//------------------------------// // 136. Magical Mystery Cure - Part 1 // Story: Blaze the Pony Tale // by Wolven5 //------------------------------// It had been quite a while since the Crystal Empire had been chosen to host the Equestria Games. The friends in Ponyville went on as they did, going to a Pinkie Party at least once a week for even the silliest occasion, Blueblood was getting close to completing a new airship he intended to give to Ponyville as a flight service, Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane continued to co-captain their town weather team, Soarin was getting close to completing his degree, Fluttershy and Big Macintosh were starting to get serious with their wedding plans, Rarity managed to wrangle the Cutie-Mark Crusaders into helping her with her new colts & fillies line (she had to promise a favor each to Rumble and Scootaloo while Sweetie Belle managed to drag Button Mash into it), Applejack recently did a catering service with the Cakes at Sugarcube Corner, and Twilight and Midnight carried on with their magical studies. In fact, a while back, Prince Sombra had given Midnight a magic journal that enabled them immediate correspondence like a two-way radio. Whatever Midnight wrote into the journal would appear in a similar one Sombra had, and vice-versa. Through their correspondence, Midnight had learned a lot of new magical arts from his new master despite the Prince of Shadow not being present for the most part. Then he decided to incorporate what he had learned from both his teachers for an experiment in his workshop. It was late, the crickets a’chirping to the moon, and Midnight had just finished boiling three magical liquids on his stove. They were colorless and continued to bubble as he replaced them onto his worktable via telekinesis. At first glance, they might be mistaken for bowls of simmering hot water, but he had to act quickly before they cooled. He focused on the first bowl and cast upon it a Spell of Impact! The spell was meant to cause a magical effect to activate upon some kind of impact, and the bowl turned a purplish magenta. For the next bowl, he cast the Sphere of Influence Spell, which allowed for one to affect anything within a determined radius of space, and the liquid turned sunny yellow. Turning to the third bowl, he cast the last, but certainly not the least, spell, the Temporal Delay. This particular spell allowed one to slow time upon a target, making the target in question to appear to move slow, and the liquid turned a cyan color. The liquids were now imbued with the spell Midnight had cast upon them each, making them into literal liquid spells! He then levitated onto the table the mold-out he’d prepared and carefully a teaspoon’s worth of each liquid spell in the order he’d created them into the mold. His horn tingled as he felt the spells react and mix with each other, but he sensed no fluctuations, which meant there was no negative reaction. So far so good… As the mystical mixture began to cool, Midnight concentrated upon the Spell of Crystallization his master had sent him, his horn flaring as he chanted. The magic words flowed from his mouth, falling upon the mix like a cobweb blown from its moorings, glowing like dying candlelight. The liquid spells had mixed exactly as he had wanted, and he felt them coalesce, forming a crystal and then the spell was complete! Gingerly, he levitated the crystal to eye-level. It was no bigger than a robin’s egg, shimmered like opal, and looked like a star-cut gemstone! He smiled at his craftsmanship but he hadn’t made it to be a pretty bauble. The time had come to test it. Looking around his workshop, he noticed the spinning top toy his little brother had left the last time he was in his workshop. Resting on his desk, the top had a swirl pattern, and Midnight knew he’d found the perfect test subject! He cleared away a corner in the workshop and levitated the top over to it… and let it spin! He raised the crystal… and threw it! The crystal smacked against the wall and almost a split-second after it bounced off…! A bubble of turquoise energy erected, easily big enough to contain a stallion Big Macintosh’s size, and Midnight peered in. The top was still standing… it was still spinning! He knew, because he could see the swirl pattern slowly rotate! “I did it…!” he whispered in joyful awe. Rearing up, he flailed his front hooves, cheering, "I did it! My invention works! I-” Suddenly, he felt a familiar surge of power course through his body, specifically around his flank, his mind going as blank as his flank, leaving him unable to think! Tendrils of energy danced about without direction or rhythm throughout the workshop, everything inside shaking as though there were an earthquake, the magic intensifying…! *FLASH* And just like that, it was over, the light dimmed, and the workshop was in disarray. Objects, books, notes, everything scattered about and askew, a total mess! But now, it was empty of a certain blue unicorn. From afar, the Hooded Pony, having taken in the whole thing, smirked in satisfaction within the shadow of his hood, declared, "Finally! I thought he'd never leave..." The next morning, the crowing of the rooster stirred Big Mac from his slumber, and he sat up, yawning like a foghorn as he stretched out the morning cricks, and farted out the gas he'd been building up from last night's dinner. The workhorse snorted as he slid out of bed, noticing Celestia’s sun just beginning to rise over the horizon. He smiled at the simple yet inspiring beauty of the sunrise, wondering how nopony besides early-risers like him couldn’t take the time to appreciate the shining promise of a new day. “Eeyup,” he yawned again to clear out the last of sleep’s tempting haze, and started heading downstairs when he heard a crash from outside. He hurried out and gasped at what he saw! “Come… Ergh! On!” There was Pinkie Pie, attempting to drag a hay bale by the twine that held it together, only for it to come undone, and causing the hay to disperse from its nice compacted form into a mess. “Oh!” But it wasn’t that Pinkie was on his farm, trying and failing miserably to do farmwork, that got Big Mac’s attention. On her flank, where her blue and yellow balloons cutie-mark should have been was a familiar trio of apples instead! Applejack’s cutie-mark! “Uh… Pinkie?” Big Mac approached Pinkie Pie, who looked different besides her mismatched cutie-mark. Her normally poofy and untamable mane and tail were straightened out and looked droopy, as did Pinkie’s manner as she stood up and dusted herself off. “Oh, hey Big Mac… Ready for some early chores?” “Pinkie, what’re ya doin’ on mah farm?” Big Mac asked, “And what’s with tha’ cutie-mark?” “What’re you talking about, Big Macintosh?” Pinkie replied in an odd tone lacking any of her usually happy and positive peppiness. “I’m just doing what I’ve been doing ever since I got my cutie-mark.” “Well then, wh- Where’s Applejack, mah sister?!” Big Mac demanded. “Down at her clothing store, I guess,” Pinkie replied in monotone. “Now if you’re not gonna help me, I’m just gonna get back to work.” Big Mac watched , disturbed, as Pinkie attempted to pick up and carry all the askew hay. “Maybe Ah should talk t’ Midnight,” he decided. But when Big Mac went into his brothers’ room, he gasped to see Midnight’s bed was empty! Hurrying outside, Big Mac ran up to Pinkie, demanding, “Pinkie! Ah don’ know wha’s goin’ on with you, but right now Ah don’ care, cuz Ah need you t’ tell me where Midnight is!” “Midnight? Midnight who?” Pinkie looked at Big Mac, and the big red stallion, having a good sense of when someone was lying, was horrified to see Pinkie really had no idea of whom he was talking about!