"A journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step." There, I wrote something on this page. Now onto the fic. Special thanks to my editor youngxuseless.
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Pinkie Pie was bouncing in her seat in the chariot. She had never been to Fillydelphia before, and now she got to go with two of her best friends. "So are you really going to race the Voltic Thunder?" she asked her blue friend who was flying next to the chariot.
"Only if he accepts my challenge," Rainbow responded. "He's the fastest earth pony in Equestria, and even clocks in slightly faster than some of the Wonderbolts. I didn't know earth ponies could run that fast... except for you, Pinkie." Pinkie cocked her head to the side as if she didn't understand what Rainbow meant by that.
"Some scientists in Canterlot say it could be possible with the proper allocation of magical stimuli," chimed in Twilight from the seat next to Pinkie. "Earth pony magic is used subconsciously to grow plants, commune with animals, and fortify their bodies. But if an earth pony could focus his magic on just one thought prossess he could lighten his body, while strengthening his leg muscles."
Pinkie and Rainbow Dash just looked at Twilight in silence as if she had just spoke in a different language. One the guards pulling the chariot had to nudge the other one to get him to focus on flying again. "He may subconsciously use magic to make himself faster," Twilight stated flatly.
"Oooh," Pinkie and Rainbow exclaimed in unison. Twilight was happy to have her friends along for this assignment, even if it did put a little extra weight on the pegasi guards pulling them. Twilight was given a mission from her mentor to examine a strange illness that had afflicted a pony in Fillydelphia. The illness was unlike any thing the doctor's had ever seen and assumed it had to be magic related. Rainbow had heard of Twilight's trip and saw this as an opportunity to travel to Fillydephia to challenge the Voltic Thunder.
Pinkie heard of this and asked to come along to provide Rainbow with a cheering section. She seemed to think that Voltic Thunder would have his own cheering section in his hometown. Twilight had no doubt that Pinkie could make enough noise to make up for an entire cheering section. She even had a set of rainbow pom-poms and a tiny skirt. She had brought one for Twilight too.
They soon touched down in Fillydelphia, and Rainbow immediately flew off with Pinkie to find Voltic Thunder. Fillydelpia was only slightly bigger that Ponyville so they figured a celebrity like him wouldn't be hard to find. Twilight immediately took off for the hospital.
Upon arrival she was taken to the patients room. She opened the door and came face to face with a growling timberwolf. "Gaaaaah" Twilight screamed upon seeing the wooden beast. The wolf was growling at her as if she was threatening its pups. She began focusing on a protection spell when a gruff voice rang out.
"Willow, down!!!" the timber wolf lowered it's ears after being yelled at and moped its way to the corner. Twilight took a second to recompose herself and entered to room. It was a typical hospital room, white, clean, smelled so clean that it was actually distracting. She took quick notice of the stallion in the bed. He was a unicorn with a golden coat and bright red hair. He was in very good shape, and might have been rather handsome if it wasn't for three scars running from the corner of his left eye to his ear.
"Spear Shaft I presume."
"You can call me S.S. if you like," the new unicorn said, "or some of the ladies call me The Shaft." An awkward moment of silence passed between to two. "That joke never gets any laughs," S.S. lamented. Twilight grinned at the unicorn's failed joke. "So I assume you're the magic specialist from Canterlot?" he asked.
"Ponyville, actually."
"I didn't know Ponyville had magic specialists"
"They don't besides me," Twilight admitted with a little bit of pride. S.S. looked a little skeptical of the only good magic user from a rural town. She didn't like to play this card, but it would help put his mind at ease."I'm actually the personal prodigy of Princess Celestia."
"Oh," he said amazed, "they sent the Princess's protegee out here just for me?"
"That's right....The Shaft," Twilight said wryly. S.S. winced slightly at that name. "Now," Twilight said wanting to get to business, "could I please take a look at the infected area?"
S.S. solemnly lifted the hospital sheet to reveal his cutie mark, or rather where his cutie mark should have been. The spot wasn't blank, it was just black. The was clearly the outline of a spear, but it had no color. It was like an impression of were the mark should be; a shadow of a spear.
Twilight had read about the condition in the letter the princess sent her, But it was still startling. "It's quite a sight isn't it," S.S. remarked. Twilight looked up at the stallion feigning jovialness.
"So besides the appearance what other side effects have you been experiencing," Twilight asked, wanting to hear it from the patients mouth.
"Well...I can't use my special talent anymore, at all. I can still levitate things, but that's it."
"What exactly is your special talent?"
"I defend Hollow Shades. It's little town out in the forest. Some creatures are kinda violent and I fend them off. I'm..." S.S. trailed off. "I was able to conjure magic spears. But, now I can't even remember how. I can't even remember how to fight off the creatures without my spears."
"That is a very special talent," Twilight remarked, "I kinda thought it had to do with animal taming." Twilight turned to look at the timber-wolf in the room.
"Oh, yeah, I kinda raised Willow when I found some manticores had shredded her parents."
"Oh my, that's awful," Twilight remarked.
"Yeah, but she's a tough girl. She was with me when I blacked out, when I came to she was knocked out. We were returning from a trip into the forest, and it suddenly felt like something had struck me in the back of the head. I awoke in the hospital here in Filly. They don't have one in Hollow Shades.
"Did you get a good look at who hit you?" Twilight inquired.
"No, I didn't see anything before the pain set in. I'm also not sure it actually hit me."
"What?"
"I felt a pain in the back of my head, but when I woke up it wasn't sore. The doctors even said I showed no signs of blunt force trauma."
Twilight pondered this for a moment. She was sure she had heard of an incapacitation spell that caused physical pain in the cranium. It was hardly used because there was easier painless ways to knock out a pony, and they were easier to learn and use. The only reason somepony would use that spell is if they wanted to inflict pain to the victim. But, that's assuming this was a unicorn.
Twilight left the hospital quite perplexed by the whole affair. She had take some fur samples from the blackened area where S.S.'s cutie mark had been. Assuming this was magic, it was a kind Twilight had never heard of. What spell could remove a cutie mark? A cutie mark was precious to a pony, what kind of monster would even make a spell to rob a pony of there identity?
She had just decided to find Rainbow and Pinkie when she heard a scream off in the outskirts of the town. She quickly began galloping off in that direction. She'd heard her scream enough to know when Pinkie was really scared.
There was a lot to take in when she got to the scene. It was a large field just outside of town. It seemed like the perfect place for a race. However, no race was taking place. Pinkie was tending to an unconscious earth pony. Twilight knew from descriptions that it was Voltic Thunder. He had dark blue fur and an electric yellow mane that seemed to shoot out in every direction, like sparking electricity.
Off several feet from them Rainbow was angrily stomping on top of a magic force field. In the force field was a lanky golden unicorn with a dark red mane. He was holding his hoof up too his face. Floating in his hoof was a 2-dimensional image of a blue and gold lightning bolt moving horizontally. Twilight didn't need to see the blackened image on Voltic's flank to know it was his cutie mark. The unicorn turned to look at Twilight. He had cold, sharp, eyes that instantly told Twilight, 'this kind of pony would rob a pony of their identity.' Upon seeing Twilight, he smirked.
The old field was a popular spot in Fillydelphia. It was a large hilly area with lots of room for all sorts of events. It was Voltic Thunder's favorite spot in the town. However, he would now remember it as the place an evil unicorn stole his cutie mark.
The racing pony was lying on the ground unconscious. A frantic pink party pony was panicking perpendicular the prostrated pony. An angry prismatic pegasus was pounding on a gold unicorn stallion's forcefield. And a purple unicorn mare had just arrived at this mad scene, where the gold stallion had just stolen a racing cutie mark.
The golden unicorn looked at Twilight like he was wanting her to see what he had done. He had his head held high and even spun the suspended cutie mark in the air a bit to taunt her. It was as if he was proud of robbing a pony of there livelihood.
"Twilight!" screamed Rainbow. "Use your magic to get this guy out of there so I can trample his flank!" She was still attacking the force field. The unicorn wasn't showing any visible strain in keeping the field up under her assault.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia," Twilight lit up her horn. "Give the pony his cutie mark back this instant." She hoped stating her relationship to the princess would help her sound more intimidating.
The unicorn raised one of his eyebrows to show that he was clearly unimpressed. He turned his attention back to the cutie mark in his possession. Twilight took this moment to notice thief's own cutie mark. It was a starburst like her's, but it had three levels and no tiny stars around it. The outermost burst was white, the middle was red, and the innermost one was black. The colors actually matched his eyes.
"Get outta there you thieving son of a mule," exclaimed Rainbow, still stomping on top of the force-field. The unicorn looked up at her with a slight twitch of annoyance. Twilight couldn't tell if he was annoyed that she was still stomping on his masterpiece of a spell, or the fact that Rainbow clearly didn't know how mules worked. Magical red energy welled up at his horn as he focused on the pegasus. Twilight didn't get a chance to warn Rainbow before the unicorn blasted her with astral energy.
"Dashie!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, seeing her friend shot across the field. Twilight acted quickly and managed to conjure a trampoline in the exact spot were Rainbow Dash landed. Unfortunately, a trampoline might not have been the best choice as Rainbow bounced off it and still hit the ground, rump first (though it was a much softer landing than she would have had otherwise).
"Hehe, right on the plot," the thief chuckled. The golden unicorn used this distraction to move the stolen cutie mark down to his flank. He dropped his shield as he began to focus. His own cutie mark disappeared as the new one seemed to affix itself to the area in its place. And just like that this pony had taken Voltic Thunder's identity. He then turned around to see that is was indeed on the other side as well. He then looked to Twilight and smiled smugly.
"Impressive, isnt it?" the thief asked, "It's a very difficult spell, but the outcome speaks for itself." Twilight was done waiting for him to surrender (she was pretty sure he wasn't going to at this point). She had seen this pony steal another ponie's cutie mark, was sure had had taken another, and blast her friend across a field.
"Raaaaaa!" she exclaimed as she shot a magic blast at the unicorn. He nimbly shifted two feet left in an instant and the blast whizzed right past him. Twilight glared and began to rapidly fire magic blasts in his direction. The blasts wouldn't seriously hurt him, but that didn't matter because, frankly, none of them were close to hitting him. He was zigzagging and swerving so fast that they were all missing widely. To make matters worse, he was moving closer to her as he was dodging. Twilight froze as he moved within a foot from her face.
"That was fun," he said jovially,"I can tell I'm gonna enjoy this Cutie Mark. However, it does lack offensive uses, but that's what I got this one for." Voltic's cutie mark faded from his flank as an ornate golden spear replaced it. Twilight didn't need to be Celestia's student to realize that it was originally S.S.'s mark. The golden pony conjured a spear just above his horn and lowered inches from Twilight's face.
Twilight was dumbfounded. This pony could absorb the talent's and cutie mark's of other ponies. She had read a substantial amount of magical texts, and she had at no point came across even a passing mention of spell of this caliber. Despite this curiosity Twilight had a much more pressing question on her mind.
"Who are you?" Twilight demanded.
"Me? Oh, I had so many different options prepared for this question... I didn't want to use my real name, because it's not that intimidating. I was thinking either Arcanus, Midas, or maybe Nocturne. Which one do you like, because I honestly can't decide."
Twi couldn't believe how casual this pony was being. He was ruining other pony's lives and he was concerned over having a scary name? This pony was some kind of sociopath. She glared angrily at him.
The unicorn sighed and said in a singsong tone "Oh well! I gave you a chance. I'm going with Arcanus. If you don't like it, remember I gave you a choice." Arcanus reared the spear back and swiped at Twilight. Twilight had known it was coming for the entire conversation and easily teleported behind him. He turned and smirked at her little trick. She lit up her horn for a blast unaware that three spears had been conjured in the air right above her. Rainbow tackled Twilight out of the way just before the spears impaled the ground, right where Twilight was standing.
"Be careful!" Rainbow exclaimed at Twilight, sounding slightly winded -- then again, she had just flown the entire length of the of the field in a matter of seconds to save her friend.
Twilight could now see that this "Arcanus" had no qualms about killing her. He was also still treating this like a game. He smiled at the two mares still getting to their hooves. His cutie mark shifted back to the horizontal lightning bolt. He was beside Rainbow before the ponies could blink.
"Hey Rainbow, you still want that race to see who's fastest?" he asked in a very familiar voice, like he was a kid asking his friend to play with him.
"I came here to race Voltic Thunder, not some thieving psycho!" Rainbow swung a hoof at Arcanus. He was 3 feet away when her hoof hit the air where he was. He chuckled at her wasted attempt to hit him.
"This spell is great!" he exclaimed, dodging a few more of Rainbow's jabs. "I get the reaction time of a seasoned athlete without having to do any of the work! I bet if I keep the cutie mark active for a while my leg muscles will strengthen on their own. He has quite a passion for speed. I'm so glad I took it. I'll put it to much better use."
"And what use would that be?" asked Twilight, hoping to get some info on this evil unicorn.
"As much as I want to be understood, it would be stupid of me to reveal my plan to the Elements of Harmony." He dodged a full body tackle from Rainbow, who fell headfirst into the ground. "Nice try, Dashie."
Twilight had actually learned several things from that little exchange: Twilight now knew that Arcanus was aware of who they were (It was surprising how many ponies didn't); she also knew that he had just made a fatal mistake; and, finally, she knew that he didn't know that Pinkie was no longer tending to the passed out racing star.
Arcanus heard a loud thud come from behind him and he knew it couldn't either of the ponies he had been fighting. He turned to find himself staring down the barrel of a cannon. The color drained from his face, making it more like mustard than gold.
Arcanus was too surprised by the sight to react as Pinkie fired. He was knocked back several yards from the force of the blast. When the dust cleared, Arcanus was on the ground, covered in confetti, and holding his hooves to his ringing ears. He could somehow still make out Pinkie's scream from behind her cannon.
"NO PONY CALLS DASHIE 'DASHIE' BUT ME!"
Twilight had accidentally referred to Rainbow as 'Dashie' when it was just her and Pinkie. As it turns out Pinkie is very protective of that nickname. Twilight had to apologize profusely just for saying it. Pinkie definitely didn't want some evil jerk using it.
Twilight used this moment to encase Arcanus in her own force-field and levitate him in the air above their heads. Arcanus' cutie mark morphed back into the starburst one that Twilight assumed was his actual mark. He proceded to cast a healing spell around his ears and levitate some confetti off himself.
"Ow," he said whilst looking incredulously at Pinkie. He seemed more annoyed by the sudden attack than mad.
"Pinkie, how's Voltic?" Twilight inquired.
"He's still unconscious, but he's breathing okay."
"Good," Twilight said as she turned her attention to Arcanus. "Now give him and Spear Shaft their cutie mark's back right now!" Twilight attempted to add as much authority to her voice as she could.
Arcanus was clearly not impressed. He was prodding his ears with his hooves making sure they still worked okay. The stallion who looked so impressive just moments before now looked like a foal trying to clear water out of his ear after a swim. "Reverse cutie mark removal? Why would I know how to do that? I have no intention of giving these marks back."
"You're going to be giving those marks back if I have anything to say about it!" shouted Rainbow.
Arcanus's horn flared up and a zipper appeared on Dash's mouth. He zipped it shut and even conjured some duct tape to go over the zipper -- just to be mean. Twilight was a bit perturbed at the fact that he was able to cast a spell through her force-field.
"Lucky me," he smirked, "and yes Twilight, I can quite easily cast spells through your force-field. No, I can't read your mind." Arcanus grinned mischievously. Twilight was now growling at the floating unicorn.
Rainbow and Pinkie were both fiddling with the tape on Dashie's mouth. Arcanus once again used his magic inside Twilight force-field and levitated Pinkie's cannon over the two. Twilight attempted to reinforce her spell to cut off his magic, but to no avail. The cannon's barrel ballooned nearly 3 times bigger and, just before they had a chance to notice, it encased them like a dome.
"Girls!" Twilight exclaimed, releasing her force-field and running over to the warped party cannon. Arcanus landed, nonchalantly examining his hoof.
"Well," he said through a yawn, "this was fun, but I must be going now. Tell Pinkie Pie 'congratulations on landing the only hit'. It's really quite impressive. And here I thought I was going up against the 'best young flyer' and the princess's prized pupil."
Twilight, whilst levitating the cannon off her friends, noticed the enthusiasm in his voice disappeared when he said those last four words. She could see the glow of his teleport from her peripheral vision, but was too focused on her friends to turn. Twilight was relieved to see that they were unharmed, although Rainbow still had the tape on her mouth.
"He got away," Pinkie pouted.
"Yeah, but I'm just glad you two are okay."
"Who was he?"
"Mmpmmpmnpmpmnnnjffpf!" Rainbow garbled.
"Whoever he was, he won't get away with this!" Twilight vowed.
"Mmmhmmhh."
"You said it Dashie," joked Pinkie. Rainbow just glared at her as she laughed. "Okay Rainbow, brace yourself becasue this might hurt." Pinkie leaned forward and bit the edge of the duct tape. Before Rainbow could protest Pinkie ripped the tape of her mouth, taking a good deal of blue fur with it. Rainbow's scream would have been heard in Ponyville... Well, if she didn't have the zipper in place of her mouth.
"You know I could have taken that off much more painlessly with magic... right?" Twilight remarked.
"Oh," said Pinkie, feeling genuinely sorry. She gave the pegasus an apologetic look and said "Want me to kiss it to make it better?" Pinkie leaned forward to give Rainbow a kiss.
Rainbow quickly shuffled backwards and finally managed to unzip the zipper with her hoof. "NO!" Rainbow screamed, her face redder than Big Macintosh's coat. The red tint in her cheeks coupled with her blue coat managed to turn her face a bright violet color. The zipper instantly disappeared after it was unzipped.
"Awwww," whined Pinkie jokingly.
"Okay," Rainbow started, "I have a lot to say, but this needs to be done first." Rainbow turned to Twilight and socked her hard in the shoulder.
"OW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"
"A TRAMPOLINE?! SERIOUSLY?!"
