"How did you do that?" Asked Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash with the same intensity, while an interested Fluttershy, Celestia and Luna looked on intently.
Ranma looked at them questioningly. "Do what?"
"Use your wing to levitate something!" Came Rainbow Dash's impatient reply.
Confused, Ranma regarded the expression of each pony who had a pair of wings before inquiring, "None of you can do that?" When all of them answered in the negative, either verbally or with a shake of the head, she frowned. "Let me check something..."
The whole of her eyes lit up with mystical energy, which enhanced her perception of magic, and then she proceeded to shift her gaze from one pony to the next. With each successive peer into a pony's magical condition, her frown faded, although it wasn't replaced by anything that could be considered positive. Of them all, her gaze had remained on Pinkie Pie the longest, which was when her mouth had quirked into a small, short-lived smile.
"Well," she began, making her disappointment apparent in her voice and expression, "as far as I can tell, there's nothing preventing any of you from projecting the magic from your wings to levitate objects. It's simply a skill that none of you have attained through training."
She was met with blank stares and disbelief. This included the usually-more-composed among the ponies, Celestia and Luna, who had much more experience and knowledge than the others in their group combined, because even they had no idea that such a thing was possible — outside of a dream, at any rate.
"One of you has reached an acceptable level of skill with their respective abilities, though," she went on, as her attention fell upon the pony who was closest to her. "What's your name, anyway?"
"I'm Pinkie Pie!" Said pony animatedly responded, as she excitedly hopped in place.
Ranma cocked her head. "That sounds like a pony name. Are they popular now?"
"Of course, silly!" Came Pinkie Pie's amused reply.
Everyone else, sans Spike and Rarity, because the former was preoccupied with the other's recovery, exchanged confused glances. It was Applejack who finally asked, "Aren't all names we use pony names?"
"Interesting," was Ranma's response to that, which seemed like a non sequitur to all but the princesses, who were of a mind to closely examine all of the information from a pony who might actually be from the distant past and responsible for the existence of ponykind. "Now, I don't know about any of you guys, but I think I've been in here long enough."
With that said, she began to walk toward the cave's exit, intent on getting some sunlight and having more space for her workout. The others were slow to follow after she passed them by, because varying things weighed on their minds, but Twilight Sparkle set her jaw and made the first move, determined — unable to help herself, really — to find out everything that she could and whether or not it was the truth.
Before Twilight Sparkle could ask her first question, she heard Ranma calmly inquire, "Why is the sky divided between night and day," while staring up at the sun and moon.
"I'm not sure how that happened," Celestia answered, whose longer strides had allowed her to catch up with Twilight Sparkle, "but we shall correct it." She came to a stop and regarded her sister, who reached her side a second later. "Are you ready, sister?"
Luna simply nodded her head in reply, and with that they both closed their eyes and lit up their horns. Seconds later, the moon was below the horizon while the sun was a bit above it, indicating that it was early in the morning.
"Huh," Ranma voiced after the display, before turning her attention to the two sisters. "So, is this a geocentric solar system instead of a heliocentric one now?"
Celestia nodded her head. "It began a few generations before my sister and I were born. One day the sun and moon ceased to behave in the same, predictable way, until the world stopped rotating entirely. Efforts to get it moving again failed, so most adult unicorns had to reserve their magic solely for the task of controlling the sun and moon each day, before we were able to handle the responsibility ourselves. There have been attempts to automate the system again, but they have all failed."
Ranma said nothing, expression thoughtful as she took a moment to consider the details of what she had learned. "And how did that affect the unicorns, once only a portion of them were free to use their magic as they wished?"
The three princesses, who happened to be the only ones who had any knowledge of that not-well-documented time in history, looked between each other, trying to recall anything notable that had happened to the unicorns as a consequence of there being so many of them needed to control the sun and moon. Eventually, Luna asked the other two, "Wasn't that about the time when the earth and pegasus ponies won their freedom from the unicorns?"
Twilight Sparkle's face lit up as she recalled that historical event herself. "That's right! Because there weren't enough unicorns to," she paused, her enthusiasm snuffed out when she realized what she was about to say, "manage all of their slaves, many earth and pegasus ponies escaped, then rallied and fought to free the rest."
Satisfied by what she heard, Ranma remarked, "Sounds like it was a good thing that the sun and moon needed to be moved manually."
As she began to do her warm-up stretches, both the princesses and the group of ponies standing in front of the cave's mouth were in silent agreement. Only Luna and Celestia shared a look, catching the hint that what had stopped the planet's rotation may have been engineered by someone, for the sake of the earth and pegasus ponies.
Seeing her opportunity in the ensuing lull, Twilight Sparkle asked, "Can I ask you questions about yourself and the past? Because if you're really Faust... I mean, do you realize how significant that would be?"
"Sure; go ahead," Ranma replied unconcernedly, clearly not sharing the idea that it was a big deal.
The lack of care threw Twilight Sparkle off for a second. "Okay, um... Why did ponies call you Faust if your birth name is Ranma?"
"To put it simply," Ranma began, as she flexed her wings, "it was because many thought they would be making a deal with the devil if they agreed to follow my ways and become ponies, which I had advertised as being better than the alternative." Seeing the question coming, she added, "A deal with the devil is also known as a Faustian bargain, which refers to a story where a guy with the last name of Faust gives his soul to the devil in exchange for selfish desires."
That raised a couple of questions, and it took a few seconds for Twilight Sparkle to decide on the one that might also answer another. "What was the alternative to becoming ponies?"
"All kinds of things," Ranma replied, who had finished her stretching and prepared for one of her usual morning routines. "I didn't handle that part personally, but I made sure that the other creatures wouldn't be a punishment or chosen out of meanness; they just wouldn't be as special as ponies. I thought a lot of them were cool, personally."
Although Twilight Sparkle was relieved to know that Ranma hadn't been cruel, if she really had created at least some of the other sapient creatures that she knew about, what she had learned inspired even more questions than last time. Before she could choose one to ask, however, Rainbow Dash flew over her head and stopped near Ranma, who had begun to fight imaginary opponents after she had finished talking.
"Why are you shadow boxing?" Rainbow Dash asked, displaying a mixture of confusion, curiosity and annoyance. "I thought you were just going to stretch."
"It's a kata, actually," Ranma corrected, who continued to perform said kata. "And this is how I usually get my day started, if I don't have a sparring partner."
Rainbow Dash perked up at that. "Watching a conversation is boring, so can we spar?"
"Do you know any martial arts?" Ranma queried without stopping or glancing at the pegasus.
With forelegs akimbo, Rainbow Dash confidently declared, "I might know a thing or two."
"Alright," Ranma allowed, with a slight smile. "Dive in when you're ready, and do your best to lay a hoof on me."
"Uh..." Twilight Sparkle voiced at this turn of events, not knowing what to say about having her questioning derailed, and seeing the rest of her friends joining them for an unobstructed view of the upcoming show.
"You have any more questions, princess?" Ranma asked her, having noticed her reaction. "I can chat and spar at the same time."
Rainbow Dash appeared to be affronted by that a bit, so she attacked suddenly, hoping to either win quickly and prove that she shouldn't have been underestimated, or impress upon her that she was good enough to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, her initial strike missed by a few millimeters, but it was close enough to give her hope of an eventual victory.
Twilight Sparkle waited for a few seconds, unsure if she should divide Ranma's attention because of Rainbow Dash's concerted effort to make physical contact, before deciding to pick up where she had left off. "So... What creatures did you transform, and why did you transform them?"
Ranma didn't reply immediately, and Twilight Sparkle couldn't tell if it was due to the question or from paying attention to her sparring partner. When she did, her voice was measured and betrayed no emotion. "I transformed humans." There was a pause. "All seven billion of them." There were some gasps and expressions of disbelief at the number. "It wasn't a part of my plan, originally. After I got more acquainted with the state of the world and how it worked, however, I realized that I would need to do something more drastic to achieve the changes that I wanted..."
"What did the humans do to you or other ponies, for you to transform them all?" Twilight Sparkle pressed onward, seeing as Ranma had showed no trouble talking while avoiding Rainbow Dash.
After a brief chuckle, Ranma corrected, "There weren't any ponies aside from me, at the time. The only sapient species on the planet were humans."
Even Rainbow Dash, who had become laser-focused on her goal, had to pause after hearing such a claim. With her forelegs crossed, she responded to it before anyone else could. "Hold on. Are you saying you're responsible for the existence of every intelligent creature?"
"And what about yourself?" Rarity tacked on, who felt a little vindictive after what had happened earlier. "How did you come to be the only pony on the planet, much less one capable of transforming so many creatures permanently?"
There were a number of reactions that were imagined by those present, to questions that were blatantly skeptical, but none expected Ranma to become deathly somber. "That's a bit of a story... One I better start at the beginning of."