//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 
// Story: The Equestrian Chronicle 
// by Souldrainr 
//------------------------------//

	The trek through Ponyville proved to be far less eventful than Andrew had expected it to be. The few locals that happened to be out and about at this hour following the strange events of the past few days were either too busy or too nervous to confront the duo. Andrew found the whole thing rather humorous, actually. These ponies were perfectly content making a ruckus about him when he was confined within a hospital room and surrounded by guards, yet here they were now trying their hardest to avoid his gaze. He recalled how some of the local populace seemed to be afraid of him, referring to him as a "monster". Well, it's not like they were that far from the truth... Others however, seemed to acknowledge him as the one that stopped the storm, or was it a hurricane? Either way he had to give himself a mental pat on the back for taking such action. What better way to introduce yourself to an alien world full of unknown creatures with unknown motives than by getting on their good side as quick as possible, just in case.

Truth be told, he was enjoying the attention. Though that's not to say he would be letting it get to his head... Dear God, never again.

Just a few minutes after passing the last building in Ponyville, they were already fast approaching their destination, the Everfree forest only a few hundred yards in front of them. But there was something peculiar about it that immediately caught the human's eye. He had noticed it before, but only now saw that it was situated directly above the eerie canopy, not a single cloud was exiting the area occupied by the forest. The clouds above the sea of trees were moving of their own volition in stark contrast to the stillness of the rest of the sky.

"Why are the clouds around the forest normal? Like, my Earth normal?" Andrew questioned, breaking the awkward silence that had hung over them since their departure from the library. "If you're supposed to control the weather, how is that going on? Are going to go into the forest?" He found the idea appealing, wondering if maybe there was anything else so Earth-like within the woodland.

As he spoke, Twilight turned her neck to glance at the human before setting her gaze up toward the sky. As to be expected, the clouds above the Everfree made their way across Celestia's blue canvas at a snail's pace, as they usually did. "Well," she started, "no, we won't be going into the forest, it's especially dangerous this time of year. Early spring is mating season for Timberwolves and Manticores in particular, they become extremely aggressive and territorial during this time, sometimes going so far as to take on predators much bigger than themselves for encroaching on their land. As for the clouds, you mentioned that your world handles its own weather, but you never really elaborated on how." She had every intention of getting that bit of information out of him at some point today. The only reason she chose not to press him on the matter the previous day was to give him as much time as he needed to rest. "The Everfree is a special case," she continued, "we have no idea how it makes and controls its own weather, as it's generally too dangerous to try and study it up close for any prolonged period of time. Honestly I wouldn't at all be surprised if it's similar to your world's method, whatever that may be, but on a much smaller scale. If anything that would just be even more evidence in favor of our parallel worlds theory. Too many coincidences stacked up just aren't coincidences anymore!" She couldn't contain the excitement in her voice, the very idea that an entire planet's weather could be self sustaining was so wonderfully illogical, she would speaking with Andrew about the topic for hours on end if she could have her way.

"Like forks?" He replied.

"Like forks." She echoed. Though that did still bothered her somewhat, the way his hands looked handling his utensils was simply too... natural, to simply be some sort of parallel between their worlds. Now that she had some time to think about it, forks and knifes were counter intuitively designed when it comes to being used with hooves, whereas Andrew had mentions forks on his world were specifically engineered to fit perfectly in the grip of a human hand. Forks in Equestria, as far as he could tell, were no different from those on Earth.

Jokes aside, Andrew knew how the weather must work in the forest, probably anyways. You never really know when magic is involved. Evaporation of whatever bodies of water residing in the Everfree made the clouds, which condensed until there was too much to hold before raining it back down, third grade science really... Of course, there was the fact that all the clouds seemed to swirl lazily in a circle, never leaving the perimeter of sky above the woods, like they were scared that if they left the safety of their little section of the heavens they would lose their freedom of movement, forever bound by the unnatural forces of nature that governed the rest of the land until a wandering Pegasus could end their plight. Unlucky for the unicorn however, he wasn't here to talk third grade science, so he refrained from pursuing the topic any further. He muttered a simple, "oh," and left it at that. 

A few moments later, they came to a stop a half a dozen yards from the woodland's edge. They stood in a grassy plain completely littered with rocks ranging from small pebbles to enormous boulders the size of cars. Using her magic, Twilight cleared a small rectangular area to her left of stones before loosening the clasp of her satchel. Upon opening the bag, she retrieved a quill, the enormous scroll she wrote on earlier, a red notebook, and a lavender blanket. Spreading the cloth out, she lowered it to the now mostly green patch of earth before setting down her supplies on it.

"I'm guessing whatever we're doing involves rocks...?" He guessed with a tinge of sarcasm.

"Yes!" She answered promptly as she focused intently on levitating several large boulders, seemingly oblivious to his tone. She gently began to set them down next to a thick car-sized slab of rock that was leaning against the mossy bark of a tree in descending size, the slab being on the right. "This field is popular in Ponyville," she started while scanning their surroundings, as if in search of something. "Well, more like infamous really, for being used by teen colt and filly unicorns to fool around with their magic. I assure you though, everything to come today will be purely academic in nature. Before moving on to how your magi.. well ability, interacts with magic, we need to take a baseline approach in measuring it. Take care of all the fundamentals as they would normally apply with regular magic, In this case, telekinesis. Today we're going to be testing your raw strength, finesse, ability to multitask, and varying combinations of the three." She glanced back at him with a smile, "I like to call it the telekinetic trifecta. One of my friends, Rarity, is especially gifted in the finesse department. Being a seamstress, that's exactly the kind of thing that she would need. On that note, if anypony is talented enough to make new clothes for an entirely new species, it's going be her."

Andrew examined his clothing, all he had were his white undershirt, dark grey zip hoodie, and grey jeans. His shoes were nothing special either, just his usual grey brand-less sneakers. Indeed, he never was much for variety, and even if he was it wasn't like there was money around that couldn't better be put towards his mother's medicine. Presently though, he could definitely get behind the idea of owning more than a single pair of underwear. "Is she another one of the elements?" He asked.

"Of generosity, yes." She replied matter of factually. "Everypony but Rainbow, Pinkie and I have been out of town lately but I'm sure they've already read the news regarding Ponyville's new resident alien and will be coming back any day now."

Andrew hummed in thought as Twilight got back to her work. Fondly remembering how Steve had complimented him on his finesse when he was first seen manipulating his camera using his telekinesis. Surely he had the strength as well seeing as he was strong enough to effortlessly lift a double decker bus. Not to mention all the added weight from.. the passengers. Which he then proceeded to ram into his best friend only to then further sandwich between said vehicle and a building... He dispelled the thought into the back of his mind. What is done is done, all he can do now is tough it out and move on, it's what his mother would have wanted.

"I'm stronger than this." He muttered to himself

Hearing the whisper behind her, Twilight turned to see a despondent Andrew facing the ground with closed eyes, hands in his sweater pockets. She was about to open her mouth to ask if he was alright but was preemptively interrupted by a loud POP above the pair. Looking up, they were greeted by the sight of a very bemused spirit of chaos.

Snapping out of his brooding state, Andrew stared at Discord in confusion. There was a thick layer of white smeared across the draconequus's chest. A sort of cream perhaps? "Is that... frosting?" He asked incredulously.

Twilight covered her mouth with a hoof in a failed attempt to stifle her giggling. She was very aware of her mentors admittedly unhealthy fondness for all things cake.

"I take it she didn't like what you had to say?" Andrew guessed.

Discord's mismatched eyes shifted to glare at the boy. Bringing his right lion paw to his hip, he pulled a handkerchief out of what could only be thin air before casually swiping it across his furry chest, the frosting disappearing behind it, as if the frosting was merely a layer in Photoshop that had been deleted, leaving only the clean, untouched Discord in its wake. Andrew raised an eyebrow at the display, but knew better than to question how that worked, if he ever saw or experienced anything particularly out of the ordinary, he could probably just chalk it up to "magic". He would wager that more often than not, he would be right on the ball with such an assumption. Conventional physics need not apply here, after all.

With a flick of his wrist, Discord cast aside the stained cloth, which promptly evaporated into smoke upon hitting the ground. "Ugh... don't get me started." He heaved, hovering down until his limp legs were mere inches above the ground. "I mean, sure, her reaction when she saw who was swimming in her tea was priceless... But once I passed along your message she just went on and on on the sociopolitical," he made air quotes to emphasize his point, "ramifications of inviting a changeling to the gathering of the five nations. Then she went on about how poorly the populace would react to the information once it's undoubtedly leaked. Oh for the love of me I nearly died of boredom before she finally finished arguing with herself and agreed to allow the queen a seat at the table. Suffice to say, she wasn't pleased about it, but she sent out an emergency envoy to the badlands at full speed. IF Chrysalis is still in the badlands, she will more than likely get the message and be brought to the capital in time. Assuming she wants to come at all."

Twilight frowned, but otherwise gave no reaction to what sh had heard. She really wanted to say something about how Celestia had a point in the matter. The changeling invasion should still be somewhat fresh in the minds of everypony in Canterlot, of course there would be some sort of panic if word got out that the leader of that very invasion was returning. But seeing as how Celestia was going to go through with it, she must have some sort of plan to quell the fear that would otherwise run rampant should she allow it to become a rumor. She complete and utter faith in her mentor.

"Sounds good." Andrew commented, he was genuinely curious to know what exactly it was about these changelings that made all these ponies so scared of them. Well, he was more excited about the dragon, but that goes without saying. He looked over behind Twilight towards the collection of rocks and boulders that she had set up along the edge of the forest, there were nine in all, spaced out with about a foot from one another. On the far left was a rock the size of a golf ball, to the far right was the slab roughly the size of a smart car. The whole thing ran parallel to the tree line, measuring about thirty feet from end to end. He made eye contact with the unicorn and said, "guess that means we should get started." He gestured behind the mare.

"Umm, right" She agreed, trotting over to Andrew's left before turning back around to face her hoof work. "To start us off, I would like you levitate this rock." Instead of gesturing with her hoof, she chose instead to encompass the rock on the far left in her magenta aura and lifting it off the ground momentarily. She also produced her notebook and quill from the blanket, ready to note-take at a moments notice.

He gave the mare an incredulous look that silently asked "are you serious", which was met with a sheepish smile in return. It should be obvious that he was capable of far more than lifting a silly little rock. Nevertheless, he shrugged inwardly, assuming there must be something to this that was going over his head, if it meant learning more about his powers, he may as well play along.

Without even moving from his standing position between Discord and Twilight, or even making any kind of gesture that would indicate what it was he was about to do, Andrew exerted his will upon the piece of detritus. Slowly, silently, and with no visual indication that it was being affected by outside forces besides its gravity defying movement, the rough stone raised itself above the ground and proceeded to streak its way across the field and into Andrew's now waiting left palm. He twirled the rock in his hand absentmindedly, waiting for more instructions.

"Sorry," Twilight said after she finished her writing, "I understand that this is probably a simple task for you, but we need to record how easily you can levitate objects of various sizes. What you did with the storm, while definitely quite the spectacle to behold with how the clouds reacted when coming into contact with your mag-err ability," she corrected. "It isn't quite that difficult to accomplish for an above average unicorn. What you did is probably the equivalent of this." She sidestepped away from the pair and set her horn aglow. As the intensity of her horn's luminescence rose, the light expanded in the form of a transparent magenta sphere. The bubble itself continued to grow in size, covering her horn, head, and eventually engulfing her entire body and beyond. By the time it finished growing, she was within a bubble that extended about two feet around her in all directions. "For an experienced unicorn, a field like this isn't too difficult to maintain for even a prolonged period of time." She lifted a fore-hoof and pointed at something behind the human.

Following the direction of her hoof, Andrew and Discord looked beyond the collection of buildings that comprised Ponyville and towards one of the many mountains that surrounded the quaint town. Along the side of one such peak was a city, or the vague visage of one when looked at from this distance, while the details weren't quite clear from here, he could tell that it was much larger than it appeared. He had seen it before when he was flying into the storm, but that was nothing more than a passing glance. He wondered if that was where the meeting was going to take place. If so, he doubted it was going to be indoors since a dragon was going to be in attendance. Of course, that begs the question of how big dragons could even get in the first place. As much as he wanted to get an answer from Twilight then and there, he didn't mind waiting a few days. After all, the dragon lord was probably going to be stupendously large, more than likely the largest dragon alive. He wanted to be surprised.

"That's Canterlot, capital of Equestria and where I grew up as a filly." Twilight continued, breaking the human's train of thought. "My older brother is captain of the celestial royal guards and was tasked with maintaining a force field around the entire city. It isn't very hard to create a large field of magic, or even a force field, but more about the duration of it's use. This bubble I'm making right now isn't even solid, just a sort of a force field without the 'force' to back it up."

To illustrate her point, she levitated a pebble from the ground around her hooves and threw it to the side, passing it through the bubble with zero resistance. "Of course, a simple projection of my magic in this form doesn't quite say how strong my magic is in general, so you can understand why we need to go through all of this." She smiled and cut off her magic. The bubble quickly dissolving from the top downwards as it was deprived of its source of power. "The size of the field absolutely plays a part, the fact that you were able to make one so large is very commendable in its own right, even if it was short lived, and since your ability seems to dissolve magic on contact you had no need to make it solid."

"Yeah, I think I understand what you mean." Andrew nodded. He never actually tried projecting a telekinetic blast without some sort of weight behind it, but the idea made sense to him. In fact, the blast he emitted to take out the storm was probably strong enough to blow away dozens of trucks if they happened to be around him at the time, but he refrained from mentioning that to her. Mostly due to not wanting to explain the concept of automobiles and how they worked. He was also interested in the fact that her brother actually managed to cover an entire city. He wasn't certain if he could say the same, though he had never actually attempted it. And If Celestia really could literally control the sun, he did NOT want to get on her bad side, magic-immune or not.

Although, if all Twilight needed right now was to see how heavy a rock he was capable of lifting, why not just get right to it instead of starting at the bottom? He crossed his arms and glanced at the line of rocks before looking back at the unicorn. "I mean, I know I can lift that boulder over there, I've done heavier even," he pointed to the rock on the far right, "so can't I just lift that so we can move on to the next test?" He asked.

Twilight frowned, she didn't like the idea of skipping steps, but she supposed in this case since all that was being measured was his strength, there was nothing particularly wrong with getting right to the weight that he was confident with. "Ok," she agreed, "do whatever you feel most comfortable doing. She readied her quill, noting that the slab was approximately 1800 lbs (816 kg). Glancing at Discord, she saw that he was seated in a white plastic chair, a red umbrella stuck into the ground protecting him from the rather mild morning sun. He's been suspiciously quiet for awhile now. Andrew however... was smiling.

There was no doubt in her mind that what she was looking at was a genuine, bona fide smile. She was going to jokingly mention her surprise that he was even capable of the expression, but thought better of it. Pointing that out would probably be the quickest way to erase his apparent happiness. Better to just leave him be, hopefully he'll come around completely as he grows more comfortable in Ponyville.

Just now noticing that Andrew was eyeing her, she nodded in response to the unspoken question, pressing her quill to the paper in preparation.

As if on cue, Andrew began surveying his surroundings, as if taking in every possible detail of the rocky plain. "She did say to do whatever was most comfortable." He thought. Taking a deep breath through his mouth, he raised his arms from against his sides slightly, open palms facing the ground. Dust and rock began to rise into the air in the area immediately surrounding the human, forming a cloud of detritus. A moment later, the area under Andrew's influence began to expand, as the diameter increased, progressively more rock and less dirt began to rise.

The quill's strokes against the parchment appeared sporadic with the speed at which Twilight was writing. While initially Andrew appeared to merely used the equivalent of an area of effect spell around his feet, it quickly became clear that what he was doing was far more complicated as not only did he extend the area of effect, but limit it to only the solid materials on the surface and nothing more. "Can he actually change the parameters if his powers in the same way a unicorn does a spell? Or is he actually micromanaging every individual piece of earth She furiously jotted down her thoughts, even as the ever increasing area approached her. She made an audible "eap!" as she felt a pressure against her right forehoof, tilting her head to see the cause she saw a pebble making its way straight into the air against her leg. She tried to grab it only to instead encase it within its own personal cloud of sizzling white smoke, the rock otherwise ignoring her magical influence. As it rose above her head, it began to make its way toward the treeline. Wait no, EVERY rock made it's way toward the treeline, and that was not an exaggeration. The formerly rocky field was now half grass and half patches of dirt. By the time she looked back at her assortment of boulders, The 1800 lb slab was nonchalantly hovering above the treeline as the eight others attached themselves around it.

It took all of Twilight's willpower not to ignore her notes and simply look on as the air was blanketed in a thin veil of grey. The sea of earth moving toward and blanketing the boulders in a sphere made up of thousands of what amounted to mere pebbles, the boulders no longer visible.

"Did I pass?" She heard the human ask.

She glanced at Andrew, whose gaze was on his work, right arm outstretched. A bead of sweat was running down the side of his face, whether it was because he was reaching his limit or from the intense focus he needed to maintain she did not know.

"Throw it!" Discord quipped from the sidelines.

"No!" Twilight yelled as her mind snapped back into focus. She had no idea how strong Andrew was, but Zecora's hut was only a mile deep in the forest, it if landed there, or if she was out collecting herbs and...

Too late.

By the time the words left her mouth, Andrew had already pulled the amalgamation of earth higher into the air and proceeded to fling it in a broad arc deep into the forest, the sphere quickly lost its shape as the individual pieces began to spread out, taking on the shape of a small scale meteor shower just before disappearing below the green canopy. A series of crunches and crashes could heard in the distance from what could be assumed to be trees being felled.

Andrew grinned at his handywork, he wasn't even sure if he could manage to take hold of so many individual rocks. The closest he had been to this level of multitasking was when he had levitated several dozen phones, tablets, and cameras just a few days ago. That is, ignoring the time that had passed between his... impalement, and his awakening in the hospital. It may have felt like a few days to him, but for all he knew, weeks or even months had passed back on Earth. Any further musings were cut short however, as the air was filled with a chorus of applause that could rival a football stadium moments after a game-winning touchdown.

"Bravo! Bravo!" The draconequus cheered as he lavishly waltzed into Andrew's field of view, his hands were clapping with such speed that they left afterimages, giving the appearance that his arms branched out at the elbows into dozens, if not hundreds of individual limbs all clapping together. He could have sworn he saw two of the countless arms exchanging a gold coin for a hot dog.

"Good show!" Discord continued as the grand applause began to die down, the blur in front of him dying down until only two, solid looking hands were left, they too stopping as they came to rest at his sides. "A plus, my boy, A plus! What say you ms. Sparkle? Did he pass with flying colors or did he leave the visible spectrum of light in the dust?"

It took a moment for the mare to finally pry her eyes away from the treetops in front of them, which blocked off the view of the rest of the forest, but when she did, her face was full of not surprise, or joy, but fright and anxiousness. Her notes lay abandoned in the ground, half a sentence ending in a broad stroke of ink down the page.

"We need to find Zecora!" She yelled pleadingly. She answered Andrew's question before he had the chance to speak. "She's a friend of mine that lives in the Everfree and you threw the boulder in the direction of her hut! We have to make sure she's safe. Follow me!" She hesitated for only a moment before galloping into the forest.

Andrew observed silently as the forest swallowed the mare whole, as if the trees tried with all their might to move their branched and close off the path behind her but failed due to their floral properties, and not for lack of trying. 


***


"Oh, my god, I can see your head is, like exploding right now." Matt replied from the driver's seat. They had just left the school talent show, which Andrew unequivocally dominated thanks to his rather unorthodox... talent.

"What?" Andrew replied, unsure of what his cousin was trying to say.

"This is the beginning of your downfall -hubris- right there." Matt stated.

"What is 'hubris'?" He replied, more for the nonexistent audience behind his camera than himself. Of course he knew what hubris meant, some Greek literature was par for the course in English 2.

Matt laughs, whether it was mocking or not Andrew couldn't tell. "No, what does 'hubris' mean?" He repeated in a more serious tone.

"Seriously?" Matt questioned?


***


Andrew looked to Discord, who just shrugged. Cursing under his breath, he sprinted after the mare.

"This is what I get for showing off again huh?" he mused.