//------------------------------//
// 16 - Anti-magic human vs random background pegasus 
// Story: Physics Bubble 
// by LordBucket 
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"Mwahahaha!" the human twirled his mustache, surveying the helpless ponies of Ponyville. "I am immune to magic, and now I shall conquer Ponyville! Helpless peasants, cower before me and despair!"

Most ponies ignored him, but a few tossed bits at the ground in front of him as they walked by.

"You!" he shouted at some random pegasus. "I don't recognize you, who are you?"

"Me?" the pegasus flew over. "Name's Backgound Pony. Want to see my cutie mark?"

Before the human could properly scoff a no, the pony had already turned to proudly reveal a stylized #23 on his flanks.

"My special talent is-"

"I don't care!" the human shouted. "I'm here to conquer you, so kneel before your new master!"

A look of dawning realization slowly grew over Background's face.

"Oh my gosh, are you a villain? And you're talking to me?!?" he clapped his hooves. "Is this happening? For real? Oh Celestia, this is awesome! I've been doing this background thing for years hoping to get a speaking part someday! Finally all my hard work has paid off! I promise I won't let you down!"

Striking a pose for the camera, Background Pony theatrically tossed his mane just like he'd been practicing in the mirror for just such an occasion. He was more than a little surprised when the human responded not by applauding, but instead by stepping in and putting him in headlock. He was even more surprised when the human starting using that headlock to pummel him in the face.

"Ow!" Background Pony cried. "Dude, quit it! That really hurts!"

"Mwahahaha!" the human laughed. "Now do you see the folly of your ways! You ponies cannot hope to defeat a human with an overpowered anti-magic physics bubble!"

"Stop punching me!" Background Pony cried, futilely trying and failing to avoid the punches. "I'm not credentialed for stunt work!"

Terrified of losing his SAG membership, the pegasus did the only thing he could think of: fly away really fast. Unfortunately, with the human still latched onto his neck.

"Stop!" the human shouted as the ground rapidly dwindled beneath him. "You can't do this!"

"Me?" Background Pony snorted in indignation. "What about you? We didn't even negotiate payment rates! And am I being credited in the final production? How high is my billing order?"

"No, I mean you literally can't do this! Pegasus flight depends on magic to work, and my anti-magic bubble prevents it! You can't fly!"

Background Pony's wings stopped flapping, and he craned his neck around to look down at both the human wrapped around his neck...and at the ground, now very far beneath them both.

"Uhh," he quavered. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes!"

"Well, let's not be too hasty," the pony deflected. "Let's just take a moment to think this over."

"Why are we not falling?!?"

"Hang on, just hear me out," Background stalled. "Ponies are supposed to be about three or four feet tall, right?"

"Oh, for the love...I don't know! Sure, whatever!"

"Is that the height measured at the top of the head or the withers?"

"What even is a wither?!?"

"No, withers," Background Pony corrected. "The withers is the high point on the back of a horse before the neck. It's where our shoulder blades are. That's where pony height is usually measured, because our necks are so flexible. Maybe humans don't get shorter when they eat, but if I so much as lean down to munch on a plate of hay fries, that's fully a third of my vertical height gone."

"I don't care!" the human shouted, frantically trying to maintain his slipping grip.

"So anyway, let's be conservative and say it's three and a half feet at the top of the head. But you humans always use mares for those measurements, and I'm a stallion. So I'm probably more like four."

"Shut up already!"

"So if I'm four feet tall," Background Pony continued to reason, "I'm probably five and a half or six feet long. Though honestly that kind of depends. Ponies in the show are depicted as being kind of squarish. Is that biologically accurate, or is that abstract representation? Anyway, how big did you say your physics bubble was?"

"It varies based on the story!" the human struggled, watching as his whitely-knuckled fingers failed to keep him from slowly sliding down the pony's chest.

"Alright, so let's say it's about six inches or so. With your hands around my neck, and let's be honest, it's actually more like they're desperately clutching onto my forelegs, your hands are probably at least a good six to twelve inches from even just the front edge of my wings. You're nowhere near most of my wingspan. Sure, maybe if you climbed back up and reached over instead of sliding down to my hooves like you're doing now, maybe you could extend your bubble to block some of the flow of magic from my torso. But the base of my wings have some width to them, and so long as your bubble doesn't fully extend across that entire length, I can at least get some magic flowing into my wings. So maybe that's enough? I mean, it's not like I'm doing a sonic rainboom here."

Hearing no further argument from the human, or shouting for that matter, Background Pony concluded his argument had been persuasive.

"Wow, what a relief!" he sighed, and resumed flapping his wings. "That is such a weight off my mind! I feel positively lighter all over! Don't you feel better too? Human?"

Background Pony looked around, but didn't see anyone besides himself.

"Human?"

Figuring he must have left for the next scene, Background Pony flew off to renew his Screen Actor's Guild membership, thanking Celestia that he'd survived his encounter with the dreadful so-very-dangerous magic-immune human.

A human whose anti-magic physics bubble didn't help very much with his landing.