//------------------------------// // What Goes Up... // Story: The Gravity of the Situation // by Masem //------------------------------// “Hey, Twilight, I’m b—what the hey?!” Spike gasped as he entered the library, dropping the bag of fruits and vegetables he had been carrying. He stared around the main floor where dozens of books were floating in mid-air. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for tonight instead of studying?” Twilight barely took notice of Spike, her face deep in a book on the main library table. “I’m not studying, I’m practicing.” Spike looked at the books curiously as he recovered the bag. “Sure looks like studying to me. You’ve got all your books levitating here—” “It’s not levitation, Spike,” Twilight said through clenched teeth. Her brow was furled as she turned to glare at one of the floating volumes, beads of sweat dripping down. Spike stepped carefully through the floating books into the main part of the room. “What do you mean? You’ve got the books hanging in mid-air, it looks like levitation to me.” Twilight let out a flustered groan, releasing her concentration; the floating book remained suspended. “Actually, it’s a gravity spell. The Princess wanted me to start looking at them, after I wrote her asking about gravity.” She nodded to a scroll that sat on the central table, lying next to the open book she had been studying, filled with detailed enchantment instructions. “I think she’s planning on testing me next time I’m in Canterlot, so I’ve got to start practicing. Remind me never to ask the Princess such esoteric questions again, Spike.” After setting the bag down, Spike took up the scroll and uncurled it, quickly reading over it. “Gravity? But you already have your levitation spells, what good would gravity spells do?” Twilight dropped into her lecture mode, happily rattling on about the science behind the magic. “Levitation is a magical field that surrounds an object, based on the will of the spell-caster. The unicorn can hold and manipulate the object, just like they had it with their hooves or teeth, but they must still apply force to keep it suspended. On the other hoof, gravity is just a physical force that pulls any two bodies together, just as Issac Neighton discovered. For small things like books or ponies, that force is so small we never feel it, but the planet’s a huge mass, and that’s what exerts force to keep us on the ground. These spells simply insert themselves between an object and the ground, nullifying the attraction between the bodies and letting the object free of the gravitational pull.” Spike blinked. “So, um...?” Twilight briefly rolled her eyes. “It can make things float! See?” She poked a hoof at one of the books that floated nearby. A gentle tap sent it spinning slowly towards a wall. “If it was levitation, it would be firmly held in my magic. But also, I don’t have to worry about maintaining the magic. All these gravity spells are time-limited, or until I cancel them.” She gave a brief sigh. “That’s the part I’m stuck on, I can’t somehow dispel the magic, even though I’m following the directions on the page!” Spike watched cautiously as a glass floated by, followed by several small globules of water, wobbling as they drifted by. “Um, how long do they last? Does the book say?” Twilight turned to read the book carefully. “Oh, the effects wear out after a day, don’t worry. The library will be back to normal tomorrow, I promise. Maybe earlier if I can just figure out this counter-spell,” she finished off with a hint of annoyance. Spike wrung his claws together.  “Uh, great, but shouldn’t you be preparing for the arrival of the board members from Celestia’s magic school tonight?” Twilight shook her head. “They’re not from Celestia’s school—that’s only for the most gifted unicorns, like me. These directors are from the more common Canterlot magic school that the rest of the unicorns attend. It’s still a prestigious institution, and we definitely want to impress them to have them open a branch here in Ponyville. But I’ve got a few more hours before we’re supposed to meet the others to help set up town hall for the event.” Spike frowned, glancing sideways at his bed-basket floated by. “Uh, maybe I should go out and see if anypony else needs help.” Her face remained in the book. “No, go right ahead, Spike. I need to concentrate and get this cancellation spell just right.” “Phew, great!” Spike offered excitedly, and quickly retraced his steps back through the floating mass of books. “I’ll be back later, okay? Bye!” He was out the door within seconds. Twilight hadn’t paid attention to his exit, her mind trying to make sense of the strange instructions the book listed. “I’m sure I’ve been doing this right.” She squinted at the page. “Oh, huh...” Her hoof ran over a line, wiping out the decades-old remains of a bug that had been caught in the book. “It’s ‘density’, not ‘destiny! Well, that makes a world of difference!” She pulled her head from the book and returned her focus to the books around the library. Bracing her hooves into the wooden floor, she concentrated her magic through her horn into the rest of the room. The books and other objects that had been floating stopped in their paths and started to tremble. One by one, they lost their buoyancy and fell gracelessly to the floor. She kept powering the spell, but broke out into a smile. “It worked! It worked! It w—” One of the larger volumes that had drifted above her head crashed down on top of her and knocked her out. Something brushed against Twilight’s head. Slowly coming back to consciousness, Twilight rubbed at her head, the spot where the book fell still tender from the impact. She massaged the area as she slowly opened her eyes. “Ow, that hurt! I guess they really do mean that gravity is a b—AUGGHH!” Twilight gasped, discovering herself to be only a few feet from the library ceiling. She tried to turn herself but found there was nothing solid beneath her to provide leverage. She turned her head around instead, gawking at the sight. She was floating. Instinctively, she tried to wheel her hooves as if she was swimming, but the air gave her nothing to push against, and left her no better off, stuck in the middle of the library. “HELP!” she shouted. “Spike! Anypony! Help!” She looked down to the windows, where daylight still streamed in. Unless she had been out cold all night, it might have only been an hour from when she last recalled. Certainly, with the event tonight, her friends would have checked on her before then. The books and other items that had been part of her earlier tests were all firmly planted on the ground, and had a bad feeling that Spike hadn’t been back yet. She sighed heavily. “Great, I’m stuck up here until Spike gets back,” she uttered to herself.  She tried again to stretch her hoof as much as possible to touch the ceiling, hoping to just tap it to push off, but it stubbornly remained out of reach. Twilight grunted, giving up on her attempt. Her earlier conversation with Spike rang in her head. “Hmm, I could try to levitate myself, but I’ve still not perfected that,” she considered to herself. Concentrated on her body, she tried to envelop herself with a magic field, something easily done with other objects or ponies but a rather difficult chore on one’s own self. Magic had a way of not wanting to work on its caster. She could feel her skin tingle as the field wrapped itself around her, but it flared out as quickly as it formed. “Ugh, that’s yet another spell I need to practice more.” Twilight tried to look around for some type inspiration, her legs flailing to help her spin. “Oh, wait, what am I doing? I can just teleport down,” she announced. Twisting around to look at the floor, she recalled her spells. With a flash of light, she popped back into existence, standing on the floor, smiling to herself. “Great, now to try to-- WAAUGH!” She had taken a step forward, but without anything to keep her down, Twilight launched herself back into the air. The momentum slammed her against the ceiling, and then ricocheted her into one of the bookcases. She tried to grab onto something but her actions had caused her to spin in all directions, and combined with her haphazard movement path, she couldn’t react in time. After a few more hard impacts with the floors and walls, Twilight found herself within her bedroom nook, and was able to catch one of her bed posts, stalling her flight path. “Okay, Twilight, that’s not going to work, at least without being weighed down,” she nagged at herself. “Hmm, that gives me an idea.” She looked back into the main room, spying the gravity spell book still sitting on the table. Adjusting her position on the post, Twilight planted a hoof against her bed and pushed off, sending her drifting slowly towards the base of the library. Within moments she latched herself onto the table, holding herself tight there with her forehooves. “Now, where did my saddlebags go—aha!” Twilight saw her bags sitting under one of the books that had fallen earlier, and quickly reached out to it with her levitation magic, along with several books. In mid-air, she commanded the books to fill the bags to overflowing, and then brought the pack over to her. She then carefully oriented herself to the floor and brought the saddlebags across her back. The weight, while heavy, was comforting, and she felt the bags press the tips of her backhooves into the floor. “Great!” she exclaimed, and carefully released her grip on the table, one hoof at a time. As she expected, the bags kept her from floating off, and soon she was standing there, buoyed down by the heavy volumes. “Twilight, you’re a genius!” she announced to nopony in particular. She turned her head, the gravity spell book on the other side of the table. She took a first cautious step towards it, making sure that her actions didn’t send herself pinballing around the room again. Satisfied with her solution, she took a few more steps. Just as she neared the book, she felt the balance in the bags shift. “Oh no oh no oh no oh no—” she cried as the shift in the center of gravity caused her to tilt to one side. The books, continuing to be dragged down by gravity, pulled her further off center, and soon she popped out of their grasp like a cork from a wine bottle. Twilight harumphed as she drifted back up towards the ceiling. A few minutes later, Twilight had gotten herself back to the table, and this time had waited until she was at the book before setting the saddlebags across her. She may not be able to walk around, but at least she could try to dispel the magic without floating off, she thought to herself, before turning back to reread the volume. “Uh, Twilight, is it safe?” Spike called out from outside. Twilight glanced up, her eyes bleary from the last few hours of intense concentration. “Uh, sure,” she weakly answered. Spike cracked open the library door and stuck his head through. “Looks like you got that gravity spell cancelled,” he said. Assured nothing was floating around, he proceeded to enter the library. “Well, yes, and no,” Twilight said, pulling her head from the book. “I was able to cancel the spell on everything else, but—oh, come here and grab my tail.” “Um, sure?” Spike replied and padded over to Twilight, grabbing hold of her tail in his claw. “Just hold on a moment, Spike.” Twilight concentrated on her saddlebags, lifting them off her back. As she expected, she immediately started to drift off the floor without the weight keeping her tethered down. The action of floating away yanked her tail in Spike’s gasp, causing him to react. “W-what’s going on?” Twilight worked on settling the saddlebags back down, holding her to the floor, as she explained the events of the last few hours to Spike. “I think one of the books that was floating around knocked me out while I was casting the counterspell. Now I’m the one floating and whatever I try to do, I can’t get the counterspell to work!” “You sure you’ve tried everything?” Spike offered. “Yes, I even tried some of more all-purpose spells that Princess Celestia taught me on dispelling magic! Nothing’s worked!” Spike walked over to the writing desk. “Do you want me to write to her? Maybe she can h—” “NO!” Twilight yelled. “I can’t let her know I screwed up on practicing these spells! She’d fail me right away!” She took a deep breath. “Besides, this spell book says that any gravity-based spell will wear away within a day, that they can’t last indefinitely.” “Well, that’s not too bad. This time tomorrow, you’ll have your hooves on the ground and—” Twilight poked her hoof towards Spike. “But we have the Canterlot school delegates arriving tonight! I have to be there to greet them!” She reached out to the table to stop herself from tipping over. “Ugh! I can’t stay cooped up here for the day! And if I go out, I could just end up floating off to who-knows-where!” Spike scrunched his nose, scratching his chin. “Hmm, I may know a way...” “Oh, Celestia, why did I let you talk me into this?” Twilight groaned, turning her head to avoid the confused looks of other ponies. “Hey, you wanted to go outside, I got you there, right?” Spike said nonchalantly as he walked purposely through town. He held onto tightly to a rope that led around Twilight’s mid-section and tied there. Twilight floated along behind him, lazily spinning without control, like a little filly’s balloon at a celebration. “Ugh, I’m never going to live this down,” Twilight nagged. She spotted the colt from the Free Foal Press snap several pictures with his camera before ducking away into the crowd. “Oh great, and now all of Equestria will know!” “It’s not like you haven’t been photographed in embarrassing situations before, Twi,” Spike commented. Twilight tried to give Spike a bop on his head, but just missed and unintentionally spun herself on a new axis. “Just get us over to Applejack’s, I’m sure she’ll have an idea.” Twilight said, closing her eyes to avoid getting vertigo from the rotation.