Maximum Capacity

by Michael Hudson

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Tragedy, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 2850

If you could expand your limits, why wouldn't you?

Twilight decides to see what happens when you take off one's mental limitations.

Now featured in Nonpareil Fiction!

Preread by ZOMG and Ayemel!

Thank you to Ayemel for the cover art!

Now with a youtube reading!

Published 2015-01-27 21:50:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-01-27 21:50:02 UTC

Breaking One's Limit

“Princesses in alphabetical order?”

“Celestia, Luna, Mi Amore Cadenza.”

“Names of frie-”

“Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity.”

Spike grew a smug grin. “Not so fast Twilight. I was going to ask about their pets.”

Twilight didn’t even hesitate before the next stream of answers came. “Angel, Gummy, Opalescence, Tank, and Winno- Well actually you could debate whether or not Angel is Fluttershy’s pet or companion so I supposed you could say that it would instead be-”

“You got it right.”

She glared at the sound of her assistant being bored by such a wonderfully exciting experiment. “What?”

Spike bit into his lower jaw for a moment and hoped Twilight’s energy would cause her to lose focus. The intense gaze told him that she wasn’t going to, and the fizzle at the top of her horn warned that she had little patience. “I just don’t know why we’re doing this? So what if you’re answering maybe a second faster than you normally would? Seems like a waste of whatever a hundred percent of your brain is giving you.”

Twilight let out an exasperated sigh and almost went into a long rant on the importance of small scale testing before her mind kicked in. He is right. A true test of my steady growth from ten percent to a hundred percent would be more fitting. Here, I only need ten percent of my brain to answer these. She raised a hoof to her jaw and her imagination exploded with the possibilities of what she could deduce and do with the new spell she was trying.

“Don’t forget the small scale.”

Twilight huffed as Spike giggled. For just a moment, vaporizing him sounded very good to Twilight. I suppose he is right though. Before I deduce the secrets to the universe, I should probably just see what good I can do around town. With that in mind, Twilight took off for Sweet Apple Acres.

Her eyes darted over the expansive town. She counted the amount of ponies, the number of apples in Big Mac’s cart, and was even able to calculate just how the air currents were flowing that day. All at the same time. Twilight almost squealed; she was so happy. “With how successful this is turning out so far, I might just try to unlock everyone’s potential.” She hovered for a moment as she put her hoof to her chest and then moved it outwards from her. “First testing, Twilight. Then mass production.”

Slowly she drifted down to her friend as she worked hard in the fields. Landing behind Applejack, she shouted, “Fourty-seven thousand, eight hundred and ninety three!”

Applejack wiped the sweat from her brow and turned to Twilight. “Pardon?”

“The number of leaves on the tree you were bucking.” Twilight held onto her creepily wide smile, much to the discontent of the orange pony across from her.

“Okay then.” She decided it would be best to simply let her friend enjoy her little discovery and move on. “So what brings you here, Sugarcube?”

The two slowly started trotting through the fields and stopped from time to time to let Applejack buck another tree. “I suppose not much. I was hoping you might have a problem I might be able to fix. Do you need your books done?”

For a moment Applejack thought back to her accounting books and drooped her head. “No. I took care of them earlier this morning.”

“Oh, I understand.” Twilight rubbed her foreleg and thought about what she could do. Too many of the ideas that came to her mind were small or negligable, but then she caught on to the drumming of Applejack’s hooves on her trees. Maybe…

“Rubber trees! Are they ripe?”

A scowl formed on Applejack’s face. “Yeah. Hoping to do those annoyances tomorrow.”

“I vote we do them today!”

“Look Twi, that’s real kind of you and all, but I’d rather just do my calming work after the morning I’ve had rather than dealing with trying to find those trees’ sweet spots to hopefully get an apple or two an hour.”

Twilight puffed out her chest. “Bet you I can help you get that field cleared by the end of the day.”

Applejack stared at Twilight for a moment. “If you can do that, I’d eat my hat.”

“Deal, now come on.” Twilight took off for the south orchard where Applejack had planted rubber apple trees last year. Well, not rubber, that’s just the nickname AJ gave them. The nickname came to be because the trees absorb most force exerted upon them unless you hit them in just the right spot. They give off a rare type of apple that is really valuable and really juicy, but the work is hard to harvest even a few. Or, hopefully was, after today.

Applejack and her trotted into a clearing with the light brown trunks in full view. Their large fruit hung in shimmering glory, ready to be bucked. “So Twilight, how do you figure we can do this?”

Twilight cantered over to a tree and tapped it. She quickly had her magic sync with the small vibrations and tapped it again. There. She darted to just behind the tree and shot a small, purple indicator on its back. “Hit it here.”

The farmhorse bit into her muzzle for a moment and then shrugged. She wasn’t too busy and could at least humor her friend. She raised her haunches and sent her hooves straight back, right on target.

Slam!

Applejack blinked when she heard the first fruit fall. Then more joined its brother until soon the tree was bare. “How?”

“It’s rather simple. The pony professor Tesla reasoned that when you become harmonious with another’s rhythms, you can break anything with the right amount of force. This is where this tree’s power comes to and bounces back, so if it the vibrations cause the whole tree to take it and then send it right back. In other words, that is the sweet spot.”

A large grin grew on Applejack’s face. “Alright, make me eat my hat then.”

Twilight swiftly moved on to the next tree, marking it almost instantly. She waited for Applejack to catch up and moved in this fashion for a little bit with the two working in tandem. When one apple fell right next to her friend and caused her to jump, Twilight’s mind jumped at the distraction and caused her to chuckle. What if it had landed on her head? Another thought quickly followed asking, What if it had landed on the base of her neck?

A shiver went through Twilight and Applejack stopped for a moment. “You okay?”

She waved it away with a hoof. “Yeah, just a rogue thought.”

Applejack nodded and paused. “It wouldn’t take you too long to mark this whole small grove, right?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then why don’t you just mark all of these trees and be on your way. I’ll meet you at Sugarcube Corner when I’m done and Pinkie will serve my hat for us to share.”

Twilight giggled and then hugged Applejack. “Thanks. I’ll see you then.” The task was still taxing enough to keep her mind preoccupied until she was done with the clearing and went to fly off. A small mental reminder her to turn around before she was gone. “Be careful, okay?”

Applejack let out a small chuckle. “When aren’t I?”

“Yeah, that- that’s true. Bye Applejack.” With that, Twilight flew off to find another one of her friends while also seeking another mental distraction. She soon found herself focusing on the air currents, the ebb and flow of the gentle breeze.

“Wow Twilight, that’s some pretty good speed you’ve got. Well, at least for you I suppose.”

She stopped her theory on how to possibly manipulate the air currents into a jetstream and looked over to her friend. “Hello Rainbow Dash. I should test your DNA, find out how come your hair is so many colors.”

Rainbow stopped mid-flight. “What?”

Twilight started to hover with the blue pegasus and shook her head. “Nothing, just thinking aloud I guess.” She suddenly got a wonderful idea. “Hey, my smarts against your skill, now!”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I figured out a new spell today and I think it could give me the advantage I need to possibly keep up with you. Even if I don’t win, it will still give me a chance to test the new power while under stress. besides, you like to race, right? So race me!

“Bwahahahaha!” She paused for a few moments and looked at Twilight as the unicorn’s expression didn’t change. “You’re serious?”

“Yep.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Well then.... Eat my dust! One, two, three go!” She took off down the street while accelerating fast. Already probably hacking up a lung from my- She almost stopped as a purple wingtip came into the edge of her vision. “What?”

Twilight bent her tips a bit to take the currents further away from Rainbow. “Are you okay Rainbow? You seem a little slow today.”

Rainbow fumed. She… she’s mocking me. The egghead is mocking me! That’s it, time to break out the high gear.

Twilight knew she probably shouldn’t have teased her friend, but she couldn’t help but love being able to do something like this with her improved mind. That is until Rainbow came forward while beating her wings like mad. Even without the current’s help, she was still plenty strong and skilled enough to be one of the fastest flyers in Equestria.

Soon the two found distance growing between them and Twilight started to panic. Wait. I have all of this current around me and she is still in my pocket. Would even she be able to take all of this at once?

The winds were silent around Rainbow. It was one of the worst feelings she knew in the skies and she would make Twilight pay for it. Her wings rose and Twilight bent her wing tips, sending the current forward. The blue pegasus’ wings caught the new intrusion and tried to make it bend to her will. It was too much, too soon and entirely too unexpectedly though.

The slight bend in it caused Rainbow to quickly go off course and careening straight into a cloud. Twilight giggled as her friend tried to get out of the white fluff. What if i had miscalculated though? There are lots of trees below that cloud. What if I had sent her there? Twilight shook her head at the image and started to float away.

Rainbow forced her head out of the cloud and saw Twilight heading down. “Hey, where are you going?”

“I… I think I need some time by myself.”

The blue pegasus zoomed in front of her. “Not before you show me how you did that. That was incredible.” She then frowned. “Unless it was some new spell only ability of yours. And then I should sick AJ on you for cheating.” She let out a chuckle at the thought and Twilight lightly joined in.

“Maybe Rainbow,” her mind flashed to what would have happened if she’d bent her wings the wrong way, what all of that current tearing through a pegasus’s wings would do, or to Rainbow’s wings. “but I probably need some rest. Trying to beat you took it out of me I guess. A short stroll should help me feel better.”

Rainbow thought about it for a few moments. “Promise you’ll help me with it sometime?”

She bit into her lip. “I promise to try.”

“Well then yeah, you can go. I will admit it can be hard on a pony to try to imitate being as awesome as me.” She chuckled and waved to Twilight as her friend glided down to the ground.

The purple mare quickly strode along the forest floor, distracting herself with flora and fauna facts. She soon found herself along a familiar path. The soft chirping of birds, the soft babbling of a creek. All of it reminded her of one thing.

“Oh, Twilight, I wasn’t expecting you.”

She turned to Fluttershy and breathed out a sigh of relief. “I thought I needed a break from my research, so do you mind if I join you for lunch?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “I don’t mind. I’m happy to have you over. Um, daffodil salad with a garlic sauce?”

“Oh you don’t have to go through all of that trouble.” Twilight’s rumbling stomach proved her statement to be a little less than true. “But I definitely wouldn’t mind.”

“It’s fine Twilight. I was thinking of taking a break anyways.” She watched her friend for a moment and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Twilight paused. “I… I think so. Just a little tired and want to give my mind a break.”

Fluttershy nodded and led Twilight into the cottage. She knew her friend needed her rest and she could wait to help her with whatever had her so stressed. She started swift work on lunch while Twilight laid down on the couch. “Croutons or no?”

“Croutons, please.” Twilight bent her head over her forehooves and sighed. So far the experiment is going quite well. However, a break is necessary to clear one’s mind from time to time, lest rogue thoughts lead to… less than desirable ideas. She rubbed her temples and bent down as her mind continued to race, to find something to occupy its newfound power.

I only hope Fluttershy can help. She is always so considerate and lives such a simple life. Of course, that could lead to abuse. Others deciding to use her innocence and kindness. Silencing that already quiet voice. Grabbing her in the middle of the night, dragging her away, all while she didn’t-

Twilight looked up as her heart stopped. Distractions. I need distractions.

Fluttershy heard heavy hoofsteps and saw Twilight running down her path. She soon gave chase, worried for her poor friend. “Twilight! What’s wrong?”

Twilight simply continued to run. She ran into town and immediately found the best path to her destination. The optimization of the route, despite the other ponies or the unexpected, was instantaneous. She burst into Sugarcube Corner.

The pink mare she called Pinkie would then come out from behind the counter to come say hi. She would be excited to see Twilight, offer her a cupcake. Twilight would say yes, and Pinkie would pull one out from her hair/the counter/ a hole. She would then want to know what made her have a frown.

Her best course of action was to avoid it. Ask Pinkie to make her laugh. The pink mare would then do something no one would predict, such as creating a dove out of a napkin and pretend for it to fly. At this point Applejack would have noticed them and come over.

Pinkie would now walk into the back and come out with the hat sundae. She should smile at this, but she wouldn’t. It didn’t surprise her, just like Fluttershy having followed her all the way here. In fact, she even guessed Rainbow coming in soon after, having spotted her and Fluttershy earlier. And Pinkie would try to tickle her because all she could do was stand there. When tickling failed, she would move to a pie to her own face, and then one on mine.

She opened her eyes into Pinkie’s cream covered face as tears ran down both of their faces.

I… I did the impossible. I predicted Pinkie. I… I need help. I need to fix this. The solution was the first to pop up, but it was at the bottom of a deep, emotional gorge. She reached for it, but soon the doubts she always had, the despair she felt now, the worry for her friends and all that could rip them away from her all flooded into the gorge. She soon found herself drowning in her thoughts. Her body did the one thing it could. Twilight’s eyes shut as her friends came around her, and soon she was out cold in blissful nothingness.

======+++++======

Celestia looked over her student as she slept soundly on a bed with a bright aura over her. Magic drifted from Twilight’s horn as the healing effects started. One hoof stroked the fur out of her student’s face and she swallowed hard. “This should work. It worked when Starswirl did it, this should get you back to normal too.” She bit into her lip and swallowed hard. “Starswirl didn’t go this far, this fast though.”

“Sister, you’re needed elsewhere.” Luna walked in while Celestia stayed in place. “She’ll be fine, I promise. Twilight’s a smart mare and wouldn’t have made this permanent.”

Celestia nodded but quickly started to cry. “Isn’t that what caused all of this though? Her wanting to be a smart mare?” She walked past her sister and went to go about her business, still unable to think of a faster way to fix her beloved student.