"Negative means more!"
Twilight Sparkle unfurled a map across the wooden picnic table, smoothed it out, and peered at the borders of the Everfree forest. The wilderness area was vast and poorly defined, with only a few landmarks to speak of.
Applejack peered over her shoulder. “So all we have to do is draw a line back the way they came, right?”
“Sorry,” she said, “but it isn’t nearly that easy. These are wild storms. They don’t travel in a straight line.”
“So they wobble back and forth a bit. It’ll still give us a good guess, won’t it?”
“I wish it were so,” Twilight said and laid out a clean scroll. She took a toy top, dipped the tip in an inkwell, and spun it on the paper. Applejack stared at the wild and crazy whorls it left behind.
“Naturally occurring weather is powered by a phenomenon called ‘Chaos Theory.’ Chaos patterns are a fusion of order and randomness... they have familiar shapes, but there’s no clear reasoning behind them. The only thing we know about it for sure is that it’s impossible to predict.”
“I don’t know about that,” Dash said as she tossed a barrel into the gondola of a nearby hot air balloon, currently deflated. They had swapped out the usual basket for a larger one, designed for extended journeys. “There’s something sneaky about these ones. It’s like they were fighting against us.”
“We shouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet,” said Twilight. “If somepony was controlling them, there would be some kind of predictable pattern. Anything at all.”
Applejack turned to look at the edge of the Everfree forest. “That doesn’t mean somepony didn’t create them.”
Twilight rolled up the map and tucked it into her book bag. “Something must have changed to make these storms possible... and once we discover what happened we can try to change it back.”
“Hey, everypony!”
Everyone turned to look as Pinkie Pie came over a nearby hill, hauling a cart. She yanked a tarp off the top and revealed a pair of huge metal cylinders, made of polished, lightweight metal and painted with red-and-white candy stripes.
“Just gimme a minute and I’ll have these installed,” she said. “The giant fans go on each side of the basket and there’s a bicycle thingy that goes in the middle. If you ever need to fly against the wind, just climb on and pedal your little legs off!”
Applejack pinched her bottom lip. “Are you sure they’ll work?”
Pinkie Pie hopped in place. “I have no idea! I just can’t wait to find out!”
Applejack glanced at Twilight.
“I’m sure they’ll work perfectly. This is Pinkie Pie, after all... so far, none of her crazy contraptions have exploded.” Twilight gently bit her lower lip. “Unless they were supposed to, that is.”
Pinkie Pie set a large accordion on its side and ran a hose between it and the deflated balloon. “Just gimme the word and you’ll be ready to fly!”
Twilight and Applejack climbed into the gondola and closed the gate.
Fluttershy came over to give each of them a farewell hug. “Good luck, you three. We’ll take good care of Ponyville while you’re gone!”
Rarity passed them a bundle of cold weather cloaks. “Here you go. Iknow fluorescent tangerine isn’t very flattering, but it will help you see each other in heavy weather. You mustn’t lose track of each other!”
Twilight smiled at her. “Thank you, Rarity!”
“Just promise to come back safe and sound.” Rarity turned to Dash. “And please remember: the three of you are only scouting ahead. As soon as you know what’s going on, come back and let us know.”
“Yeah, yeah... can we get going already?”
Twilight nodded, and called out. “Pinkie Pie! Pump us up!”
Pinkie Pie began jumping in place. “You’re on fire, girls! You’re awesome! You can do this! I’m here to tell you you have what it takes! You’re the big time now! Momma say what? Momma say... awww, yeah!”
“I mean, pump up the—”
“No wait,” Dash said with a faint smile. “I’m diggin’ this.”
Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile. “The balloon, Pinkie Pie. Can you inflate the balloon for us?”
“Gotcha!”
Pinkie Pie began bouncing on the accordion like a trampoline, and the instrument wheezed and puffed as she sprang higher and higher. The balloon inflated, slowly at first, and once it reached the halfway mark Twilight set fire to the metal coal tray. The balloon quickly billowed up the rest of the way and began tugging against the mooring ropes. Rarity’s spiral horn glowed and her magic yanked the stakes from the ground.
“Waaait! I almost forgot!” Pinkie Pie leaped off the accordion and rummaged through a heap of boxes. She ran over with a wooden half-keg, but by then the balloon was several yards above the ground.
Twilight leaned over the railing. “Pinkie, we didn’t forget anything. Water, food, coal, writing supplies—”
“You can’t leave without this! It’s extra-special, super-duper-booper important! And fragile, too! This side up! Handle with care!”
Twilight’s horn glowed and the barrel levitated into the gondola.
Applejack put her ear to the side and thumped the top. “Sounds like it’s fulla rocks or something.”
Twilight sighed. “I guess we could always use some extra ballast.”
Dash dove low and flew past the gondola. “Come on, you two! Seconds count!”
Applejack peered through the telescope fixed to the railing. The Everfree forest carpeted the land as far as the naked eye could see. She scanned the horizon but saw nothing unusual. Nothing especially unusual.
“We’ve been out here for over a week,” she said, “and we still don’t know what we’re supposed to be lookin’ for.”
Twilight spoke without looking up from her book. “I suspect we’ll know it when we see it.”
“Don’t you think you should be the lookout? It’s your telescope and all. You’re probably better with it than I am.”
“You’re doing fine, AJ. I’m almost done with these.”
“You still haven’t finished that book of yours?” Applejack turned to her friend and blinked in surprise: Twilight was lying on the floor with a pair of books in front of her. She took three seconds to stroke her hooves down each page, turned to the next, and so on. Applejack looked at the pile of books she’d apparently finished.
“Are you reading two books at once?” Applejack said. She tilted her head around. “Upside-down?!”
Twilight’s voice was flat and dull. “I’m skimming for keywords. We need to know everything we can about chaos theory. There aren’t many books about it, so I have to look for footnotes and cross-references to other books.”
“That whole thing, again? I don’t see how a theory will help us out.”
“Theories are how we understand the world.”
“But I thought you said these storms couldn’t be predicted?”
“They can’t be predicted... not precisely. But you can still try to understand them. They’re a fusion of randomness and order.”
“But random is the opposite of order. If you ask me, it sounds kind of... hokey.”
Twilight looked up with a faint smile. “Do you see any mountains nearby?” Her voice had regained some of its usual pleasant tone.
“Yeah,” Applejack said. “There’s a big line of ’em over there.”
“Take a look at its shape. It looks all jagged and rocky, right?”
“Sure does. So?”
“Zoom in with the telescope and look at one of its peaks. Zoom in even closer, and look at the top of a boulder. You can look at a piece of gravel, or even a tiny speck of sand... use a magnifying glass and you’ll see the same pattern. It’s a totally random shape but it always looks the same. It always looks like rock.”
Applejack peeked through the telescope. “That’s weird. Now that you told me, I can’t not see it.”
“Lots of things are like that. Lakes look like puddles. Rivers look like streams. Forests look like patches of moss. Think about an apple tree: If you clipped off a branch, or even just a twig, it still forks the same as a whole tree. You can even plant it in the ground and it’ll grow into a tree all by itself. It’s nature’s way. The parts resemble the whole.”
Applejack stared at her friend. “Twi, that’s... amazing!”
“Isn’t it? Chaos theory involves a lot of complicated mathematics, but anypony can appreciate the beauty of it. You just know it when you see it.”
“And you had such a clever way of explaining it, too! I guess I can understand why you love books so much... even the boring ones can be exciting!”
Twilight’s slight blush went unnoticed as a streak of light danced over the horizon.
“Whoa, there! We got a live one!” Applejack grabbed the telescope and swung it around. There was a multicoloured trail of light in the distance, weaving back and forth. “It’s definitely Dash. That’s a loop... a dash-mark... a triangle... and the number six. Aaaand… a couple of exclamation marks.”
“What?!” Twilight snapped upright. “Get to the turbine! We have to change course!”
Applejack climbed into the bicycle frame and pushed against both sets of pedals. Twilight pulled a pair of switches, reversing both fans, and the balloon lurched to a stop and began moving back the way they’d came.
“Just so we’re clear, how bad is a six?”
“Not too bad. A six on the Beaufort scale is a strong breeze. The balloon can survive a six. It’s the dash mark I’m worried about: It’s a minus sign. That indicates a strong negative charge, and if that charge continues to increase it could become a thunderstorm.”
“Wait... the charge is increasing? Isn’t ‘negative’ supposed to mean less?”
“Electricity is potential energy! Negative means more!” Twilight climbed up a short step ladder and aimed her horn up. With a flash of magic, the surface of the balloon changed from purple to bright red. She rushed back to the telescope, pointed it due north, and searched the cloud layer.
“I don’t understand. The triangle pointed up but the northerly skies are all clear. Dash knows which way is north, doesn’t she?”
“Are you kiddin’? Ducks and geese ask her for directions every winter. She could point north if you spun her around blindfolded. There’s a reason she’s so good at pin-the-tail-on-the-pony.”
“Well she should be back by now. A red balloon means ‘return to home.’ ” Twilight turned the Telescope back to the colourful skywriting. “I don’t get it. Now she’s drawn a bunch of arrows, all pointing up. Does she know up means north?”
“Arrows?” Applejack said. “Isn’t she supposed to use triangles?”
Twilight zoomed in further, closing in on a blurry speck. She adjusted a dial, and the speck took form. Rainbow Dash was waving at them and pointing above. Twilight pulled away from the telescope, eyes wide.
Oh, no... up means up!
Less than a minute later, the puffy white clouds above them burst apart all at once and a massive rainstorm fell around them. The gondola swung violently as a torrent of wind and rain buffeted them from all directions.
“Out!”
“In!”
“Out!”
“In!”
Twilight’s horn glowed and an aura of sparkles lifted a sandbag up and suspended it over the railing. “Out! We need to drop ballast as quickly as possible!”
“Oh, no you don’t!” Applejack grabbed the bag and yanked it back in. “I may not be a fancy hot-air balloon pilot, but I know what to do when a storm’s a brewin’! If we drop weight, we’ll fly straight up and into the middle of it!”
Twilight levitated another sandbag. “The balloon has a built in ‘Friesienday Cage’ to protect us from the lightning, but if we make contact with the ground or a tree we could attract a lightning bolt! We have to stay up!”
“That don’t make no sense, Twilight! Lightning strikes the highest thing around!”
“That’s only if the target forms a complete—”
An echoing crash stunned them both silent. They had both seen lightning before. Pegasi used it in small amounts to manipulate the weather, and it was occasionally used for pyrotechnic effect. It was startling, but mostly harmless.
This was ever so different. A blinding light lit the clouds from within and a jagged bolt seared the forest below. Even though it was a mile away, it was colossal... nothing like the short, sharp sparks the pegasi routinely used. This was the very fire of the stars... the wild and untamed fury of nature.
At the first strike, Applejack and Twilight froze. At the second strike, they hugged each other tight and screamed at the top of their lungs. Applejack stared as a pulsating bolt streamed down less than a hundred yards away. Even though they were high in the air, the lightning wasn’t hitting them… it was hitting the ground.
Twilight hugged her like a vice. “Please, Applejack! You have to believe me!”
Applejack stared into Twilight’s trembling, teary eyes and saw the honest truth behind the fear. Without any further hesitation she grabbed a sandbag and hurled it over the edge. She scrambled to the railing and bit through the remaining ballast ropes. Even when the last bag fell away she couldn’t tell if they were rising or falling. All she could see was a wall of dark, shadowy rain.
“Twilight, we ain’t goin’ up! Is there anything else we can drop?”
Twilight stared at the sky, eyes wide. Applejack shook her, but got no reaction. She looked like she was trying to speak, but couldn’t.
“Come on, girl! This is no time to… aw, butter-tarts!”
Applejack rummaged through the cargo furiously. A barrel of drinking water. A spare stack of cold-weather gear. A box of scientific equipment. She threw Twilight’s books into a waterproof box and tossed it over. She grabbed a wooden half barrel, but hesitated.
She broke the seal and opened the top of Pinkie Pie’s essential cargo. Inside was a heap of uncut gemstones. She rolled her eyes and hurled it over the edge. The cascade of semi-precious rocks twinkled in the flashing thunderstorm like the tail of a comet.
“Twi, this ain’t workin’! We aren’t going up!” She grabbed her friend and gave her a firm shake. “You gotta use your magic, Twi! It’s our only…”
Applejack felt the prickle of pins-and-needles along her entire body. She watched Twilight’s mane and tail float up, each strand spreading out in a fan. A blinding blue-white light arced all around them. The bolt streamed along the surface of the balloon and flowed down the gondola. A massive shower of sparks singed the basket and burned through the ropes. Deaf and blind, they tumbled through the air.
Applejack snapped awake and looked around. She was in an earthen burrow nestled under the roots of a great tree, with barely enough room to stand. She was lying on a pallet of pine leaves and covered with a heavy waterproof blanket.
She couldn’t hear anything through the downpour outside but her eyes eventually adjusted to the darkness. Some of their supplies were neatly stacked in the corner but there were hardly any provisions: a half-full barrel of oats and a bushel of bruised apples. A few of the nicer apples had been placed beside her bed on a clay platter.
Applejack chuckled to herself as she laid back down to sleep. And here I thought I’d be the one who’d have to rescue her!
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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This is awesome so far, keep it up!
I have a distinct feeling that twilight wasn't the one that saved her...
A Power Greater - Witch Mountain
Good gravy! Forty favorites in a single day? Is that... normal?
This is the first story I've posted that actually reached the front page. A big thanks to everyone who Liked and Favorited! And, as always, it immediately gets one single dislike. I really want to know what that guy was thinking, actually... that's what I'm most curious about.
2532149
Thank you very much for the frank and forthright comment. I'll have to take a closer look at the remaining chapters from here on out: not too late to edit those more carefully for capitalization problems.
As for the hectic speed and saccharin punctuation, it's primarily an attempt to call-back earlier generations of the MLP franchise... but that's still no excuse for poor writing, of course. Also, I cut the prologue by at least a third of it's original length (under the advice of my editor) which might explain the choppiness. I'm curious to know if the problems persist into later chapters. If so, then Houston: we have a problem.
2532319
Erm... my first chapters tend to be total non-sequitors, designed to set up the rest of the story in some unexpected way. "The Death of Daring Do" was the same. I'm beginning to think I have a problem.
umm quick question why does it say complete this story doesnt sound complete to me atleast i hope its not complete cause man this is good. so if your readin this could ya tell me if the complete is just an error or if this just leads to another story.
2532585
The story is listed as complete because all the chapters are online, fully written and edited, but they haven't been published yet. I'm going to make a new chapter available every one or two days. This way, there's no chance I'll lose interest and leave the story unfinished forever. If this is against the rules, somebody please let me know immediately.
2532618
Alright thanks for the info
Looks great!
, is this it, or will you be adding more?
But I'm confused at the complete tag
Edit: Ah, just reread the description, all good now.
2533718 Your second sentence doesn't make sense. I'm sure you mean 'confused'?
(sorry)
oh no applejack cannot unsee
7819066
It seems familiar to me
there was something like it in RvB
“I need a boost”
“You are a nice person, and people say nice things about you”