No Need For Ponies

In the land of Equestria, which is inhabited by magical ponies and other mythological creatures, we find the small quaint town of Ponyville. It’s another sunny day as the citizens perform their usual daily routines. Well, it could be a PERFECT sunny day if it wasn’t for a certain weather pony dozing off on a cloud. A blue Pegasus with rainbow colored mane and tail with a mark on her flank that shows a rainbow colored thunder bolt slept soundly without any interruptions, until…

“RAINBOW DASH!!!”

The Pegasus awoke and was startled from the pony who was calling her. “Huh? Wha’?”

Rainbow Dash shakes her head to wake herself up more and looks down below from her cloud. She notices the source of the yelling and it was from one of her three friends. Twilight Sparkle, a purple unicorn with dark purple mane and tail with light purple streaks and a mark of starlight shapes on her flank, was one who yelled as she looks seriously at Rainbow Dash. She was accompanied by her assistant Spike, a purple baby dragon, who is pulling a small cart filled with gems, and Rarity, a white unicorn with a violet mane and tail and three diamonds as her mark as well.

Yawning, Rainbow replied, “Oh, hey guys. What’s up?”

“What’s up!? Today was supposed to be a sunny with no clouds!” Twilight protested.

“I know. And your point is…?” Twilight Sparkle quickly points to the sky for her oblivious friend. Seems that there are still clouds around that Twilight thought Rainbow Dash have missed. “Oh, right, heh-heh. Was about to get rid of those after my nap.”

Twilight moans from being annoyed from Rainbow Dash’s negligence. “Your nap could have waited until you were done getting rid of those clouds. Is it too much to ask?”

“Honestly, darling, could you try to be more serious with your job as a weather pony?” said Rarity.

“Ugh, you guys are such wet blankets.” Rainbow replied, rolling her eyes in disgust. “Fine, just hold on a sec.”

With a blink of an eye, Rainbow Dash flew out of her cloud as she started taking down all of the other clouds one by one except her own with flying kicks in such speed and grace. Finally, the sky is clear in just the matter of seconds then Rainbow Dash lands back on her cloud. “Sky’s clear. Happy now?”

Twilight Sparkle shows a smile of satisfaction seeing Rainbow Dash finally did her job. “Yes, very.” She said.

“And very good job at that too.” Rarity added.

Rainbow Dash shows her back to her friends as she lays on her cloud while resting her head on her front hooves. “Good. Just go on your way now. I got some Z’s to catch.”

With that said, Rainbow Dash went back to her nap. Twilight Sparkle and Rarity trot along as they giggled from Rainbow Dash’s behavior.

“Sometimes I can’t understand about Rainbow Dash. She definitely needs a good lesson in manners and responsibility.” Said Rarity.

“I know, Rarity. But she means well still. She is who she is.” Twilight replied with a chuckle.

“I guess you’re right, Twilight.”

“Anyway, thank you so much for letting me join with you in one of your gem hunts. I’ve been very curious of how your unicorn magic works in searching gems. Not only I’ve done plenty of research but it’s thanks to you that you manage to find these stones.”

Twilight Sparkle opens up her saddle bag and show a good amount of clear transparent stones.

“No trouble at all, darling. It’s the least I can do for letting me borrow Spikey-Wikey here in helping on my ventures.” Came Rarity’s reply.

Rarity hugs Spike with one hoof around him. As to expected, hearts appear above Spike’s head showing his love for Rarity. “Anything for you, Rarity.” Sighed Spike with a dreamy expression.

“Although, I’m very curious about these strange stones. It won’t do me any good for fashion designs, remind you, but you seem awfully interested in them. Do you know something that I don’t know, Twilight?” Rarity asked.

Twilight Sparkle grinned eagerly from finally hearing Rarity ask her about the stones. “I’m glad you asked, Rarity. These stones are actually magic containers.”

Rarity tilts her head a bit not knowing what her friend is talking about. “Magic Containers?”

“Yes. In other words, they are stones that store magic in them. As you can see, these stones look transparent, meaning that they are new stones that haven’t been used to store magic yet. It's meant to store magic so others can use it, especially for those who don’t have magic as their natural ability. Starswirl the Bearded was the one who first discovered these stones and made use of them in his magical studies. These stones can be used for many purposes, depending what magic you store them, whether it's from unicorn magic or any other magic from a different source.”

“Oh dear, those stones ARE amazing. I never knew they can be that useful. But what on earth will you be using them for, darling?”

Twilight Sparkle smirks as she beams with such confidence. “Actually, I already do have something in mind for them. So this will be my greatest magical project yet, and I hope that I can show it to Princess Celestia.”

“Whatever it is that you’re planning, I know Princess Celestia will simply enjoy it. Just please don’t overwork yourself, would you? We can’t forget about what happened when you made that ability-enhancing potion.” Said Rarity.

Sighing, Twilight replied, “Ugh, don’t remind me. If I never made that potion, all the trouble Rainbow Dash caused from drinking it would’ve been avoided.”

Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and Rarity stopped by at a building in town that almost looks like a carousel. It's actually the Carousel Boutique, Rarity’s home and workplace as a fashion designer. Rarity uses her Levitation spell on the handle of the small cart Spike was pulling as she uses it to pull the cart herself.

“Well, this is my stop. Again, thank you so much in joining on my gem hunt.“ Rarity said as she places her front hooves on Spike’s cheeks and rubs her muzzle against Spike’s nose. “And thank you, my little Spikey-Wikey, for being such a big help.”

Spike starts floating in mid-air as he was charmed once again by his lovely crush. “Just doing my best as your gem hunting assistant, eh heh-heh.”

Twilight Sparkle rolls her eyes in disgust then used a levitation spell to pull down Spike back his feet on the ground. They all gave their goodbye’s then Twilight and Spike go on in their way to the library.

Spike rides on Twilight’s back as he moves close to her with curiosity. “So Twilight, what exactly you had in mind in using those stones?”

Smiling confidently, Twilight answered. “Oh you’ll see soon enough, Spike. In fact, my new project will be a great benefit for everypony.”

Once they arrived to Ponyville Library, Twilight’s current home and workplace, she sent Spike to do a few chores. Owlowiscious, Twilight’s owl companion, was soundly sleeping upstairs. He soon woke up once Twilight arrived. He happily hooted once he saw her. “Hoo!”

“Oh, good afternoon, Owlowiscious. Sorry to have woke you up. I’m just so excited in working on my new project.” Said Twilight.

“Hoo?”

“Well, I might need you of your assistance on this one. If I hurry with your help, I might finish the first prototypes by tonight. You don’t mind that even if it’s a bit too early for you, would you?”

“Hoo!”

“Great! Let’s do this then.”

She used her Levitation spell and picked up a few books and papers, then both went on their way to the laboratory downstairs under the library.

It’s been some time since Twilight has been this excited in working on a new project. Of course, the last time she did was on that ability-enhancing potion Rarity mentioned before. She was doing pretty well until Rainbow Dash barged in. Normally, it’s something she would expect from her friend Pinkie Pie, being known of doing random visits to her home. As soon as Twilight explained to Rainbow Dash on what she was working on, it did caught her interest. Being the opportunist that she is, especially when it comes to chances of improving her skills, Rainbow Dash gulped down the entire potion, and made her super-fast. She couldn’t help but to test her new-found speed as she flew through Ponyville, leaving destruction in her wake. But Rainbow Dash couldn’t stop there. She decided to perform a Double Rainboom - performing the incredible Sonic Rainboom flying trick twice at the same time. But the power behind the trick was too much, almost annihilating Ponyville entirely, and sent Rainbow Dash to another world. Even though she was lost in some unknown place, Twilight was quick on her hooves and managed to get Pinkie Pie to drink the same potion, which gave her temporarily power to bend space and time as she pleased, thus using it to rescue Rainbow Dash and return her back to their world. However, Pinkie Pie couldn’t help herself as she brought back a visitor which look like a small blue creature claiming to be someone’s imaginary friend. He was brought back to his home at “Forester’s” before Pinkie’s ability wore off. Ever since that incident, Twilight vowed never to concoct that potion ever again. But at least one good thing happened after hearing Rainbow Dash’s and Pinkie Pie’s experiences in other worlds - it made Twilight very curious on multi-world exploration, but she felt that this should be saved for some other time. She now focuses on the present as she preps her materials at her lab desk and begins working on her newfound project.

A few hours go by and it’s already the afternoon. Twilight took no breaks as she continued her work. So far, she managed to work with six stones and carved them into matching her cutie mark and the ones of her five close friends: a diamond for Rarity; a thunder bolt for Rainbow Dash; a balloon for Pinkie Pie; a butterfly for her other Pegasus friend Fluttershy; and an apple for her hard-working Earth Pony friend, Applejack.

Right now, she was trying to finish chiseling the stone she was holding as she tries to make its shape into her cutie mark. Owlowiscious was currently napping as he already helped out Twilight for now. After a few more pounds from her hammer onto to the chisel both held by her levitation spell, she was finally finished.

Twilight wipes her forehead with her front hoof. “Phew! Finally done. Looks like I’ve gotten better at this. It’s a good thing I read ‘Sculpting Made Easy for Foals’ this time. I wasn’t too proud on how I sculpt that fake Crystal Heart back then at the Crystal Empire.”

“Aw, c’mon it wasn’t that bad. At least it was good enough to fool the crystal ponies there.” Said another voice.

“Maybe you’re right. I mean, it was my first attempt at it…Huh?”

Twilight just paused when she heard that somepony else was in the lab. She quickly turned and notice a pink pony with a fluffy pink mane and tail, light pink fur, and party balloons as her cutie mark.

“Hi Twilight!” said the newcomer cheerfully.

“Gah!” Twilight Sparkle got startled by her visitor’s sudden appearance and fell on her rear. “Pinkie Pie! What are you doing here? I thought I told Spike not to allow any visitors unless they have business with the library.”

Pinkie Pie giggled. “Oh silly filly, of course I have library business. Spike mentioned you haven’t eaten anything yet so I brought some baked goods from Sugarcube Corner.”

Pinkie Pie eagerly thrust a basket full of baked goods to Twilight closely in contact to her muzzle. Inside it holds some muffins, cookies, bread, and bottled milk. As soon as Twilight noticed all the food in the basket, her stomach suddenly growled. She blushed from embarrassment since it growled so loudly.

“And looks like I was just in time too.” Said Pinkie.

Twilight chuckled a bit and picked up the basket with her Levitation spell and leaves it on the clear area of her lab counter. No matter how many times Pinkie Pie does this, there are times that Twilight enjoyed her friend’s positive yet random personality. It was what truly makes Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.

“I appreciate for the nice gesture, Pinkie Pie.” Said Twilight. “I need to give my thanks to Spike too for being so considerate. Guess it wouldn’t hurt to have a little break right now.”

The unicorn prodigy begins rummaging through the basket to have her meal. Pinkie Pie starts looking around the lab, then suddenly notices the sculpted stones that Twilight managed to finish. Her eyes beamed widely as the stones caught her attention. She slowly trotted towards them and carefully picked up the one that resembles a balloon. “Ooooh, pretty!”

Twilight Sparkle turns her head to Pinkie Pie, and said, “Be careful with those, Pinkie. They are actually my latest project.” She then takes a sip of her milk.

“You mean these Magic Containers?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight startled after unexpectedly hearing Pinkie Pie’s response. The surprise caused her to shoot the milk she was drinking from her nose and choked a bit. Pinkie Pie saw the whole thing happened and collapsed from her laughter taking over. “You shot milk from your nose! Always a classic!”

Twilight recovered and took a small deep breath. “Pinkie, how did you know about these stones?”

Pinkie Pie was done laughing as she regained her composure and wiped a tear from her eye from the uncontrollable laughter. “Sheesh, Twilight. Did you forget I was raised in a rock farm? I guess being an egghead doesn’t mean you’re good of remembering as much as an elephant does.”

Twilight sighed. “Right. But please explain.”

“Well, when I was a little filly, my daddy showed me this book on rare stones and he always mentioned how much he wanted to find Magic Containers. He really thinks he could earn a lot of bits from them plus keeping at least one as a momento. And I know they are Magic Containers becauuuse… *inhales deeply*

“itshowsfromitscleartransparency,hasadifferenttexturefromotherstones,canbeeasilysculptedbutsalsodelicate,shapesfromcertainpartsshowmuchtheyagedfrombeingkeptunderground,andmakesauniquesoundaftertappingit. “ Pinkie ended her long unending sentence with a squee.

Twilight’s jaw dropped from Pinkie Pie’s sudden knowledge on the stones. Of course, she is usually caught from Pinkie Pie’s randomness, but never experienced all the amount of information she keeps from her past life. She shook her head to recover from her shock.

“I’m guessing your dad must have had a copy of ‘Stonecutter’s Encyclopedia of Minerals’ by any chance?” asked a nervous Twilight.

Pinkie Pie gasped. “You’re right! Been trying to remember the title of that darn book for years. By any chance you got a copy? I’ll buy it from you for ten bits.”

“You never cease to amaze me, Pinkie Pie, especially to have all that knowledge on minerals and suddenly forgetting a simple book title.”

Pinkie smiled. “It’s what I do.”

Twilight continues enjoying her meal but Pinkie Pie decided to bug her even more as she popped out beside her. “So whatcha’ gonna do with those Magic Containers, huh, huh, huh? Store levitation spells for Applejack so she can just pluck apples from trees rather than just bucking them? Have light spells in them so they work as night lights? The Cake twins would want one to help them sleep but maybe Fluttershy might need it more than them? Ooh, I know! How about storing that memory projector spell Trixie used when she had that Alicorn Amulet? I think it’s very useful for everypony whenever they forget something. Rainbow Dash could definitely use it to keep track with her weather pony duties?”

Sighing, Twilight replied, “All of your ideas sound tempting but none of them are what I had in mind right now.”

“Aww, I thought they were all good ideas. So what is it that you’re working on now for the Magic Containers?”

Twilight Sparkle finished eating a muffin and sipped some milk to wash it down. She calmly puts down the milk bottle and was prepared on what she will explain to Pinkie Pie. At least Twilight is always eager to give explanations and lessons on what she’s into.

“You are familiar with Fluttershy’s special talent in interacting with animals and other creatures, right?” asked Twilight.

“Yupperooni, I never seen any other pony able to do well with animals as good as Fluttershy is.” Pinkie replied.

“Well, that got me into thinking. What if everypony would like to know what animals are saying?”

“Duh! All they have to do is just rely on Fluttershy to translate for them.”

“True, but it will be too much for her handle, especially with her shy behavior and lack of self-confidence.”

Pinkie Pie understands what Twilight is pointing out. Fluttershy isn’t too good in being with other ponies besides her friends as much as she is good with animals. She also gets too worried in messing up, or too afraid of many eyes watching her. There have been rare occasions where she somehow confront her fears when it comes to her friends, but that doesn’t happen too often.

“ Well, I have found a solution for that.”

“Teach animals to talk like us?”

Twilight Sparkle chuckles at that remark. “Actually, it’s quite the opposite that I had in mind.”

“Huh?”

“For the past few weeks, I’ve been developing a Translation spell. I managed to almost perfect it a few days ago. What it does is that the magic of the spell flows into the brain of the user. Once that happens, the spell does its work by translating anypony’s or creature’s words into our language.”

“So you’re saying the spell makes you hear them speak just like us?”

“Exactly! And not just that, the spell also causes the user to speak their language but in our minds it will still sound like we’re speaking normally. With it, it gives a 100% guarantee of complete communication.”

As soon as she heard Twilight’s explanation so far, Pinkie Pie started to grin widely and shiver with excitement. She burst out and bounced up wildly. “That is so super-duper amazing! Do me! Do me! I always wanted to ask this one question to squirrels. What do they actually think about flying squirrels? I wanted Fluttershy ask them for me but I’m afraid that she might hold back from giving me an honest answer so I always wanted to learn to speak squirrel.”

Twilight Sparkle used her levitation spell to catch Pinkie Pie and stopped from her excitement. Pinkie Pie noticed she lost her self-control and smiled nervously from embarrassment.

“As much as I want to, Pinkie, there are some flaws on the spell. First of all, the spell only works on the pony who performed it. Meaning it can only be done by unicorns, alicorns, or anypony who uses magic. Second, the spells takes a lot of magic to use, plus it only lasts for a while.” Twilight explained. Pinkie Pie started to pout after hearing that and gave a very sad look. “Luckily, that’s where the Magical Containers come in. With it, not only they can store the spell in them and let non-magic user in using them, but they can also amplify the magic several times making the spell last for a very long time.” Twilight added. Pinkie Pie regain her excitement after that and started bouncing wildly again. But she soon froze in mid-air once she saw Twilight Sparkle glaring her to stop. She smiled nervously again and slowly went back on the ground. “But there is something you can do for me, Pinkie Pie.”

“Ohh, what is it? What is it?” asked Pinkie Pie excitedly.

“I might have these Magical Containers holding my Translation spell ready as my first prototypes before tonight. I wanted you to plan a Revelation Party and show these stones being tested in front of our friends. So let Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity know about the party and that they are invited.”

Pinkie Pie moves her eyebrows up and down a few times. “Aaaand?”

Twilight Sparkle sighs. “Fine, you can also ask Fluttershy to bring a squirrel to be our test subject.”

“You can count on me, Twilight!” the pink part pony saluted.

With that said, Pinkie Pie zipped away and quickly went on to do her given task.

“Ugh, finally some peace and quiet. Might as well finish my meal since I still got more work to do before tonight.” Groaned Twilight. She once again rummaged through the basket of food and found a tube container that says Peanut Brittle. “Ooh, peanut brittle. That’s awfully nice of the Cakes for giving one of their best sellers.”

But as soon as she opened it, confetti shot out from the container which startled Twilight and fell on her rear once more. Pinkie Pie peaked out from the door and giggled. “Tee-hee-hee-hee-hee. Sorry, Twilight. I couldn’t help myself. Bye!” With that, Pinkie slips away.

“AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGH!!! PINKIE PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!!!”