//------------------------------// // 4.3 // Story: How Hard Could it Be? // by Richardson //------------------------------// 4.3 “How in the-“Berry’s curse of dismay was cut short as he remembered that he was in the presence of foals. The polychromatic pegasus had been far understating the mess they were left with when she had called on them for help. The trio were well and truly trapped within a snarl of wires wrapped about them like the briars of the Everfree. Carefully, he maneuvered around the pegasus—Rainbow Dash, he reminded himself—and the two fillies anxiously fidgeting circles around the mess; sneaking up was out of the question with his clomping metal hooves. What a mess. Rarity was just as he remembered her. He had met the fashionata when she had fitted him with his custom dress uniform a few years before, and had flirted with her just a little too vigorously. It had taken a great deal of awkward effort to escape her afterwards—come to think of it, why did he keep on bludgeoning himself upside the head by getting too flirty? Her sparkling white coat was rather ruffed up and bunched up from the test lead wires wrapped around her along every angle, even wrapping up her muzzle somehow. They had to be tight enough to cut off circulation, and as she wriggled once more he wondered just how much play he had to work with, a wrong move could start cutting into flesh. “Well, this is just a right sorry pickled mess.” He grumpily complained for the sake of getting it off of his chest as he leaned in behind Rarity’s head to inspect the wrapped multilayered knots around the drakeling tied up nose to nose with her. Was he blushing and rubbing her nose? “Auuugh! This is going to take forever to fix!” Twilight’s stamping and stomping in frustration was rendered in a Doppler-like effect as she teleported across the room in an unusual burst of multicolored dusky magic to the input console. As she pulled all the wires out to start trying to follow them through the knotted pattern, she shouted back across the room. “What happened?” Scootaloo scrunched and wriggled her muzzle, finally freeing her mouth just enough to spit out her explanation. “Spike found a diagram you made for putting these on me. Rarity thought she could handle it and follow the pattern, but she started pulling my feathers by accident and then crazy happened.” She was exhausted, judging by her voice, and a note of exasperation and frustration under laid her words as she leaned back into the near-cocoon of wires. Sweetie nodded nervously, picking up where her friend left off. “And then Scootaloo tripped and got herself all tied up, and Rarity got her hooves wrapped up while trying to undo the knots, and Spike tried but couldn’t do it and got all wrapped up with Rarity and now they both get all blushing and mumbling crazy-talk like we fed them love poison and we just don’t know what to do!” Sweetie’s worried babble slowly ramped up into a whine of worry at the end as she buried her head in her sister’s side and yelled into the soft, downy fur there. Applebloom just shook her head helplessly, staying well back from the mess she wanted no part of. Twilight looked around Scootaloo, catching the corner of Spike’s eyes. “Hey, lover-dragon, you’ve still got two more years, no funny ideas.” He and Rarity both sighed sadly as Twilight popped their romantic moment bubble. Berry turned to Dash with an upraised eyebrow, silently inquiring her with more than one implied question. “Hey, don’t look at me! I’m hopeless with this stuff.” She waved her hooves and hovered away as Berry’s other eyebrow climbed and his slow smile displayed his shark-like grin of mischievousness. Any plans of future mischief were dispelled with a hoof-jab to the belly from Sunbeam as she brushed by him to examine the trio. Poking the strands arrayed around Rarity’s hindquarters yielded no slack at all, a result only backed up with a whine from the fashion pony as she squirmed as weakly as she could manage from the pressure. “Twilight, I think it would be best if you didn’t even try.” “What? We always try!” “It isn’t always best. Look at them, it’s gotten so tight that any attempt might start cutting into them before we can get them loose.” Sunbeam continued, talking over Scootaloo’s protests just before a movement tightened the strands back around her muzzle. “If I didn’t know better, I would say they were enchanted. We’re going to have to just cut the wires.” Twilight trotted up with the free lengths of the test leads in neat spools. “Sunbeam, it can’t possibly be that bad. If we have to, we could teleport them out or I could carefully shield them while we undo the strands.” Lighting her horn, she went to work attempting her solutions. Dismay etched in as she watched her careful magic slide off of her friends or soak into the wiring, making them writhe with a life of their own. “No… no, no!” A second corona of bright magic, closer to her old shades lit around her horn as she tried both solutions at once, failing once more as her magic instead grounded into the crystal of her Fortress and lit up the walls in her colors. “This isn’t right. Ugh, we can’t cut these wires because it will take two weeks to get a new set in if we’re lucky! They shouldn’t be doing this.” Berry touched the end of a lead as he crouched down to inspect them. His nostrils flared; a familiar scent was in the room. “Yes they should. I recognize this now. It’s happened to me before.” He let the lead tip slide off of his hoof to fall to the floor with a delicate tinkle of metal on crystal. Sunbeam frowned, taking a knee to look at the lead Berry had inspected as a cold suspicion trickled in her. “Where, Captain?” “Chaos magic.” “What!?” Five voices and three muffled grumbles all shouted at once. “No, not Discord.” Berry reassured as he stood up and ran his hoof along a wire tightly running around Rarity’s leg into the tight knot at her hooves. Now that he felt it, the strumming magic beat couldn’t be missed as it enveloped all three of the unlucky ponies. “It comes from me.” “You’re gonna have to back up and start explaining, pal.” Dash rubbed her forelegs up and down each other as she got ready to get some answers. Rolling his eyes at her implied threat, he rolled his explanation right on over her as soon as she was done. “I was born because of chaos magic from the creation of seaponies flaring up in my bloodline once more. I make a bit of it all the time, it’s all mixed up with my normal magic and getting everywhere in a wide radius all around me. It’s benign, mostly. Mixed with normal harmonious pony magic, it causes random events to occur and challenge ponies around me.” Now that he knew what to feel for, he pulled a single wire, slackening the overall morass of metal strands enough to pull most of them away from direct skin contact for Rarity and Scootaloo. As the two of them sighed with relief from the pressure, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom shared a worried look. Applebloom chuckled to herself insincerely, and cocked her head slightly. “Say, that’s kinda interesting, mister. Could ya, uh, get them free then?” “Maybe. If I can find the right point to tug it might take me an hour or two to undo-“ “-Because Scootaloo there really, really, really needs to use the little filly’s room, and I can’t imagine Miss Rarity is doing too well, either.” Applebloom apologetically added, patting her friend insensitively on the side of her belly, earning a grunt from her orange friend. With a sigh of frustration, Berry ground his hoof against his face and resisted the urge to move back to Trottingham. “Aye, that just tears it.” Berry gave up his plan, tapping on his hind-legs in a single spot to expose a hidden pocket with tools wrapped on a rotating cylinder around his ‘bone’. Out came a pair of wire cutters as he got ready to start cutting out the filly from the mess. “Wish we had more time then.” “Wait, you said this was supposed to be turned into a challenge, right?” Dash stalled, not wanting to see Scootaloo waiting another two weeks to fly while she waited on a diagnostic. “Aye.” “Which means there is supposed to be a right way to solve it, right?” Dash hovered around the group and looked across Scootaloo at Berry. “Aye, there usually is.” Berry pointedly stared at Sunbeam who only looked back for a moment before trotting around to Twilight so she wouldn’t have to look him in the eyes. He couldn’t make her reveal her song-spell nature, and she wanted that aspect to remain firmly associated with her ‘real’ self. Might as well explain, since he had a good idea of the best way to fix things. “Usually, the best way involves getting somepony to do something they were afraid to do or reluctant to do that is in their better interest.” He hummed a few bars, feeling the answering strum from the sections of wire free-standing between the ponies and drakeling. “Like a song-spell.” Sweetie Belle sighed ashamedly, sitting down and bowing her head. “It’s me. I’m the one.” A hoof wandered up to her throat and rubbed it as she contemplated her rotten luck. Why did she have to be the one who did everything wrong? Thinking back, she wondered if she had a bit of seapony in her, like Berry. It would explain all the bad things. “I was just so happy this morning that I couldn’t help myself. I started humming to myself just as the sun was coming up, then everything started going wrong. Especially in here. It had to be me.” Sunbeam’s wings wrapped around Sweetie’s body, lifting her chin up with their tips. “It’s not your fault, Sweetie Belle.” Berry slowly clip-clopped around Rarity to join the pair, ignoring the white mare’s squeaks of dismay and muffled rumbles of indignation as she finally got a good look at him and remembered his name. Sitting down before Sweetie Belle, he twitched a smile at the corner of his mouth as he nodded to her to do her thing. “Lass, are you saying that you are a song-spell?” “Yes.” Sunbeam brushed down the back of Sweetie’s head, smoothing her mane. The cool crystal of the floor chilled through their fur as Sunbeam let her work up courage. “She is. She may be the most powerful song-spell since Luna, maybe stronger than Celestia.” So there was the rub; if she was that strong she had probably already set off an event, she had to be terrified of herself just as Sunbeam was terrified of her own secret. “So you’re the one, then.” He hoped that nopony else saw the terror he was sure was hiding in his eyes as he brushed back Sweetie Belle’s bangs. The striking green that her eyes and horn glowed with as she held her power seemed familiar in a way that he couldn’t explain. Maybe it was like the deep forest awakening in spring. “There isn’t anything to worry about, lass. It’s a power to be respected, but you can control it.” Sweetie Belle looked up, and flinched as she saw his fear. “I made 2 plus 2 equal fish.” Blink. “I have no idea what that means.” Rarity whimpered a little as the slack that Berry had pulled free was lost, somehow retightening. The trio’s wriggles slowed as the wires started pulling into their fur and scales again to hold them fast. There wasn’t any more time then. Berry turned back to Sunbeam and glared at her over the filly, keeping Sweetie from seeing his irritation with the mare of disguise behind her. “Sunny, I need your help. Celestia taught me, but since she’s too busy to be here, you have to step in. I know next to nothing since I’m so weak with it, she needs you.” He ignored the gasps from the other ponies as he roughly poked the old pegasus in her chest hard enough to rock her. Sweetie looked up from where she was sandwiched between, whimpering a little. Berry forced himself to remain calm and looked her in the eyes as her bangs fell back in a curly mess. Bending down, he looked at her nose to nose and tweaked her nose. “You can fix this, little one. What’s your name; Sweetie Belle, right?” Sweetie nodded apprehensively as the gazes of everypony who could look in her direction fell upon her. The pressure was driving her to critical distraction, it was freaking her out, it was—gone as Sunbeam cupped her wings around her and Berry, cutting off the gazes. She spoke hesitantly, swallowing back her fears. “I’m afraid. I might hurt them more. I always screw up.” Sunbeam’s voice crooned with an elderly wisdom that seemed beyond her years, whispering down into Sweetie’s ears like the siren call of the Elements as they pulsed through their counterparts in the throne room below. “There is a chance you can screw up in anything. It’s present in everything everypony does. But what is important in life is overcoming that fear, bettering that fear and mastering it.” Sunbeam’s legs slowly flanked the filly, squeezing her close between them. “Buttering fear? That makes no sense.” Sweetie innocently corrected, having not gotten the last part. Leaning down until her chin rested on top of Sweetie’s head, Sunbeam continued, giving her strength. “Nevermind, Sweetie Belle. Before, I made you sing without direction. Let me guide you this time. I promise that no matter what happens, you won’t hurt them with my help. I won’t hurt you again, I’ve learned from my mistake.” “O-okay.” Sweetie squeaked before taking deep breaths for her warmup. A last set of glances passed between Berry and Sunbeam, glances hearkening back to the days she had taught him in both of her guises. Time slowed almost imperceptibly—the poor old thing had never been the same since Starswirl had first taken it into a back alley. From deep in his core, Berry hummed forth the beat of his soul. A spritely tune merry and mischievous, beating with life to infuse into the wires to work to their will. The beat tapped down along the length of Sweetie’s horn, vibrating it and tickling the core of her magic as she apprehensively called upon it. Sunbeam, watching the pulses rolling from Sweetie, kept whispering quietly into her ears. “Concentrate. Concentrate on my voice, and focus on the wires. I can guide, but you will lead. Your will is here, rise with it.” Sweetie panted raggedly as the energy building in the world shivered in her legs; it called to her to join with it and wash her cares away. All was merry; stop worrying. Let her friends sort themselves. Berry kept quietly humming, providing the carrier for Sweetie to work on as Sunbeam wrapped the tips of her wings around Sweetie’s forelegs to stop them and anchor her. “Hold the beat of life in your mind. Can you feel them? The wires are replying. They want to relax, you want to them to relax. To stop constricting. The world hears your call, it wants to move to your beat. You don’t need words, just the intent to be at peace. Just the change.” She chanted into Sweetie’s ear, building what Sweetie needed in her mind. The fire lit within the filly, blazing in her mind. Not a roaring, raging forest fire; it was a kiln, forging her will, burning away the things she didn’t want done. The filly was getting there, focusing on what needed to relax, but she had not connected yet; she still held back the tide despite how close she was. Dash’s jaw dropped as the power began to leak from the filly; eddies of color oozing forth in shimmering ribbons of life: mixed in gold, in green, and in blue. The facets of the crystalline walls heard the sub-vocal hum building in her and began to sparkle one by one, shimmering like waves upon a crystal sea beneath their hooves and above their head. The aurora of light built around them, and a call could be heard in it. No words, no sound as they knew it, but a call to let what would happen carry forth. Twilight behind Dash lit her horn, trying to build up a charge of magic to ward off a surge should Sweetie lose control once more. The shimmer of will bent around her, shivered around her, a touch of hurt warmth that seemed offended that she would fight it. It spread wider; it grew brighter. The hogtied trio looked around again and again as the lights formed a cocoon of energy around them, and as the wires surrounding them warmed in the creeping tide. “Sweetie Belle, Ah hope ya’ve got this.” Applebloom apprehensively warned as the magic began to lift the ponies all around into the air and caress every strand of their fur. The words disrupted Sweetie’s concentration, bouncing around in her head. Her magic twitched and writhed lightly as she lost focus, disrupted by the pulses of thought caused by the words. “Hold on, not yet.” Sunbeam corrected as a fierce urgency trembled in her words. The aurora spreading forth from Sweetie waivered more and began to distort as she lost the tune, forcing Sunbeam to take up the slack and push it back into her mind. “Focus on the beat now!” She whispered between unmarked stanzas. “It is the beat of wild, friendly life! It is life that just wanted to prank ponies harmlessly. Sing with it, call to it. The life has disappointed you, scold it. It has wronged your friends and family, tell it to let them go. Tell it to relax, to sleep, and to let us act again!” Sunbeam directed her new protégé, waiting anxiously as she helped keen the edge of Sweetie’s nameless song into a razor edge in her mind. The flicker of the auroras stopped, and then it Changed. Opening her eyes once more, Sweetie Sang from the very base of her soul as her eyes glowed with a bright and unfathomable power. Green fire danced along the wires, infusing reluctant life into them; a painless primal aura of her power shone itself in them as they wriggled in movement. Tight bonds grew slack as the crystal walls glittered and reflected the storm of essence rising from the filly, rushing from the filly, touching everypony in the room with the resounding wordless song of her heart given form. She sang, pouring herself into the wish that all the life in the room could get along, whether it be made or born; wishing and asking it all to relax, let her friends go. She didn’t need to see it, she could feel it in the rhythm of the world as her accidental spell reversed itself. The green-fire aurora around the trio burned brighter as the knots all loosened gently, shivering and hesitantly squirming free of them in a gentle movement. With her crescendo the wires coiled themselves nicely, laying down into folded bunches patiently waiting the time when they were needed once more as the magic faded and the lights dimmed out with the world drinking back its magic. Sweetie closed her eyes once more as she trailed off into silence; a false silence as she heard a lyrical beat of youthful folly in her heart. Her song, awakened from its slumber by her call. It was so beautiful. She let out the last deep breath she had been holding and opened her eyes, belatedly realizing she may have overdone the ‘relax and be still’ bridge. “Uh-oh.” “Maybe just a little much.” Sunbeam concluded as she observed their results. All save for her, Sweetie, and Berry had fallen prey to the hypnotic qualities of the bespelled song. Sprawled out in every direction, the ponies—and drakeling—were all so relaxed and limp that they more resembled half-melted wax figures puddled on the floor than their normal selves. Limbs limply laid over neighbors in noodly fashion, adding to the appearance of being melted as a chorus of snores and sleepy noises were murmured. With trepidation, Sweetie reached out from within the feathery embrace of Sunbeam and poked her sister, who mumbled incoherently and flicked an ear. “Is she going to be okay?” “Oh yes, I think.” Sunbeam said as she smiled proudly at her student’s triumph. “Well now, Ah-“ Berry tried to pick up his accent once more with the crisis passed, stopping midsentence as Sunbeam lightly thwacked him on the back of his head over Sweetie’s innocent objection. Rubbing the sore spot, he gave Sunbeam a good-natured glare and tried again. “Well now, I think that worked nicely enough. Excellent control for a beginner, but this should be a good lesson on the first rule.” He poked Rarity on the nose and rubbed over her chest, smirking at her sleepy incoherent death threats as she drooled on her leg. “F-first rule?” Sunbeam rubbed the filly’s sides, soothing her back down from her nervous state as she lectured from memory. “Intent matters. A wordless song-spell is heavily influenced by your intended result and the imagery in your head when you sing it. An incomplete spell, or one unfocused by thoughts usually will fail, but can result in horrifying unintended consequences, particularly in a stressful situat-Smack me.” Berry obliged with a whip-crack of his tail to her sides. “Hey, that’s not nice! Just because she asked for it doesn’t mean you should do it!” Sunbeam shook her head and smiled. “No, that was for forgetting the rule when I first tested your talent. I don’t know what you were thinking of, but forcing you to be blank likely let the song itself take over your mind and cast itself through you. Worded spells are more nuanced, as you might recall if you remember Twilight becoming an alicorn. But they carry risks as well.” Sunbeam pointed to Twilight, letting Sweetie follow the point of her outstretched hoof to the purple princess. Poor Twilight laid half-curled on her side with a wing floppily dangled back from her back as she unhappily grumbled and shifted. “Mm… Smartypants… no-wait. I-mmmn-spreadsheets.” “Oh dear. She’s having spreadsheet dreams again.” Sunbeam worriedly mused as she remembered the odd, sleepless nights when Twilight had tried to balance the royal accounts better so she could buy more ice cream for the both of them. Stepping out from behind the young new song-spell, she came to Twilight’s side and gently folded the wing back into a resting positon before humming into her ear as she rubbed her sides to push her back down into a dreamless sleep. “As you can see, your intent to relax the wires was cast a little widely, and relaxed everypony around you instead of just your intended targets.” “So, they’re going to be okay, right?” “Sleepy-sleepysleepy.” Rainbow Dash sleep-talked, snoring like a thousand-pony chorus of tiny lumberjacks in a half-flooded whistle factory. “Aye. If I haven’t missed my guess, it’ll be their best nap ever, I would think.”