All-Powerful Hoof-Bands

The 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..."