“I will say it once more, Ember” Amber Shell stated calmly, but with pressure in her voice. “This is a stupid idea.”
The yellow unicorn stood on one of the outer platforms of Canterlot. Despite her remark the lavender unicorn she had addressed happily skipped around her. Several sheets of papers and a quill were levitating in front of her face, glowing in a light as crystal-blue as her eyes. “Don’t be such a party pooper, Ambey!” Ember Beacon told her friend, the quill moving and making some notes on the sheets. “Princess Twilight said events which cause multiple ponies to discover their cutie marks simultaneously are something very special, and that they represent a unique bond between those ponies.”
“Yes, she said so” Amber confirmed.
Her fluffy silver mane bopped as Ember skipped over to a moveable chalkboard with wheels, and she picked up a piece of chalk with her magic. “So, if something is so special and unique, it is more than worth researching, don’t you agree?” she asked while adding some lines to the very complex mathematical formulas on the board, occasionally glancing at the sheets of paper lined up around her.
“I absolutely agree” Amber said, blowing a strand of her straight orange mane with its red highlights out of her face.
Putting down the sheets of paper Ember raised a compass and a goniometer into the air. “Also, we have a very big interest to learn more about shared cutie marks!” she reminded her friend. The already gleeful look on her face got even brighter when she glanced at her flank, seeing the image of three exploding fireworks in red, blue and yellow, the sparks partly overlapping each other. “I mean we got ours together too!”
Not nearly as enthusiastic as her friend Amber glanced at her own flank. “Yes, I remember” she murmured, looking at the image of a raw piece of amber with a crack in it. “You got yours by creating fireworks with your magic, and I got mine by saving you from the explosion.”
An anemometer flew around Ember’s head, the peppy unicorn handling it and the others instruments easily while readjusting the calculations on the board. “Plus, if we succeed in simulating an event that causes multiple young ponies to discover their cutie marks, we’ll do them a great favor!” After drawing a few diagrams and formulas on the board Ember dropped the piece of chalk, confidently looking at her work. “They’ll have their special talents discovered, AND get super-duper friends for the rest of their lives – just like us!” In an instant she was at the side of her friend, pulling her arm around Amber’s neck and cuddling her closely with a happy grin on her face.
The tight hug squeezed the air out of Amber. “They’ll be so lucky” she coughed.
Releasing Amber Ember trotted over to a large blueprint spread out on the ground. “Sure, releasing all the magic power of a unicorn in a single blast is a little risky” she admitted, looking intensely at the goniometer and anemometer while making some alterations with her compass to the static diagrams on the blueprint. “But remember, Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends got their cutie marks by a sonic rainboom.” Putting the compass down she looked over the blueprints, then nodded. “So, if we really want to compete with that, we have to go all out!” she exclaimed while striking a superhero-pose.
Rubbing the bridge of her muzzle Amber took in a deep breath. “I get that Ember, and to a certain degree, I agree with everything you say.” She pointed towards the edge of the platform. “What I don’t get is why you have to shoot yourself with a cannon into a kindergarten.”
Blinking Ember turned towards the large circus cannon her friend was pointing at. It was directed towards a village outside of Canterlot, somewhere in the vast green plains of Equestria. “Oh Ambey” Ember giggled. She skipped over to her, patting her mane as if she was a little filly. “You really have no sense for a grand entrance!”
Annoyed Amber pushed off her hoof.
“If a unicorn just walks into a kindergarten full of little ponies with no cutie marks and releases all of her magic, it’s not spectacular enough for a cutie mark to show up” Ember told Amber, who didn’t appear in the least impressed by her explanation. “To make this a truly astonishing event for them it must have a real “BANG!!” to it!” The word “BANG!!” she blared out, Amber stepping back startled as she made a wide circle with her hooves in the air, resembling an explosion. “And a unicorn flying like a shooting star over their heads to suddenly crash in a burst of magic right into them is just the sort of “BANG!!” we need!” Again she gestured an explosion, additionally firing a blue spark from her horn.
“Don’t forget seeing that unicorn break all her bones and turn into pudding” Amber sharply told her as her friend walked over to the cannon. “You’re gonna be flying several hundred meters forward and fall from an even greater distance to the grounds!”
Picking up the helmet lying next to the cannon Ember put it on her head. “That’s why you have to put your super-awesome shield spell on me so I will safely land with no bruises or scratches” she said to her friend.
Amber raised an eye-brow. “And if I refuse?” she asked.
Ember looked at her with big sad puppy eyes.
“…get into the cannon” Amber sighed, scratching her forehead.
With a big smile plastered over her face the lavender unicorn walked in front of the cannon. She pulled the opening a little downwards with her magic, before reaching up to it. Her back legs wailed in the air as she stuck her head into the tube, trying to pull herself up. Sighing Amber walked behind her, and pushed the girl with her head into the cannon. There was some rumble and noise inside the cannon, before Ember’s innocently smiling head popped out again. “Thanks Ambey!” she smiled at her. Amber’s horn lit up, her magic engulfing Ember and putting an amber sheen of light around her whole body. “You’re the best besty a besty could ask for!”
Amber shook her head. “Let’s just get his over with” she mumbled while trotting over to the other end of the cannon. The blueprints shined in an orange light as she levitated them over to her. Her fiery eyes cast on the calculations of her friend she adjusted the ankle of the cannon tube as well as the direction it was pointing at.
“Did you calculate in the wind strength?” Amber asked while preparing the cannon.
“Eyup!” the pony in the cannon chirped.
“Also its direction?”
“Sure!”
“The inclination of the terrain?”
“Of course!”
“The Coriolis acceleration?”
Rolling her eyes Ember twisted her head, snickering as she looked at her friend in playful annoyance. “Aaammbeeyyy…”
“Just checking.” After tilting the cannon a little to the left Amber put down the blueprints. “The cannon is set.”
“Great!” Still glowing in the light of Amber’s protection spell Ember put the goggles on her helmet over her eyes. “Ready to conduct one of the biggest experiments in the history of Equestria?” she asked determinant.
Amber lit up a match. “Ready to get into the biggest trouble in the history of Equestria, at least.”
“Good enough for me!”
With a look of resignation Amber ignited the fuse. Taking a step back she watched it burn down, until the little sparkling flame vanished inside the cannon. Sticking out her tongue Ember stared straight forward, hooves tightly clinging to her sides, her lips curled up to a slightly silly smile.
A loud explosion echoed through the streets of Canterlot. Amber watched her friend getting shot out at high velocity from the cannon, leaving a trail of smoke behind her as she dashed through the sky.
“SCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNCCCCEEE…”
Her chirpy voice trailed off, Ember’s body becoming a small black spot in the sky. Walking past the cannon Amber moved towards the edge of the platform, flatly looking after the flying unicorn.
“A really stupid idea” she murmured. She watched Ember reach steadily higher into the sky, rising far above the clouds. At the peak of her ascent she hovered in the air for a moment, seemingly free of the grip of gravity. It only took a moment however for the universal force to grab her again. Rapidly losing altitude Ember broke through the clouds, dropping towards the ground. Amber’s eyes followed her as she fell, approaching the small village in the Equestrian plains. For a moment she lost sight of the tiny black spot, for it became so small she couldn’t distinguish it anymore from the ground. Then, a bright crystal-blue light gleamed up where she had last seen her, becoming steadily brighter the further she fell. With a rather indifferent look Amber watched her drop towards the village and loading up her magic, getting ready to release all of it from her horn once she landed in the kindergarten…
How much magic was that actually?
Amber’s eyes suddenly shot open as a bright flash of light illuminated the sky and ground. The small spot on the plains that was the village became completely engulfed by a monstrous pillar of light. It consumed and area almost ten times larger than the village, while reaching up high into the sky. A shockwave erupted from the column of magic, spreading out over half Equestria and shaking the plains. Even Canterlot quivered slightly, although it was just a second long.
For a moment Amber stared in disbelief at the explosion of magic, almost dropping her jaw. Her face then turned to its usual undignified expression. Her eye-lids half-closed she watched veils of the magic reach up into the sky.
“…reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaallllyyy stupid idea.”
