Their HYPNOTIST ability user had failed. The TASER stallion was stopped short. The bullets froze in mid-air, and the ASSASSIN ability user was right in the middle of his backflip, his body struggling. The ponies glanced at me in astonishment. I smirked in response, then shattered the glass behind me to escape, even though I was on the 30th floor.
You're probably wondering what's going on. Let me explain from the start.
On everyone's 18th birthday, you get powers. It seems simple until you try to see what the power is. I woke up to a confusing screen that stated: "Congratulations! You received: ~ACCESS DENIED~."
What the hell? I rubbed my eyes, but it didn't change. Did people have to be the authority to view what their power was? As the screen disappeared when I sat down for breakfast, I asked my parents: "... somehow I couldn't see my power, any insight?"
They shrugged, my father answering: "Powers work in mysterious ways. Your own dad's and mom's powers were much simpler: super strength and flying." I then went on to my friends, but they had never seen a power like this before. As I continually complained, however, I realized that saying the words triggered... something. Perhaps those were the actual trigger words? I knew some people who had specific word related powers --
"I can get into any entrance using OPEN SESAME!" Tommie had said.
"I can make objects smaller than my palm appear with ABRACADABRA~~" his friend Jamie stated.
These kids had to say their powers out loud. These two words were a bit esoteric, but it was certainly worth a try...
As I stood in a general fighting stance in my room, I spread my hoof out with drama and flair as I said: "Access denied!" I sensed something nearby, but... it was too tough to say exactly what happened. I sighed. This strange hidden ability wasn't easy to figure.
As I walked out, however, I smacked myself into an invisible wall.
"Huh? What the --" I tentatively reached, my hooves touching a barrier.
Maybe that was what my ability was ...Then why wouldn't it just tell me INVISIBLE WALL CREATION...? Did it go beyond that? I had to try more. As I concentrated, I managed to make the wall dissipate. Now that was interesting.
The next day as I sat in class, bored with the lecture, I whispered underneath my breath, "access denied", as I tried targeting a specific mare. At first, nothing seemed to happen. However, it was luck that the pony was someone who was bullied often. After class ended, the usual gang tried to insult her and even shove her against the wall, they were astonished to see that their hands phased through her. What the heck ability was this? I could create invisible walls and make people intangible. They tried harder, one even daring to subtly activate their ability, but their laser still shot through her shoulder somehow. Their faces paled as they nervously walked off, telling her she was lucky. She didn't know anyone else who even had a power close to this, and so she eyed me curiously, suspecting my involvement. But I had more experiments to do, so I gave a noncommittal look back.
I tried the air, and I tried some pony. It was only natural that I should try an object. By now, my practice had gotten good enough that I only needed to intend it in my mind strongly to use this strange ability. I tried it on a Rubix cube to manipulate, expecting my hand to go through. But instead, it merely didn't budge. Huh? What kind of interaction was this? Was it... because the object wasn't living? Or was it because...?
I deactivated the ability, pushing a chair nearby, then activated it, attempting to use my hands to stop the chair. But it kept ongoing. So the ability didn't make anything moving intangible -- only alive. But what if I tried it on myself? I tried, but nothing happened, with only the notification: "Error: Cannot use this ability on something currently in use." Hmm... how frustrating.
And then it clicked. I knew exactly what my power was. The system wasn't saying that I couldn't see my power, the system was saying the power itself, and based upon what I wanted to prevent. By default, it stopped physical presence -- the invisible wall. But it could also make things intangible if I didn't want anyone to mess with it -- but in the case of a specific Rubix cube, for me to "access" it, I must turn the toy, which was prevented. As for the chair, I was trying to deny my ability to move the chair. Finally, when I use it on myself, I am always using my body, so I cannot prevent access to it. As I deactivated and fumbled with the Rubix cube, I confirmed that I could not use my ability now since I had already "bought the access"
From then on forth I used my powers for various purposes. I could trap the bad guys, I could stop the good guys. I was the chaotic harbinger of unpredictability, due to how my power worked. Of course, some eventually tried to trick me by pretending to hire me as a mercenary then betraying me... but, turns out, my power was able to prevent even a hypnotist from breaking into my mind. Talk about overpowered.
So there I was. The taser stallion glared at me, the assassin slowly regaining his position, and the bullets finally released. I fell from the 30th floor, carefully choosing to deny the physical air's location itself (rather than, suppose denying the breathing), smoothly building out a slide shape. Though adrenaline was in my veins and my heart beat quickly, I was confident this would work as I had attempted with "falling on air" before. As I slid down on my invisible ride to my exit, the malicious ponies cursed me and could only watch on as I waved them goodbye.
In my career, I would later have great trouble with a stallion with really weird reality warping powers...and the mare I helped before in school would be the perfect compliment to my power... but I'm getting way ahead of myself. For now, that story's ~ACCESS DENIED~.