//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Out Of The Baking Pan... // Story: My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic: Heart of Friendship // by ShadowDurza //------------------------------// “And so I said: ‘Why worry this time? Time is always on my side. I have all the time, all the time.’” All around the table, the multi-species party erupted into a chorus of laughter in response to Madam von Wrinkle’s funny story. Micheal and Pohl held their fern colas high in toast before setting them down next to their baskets of moss fries and troll nuggets. The ponies simply clopped their hooves against the table’s surface. The ruckus caused some of the surrounding mall goers to stop and look at them, leading the self-conscious ponies to stop. But after seeing who was making the noise, some of the patrons started beating the palms of their hands on the tables and stomping their feet. Leading Fluttershy and Applejack to turn away blushing, but Rainbow Dash to fly up and pose, Rarity to blow kisses at the applause, Twilight to just wave her hoof, and Pinkie to jump up and down waving both hooves. Maxine smiled at the sight of it. “My, my. It seems the lot of you have managed to get quite a number of admirers in a very short amount of time.” Twilight gestured with her hoof and rolled her eyes, smiling. “Oh, it wasn’t much. We do that kind of thing all the time!” Fluttershy sadly lowered her head. “A little too often for my liking…” Maxine squared her shoulders and set both hands onto the table. “‘Wasn’t much’? You saw that someone needed helping and didn’t hesitate to do what needed to be done! You didn’t stop to think about whether or not there was something in it for you, didn’t question whether or not someone might come along with abilities more equipped to the situation, or whether or not you would make it out unscathed! It was just like the old days! It was everything this city stands for!” Then, Maxine turned her gaze downward and began to slouch. “Well, it used to stand for anyway…” The ponies just looked at the humans for a moment, expecting a follow-up to the statement. Micheal turned to Pohl while frowning a desperate grimace, but Pohl just took another swig of his drink and shrugged with his free hand. Applejack beckoned with a hoof. “Um… would you like to talk about it? I like hearing stories about the old days, mostly ‘cause my Granny never stops talking about them.” Maxine straightened her posture and made direct eye contact. “Oh, don’t make anything out of it, dear. Just an old woman’s nostalgia. Besides, there aren’t few in this city that believe that some things are best left unsaid.” After another awkward pause, Rarity made a soft coughing to draw attention to herself. “So, Madam von Wrinkle, would you mind telling us what you do at your Agency?” Maxine gave Rarity a gentle but sad smile. “I suppose it goes back to this city again. To maintain it and its functions and utilities requires most of the citizens to work nearly constantly.” She glanced at Micheal and Pohl. “If this city can’t find any use for you, it won’t hesitate to cast you to the gutter. But thankfully, there’s always something that needs done that someone doesn’t want to do themselves. All that’s needed to bridge the gap is connections, which I’ve thankfully cultivated over a lifetime of hard work that I intend to dedicate to the wellbeing of the people this city left behind so they don’t fall into the clutches of the likes of the Underworlders out of desperation.” Rainbow Dash clicked her hooves together with a sour look on her face. “Hey, if they’re willing to go to the Underworlders of all things, I say let ‘em suffer!” Maxine maintained her disposition, but her brow lowered ever so slightly. “Don’t get presumptuous on me, little pony. Nobody does bad things for no reason. Is it so hard to believe that sometimes, even for good people, things can just go wrong?” Suddenly, Twilight, Rarity, Maxine, Micheal, and Pohl were struck by a massive tingling sensation. The others didn’t feel it, but they did notice something wrong with their friends. Fluttershy craned her head to look at each of them. “Um… Is something the matter?” Twilight shook herself out of her stupor. “I don’t know, it felt like somepony just cast a massive spell! Micheal ducked down but stuck his face out to look to and fro. “W-w-w-what kind of sp-sp-spell do you th-think it was?” Pohl appeared to be focusing on something in the distance, then his eyes widened in shock as he stood up and pointed. “I am Pohl. I think we’re about to find out!” They all craned their necks to look. What they found was a strange distortion in the light spreading across the mall, painting everything in a strange mix of darkness and bright colors. Twilight attempted to raise a barrier around the group, but the encroaching phenomenon affected both it and them, changing the Twilight’s magic to a strange chromatic color and herself in several shades of yellow. Twilight looked at her friends in mild horror as they were all, for lack of a better term, pallet-swapped. Applejack became a mix of purple and pale blue, Pinkie turned to several shades of spring green, Rainbow Dash’s mane inverted it’s colors while her coat changed to a bright yellow, Fluttershy changed to a couple shades of yellow-green and pale blue, and Rarity became a mix of black and an unpleasant shade of green, leading her to dramatically raise her hoof to her forehead and faint, dragging a sofa out of nowhere to fall in. When Twilight turned to her human friends, she found that they suffered similar fates. Twilight was about to speak up, but her words were quickly drowned out by an undefinable but booming voice that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. “Good day, capitalist sheep of the Market District Mega Mall. It has come to my attention that the one I’ve been seeking for several years now, the one that committed an unforgivably heinous act against mine, is a patron today. “You know what you did; I’ve been stockpiling my magic for decades in case I really needed it, and I’ve decided to use it all at once to force a confession out of you. In case any of you were thinking about fleeing, don’t bet on it. I might not be able to use my space element like I used to, but I’m confident in this spell to make sure that no-one can get in or out of this mall without my say so. “I’d suggest you’d all work together to force the perpetrator to confess. I assure you that I will hear it, and will release my spell once I have what I want. And I’d be quick about it if I were you, for I guarantee that every ten minutes I don’t get what I want, something terrible will happen. You have been warned.” Maxine straightened up and gestured outward with her hands. “I suggest we get to the exit and see what we all can do.” Twilight turned around. “Agreed.” They all race towards the exit. Along the way they spotted numerous mall goers in several states of shock. Sometimes sitting and rocking by themselves, other times huddled closely together in groups. However, as they got close to the exit, they also found some shouting at one another and even some running out of stores, arms full of ill-gotten merchandise. Rainbow Dash scowled at the sight of it all. “Lousey ingrates! The moment things get tough, they start turning on eachother!” Fluttershy shook her head. “They can’t help it. They’ve been whipped up into a frenzy! Some of the smartest, most gentle critters will stampede if even one of them panics!” Applejack focused on the distance ahead of them. “Save the debate for later, fillies. I think I see the doors!” They came upon the automatic doors that mystified the ponies the first time they passed through them (Especially Pinkie, whom they had to pull away from dancing in and out of the sensor). However, when the doors opened that time, all they saw was the same inky dark light that covered the mall condensed into a fluidly rippling wall. Rainbow Dash tried to fly out of them, but the phenomenon spat her back out the other way the moment she dove in. “Darn it! That’s some weird magic! Can you figure out something, Twilight?” Before she could answer, Twilight was interrupted once again by a sudden loud crashing noise followed by a chorus of loud screaming. Maxine held her head low. “It’s been ten minutes since the announcement…” Twilight blinked a couple times in surprise. “How did you know that?” Maxin gave a sad smile. “Time magic. Gives me a perfect sense of timing, and that’s on top of us Ether-tribesmen’s special sensitivity! Anyway, if the one behind this really has space magic, we have no idea what to expect… The space element specializes in sending things from one place to another regardless of distance, and this field must give them influence over the entire mall! But you had an idea…?” Twilight took a deep breath. “I might have something. It’s a spell used to clean up spatial anomalies caused by wild magic, like bottomless pits or endless corridors. I don’t know how it’ll react to all this, but I’ll give it a go…” Twilight turned to the doorway as her horn started to glow. She shot a wide beam of magic at the anomaly which made a sizable hole that let real light back in, but before any of them could react, it closed as quickly as it opened. “I was worried about that. The anomaly’s too big to disperse with one spell!” Rainbow Dash reared back in the air with a determined look. “Quick! Do it again! I think I can make it!” Maxine quickly gestured to the negative. “Better not risk it! I’ve seen dimensional slices before, the results are never pretty!” Micheal approached Maxine anxiously. “M-M-Madam von W-Wrinkle, if your r-r-r-really have t-t-time magic, Why d-don’t you just r-r-reverse all this and st-st-st-stop it from happening!” Maxine sighed and placed her hands on Micheal’s shoulders. “Maybe if I were twelve years younger, but I can barely manipulate three seconds anymore without my back seizing up! But maybe you can do something to help.” Micheal’s eyes grew wide. “B-B-B-But Madam, you know I c-c-can’t d-d-do anything by m-myself!” Maxine grins at him and waves her finger in his face. “Ah, but you’re not by yourself, are you? You’re surrounded by people with all kinds of fantastic powers!” Somehow, this statement left Micheal utterly speechless. He looked around at all of them with fascination. Twilight trotted towards the pair of them. “What are you talking about? Does it have something to do with Micheal’s element?” Maxine gives Twilight a big grin. “My dear, it has everything to do with Micheal’s element. You see, he was… fortunate enough to be born with catalyst magic. It allows him to use external sources of magic to his desire. Unfortunately, it doesn’t allow him to do much else. One of his key spells allows him to combine the properties of two or more spells. So if we combine my time magic to turn a mere moment into an eternity…” Twilight began to smile too. “...With my spatial dispersion spell, we should be able to make a functioning gateway in and out of the mall!” Then, Twilight frowned. “Wait. If we tried to herd everyone out of such a small exit, it could cause a panic! The mall goers would trample each other trying to get out!” Maxine turned towards Twilight. “I know, which is why I suggest we send out just one of us to go for help while the others stay behind and try our best to mitigate the damage.” Rainbow Dash zoomed upward in anticipation. “Let me go! I can round up a posse and be back lickity-” Maxine held her hand up to Rainbow Dash to stop her mid-sentence. “I volunteer: Applejack.” On that note, Applejack looked around at the group and then directly at Maxine. “I’m flattered, really, but why me? In the air at least, Rainbow Dash is the fastest!” Maxine turned towards Applejack and smiled. “It wouldn’t do any good to get a group of warriors to help in this situation. But there is one warrior in this city with abilities just suited to solving this problem that happens to be the most… unique employee at my Agency that I know should be on their lunch hour at the Gilded Trail Cafe just due north of here.” Applejack turned her head away and raised an eyebrow. “But you still haven’t explained why I have to do it!” Maxine shrugged. “I have a feeling you’ll make the best… impression on him. Remember, he responds to Percival, and he’ll understand whatever you try to tell him.” Applejack held her hoof to her forehead for a moment in concentration. “North, Gilded Trail, Percival, got it!” Then she held her head back up and frowned. “Wait, what does he even look like?” Maxine gave a soft laugh. “Trust me, you’ll know him when you see him.” Maxine turned towards Micheal with a determined look. “Now, Mr. Flamel, are you ready?” Micheal stared at Maxine for a moment, then gave a look to each of the group, then nodded. He held his hand out and a smoke-like mist appeared in it which quickly shaped into an empty glass bottle with a ball-like flask and short neck. He held it towards Twilight, who’s horn began to glow. Suddenly, the light from Twilight’s horn got sucked into the bottle and swirled around inside. Micheal then held it towards Maxine, who held out her hand as a pale orb of energy appeared within it with a curved line spinning around inside at a rate of one revolution a second. This also got sucked into the bottle and mixed with Twilight’s spell in a strange, colorful reaction. Micheal took a deep breath, turned towards the open doors of the mall, brought the bottle back, and threw it at the anomaly keeping them in. On contact, the bottle erupted into a small but brilliant explosion of colors. Once the ether cleared up, what’s left behind was another hole in the anomaly, this time one that stayed. Pinkie Pie trotted up to Applejack. “Hurry Applejack! We’ll do our best on this side!” Applejack nodded, turned towards the hole, and raced out into the real light, returning to her normal colors before disappearing into the distance. The ponies and humans turned around as they heard another series of crashings and even louder screams. Maxine raised her finger. “It’s been another ten minutes, if anyone cares.” Without another word, they all raced off back into the mall.