The Pencil Pony

by MrMsSiren

Chapter Four

Time slowed down to a crawl. Her heart pounded like a drum, attempting to make itself heard over the drone of tinnitus. Her brain went into overdrive, analyzing any and all potential threats. Limbs got a fresh new wave of oxygenated blood, beginning to work their way into position to dodge.

These were the same feelings that Sketch had felt when in battle, or at the very least, training with her father. At the time, it was an exhilarating feeling, one to be enjoyed as it lasted. But this time, everything was much different.

The only time she had ever experienced an adrenaline rush such as this was when she was mugged in one of the seedier neighborhoods in Manehatten. Even then, it was easy to rid herself of fear, especially considering how drunk the assailant was. But this time she couldn’t laugh at such a sight, nor could she do much else but flee.

Time seemed to catch up with itself, allowing Sketch Pen to throw herself to her right. The large, animated pencil few through the window, shattering the drawn glass and wood, before impaling the wall behind it. Sketch got onto her hooves, rushing out the bedroom door, quickening her pace as she heard the pencil beginning to worm its way out of the wall.

She rushed out of the front door, slamming it shut as she skidded to a stop. Sketch looked to the city she had built before only to gape at the sight. The colorful and foal-like brick was replaced by the telltale gray of steel. Large machinations covered the walls and streets, chomping away at any creature rushing by. Some of the smaller buildings made way for large smoke stacks, puffing out a noxious black smog that was slowly eating away at any open air.

Sketch grew even more horrified at what the smoke was being used for, as certain clouds of it were being drawn right back into the facilities. A particularly large puff of smoke made its way into the facility, and Sketch stared in horror as a massive clone of herself stepped out soon after. The clone was given a pencil made in the same manner, before moving to the edge of the city, beginning to draw buildings that were getting dangerously close to Sketch’s small cottage.

Sketch Pen turned preparing to gallop in the opposite direction, only to stop once more. On the very next page was the entrance to another city, looking almost the exact same way as its brother a couple pages over.

Sketch turned to the sound of wood splintering within her home, and caught a glimpse of one of several doppelgangers walking towards her. She turned once more, galloping in the opposite direction, into the darkened city.

Sketch sighed in relief at the sight of bare streets. No machinations, no clones, and no ponies. The least she could do was to look at the bright side of all of this. She slowed down to a trot when she thought she was deep enough into the city.

“There she is! Get her!” Sketch whirled around only to see a group of about ten or so clones, each with a pencil floating nearby. Sketch twirled around once more, intending on getting as far away as possible from this place.

Sketch began to see more and more light from the papery sky as she trotted further into the city. Not only that, but she noticed that the buildings she passed by seemed to be slowly losing detail. As she finally breached through the mist of smoke, she realized something that made her heart sink.

In front of her remained only a few pages left, with even those few being taken up by clones as they meticulously drew the massive city. A small construction crew slowly drew the city forward, taking up every bit of available page as possible.

Sketch Pen realized that if this continued, eventually every page would be taken up with this mechanical city, no room left for anything else. Even the small cottage she had made for herself would soon slowly succumb to the cities gritty walls and streets.

Sketch’s rage began to come to a boil. Turning a blank page into a work of art was one thing, as was covering an entire sketchbook. But this, this was something else.

Sketch Pen twirled around, a spell matrix forming upon her horn. Before long, a large pencil, animated and enchanted with the spell that brought her here stood hovering just in front of the frazzled unicorn.

The construction crew of clones noticed Sketch Pen when the light of her horn fired up to create the new pencil, and had called for any clones to help. Now a group of ten clones stood before Sketch, all armed with smaller versions of their own drawing utensils.

Before anypony could lunge at each other however, there came the sound of condescending laughter, echoing from the depths of the city’s mist. A darkened clone, flanked by two massive copies trotted out. Sketch Pen noted her original pencil floating above the head of the clone.

Sketch’s eyes grew wide. “Stencil? Is that you?” She paused, eyeing up Stencils darkened coat. “And why are you covered in soot?”

Stencil rolled her eyes, smirking at Sketch with a stereotypical villain look. “This is not soot! This is power incarnate!”

Sketch Pen backed away slightly. “Riiiiiight… look, there is no reason for all of this. How did a request to make a new building turn into covering each and every page with a gritty mechanical city that puffs out unbreathable smog? And what’s with the whole smoke thing anyway?”

“The smoke is what gives us our power! We have simply done what it told us to do! We will take any who are willing and change them with the smoke, while creating our own army using it.” Stencil huffed. “We are actually quite surprised. You can see the pages as we do, yet you deny the smokes power!"

Sketch sighed, facehoofing. “Where did you even get the idea of smoke fro-“ Sketch remembered the charcoal in her bag, wondering why she brought it, considering she hates the stuff. “Well, why can’t we just live in harmony? Why does it have to be smoke and only smoke?”

Stencil shook her head. “I think we can both see that this argument is going nowhere.” Stencil held out one of her hooves to Sketch. “Join us, and we can stand side by side as we liberate this world of ours.”

One of Sketch’s eyebrows rose. “And if I don’t?”

The original pencil floating above Stencil’s head aimed itself at Sketch. "Then you are erased from this world, like the rest of those who cannot see the glory of our rule!”

Sketch Pen aimed her pencil at Stencil, smirking. “Sorry, but I won’t let that happen.” Sketch felt as her blood began to pump faster, her heart revving up like an old motor. Her entire body tensed, mind focusing on any and all possible threats. Visions of combat played through her mind, each scenario giving her a new strategy to work with. The pencil beside her began its path to its target.

The pencil was almost immediately erased by Stencil’s.

An awkward silence fell on the entire page as Sketch simply looked at the spot where her pencil once was, her unreadable expression never turning to the smirking clone in front of her.

And with that, Sketch Pen turned, running as fast as possible, voice strained as she screamed her lungs out, going wherever was in the opposite direction of Stencil. She could hear the small army roaring to life, giving chase as Sketch attempted to find a magic spell somewhere in her meager vocabulary of matrixes to locate something that could get her out of this place.

Before long she had reached the last page in the sketchbook, the border between paper and air hanging like an imposing wall to those who dared leave. Sketch Pen hit the wall, pounding it with her hooves as she shouted for help.

Her hooves slowly slid to the ground as she decided to face her fate with some dignity, or at least, with however much was still left. The small battalion halted behind Stencil, who slowly strutted in front of Sketch Pen, blocking any hopes of exit.

Sketch Pen lowered her gaze, closing her eyes, as she awaited her doom.

She opened her eyes when instead of pain, she only heard shouts and screams of terror. A massive eraser seemed to break the border between the sketchbook and reality, erasing Sketch’s darkened doppelganger as well as her clones.

When she switched her perspective to that of reality, she could only shout with glee at the sight of golden chisel, eraser in hoof.
When the page was cleared of any extra Sketch Pens, Golden looked to Sketch with a concerned look. “I was gone for like, three hours! What Happened!?”

Sketch Pen chuckled. “Do you want the long or short version?”

“Uh, Short?”

“I tried to use a spell that gave me the power to draw whatever I imagined, but my curiosity go the better of me and I reversed the spell and ended up trapped inside this sketchbook. I ended up discovering that I could still use the spell and ended up drawing a cat that became animated. I used this to create a city filled with animated ponies, but was too lazy to finish it, so I ended up creating a clone of myself. Said clone then went power hungry or crazy or something else and tried to take over the sketchbook with a massive city. And now we’re here!”

Golden Chisel slowly blinked, mouth slightly open. She then blinked again before saying “What?”

Sketch Pen sighed, a small smile adorning her face, before looking to Golden again. “Sorry if I broke you. But I kinda need your help. Could you bring me to Twilight Sparkle? She had the book in the first place, so she should be able to help.”

Golden Chisel shook her head like a dog, attempting to get the gears in her head spinning again before nodding. She picked Sketch Pen, as well as the sketchbook she resided in up in her teeth, before galloping off to the castle of friendship.

***

“Whoa, whoa, hold it! Are you saying… this is permanent?” Sketch Pen looked to Twilight Sparkle, papery tears in her eyes.

Twilight Sparkle sighed. Her mane and tail were disheveled, large bags hung under her eyes, and she held an unmovable scowl upon her face. Considering how Sketch Pen and Golden Chisel had woken her up at about two in the morning, was one thing, but to bring something as complex as an unknown spell was definitely not what she had in mind that night.

“Listen, I’ve analyzed you with about five different spells already and I still don’t know what is going on. The only thing my magic is telling me is that I am looking at a regular sketchbook right now. What’s worse is that there is no record of the book you rented in the library archives. So for now, magic isn’t going to do much."

Sketch Pen looked to her, making twilight wonder how an animated sketch could cry. “B-but is it p-permanent?”

Twilight sighed, before jumping at the sound of a book slamming in front of her. She looked at Golden Chisel, who smiled innocently. “Got the book! So what did I miss?”

Twilight looked to where Golden was standing moments ago. “But you were just right there a moment ago- Oh merciful Celestia there’s another!” Her face met the table as she groaned aloud.

Golden Chisel looked to Sketch, shrugging, before she opened the book to the page Sketch had mentioned. “This is the spell?” She then blinked, before almost burying her face into the book. “This is a high level spell! How did you even manage to do this without some sort of burnout?”

Sketch Pen shrugged. “Didn’t even know that it WAS a high level spell. It was actually pretty easy to cast it. It did create one heck of a light show though.”

The three spent the next several hours pouring over magic books, (And by that I mean Sketch and Golden sat bored as Twilight used what seemed to be every spell in her capability.) When it was finally done, Twilight looked up, grabbing their attention.

“Alright, I’ve analyzed this spell and this book with about as many spells as I could, and I am sad to say that I don’t think you will be able to recover from this Sketch Pen.”

Sketch’s eyes began to water. “S-so this means i-it’s…”

“Yeah, it’s permanent. I am sorry, but I don’t think there is anything I can do.”

The dams that held back everything suddenly decided it had something better to do. Sketch Pen collapsed, her tears staining the page with watery graphite.

“Well, hey! It isn’t all that bad! After all, you got what the spell was supposed to give you, right?” Golden brought a hoof up to her muzzle, eyes turned upward. “And even if things didn’t turn out the way you expected it, guess what? You literally became art! Isn’t that like, all artists secret dream?”

When the sobbing didn’t stop, Golden’s ears drooped, before she simply decided to wait it out.

After a couple of minutes, Sketch finally stopped, hiccupping a few times before looking to Twilight. “Are you sure there is nothing you can do?”

Twilight gave a small smile to Sketch. “While I can’t do much to get you out of your predicament, I never said anything about your current medium.” She lifted up the spell book, revealing a new spell to Sketch Pen.

“I found this spell that actually deals with your situation. With this spell you can actually change artistic mediums! So if you ever want to start painting, or maybe get into something larger than a sketchbook, then this might help.”

She placed the book in front of Sketch, before rushing off, grabbing a blank notepad. “Come on! Let’s give this a try! I am actually quite curious to see how this works!”

Sketch read through the spell, wiping her eyes with a hoof, before she looked to the notepad.

Her horn glowed, and she felt her body get lighter…

Comments

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

Mm, I'm really enjoying where this story is going. Exploring her new existence and the means of interacting with the outside world, the various mediums and what could come from that. I get the impression she can become alike to those moving portraits from the Harry Potter series, but there might be even more different ways to handle them.

And, frankly, her powers are pretty dangerous to herself too, if she isn't careful. I've love to see more.