Heart and Souls, by Ron Underwhinny
With tender hooves, Rainbow Dash reached towards the lower branch of an apple tree and plucked a red juicy specimen off. She rubbed the skin of it against her chest fuzz and gave the thing a sniff. Then, salivating slightly, she took a deep bite, proceeding to eat the yummy fruit from where she hovered in the middle of the K.M.C.A. campus.
“Are... you sure you're allowed to eat that, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked, fidgeting beneath her on the grass. She glanced forlornly across the lawn. “I mean... it's part of the college grounds. Something tells me it's just for looks.”
“Nature doesn't show off just 'cuz it wants to go to the ball, Twilight,” Rainbow said, inhaled, then took another juicy bite. “Mrmmfff...” She gulped. “The fruit's here. I'm here. The sky's above us. Everything's in order.” She bit into again, munched, and shrugged. “If the Kazoo Menstrual Chaplin Academy students have a problem with it, then they shouldn't have planted an apple tree here to begin with.”
“Well...” Twilight shuddered. “I suppose anything's better than the alternative.” She looked green in the muzzle. “I... I just can't get over that.”
“Mrmmmf... Get over what?”
“Meat! That stallion was actually trying to serve you a slice of cooked flesh!” Twilight shook from head to tail. “A griffon or a sarosian, I can understand, but normal ponies?!” She paced in a tiny, lavender circle. “It was sizzling too! I... I-I can still smell the horrible stuff in my nose!”
“Ponies eat meat, Twilight,” Rainbow muttered. “Get over it.”
“Not in Equestria, we don't!”
“We're not in Equestria,” Rainbow said. “Not even close.”
“Just... wh-what could possibly convince a society to stoop so low?!” Twilight remarked. “Old Equestrian provinces used to go to war over the issue before settling upon the harmonic choice of nationally-enforced vegetarianism.”
“Lots of countries are at war today.”
“You cannot be serious...” Twilight's jaw dropped. “But how can th-that be? Don't ponies know better? If they don't respect each other's lives, at least you'd think they'd respect Celestia or Luna enough to—”
“Most ponies don't even know that alicorns exist, Twilight,” Rainbow said, tossing the core of the apple towards the base of the tree. “Much less Celestia, Luna, or Whitemane.”
“Celestia, Luna, or who?”
Rainbow grimaced. With a sigh, she plucked another apple off. “Look...” She rubbed the fruit against her chest, then gazed down at Twilight with a glazed look. “The world is a big... big place. It's bigger than you think. It's bigger than I think. I've been flying non-stop in one direction for over a year.” She twitched in mid-air, blushing a little. “M... m-more or less. Ahem.” Her blue brow furrowed. “And still I've only barely scratched the surface of what this plane has to offer.”
“And ponies actually go to war with one another?!”
“Yes, Twilight, they do.”
“You've seen this?”
Rainbow fought a lump that had formed in the back of her throat. “Yes. I've seen it... up close.”
“How close?”
“Very close.” Rainbow took a heavy bite and used the delicious fruit mush to help swallow the lump down. She gave Twilight a bright glance. “And, if it helps to know, I've helped end a few of them.”
“A few of them what?”
“Wars,” Rainbow said with a smirk. “At least two of them I've brought to an end, or simply prevented. Once in Ledomare and the other time in Val Roa. Wait...” She cocked her head sideways, gazing over the western waves. “Darkstine. Yeah. I prevented civil war there. Yeesh...” She shook her head. “Always friggin' forgetting about Darkstine.” She took a delicious bite.
Twilight blinked, gazing up at her. “You... you've been some kind of hero, haven't you?” She blinked again. “All this time.”
“Mrmmmff... when it wasn't boring.” Rainbow swallowed and smirked. “And I promise you, Twilight, that I never once took a bit of meat.”
“I-I wasn't saying that you did!” Twilight stammered.
“You were giving me the look though.”
“What look?!”
“The look. Your look.”
“Errrrr...”
“It's the same look you always used to give me whenever I spoke my angry thoughts out loud about Rarity or Fluttershy.”
“I did not give you a look.”
“Heheheheheheh...” Rainbow clutched her tummy with one hoof and pointed with the one gripping the apple. “You totally did! As a matter of fact, you're giving me one right now!”
“Yeah... well...” Twilight's cheeks turned a deeper shade of lavender. “That's because you're sassing the ever-loving fluff out of this situation!”
“Heeheeheehee...”
“Rainbow, quit it!” Twilight stomped her hoof, frowning. “So what if I'm super behind?! I can't help it! I've been... s-some sort of eidolon all this time!”
“Ey-dough-what?”
“Eidolon, Rainbow. Eidolon. It means a 'phantom.' You know, a spectre?”
“Pffft. Leave it to you to call it something funkier than I could ever drum up.”
“Nnngh... Rainbow...” Twilight glared. “Can I help it if I have a million questions?”
“And don't worry, I've got a million answers.” Rainbow tossed the second core to the ground and wiped her muzzle with her forelimb. “But, first thing's first... I've got a question for you.”
“Well, by all means.”
“How come you can stomp your hoof against the ground?”
“Huh?”
“You just slapped your hoof against the grass!” Rainbow pointed. “Y'know, with your little eggshell tantrum! How's that—y'know—possible?”
“I-I don't understand...”
“What I'm getting at is...” Rainbow squinted. “...you're all ghost-like and poofy, right? So, like, what's keeping you from just sinking through the floor?”
“Uhm... good question, I... I...” Twilight blinked. Just then, her pupils shrunk to pinpricks, and she glanced down at a set of sinking fetlocks. “Oh dear.”
Rainbow's eyes twitched. “Uhm...”
“Oh no!” Twilight yelped, flailing as the ground swallowed her up with a lavender glow. She panted and squeaked and pony-paddled at the naked air. “Oh no no no no no noooo!” Nothing could stop her from dropping through the ground like an anvil. “Rainbow!”
“Twilight, chillax!” Rainbow barked as the unicorn disappeared completely through the campus lawn. “Dang it, girl, I mean it! Hold up!” Flapping her wings, she lifted up... up... up.
As Rainbow ascended, Twilight emerged from the ground, curled up in a lavender ball and shivering. A concave flicker of lavender light held her like a bread basket, keeping her at an even distance from Rainbow's figure.
“Mmmmmmmmmmmm!” Twilight hugged herself in a little ball, fighting to contain her squeals. “I don't want to fall through the earth! I don't want to! I don't want to!”
“Twilight, friggin' calm down!” Rainbow said. “You can't go too far away from me, remember?!”
“I know that, but... b-but unless you constantly fly, how am I expected to—?!”
“Just catch your breath, alright?!”
“I... I-I'm trying...” Twilight huffed and puffed. “Maybe... m-maybe if you just put me back on the ground?! Perhaps it's all mind over matter. Oh gosh... I feel like such a fool...”
“Get a hold of yourself. I'm sorry I introduced the idea to your head.”
“Just tell me when I'm back on the ground, Rainbow,” Twilight said, her eyes still clenched tightly shut. “I... I can do this... I know I can...”
“Okay, Twilight,” Rainbow said, flapping her wings. “There ya go. You're on the ground.”
“I am?”
“Yup. Try putting your hooves down.”
Twilight took a calm breath. Her trembles dwindled as she tilted her head up, then stretched her legs out. At last, with a little bit of effort, she found a hoof-hold, then stood up straight. “Whew... okay... okay, much better.” She opened her eyes, smiling up at Rainbow. “Thanks, Rainbow, I couldn't do that without—”
“Twilight.”
“What?”
Rainbow smirked down at her. “... … ...I lied.”
Twilight blinked. She looked down, only to notice that she was a good ten feet above the ground, levitating. She gasped, which caused her to plummet again—
“Just be calm!” Rainbow hollered.
Twilight flinched, her body locking up. Sure enough, she came to a levitating stop just a few feet above the campus lawn. Her hooves dangled, and soon her entire body drifted at a loose glide, hovering airlessly in place. “I... I can't explain what's going on right now...”
“Maybe neither of us are meant to,” Rainbow remarked, hovering down to Twilight's level. “But, from the looks of things, so long as you're close to me... you can just about go anywhere. I mean...” The pegasus shrugged. “Why not, right?”
“But how come I was walking across even surfaces earlier? Unless...” Twilight tapped her muzzle in thought. “...it was simply all psychosomatic. I believed that I was still subject to the laws of gravity, and thus—because of my mind's comprehension—I was creating a self-fulfilled prophecy.”
“Uhhhhh...”
“But, that's amazingly good news!” Twilight perked up, smiling Rainbow's way. “It means that I'm not completely and utterly incorporeal! I possess a mind! And—just like Rene Decanter once said, 'I think, therefore I—'” Twilight inadvertently floated off in an upside down direction. “—boop?” Her eyes flailed along with her legs.
“Hey, just take it easy—” Rainbow outstretched a hoof.
“Rainbow, help!” Twilight chirped, fluttering about like a loose lavender feather. “You're an expert on flying, help me!”
“Yeah, only you're not exactly flying,” Rainbow droned. “More like shifting around through fartspace.”
“If I could just... just...” Twilight took a deep breath, closing her eyes and concentrating. “...mind over matter. Mind over matter. Mind over...”
Gradually, her body uprighted, then levitated just a few inches in front of Rainbow.
“H-hey!” Rainbow grinned wide. A few students in the distance gazed at her funny, but she promptly ignored them, cheering Rainbow's way. “You've got it! Well... just about...”
“I... I don't feel as though I've got it,” Twilight muttered, pawing at the air like a suspended cat.
“Would you feel better 'trotting' on the ground again?”
“I... think I should practice this instead,” Twilight said, strafing slowly through the air. She shifted through the tree, flinching—only to emerge through it with a lavender strobe. “Brbrbrbrrrr...” She shivered. “I don't think I'll ever get over that.”
“Hey, do me a favor.”
“Hmm?”
Rainbow pointed towards the western shore. “Try floating off in that direction. As far as you can.”
“But... what good will that—?”
“Just humor me, ya egghead.”
“Hrmmmf... very well...” Twilight slowly... slowlyyyy drifted westward, “swimming” through the air in a decidedly dorky fashion. “Though I don't know what it will accomp—” Bonk! Her muzzle smooshed against a concave wall of lavender energy. “Ow!”
Rainbow winced. “Er... sorry. But... uh...” She motioned towards herself with a blue hoof. “Try going the opposite way.”
“I think I see what you're getting at.” Twilight “kicked” off the lavender wall. It disappeared as she drifted swiftly in the other direction, phasing through Rainbow and her pendant, only to brace herself against a flicker of magical light on the other side. “There. That's as far as I can go.”
“That's barely spitting distance,” Rainbow said.
“I'm guessing a radius of no more than six meters,” Twilight said. “I... suppose it gives me some breathing room, which is nice... but...” She sighed, floating down towards the floor until her hooves made contact with the grass. “There just has to be a purpose to all of this.”
“I'm sure there is, Twilight,” Rainbow muttered. “There's stuff far older than you and me that's making the world tick. Stuff older than Celestia, Luna, and the rest of the alicorns.”
“Like, what kind of stuff?”
“Really trippy stuff.”
“I'm not exactly going anywhere, am I?” Twilight said, smiling nervously.
Rainbow took a deep breath, gazing up at the bright blue sky. “Very well then...” She tossed her mane to the warm winds and smiled gently at the ghostly mare. “...come along. Drift with me.”
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Yep, still adorable.
Oh and my guess is that TwiSpook is Twilight's soul.
I think I saw a reference to Dresden Files in the April fools chapter and this belief of what Twilight calls "Mind over matter" is similar to what Harry was told when he was running around as a "ghost". And the feeling that Twi says she gets when going through things matches too. Sooo in the end. . . I dunno.
*boop*
6 metres. Hoboy.
-Spirit (Yeast and Treacle)
EDIT: That thoroughly solves the common problem of "Why can you put your hoof against the ground?" Now with a bit of mind magic, Twilight will be able to do anything. Movement wise, that is.
I think, therefore I boop.
Also, formatting error on that last bit m8.
Thank you, RD, for reading my mind.
oh... so cute...
Twilight needs a hero. She's holding out for a hero until the end of the night.
*chokes*
Self cheering is in order!
I love these Twilight/Rainbow exposition scenes. Moar plz.
I'm laughing far harder at this than I should.
And then Scolon forgot to close the bold tags.
Cognito ergo boop.
This Runny Descanter, some sort of whine merchant was he?
Rainbow better carry around a water bottle to combat dry-mouth when she starts flying again, she's going to be doing a lot of storytelling to get Twi caught up with the last 6 books.
5828847 It reminds me a lot of the talking head chapters in Appledashery.
Seems like that would have shortened this series by nine books or so.
Yup, that sums up Austraeoh for me.
RD confirmed for secret Brit.
5828850
All of my yes
fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/126/c/3/boop_by_foxkin-d4yo2s3.png
5828847 Well, it's good to see the two of them establishing boundaries at least.
Yes, the pun is intentional. I'm not apologizing.
5828877
You know, that actually reminds me of Everlost.
A lot of the way things work in Everlost is rather heavily implied to work because people believe it works. Not everything, but some of the major conflicts are.
Eidolon is both a cool game, and character. So of course Twilight would be both. She has all the right skillsets!
Also, Twilight's reaction to being yelled at to be calm is to be calm as a board? Amusing. Next up, "Twilight, kill that palace golem with this thought bazooka!"
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5828938
Geez, Rainbow. You don't have to be so forward about.
5828950
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m36j2rFSql1qmylnlo1_500.jpg
Twilight Spookle just leveled up! Now she just needs to learn how to interact with stuff. I wonder how long it will be until somepony asks Dashie who she's always talking to...
6 Meters?
That's like 12 when you count each opposite direction.
Neat.
Y'know, having a ghost!friend that no one else can see or hear would certainly have its benefits. Like, Rainbow would be unbeatable at poker.
Of course, on the other hand, I'm sure the other students just got one heck of a show, watching the strange pegasus talking to herself through mouthfuls of apple and drifting aimlessly through the air yelling "Just be calm!"
Twilight is as cute as ever here. It's good to learn about her limitations and how her situation works. This is going to be a very long "drift" for sure.
Oh Spookles, you so crazy
.
Hmm I wonder if this means Twilight can manipulate objects if her willpower is high enough, that could mean she could read books again on her own, just Rainbow Dash needs to be ok with spending time in a egghead nest.
I'm still curious about her magic abilities. Will she be even able to light her horn? Will her failed attempt bring her a quadruple freakout combo achievement
? Only the next chapters will tell us.
5828968 Scary thing is, she probably could come up with a way to do it. You're talking about a child prodigy in magic and apparently science and mathematics as well. Ever read The Immortal Game? Spoiler if you haven't:Twilight creates a superspell in about five minutes that pulls any nearby iron into a pocket dimension, heats it to well above 3000 kelvin (approximate boiling point of iron), accelerates it to a decent fraction of the speed of light, then fires it through a needle thin vacuum at it's intended target. You don't need a physicist to tell you what a weapon like that can do.
It's going to be a while before Dash tells Twilight her full story, I'm guessing.
This book is going to have a lot of adorable Twilight freak outs isn't it? Awww yeah!
This chapter could just be called "Twilight continues to be absolutely adorable."
I wonder if Dash rubbing the pendant will make her visible to others? That's something worthy of a test.
-Memories given light, ease a lonely flight. Ynanhluutr.
5829291
Wait....
Who are you again?
Hmm. She can interact with things if she focuses hard enough. She could even smell the meat. Maybe she could eventually pop into visible light or something so others can see and hear her.
Boop? Like an Erfworld Boop?
Does seem oddly appropriate for Twilight...
5829434 wow, I'd forgotten about Erfworld.
There's an episode of Star Trek very much like this. Roe and LaForge are like, phased out of the real world but everyone thinks they're dead... That's a bit trippy
That's cute and all... but where the explosions at?
5829335 Mael Radec
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/killzone/images/2/27/Colonel_Radec.png/revision/latest?cb=20090713213808
Not sure if reference, or just coincidence. Either way, great chapter.
So, how much longer before Patrick Swayze shows up and teaches Twilight how to do pottery?
One thing I've noticed they have so far avoided is any sign of twilight trying to use her horn. I kind of figure she probably has already tried and failed to use it...but I don't remember her saying anything about it. And with magic being so much a part of her, I think we're soon due a freek out about that.
5828892
...Was that the one city-state about to be in a civil war where one side was sacrificing children trying to appease the world machine?
Cause if it was I am more than happy to have forgotten about the pile of children bones.
After four days with no internet (the horror! THE HORROR!), I'm finally back!
5829938
That's the one!
Twilight Spookle Floats East
5830022
welcome to my weekend
every weekend
5829250 That was the first long ponific I read. I would probably not have read stuff like Austraeoh if that story hadn't convinced me long poni stories are worth reading. The attitude and power of the gods, and that of the mortals willing to face them, reminded me very much of Saint Seiya, a franchise that I have been following for decades.
5829411 i.ytimg.com/vi/f6Zq9OJr0xM/maxresdefault.jpg
I'm going to believe that the full quote is in fact "I think, therefore I boop" because boop would be an odd expletive