Welcome to Equestria Laboratories

Gravity Shift was the first of the ponies to enter his test chamber. He squinted as he tried to take a look around him. He heard the door slide down behind him as his eyes slowly adjusted to the uncomfortable amount of light in the room. The intercom crackled, and the stallion with the pleasant voice returned.

“Your first task is simply to walk through the door on the opposite end of the room. May you be guided by luck’s hoof in all of your endeavors!” The hiss of the intercom cut out and the room was silent, except for the high pitched buzzing of the fluorescent lights in the ceiling.

He took note of his goal as he instinctively reached out with his magic, feeling for anything near him while he was temporarily blinded. His telekinesis had always been his greatest strength. He could lift more with his magic than anyone he knew, and that’s how he had gotten his cutie mark. When he was little, he had been watching his father move boxes full of metal pipes around his garage. His father had tried to lift a box that was too heavy and fell, but Shift had caught the box just before it hit the ground. From then on, Shift had an image of a dumbbell with blue magic swirling around it printed on his flank.

I never liked that cutie mark much, thought Shift as his mind wandered. Anyway, back to the matter at hoof.

As he reached around the room telekinetically, he estimated the length to be about fifty feet, with a sizable gap in the floor a few feet away from him. Strangely, he also felt hundreds of thin threads strung across the room in every direction.

He cracked open his eyes the rest of the way when they had adjusted to the brightness of the room. He looked around, observing that the walls were composed of rows of clean, white panels. However, the strings he had felt were nowhere to be seen.

That’s strange.

He reached out again, and felt the strings around him. They were definitely there, he just couldn’t see them. He gave one a slight tug. So involved was he with the strange threads that he didn’t even notice when the ELPAC on his horn glowed a dull white.

He experimentally grabbed two of the invisible strings and wrapped them around each other. This time, he felt a force. The spot in the air where he twisted the two strings had changed. The very air seemed to curve slightly, and he felt a gentle tug on his body from the point.

He let go of the strings, and they sprang back to their original positions. A slight quiver along the length of the threads was the only evidence that they had been tampered with. Everything seemed to be back to normal, and the ELPAC stopped glowing.

If two strings did that, then what would happen if I...

He reached out with his mind again, this time more confidently. He felt around for several of the strings, then pulled them all at once, bundling them up into a tight ball.

It hit him so quickly that he didn’t even have time to think as he sailed across the room. The change in gravity that the bundle of strings had created had thrown him from where he stood, towards the pit. He smashed into the edge of the pit, and just barely managed to get a solid grip on the ledge. His nose tickled and stung as he inhaled, and he smelt something foul, like burning plastic. He looked down into the pit, noticing its contents for the first time. It was full of a viscous, green liquid that churned, spewing droplets upward when the thick bubbles inside it burst. One of these droplets made its way through the air, and landed directly on the lower part of Shift’s leg.

He recoiled from the sharp pain, nearly losing his grip on the ledge as his wounded leg shook uncontrollably. He could smell singed hair and burnt flesh.

What is this, some kind of acid?!

He quickly tried to pull himself over the edge, but he couldn’t manage it without the help of his right leg.

He was losing his grip. Falling closer and closer to the acid. He only had a few seconds left. He didn’t have any good ideas, so he did the first thing that came into his mind.

He shut his eyes, and quickly harnessed the magic in his mind. He threw out a hoof of telekinesis, and grabbed as many of the invisible threads as he could. He had no idea what the consequences of this would be, but he didn’t have any other options.

Here goes nothing.

He twisted every string in the grasp of his magic as hard as he could, and the ELPAC shone brilliantly. The singularity he created pulled him through the air, away from the acid. He cleared the pit, then kept sailing. He saw the wall come flying at him, but there was nothing he could do.

He tensed his muscles, then smashed into the wall with his side. A moment later and he was falling down. He landed on the hard white ground with his back, and winced as his wind was knocked out.

He floundered on the ground for a moment before righting himself, then sat there for a moment longer while he caught his breath. When his breathing returned to normal, he looked down at his side. He could already see a bruise beginning to form, even through his midnight blue fur, he didn’t care though, he was ecstatic.

So I guess that’s what the ELPAC does,he thought excitedly. It lets ponies feel those strings, or whatever they are.

Then there was a tingling at his flank. A light shone from his side, so brightly that he had to squint just to look at it. After a few seconds, the shining stopped, and he could see his flank clearly again. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Is that even possible? he wondered, astonished.

Shift had received a new cutie mark. The image of the dumbbell swirling in magic was gone, and in its place was an image of three white strings crossing at a point in their center. There was a white cube next to the strings, but the shape was warped, as though the gravity created by the twisting threads had elongated it.

Shift continued on his way to the door on the opposite side of the room, limping slightly from the damage done to his leg.

A mischievous grin spread across his face as his mind exploded with ideas.

I never liked that old cutie mark anyway.