Chapter 1: Formulation of Plans
"Spiiike!" The librarian yells, drawing the attention of the sleeping baby dragon.
"Uhg.. what is it, Twilight?" he groans, rolling out of his bed and looking around for the purple mare.
"We have a visitor! Get something cooked up, will you?"
"A visitor?" Spike looks outside. Still dark, but the morning is coming, "Its so early.."
"Does it look like it matters?"
"I guess not.." the dragon shrugs, not one to completely argue against food, and maneuvers his way over to the kitchen.
Down below, at the doorway, Twilight sits with a light, mint green unicorn mare, A short, spiked back mane of white, and a large black drape over her back. "I was told that you were of special importance to Equestria, So I sought you out. I hope i'm not too troublesome, being this early."
"Oh, not at all! It's always nice to see a new face here in Ponyville!" Twilight quickly replies, looking up and back to where spike is to see if any progress is being made, before shrugging it off and returning her gaze to the strange mare in front of her.
"I should explain myself, as i do need your help, and keeping secrets would be an issue. I am Princess Digitas, an-"
"Princess? What?! But.. I thought there were only the three left!" Twilight just about shouts. Causing spike to pop his head up from the kitchen in confusion.
"Relax, I will explain. My existance here is very... difficult to explain, and i am sure neither Luna nor Celestia, nor your Cadence knows of me yet, and for a while, we might have to keep it that way."
"But you just said we shoudn't keep secrets..."
"This isn't a secret, it won't take them much to find me, especially once my plan gets into action. Now, listen close.. because i am about to tell a short and very odd tale... you deserve to know before we continue..."
The sound of metal on metal rings out, Hammers on metal, Bolts on nuts, and the fizzling of a welding torch fill the air in the underground compound, nestled under Canterlot, and dug into the caves below it. The place was made to build one thing, one being of metal. The first artificial pony, made from engineering, magic, and all sorts of in-between methods. Code-named Digitas, the artificial pony was not very sentient when it was first brought to life by the power of the unicorns in charge, and the strange gemstone they posessed. It followed simple commands, but it was rather stoic.
Her original design was that of an Earth Pony, but after much argument among the group working on Digitas, it was agreed that they make her an Alicorn, and a princess. That born of metal. As Luna and Celestia were Moon and Sun, And Cadence was love, Digitas would be the ambassador of technology in the royal heirarchy.
They repeatedly broke it and revived it over the years, and through trial and error, they achieved victory at last, as a breakthrough with those researching the gemstone they posessed found out how to truly utilize its power, and the first test subject of it was Digitas herself. The manufactured pony, alive, breathing, and fully aware, was at first shocked, as the process of re-doing the spell, as always, destroyed her memory of the previous attempts. That was the thought, anyway. Digitas herself knew everything that she had witnessed over the last three years. The gemstone did not destroy them, but stored them, and upon unlocking its power, so to did they unlock its ability to -give- memories, rather than recieve. She knew everything, every ounce of pain the process had, she remembered it all, and it hit her at once.
Digitas had a very odd gift, She could see through the barriers that held reality in place, she could see the colors of the aura of the ponies she looked at, she could see the thoughts in thier head. But that was only the corporeal. In the physical, Reality did not apply to her in normal senses. Her existance was not meant to be, and the world knew it. The people working on Digitas dared not tell princess Celestia of thier acomplisments, at least, not after the Hoofcrafted Princess vanished from sight in a moment, leaving naught but a plume of silver and green sparkles in the air where she was.
Digitas herself, in the first moments of her brightened life, read every single ponies mind, and picked apart the details, and learned of most important details concerning Equestria, including who and what the Ruling Alicorn's were, what she was, how she existed, and what they planned to do with her, As well as it, she scraped up the spells that the present unicorns could weave, and added them to her mental spellbook.
As well as this, she learned of the Elements of Harmony, and thier repeated performances in saving Equestria from certain terror. She picked out the names of each one, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Jack, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle. The last of which, she understood as what would be the 'keystone' of the six, and decided to seek her out for questions.
"Wow.. so.. you're.. fake?" Twilight says, her mouth agape.
"You could say that..." Digitas replies, giving a rather smug smile.
"But.. you look so real.. there is no way you could be made of.. all of that!"
The mint Alicorn unicorn held a hoof out to Twilight. "Feel it.. I am still the metal -thing- they made, but the crystal they used made me closer to thier dream than they ever thought possible."
Twilight meets the alicorns forearm with her own, taken aback for a moment, "Wow! You're freezing and.. smooth."
"That is metal for you. What that gemstone did to me was make me into, quite literally, a pony made of steel, rather than just a pony-shaped machine. And the best part, is that i also learned, from them, how to make my own engineered devices.. without the need of a team of ponies with different thought processes."
"Thats amazing!"
"Indeed. Now, what i need of you, when Ponyville awakens, is to gather the Elements, and bring them here. This requires all of thier attention, not just yours, but i know that you would be the best one to know first."
Twilight gives Digitas a nod, "Spike, can you do me a favor when you're done cooking?"
"Uh.. yeah give me a moment, almost done. Hope you like eggs, Princess" Spike yells from his spot, obviously he was listening in when she was sharing her short past.
Digitas simply shrugs her shoulders, giving a smile to Twilight. "And here i thought you woudn't like me once i told you."
"Well, we didn't exactly know that there was going to be another Princess in the kingdom, and I certaintly didn't expect that Princess would come here, and I Really didn't expect that princess to be.. well.. you know.."
"Brought forth from nothing? I can imagine so."
Spike speeds down to the two, dropping down a fold-up table from somewhere before zipping away, coming back with two plates of scrambled eggs and some forks. Digitas picks up the fork with a green and white aura, similar to the one that now radiates from her horn.
"So, You mentioned reality not.. wanting you..? What was that about?" Twilight asks, already with a mouthful of eggs.
"I can do things, Without magic, that seem to defy explanation. Including the sense of seeing when these rifts of unreality form and disapear. During the day I left that science lab, i felt them coming from Ponyville, which I was already flying to at the time."
"Oh.. you might have felt Pinkie Pie. That mare somehow manages to defy all explanation sometimes." Twilight says after chomping down another mouthful of eggs.
"Maybe." The mint mare looks down at the fork-full of eggs, popping it into her mouth. "I can say that its.. well, Delicious!" She smiles, and Spike, off up back up on the side of his bed, smiles in return.
"Speaking of, Spike. Get some paper, I'm going to just have you write a letter to my friends, telling them to come here." Twilight says, turning around to look at him. "Just tell them to meet here as soon as they wake up, and then give them to me. I'll teleport them each to thier rooms"
Spike nods and runs off somewhere within the tree-house. Leaving the two mares alone.
"I wonder how they will react when we tell them." Digitas says, taking another bite of the eggs.
"Don't worry about it! It will be fine!" She pauses for a moment, not to eat though, as her food is already gone, but to think. "Just in case, though.. keep the cover over your wings."
"Fair enough," The Alicorn replies, shuffling said wings underneath the heavy covering.
The morning goes on, Celestia's sun rises, Luna's moon sets. And Ponyville awakens outside, leaving Digitas looking through a window, before she spots a pair of ponies walking directly for the Library. One of them covered in a brown stetson hat, which only compliments the orange earth pony, The other, however, sports nothing but a cascade of a purple mane and tail, almost styled to perfection.
"We have company, Orange and White... If i am not mistaken, Miss Applejack and Miss Rarity, respectively?" Digitas says, turning around to see the Librarian putting a few books back on the shelves.
"That would be correct." Twilight responds, not bothering to look away from her task.
After a few minutes, two knocks come to the door, and Twilight opens it with a tug of magic, letting the earth pony and the unicorn into the tree-house.
"'Ey there, you wanted us?" Applejack asks, her accent alone making Digitas raise an eyebrow at her from her perch.
"Yeah, wait until the rest get here, We have someone here who.. well, You explain it, Digitas." Twilight says, putting the last book away and looking up to her, causing the gaze of both Applejack and Rarity to follow hers up to Digitas.
"I'll go over it in detail when the rest get here, but we might have a big problem on our hooves if what i saw was right." Digitas says, giving a nod to the three before looking back out her window.
"Right, well... This 'Digitas' must be new to ponyville, has Pinkie found out?" Rarity asks, turning back to Twilight.
"Found out what?" Comes the familiar high-pitch voice, followed by a bouncing blob of two shades of pink, whom opens her eyes after she walks in and stands agape, staring at Digitas. "Oh my gosh, you're new here arn't you! I know everypony here in ponyville, and i know when there is a new pony, always! The fact that you eluded me means your goooood."
The pink pony almost vanishes in a plume of smoke, appearing next to the Princess almost instantly, causing her to jump back at the almost insane speed. "Hi there! My name is Pinkie Pie, but everyone just calls me Pinkie! Or crazy. Either way! Nice to meet you, whats your name!"
The alicorn sits there for a moment. "Digitas, And its nice to meet the only other being that i have seen that can create rifts in reality itself."
Pinkie stares at her with a big smile for a moment, before responding, her face scrunching into a puzzled look. "I have no idea what you just said."
"I'll talk about it later, For now. Lets wait for the rest to show up.. Who else is left... Only the two Pegasi, correct?" Digitas hops down from her perch and walks up to the group, followed by a bouncing Pinkie.
"Yeah.. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. They should be here soon." Twilight responds, poking her head out of the window to look at the sky. "Soon for one of them, anyway. I have no clue what rainbow dash could be doing."
"She got conned into a research trip into the Everfree to study how it manipulates its own weather, yesterday, she should be back by now, though." Rarity says, poking her head out alongside Twilight.
"Ooo well... She'll show up eventually." Applejack says, turning back to Digitas. "So.. You're a unicorn, know anything cool to use that horn for?"
The princess smirks at the earth pony. "I know enough to get by. You could say i havent had much time to refine my magical capabilities."
The pony gives a slow nod, looking back to the girls at the door. "Twi' is ah great magic spinna' with that horn. You could learn ah thing or two!"
"We have discussed such already, Miss Applejack. But for now, We have more important things to discuss when those two get here"
"Like right now!" Twilight says, pointing a hoof up to the sky, a faint rainbow can be seen coming from the Everfree, and closing the distance, to the point where they can see that hanging from the cyan mare's hindlegs is a, quite literally, fluttering fluttershy. The pegasus breaks herself in mid-air, slowing herself down enough to hover above the ground so fluttershy is only a foot off of it.
"Wow.. that was fun..." The canary mare lands onto the ground, and rainbow dash touches down beside her soon after.
"After the trip, i decided to bunk with Fluttershy since her cottage was so close." Rainbow explains,
"And when we got the letter this morning, i had to spend all of ten minutes trying to wake her up, which is why we were so late." Fluttershy continues,
"And so i came up with the idea that she hang on to my legs and i just push it all the way here. Definetly a great morning workout, flying for two!" Rainbow finishes, rather proudly.
"Well, come on inside, now that we're all here, Digitas can begin." Twilight says, beckoning the two in with a hoof rarity and her turn around to walk back inside.
"Digi-who?" Rainbow says, following fluttershy in.
"Digitas, You must be Rainbow Dash. Honored to meet you. I have... heard much about you." Digitas herself responds to her thought, walking up to the rainbow mare.
"Well. I AM sort of famous." the cyan mare says, puffing up her chest and flaring her wings.
"Quite. Now, First off. Let me get the first part out of the way." Digitas says, shaking her back a bit and pushing a wing to let the cover slide off of her, letting her stretch her wings. It takes a few moments for it to sink in to everypony, save for Twilight, to realize she's an Alicorn.
"Wait, you're an ali-... HOW?" Rainbow shouts first, flying up to her and examining her wings.
"I'll get to that. Now, let me tell you what i told dear Twilight here..."
After a lengthy explanation, and tons of questions from everypony, again, save for Twilight herself, Digitas stands among five speechless ponies.
"And now, tell us what you wanted us all to know." Twilight says, prompting the Alicorn to continue.
"Gladly. Those who used the crystal, I felt something else inside thier minds when i arose. I feared they have more sinister plans with it, now that they know how to use it to its fullest extend to bring ponies like me into this world, However, i do not think they will have the potency it will have as with me, as the gem was used with me repeatedly over the three years the project went on for."
The alicorn pauses for a second, letting what she just said sink in.
"I fear that there is a form of corruption inside of that gem, one that posesses ponies that weild it. The thoughts that i witnessed inside of them were brutal, savage. They wanted to usurp the Princesses by force, and enslave them."
The group let out a conjoined "What!" at the statement, leaving Digitas in a simple nod.
"What I also noticed, is that its use causes a bleeding effect to its weilder, slowly turning them into thier own creation. I fear that the one that they had using it, thier leader, may have already been exposed to it to a point where it is irreversible. If what i see holds true.. they gain a mental capacity that far excells any pony should normally have, and transforms them into what you see in me, a being of magic and metal, rather than of flesh and bone."
"We have to stop them!" Applejack shouts,
"We have to warn the princessess!" Twilight says, looking at Applejack.
"We have to warn equestria!" Rarity says, looking over to Digitas.
"We have to take a step back and think about this." Digitas replies, causing the ponies to look at her. "I can see things without my eyes, I can see into places far away, but that compound underneath Equestria is a blank void in my vision. The professor has already begun working on his next project, and knows that i can see through them, to thier very hearts, and has blocked me off from it with his own magic, Warning the princesses might put them in more danger sooner than not telling them."
The six ponies look at her, listening intently in hopes of a plan, and the Steel Princess thinks for a moment, turning her gaze across those present. "We need to hit them from different angles, at different times, in different ways.. a spazmatic attack that will undermine the security they no doubt will have in place by the time we get there."
She looks across her present ponies once again, before turning to Twilight on the far left the group. "Twilight, look for a spell, or make one, that lets you see through another ponies eyes from great distance, as well as talk to them, and bind them to some Stratus Crystals." She turns her gaze to Rainbow Dash, next to her. "Rainbow, We need you to create those Stratus Crystals. Create your Sonic Rainboom in a very dense concentration of clouds. You may need the other pegasi of Ponyville to help spin the clouds together and keep them in one place while you perform it. We will need nine of them, one for each of us, and some for later"
Twilight tilts her head, about to ask a question, before Digitas silences her with a quick glance, returning to Fluttershy next to her. "Fluttershy, Follow me when this is over." she turns to Rarity herself., "Rarity, search Equestria for not gems, but metals veins, Iron, Copper, Steel, Gold, Silver, anything will help. I can help you adapt your Crystal finding spell to the task if needed. Get some hired hooves to help you get them from the earth." She turns her head to Applejack, "Applejack, Get ripped."
"Ex-cuse me? Did you just tell me to get some muscles?" the orange pony retorts angrily at Digitas.
"No, i said get -more- muscles, As well as your brother, You two are our inititation. You will be the first ones sent in, and you will be the ones dispatching the guards that are no doubt being deployed as we speak."
Applejack goes to say something, but Pinkie cuts her off. "What about me, huh!? What about me!?"
"Dear pinkie, I'm going to teach you a few.. new tricks. Ones you might be able to harness for your party-going at a later date. You follow me and Fluttershy."
The Alicorn looks across the group, "We all have our duties memorized?"
They all nod in agreement. "Good, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Lets go. The rest of you, Get to your tasks." The ponies disperse, Rainbow hitting the sky as she leaves the house.
That leaves Digitas, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. "We head for the outskirts of Everfree, It is a place secluded and safe enough for your training." Digitas says, looking down to the party pony beside her.
"What are you teaching me?" she asks, looking up to her, and somehow managing to not fall on her face, with each jump.
"You contain a unique gift, One that i did not expect to find. You have some inate ability to create rifts in reality, allowing you to do what normally should be impossible. Both of us can do it, and when we get to the forest's edge, I'm having you harness it into something more"
Pinkie simply nods, not entirely sure what she is talking about, but keeping her smile and bouncing up in stride, or rather, bounces.
"And you, Fluttershy. Applejack and Macintosh will require a guardian angel, thats your job."
"Guardian.. angel..?" Her first thought is of her pet bunny with wings and a halo, but Digitas quickly gets rid of that thought.
"Yes, a Guardian Angel, One of those researchers that worked on me was a doctor by trade, there for any unforseen incidents within the lab, He knew a lot about healing magic, and i picked up on it. I'm going to be using a Stratus crystal, enchanted with that spell, so you can heal Applejack and her brother, seeing as how most of the guards will be after them."
"I get to.. use magic?" Fluttershy almost beams with excitement, never once has it crossed her mind that one day she would be able to use magic like a Unicorn.
"To an extent, yes. You will be a Psuedo-Alicorn, In function, just like one, but not exactly one yourself."
Already lost in the daydream of using magic, Fluttershy simply nods with a hum, walking behind the mint green and bubble-gum pink mares.
"Alright. Ditzy, Aeris, and Skylar. You three gather as many pegasi as you can and have them meet me up here, We have a big order to fill." Rainbow says to the gray, light blue, and dark red pegasi in front of her. "We're trying something new for cloud destruction, something on mass scale. Move, ponies, move!" The three split off, covering Ponyville with a blanket of recruitment, leaving Rainbow alone on her platform.
She wasn't exactly sure how this would work, considering the shockwave would also send the ponies in a spin, and could cause some injuries. Maybe if we did it high enough... she thinks to herself, not exactly sure on how to accomplish the task. It's not that doing a Rainboom was hard, she has had plenty of practice over the last year, after the tournament. It was that she didn't understand how the process of making this Stratus Crystal worked.
Wait... Shockwaves bounce... The pegasi must be able to reflect it.. is that why nopony flying is affected by it when i do it so close, because they're immune to a Rainboom? That must be it..
The pony thinks for a good while about it, trying to wrap her brain around the concept, before Ditzy comes back with a group twenty strong following her. Off in the distance, she can see Skylar on his way back with a group, and Aeris somewhere amid a group of Pegasi on a cloud in the distance. "Great, you all just hang tight for a minute, Skylar will be here in a moment, tell him to wait here with you. I'm going to see what Aeris Chill is doing."
Rainbow blasts off the cloud the group was on and flies over to the Pegasi in the distance, landing down in front of Aeris, she soon realizes what they were doing. On the cloud, surrounded by Aeris' group, is an unconcious pegasus, one Rainbow hasn't seen before.
"What happened?!" she asks, spinning back around to Aeris.
"She was passed out here when we flew by, We tried some things to wake her, but nothing works!" the very light-blue mare replies, shaking her head, causing the short, spiked mane to shift slightly.
"Lovely. Alright... Thunder, Sully, you two take her to the hospital. The rest of you, back with me to Ditzy and Skylar's groups. We have to get this show on the road." The rainbow blasts from the cloud, all but three pegasi following it to the original meeting place, now well over tripled in its populace with the addition of Skylar's group.
As Rainbow lands, and the soft hooffalls of Aeris' group hits the cloud, she speaks. "We need to do two things, one. Clear out the skies, which should have been done yesterday..." She gives a glance to a few of the Weather patrol that are present. "And we also need to do it fast. A friend has told me of something that just might work, and give us something that she needs as well. We need... Fifteen of you to get ready to begin creating a vortex of wind, one curved in so clouds cant escape, nothing too fast until it gets full, so pace yourselves early. The rest of you, grab clouds from all over, Everfree if you have to go that far, and drag them back and put them into the vortex. When that is all said and done, I'll handle the rest."
With her speech done, the Pegasi get to work, a good twenty of them fly up above the cloud they were at, five of them pushing the cloud with them while the rest begin spinning in a circle, creating a ring of wind that traps the cloud underneath. Over the course of the next few hours, pegasi begin hauling cloud after cloud until Ponyville, and the outskirts of Everfree is clear of clouds, save for the now fast-spinning orb of white that the ponies are weaving.
"Alright, everypony hold that thing together, and brace for impact!" Rainbow screams at the pegasi not already holding the vortex stable, before bolting up into the sky.
I need to time it perfectly.. Too early, i might give Ponyville a fog cover for a few days, Too late, and we lose the sun for a while until they burn away. No pressure, Girl, you got this.
As soon as the air begins to get thin, she spins and bolts downward, plummeting into a wing-flapping descent, The rainbow that trails behind her becomes steadily, slowly larger....
...Then she hit the cloud sphere.
The Rainboom happens at the perfect time, the clouds slowly expand out, crushing themselves in onto the vortex, and then slamming back into a tiny point inside the vortex, leaving a rain of crystal shards where it once was, the clouds now solid, rather than a gas.
Rainbow, on the other hand, hits the ground with a sickening thud, creating a large impact crater, before smiling as she feels the crystals shower onto her body. "Won't be flying for a while.. but a job well done.." Aeris and Skylar both fall down to meet her body, both wings broke, as well as most likely a few other bones. "Sky.. Get me to the hospital.. Aeris.. Gather these crystals and bring them to the Library for Twilight..." She closes her eyes and rest there, not unconcious, but definetly out for the count, as her breathing stabilizes at a rather low point.
Skyler hauls her up over his back and flaps his wings, giving him a boost to his gallop as he bolts through the town, heading to hospital. Aeris picks up the crystals, shard by shard, until she has an armful of twenty, before flying off toward the Library.
Applejack walks back up the road to Apple Acres, thinking about how she could somehow get stronger than she already was. She was strong, sure, but Macintosh was by far stronger, and thicker built than her, and would probably have an easier time with the whole 'Getting ripped' scenario. She looks up and sees a pegasus fly by, followed by a few others. Rainbow must have already gotten started... she thinks to herself, partially wondering if the daredevil went 'commando mode' when she was given the order to get the pegasi together.
She walks through the main gates to the farm, spotting Big Mac buckin' apples off in the distance. She quickens her steps, almost to a gallop to reach him. "'Ey, Big Mac! Come here will ya'!" she stops and yells before continuing at full speed to meet him halfway.
The bigger stallion of the apple family looks up to his sister with a raised eyebrow, uncoiling from an about-to-buck position to walk up to meet her. "What's up, sis?"
"We've got a problem.. and we've been hired to solve it... Ah don't think you'll like it, but we gotta fight, and we gotta get ready for it." Applejack looks up to her brother with one of the most serious stares she could ever give somepony.
After a short delay to think. Big Mac simply gives a nod and walks away, toward the barn. "Never thought youd have t' use it.."
Applejack blinks and follows after him. "Use what?"
"It's a thing. Helps you work your muscles."
"Really? How long 've you had it."
"Got it just after your third birthday."
"That long? How come ah havent seen it"
"Kept it hidden in the cellar, Ah know you don't go down there."
"Boy thats true.. Never need ta'."
"Eeyup..."
With that, the conversation dies as they close the gap, The two wrap around to the back of the barn, and pop open a double-doored stairway underneath the barn. The two walk down the stairs, relatively kept clean, and lighed with a few torches that seem to be made out of crystals.
"Emberstones, Miss Rarity got 'em for me on request."
"Wow, are they expensive?"
"Only if you don't look for 'em, they're not easy to come across by chance."
"How did you know about 'em."
"Ah read books too... Went to Twilights library one day, lookin' for somethin like these here stones."
The conversation dies again, as Applejack wraps her mind over Big Mac and a book in the same air space, shaking it free, the two enter the large room underneath Apple Farms, which is filled with barrels of aging wine, various farm equipment, and in one corner, some odd contraption covered in a thin gray sheet.
"Thats it, then?"
"Eeyup."
"Hows it work?" Applejack walks up to the thing and pulls the cover off, revealing a metal-framed machine with an array of pulleys, weights and hooks, set up in various positions to be customizable to the user.
"You hook what weights you want on it, and stick your hooves in the wraps, and start pullin'."
Apple jack looks at the two leather hoof-wraps long enough to wrap the leg up high enough where you still have grip, but low enough so it wont interfere with any of the joints. She hooks the first few weights onto it and gets onto the bench, which is currently just flat, and slides her hooves into the wraps.
"So ah just push up, then?"
"Eeyup."
"Right..."
She pushes up on the wraps, working against the pulleys and weights, pulling them up off of the ground next to her. She does this a few times before giving a nod. "This works.. How about we take shifts.. Two hours on, Two hours off, until they need us?"
"Works for me. You can go first, since your already there."
Big mac smiles, turning to head over to a few of the wine barrels, rolling them over to Applejack.
"What ah..." she stops to push the weights up, "..Those fer?"
"For when my round rolls around."
Applejack decides not to push the topic, and goes back to the weights.
Hours roll by, Big Mac left to go back working out on the farm, and when the time passes, he comes back down with his usual stoic expression.
"Times up, sis. Take a break."
Applejack, whom has since configured the machine to use her hindhooves, working the pulleys as if she was bucking a tree, slides out of the wraps and touches back down to the ground.
"Fair enough, i'm goin t' get somethin' ta' drink." The orange pony walks back up the stairs, leaving Big Mac to his device in the cellar.
Again, the hours roll by, and Applejack walks back down the stairs, although she hears a rather echoing 'Th-thud!' from the bottom. As she pokes her head out into the big room, she notices that not only has all of the weights been hooked, but one of them is disattached from the weights, and has been rigged with some more rope to support the two wine barrels.
"What the hay, Big Mac! How in tarnation can you even do that!"
The red earth pony gives a smile to his sister, sliding out of the hoofwraps, and getting up from the contraption, which is in a similar position to what it was when it was first revealed.
"Not my first time usin' it.. Ah keep myself nice and healthy with it."
Applejack walks over and unhooks the ropes connecting the wine barrels, not bothing to detach the ropes from the barrels themselves, knowing Big Mac will be using them again. "Alright.. well, take a breather. I'll be here."
Big Mac nods and walks to the stairs, turning back around to give his sister a glance, before returning back up the stairs.
Ah'v got to be able to do that.. No way i'm going to let him outshine me... even if he is stronger than me... she thinks to herself, as she hooks up the weights she had before, setting the bench to allow herself to let the weights counter-balance her upright, on her hind hooves, and letting the front edge of the bench to hook onto those hooves, letting her use her back leg muscles to pull her entire body down.
The orange mare works and works, trying newer and more tougher positions over the hours, before Big Mac trots down the stairs, meeting the sight of his sister with her hindhooves pushed up to a vertical bench, her forehooves wrapped up, with the pulleys back behind her, forcing the weights to push her to the bench if she doesn't fight against it.
"Ah'll-right. Don't work yourself too much, you'll pass out."
Applejack simply offers him a grin, before walking herself down from the bench, letting the weights fall to the ground as her hooves slide out of the recoiling wraps.
"Ah know mah limits, brotha'. An' i'm pushin 'em as much as ah want".
"Just don't break yourself... You still haven't told me exactly what we're doin'..."
"Aparently, some science an' machine makers up in Canterlot made themselves an 'Artifical Alicorn' she said. And now aparently, those same people are goin' to use that power to make more, an' overthrow the princesses."
Big Mac, listening intently in his own way, walks over to the machine and re-attaches his wine barrels to the machine. Before reaching up and folding out two more arms from the weight racks back behind the machine, throwing some rope up and over the pulleys tha were previously empty on top of it, before walking back over and grabbing some rope, attaching it to the ends of the already in-place rope, and going back to the wine barrels.
"You are NOT puttin' more of those on."
"Eeyup. Ah'v needed to step it up for a while, Didn't bother with it. Now ah got a reason to."
He rolls over two more barrels and ties them up, attaching all of the weights and kegs to the hoofwraps. "You're not goin' to get as strong as your brother for a while, but you're also faster than ah am by a lot, Remember that."
The red stallion changes the bench and pulley positions of the machine, so that he is sitting on his rump with his legs on each side of the lower-end of the bench, with his back up against the top-end of it, with the hoofwraps set up so the ropes pull up diagonally in a cross in front of him, if he were to move them that far, and cross his limbs.
Applejack watches in awe as her brother takes the position and slides the wraps over his forehooves, he gives a light pull on them for a few moments before he suddenly lurches slightly forward, pouring every ounce of raw muscle into lifting the wine barrels, and the remaining weights, well off of the ground. He lets his forelegs and shoulders relax, letting the weights fall back down to the ground with a chorus of 'thud''s.
"That's unbelievable... You've been tellin' me you had all that strength, all this time."
"Ee-" Big Mac lifts the weights again, "-yup." And then lets them fall back down to the ground.
Applejack sits there for a good ten minutes, speechless, as her brother defies all bounds of logic she thought she had. Her brother was strong, sure, but he's lifting probably five times his own weight, The thought crosses her mind that maybe he's holding back on the farm, that if he bucked the trees with his normal strength, they might just tip over.
Applejack walks back up the stairs, about ready to pass out from the shock rather than the exhaustion that she stopped feeling.
Wow.. To think mah own brother was some sort of powerhouse that ah didn't know existed... Explains how he's able to do the entire farm without complaint, though...
Rarity, out in the market square, managed to hire a few stallions to do some heavy lifting for her out in the mountains, and within the course of hours, managed to get four carts, two ponies each, plus three for mining, at the digsite. She wraps her horn in magic, and the hill lights up with varying colors, revealing not only the sparse pockets of gemstones, but slivers of metal of varying types.
"Alright boys, you see your targets, now go for it!" she practically squeals, as the three mining ponies go to work on the hill, ripping metal from stone, and stone from moutain. The sound of clinking is heard for a long while as the cart-ponies mingle with each other, leaving Rarity to adjust her saddlebags, oversee the miners, and give herself some time to think.
I wonder what all of this metal will be used for, the gold could fetch a nice profit, so could the silver and gems, or i could use it in some dress designs.. or jewelry... or anything, really, and gold makes everything better, after all, and i'm a firm believer in that.
The carts slowly fill up, and she pulls out a few waterskins from her saddlebag, floating them over to the mining ponies.
"You boys are doing great, keep it up." she encourages, taking the empty waterskins back into her bag. Off in the distance, she sees ponyville, and the orb of clouds and pegasi floating in the sky above it.
Ah, Rainbow Dash. It's frightening the sort of headway you could make if you put that enthusiasm into pursueing your dream. Oh well.. now where are y-.. oh, there you are. Plummeting to the ground, and fast. Why do i have a feeling these next few moments wont end well... she thinks, watching the rainbow trail descend from the heavens at an alarming rate, unaware that the cart-hauling ponies, and the miners, as her ore-finding spell flickered off in her worry.
The rainbow hits the cloud, and the Rainboom hits it, sending the cloud into a solid white, smooth barrier before causing it to implode on itself within the sphere of pegasi. The rainbow trail, however, kept going, and within a second, a second, much harder 'thud' resonates through the land, signaling that Rainbow Dash just touched down harder than she ever has before.
In shock, rarity gives a quick glance to the gathered crowd, before looking back to the hole, the ponies from the sphere slowly spiraling down to form a large crowd around the cyan blob of color in the distant hole. To her own enjoyment, one of the pegasi pick her up and run off, toward the direction of ponyvilles' hospital, while another sits in the crater, doing something before flying off to Twilight's library.
"Alright... well.. I hope she is okay.." Rarity says, turning around and re-activating her ore-finding spell, letting the Miners get back to work.
"Friend of yours?" A brown cart-mare asks her, looking back to the small dent in Ponyville's topography.
"Yeah.. We have had some interesting experiences together, but i dont think she has ever had to do something so precise.. she might have misjudged her ability to turn in time... it wasn't like last time, where she had banked back to curve under and save me and the Wonderbolts... She had no room for that here.."
The cart mare gives Rarity a comforting pat on the shoulder, before going to rejoin his friends, who all begin cracking jokes at his expense.
The operation goes on till sunset, where the ponies finally begin the long trek home, the three mining ponies helping push some of the carts that are struggling with the weight.
I hope she is okay... No. I know she is okay, this is rainbow dash, she has survived more crashes than Ditzy has, and at much higher speeds. She has to be okay.... I hope she is okay...
So... Basically, i have to be able to see what they see, and talk to them... so... Lets see.. Magic of Telepathy... where did i put that one... the purple mare speeds around the room, trying to remember where she put the book she needs. I'll also probably want The Scryer's Manual, seeing as its all to do with vision. Twilight grabs a book as she passed, knowing exactly where 'The Scryer's Manual' was already. I'll also need... Hmm.. Probably a form of distance help.. Hunt, Unicorn Sniper... that was.. over here! She speeds by the bookshelf, ripping another book off of it, one 'Hunt, Unicorn Sniper'.
Where.. Is.. That.. Oh, there it is! She yells in her head, grabbing the 'Magic of Telepathy' book from the top shelf of a bookcase near the back. She plops the three books down at her table and opens up the Magic of Telepathy, seeing as that is one of the major ones, and begins to tackle the book, learning all she can about mentally communicating with another pony.
Spike, however, has other plans on his mind. Seeing as Dignitas didn't give him a job, he took it upon hismelf to write a letter to Celestia, Asking her if she could deliver a message to a certain pony within Canterlot, requesting her assistance here in Ponyville. The dragon exhales, and sends the scroll away, knowing well that Celestia woudn't have expected a letter from spike himself, and will probably do it just out of sheer curiosity.
Within hours, Twilight has almost mastered the spell, and has been practicing with Spike, getting down the fine-tuning of it, when she suddenly hears a loud 'KABOOM' from outside, followed by a less spectacular 'THUD'. She immediately looks out the window and sees Rainbow Dash in a large hole, being showered by a few sparkles of what looks like glitter, with a big grin on her face.
Faster than she thought possible, Twilight severed the mental connection with Spike, and sent it out to Rainbow Dash, hoping that the distance wasn't a problem. Rainbow Dash, Can you hear me!
Tw-Twilight..? Why are you in my head... Did i get a concussion.. is that why i'm hearing things..? the cyan mare thinks to herself, or rather, to Twilight.
No, you're not hearing things, its me, i'm using a telepathy spell to talk to you from my house. What happened?!
I did what the princess wanted, and she got more than she bargained for... Hey.. Twi..?
Yeah, what is it rainbow?
Keep talking.. lets me know i'm still awake...
Oh.. right, probably would be a bad thing if you fell asleep right now.
Mmhm... the cyan mare, unknown to Twilight, actually, audibly let out a 'mmhm' as well, which made Skylar more worried than it should have.
So... How much does it hurt?
Which part...?
All of it!
Well.. I can't feel my wings, All of my legs are hurting... and i have a headache, which i don't think is from you. Anything else?
Yeah.. uh.. Why didn't you try shooting upward, or even sideways?
Less control over when i can trigger the Rainboom... That thing takes some serious timing you know...the Cyan mare thinks, again with her automatic pride kicking in, even under extreme duress.
Well, Rest up, the nurse will have you wrapped up as soon as you get there... Did you see how many of the crystals you made? It looked like a few from here.
I counted a lot more than nine when they fell on me... the Princess will be happy.
Yeah she will, I think you out-did yourself there.
You're just sayin' that..
No, really!
Yeah.. whatever...
Frantic, thinking that Rainbow is passing out, she almost yells mentally to her, Don't you pass out on me, alright? I refuse to let you pass out until you're in capable hands.
Twilight could almost feel Rainbow Dash's smile as she thought, I won't, Twilight.. I won't. You're what is keeping me here right now, and i'm glad for it.
Touched by the thought, she flicks off her end of the telepathy connection for a moment to think about what she just said. A heart-felt comment from the daredevil was rare enough, but that almost seemed.. distant, as if she was keeping it a secret until that very moment.
Twi...?
Twilight re-activates her end of the Telepathy, thinking back to Rainbow, Yeah? What is it rainbow?
Heh... We made it to the hospital.. i'm staring at the Nurse now, and she has the most frightening look on her face... i guess i look pretty bad then...
You just hit the ground during a Rainboom. I'm still wondering how your alive, and thinking coherently.
Coher... oh, clearly. Yeah... i'll tell you when i figure it out.. until then, i'm going to just let the nurse do her thing...
A sort of mind-silence goes between the two for a good six minutes before Rainbow breaks it rather abruptly, Twi.. Redheart said i can go to sleep now... i'm.. stable or something.. you would think i would learn what most of this medical talk means, how often i'm in this building.
Yeah... You'd think that, woudn't you?
Oh hah-hah. Well, Have fun with your job, Twi.. Mine is done, and Aeris is on her way to give you those crystals.
Aeris... Twilight stops abruptly, realizing that someone at the door had been knocking for a while. "Oh, crap, coming!" She opens up the door and looks at Aeris, a forehoof full of crystals, she hobbles in with a smile, depositing them onto the table.
"You must have heard that, Rainbow hit the ground hard, and Skyler ran her to the Hospital. She'll be alright, though. She always is. I swear, If immortality was hereditary, her parents both had it." Aeris jokes, looking over to Twilight,
"Yeah... I don't get how she manages it.. but, i'm glad that she will be okay."
"Well, Take care, Twilight, i'm going to go catch up to Skyler and Rainbow." Aeris waves a hoof behind her as she bolts out the door and into the sky.
'If immortality was hereditary, your parents both had it' her words were.
Aeris? I'v heard those before... It's a running joke that i'm 'The Undying Rainbow' with me and the weather patrol... So... How many are there.
Let me count... one..two... four.. six.. ten.. fifteen.. twenty...Twenty of them.
And she only needed nine... wonder where the rest are going.
We'll find uses for them, i'm sure. We wont let you're sacrifice go in vain.
My 'sacrifice'? Please, it the least i could do for my friends...
The least? If thats the least, i'd hate to see what extent you would go to.
Heh... okay.. bad wording. I'd do just about anything for you girls, you know that. And that includes helping save Equestria, single handedly, -again-.
Theres that pride showing itself again.. Twilight lets out a defeated sigh, Stay awake for as long as you can. It's never a good idea to fall asleep after a head injury, no matter how much pain you are in.
I'll keep that in mind, because i'm in a lot of pain right now..
Rest easy, Dashie.
Another silence ensues, before Rainbow breaks it again. I'll try.. Sparkie... I'll try.
The purple mare breaks her own connection, keeping it up partially in case Rainbow needs her. Did she just call me 'Sparkie'? Thats odd, even for her... I'll ask her about it when she is feeling better... Twilight goes back to her table and opens up another one of the books, the Scryer's Manual, and begins to read it, losing herself in the complexity of the art, trying to work the knowledge into a useable form of magic
The band of triangular opposites --consisting of the hyperactive Pinkie Pie, the stoic and reclusive Fluttershy, and the judgemental Princess Digitas-- arrive at the edge of the Everfree, in an open field out of viewing distance of Ponyville. The Princess turns to address the two, a smile on her face.
"Fluttershy, you can sit and watch what is about to go on, as you're training in magic will take place when i go back to the Library and use Rainbow's Stratus crystals. So feel free to get comfy and enjoy the show."
Fluttershy nods and finds a nice patch of short grass to lie down on, keeping her eyes on the Princess and her new student.
"Now, Pinkie, you obviously have some control of your rifts, an-"
"My what?"
"Rifts, Pinkie Pie, Rifts. They are what allow you seemingly defy all logic. Such as that instant teleportation you manage to do."
"Oh, you mean like this?" Suddenly, the pink mare is gone, speeding off to the side, before speeding back from the entirely opposite direction, stopping inches from Digitas in a wobble.
"Yes... Exactly like that.. there are ways to manipulate it to a point, and use it in more ways then just movement. Both of us will be practicing this, as both of us have yet to attempt these, so.. Bear with me."
Digitas weaves a green and white sheen of magic around her horn, calling up three pillars of mud from the ground about ten yards away from them. She looks down to her left forehoof and begins to work her own magic, creating a solid white bracer with a rounded blade going up the side of it. Up slightly past the joint.
"I'v been thinking on names for these techniques, in case a later Rift user needs to learn of them.. How about we call this a 'Rift Dance'..."
"I.. Love it!" the party pony bounces up and down in glee, giving a wider smile to Digitas.
"Well then, lets dance." She warps forward, leaving a fading green sillouette of herself in her old place, Along the mud pillars, Sillouettes of the same color move, slicing repeatedly, jumping between each of the pillars numerous times, before returning to her old location. The pillars slowly, one by one, fall to peices. Sliced into clean disks by the magical armblade.
"That. Was. Amazing! Let me try, let me try!" the party pony cheers, before stopping her erratic movement by a sudden molding of mud and stone that forms around her left forearm, mimicing Digitas' own magical one.
Digitas creates five pillars this time, and Pinkie wastes no time, bursting into action as a plume of pink smoke shaped like her replaces her old position, as well as a flurrly of 'Smoke Ponies' that form and disapear, assaulting the pillars faster than Digitas did with her three. After a few seconds, Pinkie bursts from the cloud that formed, leaving a contrail of the smoke behind her.
Pinkie looks up to Fluttershy with a smile, which prompts a raised eyebrow as the shy mare quickly notes that within the fading smoke, the five pillars still stand.
"Uh, Pinkie... you may have miss-" Digitas does not finish her statement, as the pink pony stops her forehooves on the ground, somehow managing to cause all five pillars to simultaniously explode, spraying a field of dirt around them.
"I stand corrected, you obliterated them.. that was impressive." Digitas says with a nod, before forming a ring of twenty of them around Fluttershy, who instantly jumps up and cowers for a moment, before remembering they are just mud pillars.
"Let us pretend that our support is being attacked, Dispatch them." The two rift users start thier dance again, being less subtle about it as the forms bounce between seemingly random points among the ring, Slicing and disposing of pillar after pillar, not once hitting the same one, and when they each dispatch half of the ring, the two appear next to Fluttershy, who squeaks at the sudden appearance.
Digitas looks down to pinkie with a grin. "You felt that, right?"
"Mhm! It was like i knew exactly what you were going to do next!"
"Exactly. I think that Rift users just -know- what another Rift user will do."
The two suddenly vanish in thier respetive forms, appearing a good fourty feet away, and then appearing back to Fluttershy in another instant.
"I'll take that as confirmed.." Digitas says with a light laugh, which prompts a much giddier laughter from the pink mare.
"Now... Teleportation isn't the only thing we can do, isn't that right? You have your so called 'Party Cannon' that you have stored somewhere. You can simply pull things that exist from somewhere else." Digitas stops and plucks a rock from the ground with her magic, levitating it up into an upturned hoof.
"I want you to take this pebble, without reaching for it."
Pinkie tilts her head and raises an eyebrow, before putting her hooves together and pulling them apart in an upward flourish, somehow creating a rock in between them and throwing it into the air.
Digitas smiles and looks down at her own hoof, the pebble no longer there. "Very good.. Now, Lets say we have a little fun." She looks out onto the field, and creates an army of dirt pillars, hundreds of them rise from the ground around them, and Pinkie Pie somehow find the power to restrain her excitement long enough for Digitas' next words.
"Lets Dance."
"She did WHAT?!" Pinkie shouts, deafening all present company inside the library, including Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, Spike and Digitas.
"She performed a Rainboom going down, and had no time to stop or turn out of her course, so she crashed, hard." Twilight repeats to the open-mouthed party pony.
"We 'ave to go see 'er. See if she's alright..." Applejack adds, moving to go back out the door she only recently walked through.
"You go on ahead, Me and Fluttershy have some work of our own to do." Digitas says, looking down to the shy mare.
"We-... We do?" Fluttershy replies in her usual quiet voice.
"We do. Now, run along and check up on Rainbow Dash, you girls... and Spike." Digitas adds the last part, remembering that the dragon was in fact present.
"Alright, you two take care!" Twilight says, following applejack out the door, with Pinkie and Spike in tow.
As the door clicks shut, Digitas walks over to the collected Stratus Crystals, separating nine of them from the other eleven, and pushing them aside.
"Now, we have enough here to practically turn you into an adept unicorn, so let us get to work with your skillset. You're going to be supporting two very bulky ponies, so having healing magic will definetly help... You also will need the standard Telekinesis." Digitas lines up the crystals and goes through each one, explaining the concepts of what each one will do to fluttershy as she enchants them.
Crystal one and two: Mending. This will project a beam of healing from whichever hoof the bracer is attached to when you mentally activate it, the beam itself will mend any broken or scarred tissue it comes into contact with, and will slowly dissipate the further into the body it spreads. These will be on both bracers.
Crystal three: Telekinesis. The standard ability for any unicorn to learn, this will allow you to wrap a veil of magic around something and move it with normally your mind. However, limitations with this sort of thing will only allow it to move forward and away from you based on thought, direction will have to be based on your hooves direction. This will be on your left bracer.
Crystal four: Force Waves. Projected cones that act similar to a very concentrated shockwave, a hit with this will knock just about anypony on thier flanks. This will be mounted to your left bracer.
Crystal five: Cloud Sword. In case you need to defend yourself, your Left bracer will also be able to form a blade of clouds, formed of the Stratus crystal's own, to use as a tool. The cloud edge it creates is as sharp as any edge, and just as solid too, Do not be afraid to use it if confronted at close range.
Crystal six: Light Shield. Normally, when cast, it can be placed in any direction, moved wherever, and is treated just like it was under a Telekinesis effect, but resizeable as well. However, again due to limitations of the crystals and non-unicorn use, It will only create a curved circle in front of your hoof. This will be on your right bracer.
Crystal seven: Light Prison. Similar to Light Shield in effect, except it will fire a small beam that will create a sphere of solid light around the first thing it contacts with, preventing any movement through it. This will also be on your right bracer.
Crystal eight: Counterspell. This one is advanced, and should only be used against other unicorns, as they are the only ones it will affect. If you see them casting a spell, or has already cast it and it has some form of magical product, using the Counterspell crystal on it will nullify the magic, and if used on the unicorn itself, will befuddle the ponies mind, and prevent him from casting spells until his mental state returns to normal.
Crystals nine, ten, and eleven: Mana Storage. All magical beings come with Mana, which is a form of endurance that Unicorns learn to train. You have none naturally, but these three crystals will give you the magical endurance, without having any weary effects from overuse. This would have been combined with your Mending crystal, making it less effective, but since we have so many, we can afford to spare a few to give you an extsenive pool of energy to draw from. These gems self-recharge over periods of disuse, so balance which ones you draw from.
Fluttershy's eyes are as big as plates as she takes in all of the information. She was going to use magic, a Pegasus, using magic. Such things were myth and fairy tale material, but she was about to experience it.
A knock at the door signals it to open with a wave of Digitas' magic, revealing a train of four carts, with the prestigious pony at the lead. "Here you go, Digitas. More metal than i have ever dug up. I kept the gems we found, if you dont mind, i didn't think you would be needing them."
"You would be correct.. its the durability of the metal that i need, not the flashy gems. Thank you for you and your crews hard work." Digitas give Rarity a small nod, prompting a small squeal of excitement from her as she dismisses herself from the building, leaving the eight cart-ponies to follow after her at thier own pace.
"Now, for your bracers." Digitas says, turning to the carts. She covers all four of them in the green and white sheen, lifting them all from the cart and crushing them all together into a giant ball. After a second, stones begin to float away from the ball and form above it in another ball, until finally, nothing but a menagerie of metals are left. The stones all become deposited back into one of the carts, whereas the orb of mixed metal begins to catagorize itself, copper, iron, tin, silver and gold, all fly from the orb to smaller balls around it.
"Now... We will need to create them to fit you, so hold out your left hoof. You're not lopsided, so i can simply mirror the bracer."
Fluttershy holds out her left hoof, jumping as it becomes sheathed in Digitas' magic, and falling into a silent awe as two green hooves appear in front of her, one just like her hoof, the other one a mirrored version.
Slowly, peice by peice, iron and tin flakes and nuggets all fall from thier orbs, become white hot, and mix around the two magical limbs, forming a hinged bracer, copper peices fall and line the outside edge of the bracers, as well as forming the bolt holding the hinge together. More and more metals fall and melt into place until it becomes a gold and silver inlaid marvel of art with five sockets running down the front, each one bordered in gold with two iron latches to hold its contents in place.
Digitas forms a small necklace chain of iron and silver, melting together a diamond-shaped amulet out of pure silver and gold, with a similar iron latched socket in it, onto the bottom of the chain, before she unclips the other side and wraps it around Fluttershy's neck, closing it shut with a smile.
The eleven crystals slowly float thier way into thier respective slots, ending with the final Mana crystal into her necklace, causing her to almost leap out of her skin as she feels the touch of magic grip her mind.
Digitas simply giggles and drops her hold on fluttershy's arm, unclasping the two bracers and floating them onto the shy mare, clasping them back shut as they fit snug around the ponies' forehooves. "And there you go, You're now a magic user, go ahead, try and use the telekinesis crystal and lift a book from a shelf."
Fluttershy holds out her left hoof, aiming it toward a bookshelf. "So... i just.. think it?"
"You feel it, Imagine it as if you could feel the magic flowing through you." Digitas replies, watching the bookshelf she is pointing at with a mixed emotion of anticipation and satisfaction.
After a few seconds of nothing, the second gem on her left bracer lights up a brilliant sparkling pink, as well as a book in the middle of the bookshelf. The book slides out of its spot and floats up in front of her hoof, a smile on Fluttershy's face grows to a size that is almost unreasonable for the mare. "I did it...I used magic!" she whispers, instantly forming into a scream only heard a couple of times before in the timeline of her existance.
And with that, the magic falters and the book clatters to the ground.
"Heh.. You did use magic, and you still must concentrate to use it. That is the key to magic, Concentration." Digitas says, turning back to the nine crystals on the table.
"So... Applejack, Big Macintosh, You, Pinkie Pie, And me, all get crystals for twilight to communicate with us. Thats five, four left over... Hmm..." She thinks for a moment. "I know..."
She takes some of the remaining metals, of which have still been floating there the whole time, and fashions together less grand versions of Fluttershy's bracers, using a slightly thinner hoof mold she creates in the air, with only one socket for each bracer. She pulls two empty Stratus shards from the table and sockets them, clasping them in.
"Pinkie will need a pair of the same magic hoof-blades i had.. these will give them to her, and i'll actually give her the necklase you have.. You already have enough mana to keep up solid spellcasting for a good three or four hours, which is almost unheard of in unicorn adepts, let alone nonmagical pegasi."
She detaches the amulet from fluttershy's neck and sets them onto the table, followed by the iron and copper bracers.
"Now, Lets continue. Lets try your Mending spell now..." She pulls a hoof up to her mouth and scrapes the front along a tooth, creating a shallow but long gash, which slowly drips a dull, dark red metallic form of blood, which causes fluttershy to cringe.
"Relax, Fluttershy. It doesn't hurt me as much as you think it does, just try your spell." Digitas holds her now wounded hoof down and out to the shy mare, who props up on her back hooves and holds her front ones out to the wound, two beams of pink sparkling magic shoot from around the bracer, creating two rings of light that merge on the wound, sealing it almost instantly.
"Well done.. Now, let us see... We should try something a bit more complicated."
"Complicated? But.. i'v just started"
"You have two advantages working around that, An alicorn instructor and a stupid supply of magic energy, Now, Hold out a light shield with your right, while using your Cloud sword with your left, remember to focus on keeping them up, rather than using them. Usually, the heat of the moment will use them for you, while you keep them up."
Fluttershy flies up into the air and imagines weaving a sword of clouds in front of her hoof, as well as some sort of barrier in front of her other, outstretched hoof, and after a few moments, both flicker into existance, as a small curved circle of a transparent, but slightly reflective energy forms in front of her, a pink sparkle around the ring. Her left hoof forms a cloud armblade similar to what Digitas and Pinkie Pie had, but made out of clouds, and much bigger and wider, extending up to her shoulder when her leg is straight, and extending a good foot and a half out from her hoof, curving in near the end, the inside edge of the cloud sword mirroring the shield's sparkles.
"Very good... You must have been a unicorn in a past life, because you catch on rather quick. I actually was expecting to have to help you out with that."
Fluttershy beams with excitement, before she calls the two spells off and lands down onto the ground.
"I'll work on the other spells later.. for now, could i go find Rainbow Dash?" the shy mare says, looking up at the taller, mint green pony.
"I can call this day productive for you. Take the day off from magic if you want, we will work on some practical uses for your spells tomorrow. Give Rainbow Dash my thanks and blessing, she has done more than she may realize for you and your dreams of magic."
Fluttershy nods and pulls the door open with a wave of telekinesis magic, closing it behind her as she flies out the door.
"Well.. I guess it is true, Revenge always tastes better if you share it with your friends..."
The four ponies, and dragon, sit surrounded by the white separation curtain, keeping any other ponies' eyes from gazing in at the mess of a sleeping pegasus in the bed. Twilight reads over the medical clipboard again for the seemingly hundredth time, taking in the aspect of every wound that the cyan mare encountered.
Two shattered wings in multiple locations, three ribs broken, Four broken limbs, Fractured jawbone... wow Rainbow Dash... you did a number to yourself.
Twilight... you didn't turn the spell off.
Twilight looks up from her clipboard at Rainbow Dash's body, a smile slowly creeping across the pegasus' lips.
Hehe... yeah.. I guess i did. Heh... Doesn't help being reminded of where you hurt, does it?
Nope... Still helps to know i'm alive, thinking about how each part hurts like hay as you go down the list..
Rainbow.. I've been meaning to ask you something since earlier...
What is it, Twi?
I was wond-
The thoughtful conversation is cut short as the curtain is pulled back by Nurse Redheart herself, letting in a familiar canary-colored mare, sporting a pair of very, very ornate bracers on her forehooves.
"Wow.. Fluttershy.. those look amazing!" Twilight says, looking down at the peices of artwork on the pegasi's hooves.
"Thank you... I had to come see how rainbow was doing. Digitas said that i worked hard enough, and i deserved a break for the day, so i came here." She replies, walking up to the foot of Rainbow Dash's bed.
"She doesn't look to good..." she says, looking down at the almost mummified version of Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy turns to Twilight and her clipboard, her expression dropping a smile and turning so serious, she may have been mistaken for being under Iron Will's training again. "What is hurt."
"Well.. uh... " Twilight starts, looking back down to the clipboard. "Two shattered wings, in multiple locations... Three ribs broken..All of her limbs are broken in i can only assume just about every way... and a fractured jawbone."
Fluttershy looks back to rainbow dash, before hopping off of the ground into the air, causing all eyes to be cast on her.
Rainbow... Brace for impact. Twilight says in her mind, first thinking of Fluttershy's chiropractic abilities, and then thinking of what those bracers can actually do, as they most certainly came from Digitas.
"Digitas said take a break... That won't be happening." She points both bracered hooves down to rainbow dash, and projects the beams of pink, sparkling light down upon the mare, the beams widening into a cone as they envelop Rainbow Dash's entire body.
In awe, all gathered watch as the pegasus revitalizes the daredevil, right before thier eyes. She holds it there for well over a minute as the occasional crack of a bone fitting back into place breaks the almost-dead silence, the only other noise being the ambient, quiet but high-toned twinkling of Fluttershy's magic.
Fluttershy stops the flow of magic, floating back down to the ground as everyones attention turns to her for a moment, before drawing back by a groan from Rainbow Dash.
"What... What was that...?" the drowsy cyan pegasus says, pushing herself up on the backs of her forehooves, shaking her head as she realizes she is talking through a bandage wrap around her face, and then realizing that she is not only sitting up, but she didn't hurt, anywhere.
Fluttershy walks up to the side of Rainbows bed and holds her left hoof out, letting a wrap of telekinetic magic untie the bandages around rainbow's jaw. "Feeling better?"
"Yeah.. uh.. what happened?" she asks, looking around and noticing that everyone is staring at the two wide-eyed and jaw-dropped, including Nurse Redheart who walked back into the area sometime after she let fluttershy in.
"Digitas gave me these... they let me use a lot of spells.. one of which is a healing spell.." Fluttershy quietly replies, pushing her forehooves off the ground and wrapping them up onto the side of the bed, revealing the ornate gold-decorated bracers, with the Stratus Crystals socketed in the front.
"Those are.. the crystals.. from the clouds!" Rainbow leans forward and gets up, looking down at each crystal, colored slightly different based on the spell they are enchanted with.
"All thanks to you, Rainbow...Without you, i woudn't have these at all..." Fluttershy leaps forward and wraps Rainbow in a giant, soft-grasped hug, which manages to squeeze a laugh out of Rainbow as she hugs her back with bandage-wrapped hooves.
After what seems to be an awkwardly long time, the two separate and look at the other ponies around them, And spike, but he's sleeping in a corner of the curtained-off area, which accounts for why he has been so quiet during the ongoings.
"So.. we should get back to the library... Digitas is probably waiting for us." Twilight Sparkle says, turning to head out of the curtained area nudging spike in the side with a hoof to wake him up as she walks past.
Pinkie and Spike follow after her, leaving Applejack and the Pegasi alone in the section,
"So... " Applejack starts, turning on a hoof and taking a few steps to the exit of the curtained area. "Anythin' you'd like t' share with the rest of us, you two?" she looks back with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.
The two pegasi blink and look at each other for a moment before they look back to Applejack, both of thier faces red with the guilt of being called out.
"Ye-up.. figured as much, Don't let me stop you two, but don't be keepin' it ah secret from us. Especially Pinkie, that way we can get the party out of the way." Applejack rolls her eyes at the end of that last sentance, knowing full well that Pinkie will find an excuse to throw a party.
Fluttershy helps undo Rainbow's bandages with her new magic powers, and the two float thier way after Applejack, out of the building, and up to the group walking back toward Twilight's Library, however, when they arrive there, something seems amiss as the door is cracked open, and the lights inside are off.
When the five ponies and lone dragon walk in, they are shocked at what they see. Books from the shelves are all over the ground, the table that once sat in the middle is now pushed, or thrown, over to the side, and in the middle of the area sits Digitas, kneeled over with a roaring field of magical energy radiating from not just her horn, but from her entire body, and with that energy, comes bolts of green and white lightning that sparks from all over her body and arcs into the air, and down to the ground.
The princess looks up to the group, her eyes bright white, and an almost unnerving, gentle smile, considering her current state. She pushes herself up and walks toward the group, the lightning slowly dieing in intensity, and the magical field around her fading away.
"Sorry if i scared you... No place is truly safe to t-..." she stops and looks down as she stepped on a book, which causes her to look around at the pure chaos she just caused.
"Okay, so i didn't exactly have complete control of the higher teirs of it yet, but what you just witnessed was something i'm sure Twilight knows much about."
"That was.. you just..." Twilight studders, offering no help to those clueless ponies in company.
"It was called The Unlocking, an old, mystic art that the head unicorn working on my project knew of, and had mastered. Considering that he is the one we have to stop, i took it in best intrest to learn from my enemy, and try it out... It worked, almost wonderfully so, but now that i know how it works, i can contain it inside a Stratus Crystal for my Rift-walking ally to use, seeing that she will need them with what i'm about to give her." she turns back to the upturned table, a pair of iron and copper bracers lying there. "Go put on those bracers, I'll give you a necklace shortly that will allow you to use them."
Pinkie bounces over to the bracers to attach them, leaving the rest of them. "Now, the Unlocking was once used by the royal princess of the sun, your Celestia, to set up what she does now, the ability to move the sun and moon alone, since the creation of the spell was a direct solution to Luna not being fit to do her job at moving the moon. However, the process of casting it was documented and locked away in the canterlot archives, and the unicorn project leader found the book and learned it, and has also performed it." She stops for a moment to levitate the necklace in front of her, and leans down to tap her horn to the crystal, infusing it with 'The Unlocking' spell.
"What it does, is amplify the power of the user to a point that is almost unfathomable, And this power is not just magical, but it is in all aspects. However, Pinkie is a much more agile rift-walker than i am, but also more creative and reckless, but she is the perfect candidate to try out the Unlocking, and actually be able to duplicate herself using it.
"Dupli-wha?" Comes applejack, who raises an eyebrow at Pinkie, before moving up to Digitas.
"Duplicate, Applejack...." Twilight responds, "Its a big word for 'Copy'"
After applejack gives a thank-you nod, Digitas continues, "So, Pinkie, you ready?" She pulls back from the amulet, sliding it over to Pinkie Pie, whom is bouncing back after sucessfully attaching the bracers. "While your Unlocking is active, you will have an infinite sourse of magical energy, and your bracers are enchanted to let you use the magic arm-blades like i had during our practice, Now. Simply think of using the amulet, imagine the power you saw in me, in you, and let it go."
Pinkie stop hopping for a moment and closes her eyes in concentration, before suddenly bouncing a good ten feet into the air like a rocket, falling down with an almost comical bounce as Pinkie's Unlocked form, which looks similar to her normal form, save for the slightly larger 'echo' of herself that seems to follow her wherever she moves, giving her a blurred motion, and the glowing pink eyes.
Within a few more seconds, Pinkie stops bouncing and disapears in the familiar cloud of smoke, however, she re-appears in the same moment in not only to her clouds left, but to her right as well, She did indeed successfully clone herself, and the two Pinkie's look at each other for a moment before looking back to Digitas, speaking in unison.
"This feels weird.. I'm both of them at the same time! Now i really can be in multiple places at one time!" the party ponies cheer, bouncing up and giving the others a hoof-pound in the air.
"Yes, only when you're Unlocked using the amulet.. For you, it might not last very-"
*poof*
"...-long...." digitas finishes as Pinkie's clone vanishes, leaving a very 'normal' pink earth pony in plcae of where the original one was.
"Well... that just happened." Rainbow says, getting off of the shock of TWO Pinkies coexisting.
"Ah, Rainbow Dash... I did mean to thank you for your... generous sacrifice to the pavement. But jokes aside, what you did nopony other than an Alicorn such as Celestia herself can do, and probably has only done it once, on accident. At least, the book mentions it was. When i learned of it, I had to make sure Fluttershy knew how to control her own magic before i sent her off, knowing that she would instantly run to you to try and mend your bones and wounds..."
Fluttershy shrinks back behind her mane, her face turning a lovely shade of crimson.
"Which brings me to my next point, Tomorrow, i'll give you the remaining two Stratus crystals, Both with thier own magical energy pool. One will let you manipulate clouds from long distances, and the other is a magical haste spell, which should speed you up fast enough to call a Sonic Rainboom no matter what direction you should be going, preferably not down, though, as broken bones will be the least of your worries at that point."
Rainbow offers a nod, before looking around at the room for a moment, "It's still dark in here, we probably should fix that.."
"Oh, sorry!" Twilight responds, lighting candles and lights around the room with a sweep of magic.
"Thats better.." Rainbow gives twilight a pat on the back, before returning to her position beside Fluttershy.
"The sun draws down, and you all still need to sleep. Tomorrow, we all continue to train ourselves, and Twilight will begin linking those of us going into the compound to Stratus crystals to use as a method of group communication." Digitas says, looking around. "Twilight.. you mentioned a guest bedroom when i first arrived, care to show me where it is?"
Twilight obliges with a nod, wondering why Digitas didn't just read her mind about it. "Right this way, Princess." she heads off, leaving the earth ponies and the pegasi alone next to the door.
"Well.. Ah have to get back to the farm.. Big Mac probably has worked himself tired already, an' ah plan on catchin' up to him!" she turns and heads out the door with a nod to the two Pegasi, leaving Pinkie pie alone with them.
"Sooo. Hows life!" the party pony says in her usual tone, bouncing up a bit.
"Its... nice.." Fluttershy replies with her own usual tone, still hiding behind her mane.
"Uh huh. Well, I have some work to do, sooooo... toodles!" And with that, pinkie is gone. She definetly has been doing that 'Rift-making' a whole lot more if she needs to move anywhere more than five steps without worrying about others having to catch up.
The two pegasi share a glance and shut the door behind them as they walk out of the library, fluttershy reaching down and wrapping onto Rainbow's hind-hooves with a small smile. Rainbow gets the impression and takes off, letting fluttershy flap in the wind behind her as they fly off toward Fluttershy's cottage...
-----End-----
