Alchemy is Also Magic

"Hey dad, why are you just staring at me?

Cliff looked at him for what seemed an eternity and started to say something. It sounded more or less like somepony had replaced Cliff's words with a long drawn-out incomprehensible blah. "Hhh... Ooowwww...." Cliff didn't even really seem to see Ridgeline. The colt would move a small distance away and Cliff would slowly look back to him. "Aaarrree...." Ridgeline got it then, and laughed at his dad's attempted words.

"hahahahahaha. Dadyouaretalkingreallyslowlyrightnow." said a hyperactive Ridgeline.

He seemed to have an outline. And the outline seemed to be moving. Cliff looked at his son and then got it, and increased his speed of talking to a near mindless babble. "OkaysonIthinkI'vegotit." Ridgeline gave a very quick nod in approval.

"Okay son, I think I've got it." Said a slowly moving Cliff. Silksand stood in awe, wondering why everything was going fast, why her child was babbling, and why Cliff was babbling too. Ridgeline could understand his dad now so he thought that whatever the drink did, it was over now. "Aww dad! That drink's effect didn't last anywhere near as long as I thought it would!"

"Okay, I have no idea what our son is saying now dear," Cliff said over his shoulder to Silksand, who simply looked shocked at Ridgeline.

"Is he going to be so... hyper... forever?"

"No, just for a couple of hours. But to him, two hours would seem like a few days. We'd better make him some food and fast. His metabolism must be murder."

"Okayitstillworks. I'mgoingtogorunaroundnow! Bye!" Ridgeline vanished behind a cloud of kicked up dirt and ash.

Everything was so slow that Ridgeline could happily do whatever he wanted and nopony could stop him. But he was nicer than that, so he walked through town and waved at the ponies that slowly turned to a shocked expression. Ridgeline found it amazing that when somepony dropped whatever they were holding, the item fell slowly too. But something was bothering him. Something was making him feel very very bored. He felt an urge to walk a little faster, and then a little faster. Before he knew it, he was running at his top speed. Adrenaline was pumping as he pressed onward. Ridgeline couldn't believe that he was running so fast that he had to snap back to reality just to steer away from a strangely green tree. And then another. And then another tree was in his path. Ridgeline didn't feel that tired at all, even though he was pressing himself to the limits, and beyond that entirely. He was running as fast as he could, and the world around him was as slow as it could be. "This is..." He gasped as his voice seemed much higher pitched than he remembered himself being. "Oh! The Trotler effect," said a very high pitched Ridgeline. This place seemed weird, foreign, and beautiful.

It took a few seconds for Ridgeline to register that he had traveled very far, very fast. He had no idea where he was, but a trail of hoof prints and dust could lead him back. But Ridgeline didn't really want to go back just yet, and slowed down a little. Running in very big circles, he was able to slow down even more. He reduced his speed to a very slow trot, but couldn't actually stop just yet. As he brushed past beautiful plants and very fertile earth, he had an idea.

"Ms. Clover said that magic is in everything," said a Ridgeline much like how his voice should be, "Dad made that drink out of plants too. Well... and our manes, but there's magic in that too."

He gathered as many plants as he could pick up and decided that that just wasn't going to cut it. Instead, he took some large leaves, as big as he was, and made a make-shift basket. It was huge, colorful, and best of all, it could be used for more drinks. Ridgeline thought that there was some sort of vocabulary that he was missing but didn't feel like asking his slowed-down dad right then and there what the word was.

"I think that this might be enough," said a very large pile of plants and pretty rocks.

Before he initiated ludacris speed, Ridgeline noted that all that stuff would just fly back as he flew forward. So he did what every sensible pony moving at the speed of sound with a pile of plants and rocks did. He moved it all right in front of him. Feeling that everything was going to be fine, he headed off again. In reality, Ridgeline couldn't bear to be 'standing' around any longer. He had to move, and he had to move fast! The wall of things didn't bother him at all, he looked down at his hooves when he felt that he was moving fast enough now. Even with hyper sight, his hooves were a blur of grey and dirt. He was moving really quickly. Following his own trail back into town, he followed a few curves around trees that he couldn't even see behind the mountain of stuff. Just for fun he said a few jokes on the way back home.

"My voice is higher pitched than your voice!" He then ran much faster.

"Well my voice is higher than yours!" He was a blur of high-pitched laughter.

Suddenly, the tracks stopped. He was home. And then he wasn't. He had overshot his destination, and making a sudden turn with all this stuff in front of him didn't seem like a good idea. So instead, he moved around very slowly in a large circle back to his house, slowing down as much as he could on the way there.

"Eee!" is all that Cliff heard as the air itself ripped him to his left. Darnit Ridgeline! What is that thing on you? As he brought himself back up, a very large thud shook him to the ground. Right in front of him were some very exotic plants.

"That's my boy! I already know he wants another potion. But first, I need to make him a dinner."

Cliff waved as fast as he could to the grey blur 'standing' in front of him. It sort of grew another blur off of its side, and it shrank back into it. That's the fastest wave I've ever seen. Just like that, Ridgeline was gone again, a breeze told Cliff where he went off to. A large pile of things still lay at his side. "Well... let's just take a peek at what he found then, then I'll make a dinner. With what all this looks like, we're going to be eating very well today."

Ridgeline was happier than he ever was. He had been running nearly at the speed of sound. With the joy of a thousand happy ponies, he yelled "I AM THE FASTEST PONY IN EQUESTRIA!"

MEANWHILE IN PONYVILLE!

"Somewhere.. Somepony... said they are faster than me..." said Rainbow Dash. She knew when she was challenged. All she needed to do now was find out who and where this 'fastest pony in Equestria' was.

MEANWHILE IN WHEREVER THE STORY IS I HAVEN'T DECIDED YET!

Ridgeline zipped past everypony he saw, and everypony he thought he saw. By not carrying that large mass of plants and rocks, he was able to turn with much greater ease. He tried a jump, and he stopped feeling the ground under him. His legs were still flailing, trying to grab some air to run on. All this running didn't affect him in the least though. In fact, Ridgeline felt like he could run for hours more! But his mind trailed off to a better idea. All that stuff could make what a few hairs, paint, and leaves couldn't. Ridgeline thought that if he ran fast enough, he would shorten the length of this amazing affect. So without any effort, more or less releasing more control to this urge to run faster, he hit the ground and started to bolt as fast as he could. (He was in the air the entire time of the 'idea'.)

So with the determination to create more of this stuff, and the adrenaline of running, Ridgeline accomplished what everypony would always go through. In a flash of light, a light that could stay with him, a brilliant aura consumed Ridgeline. He felt very happy for seemingly no reason at all. He looked around to see if any side effects were taking place. Nothing here, no adverse effects and "WHAO!"

It was red, yellow, and blue. There were three of them. Each was a glass bottle filled with a different color. They all aimed to the center of the mark. Yes, the mark! The most important moment of any filly or colt's life! Ridgeline had his cutie mark, and he thought it looked amazing. Well, I guess everypony thinks theirs is amazing but... wow mine is amazing! Suddenly, he could taste something peculiar. Mint. Everything tasted... minty.

"Well I guess that's my queue to stop running now. Well maybe I should run home then." In a few moments on reality standards, Ridgeline was home. To his standards, it took twenty minutes of joyous running. He came 'home' to his father and mother. They were both still sifting through the giant pile of stuff that Ridgeline had brought in what seemed like days ago.

"Youarestilllookingthroughallthatstuff?"

"YesweareRidgeline! Aren'tyoudonebeingfastyet?"

"Yeah,it'sgoingawaynow. Ineedsomefoodandsleep."

"Okay. Wemadesomedinnerforyouandit'snotwheatnoodles."

"Coolkaythanksbye." And with that, Ridgeline grabbed a few large leaves from the pile to make a bed with, ate a pear, an apple, a celery stick, and some wheat pancakes, and slept under the stars. A shooting star was amazing to watch in slow motion.

Best. Day. Ever.