A few miles outside the Ponyville borders lies a range filled with mountains, most of which have been mined out and abandoned. Between two of these mountains lies an untouched field that can only be accessed by either flying high over the terrain then down its crevasse, or by taking a secret tunnel located in an old mining vain.
Since the area is surrounded by the rocky walls, it’s a great place to either hide or just go unnoticed for a while. Ryne loved to spend his time here whenever he just wanted to get away from it all.
The field itself was mostly comprised of tall grass. There were some trees here and there, but a majority of them were located on the edge, close to the mountains. There was one tree close to the center, but it was overshadowed by the giant boulder that rested directly in the middle of this tiny slice of paradise.
Whenever Ryne visited this place, he always took a second to decide whether he would sit under the boulder or the tree. A useless ritual on his part since he always went for the tree. It provided more shade, and from under it, he could always see the huge rock just ahead of him which acted as a makeshift sundial, so he always knew what time it was.
Such was the case even now as Ryne was busy hiding under the tree across his boulder going over the events that had transpired for the past few days. It had been almost 72 hours since his visit to the human world, and still, he had a hard time believing it was anything but a realistic dream.
It would be some time before any real change would happen, but for the time being, Ryne felt content in the knowledge that he at least tried to spark some change in the hearts and minds of the Equestrian populace. Ever since then, with his true identity revealed, and his new tendency to walk the streets as a Changeling, Ryne felt as if everything he did was done for the very first time all over again. He met his neighbors again for the very first time, he went to the corner store for the very first time, he practiced music for the very first time, and indeed he went to his secret spot for the very first time.
Funnily enough, everyone he ever knew, from close personal friends to slight acquaintances, now knew he was changeling and on occasion even got the chance to see him in his real form. But none of them drew attention to that fact, or at least to any significant degree. No one treated him any differently than before, except for the quick congrats on making it on the show, and most of the time, they treated him not as a hero or as villain, but just same as they always did, with maybe a brighter smile. Ryne loved every minute of it.
But out of all the recent events, one in particular kept him up at nights. He racked his brain over and over again about this particular topic, and in truth, so did a lot of other ponies, they were just too respectful to say anything about it... all except for Vinyl who nearly tackled him when he came home to address it out of curiosity.
“Hey Pyggy! Did you like, get a ton of love from the show?” Ryne remembers her asking. “So like what’s the deal? How strong are ya now?”
To her credit, it was a valid question that not even Ryne knew the answer to. Whenever a Changeling feeds on someone’s love, the feeling they get from absorbing it is unique to that person, not unlike a fingerprint or one’s own DNA. One pony’s love might taste rather sweet and feel light in the system while someone else's can taste bitter and will feel heavy on the stomach. Ever since the interview, Ryne could feel countless different varieties of flavors swirling around his body, making him feel a constant tingling sensation that never went away.
Based on this, he assumed that the amount of love he received was a lot, but he had no way of quantifying it for sure. The only signs that he could properly identify as a result of this mass undertaking of power was the fact that his face was healed up, and also, his not being hungry for the past couple of days. Unbeknownst to him at the time, he had billions of different energy sources within him so strong that he could live thousands of lifetimes over and still not use up a one percent of his overall energy.
But Ryne didn’t know this because, except for his body subconsciously using it’s own resources to heal or feed, he refused to actually tap into his newly acquired reserve of energy. The reason being was he was terrified of what it might do to him. For all he knew, the second he did, he would explode or something.
The thought that his own Queen risking her life, and quite nearly getting captured, in the process of trying to get the love from the “Daily Show” audience told Ryne that what he now had was not something to take lightly. Though it was mind boggling to him how Chrysalis got beaten to an inch of her life in a failed attempt to steal the very same power that was practically handed to him by Jon.
The more he thought about it, the more his curiosity started to get the better of him, much in the same fashion that he feared this new power might do. Though he wasn’t fooling anyone... the real reason he came to his secret spot wasn’t to hide from ponies who had already accepted him for who he was, but to test this new source of energy where no one could get hurt. It was now time.
“Ok Ryne, you can do this.” He said as he stood to his feet. “Just take deep... breaths.” His body was ready to undergo the next step, but his mind was hesitant. The last time a Changeling came into a vast amount of love power, she nearly took over Canterlot.
“No... this is different. You’re not like her... you never were.” Ryne reminded himself as he continued to breath deep. “And you never... ever... WILL!”
Ask any yoga instructor, and they’ll tell you the key to controlling one's energy is a through a combination of mind, body, and spirit. Only when you relax and control your breathing can this happen and with Ryne he did just that. When he opened himself up the power that was sleeping inside of him, it instantly flowed to his entire body like a broken dam releasing a torrent of water. For the briefest of moments, Ryne felt as if his stomach would explode, but eventually the odd sensation subsided leaving him feeling as normal as ever.
“There.” He thought. “I... I did it.”
With heavy breath Ryne began to examine himself to see if everything was alright, and to his relief, he was fine. His body hadn’t changed nor did he feel mentally unstable or anything of that nature, he just felt the same as he always did which, in a sense, left him feeling anti-climatic. Did it work? Was the love power now fully integrated within him? How could he tell? What could he now do? All of these questions plagued young Ryne’s mind all eventually silenced when a new idea popped into his head.
“I wonder.” Ryne thought, as he turned around to see the tree where he usually leaned on. It was both an excellent source of shade as well as a decent enough cover, so that anyone who was flying overhead wouldn't see him through the thick fold of leaves and branches.
Slowly, Ryne approached it and began to examine it’s texture. It was a huge tree with deep roots, so it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. This gave him an idea.
“Well.” Ryne mumbled to himself as he carefully lifted one leg parallel to it much like how a dog would prepare to do it’s business. “Here goes nothing.”
As hard as he could, Ryne threw his legs back against the tree to see how much force he could apply on it’s surface, a task which would have gone more smoothly had he’d actually been looking at the tree. Rather than observing first hand himself, Ryne winced his eyes shut and looked away. This meant that he didn’t see anything happen, but soon after his eyes shot back opened once he heard the sound of something exploding, followed by what felt like rain.
Startled by this sudden occurrence, Ryne jolted from his starting place and turned around only to witness something that shocked and terrified him. The tree in which he was so accustomed to hiding under had been yanked out from the ground, root by root, and was now clear across the field, shattered into thousands of pieces where it terminated on the side of the mountain.
Even at that moment, as he stared at the spot on the wall which now had a large gash on it’s surface, thousands of tiny sized toothpicks rained all around him.
“YAH!” Ryne screamed as he fell to his back and, in a panic, began to crawl away from the scene as if the person who did all this was now after him. He managed to carry himself a few feet away before bumping his head on some kind of large object behind him. When he turned around to investigate what it was, he found that it was in fact the boulder in the middle of the field which he had originally turned down in favor of the tree.
Bumping his head against the its hard surface was just the trick to get Ryne to momentarily calm down and catch his breath, which was difficult since he felt as if he was in the middle of a war zone. After the rain of splinters finally came to an end, he slowly lifted himself up with some help from the boulder.
Taking a moment to collect his thoughts, Ryne was trying to convince himself that what had happened had no connection to him. Since he didn’t actually see the tree explode against the side of the mountain, he had a hard time believing it was because of him. Yet at the same time, he knew it couldn't have been anyone else... he was all alone with no one even knowing he was here.
Ryne’s right hoof was still pressed up against the boulder from when he helped himself up. Another, similar, idea came to mind. He was going to perform another test, and this time he was going to see if this power of his was real or not.
Slowly he took back his hoof and, like a fat cat trying to lazily swat a toy, gently wiped the side of the boulder in an upwards motion like he was trying to brush some lint off of it. This time, Ryne had his eyes glued to the massive rock to make sure to record if anything happened, and to his surprise, something did.
Like before, a great sound, closely resembling a crash, echoed throughout the valley, and within the blink of an eye, the boulder was no longer planted deeply into the the earth, but was now hurtling into the sky wildly, like someone had lit some explosives under it.
“DEAR SWEET CELESTIA!” Ryne yelled as he witnessed the large chunk of rock get as high as it could before slowly coming back down to earth. For reasons that were unknown to Ryne at the time, his body acted on his own in the form of him arching himself back and spreading his wings. Without even thinking about it, he flew as fast as he could towards it with arms spread over his head.
Like before, everything happened so quickly that his brain didn’t have time to register what was going on, but now Ryne soon found himself, inexplicably, almost as high up in the sky as the mountains so quickly, his eyes couldn't even keep up.
Now, Ryne considered himself a decent enough flyer. He could probably fly from Ponyville to Cloudsdale in less than a half hour, but he was no Rainbow Dash, which is why he was so surprised that he went from on the ground to 1000 feet in the air in less than a second. If some other pony were watching, they would be forgiven for thinking he had just teleported, but that wasn’t the case. Ryne had in fact flown up on nothing but his own gumption.
This wasn’t what surprised him the most however. What really got Ryne shaking in his Swiss cheese feet was the fact that, in his hooves, he was now carrying the large boulder he had moments ago sent flying into the sky. Ryne could see that he was holding it, but his brain couldn't make the logical connection. It was at least twenty times his size and weighed well over two tons, but he was holding it like it was nothing.
This, coupled with his apparent super speed, was enough of a shock that he yelped and quickly let go of boulder like it was a piece of white hot coal in his hooves. As it tumbled back down earth Ryne just stayed where he was, hovering in mid-air trying to make sense of what was happening to him.
“How... how is this possible.” He thought. With terrified eyes, he looked down at his own hooves, which didn't have a scratch on them. As his mind began to wonder, he heard something resembling someone crying.
Looking past his hooves, he saw what was causing it. Back down in the field, there was a rabbit napping on the ground while another rabbit was anxiously trying to get him to wake up. How Ryne even saw or heard them from such a high up altitude he didn't know, but he began to realize what the other rabbit was so worried about. At that moment, the very same boulder that Ryne had dropped was heading towards them.
“Shit!” Thought Ryne as he quickly acted on instincts yet again. Flying at a slight angle, Ryne nose dived back towards solid ground at the spot where the one rabbit was still obviously asleep. Like before, he got there in less then it took to even think, only this time the results were very different. He managed to grab both rabbits in his hooves with ease, but in the process he landed on solid ground with such force that he created what could only be described as a crater, only instead of a comet from space, Ryne had caused it.
The crater was about a 100 feet in radius, and was deep enough that he could just barely see over the edge, but that wasn’t the only result of his ground pound. In addition a small tremor was released into the earth causing all manner of animals in the area to scurry off in shock.
Rather than wasting any time pondering the consequences of his actions or staring idly into nothingness, Ryne quickly addressed the two small animals currently in his hooves.
“Are you guys alright!” He asked. The one rabbit that was asleep was now awake and trembling while the other looked like he was trying to tell him something through hand gestures. “W-whats wrong?”
Clearly annoyed, the one rabbit slapped Ryne across the face and pointed upwards just above his head. Following his paw, he saw what he was so worried about. In his hubris, Ryne had completely forgotten about the boulder that was still falling directly towards him.
It was no less than fifteen feet away and getting closer at a faster rate. For a moment, all Ryne could do was stare at it’s enclosing mass like a deer caught in someone’s headlights. The sound (and the pain of being once again being slapped across the face) of the rabbit trying to get his attention snapped him out of his trance, but he was too frightened to move. So he did what he thought was a good idea at the time, he quickly tucked the two scared mammals under his stomach and ducked his head in anticipation.
The way he saw it, he was the cause of this impending doom, so he had to do whatever it took to make sure no one got hurt. With gritted teeth and clenched eyes, he waited for the inevitable to happen. Soon after, there was a sound like something smashing against a hard surface. The sound was so close to Ryne that his ears slightly rang as a result, but oddly enough, he felt nothing.
Something was off. After a full minute had passed, a very confused Ryne lifted his head to see what had happened. He was still alive, but the boulder should have, and by the sound of it, had already made contact long ago.
He looked up at the sight of dozens of wildlife critters starting at him. Tentatively, he looked to his left and there he saw the boulder laying on the ground just a few inches away.
“Phew!” Ryne sighed as he wiped the sweat of his brow. “That was close.”
With an expression of relief on his face, he looked back down the pair of animals he risked his life for. Both of them shared the same look of disbelief as the other animals surrounding the crater. The more abusive one then lifted his paw and directed Ryne to look to his right. He did so whereupon he saw the same boulder again only a few inches away.
It took him awhile, but Ryne finally put two and two together. The Boulder didn’t miss him, in fact, it had directly landed on him, and as a result, was split in two by his newly fortified exoskeleton which apparently, with the help of his new energy, now had the properties of diamond. This made Ryne drop his two bunny friends as he had now lost the feeling in his limbs. He didn’t even feel the giant rock crack against his body, and yet, there it was, split perfectly down the middle like it was nothing.
Ever since he left the human world, Ryne had a lot to think about, and thanks to this little experiment of his, he had even more on his plate to consider.
“So this is it?” Ryne asked himself. “This is what Chrysalis tried so desperately to obtain.”
From where he sat, he looked all around him at the evidence of his new power. The tree which was no longer rooted into the ground, but was now a pile of scrap wood. The crack on the side of the mountain. The crater just beneath his feet, which had made all nearby debris fly away, and of course the boulder which was no longer partially buried underground, but was now cut in half.
Again, Ryne looked down at his hooves and came to the conclusion that yes, yes this was all him, and that yes, this was because of the love he had unknowingly consumed while on the Daily Show. The love and power of billions of humans and ponies were now circulating in his system, and even with this impressive display of strength, he hadn’t even used a fraction of a percent of it all.
“Wow.” Ryne said as he lowered his hooves and looked up into the skies. “Well... at least I don’t have to go to strip clubs anymore.”