" A Grave-whatsit...?" Luna asked once she got over the surprise and was back on the ground.
"Technically it's called an Artificial Gravity Training Chamber." Spike said, getting up from his laughing fit. "But 'Gravitron' sounds cooler." He made his way to where a computer screen and keyboard was, tapping on a couple. Both Luna and Celestia quickly stepped back when an opening appeared with a loud 'hiss'. "Come on. Just be careful where you stand."
The inside proved to be as plain as the outside; except for a control panel situated in a small alcove it was completely bare inside. "There doesn't seem to be much to it." Celestia commented, lightly tapping a hoof on the metal floor.
"Yeah, the older versions were a bit more cluttered. Bulma figured out how to streamline it a bit more before I left. You'll meet her before long" He added, seeing what they were about to ask. "You wanna give it a shot?" He asked, hitting the power.
"I'm game." Luna fluttered her wings a bit to limber up. "Be interesting to see what I can take."
"If anything, this should be a good workout." Celestia added, bouncing in place.
"Ok. Let's start easy; five times Earth's gravity." He adjusted a dial on the panel and the lights turned a faint red as the princesses suddenly felt a little heavier."
"Woo, that was an interesting sensation." Celestia commented, quickly shaking it off as Luna trotted around some.
"All right." Spike moved the dial again. "Ten Gs, same as King Kai's planet."
This time, they both grunted a little. Celestia tried to flap her wings to get a bit of lift, but no luck. "Oof! I need to do more wing-ups!"
"I've been grounded as a filly, but this is silly!" Luna huffed.
"You still feel up for more?" Spike asked, seeing they were a little winded from flapping.
"We're good...!" They said in unison. The dial hit fifteen and they were forced to use their telekinesis just to let them take steps. At twenty, they lost the ability to focus enough to cast, straining just to stay standing. Twenty-five had them buckling, the muscles in their legs flexing intensely against the weight they were feeling. Once it reached thirty, however, the two alicorns had lost the battle and were forced to the ground, yelping a little from the somewhat rough impact.
"Mom, Luna! You all right!?" Spike quickly shut the machine off, letting Celestia slowly, albeit shakily, get up.
"I'm ok, Spike." She replied, "Wow...how long did we last?"
"You were still standing at 25Gs. That's not too shabby! Took me and Goku a few days just to walk normally at ten."
"Marvelous." Luna spoke up, her voice somewhat muffled from the floor.
All six mares shuddered a little after Starlight Glimmer's song. While it sounded like they were all happy, there was still something...unnatural about it all.
"I'm not the only one creeped out by these ponies, am I?" Pinkie grimaced a little as she looked around. "Those smiles are NOT right!"
"Maybe we're reading too much into this...?" Fluttershy offered, but even she was looking at the equal sign cutie marks uneasily. "I mean it...it's not as, well, comfortable as Ponyville, but every town is different."
"Different, yeah, but look at this place, Fluttershy!" Rainbow responded. "You heard that song. Give up my cutie mark!? Buck that noise!"
"Ok, let's just cool it." Twilight said. "The map had us come here for a reason. Maybe we'll find out if we look around. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that might look off."
Applejack glanced at one of the townsfolk staring at her mark in shock. "This whole darn place is off if ya ask me"
"I'll second that." Rarity cringing at the sight of what looked like burlap capes in the window of the clothing store. "Gah..! No wonder nopony wears anything."
After a brief walk through the town (which wasn't hard given the whole place could be seen from the only road there) they decided to grab something to eat.
The mare inside the cafe introduced herself as Sugar Belle. "What can I get you? We have muffins."
They waited for her to say what else she had, but after a moment of silence they realized that was it. "Um, ok..I guess we'll take six muffins, then."
"Make it twelve!" Pinkie piped up, getting looks from them. "What? Mystery solving gives me an appetite!"
"What doesn't?" Rainbow added.
"Sleeping and parasprites, mainly."
"I still don't understand why somepony would willingly give up their cutie mark!" Twilight muttered. "Once you get it, it becomes an intrinsic part....it's like giving up an ear. o-or your tail!"
"They don't seem to mind..." Fluttershy looked over at Double Diamond, the stallion Starlight had escorting them around.
"That's all well and good for them, darling, but I'll keeping my parts where they are, thank you very much." Rarity responded as Sugar Belle came back with a platter of muffins.
"Can we please hurry and find out what the problem is here and fix it!?" Pinkie half-pleaded. "This place is starting to make the skin on my flanks crawl!!"
"Don't ya think yer overreacting a lil, Pinkie?" asked Applejack. "It's bizaare, but.."
"Tell that to my booty!" Pinkie pointed her rear end at the farmmare.
"I..I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but overhear your disagreement...and notice you still have your cutie marks." She commented. "Is...is your friendship ending?"
"What? Oh, heavens no!" Rarity chuckled lightly "It'd take something FAR more devastating for us to take that route."
"But you were showing different opinions...and your cutie marks are so different from each other... yet you're acting like friends."
"Of course we're friends." Twilight added "A simple disagreement or two won't change that."
Sugar Belle looked confused at this, telling them that different opinions and talents only made ponies bitter and miserable. She apologized for the somewhat low quality of the muffins when Pinkie gagged on hers, but expressed relief that she wasn't better than other ponies in town. Except they could all tell she didn't fully believe it.
"Ok, that's it. We know there's something off about this place, right?" Twilight choked down the bite she'd taken. "Ugh...anyway, it looks like there's only one way we're gonna get to the bottom of this. Starlight Glimmer herself!"
"Dear Faust, Spike!" Luna stretched once she was standing back up. "How were you able to handle that!? I felt like an Ursa Minor was sitting on me!"
"Yeah, it's pretty intense at first, but once your body gets accustomed, you barely notice."
"Barely...?" Just hot much CAN you handle, Spike??"
"Lately I've been putting it to four hundred for a warm-up, but I have to turn the safety off to let it go past five"
"F-Four hun..." POMF! Luna's wings snapped out so fast the end feathers cracked like a whip.
"Luna! He's your nephew!" Celestia hissed, giving her sibling the 'overprotective mother' look.
Luna simply grinned goofily. "Not by blood..."
Hearing them whispering, Spike looked over. "You ok, Luna?" He asked, spotting her stiff wings. "Looks like you got a cramp or something from the strain. I can try and work some of it out if you want."
"NO! N-no, hehe. I'm good" Luna squawked, her face reddening heavily. "Just need to stretch a bit."
"Wait, if you work out in that kind of environment, what's to keep someone from coming in while it's on?" Celestia asked, deciding to change the subject.
"Luckily Bulma thought about that." He answered as they exited the building. "The door automatically locks while the gravitron's active, and the outside screen acts as an audio/video comm system in case someone needs to talk. There's an emergency cutoff out there, but it only works when my vitals register outside an acceptable range."
"Well, that's good to know." Celestia quickly stepped back when he hit a large button on the chamber's side, changeing it back to its capsule form with another loud 'POM!'
"Don't think I'm ever going to get used to that." Luna shook her head.
"Lot better than the first versions." He said, doing the same to the storage box. "Had to put them in boiling water and wait."
Before either princess could comment, a loud commotion came up from the crater rim. "What in the world?" Luna asked, looking up to where one of the guards looked like he was trying to calm someone down.
"We better go see." Celestia trotted after her.
"Look, I'm sorry, but we have orders to keep civilians out of the crater, and you three qualify as 'civilians'!" The guard said, slightly exasperated with the three (in his opinion) pushy fillies in front of him.
"Come on, the princesses know us!" Scootaloo blustered, her wings buzzing wildly.
"Can we jus' take a lil peek? Please?" Apple Bloom gave him her best puppy dog eyes.
The guard just smirked. "Not a bad try, but I have two daughters who try and hit me with the same thing almost daily. Thankfully, I've gotten immune."
"Girls, what are you doing here?" Spike asked, spying the CMC once he arrived at the rim.
"SPIKE!" They yelled in unison, scurrying under the guard without warning.
"When we heard you were gonna spend time with Princess Celestia, so we followed you." Sweetie Belle piped up. "Mainly 'cause there's a lot we wanna ask!"
"Like how'd ya get so dang big? Last Ah saw ya, you were our size!"
"And how the heck did you learn to fly without wings!?" Scootaloo nearly screamed, latching onto his leg. "How!? Howhowhowhow!?"
"Dagnabit, Scootaloo! Ya said ya'd be calm 'bout this!" Bloom grumbled, grabbing hold of the irate filly's tail to pull her off.
"Compared to earlier, this IS calm!"
"Still trying to wrap my head around that." Luna threw in.
"It's not really that hard. I mean, I didn't really learn it I was a little older, but that was 'cause I didn't know there was a technique for it." He replied, picking his leg up to look Scootaloo in the face. "Scoot, you want me to teach you to fly my way?"
Her eyes widened until they almost glittered. "You...you can??"
Celestia looked a him. "Can you really do that?"
"Sure. Heck, all three can learn it if they want." He stumbled when Scoot almost blurred from his shin to his neck in a surprisingly tight hug. "Heh, I think that's a yes from her. Sweetie, Bloom, how about you two?"
"Applejack? Is..is something wrong?" Fluttershy asked when her friend froze suddenly while they were heading to see Starlight.
"Anyone else suddenly get an uneasy feelin' in their gut?" She asked, looking a tad pale.
"Now that you mention it...." Rarity gulped. "I believe we should solve this and get back promptly."
"Yeah. Personally, I got this feeling I'm about to miss something really cool!" Rainbow added, looking back in the direction of Ponyville.
Cue Whis coming in to say no, teaching the CMC how to use Ki is a bad idea, because it caused the planet to blow up 5 minutes from now. Or whatever the limit of his time manipulation is.
The Crusaders are learning how to use Ki.
Thus in a few months the world as we know had ended
Didn't they already mention that at Sugar Cube Corner after the Tirek fight?
9090477
ack, my bad.
NOP NOP NOP NOP
It's back! Yay!
P.S. Got to love Luna's way of thinking!
9090459
9090472
y’all all know its only gong to get worse as they train.
THEN the world ends.
I have really enjoyed this, it’s funny but has a good sense of adult humour thrown in to make it entertaining plus the action is nice, hope to see you update it soon.
Is Equestria part of Universe 7? Either way, the multiverse shudders at the CMC learning ki.
9090840
And I giggle.
what is this purple smoke thing and why is it hugging me?
Sweetie Belle get down here
you too apple bloom
(flying around) Make me
*floats up to the sky*
nuts and shoes
9090840
The CMC are Bad Idea Magnets.
So just think about them figuring out a triple Fusion.
God Fusion Crusader YAY!
I want to see spike fly to our town so fast that three sonicbooms happen.
Great chapter ! Keep it up
9091284
Don't give them ideas! We doomed as it is! Don't take the rest of the Galaxy with us!
Wonder what the difference between magic and ki is, and how they interact?
9091284 I don’t want the universe to die just because the Crusaders learn ki. I’d also consider just as bad of an idea to teach Twilight ki because of her dangerous knowledge-hoarding tendencies AND by that logic makes her Hermaeus Mora’s successor in at least one universe. Oh, and PInkie Pie because she’s the 2nd most OP pony because of her sanity-breaking fourth wall abilities.
Finally, I wouldn’t mind RD learning ki because of the ego-breaking training from Tartarus she has to endure.
9092373
Never mind those horrible things.
Just imagine the CMC with cutie marks in going SS, Kamehameha-ing, and instant transmission. (Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo respectively. Hahahahaha!)
But seriously, with someone as high a power level as Spike has become, there has to be training done. That big a power flare is going to attract other creatures with high power levels looking for conquest, competition, or just attempts to break the universe's pony punting distance record.
9092565
dont give freezer any ideas.
(’member, he comes back at some point)
9092565 Tirek and the Storm King will come running. I don’t mind that Rootbeer Mare is a good villain, but she’s almost as edgy as Shadow the Hedgehog. I also hope that Spike will convince Celestia that sending Discord to reform Tirek is a bad idea.
9093681
Tirek's already been whooped.
9093906 That leaves the Storm King, then. Unless the Movie’s not canon here.
9094131
not for a little while.
Wow, sisterhood is really strong with her.
I can see the Royal Guard and the Wonderbolts making use of the Artificial Gravity Training Chamber to improve their own capabilities. I can also see Rainbow Dash practicality living in there to push her own limits. Also, Spike will have to teach both Applejack and Rarity to fly as well to help keep the CMC’s in check. It would be completely irresponsible otherwise.
9090997
if i was a saiyan in equestria (preferably a more anthropomorphic (as in bipedal) one) one of the first things I would do is unlock the CMC's ki. i just love chaos. of course, i would do the same for Twilight and all of her friends (that includes random background ponies that help out sometimes but not Trollestia) so they can actually fight against serious threats.
9092565
Applebloom: "Look sis, I'm blonde now too."
"What in tarnation?"
I don't get why CMC are asking about Spike being so big. They were in the dream when he said its been 30 years for him
This is just sad, seeing as how even Yamcha was able to handle 3000x Earth's gravity.
9276254
Yep. But also Yamcha is able to reinforce his body with Ki, that which allowed him to not instantaneously pancake against the ground like most living organisms.
Magic is not capable of strengthening the body to the extremes like Ki. 25x gravity is pretty good for the Princesses
Find the part where Luna got a wing thing going upon hearing how much gravity Spike can take is pretty funny.
And loved it since I am a Spike x Luna shipper. Too bad it seems like that is the only scene like thatKind of wonder if she will be interesting in training in it too and learn to use Ki as well?
Especially since how things sadly go for either sister during major crisis..
Zecora would be loud, to say how much in Luna she is proud.