//------------------------------// // Loading Assets // Story: The Rust Experience // by lolitsjack //------------------------------// Nearly all of Ponyville was destroyed, again. If it’s not a hydra, parasprite, or Ursa, it must be one of the other seemingly endless baddies from the Everfree. Of course, Ponyville is used to the general mayhem that comes with the forest and their newest Princess. But being used to it doesn’t mean it’s not tiring. After all, no one wants to have to rebuild their home every month, but sure enough, it was that time again. “Twilight why does this keep happening?” Spike looked out of the crystal window at the broken homes of Ponyville. “I don’t know Spike, but I do know of a way to help deal with it.” “Is it another spell?” Spike said tuning his head around. “Yep” “Is it going to make everyone in town go crazy about another doll?” “I THOUGHT WE AGREED NOT TO TALK ABOUT THAT!” “Geeze, no need to yell." Spike covered the sides of his head with a grimace of pain on his face. “I’m sorry spike, but no. This spell will help the town, and give everyone some much needed rest.” “How is a spell going to do that? Is it going to make the monsters disappear? Make the town invisible? Help me confess my love to Rari…” “SPIKE!” “Sorry.” “No Spike, this spell will help the town rebuild every time something gets destroyed.” Twilight was holding an unrolled scroll that had "Restricted Canterlot Archives Section 3" printed on the back of the parchment. “Cool… you mean like buildings are going to rebuild themselves?” “Nope, the spell is going to summon the universe’s greatest builder!” “The greatest builder?” “Yup, we shouldn’t have to ever worry about rebuilding anything. The greatest builder must love to build, since the greatest builder’s special talent must be building.” “I guess that makes sense” “Of course it makes sense” Sitting on a lawn chair while drinking ice and dry sugar, out of a glass made from lemons, a certain Draconequus felt a shiver run up his spine and had a grin come to his face. Feeling that somepony could never be more wrong about something they knew made sense. “While I’m not too familiar with summoning magic, I do know that they require some regents.” “You mean like gems?” Spike asked inquisitively. “Yes, but no. While most summoning magic uses gems, this spell only needs wood, stone, and a drawing of a p…s…” Twilight’s face instantly turned bright red. “And a what?” Spike “I said drawing o-of a pen…..” “Didn’t quit catch that. You said a pen?” Spike said still trying to get the answer out of Twilight. “A DRAWING OF A PENIS!” “A WHAT?!” “Keep it down! Oh Celestia, I can’t believe I said that out loud.” “Why would a spell ever need something like that?!” “I don’t know Spike, but I am not that familiar with summoning magic. Mabey it has something to do with its… shape… in relation to how they ley lines are?” “Whatever helps you sleep at night.” Spike followed up with a few sniggers. “What is that supposed to mean?” “Nothing!” “Ok… as I was saying, while this spell does need these regents, it also needs a MASSIVE amount of magical energy. So much so, that I may get some magical exhaustion.” “Woah! Are you sure this is safe Twilight? Last time you needed to go to the hospital for that.” “It ok, I think. By my calculations, it MAY give me a very mild case of magical exhaustion. The worst-case scenario is that I may fall asleep once the spell is over.” “Oh phew. I thought you would be in bed for another week like last time.” “No need to worry Spike, it shouldn’t be that bad.” Twilight sent Spike out of her crystal castle to go get some branches from a tree in the park, and any stones he found on the path along the way. Once spike left, Twilight went about making the last regent she needed for the spell. Twilight got the paper, the inkwell, and the quill, and set them on her desk like she was getting ready to write one of her many friendship reports to Celestia. But this was not a friendship report. This was something that once she was about to start drawing, she just couldn’t make the quill meet the paper, no matter how many times she tried. Every time she would try, too much blood would rush into her face and head that she would just get too dizzy to even think straight. Finally after the 13th attempt? She just closed her eyes and thought of drawing a cylinder and two spheres on one of its end. Nothing inappropriate at all. Nope. Nothing wrong with drawing mathematical shapes. After finishing the drawing and folding it up, while never looking at it, Spike came walking through the door with his hands full of branches and stones. “Here you go Twilight.” Spike said while dropping them on the floor unceremoniously. “Thanks Spike, you really are my number one assistant.” “No problem!” Spike said giving a thumbs up. “Now then the scroll says to put all of the regents in a single pile? That’s strange.” Twilight stared at the scroll with an eyebrow raised up. “Why would that be strange?” Spike had one of his own eyebrows raise as well. “Well I thought that summoning spells were complicated, and that the regents have to be arranged in a certain way, but this spell says to just put them all in a single pile and give it a large amount of magic.” “And that’s strange because?” “It’s way too simple for a spell that should summon the universe’s greatest builder.” “Oh yeah.” “Strangeness aside, I doubt a spell from the restricted archives would be wrong.” Twilight stated confidently. “Wait did you say restricted? As in the one that Princess Celestia told you not to go into without her being with you?” Spike's face took on a bit of worry. “Yup, that’s the one.” “And she was with you when you got this spell?” “Ehhhh… ha...ha... I may have sneaked this one out without her knowing.” Twilight said while rubbing one of her front hooves with the other. “… Do I even want to know why?” “Just think of it spike, no one in Ponyville will ever have to rebuild their homes again, and we can even add more homes for new residents!” “Ok Twilight, I trust you.” “Thanks” Twilight used her magic to put the folded-up drawing on the floor with the stones and tree branches. After making sure all three different items were touching each other, she started to channel her magic though her horn into the pile of seemingly random items. Almost immediately Twilight felt a pull on her magic, like a vacuum cleaner was directly attached to her horn, sucking out all of her magic. “Woah! This is taking a lot more magic than I thought it would.” A few drops of sweat starting going down Twilight’s forehead. “You said it would be safe!” “It is safe, it just more than I thought it would take. I can do this” Even though Twilight was no longer a unicorn, and had much more magic due to being an alicorn, it seemed that this spell was taking an endless amount of magic. The more she strained the harder it pulled, like it was fighting her no matter how much she gave. She decided it would be best to stop, but was not so lucky. “Umm Spike? We may have a slight problem.” Twilight said with a bit of a strained voice. “Uhh, what might that be?” Spike instantly started looking nervous. “I can’t control the spell!” The moment she said those words, it was like a switched turned on. The wood, stone, and folded paper in the neatly stacked pile started glowing a bright white. So bright that Twilight and spike had to look away, all the while, Twilight’s magic was being drained. “This is not good, I’m getting a bit sle-sleepy” The magical exhaustion was starting to kick in. “Twilight you can’t sleep now! This spell is going out of control!” “But I’m so tired...” Twilight’s eyes started to droop down as she was starting to lose consciousness. “TWILIGHT!” Just before Twilight fell asleep, the items in the pile started making beeping noises, almost like an alarm clock. After a few seconds, a very loud explosion was heard, and the bright light faded. In its place was a creature that Twilight and Spike have never seen before. The only thing Twilight could think of was some kind of pink, furless diamond dog-minotaur hybrid that was holding a large rock. Right before Twilight passed out, the tall being looked her straight in eye and spoke one word, and in Equestrian nonetheless. “Friendly?”