Knowing that I couldn’t do much more useful today, I decided to do another search of the minds of this world while on top of Ponyville's town hall. I closed my eyes and and focused on the psychic fields that suffused the world unnoticed by all but a lucky few. It was a world of colors and sounds amongst a vast void, or at least that’s the best I could describe it without making someone experience it. In this state I could see the general state of the minds without going very deep. I could receive basic empathic feedback, general rationality, and what kind of mind it was. I could not know the exact location of any individual mind, and sleeping minds were too dim to glean any information when reading on such a large scale. Of course the ancient sleepers were easy to find, the were massive blobs of green, red, and blue, but completely unreadable.
Most of the minds were very stable, pun not intended. It’s always good to see this world so clear of truly dangerous psychoses. I’d seen too many sociopaths and paranoid schizophrenics one thousand years ago, I guess Celestia did a excellent job in that respect. As I expanded my range, three similarly powerful finds came into view and they immediately vanished. I knew that they didn’t die, if they had they would have slowly faded from my awareness. I searched some more, but couldn’t find them; Whatever they were, they were incredibly skilled in the psychic arts. They had sensed my presence and shut me out, something that would only work from a great distance or when I’m scanning this broadly. I was only going to keep an eye out for these three, because they weren’t a priority right now.
All in all, not much of significance., I thought just before I heard a crash. I looked around see the source and it was a construction project falling apart. Surprisingly, it used what appeared to be steel girders, something the workers likely had little experience with explaining why it couldn’t even stay up under its current weight. I was about to intervene when a multi colored streak, primarily blue, and a streak of darker purple ducked through the falling wreckage to collect the workers. Perfect I thought with unfathomable sarcasm, This trainwreck of a lesson.
I spent the next few hours watching as Rainbow Dash became more obsessed with this Mysterious Mare-Do-Well and began to create crises to make herself look better. What surprised me the most was that she couldn’t see the inherent flaw with her friends plan: Where the hell did a new Alicorn come from and how did she hide her wings for so long? If she took five seconds to think it through she’d realize that it has to be more than one pony doing this. Of course being Rainbow, it took right up until the final chase to start raising these types of question.
I simply waited until the laugh that would lead into the closing credits to float above them giving them all a disapproving glare. ”A valiant attempt at teaching a friend to keep their ego in check, and deal with praise better, but it ultimately falls flat.” I said darkly.
They all looked at me different levels of fear plastered on their faces for a few seconds. Oddly Fluttershy mumbled the question in all their minds first, “What do you mean?”
”I glad you asked. See when you were discussing the not-so-Mysterious Mare-Do-Well’s exploits, you each praised your contribution inflating and showing your own ego problems. I would have had Fluttershy praise Rarity’s costume, considering she has decent ability when it comes to being a seamstress. Pinkie could have extolled Fluttershy’s graceful flying. Applejack, Pinkie’s speed and reflexes. Rarity, Twilight’s magical prowess and dedication. And Twilight, Applejack’s strength. As it is you failed to address the problem, giving others the recognition they deserve. And all this because Rainbow Dash was showboating a bit, you could have waited until tomorrow where I could have crushed that ego down to size.” I sighed and shook my head before lazily floating away. I didn’t even turn back to add, You all are going to join her in high gravity training tomorrow, no excuses will be tolerated so be at the racing field by sun up.
“Why should any of us show up?” Twilight asked as she chased after me.
”Because I gave them all nightmares that will show them what could happen if they don’t show.” I said looking directly ahead.
“Wouldn’t Luna get upset at you about that?” Twilight’s voice now rife with concern, mostly about a friend upsetting a princess.
”I should hope not. There is nothing wrong with a few nightmares. They’re how our brain teaches us to cope with the worst live has to offer. The problem comes when we don’t cope and it we only having that same dream. That means the natural fear has turned into an unhealthy phobia or obsession. Luna’s job is to help in these cases, to help the children cope with the fears they can’t understand and aid the obsessed to let it go.”
Now that she was satisfied with that explanation she continued, “I thought tomorrow we could do some lab experiments, check for magical resonances, figure out how your powers actually work.”
Still looking straight forward I responded, ”No, I couldn’t stand to be strapped into that torture device you call an EEG. The library would likely end up a smoking pile of rouble.”
Pinkie shouted from somewhere, “It wasn’t very fun when she made me do it either!”
”I will teach you a bit about energy density tomorrow though. Think of it as one of the differences between the magic of a unicorn and that of an alicorn.” I smiled as I thought of the lesson.
Just then I heard Cresselia contact me psychically, I am closing in on the Sky Guardian, but it would appear that his dwelling moves very erratically on it’s own.
We’re not in that much of a rush, but try not to wake him up yet. I responded.
Twilight seemed to notice my focus shift to somewhere far away, “Are you okay?” she asked.
I looked at her affecting a warm smile, ”I’m fine, I just got an update from a friend… I let my smile return to a somber frown, ”I also feel that I should inform you I won’t need to stay with you much longer. I feel uncomfortable living in what comparatively feels like the lap of luxury, I’m used to living in the wilderness. I’ll still be nearby, there’s a cave in the Everfree that I used to stay in when I was in this area.”
Twilight’s face became the epitome of fear as she froze mid stride, I just responded, ”I never met a single creature from Everfree Forest that was anywhere near a match for me. Once I move back in, I doubt anything would be stupid enough to come close to my cave.”
She still frozen from fear so I just dragged her back to Golden Oaks and made sure she and Spike got to be early, she was going to have a long day tomorrow.