19. Discoveries
Mike was scared. He didn't know what to do. Twilight had suddenly gone rigid and her eyes had lit up, shining with a bright white light. It was obviously something magical, but to Mike's mind it seemed more like Twilight was having a seizure.
Rushing up to the pony, Mike grabbed Twilight about her withers and gave her a shake. “Twilight!” He shouted. “Wake Up! Twilight!” Mike shook her more vigorously. “Please wake up. Can you hear me? Twilight!”
Suddenly the light left Twilight's eyes and the unnatural rigor left her body. She shook her head and blinked curiously at him. “Yes, Mike. I can hear you. Why are you shouting at me?”
Mike was flabbergasted at the very calmness of her reply. “Are you kidding?” He exclaimed, suddenly pulling her in for a hug. “Your eyes went really wide, all white and glowy. They were practically shooting out beams of light!”
Realizing that he was distraught, Mike made an effort to calm down by letting go of Twilight and pushing her back to her original position. Unable to let it go, Mike finished by telling Twilight how much she had upset him. “And then you just stood there, not moving and I couldn't get you to respond. You had me scared half to death, Twilight. I didn't know what was wrong with you.”
“It was nothing to worry about, Mike.” She replied with a smile. “I was using a memory-recall spell on myself, to see if I could remember anything from the night I arrived. It's a variation of some magic I encountered recently which allowed me to look at the past. The glowing eyes and trance-like state are just some unfortunate side effects. It was my mistake for not warning you ahead of time, for that I'm sorry.”
Despite her explanation, Mike still felt an urge to take a bite out of Twilight. I should just – let it go. I don't want to, but when it comes right down to it, Twilight and magic are inseparable. I'm just beating my head against the wall here. And she did just apologize.
“Well, I hope it was worth it.” Mike glowered at her. “You really had me scared. Seriously, that glowing eyes thing you did was really creepy.” Having spoken his mind, Mike's last bit of anger began to fade away.
“It was worth it, Mike.” Twilight's tail flicked, as if to emphasize her statement. “This is where I woke up, and I remembered seeing that rock there.”
Mike turned his head to glance at the rock in question some ten or twelve meters away. Abruptly his mind turned to the task which had brought them here in the first place. “Well then.” Mike said as he began to remove his backpack. “If everything's okay, let's get started.”
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After discussing their approach, it was decided that Mike would start photographing the clearing in a grid pattern, while Twilight would conduct a series of tests to determine if any type of magical residue was still present. They would begin at the end of the clearing where they were presently at, and work their way towards the rock which dominated the other end.
Mike began by setting up a grid for the clearing. Grabbing his Surveyors Tape and his hatchet out of his backpack, Mike made his way to the left side of the clearing and walked carefully along its edge until he drew level with the rock face. Taking his hatchet, Mike chopped off a limb from a nearby tree and quickly shaped it into a stake. After using his hatchet to pound the stake into the frozen ground, Mike attached the end of his surveyors tape to it.
Mike then retraced his steps down the side of the clearing, stretching the tape behind him. At the bottom corner, he made another stake and pounded it into the ground. Holding the tape taut, he wound it around the second stake several times so that it would not slip. Then he walked across the bottom of the clearing, pulling this stretch of tape across at a ninety degree angle from the first leg.
Another stake was placed at the bottom right corner of the clearing and a few extra wraps of the tape went around it to ensure that the third leg would be starting off at a 'foot' mark. A third and final run of tape went up the right side of the clearing until it came level with the rock face again. At this point a fourth and final stake allowed Mike to tie off his tape, completing the grid.
What Mike had accomplished was to lay out his measuring tape along three sides of a rectangle. The bottom part was not significant, but he had established and reasonably aligned a measuring tape running up each side of the clearing.
Mike now took out yet another tape measure from his backpack. This was one of the spring loaded self-retracting kind, used by handymen everywhere. Extending it carefully, he laid it out across the width of the clearing.
Twilight had been watching his efforts with some interest. “That's really quite clever, Mike. I was wondering how you would manage to take your photographs in any sort of a systematic manner. But you solved that by creating a set of rectangular coordinates that won't disturb the immediate area.”
Mike grinned at the purple Alicorn. “There's just one thing I haven't managed to solve.”
“Oh? What's that?” she asked, a smile hovering about her muzzle.
“How to straighten up the cross tape while keeping both ends aligned with the appropriate reference mark. Would you care to help me by grabbing one end? We just have to pull it taut while lining it up with the right marks. After that we can lower it down onto the snow.”
“I think I could manage that.” She lit up her horn, a faint rose glow enveloping the end of the tape.
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Twilight liked Mike's grid scheme so well that she quickly revised her own investigative procedure. Soon they were both working side by side. Mike would go first, setting up his camera and taking a picture of a featureless square of snow, with the yellow contractor's tape along the bottom edge of the photo to indicate its horizontal position relative to the clearing. At the same time Twilight attempted to detect any residual magic.
Once the preliminary steps had been taken care of (and carefully notarized in her ever present notepad), Twilight would project her magic upon the same area, causing the snow and ice to become invisible, allowing Mike to take a second photo of whatever lay beneath.
They had been going at it for a good while before Mike gave in to his curiosity and asked, “How are you doing that?” Seeing the questioning look that Twilight gave him, he clarified himself. “I mean, how are you making the snow invisible?”
“Oh, it's quite simple really, I saturate the snow crystals with magic and that allows me to adjust their index of refraction to be the same as the air which surrounds them.”
“The index of re-” began Mike, but then he paused to reflect on what she had said. “I was about to say that changing the index of refraction was impossible, that it's a fundamental property of the material, but then I remembered that magic was involved.”
Twilight bore a thoughtful look. “You know, you're probably right about it being a fundamental property of the material. I seem to remember reading that somewhere but I never really thought about it. Back home− I mean, back on Equus, virtually everything is altered in subtle ways under the influence of magic so we hardly ever think of it as having its own fundamental properties.”
“How do you mean?” Mike asked.
“Well−” Twilight thought for a moment. “Rainbows! A perfect example. The suffusion of a certain type of Pegasus magic into water will create Rainbow water. When exposed to light the liquid will separate itself into the spectrum of rainbow colors. It's then called Liquid Rainbow.”
Mike could not help but protest what to him was a ludicrous statement. “I find the notion of Liquid Rainbow somewhat hard to believe, Twilight. Here on Earth it's simple physics. Shorter wavelengths of light refract more strongly than the longer wavelengths of light. Thus white light passing at an angle through transparent media bends and gets separated into its spectral colors. It's just an intrinsic property of light that the blue light will bend at a sharper angle than the green, which bends sharper than the yellow and so on till we get to the red light which bends the least. The rainbow we see after a rain is simply the aggregate effect of light passing through the curved surface of countless water droplets suspended in the air. But the water is still just water.”
Twilight glared back at Mike. “All right. I'll prove it.” Twilight looked about for something, Mike wasn't sure what she wanted but before he could ask she exclaimed, “Aha! Perfect!” Mike turned his head, attempting to identify what Twilight had found only to see the cap from his thermos flying toward them from the vicinity of his backpack. Mike had no time to protest before it came to a stop between the two of them, hovering in the air, caught in Twilight's rosy magic glow.
Next, Twilight levitated a piece of ice and held it above the cup. Before Mike could even ask what she was doing, her horn pulsed brighter for a second, causing the ice to melt and dribble down into the cup as a tiny puddle of gently steaming water.
Next Twilight looked Mike in the eye, making sure she had his attention. “My friend Rainbow Dash lives in a very nice cloud home. When I was learning to fly she invited me over often. It's a very nice home and has several cloud-scaping features, most notable of which is its miniature rainbow-fall. One day I asked Rainbow Dash to show me how Pegasi make Rainbow water. It was quite simple really, simple that is - if you have Pegasus magic.”
Twilight extended her right wing and held it up beside the cup. Slowly the transparent liquid, nearly invisible at the bottom of the white cup turned an iridescent gray color and then – like bubbles of oil coalescing and floating up from the vinegar in a shaken bottle of salad dressing – the separate colors aggregated together, pulling themselves into colorful stripes. It looked for all the world like a true spectrum, with the colors blending smoothly and invisibly into each other.
“Liquid Rainbow.” stated Twilight. “It's quite real. Go ahead, try a little taste.”
“What? You want me to drink some weird chemicals?”
Twilight frowned. “It's just water, Mike. Water that's been infused with magic. That's the point I'm trying to make. Magic can alter some of the fundamental properties of matter, so much so that you would not recognize this water as being water. But underneath it all, it's still just water and it’s totally safe to drink.”
Now Mike felt guilty. He'd let his fear and paranoia run away with his mouth, almost stating outright that he did not trust Twilight. He'd practically called her a liar, and hadn't he promised himself that very morning she could count on him? “Alright, I'll try it.” Mike grabbed the cup from where it was levitating in midair. In one swift move he lifted the cup to his lips and downed its contents in a single gulp. There wasn't much really, just one or two cc's; barely enough to wet his mouth. But wet it, it most certainly did.
“Mike!” Twilight screamed loudly. “I told you to taste it – not drink it!”
Mike's mouth was suddenly assailed by the most intense sensations imaginable. The first one was heat. It was like he had been chewing one of those Ghost peppers he had heard about. Almost before he fully realized the heat searing his mouth, the sensation vanished and was replaced with tang, a sensation so strong that his face, lips and tongue were paralyzed. Tang was followed by a sour strong enough to make him think his entire head had shriveled up into a tiny prune. After sour came fresh, exploding in his mouth like a plutonium bomb, searing it with minty sensations. After fresh was cool, like a tall glass of liquid nitrogen on a hot summer's day, along with a brain freeze so intense his vision whited out. Strangest of all was the final sensation – electric. There was no good way to describe the electric sensation, because there was nothing good or familiar about it. It also had the effect of wiping away virtually any memory he had of it.
The sensations cycled through Mike repeatedly, heat – tang – sour – fresh – cool – electric – heat – tang – sour – fresh – cool – electric, like a demented merry-go-round he couldn't get off of, though with every cycle Mike thought he could feel the intensity reducing slightly. It wasn't all bad however, for even as the terrible sensations in his mouth slowly diminished, they began to diffuse into his body, blending into a feeling of generalized warmth and alertness throughout.
Despite the all-consuming activity in his mouth, Mike still had some sliver of awareness of Twilight. He could hear her monologuing, “What to do? What to do? C'mon, Twilight think!” But as his misery extended itself, Mike sort of lost track of Twilight and her monologue. He thought at one point that he heard her shout. “I've got it! Hold on, Mike.” But Mike was too out of it to give her any heed. He sank down onto his hands and knees, unable to spare the effort to stay on his feet.
After about the twentieth or thirtieth cycle (He had lost count) Mike was finally able to gasp out a single pitifully weak word. “-help!” Twilight had apparently been busy, because just as he uttered his plea she presented him with the same cup he had just recently drank from. “Here, take this, don't worry, it's just melted snow-water.”
Desperate for anything to alleviate his suffering, Mike took the proffered cup and sucked in a mouthful for a quick swish around his mouth before he spat it out again. The water he spat looked like cool-aid, spewing out in seven rainbow colors. Thankfully, the sensations in his mouth lessened immediately, now down to a tenth of their former strength.
Able to think again, Mike felt an enormous gratitude for Twilight's help. Now able to raise himself up to a kneeling position, Mike took another mouthful of water. Some swishing and even some gargling reduced the sensations even further. This time the water he spat out was nearly colorless.
Well, that wasn't the most idiotic thing I've ever done− Thought Mike, briefly remembering an incident in his pre-teens where he had jumped off a roof into a friend's backyard swimming pool, only to receive a fractured ankle for his efforts. −but it was a close second, or at least a solid third.
“What was that?” Mike demanded while panting breathlessly. “I thought I was going to die.” He drained the last of the water in the cup to commence his third swish and gargle.
“I'm so sorry, Mike.” Since he was kneeling, Twilight was able to look him straight in his eye. She had the most mournful expression he had ever seen, her ears were hanging low. “I never expected you to drink it like that. I only wanted you to take a tiny taste of it; not to drink the whole thing.”
“I thought you said it was only water?”
“It is only water.” Twilight sagged down in obvious frustration. “The spiciness comes from the absorbed magic. I just wanted you to try the tiniest little taste and learn about Liquid Rainbow's secondary characteristic. I'm so sorry; it's my fault for not warning you to be careful.”
Mike could still feel the 'spicy' sensations cycling through his mouth, though they had by now faded to a pallid echo of their former intensity. The sensation was still a distraction, but no longer enough to keep him from noticing how down Twilight was feeling.
Great! I just wanted to show her my support, and now I've caused her to get all depressed again.
Mike stretched out his hand, placing it under her muzzle to lift up her head so he could look her in the eye. “It wasn't your fault, Twilight. I'm the one who did something dumb. I should have given some thought as to why you wanted me to taste it in the first place. At the very least I could have asked you what to expect.”
Mike's speech seemed to perk up Twilight; at least her ears rose up again. “Thanks Mike. And you're right, that was dumb.” She had a tiny smile as she said the last.
“No. Thank you for that timely cup of water. Ugh.” Mike exclaimed. “It's still in my mouth. How about we take a break and have some lunch. Maybe some food will scrub away the taste of that stuff in my mouth. It's almost noon anyway.”
Twilight could feel her stomach rumbling at the mention of food. “Alright. That sounds like a good idea.”
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Mike reached into his backpack and pulled out the items he had prepared for their lunch break, laying them out on the broken snow. One of the items was a small blanket. “This is for you, Twilight. It's so you don't have to sit on the cold ice and snow.”
“That's very thoughtful. But it looks a little small for the two of us. Do you have a second blanket?”
“I'll be alright. These ski-pants are pretty warm, and practically waterproof. They'll serve as my own personal blanket.”
“Okay then.” Twilight took the blanket and shook it out so that it floated in midair like a magic carpet. Next she used her magic to flatten the snow in a square area next to where she was standing, lowering the blanket down on top of it. She made an effort to shake off the snow clinging to her hooves and fetlocks before stepping onto the blanket. Gingerly she sat down on the faux curly-lamb fabric. “This is nice and soft. I like it.” She said, while giving her hindquarters a little wiggle. Mike had to suppress a snort of laughter at the sight of her getting cozy like that.
Mike too was about to sit down across from Twilight when she held up a hoof. “Mike, if you'll step aside for just a moment, I can smooth out an area for you as well.” Bemused, Mike stepped back and in no time whatsoever the snow between Twilight and himself became smooth and flattened. Moving forward again he lowered himself and sat down cross-legged on the prepared area.
Uh-oh. He thought as his butt slowly began to slide sideways down a gentle slope until he hit the edge of the smoothed out area. Apparently Twilight's 'smoothing' had glazed the snow, and the slick nylon shell of his ski-pants was taking him for a ride. His face must have showed something of his surprise because Twilight suddenly burst out laughing.
While Mike's ride was short, certainly no more than half a meter, it was inconvenient because he was no longer seated directly across from Twilight. Grumbling, Mike got onto his feet again and sought some way to rectify the situation. He ended up kicking some additional snow onto his area. Meanwhile, Twilight had sufficiently recovered from her laughter to re-smooth the area. This time she took some care to level it and even made a slight depression in the portion where Mike would be seated.
After seating himself again and wiggling about to check that he would not be sliding off again, Mike spoke. “Thank you.” He gave a snort before commenting. “I suppose it was kind of funny.”
“Oh it certainly was.” she replied. “You should have seen the look on your face.” Twilight dissolved in a fit of giggles.
Mike took Twilight's distraction as an opportunity to reach over to his backpack and pull out the surprise he had been hoarding: a second thermos. Twisting off the thermos' lid revealed a second cup nestled within. It only took a moment for Mike to fill the cup with the container's steaming contents. Presenting the cup and its aromatic contents to Twilight he spoke a single word. “Soup?”
Twilight's eyes opened wide even as her nose twitched. “Oh yes, some hot soup would be really nice right now.” Her magic gently took the steaming cup out of Mike's hand (giving him that cool yet warm sensation in his fingertips again). Holding the cup up to her nose she took a deep sniff before sipping cautiously at the steaming brew. “Mmmm, Whinnestrone - one of my favorites.”
What!? Mike's mind spasmed briefly as he heard Twilight's unintended pun. He quickly realized that the soup was already known to Twilight.
After pouring and enjoying some soup for himself, Mike noticed that Twilight had already finished hers. He handed her one of the sandwiches he had packed and offered to refill her cup with more soup.
“Mm, this sandwich is good. What did you put into it?” she asked.
“What zee have zere ees a 'Chef Mikael' oreegeenal.” Mike replied with a cheesy French accent, while simultaneously twirling an imaginary curly mustache. “Zee zandwich ees made from zee finest Whole wheat bread, Izeberg lettuce, Suiss cheese and my most zpecial zecret ingredient.”
The pupils of Twilight's eyes expanded momentarily when he mentioned the Swiss cheese, but then returned to normal again. “There's cheese in this sandwich? Why didn't I notice it?”
“It's Swiss cheese, it has a white color and there's only a single slice of it in your sandwich so it's easy to overlook.” Mike considered Twilight's concern. “Twilight, do you have a problem with cheese or other dairy foods?”
“H-How do you mean?” She asked nervously. Mike's suspicions began to gel.
“Many people have a condition known as Lactose Intolerance. It's simply a genetic condition where, as they grow out of their childhood years their digestive systems stop producing an enzyme which is needed to digest the Lactose sugars found in Milk and Milk products such as Cheese.
“Whenever they eat those foods they can suffer a variety of symptoms ranging from excess gas, cramps, bloating and even diarrhea.” Mike paused to consider what he had just said, then grew embarrassed. “Eh, sorry. I forgot we were having lunch.”
“Eww.” Twilight drew back in disgust from Mike’s unpleasant description. “I most certainly don't have anything like that. In fact I don't think it's possible for a pony to develop such a condition. You see our digestive systems incorporate magic. As long as the magic is not disrupted then our digestion is fine.”
“I see.” Mike was intrigued. Perhaps that's why she doesn't have a massive abdomen like cows and horses do here on earth. Perhaps she has magically charged enzymes which directly break down foods such as hay without any bacterial fermentation.
“But still I see you have stopped eating that sandwich, Twilight. Do you not like cheese?”
“I used to love it.” Twilight whispered softly. “But now I'm afraid to eat it.” Mike could see that Twilight was reluctant to discuss the issue, so he decided to drop the subject.
“What's the secret ingredient?” Twilight asked suddenly.
“What?” Mike asked, having forgotten about his earlier playacting as a French chef.
“The secret ingredient, you said the sandwich had Cheese, Lettuce and a secret ingredient.”
Mike chuckled as he suddenly remembered. “It's just potato salad. I hope you’re not adverse to potatoes and mayonnaise.”
“No, I'm not.” She replied, taking a huge bite out of her sandwich, quickly devouring it. Mike was slightly amazed to how large a bite Twilight had.
After finishing her sandwich, Twilight immediately proceeded to finish her second cup of soup. Why is she in such a hurry all of a sudden? Mike wondered.
“I used to love cheese, Mike, until the day that love was taken away from me.” Mike was surprised that Twilight had returned to the subject of his earlier question; he thought she had dropped it. Hurriedly, he finished chewing so he could give Twilight his undivided attention.
“It happened about three years ago. I was in school having lunch with my friends, when as a prank, somepony set off a 'come to life' spell on all the cheese in the lunchroom. I was−” at this point Twilight gagged. Mike could see that she was fighting down what looked like a panic reaction. He started to get worried, but soon she had calmed herself down again.
“You see, I had just bitten off a rather large piece of Mouda when it happened. All the cheese in the room took on the characteristics and simulated behavior of soft gooey −cheesy− Amoeba." Twilight paused while she dealt with some particularly difficult memory.
“The cheesy amoeba spell had a guidance factor which directed it to move straight towards the heart of whichever pony it was closest to, an easy way to dirty a pony's coat. But while everypony else in the room was having fun, shrieking and running around trying to get away from the pursuing blobs of cheese that were attempting to get into their hair, I was choking. My cheese blob, being in my mouth already, went straight down my throat and into my lungs before I even knew what was happening.”
Mike was shocked speechless. Twilight continued. “Fortunately, the noise in the lunchroom attracted one of the instructors who saw that I was in trouble. I was doubly fortunate in that teleportation was the special talent of one of the other instructors. Within a minute she had teleported me to the hospital and the doctors saved my life. But I don't remember that part, I was unconscious by then.
“Ever since, Mike, I can't eat or look at cheese without remembering that incident.”
Though shocked and dismayed at Twilight's story Mike finally found his voice. “I'm so sorry, Twilight. If I had known I would never have put cheese in these sandwiches. Why didn't you simply remove it from your sandwich?”
“I've been working hard to overcome my fear, Mike. I've gotten to the point where I can now eat cheese again, especially if it's hidden or buried in a sandwich like you did with these. And yes I enjoyed the sandwich, cheese and all, so please don't apologize for putting the cheese into them.
“But melted cheese is the worst. The sight of it is almost more than I can bear.” Twilight's face bore a look of horrified disgust.
Mike sighed quietly to himself. Guess we won't be having French Onion Soup tonight.
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Despite Twilight's revelations, lunch ended up being a quick affair as it was a pretty cold day. The temperature felt like minus ten or thereabouts to Mike, and sitting on the snow was getting to be uncomfortable after about ten minutes. Mike turned to his backpack and removed the second thermos, or rather the one that had been strapped to the outside of the backpack.
Mike poured out another steaming cup of liquid and offered it again to Twilight. “No thanks, Mike, I'm good. After that meal I couldn't eat another...” Her voice trailed off with a pair of inquisitive sniffs as the wind playfully wafted the smell of hot chocolate over to her nose. “On the other hoof, some hot chocolate might help take the chill out of my flank.” She said, taking the cup out of Mike’s hand. Next she got up onto her hooves with a small groan.
“We're almost done.” Mike commented as he surveyed the progress they had made. “We've surveyed a little over two thirds of the clearing now.”
“I agree with you about that,” Twilight answered back, “but I hope we find something soon. We haven't found anything yet and I'm starting to get worried.” Mike could see a frantic expression starting to form on Twilight's face.
Mike downed the last of his hot chocolate before answering Twilight. “Twilight, I know you are feeling anxious, but please keep in mind what we have already found out. This is the site where you arrived, so there is something here to be discovered. And if we don't at first find it, that simply means that we haven’t been looking for it in the right way.”
Twilight stared down into the depths of her cup, the hot chocolate still faintly steaming in the frigid air. She raised her head and brought the cup to her lips, downing it all in one gulp. “You’re right, Mike. I am acting silly. Something big happened here and it's not reasonable to think we won't be able to find any evidence of it.”
“That's right. So how about we get back to work?” Mike replied while starting to pack up the remains of their lunch, mostly just a few wrappers and the two thermoses. Twilight stepped off the blanket, allowing Mike to pack that away as well.
Soon they were hard at work again, falling into their previous routine.
It was on the second to last pass before they would run up against the rock, that they encountered their first oddity. It appeared the moment that Twilight made the snow invisible and appeared to be nothing so much as a small scrap of paper hovering a few inches above the ground.
Twilight for her part drew in a breath and held it, as if astonished that they had found a clue. Mike wondered curiously as to why it was floating in midair until he realized that it was simply embedded in the now invisible snow, at which point he took a second photo. While Twilight undertook to perform several additional spells and sketch out a description of their find in her notepad, Mike returned to his backpack to fetch a handful of plastic freezer bags.
Returning again to the find he asked Twilight, “Have you found out anything about it?”
“Yes, it's a piece of paper from the Enchanted Book that sent me here. And clinging to it, is the most peculiar residual magic that I've ever come across. I'll need to study it more closely but I have nothing to carry it in.”
Upon hearing Twilight's complaint, Mike smiled and held out one of the freezer bags. “Will this do?”
Twilight looked curiously at the proffered item. “Well, I suppose we can roll up the paper fragment in that sheet of plastic. Yes it will do.”
Mike was confused by Twilight's reply until he realized that she had probably never encountered a plastic baggy before. “Uh, sorry.” Mike offered as he gripped and spread the two lips above the zip seal. The act of pulling the bag open elicited a gasp of astonishment from Twilight. “It's actually a re-sealable bag that's both airtight and waterproof.” Mike explained.
“That's incredible.” Twilight breathed. “Oh yes, I'm sure that will do nicely.” This time her agreement came with much more enthusiasm. “But there's still a problem. I can't use my magic to pick up the item. Doing so would only dilute and contaminate the residual magic clinging to it. Normally in such cases I would use either tweezers or a spatula to pick it up. But I don't have any such tools with me.”
“Tweezers huh?” Commented Mike. “Hold on. I think I may have a solution.” With that Mike returned to his backpack and extracted his hatchet again. A short trip into the surrounding bush allowed Mike to obtain several sticks which he was able to whittle down into a crude pair of chopsticks. They weren't symmetrical, in fact one of the pair was nearly as wide as a butter knife, but that did not matter, since Mike wasn't going to be eating with them.
Returning to Twilight, Mike held up his new cutlery for her perusal. “I suppose the wide one could be used like a spatula. But the other is too narrow to be of much use,” she said.
“Watch and learn, Twilight. Watch and learn.” Mike made a fist and struck the snow directly over the paper, cracking the crust of ice. After picking off the larger chunks of ice, he removed his glove and held the chopsticks in the classic Asian style. “There are nations on Earth which from ancient times have never known forks. Instead they used two sticks, similar to these to pick up and convey bites of food to their mouths.” Mike carefully jabbed his chopsticks through the invisible snow and clamped them down upon the hapless fragment of paper. “Whenever I go to a Chinese restaurant, I prefer to eat using chopsticks.”
Mike withdrew his chopsticks from the snow, the paper fragment now held victoriously between them. Twilight's eyes were wide with interest as Mike continued his story. “I always thought it was more fun to eat ethnic food with the appropriate ethnic utensils.”
“And thus, I learned how to use chopsticks.” Mike concluded as he held a plastic baggy in one hand and inserted the end of his chopsticks inside before releasing the paper fragment. A second later and he had swiped the zip seal to hermetically seal in their trophy. “There you go, Twilight.” Mike held out the baggy.
“Thanks Mike. And good work with those chop sticks.” Twilight complemented him. “But could I ask you to hang onto that? I don't want my magic to get anywhere near that sample just yet.”
“Sure Twilight. Not a problem.”
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Finishing their scan of the clearing should have taken the two of them no more than five minutes. However, that first scrap of paper was the herald for a veritable storm of paper scraps. Twilight's initial scans indicated that they all had some form of residual magic clinging to them. In the end they had managed to collect some twenty eight paper fragments.
While Mike kept himself busy snapping photographs, collecting and bagging the multitude of paper scraps, Twilight had been kept busy recording all of the details surrounding their placement and the order in which they were collected.
Mike heaved a sigh of relief as they finished their last scan. “Whew! I'm glad that's over with. For a while I thought we would run out of baggies.”
“So am I Mike. And though I would dearly like to go home and warm up my hooves, we're not done yet.”
“I thought you said Alicorns were immune to the weather? And what do you mean we aren't done yet?”
“We are mostly, but I've been tromping around in this snow for over two hours without so much as a scarf to keep me warm. We've been pretty sedentary for the last little while and my hooves are starting to feel cold.”
“Well then we should go back now.” Mike insisted. “I won't have you getting frostbite or whatever in your hooves.”
“Relax, Mike. I may be uncomfortable but I'm well able to tolerate this for days on end. I'm just− a little soft.” Twilight's ears dipped in embarrassment. “But all that doesn't matter. My analysis of the scattering of the paper bits tells me that that rock is the next thing we need to investigate.”
Mike sighed. Rats. I was hoping we were finished here. My face is getting frozen too. For the umpteenth time Mike took off his gloves and placed his hands onto his cheeks in an effort to warm them up. I should have worn a balaclava− except that I don't have one.
Twilight had gone motionless again, her only discernible activity was the flaring and dimming of the aura about her horn as she tried out various detection spells upon the rock. Mike took the opportunity for a quick series of photographs of the rock face.
With nothing else to do he took the opportunity to stare at the rock face and tried to analyze it. It's most likely just a gigantic rock. Probably a Glacial Erratic dropped here after the last ice age. Mike pondered, pulling out his high school education. It probably isn't an exposed outcrop of the Canadian Shield, in this region of the province the soil layers are usually hundreds of feet deep.
Mike noticed that there were several black pits scattered about its face. Are those volcanic pores? Out of boredom he counted them. Enough! Mike's mind shouted at him. Stop counting the spots on the wall.
With nothing better to do Mike turned away from the rock and stared at Twilight. She's much more interesting to look at than any dumb rock.
As he gazed upon Twilight's profile, Mike took note of several factors he had never noticed before. First, she had a good form; her bodily shape was pleasing to the eye. She held herself erect and did not slouch; there was power in her chest and shoulders, a fact that was somehow emphasized by her delicately folded wings. Unlike Earth's native horses and ponies, she did not have a bulging gut but rather her waist narrowed down somewhat before joining her well-proportioned flanks. Her Cutie Mark was large and prominent, stylish even. The way she held her tail made a beautiful arching bow, not too high and not too low. It was really fetching how the color stripes in her wind-blown mane and tail always stayed − for lack of a better word − coherent. Her eyes− well, Mike had never paid them much attention before except to note how large they were− her enormous eyes were a lovely magenta color, sparkling with wit and intelligence. In fact she was looking at him−
“See anything interesting?” Twilight's wry comment took Mike by surprise.
“You're beautiful.” He replied unthinkingly. A look of surprise blossomed on his face.
“W-what?” Twilight stuttered back, her magic now forgotten as she swung about to focus her attention fully on Mike. For his part, Mike was doing his best to imitate a tomato.
“What I meant to say was− I meant− I mean−” Come on Mike; don't let some sudden embarrassment turn you into a liar. There's a reason you said what you said. Mike's conscience prodded him sharply.
Suddenly Mike smiled at Twilight. “You are. I see that now.” Twilight's eyes expanded wide. “I was feeling kind of bored and somehow I ended up looking at you instead of that rock. But as I looked, I saw something that I had not noticed before. You're beautiful.”
▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄
“You're beautiful.” He replied.
Confusion overwhelmed Twilight. “W-what?” She managed to stammer out.
I couldn't have heard that right. She thought to herself, but the damage had been done. Twilight's thoughts began spiraling inward. I'm not beautiful. I've never been beautiful, not like Princess Celestia or Cadence or even Rarity. I don't even care about being beautiful. She barely noticed Mike's sputtered reply. Not until his voice suddenly firmed up again.
“You are. I see that now.” Twilight’s eyes expanded wide as Mike confirmed his earlier statement. “I was feeling kind of bored and somehow I ended up looking you instead of that rock. But as I looked, I saw something that I had not noticed before. You're beautiful.”
“But I'm not. I'm not beautiful.” Twilight protested instantly; insecurities she had long forgotten suddenly rushing to the fore. “I'm just an average looking mare.”
“Look at me, Twilight.” Mike lifted up his arms, spread wide, in an odd gesture. “I am at present the most objective observer you will ever find.” Mike dropped his arms. “I have no obligation or desire to sooth or stoke your ego. What I'm telling you is simply how I see it.” He chuckled. “The fact that an alien anthropoid is telling you this should only emphasize the point.” He paused to consider his last statement, his smile vanishing suddenly. “Then again maybe that's not such a plus after all.”
Mike's self-denigration shook Twilight out of her self-denial. “Don't you dare think that about yourself, Mike. It doesn't matter what your physical form is...” Twilight paused, “Not when you spoke it from the heart. And if your heart thinks that I'm− beautiful, then I guess my response should be to believe you and to say thank you.” Twilight looked away, trying to hide the blush she could feel spreading across her face. Despite her embarrassment, she could feel a happy glow somewhere inside her being.
Mike took a step back from the force of Twilight's initial rebuke but otherwise stood silent as Twilight delivered her speech. They both stood in silence for half a minute or more before Mike cleared his throat.
“I'm sorry, Twilight.” Mike began. Twilight suddenly turned her head back towards him. Is he trying to retract what he said? She wondered intensely, her eyes squinting down into a frown, while her ears dropped back slightly.
Mike raised his hands up, close in front of his body, palms facing outward “No I'm not sorry for saying what I said, but I am sorry for being such a distraction and interrupting you from your work.”
Twilight felt relieved, happy that Mike had not recanted his statement. It was enough to make her give a half-giggle. “You weren't a distraction, Mike. I was just finishing my magic scans when I suddenly noticed that you were staring at me.”
“Oh? What did you find out?” He asked in an obvious effort to change the subject.
“Nothing.” Twilight spat out dejectedly. “Despite all evidence to the contrary, I cannot find any residual magic on or within that rock face. I tried every detection spell I could think of, even some forensic spells used by the Guard that my brother taught me. But there is nothing special about that rock. It's just one big lump of gneiss, mostly a pink color, having ten striations of some darker mineral reminiscent of Schist running through it and there are seven pits in its surface.”
“Six.” Mike replied. His statement was such a non-sequitur that Twilight was left confused.
“What?”
“I only counted six holes in the rock.” Mike stated calmly. “You must have miscounted.”
“There're seven. I don't make mistakes like that. Look for yourself,” Twilight swung her head around to face the rock again, “there are─” Twilight stopped in mid-sentence.
“What's going on?” She demanded. “There are only five pits now.” Twilight stared furiously at the rock's pits, as if her stare could intimidate them. This went on for more than a minute as she desperately sought to locate the missing pits.
“Twilight−” Mike called out nervously.
“I see it.” Twilight replied, fascinated by what she was seeing. Twilight watched in amazement as a new pit started appearing in the rock, first as a thin crescent shape and then slowly expanding itself into an irregular dark hole. She moved closer to the rock, to examine the phenomena more closely.
As she observed the slow formation and dissolution of the pits she noticed that their edges had a strangely squirmy quality, distorting the grain of the rock as they expanded, ever so slowly. Off to the side, she noticed one of the original pits shrinking even as two new crescents announced the arrival of more pits.
“They're moving!” Twilight called out excitedly. “I can see them moving ever so slowly across the face of the rock.” She urgently needed to check out the interior of the pits or holes or whatever they might be. Spying Mike's 'chop-sticks' protruding upwards out of the snow, Twilight grabbed the thin one with her magic and inserted it into the pit she was watching.
Twilight groaned. While she could push her magic beyond the boundary of the hole−, Yes, it's definitely a hole. −that would not have helped any. She was unable to determine anything beyond the fact that the hole was deeper than the stick was long. “You'd think that having been a Unicorn all my life, I would remember my magic gives me no tactile sense whatsoever.”
“Mike! Can you stick a finger into one of those holes and tell me what you can feel in there?”
Mike's face took on a startled expression before settling into a frown. “You've got my full support, Twilight. But if you think I'm going to stick one of my precious digits into some mysterious magical hole, not knowing if it will suddenly disappear, you've got another think coming.”
“Please? You don't know for sure that it will close off.” Twilight argued, frantic to get some information about a hole's interior.
“Oh? And what happened to the two missing holes? First you counted seven, and then there were only five.” Mike's statement of fact broke through Twilight's mania. Suddenly she was filled with remorse for the risk she had asked him to take.
“I'm sorry, Mike. I should never have asked that of you. It's just that I get so− excited− whenever I run across an unexplained mystery like this. I get these overwhelming urges to investigate them.”
Mike glared balefully at Twilight for a moment longer before letting up and tossing her a grin. “Apology accepted. But if it means that much to you then I could certainly help you out with your research.”
“No, Mike! I said I'm sorry for asking you to stick your finger into those holes. Please don't do that.”
“Who said anything about using my fingers?” Mike replied. “You said earlier that your magic has no tactile sense. Well my fingers do. Give me that chopstick.”
Twilight levitated the chop-stick she had been holding over to Mike who proceeded to insert it back into the same hole she had probed earlier. “Hmm,” he mused to himself, “in any transverse direction, the walls feel jagged. In the linear direction, along the depth of the hole, the walls feel impossibly smooth, almost frictionless.”
Oh, he's able to feel vibrations and the position of the stick with his hand. It's just like when I was a foal and did mouthwriting with a pencil. I should have thought of that. Twilight thought admiringly.
As she listened attentively to the wealth of information being provided by Mike, her pen danced furiously across her notebook, faithfully transcribing his words. Mike continued. “I can feel there is a definite edge to the hole at a depth of ten or twelve centimeters.”
“How deep is ten or twelve sen-tee-meeters?” Twilight was forced to ask.
“Uhh.” Mike pulled back the stick slightly and jiggled it back and forth for a few seconds. He withdrew the stick and held it up. “About this long,” He stated, “from the tip to the foremost edge of my thumb.”
Okay. Twilight thought as she stared at the stick Mike was holding up. About one and one-eighth of a hoof, maybe slightly less. She estimated, “Got it.” she announced to Mike, who immediately dropped the stick.
“Is that it?” She asked. “Was there nothing else you could determine?”
“Only that there seems to be a larger cavity beyond the hole.” Mike replied, as he picked up the measuring tape they had been using for their horizontal coordinates while surveying the clearing. As soon as Mike had pulled the spool on the end towards himself, he did something which caused the tape to retract back into the spool.
There's probably just a spring in that spool. She thought. But it's still quite clever.
Now carrying the tape spool, Mike approached the hole in the rock which he had been probing earlier. Cautiously he extended the tape into the hole.
Twilight watched avidly as the markers disappeared within the stone. One foot, two feet, three, four−”
-snap-
Suddenly the tape made a noise and jerked in Mike's gloved hands. Twilight was so surprised that she jumped backwards with her wings spread. Mike merely growled as the tape retracted out of the hole.
“What happened?” Twilight demanded. There was a nervous quaver in her voice.
“Nothing to be alarmed about, Twilight, the tape is cupped, see?” Mike pulled out a length of tape out of its spool and held it out for her to examine. She had noticed the curvature earlier but had not thought to ask about it. “The curvature gives it strength to resist bending in a certain direction.” Mike demonstrated by extending three or four feet of the tape out into midair.
“I see. So if you extend it too far, it becomes too heavy and the material will deform.”
“Right you are.” Mike replied, pulling out several more feet of tape. Suddenly it emitted its snapping sound and collapsed down onto the snow. “So the tape collapsed while I was trying to measure the depth of the hole. I'm going to try again, but I'll try holding the tape at a different angle.”
Mike repeated his probe several times with varying amounts of success. Sometimes the tape went in only to snap after a short distance of three or four feet. On one occasion, Mike stated that the tape must have fallen, even though there had been no snapping noise. Upon inquiry, Mike stated that he could not feel the weight of the tape, so it had to have collapsed.
By now they had determined the optimum angle at which Mike needed to hold the tape. After taking a short break to re-warm his fingers, Mike extended the tape into the hole again, hopefully for the last time. Soon it had extended further than it had ever gone before. Mike stopped his activity after hearing the tape snap. “I think I touched something that time before the tape broke. Let's see, I make the depth out to be about seven feet and five inches, give or take half an inch.”
“Uh-oh,” Mike exclaimed. “I think the tape is caught on something. It won't retract.” Mike pulled firmly on the tape. When that didn't work he tried jiggling it back and forth in the hopes of working it free. “It's really caught on something, I think−”
Whatever Mike had been about to say was forever lost as the tape jerked violently in his hands. “What the−” he began, only to lose his voice as the tape surged out of the spool and disappeared into the hole.
“Mike, let go! Get away from there.” Twilight shouted at him; sage advice which he immediately heeded. Retreating from the hole, Mike stood beside Twilight. They both watched in fascinated dread as the tape spool bounced and rattled against the rock. Suddenly the tape reached the end of its length, causing the spool to bash up hard against the rock, after which the spool fell back down several inches to dangle against the rock face.
Twilight continued holding her breath for several seconds before she became convinced that the incident, whatever it may have been, was over. She let out her breath in a relieved sigh. Surprisingly she heard Mike letting out his breath at exactly the same moment. If things hadn't been so serious she might have laughed at the coincidence.
Mike took a step towards the tape, when it suddenly leapt up towards the hole again. Shocked by the sudden resumption of activity, Twilight was once again holding her breath. A slight creaking noise could be heard coming from the spool when suddenly there was the sound of a bang as the spool leapt away from the rock.
They both stared aghast at the body of the spool which continued to emit a furious whirring and buzzing noise for two or three seconds, even as its body rotated around in the snow.
Mike was the first to say something. “I think something just pulled the tape off of my tape measure. It pulled on it so hard that it broke off.” As pause, and then “Am I ever glad I didn't stick my finger in that hole.”
Twilight could only agree with Mike's assessment. But now she had an even deeper mystery to consider. A thrill of excitement ran through her even as a smile began to form on her face. I wonder what's on the other side of that hole?
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You post this half an hour before I have to go to work! Just terrible.
Thanks for the update!
And now your characters are thinking about hole with excitement. This story is going to interesting places~!
What a horrible way to develop a cheese-phobia.
Also, it was probably Rainbow Dash on the other end of the hole what grabbed the tape measure. She's just heedless enough to do something like that.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
Another amazing chapter.:D
Me think that somepony
janked the tape from the other side.
Can't wait to see whom/or what grabbed the other end of the tape measure--I'm voting Celestia herself!
When Twilight was going to make the rainbow water I was hoping she was actually going to fail. The show is a cartoon and douse some things I would rather not think about or even want justified. Like when a couple of children sucked the color out of a rainbow with a vacuum cleaner.
I'm wondering why the tape measure didn't get pulled into the whole.
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Well the explanation for the cheese phobia is the best I've seen and kinda terrifying. In any case I can't wait to see what comes next. 'It's' obviously not natural as far as humans are concerned and Twi didn't recognize it so I suspect that it was a unique object directly related to her predicament.
I like your explanation on why she doesn't like excessive cheese. It's certainly creative, and rationally explains why she seems to feel genuine fear towards it instead of mere dislike or disgust.
To be honest, I thought she didn't like it for the same reason that I don't. The idea of eating something in which decay played a vital role in its production just rubs me the wrong way. That being said, melted cheese doesn't bother me; if it's melted, there's the implication that it's been through enough heat to kill anything living in it.
As someone who's working towards an English major, I have only one thing to say:
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Hopefully some time soon we learn where that tape-measure went
6227372
My moneys on Pinkie Pie
6228405 In the universe my story is set in (eg: My Head Cannon) the 'show' is fairly accurate up until the fourth season.
There are some 'cartoon' discrepancies, but not too many. After the fourth season starts the show's reality starts to suffer more and more as the show's writer's add their own 'creativity'. According to my 'Head Cannon' - it's because the Main Six gave up their elements.
Personally, I really hate what the show's writers have done with Pinkie. (Hurtful utterances, ballooning head etc.) Oh! And before I forget, my 'Head Cannon' has a good explanation for how Pinkie does most of the reality bending things that she does. But I won't tell - yet.
Back to the chapter. I tried to explain the 'rainbow water' of which there are numerous examples throughout the first three seasons as being ordinary water "whose fundamental properties are altered" after it is suffused with a particular kind of magic.
Yeah - that's hokum - but it does have it's own kind of logic.
The reason the body of the tape measure did not get pulled into the hole is because we don't live in a cartoon universe. Even in Twilight's universe that would not be possible unless some form of magic were involved. And the holes (as Twilight determined) do not have any kind of active magic.
6228842
Originally, I did write it up as simple lactose intolerance - and that's why you see in the story, Mike going off on a tangent 'explaining' what he thinks Twilight has. Rather condescending of him - don't you think?
But for some reason, that part of the story started bugging me. I had to come up with a better reason for the fear and disgust Twilight expressed in those two words she uttered in the show. "So cheesy".
6229087
Sorry to shock your grammatical sensibilities - but I believe it is perfectly legitimate to use established colloquial phrases within a character’s spoken dialogue. Mike is, after all, a product of the culture he is immersed in.
I refer you to this article. http://grammarist.com/usage/another-think-coming/
BTW: Was that a snapshot of Frieza's face when Bulma told him it was his turn to change the baby's diaper?
6229475 Are you saying the hole simply wasn't big enough for the tape measure to fit through? I don't remember it ever being stated how big they where.
6229822
A very good point. I neglected to mention the size of the holes. Probably because I have such a clear idea in my own mind as to what they are that I totally overlooked that point.
Well FYI, the holes are irregular and jagged in shape, ranging in size from less than 1 cm to about 3 cm across. Some very few may have a maximum dimension of 4 cm in length, but Twilight has not yet seen any that are quite that large. The one Twilight and Mike were probing was one of the larger ones - about 3 cm across.
You'll find out more about the exact nature of the holes in the next chapter.
6229806
I am familiar with the phrase's origin. However, it's mostly a dead phrase (having been replaced by the more sensible "another thing coming"), and it's one I think should stay dead. That same link even says as much. Anyway, that's how language evolves. Words and phrases fall in and out of practice based on their relevance and social implications.
Naturally, that doesn't exclude your character from using it. In this case, it is better to assume that Mike is socially backwards than it is to blame the author. If I had thought it was a genuine error on your part, I would have actually gone into detail on why it doesn't work, rather than post a silly face.
Anyway, that's the face of Virginia when he's been demickey, and Gookoe and K-Kristen Stewart must fight.
(Be warned: strange things face those who enter the realm of Oney.)
Man, talk about a few close calls for Mike. Poor guy, he is just not having a good day in term of luck. At least Twilight was there to save him with the rainbow water (not sure if you should capitalize 'rainbow' here), and that Mike talked some sense into Twilight’s skull involving the hole and his finger. And I want to hug poor Twilight, to nearly died from cheese is probably enough to cause a phobia. I have to give you cred for that logical conclusion, it make the most sense so far.
As for my own thought about the MLP world, I never really have an issue with how it work, since it is not our world. It has its own rules and concepts, and while many of them are similar to ours, some are not. So, having children using a vacuum to suck in the colors of a rainbow, and how their rainbows are made, shouldn’t really be much of an issue, since it is a magical (or, in our view, fictional) world after all. And though Twilight is in ‘our’ reality, where reality works a bit different, I think her magic presented here was basically just a loophole at work. Though, who know, these loophole maneuvers might have some limitations and/or consequences to them, since we are dealing with two different 'world physics' (there's probably a better term for it) interacting with each other.
And I personally like Pinkie Pie myself. I think only one episode actually have Pinkie using hurtful utterances, which was ‘Filli Vanilli’, and she didn't really do it on purpose (she was being oblivious about the whole thing, although to be fair, that wasn't a good thing either). As for the ballooning head and other cartoon gags, several people actually like that about her (I personally enjoy many of those gags, like the Fluttershy’s costume gag for example). There might be a good chance that not all 100% of her whimsical abilities would work in Mike's world, only a few, if she ever get the moment to visit his world.
C&Cs will be PM. Oh, and by the way, it is 'canon', not 'cannon'.
6231219
In case my kvetching about Pinkie's performance in the fourth season has given the wrong impression to anybody... I like Pinkie too. I really do.
She's a whole lot of fun to write for.
So the tape spool reached the other side and somepony grabbed it there. Probably thinking it as a sort of monster and definitely saw when (possibly) Rainbow Dash took hold of it.
Looking forward for the next chapter. You could probably try have a small camera with a long wire through the hole, those penny size cameras can fight through, and see if any image can be seen through.
Not sure if anyone else has put forth this idea, but in regards to the perception spell Twilight is using to remain hidden, but given the description wouldn't perhaps viewing her through a separate medium like say a digital camera display screen, a security camera or a mirror give away her true appearance? Or at least in the case of the first two capture it. Mike wouldn't catch this as he has had himself excluded from the affect.
Even if those are not factors, what about more physical evidence, such as people noticing she leaves behind not footprints but hoof prints in the snow behind her. Or the strange double nature of her footfalls that they may hear.
6241426 You are absolutely correct. And yes, several others have brought up this same question.
Twilight and Mike's saving grace was that it was Christmas and the mall was crowed. Everybody was too busy to care about the strange looking 'dog' they may have caught a glimpse of in their viewfinder.
Security cameras are not that closely watched - if at all. They usually only pull up the footage when there is a crime. If by chance, any security guard had been sent to 'check it out' - he or she would only see people.
But the real reason nothing happened, was because this writer had no interest in introducing a 'hiding from exposure' thread into this story.
6229852 They're the other sides of the blackened pieces of paper, obviously.
For a bit there I thought you were saying that the changelings made Twi scared of Swiss Cheese.
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Okay, this is starting to turn from coincidentally into a kind of annoying cliche.
I usually love onions. I put them almost everywhere to enhance flavours.
I put them on minced meat,
Sausages (We have a lot of different sausages in Germany thanks to Italy and surrounding countries. Mortadella, Salami, Zwiebelmet, French noble salami, all kinds of different bacons, Teewurst etc.)
I usually put some on pizza when I make it, whether it is fresh dough or a frozen pizza. Put it on tarts, fry it with eggs when making an omelet in a pan. Combine it with Fried potatoes.
I really love Flammkuchen (Alsace Tarte Flambée).
But... Boiled onions?... In that soup... it's not my taste. Last Time I tried onion soup I was making faces tasting it.
I rather fry, grill, roast the hell out of onions, and garlic.
BTW: They should have brought Glühwein (mulled wine) with that thermos.
Kills the cold like nothing else.
6230820
I think I may need a new dictionary. This one's broken.
… OK, more seriously, though, how on Earth or Equestria does "another thing coming" make any sense? It's flat-out mondegreen nonsense. For example, here: what "other thing" should Twilight be expecting? The only possibility is that she's gonna have to reconsider her foolish idea. That is, she's got another thought … or for better parallelism in sounds, "think" … coming. Giving up specificity and rhetorical flourish for a mealy-mouthed attempt at good grammar, one that fails semantic tests of fitness most of the time, is a lousy choice.
I would think that a couple of cc's of liquid rainbow diluted into a bottle of patron would make for excellent shots.
There should be a comma in between "Twilight" and "Mike".
Replacing the "I" in these sentences with "Mike" would work better, so as no to disrupt the established third-person perspective.
Have to disagree here. Twilight was completely at fault. Mike is taking the blame for Twilight's stupidity causing him to be hurt. She handed him the liquid, and quote from Twilight here:
She said this. But no, apparently drinking a mere "one or two cubic centimeters" worth was enough to cause problems. In what situation could it possibly be reasonable to expect "it's just water and it's totally safe to drink" to mean "only allow the tiniest bit of it to grace your tongue, because even a mere 1 or 2 cubic centimeters will be enough to drop you to the ground, unable to speak."
Twilight was completely in the wrong here. And Mike's being an idiot for taking the blame. I mentioned this in a previous chapter: you have this recurring theme of Twilight hurting Mike, and here she's blaming him for the fact that she did something dumb that hurt him, and he's insisting it's not her fault and taking the blame for her stupidity.
6229475
The retconning started with season 2 as soon as Faust was booted. Nightmare Moon going from being a complete mystery that nopony had ever heard of, to suddenly being at the center of a national holiday, Suddenly there being a third alicorn. Twilight's "oh by the way, I have a brother." Twilight's background being completely retconned from her being an awkward, antisocial recluse nobody who earned her way to her position through an unprecedented show of power, to having a doting brother as Captain of the Royal Guard and the Princess of Love as a babysitter.
A bunch of stuff was changed once Thiessen replaced Faust,
Try comparing season 1 vs season 2 Rarity. Season 1 Rarity was smart, resourceful and reeked of elegance and dignity. Kidnapped into slavery by diamond dogs? Stayed totally calm, mastered the situation and walked out of the mines with the dogs at her mercy. In the Gala episode she was the voice of reason, presenting solutions while Twilight was panicking over stupid things. Spike turned into a huge dragon, snapping with his jaws about to eat her? Mildly annoyed at best.
Season 2 Rarity? Treacherous, backstabbing stereotypical helpless female, having panic attacks over misplacing ribbons.
Never thought I'd see a good explanation for Twilight's cheese phobia... I think I'll have to borrow that idea for my head canon.
Jesus i was already afraid of choking on melted cheese now i have more reasons to be afraid....
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6606746
Secret Of My Excess was actually a season 2 episode, so technically that's a step back in the right direction. Even Pinkie still has her occasional moments of character depth, though she's certainly more vapid now than in season 1.
Mike, if it's not -20C, quit bitching. Seriously, what part of North America is he originally from? Below 40N?
Hoof, not hand
Taxi here!
Yep. I knew it was Tyson.
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Heh, even though there's no Romance tag on this story, our shipping senses are still buzzing overtime! 😂