AM, I like to take a stroll on the lake at this time," said Carbon nonchalantely. The next moment Amber was struggling to swim without a mouth while Carbon stood on the icy, dark, moon-lit water and watched. As soon as it looked like Amber was panicking Carbon grabbed him by the neck and whispered in his ear. "Hey Amber. We're friends now. Wanna hear a secret?" Amber twitched a little. The grip hurt and he had water in his nose. "These bands, they only come off when the wearer dies, and I've been waiting for years for that to happen. I hate my life. So good luck." They were on the shore. "Well, I better get going," said Carbon as he started walking away, "Oh, I almost forgot. Here's a little something for your trouble. Buy yourself something nice at sugar cube corner." Carbon handed Amber some gems, smacked him in the flank, and teleported him back to town. About a minute later he gave him his mouth back. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Ghost of PonyvilleThe rain from the lake had moved to Ponyville by now. Light, but just a little bit cold. Carbon couldn't decide if it was pleasant or not as he cantered through the spooky lantern-lit alleys of the town's outskirts. He wanted to find out if the enchantment had lifted for sure or if the unicorn was just a talented illusionist and could see through it. Just outside of town were bound to be some tents (cause the houses weren't enough to accommodate everyone who was showing up for the festival), and if there were tents there was bound to be somepony still awake. Sure enough, the field over the river was littered with little prisms and pyramids. Far away, near the bank, he could make out an isolated group of tents with a large camp fire going and some ponies gathered around it. He stood by the bridge, watching the flames and trying to feel what would happen when he got there by the scent of the air, but nothing was manifesting clearly. Even Equestria had that little bit of anticipation before a new meeting. Would be super fun to run into Amber again. Well, tally ho, might as well get this over with. He stepped boldly onto the bridge and immediately bumped into something and heard a gasp. "Sweet rainbows, you scared the buck out of me," said the purple earth pony filly as she lit a paper glow lantern from the magic shop. It glowed clear white. Both ponies were completely soaked. Her eyes got wide. "No way," she poked him in the shoulder, "You're the black pegasus ghost!" "Yeah, so?" "Wh... are... " she backed up and put a hoof to her head, then she swung it and pointed at him, "You're the biggest thing in town right now after the festival and you don't even know anything? You can't be serious." Carbon stared. The filly stared back. "Hold on a second, " she pulled a small wand out from her sash and pointed it at the pegasus. A small purple spark flew out and nothing happened. "That's odd," she said. "What's the wand for?" he asked. "Illusion breaker from Amber's stand, I'm not sure if it works, thought," she said thoughtfully. Carbon looked at his arms and realized he was trembling all over. Really, he was squeeing inside. No more enchantment, Cloud Festival coming up, unlimited power in his hooves, second biggest thing in Ponyville. Wait, what was that last one? He glanced back at the filly. She was already at his side, poking at his wing. "Looks real, but can you fly?" A single stroke sent him circling around her and landed him on the bridge rail. He hopped back down to her side as she brushed a strand of her mane from her face, which had been caught in the wind. "Oh my gosh!" He already knew nothing was gonna happen here. She just didn't seem like a good match; too concerned about superficial things like ghosts and skin colors. The only question was if he would leave quietly or have some fun and make a few clones of himself to spook her out. "You're really the ghost, aren't you?" "Sure am, one and only." This was the perfect time for Carbon #2 to show up, but he got a crazy idea all of a sudden. The pre-band Carbon might not have tried it, or even thought of it. "Wanna take a ride?" he asked. "A what? What do you mean?" "You just hop on my back and I fly you around above the town. Then you can tell all your friends you saw the black pegasus ghost and no one will believe you." "Pffft," she spat, "I bet they won't believe when I tell them the black ghost is a perv, either," she turned around and strutted away over the bridge. "Have a nice night, I'll go haunt somepony else," Carbon called after her. She put out her lantern and flew off into the night. He wanted to facehoof himself, how didn't he notice those wings? Useless all-powerful bands; where does one get a perceptiveness upgrade. He slinked away toward the town alleys with a huge, bright smile on his face. He didn't really care what she said about the ride, he just wanted to know if he was colt enough to ask for it. Plus it would be fun to see what everypony says about the "black ghost" after this. He hadn't been paying attention to recent news in the least, and this was a good time to start. He soaked in the atmosphere of the street, then balanced on a fence just for fun (super easy trick for a pegasus to learn), then flew to the roof of the town library. It was a large building with a strange design, such that some of the roof space was sheltered by an overhang and offered refuge from the rain. Good place to lay down. Some "Where is my life headed?" thoughts came brushing by, but the answer seemed obvious - get involved with the community somehow. Carbon had more to himself than he deemed necessary and it seemed a drag to carry on with it. Just before he was about to come up with some sort of brilliant plan he heard a set of hooves hit the roof behind him. The purple pegasus mare was back. She didn't have her sash this time. "I'm sorry. I never got a name," she said. "Carbon." "Charmed, I'm Snow Drop," she held out her hoof. He gave it a shake. "Sorry about the ride thing, thought you were an earth pony, and uh... been a little stressed out recently, and... " She laughed it off, then jumped on his back, landing with an awkward splash, and grabbed his neck. Oh horseradish, did that just happen? Carbon froze. "What's wrong, you scared?" she giggled, "I knew you weren't gonna do it." Carbs took off as fast as his wings could carry him. He was glad to hear Snow Drop gasp with surprise. If she wanted a ride she'd get the ride of her life. He flew up into the clouds at a nearly masochistic pace while the rain drops pelted them and obscured everything from view. Above the clouds he switched to a glide and decided to catch his breath. The moon was full. She grabbed his neck pretty tight during the ascent, but not as tightly as an earth pony would. He felt really awkward all of a sudden. "You sure you don't wanna fly for yourself a bit?" he asked. "It's really cold, though." She was already shivering. He could feel her heart beat now. She lay her head down on the side of his neck. Sweet Celestia's mane, what was he doing? "Let's go back, then." He dived back into the cloud, slowly. On the other side, the rain suddenly felt a lot warmer. "It's not so cold here." "Pretend I'm an earth pony." If this lasted any longer he'd have no choice but to start enjoying it; might as well give up now. He flew her deep into the night without very many words, until the morning light came when he had to drop her off before anypony noticed. At the end he was exhausted, but it felt like a great day. _________________________________________________________________________________________ "Good morning Ponyville," he whispered, opening a window and taking a deep breath of the late night air. He had slept through all day and most of the night. On the night stand lay a copy of Ponyville Monthly with a blurred, ghostly-looking picture of himself on the cover. Today's forecast: 100% chance of sunshine. That's right, today was the day black pegasus ghosts would overrun Ponyville. Of all the ponies that called themselves the salt of Equestria he liked to think he was the pepper. Someone would have to be the meat and potatoes to have a good meal. Never mind that thought. After a breakfast mostly of fries and fruit punch he trotted outside, got his cargo cart out, and covered it with a blanket. He pulled it merrily toward the market triangle (the Ponyville market square is indeed a triangle). Soon the birdies would be waking up and he would actually be glad to hear the incessant infernal pipsqueaks for once. "Sweet Celestia's mane, wait till everypony sees who came to the market," Carbon was still laughing about it when he set up a tent at the market place to hide himself with his cart. Just outside he placed a table with nothing on it. It was a good break to find an empty space at the market to set up. That's all you had to do at the market in Ponyville - find an empty space and occupy it; no permits of any sort were necessary. Even more of a good break was that nopony was up early enough to see him arrive. "This day is going to be perfect..." At around noon he stopped reading his copy of "Daring Do and the Holy Troth" and pulled his cart out of the tent. Someone had already borrowed his table. Regardless. A large crowd of ponies gathered immediately, with a bunch of pegasi hovering over top to get a better view of the ghost of Ponyville. He pulled back the covers from the cart to reveal ... a large supply of identical replicas of Lionhoof's hoof bands that turned a pony black when wielded. Most of the crowd scattered immediately, as intended. From now on he would be able to walk around town without drawing large crowds or being ignored completely; just what he wanted to do since he arrived. Probably would pay Cloudsdale a visit first, though. Some of the ponies were still interested in his stand, the first of which was a familiar blood-red unicorn. "I'll take a pair," said Amber with a grin, handing Carbon the same gems from a few nights ago. "Sir, this is far more than my product is worth," said Carbon, still grinning about his clever plan. Indeed, they looked pretty stupid, grinning at each other. "Consider it a gift." Carbon handed Amber his bands, who put them on immediately. "I know you wanted to look like the ghost of Ponyville, but I'm afraid the bands won't give you wings." "That's quite all right, I'm not quite ready to be an alicorn princess. Nice to have a new skin color once in a while, though." Next up was a white pegasus who seemed to be fuming about something, along with his blue-green, giggly ... girlfriend, probably. He bought a pair in silence and walked away. After that a number of unfamiliar out-of-towners followed. Overall the day was rather uneventful. Pinkie and Dash bought a pair. Rarity nosed around and looked like she was interested for a while, but walked away later. Zecora came around and bought two pairs, surprisingly. What did she even need those for, she was already half black as it is. None other than Snow Drop showed up. First she was mad, then she laughed, then she got a pair for herself. At the end of it all he had 3 pairs of bands left in the cart and no one else wanted any. He took his tent down and just left them there. On the way home a large amount of water suddenly dropped over the street. Carbon looked up at the sky to see a dark cloud with a barely visible, nearly vertical rainbow to the side. "100% chance of sunshine, huh? That's right, those bucks at the weather factory didn't say anything about rain, did they," he smiled, "That or someone got on Dash's nerves again." At the bakery sat a black pegasus who was actually turning red in places. Breeze was laughing out loud at him by now. "Let me guess, Silver, you give up?" "Not quite, hon. Remember the pegasus who sold me these things?" "Yeah." "His were real. The scanner gave a perfect match." "Oh..."
%i%. An intro to Carbon1. An intro to Carbon Two years had passed since Carbon the black pegasus pony escaped the crystal, and he wasn't particularly eager to recall any of it. He was moderately pleased with the new name he picked for himself, though. He had spent these years doing nothing in particular, at the same time he felt a little bit worn out. the strangest thing was he still didn't have his cutie mark. This was unheard of among ponies at the age of 22. Celestia generally left him to his own business, but she did ask him to start going to magic school. her letter was so encouraging he couldn't refuse. Carbon felt terribly awkward attending the classes, being seemingly the only pony in Equestria with a shiny black coat. If anypony thought anything about it, they never spoke it. At the same time he was beginning to suspect that he was some sort of apple vampire. He had already sucked a couple hundred trees worth of wild apples dry in the valleys north of Ponyville. It was certainly a relief to know he was an apple vampire, and not a normal pony with a terrible apple eating disorder ... and fangs. It was also a relief to know the evil crystal seemed to have failed in its purpose. Looks like that fear of blood Carbon acquired as a little foal had come in handy, albeit those events better be left to themselves. Whenever Carbon felt stressed the apple craving doubled up. In fact, before Celestia sent him to magic school he found it quite manageable, but now he had to fly down to the wild apple valleys almost every night. In the past he was quite scared about it, like he might turn into an actual vampire. Now he was beginning to suspect that Celestia knew more about his problems than he did. If Celestia was cool with it, he was cool with it. It was certainly nice of her to get him a house in Ponyville of his own. And the hoof band with the royal crest on it. Yesterday Carbon decided to put it on, go down to the bakery, and ask for a free cake. Out came the biggest, most delicious cake you can imagine. He tried to look as gracious as possible, as he carried it home to pig out in private. Fancy those Ponyville ponies thinking he's somepony important. He still wasn't gonna talk to them, being a weird apple vampire and everything. Yeah, that band best be used sparingly. Although ... it could have some proper uses; the royal library would no longer be off limits. Tomorrow he could put it on and strut straight in there like like a big, bad magician pony; walk into the forbidden section like he was Twilight Sparkle or something. Hopefully there'd be some good books about apple vampires there, and without too much technical magic rubbish. Maybe the band wasn't really that royal, but the thought alone made for a good nap. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Carbon was surprised to find out how easily he was admitted into the "forbidden" section. Jolly well didn't seem to be that forbidden altogether. Too bad the only vampire, changeling, or anything leecher-pony-related was some dusty old book by some crotchety old pony full of graphic descriptions of vampire pony and changeling victims. Most of them were from hundreds of years ago and the book claimed that king Sombra was the last of the lot unaccounted for. Good to know he was accounted for now, getting practically dismembered and everything. As for the book it probably could've been discarded, but Carbon put it back on the shelf. The only thing concerning apples in the forbidden section was the appropriately titled "Forbidden Magic With Apples", which (as the note indicated) was taken out just yesterday by ... Twilight Sparkle. Celestia knows what she was doing with it. In any case, it probably wouldn't be possible to get it back from her for quite some time. Carbon had tried several times before with other books, but it seemed like he had some sort of spell on him that made everypony oblivious to meeting him. That would explain why it didn't bother anypony that a black pegasus was studying magic with unicorns. Why hadn't he ever thought about that before? Must have been some sort of residue from the crystal wearing off of his mind. It certainly felt like an enchantment, especially now that he had a couple years away from it for reference. The origin of hatred in Equestria remains undiscovered ... The plague has appeared at rare, turning-point events in history and sometimes takes the shape of black crystals. The crystals have always appeared sparsely and are most commonly found in dark and unlikely places ... Ponies who have lingered long around the crystals for study have been known to come under strange and chaotic enchantments ... Nothing else is known of these crystals save that they disappear within a few decades of the turning of the age. Well, there it was in a nutshell; good old practical enchantments encyclopedia. Carbon put the heavy volume 47 tome back on the shelf. Eight years encased in hatred, to think of it! The pegasus pony shuddered. No wonder he didn't want to remember it, but it already seemed to be lost in the past. At the same time he was quite sure that he reduced that bit of hatred to nothing. He paused for a little bit as the first bits of morning light came through the tall windows over the even taller, eerie, ancient, stone library shelves. So what now? Should he just stick around in Ponyville and study something he had no interest in until the enchantment wears off? Maybe he could make some friends and have a nice, peaceful life. The age would turn just like any other time and be completely forgotten about within his lifetime, wouldn't it? Carbon didn't even wonder about it much more than that. He had some curious feeling that everything would work itself out soon, so he decided to explore the library a bit instead. He wandered around soaking in the space of the room for a little bit. Then he skimmed through some entries for black ponies, which weren't of much help either. Something about an extinct race, king Sombra again, something about some fairy tail half-blood ponies that didn't actually have skin and weren't really ponies at all...what, an eastern unicorn festival that involved dying one's skin black for a couple days. Carbon chuckled about being extinct a little bit while he put the books back. He was on his way out now and he looked through the dusty cracks in between the shelves as he passed each stack of books, hoping he'd find something that fell in between the shelves. He wasn't sure why, it just seemed like a fun thing to do all of a sudden. To his delight one of the cracks had some paper at the far end, near the wall. It's no trouble for a pegasus to carefully move a bookshelf, even if it is the size of a cathedral. The paper itself was old and dusty, as expected. It looked like a map of the library - worth one look, maybe, but not a second. What's this? It looked like the map was outdated; it had a passage drawn where there was clearly a wall. Celestia found herself feeling worried all of a sudden. Of course she would be, Twilight was just about to become an alicorn, a monumental occasion. Everything was prepared, did she miss something? She found her mind shifting toward Cotton Cloud. She'd almost forgotten about the young stallion. Carbon is what he called himself now, after having cycled through about 10 names or so. What a troublemaker. It really was remarkable that he managed to wake Sombra from his slumber prematurely. With one of his crystals destroyed Sombra felt threatened and decided to attack the Crystal Empire immediately, which left him so vulnerable that the elements of harmony could easily overcome him. Come to think of it Carbon had a forgetfulness enchantment on him, which was one of the strangest side-effects a hatred crystal had ever had on a pony. The enchantment was bound to wear off one of these days, and then... . Oh, what was she worried about? No use losing your peace over one pony so much. All these royal preparations for Twilight compounded with all her responsibilities were probably getting the best of her. If Carbon could just stay out of trouble for a day or two everything would be fine, might as well just forget about it. _________________________________________________________________________________________ At the end of the secret passage was a spacious underground study. Judging by the trashy antiques on the walls the study belonged to prince Lionhoof. Hold on, why would he have a large image of himself on the wall? More likely than not, this was his burial chamber. Carbon knew just enough about him from history books to feel quite comfortable in the room, dusty and torch-lit as it was (he had just lit the torches). Lionhoof was notable for always wearing a strange pair of plain hoof bands on his forefeet that he never took off, even when he went to sleep. Sure enough, here were the hoof bands inside a display case on top of a high stone slab. Carbon put on the hoof bands, pushed the display case aside, and stood upon the stone slab while mimicking the poster and addressing an imaginary crowd. "Dear Equestrians," he bagan. The crowd cheered. "I declare that under my rule we shall have 5 years of peace. After that we'll have a couple years of wars just to mix things up, followed by an indefinite amount of peace until my death, which will be at least 15 years," the crowd cheered. "Furthermore, you can all kiss my flank," the crowd went wild with acclamation. "We love you, Carbon!" yelled a group of filly sluts from the front row right under the balcony. Carbon became indignant all of a sudden. "You don't want me, you want prince Lionhoof," he yelled back. "No, you retard," the ponies yelled back, "If we wanted Lionhoof we'd go to his daydream, but we're in your daydream cause we want you!" Carbon remained in his kingly pose for a moment, wondering what the buck he just imagined. Well, that's enough fun for one day. He was going to put the hoof bands back in place, but they wouldn't come off for some reason. Carbon stood still for a little while pretending to be angry with himself. This was the proper thing to do if one didn't want to be a wise-flank. Truthfully he didn't really care. Eight years in a dark crystal sort of trumps any sort of fears you might have about enchanted hoof bands. So there's that. That's why Lionhoof never took his hoof bands off. He bloody well couldn't. They were quite comfortable though, couldn't even feel them there. Carbon sighed. Better check around the room to see if he could find something about the hoof bands. Almost immediately he found a letter from the prince lying on the book case against the wall; how convenient. He blew the dust off of the parchment and began to read. Dear explorer, it is my sincere intention and enchantment, that whoever finds these hoofbands will be the pony destined and qualified to have them ... These hoofbands grant the bearer unlimited power at will and will not come off by any means until the life has departed from their host. The power of the bands has no restriction, but beware: it cannot remove the wearer from the divine order of reaping what he sows ... If you would wish to have the artifact destroyed before putting it on this can be done quite easily now, but not afterwards; and I can't hold it against you, but I didn't feel it right to have it destroyed by my order ... Instead, I'm having a trusted friend place these bands over my tomb inside this enchanted burial room for safe keeping. May the authorities that be decide who should have this gift, your good friend, prince Lionhoof. "Ah ha hah," Carbon thought, "an artifact that gives power with no restriction. That's a good joke. If that's what it did I could just teleport straight to my h..." He was in his living room. He teleported into the bathroom and splashed some cold water in his face. "All right, play it cool," he thought, " this might be a whole another mess to deal with. Probably some sort of spell that imprisons the mind in some sort of enchanted replica of the real world." He teleported back into the dusty room and put out the torches. The passage was already sealed behind him when he came in. Then he teleported back to his bathroom and splashed some more water in his face. "Derp, could've just put out the torches from here. Well, that's enough teleporting for one day." He walked to his bedroom. "1:39? Let's make it 7:39." Time jumped forward 6 hours, the sun outside had gone down. "No, that's messed up, back to 1:39." He went back to the moment where he left off. "1:40 in the afternoon. Can't think of a better time to take a nap." Carbon lay under his blanket in a nasty state of shock for quite a while before snapping off to sleep. _________________________________________________________________________________________ He woke up late in the evening and teleported to the apple trees. The hoofbands probably could have taken care of it, but he was starting to take pride in not using them overmuch. Plus it's not like the hoofbands knew how to fix the apple issue. They were still a dumb artifact and the wearer had to make all the decisions. Trying to cure irrepressible desire for sucking apple juices, which bloody well nopony understands, could easily prove disastrous both physically and mentally. After that he flew down to a cliff he liked 700 miles east of Ponyville. Fast pegasi have been clocked at over a thousand miles per hour in a dive (Equestria is a big country), so it didn't take very long. The cliff belonged to a plateau with a wheat field in the middle. Carbon settled between the wheat stalks not far from the bare rock of the cliff's edge. He tested how powerful the hoofbands were a little bit by moving some stars around and turning them funny colors, even black light, but he put everything back in its place in the end. He made a little light rain fall down over the wheat field. Wouldn't bother anyone. It was a warm night. Now that he could do everything he didn't want to do anything. He just wanted to sit on top of the cliff and soak in the endlessness of everything. And it didn't seem to matter if it was a hoax, or enchantment, or test of some sort anymore, either. Why did the bands come to somepony who didn't even need them? Just so he could have fun with them? He shot some lightning bolts out of his eyes just to see what it was like and immediately wished he didn't. It made the air smell funny for a few minutes. After a while he got up. Depression, that's what this was. Just because he had no social skills after spending 8 years in a crystal and was a little on the skinny side didn't mean he couldn't find somepony special. Not to mention he had unimaginable power in his hooves. Confounded hoofbands. They probably lost all their power as soon as one got a girlfriend. He still didn't trust the things. Of course, if the hoofbands were reliable, he could just jump back in time if anything went wrong with his relationships, couldn't he? Or would that make... Another Carbon appeared next to him. "Yep, two instances of the same pony simultaneously," said the other Carbon and disappeared. "Sweet, now i don't even have to check," said the first Carbon. Wait a second, how is that possible if he never went back in time to begin wi... . Carbon woke up in the field several minutes later with a skull-splitting headache. That's it. No more messing with time travel. Period. He could, supposedly, just turn the entirety of time backwards and erase it, but if he turned time back how would he know he ever did anything? Wouldn't it just end up exactly the same? He'd have to go back in time and tell himself to... . No. No messing with time travel of any sort. Period. Wait a second, who needs friends when you have a destiny? Couldn't he just wish his cutie mark to appear? He did so. It was a long, thin vial with strange bubbling liquid and two snakes curled around it. He was scared about the thing for a while and trotted around uneasily. Was that really his destiny? Consequently he realized it looked sort of like the sign at the doctors, except with a potion in the middle instead of the staff thing. Did that mean he was some kind of cure maker? He wasn't sure if that was it. He never even imagined his destiny would be anything like that. If it was he'd be one of the few ponies in history to discover their destiny without trying. Carbon decided to sleep on it and teleported to bed. _________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Nothing to doThe forgetfulness enchantment was finally wearing off. Carbon would walk around town and occasionally a pony would say hi, before their eyes would glaze over and they'd obliviously walk away. Pinkie even came to his front door and started blurting out how excited she was to hear that somepony new was in town when her eyes glazed over and she walked away like everypony else. If Pinkie heard about him that meant somepony actually remembered him after seeing him. Excellent news. Carbs spent most of his time designing a mansion near the ocean. What else would he be doing? Adventuring had finally lost its flavor when the idea that he could do practically anything he wanted sank in. The castle was sheltered on two and a half sides by a steep, tall mountain, which separated it from the water. Dense forest hid it from view on the ground. It was altogether fairly difficult to notice if you weren't looking for it from the sky. On the third floor there was a walkway around the entire house with columns supporting the walls. On the fourth floor there was a platform and some balconies next to a fat, square tower near the middle that went up three more floors, losing some of its space to more balconies nested in the corners as it did so. The whole thing was made of stone with some colorful decorations, especially in or close to the windows. It almost looked like a cathedral sometimes. Carbon wasn't sure where all the materials came from when he wished them to appear, but he was fairly confident he didn't steal anything. The only thing the house was missing was a cute wife and kids ... and some nice neighbors ... really, all of Ponyville should be just picked up and planted here, and all the houses could be turned into mansions or castles ... and the water should be clearer, you should be able to see everything you want ... and ... . Carbon sighed. Some distance inland was a small mountain lake. He was watching the rain fall on the water and he was already soaked. A thunderstorm was starting to pick up. He jumped back home and got a towel. The weird cutie mark with the vial had almost faded away completely by now, how strange. He didn't really care about it. One of these days when the enchantment wore off he'd go to Cloudsdale and visit all the best restaurants and make up some sort of hilarious street performer act using the bands that would mess with everypony's head. It could be a good way to make some bits to buy pizza with without just wishing them into existence. Ah, wishing them into existence, so what? Doesn't that Rarity cutie just dig up more gems whenever she wants? No one ever complains about the way she sends Spike to dig up gems and then buys whatever she wants with them. No one probably thinks about it, either. That's a really cool gift. Being able to sense gem stones underground. Carbon drifted off to sleep again. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Meanwhile, all of Cloudsdale was eagerly anticipating the next Cloud Festival. A grandiose event held once a decade, the very purpose of which is to find all the best and most fun things a pegasus, or even anypony can do with a cloud. This year Cloudsdale would be the host and every cloud fanatic from all of Equestria would be attending. Prominent unicorn magicians would be responsible for helping groups of earth ponies walk on the clouds, and some simple ward spells would be placed to make sure nopony falls off, or through, or in any fashion unless intended. Rumors of a ghostly black pegasus appearing in Ponyville only fueled the excitement. It was natural that something strange would begin to happen at this time, since almost every unicorn was planning some sort of surprise. There were a number of conspiracies, but some unicorns wanted to keep their act a secret until the last second. Once the festival was officially opened on the first of June anything and everything would happen. Indeed, Ponyville had never seen so many talented magic users in one place as long as it existed. There were already kiosks on every corner selling strange magical knick-knacks. Among the most popular was the hover necklace, which made a pony float several inches above the ground and move fairly quickly in any direction they wanted. It had to be recharged after six or seven hours or so, but the refills were free. Some of the unicorns had figured out how to recharge them themselves. Pinkie certainly had her hooves full with all the new names. The latest newcomers were two pegasi named Silver Wing and Breeze. Silver was an off white stallion with a clean, white mane. Breeze was an honorable blue-green mare with a green mane that had some highlights. At first glance she had the feel of a foggy lake in a mountainous forest, right after a thunderstorm. Both pegasi had their hover necklaces on and were floating over water on the Ponyville river, just outside of town, as they talked. "If I didn't know better, I'd say someone found the bands, put them on, and did a lap around town with them every other day," said Silver. "Are you sure the tracking device isn't broken?" "My father spent a decade fine tuning and fool proofing this thing. If it broke already we're probably bucked." "Well, either the chamber is a huge cavern under the town or someone took the bands already." "That's it. I give up." "You say that every day, Silver." "And I mean it every day. I still can't believe I've wasted five years of my life, already, chasing some sort of fake artifact from the dark ages. You'd think the council would have a little more respect for my talents." "And what do you care? Chill out and enjoy yourself. All the other pegasi are stuck in weather factories making snowflakes." "All my peers are stuck in weather factories, and I'm pretty sure it's not snowflakes they're worried about. And another thing, you're seriously enjoying all of this drifting, aren't you?" Breeze smiled. They floated in silence over the clear blue water, past the welcoming green river banks in the fresh air. Everfree forest loomed in the distance among the tall purple mountains with round caps that Ponyville countryside is famous for. A small group of pegasi just above the horizon was flying towards Cloudsdale. Silver hadn't noticed how beautiful and familiar the place felt. "So," said Breeze after a while, "What do you say we fly over some of those mountains?" "All right, but you're not gonna talk me out of stopping at the bakery next time." _________________________________________________________________________________________ "Wake up Mr. Carbon." Carbon opened his eyes and got up. It wasn't a problem even thought it was 2 AM on the clock; he spent a lot of time oversleeping recently. The room was lit by a dim lamp. He felt some sort of cloudiness in his head and couldn't really recall what had happened recently. Next to his bed was a grinning blood-red unicorn stallion. "Sir, those hoof bands have been eating away at your memory again," said the unicorn in a soothing voice. The voice itself didn't sound soothing, but it felt so, like a younger brother concerned for an elder. "Hoof bands?" mumbled Carbon, looking at his hooves, "I don't remember getting these." "You said you wanted me to take them to the safe house tonight, but it's your call," said the unicorn. Carbon tried to remember what happened yesterday, but some sort of malevolent cloud hung over his memory. Everything was blocked. "What are these bands? And what's your name?" he asked. "Amber, sir. You hired me as an assistant several weeks ago. You told me to give you this if the bands don't work properly." Amber handed him a letter in Carbon's own handwriting. The letter explained how the experiment with the hoof band devices may interfere with memory, at which point the bands have to be stored in a safe place and the user has to take several weeks off to recover before attempting it again. Most of it was unreadable nonsense that looked scientific. "How do you get these blasted things off?" said Carbon, trying to pull off the bands. "That's strange, may I see?" Carbon handed Amber his hoof. Amber examined the bands intently for about a minute. He was about to do a spell, but he stopped in the middle of it. "May I?" he asked. "By all means," replied Carbon. Amber sighed, and focused a little bit. His horn glowed a bright purple color and fired off a small spark at the bands. The spark exploded, giving off a sharp, burning smell. Amber jumped backwards with a slight shock. "Oh dear, I'm afraid I must be going at once," he gasped, trotting toward the door. "My sweet assitant, I believe you forgot something." The door slammed shut. "Your mouth." Ambers mouth became smoothed over. He hadn't expected that his simple diagnostic spell would cause the bands to backfire. Not only did the bands cancel the spell, but they cancelled all his magic on the host as well. "3 AM, I like to take a stroll on the lake at this time," said Carbon nonchalantely. The next moment Amber was struggling to swim without a mouth while Carbon stood on the icy, dark, moon-lit water and watched. As soon as it looked like Amber was panicking Carbon grabbed him by the neck and whispered in his ear. "Hey Amber. We're friends now. Wanna hear a secret?" Amber twitched a little. The grip hurt and he had water in his nose. "These bands, they only come off when the wearer dies, and I've been waiting for years for that to happen. I hate my life. So good luck." They were on the shore. "Well, I better get going," said Carbon as he started walking away, "Oh, I almost forgot. Here's a little something for your trouble. Buy yourself something nice at sugar cube corner." Carbon handed Amber some gems, smacked him in the flank, and teleported him back to town. About a minute later he gave him his mouth back. _________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Ghost of PonyvilleThe rain from the lake had moved to Ponyville by now. Light, but just a little bit cold. Carbon couldn't decide if it was pleasant or not as he cantered through the spooky lantern-lit alleys of the town's outskirts. He wanted to find out if the enchantment had lifted for sure or if the unicorn was just a talented illusionist and could see through it. Just outside of town were bound to be some tents (cause the houses weren't enough to accommodate everyone who was showing up for the festival), and if there were tents there was bound to be somepony still awake. Sure enough, the field over the river was littered with little prisms and pyramids. Far away, near the bank, he could make out an isolated group of tents with a large camp fire going and some ponies gathered around it. He stood by the bridge, watching the flames and trying to feel what would happen when he got there by the scent of the air, but nothing was manifesting clearly. Even Equestria had that little bit of anticipation before a new meeting. Would be super fun to run into Amber again. Well, tally ho, might as well get this over with. He stepped boldly onto the bridge and immediately bumped into something and heard a gasp. "Sweet rainbows, you scared the buck out of me," said the purple earth pony filly as she lit a paper glow lantern from the magic shop. It glowed clear white. Both ponies were completely soaked. Her eyes got wide. "No way," she poked him in the shoulder, "You're the black pegasus ghost!" "Yeah, so?" "Wh... are... " she backed up and put a hoof to her head, then she swung it and pointed at him, "You're the biggest thing in town right now after the festival and you don't even know anything? You can't be serious." Carbon stared. The filly stared back. "Hold on a second, " she pulled a small wand out from her sash and pointed it at the pegasus. A small purple spark flew out and nothing happened. "That's odd," she said. "What's the wand for?" he asked. "Illusion breaker from Amber's stand, I'm not sure if it works, thought," she said thoughtfully. Carbon looked at his arms and realized he was trembling all over. Really, he was squeeing inside. No more enchantment, Cloud Festival coming up, unlimited power in his hooves, second biggest thing in Ponyville. Wait, what was that last one? He glanced back at the filly. She was already at his side, poking at his wing. "Looks real, but can you fly?" A single stroke sent him circling around her and landed him on the bridge rail. He hopped back down to her side as she brushed a strand of her mane from her face, which had been caught in the wind. "Oh my gosh!" He already knew nothing was gonna happen here. She just didn't seem like a good match; too concerned about superficial things like ghosts and skin colors. The only question was if he would leave quietly or have some fun and make a few clones of himself to spook her out. "You're really the ghost, aren't you?" "Sure am, one and only." This was the perfect time for Carbon #2 to show up, but he got a crazy idea all of a sudden. The pre-band Carbon might not have tried it, or even thought of it. "Wanna take a ride?" he asked. "A what? What do you mean?" "You just hop on my back and I fly you around above the town. Then you can tell all your friends you saw the black pegasus ghost and no one will believe you." "Pffft," she spat, "I bet they won't believe when I tell them the black ghost is a perv, either," she turned around and strutted away over the bridge. "Have a nice night, I'll go haunt somepony else," Carbon called after her. She put out her lantern and flew off into the night. He wanted to facehoof himself, how didn't he notice those wings? Useless all-powerful bands; where does one get a perceptiveness upgrade. He slinked away toward the town alleys with a huge, bright smile on his face. He didn't really care what she said about the ride, he just wanted to know if he was colt enough to ask for it. Plus it would be fun to see what everypony says about the "black ghost" after this. He hadn't been paying attention to recent news in the least, and this was a good time to start. He soaked in the atmosphere of the street, then balanced on a fence just for fun (super easy trick for a pegasus to learn), then flew to the roof of the town library. It was a large building with a strange design, such that some of the roof space was sheltered by an overhang and offered refuge from the rain. Good place to lay down. Some "Where is my life headed?" thoughts came brushing by, but the answer seemed obvious - get involved with the community somehow. Carbon had more to himself than he deemed necessary and it seemed a drag to carry on with it. Just before he was about to come up with some sort of brilliant plan he heard a set of hooves hit the roof behind him. The purple pegasus mare was back. She didn't have her sash this time. "I'm sorry. I never got a name," she said. "Carbon." "Charmed, I'm Snow Drop," she held out her hoof. He gave it a shake. "Sorry about the ride thing, thought you were an earth pony, and uh... been a little stressed out recently, and... " She laughed it off, then jumped on his back, landing with an awkward splash, and grabbed his neck. Oh horseradish, did that just happen? Carbon froze. "What's wrong, you scared?" she giggled, "I knew you weren't gonna do it." Carbs took off as fast as his wings could carry him. He was glad to hear Snow Drop gasp with surprise. If she wanted a ride she'd get the ride of her life. He flew up into the clouds at a nearly masochistic pace while the rain drops pelted them and obscured everything from view. Above the clouds he switched to a glide and decided to catch his breath. The moon was full. She grabbed his neck pretty tight during the ascent, but not as tightly as an earth pony would. He felt really awkward all of a sudden. "You sure you don't wanna fly for yourself a bit?" he asked. "It's really cold, though." She was already shivering. He could feel her heart beat now. She lay her head down on the side of his neck. Sweet Celestia's mane, what was he doing? "Let's go back, then." He dived back into the cloud, slowly. On the other side, the rain suddenly felt a lot warmer. "It's not so cold here." "Pretend I'm an earth pony." If this lasted any longer he'd have no choice but to start enjoying it; might as well give up now. He flew her deep into the night without very many words, until the morning light came when he had to drop her off before anypony noticed. At the end he was exhausted, but it felt like a great day. _________________________________________________________________________________________ "Good morning Ponyville," he whispered, opening a window and taking a deep breath of the late night air. He had slept through all day and most of the night. On the night stand lay a copy of Ponyville Monthly with a blurred, ghostly-looking picture of himself on the cover. Today's forecast: 100% chance of sunshine. That's right, today was the day black pegasus ghosts would overrun Ponyville. Of all the ponies that called themselves the salt of Equestria he liked to think he was the pepper. Someone would have to be the meat and potatoes to have a good meal. Never mind that thought. After a breakfast mostly of fries and fruit punch he trotted outside, got his cargo cart out, and covered it with a blanket. He pulled it merrily toward the market triangle (the Ponyville market square is indeed a triangle). Soon the birdies would be waking up and he would actually be glad to hear the incessant infernal pipsqueaks for once. "Sweet Celestia's mane, wait till everypony sees who came to the market," Carbon was still laughing about it when he set up a tent at the market place to hide himself with his cart. Just outside he placed a table with nothing on it. It was a good break to find an empty space at the market to set up. That's all you had to do at the market in Ponyville - find an empty space and occupy it; no permits of any sort were necessary. Even more of a good break was that nopony was up early enough to see him arrive. "This day is going to be perfect..." At around noon he stopped reading his copy of "Daring Do and the Holy Troth" and pulled his cart out of the tent. Someone had already borrowed his table. Regardless. A large crowd of ponies gathered immediately, with a bunch of pegasi hovering over top to get a better view of the ghost of Ponyville. He pulled back the covers from the cart to reveal ... a large supply of identical replicas of Lionhoof's hoof bands that turned a pony black when wielded. Most of the crowd scattered immediately, as intended. From now on he would be able to walk around town without drawing large crowds or being ignored completely; just what he wanted to do since he arrived. Probably would pay Cloudsdale a visit first, though. Some of the ponies were still interested in his stand, the first of which was a familiar blood-red unicorn. "I'll take a pair," said Amber with a grin, handing Carbon the same gems from a few nights ago. "Sir, this is far more than my product is worth," said Carbon, still grinning about his clever plan. Indeed, they looked pretty stupid, grinning at each other. "Consider it a gift." Carbon handed Amber his bands, who put them on immediately. "I know you wanted to look like the ghost of Ponyville, but I'm afraid the bands won't give you wings." "That's quite all right, I'm not quite ready to be an alicorn princess. Nice to have a new skin color once in a while, though." Next up was a white pegasus who seemed to be fuming about something, along with his blue-green, giggly ... girlfriend, probably. He bought a pair in silence and walked away. After that a number of unfamiliar out-of-towners followed. Overall the day was rather uneventful. Pinkie and Dash bought a pair. Rarity nosed around and looked like she was interested for a while, but walked away later. Zecora came around and bought two pairs, surprisingly. What did she even need those for, she was already half black as it is. None other than Snow Drop showed up. First she was mad, then she laughed, then she got a pair for herself. At the end of it all he had 3 pairs of bands left in the cart and no one else wanted any. He took his tent down and just left them there. On the way home a large amount of water suddenly dropped over the street. Carbon looked up at the sky to see a dark cloud with a barely visible, nearly vertical rainbow to the side. "100% chance of sunshine, huh? That's right, those bucks at the weather factory didn't say anything about rain, did they," he smiled, "That or someone got on Dash's nerves again." At the bakery sat a black pegasus who was actually turning red in places. Breeze was laughing out loud at him by now. "Let me guess, Silver, you give up?" "Not quite, hon. Remember the pegasus who sold me these things?" "Yeah." "His were real. The scanner gave a perfect match." "Oh..."
