//------------------------------// // Split ends... // Story: The 'Mane' Problem // by RazorSharpFang //------------------------------// Rarity trotted along the road, a skip in her step, reflecting her mood after averting the epic disaster of ultimate unfabulousness. Looking around, she noticed that her new mane-style was attracting some attention from onlookers. She winked at one particularly well-built onlooker, who elicited a blush and looked away nervously. Rarity giggled slightly, ‘I could get used to this… I probably was in need of a make-over’ she thought to herself as she continued on her path. Half-way to her destination she noticed something. Something was up, something unnatural, something that hadn’t happened so soon, it was almost alerting… her expression upturned itself in notice, the skip in her trot fading completely. Her neck was hurting… It wasn’t the pain or the uncomfortableness that she would go to the masseuses for. It wasn’t the pain she would get from face-hoofing too hard during one of Pinkie’s schemes. It was something altogether different, something she had almost never experienced before… Her neck was … tired? Rarity slowed to a complete stop, now two thirds of the way to her destination, she had to stop. Her neck was bending low, struggling to lift the weight of her head. Rarity looked around, searching and finding a closed café with outside tables. Trotting over to them, Rarity sat down and laid her head on the table, the pain in her neck subsiding almost immediately. This was odd, very odd. Rarity had attended monotonous speeches in Canterlot for hours, without her neck getting tired… but it had only been ten minutes. Something was up, and Rarity had a clue. Lifting her hoof up to her face, she took a part of her mane, and lifted it. It was heavy, far heavier than it should be, she could feel its weight, it was far too much for its size, even heavier than the heaviest fabrics she’d ever worked with. She moved her hoof, letting her hair fall to her face. *SLAP!* Rarity made a mental note to not let heavy hair fall to her face as she massaged her face gently with her hoof, trying to reduce the pain coming from it. ‘Must be an after effect from the mane-growth spell…’ she thought to herself, trying to come up with an explanation for this weird activity. ‘I’m sure it’ll be gone by tomorrow.’ Rarity rose, her neck rested, and made her way back to the boutique, bracing herself for the state it’ll be in, with Sweetie Belle making food. Rarity opened the door to her boutique, poking her head inside, looking for flames or smoke of any kind. There weren’t any. “Hey Rarity! Just finished eating dinner!” said Sweetie Belle, sitting at the table laden with used plates, smelling of deliciousness. Rarity walked inside and looked around. There were no flames of any kind, or burned food/furniture/utensils of any kind. There was no smoke in the air, but the smell of pasta lingered, pleasing the nostrils. “The bouquet’s still standing!” Rarity rejoiced, eyes wide and a great smile on her face. She continued looking around, to see if her eyes were deceiving her, but they weren’t. “You’re surprised?!” Sweetie Belle questioned, her eyebrows upturned. “I’m not that bad at cooking... when I have a cook-book to go off...” Sweetie Belle said, getting off her chair, and walking up to Rarity, noticing the difference in Rarity’s mane-style. “Your mane looks… better, definitely, but it’s normally curlier than that.” Sweetie Belle tilted her head, inspecting Rarity’s mane with wonder. “It is, and I’m sure it’s just a side-effect of the mane-growth spell.” Rarity tilted her head, her neck making a foul crack. Rarity groaned, rubbing her neck and furrowing her brow. “Ouch, that sounds bad. What happened to your neck?” Sweetie Belle asked, concern for her sister evident from her face, which was awash with worry. “My mane is just… heavy at the moment. I think I’ll head to bed early, my neck is complaining. You’ll be fine cleaning up, right?” Rarity asked hesitantly, not entire sure of her little sister’s trustworthiness and continuing to rub her neck. “I’ll be fine, you should rest that neck.” Sweetie commented, moving back to the table, preparing to clean. “Mmm…” Rarity groaned again, heading towards her bedroom, eager to lay her head down. Opening her door and closing it with magic, she threw herself onto the bed and sighed. ‘I hope it’ll be gone by tomorrow, I won’t be able to work like this…’ She rolled onto her side, her mane barely budging, continuing to flow downwards, not curling as it used to. Rarity levitated her diary out of her drawer, unlocked it, and set it next to her, getting a quill and ink out as well. She had a lot to write. After collecting and recording her thoughts on today’s events, she threw her diary back to its location, and obtained her eye-mask. She slid gently into the covers, taking care not to ruffle them, and lay down for sleep. Her horn glowed light blue one last time as it flicked off the light. Rarity lay her head down on the pillow and let out a contented sigh. ‘Everything will be better when I wake up in the morning’ she thought to herself as she closed her eyes and fell asleep. Meanwhile, at the library… “GARRRH!!!” Yelled a very frustrated purple unicorn, enveloped in a frenzy of science, books and magic. Her library was in complete disarray, books knocked off their shelves, used coffee mugs aplenty, not to mention the clearly unhappy unicorn in the centre generating more chaos as the afternoon slowly turned into night. “This doesn’t make any sense!” Twilight cried as she slammed her hoof onto the table she was working at again. “Spells that can’t backfire just don’t backfire when they feel like it!” Twilight’s horn glowed as she levitated a book out of the pile of books and laid it on the table. “I can’t find fault with his proof either!” Twilight moaned, placing her head on the table right in front of the book. “Mane-growth is so simple, there’s no room for backfires!” Twilight punched the book with her hoof, sending it skidding across the table. “Twilight, I think you’re taking it too seriously.” Commented spike from across the room, making sure to stay out of the way of harm… and chaos. “So what if a spell went a little wrong? Your spells go wrong all the time and you don’t normally panic to this extent…” Spike added, his arms folded; it was time for his nap, and there’s no way he could be sleeping with Twilight’s noise and the occasional buzz of unicorn magic. “Spike,” Twilight said, preparing for a rebuttal. “Those spells are complicated, and there are plenty of ways and reasons they could fail. This spell is not like that, it just adds mass to the end of the hairs, duplicating the lower region of the hair.” Twilight rebutted. “There is literally nothing that can go wrong with that, since my target wasn’t resisting. You’d have to force the effect into negation in order to do that!” Twilight paused. ‘Could that actually be possible? Could there be some foreign entity that was present during her visit that could directly absorb the effect of my spell? That wouldn’t be a backfire, that’s a negation…’ Twilight continued in thought for a while, her train and trail of though clearly going in a direction. She was, however, not changing her expression, and looked like an unresponsive window. “Ok, whatever. I’m going to sleep, good night Twilight, hope you solve whatever new problem you’re facing.” Spike gave a long yawn and trudged upstairs, hoping to fall asleep soon. Twilight continued in thought. ‘What if something or someone was interfering? Could someone have a grudge on me or Rarity? What if she’s been targeted?! What if I’ve been targeted?! What if…’ Twilight continued in thought, her train of thought speed out of control on the tracks, her trail of thought falling into a black hole. Twilight stood up, her face plastered with determination. ‘I will find out!’ she declared to herself as she walked over to where Rarity was standing during the ‘incident’. Twilight stopped, and closed her eyes, furrowing her brow in concentration. Her horn glowed purple as she focussed her spell. ‘If there truly was someone interfering, they should be detectable.’ Twilight focussed harder, armed with the knowledge that the further an incident is into the past, the harder it is to obtain information on it. Her horn glowed deeper, buzzing with energy, which calmed down instantly as it received a result. Twilight opened her eyes, which were wide with panic and alarm. Three. There were three entities with 3 unique mana signatures present and partaking in the cast of the spell. Twilight’s legs started shaking, her breathing picking up in pace. She looked around, and immediately shut all the curtains around the library, awakening Spike in the process. “Twilight? What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost…” commented Spike, his eyes half shut, totally not having much time to drift into slumber. “I may very well have! Well, not seen, but detected. Remember that spell I told you I couldn’t tell you about? Turns out that there were three entities involved! Do you know what this means?!” Twilight gasped, shoving her face into Spike’s, letting him know that Twilight was almost entering over-react mode, her eyes showing a spark of crazy in them. “No, Twilight. I have no idea what that means.” Spike commented flatly, not appreciating Twilight’s word choice, completing eluding the meaning of Twilight’s sentences from him. He was a baby dragon after all. “It means that someone else was present at the cast of the spell, someone who actively interfered with the spell, and I am going to get to the bottom of this!” Twilight declared, striking a pose not dissimilar to the pose she struck when she declared to restore her friendship during Discord’s attack. Twilight rushed down the stairs, tripping just like Spike did, and landing just as Spike did, but with bruises instead of misplaced scales. “This isn’t going to end well…” commented Spike as he contemplated going down the stairs to help her. ===========================================