//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Collision Course 
// Story: Lost Fate 
// by Fluxxdog 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 7: Collision Course

This was unique. Ivy had never heard of fields being cleared like this. One pushing the snow plow in front, one pulling the dirt plow behind that, and one following to plant seeds. Ivy had heard of the Apple family, and when they worked on something, they threw caution to the wind and dove in headfirst.
This was organized. It didn’t take long for her to learn that this was not solely directed by the Apples, but was designed by Twilight Sparkle herself, before she became a princess.
“YEAH!” The flag had been waved and the biggest pegasus she had ever seen had shouted from across the field. For her part, she’d be pulling a cart and planting seeds. This first run was carrots. She had others in her cart, and if things went well, by day’s end they’d all be planted. Tomorrow, they’d be watering the fields to ensure the seeds had enough to start growing.


Lookout was assigned lookout duty. A silver whistle around her neck, she was waiting for all the teams to be ready.
Ice scorers were busy and the animal wakers were stringing bells. Huh, she never thought of that. She was excited. The energy she had was limitless and unbound as she kept flitting around looking for signs to start. Because of the snowfall last night, the weather team had to do their clearing higher up first. Once the last team was ready, she’d blow the whistle and away they’d go.


Ink Nose walked up to Fluttershy. “How’s everything going?”
“Oh, it’s going well. We should be ready in about 15 minutes or so.”
“Excellent! That means Pinkie just has to get to her breaking point.”
“Breaking point? What do you mean?”
“Well, Twilight explained that we would need to wait a little longer as they were trying an experiment on one of the ponds. If it works, the ice for the water will be able to break into smaller pieces and melt quicker. She’s calling it Operation Breaking Point.”
“Oh, that would be lovely. The ducks would love to start swimming again.”
“Well, I’ll leave you to it. And nice to meet you… Fluttershy, right?”
“Yes, and a pleasure to meet you, Ink Nose.”


CRACK! They had scheduled an ice storm over the winter. CRACK! Apparently, someone had the cloud cover a little too heavy in this section. CRACK! Sledge went around, breaking the ice off trees so the squirrels could climb them. CRACK!
He was surprised. Usually, with coverage like this, some trees would end up breaking or falling against the storm. All these seemed rather healthy though. Didn’t think Ponyville was anything special, but apparently, they know how to do things around here.
CRACK!


The canopy was getting greener. He could see some of the vines, bushes, and other wild growth through the leaves.  The wind pushed against him, but it held no grip on him. Finally, he saw the flag.
He set down where so many birds had gathered. A small bluebird hopped up to him and tweeted questioningly.
“Uh, hi! I’m new. Name’s Slipwind, here to take you back to Ponyville.” The birds started chirping vibrantly around him. Yeah, he was going to love this delivery. “OK, listen up! The tailwind from the south is strong, but only at lower altitudes. I’m gonna fly up higher for those of you who can’t handle. You all ready?”
The birds chirped and tweeted like a stadium cheering the Wonderbolts.
“I can’t hear you! ARE YOU READY?!”
The birds were getting louder and starting to circle around him.
“LET’S GO!”


“So explain this to me... Cantrip was it?”
“Right. Following Clover the Clever’s dissertation on channeled circles, I got to thinking. What if her techniques were creating artificial ley lines?”
Twilight was intrigued. Her work could be interpreted that way, but it was quite the leap. “Go on.”
“Well, as artificial ley lines, they are really weak. Here you go Pinkie.” He finished casting the spell on Pinkie skates. “But, they have 2 similar properties. First, they are excellent for channeling and holding energy, like Clover’s original designs. Second, overlaps magnify power.” Pinkie was off scoring the ice of the small pond, with the occasional ‘whee!’
“I see where you’re going with this. If the lines overlap, we can use the junctions to surge the energy and split the ice further.”
“Well that’s the theory. Once Pinkie finishes, I’ll charge the lines and apply a simple force spell using the junctions.”
Pinkie didn’t take long to finish her work. “All done! So now you’re gonna blow it up, right?”
Twilight chuckled. “No Pinkie, it should just crack the ice further. If anything explodes, I’d be surprised.”
Spike just sat there, shaking his head. “It’s almost as if you’re asking ‘What could go wrong?’ And you know the answer to that.”
Cantrip started charging the scores with a faint blue energy. But something seemed wrong. “Well, I didn’t expect that. I can charge one direction of lines, but not the other. It’s like my own energy is blocking itself.”
Twilight nodded. “That makes sense. Natural ley lines only go one direction and never intersect with themselves. If the same theory applies, you can’t intersect your own ley lines. Tell you what, let me handle the other direction.” Twilight horn glowed, causing the other direction glow faintly purple. Where the lines crossed, the glow was noticeably brighter. Twilight suddenly looked apprehensive.
Cantrip seemed giddy. “It worked! Now all I have to do is apply the force spell to link the junctions and…”
Twilight’s eyes went wide. “Wait, don’t!”


Lookout was waiting for the last pond to finish. She was told she would be able to hear, if not see, when they were done. Something about a magical experiment. The animal wakers had signaled all clear. Most of the ponds and lakes were ready to go. Just one little…
The pond blew up, throwing ice and water straight up and back down.
Now THAT was a signal. Lookout blew her whistle and Rainbow Dash started her run.


They sat shivering, thoroughly drenched. Because the weather team had to make 2 runs to clear the skies, the sun wouldn’t be out for a while yet. Twilight, Spike, Pinkie, and Cantrip started a long walk to someplace warm. Any place.
Cantrip was also singed. “I don’t understand what happened. It literally blew up in my face!”
Twilight shivered and explained. “I didn’t think of it until I saw the junctions glowing. You short circuited the channels.”
“What? How?”
“Energy is always drawn off a ley line, but it never connects back to itself. Your artificial ley lines connected to each other. In other words, you forced ley lines to link themselves. It just overloaded the spell and, well, you know.”
“Huh. I never thought of that. It did go to proving my theory, though, for creating artificial ley lines.”
Twilight chuckled through the chills. “That it did. With your permission, I’d like to send notes on the experiment to researchers in Canterlot.”
Cantrip seemed wary, but he couldn’t think of a reason not to. “I’d be honored. Thank you.”
“I’m going to head back to the castle. Will you two be all right?”
Pinkie grabbed Cantrip and said, “No problem! When we get back to Sugarcube Corner, it’s emergency hot cocoa for us!”
“All right. Spike hop on. We’ll meet them for cocoa after we get dried off.”
As the princess flew off, they walked… well, Cantrip walked. Pinkie bounced.  And she was humming a little song to herself. He swore he heard under her breath, “’Cause tomorrow spring is here!”