All-Powerful Hoof-Bands

The 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.

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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."

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"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.

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