Chapter 8
Wow, Ponyville looks tiny from up here. Crimson Skies thought to himself as he glided through the clear equestrian sky. Despite having seen the sight so many times in the past it still amazed Crimson a little bit sometimes how small the towering buildings were from above. As usual, his mind didn’t gawk at it for too long and quickly found a new topic of interest. Specifically the cloud in front of him that held a small
wooden sign reading:
Ponyville Race Course Now Open
Are You Fast Enough?
Since when is there a Ponyville Race course? Crimson pondered this thought for a moment. He had never seen this sign before nor had Rainbow Dash ever mentioned it to him. If there were a race track, then she would have definitely challenged him by now. Yet here it was, plain as day. He looked around the sign to see that there was another cloud with a yellow starting line painted onto it. Beyond that he could see at least two cloud rings that marked the course. With a shrug Crimson decided that he no longer cared where this course had come from and instead focused on that fact that it was now here, and it had challenged him.
Crimson flew over to the start and reared up into his start position. On your mark…Get set… Crimson tensed his muscles in preparation. GO! Before the word had even fully formed in his mind Crimson exploded out and into the first ring. The world blurred as the red Pegasus flew through ring after ring. A smile formed on his wind blasted face as what appeared to be the finish line came into his sights. He could see the checkered line and the ribbon stretched across to poles and doubled his efforts for a final push to the end.
The line couldn't have been more that 80 yards from him. All his energy was now in his wings, pushing him to go as fast as possible and then a bit faster still. Despite this the finish line remained where it was, rather than come to meet him as it should have. Crimson slowed a bit in confusion. He had been flying full speed for at least 20 seconds and still the finish seemed to be no closer. If anything it might have actually gained a few yards on him. Dismissing it as a trick of his eyes, Crimson threw himself at the finish again with everything he had left. The ribbon grew bigger and bigger as crimson got closer. HA! Gotcha now! He thought victoriously. The line was only 10 yards away when suddenly the cloud it was painted on dropped down. Crimson had already passed it by a couple dozen yards before he even realized what had happened. He pulled back into a hard stop to turn around and see the cloud sitting peacefully where it was, minus a few feet of altitude. Crimson’s confusion was quickly being transformed into rage at this cloud’s defiance. Rearing back, Crimson shot like a bullet at the finish line, only to have it start up at just as fast a pace. The cloud decided that just staying in front of the poor Pegasus was getting boring and instead started to actively try to lose its pursuer. It turned and spun and looped through the sky with ease while the athletic pegsus found himself tiring quickly as the adrenaline began to fade and fatigue took over. After a minute of this high speed chase Crimson’s muscles finally won out over his pride and he slowed to a hover as he desperately tried to catch his breath. Even then the cloud did not stop and began circling the defeated pony, looping overhead, rushing by just barely out of reach. It was as if the inanimate object was mocking him.
Just before Crimson was about to make another attempt at the prize that had been eluding him, he heard the rustling of a bush and what sounded distinctly like somepony laughing hysterically. Turning from the source of his anger to look down to the ground he spied a small shrub that was shaking violently. Figuring it was whoever was making a fool out of him, Crimson refocused his frustration as he found what he thought was his tormentor. Without taking another second to consider it, Crimson launched himself into a nose dive aimed directly at the offending shrub.
Unfortunately this proved not to be Crimson’s day and was stopped dead in mid-air just before making contact. Crimson struggled in vain but the force holding him refused to let up. Crimson quickly realized he was fighting a losing battle and calmed down enough to notice two things. One, whoever was behind the bush was now laughing even harder than ever; two, he was being held by a magical aura… a dark blue, magical aura to be precise.
“…Glassy?” Crimson asked curiously. At the mention of the brown unicorn the laughter died down to a barely controlled chuckle.
Two asymmetrical eyes appeared out of the bushes, followed by the rest of the head. “Hey Crimson, how’s it hanging?” Crimson groaned loudly at the painful pun; Looking Glass however, laughed loudly at his own piece of wit.
“Hilarious,” Crimson deadpanned, “mind telling me why you made me chase a cloud through the sky for almost 5 minutes?”
“Seemed like a funny idea” Looking Glass answered with a nonchalant shrug.
“Alright that just leads to two more questions; since when do you like pranks and more importantly, how the hell did you even manage to do that.”
“One, no clue whatsoever. Two, some clue.” Crimson was not particularly pleased with either answer and made sure to advertise it. Taking his cue to explain a bit further, Looking Glass continued, “I don’t know what to tell ya, I just found out I can manipulate clouds this morning.”
“But that makes no sense, pegasi are the only creatures that can actually work with cloud, how are you suddenly able to do it?” Crimson demanded.
“Like I just told you, I don’t know. I was laying down trying to relax in the sun when a stray cloud came and blocked it out; by the way, remind me later to yell at Dash for that next time I see her. I got kind of annoyed but there wasn’t really anything I could do about so I just waited for it to pass. The problem was it wouldn’t; it was just floating there. Naturally I was getting a bit fed up with it and I guess my magic must have started up unconsciously and the cloud just moved away.” Looking Glass made a sweeping gesture to emphasize his point and continued to say, “At first I didn’t really believe I was the one who did it so I tried a couple more time and the cloud just followed my directions like anything else would if I was holding it. After that I just started experimenting with it and I found that I could shape them too. One thing led to another and eventually I got the idea to set up the race course with the moving finish line. I was honestly expecting Rainbow to be the first victim, but then you showed up and I figured: why not?”
“I’m not sure whether to be happy that you finally started having a sense of humor or stay pissed that I was your first victim” Crimson stated, “But I’ll deal with that later. For now, let’s talk more about you just accidentally using magic you have no business using. ”
“I just told you everything I know. I just thought about something happening and it happened, the same thing happened when I broke and rebuilt Twilight’s door.”
“So you can do just about anything?” Crimson asked curiously.
“Well I doubt anything but…”
“But you have no idea where the limit is.”
“Well, yeah.” Crimson developed a devilish smile at the answer. “Oh no, that face never means
anything good…” Looking Glass said worried, “Why are you making that face?”
“I have an idea” Crimson answered in a matter of fact way. “But first… mind letting me down buddy?” he asked hopefully.
“I’m not so sure I want to anymore, is your plan going to hurt anypony?”
“No! of course not!” Crimson responded in offense, “I can’t believe you’d even assume that!” Looking Glass’s unamused stare was more than enough of an explanation for the levitating pegasus. “Alright fine, I
promise that no one will be harmed by my plan.” Satisfied (more or less) Looking Glass ended his telekinesis spell, dropping Crimson to the ground with a thud. “You could have just placed me down you know.”
“I also could have already said no to the train wreck you’re about to drag me into, now what is it you want me to do?”
“Not here,” Crimson said as he shot a few suspicious looking glances over both his shoulders. “Too many ponies; follow me.” Before Looking Glass could have time to disagree, citing the fact that there was only two other ponies in the park, both of whom weren’t paying the slightest attention, Crimson was already off towards the sea of trees that is Sweet Apple Acres.
“Dear Celestia, what have I just agreed to?” Looking Glass said somewhat pathetically as he trotted
after his friend.
________________________________________________________________________________
“You want me do WHAT?!?!” Looking Glass questioned in disbelief.
“Come on Glassy, for me?” Crimson pleaded.
“NO!” Looking Glass said with resolve.
“Dude, it’s genius.”
“NO IT’S NOT!”
“Just use a quick growth spell or something; I just need a foot or two in length, maybe a little bit in width.”
“You can’t be serious, that’s not even biologically possible!”
“I’ve seen guys with bigger.”
“WHERE!?!?”
“Doesn’t matter, are you helping me or not?”
“For the dozenth time, NO!”
“Dude, I’d do it for you.”
“I wouldn’t want you to do it to me!”
“I really want to impress Rainbow Dash, and this will really help.” Quickly encroaching on his final limit, Looking Glass brought his front hoof to his face, hoping to hind from the stupidity of his close friend.
“Alright, assuming for a second that I agree to this, and I can’t stress it enough that I’m not, and it actually does work out the way you’re hoping, don’t you think Rainbow might notice the fact that you’re wings grew two feet overnight?” (What did you think Crimson was asking about? Get you minds out of the gutter there’s a teen rating for a reason.)
“I dun know, growth spurt?” Crimson said with a dumb looking shrug.
“Growth sp… YOU’RE A GROWN STALLION! You haven’t had a growth spurt in years!”
“Exactly, aren’t I overdue for one?” Looking Glass could only stare at the red pegasus who’s voice held absolutely no sign of sarcasm and was in fact dead serious. His normal eye began to twitch slightly at the sheer stupidity of the statement.
Seeing that Looking Glass was failing to see things his, absolutely not-stupid, way, Crimson decided to fall back on the time tested art of whining. “Please, she absolutely mopped the floor with me during our race yesterday, I just need a little more wing power and I’m golden.”
“Or maybe stop challenging her to contests you can’t win” the brown unicorn suggested. “She can break the sound barrier on command for Celestia’s sake! You physically can’t compete against that.”
“Which is exactly why I need you to give me an edge.”
Looking Glass’s mouth made a few moves to try and continue the argument but then sighed deeply in defeat. There was no way he could convince Crimson that this was a bad idea so he decided to simply give in. “You know what, fine, I‘ll give you the stupid growth spell.”
An excited Grin grew on Crimson’s face as he said “YES! Score one for begging!” The Pegasus then took a few steps away from Looking Glass and planted his hooves firmly in preparation. “Alright Glassy, show me what you got.” Looking Glass rolled his eyes, he still didn’t want to help Crimson cheat but he also didn’t feel like arguing with him for the rest of the day.
He then lowered his head, touching his horn to Crimson’s forehead, closed his eyes and began to channel his magic. Looking Glass first imagined Crimson Growing massive wings, at least 3 times their current size. The thought was quickly dissolved due to its sheer ridiculousness, and Looking Glass refocused on a more reasonable change.
In a matter of moments the magic began to stream into Crimson, traveling through his head, down his spine, and into its intended target. His bright red wings began to glow in the blue aura, and began to unfurl on their own. The aura grew brighter and brighter until they built up to a blinding flash. Crimson was quick to reopen his eyes once the spell was over, eager to see his new and improved appendages. He turned his head awkwardly to each side, trying to catch a glimpse of his wings. They looked completely normal in their now closed state. Slightly confused Crimson reopened them to find that they were indeed bigger, but only by maybe 4 or 5 inches each. “What the hell, Glassy? I told you I wanted an extra foot or two. They couldn’t have grown more that like a half a foot.”
“Yeah, I know” Looking Glass said through a very serious expression. “I also know that having another full foot added to your wingspan is a horrible idea just in terms of basic common sense. The extra inches should give you plenty of extra speed.” Crimson wasn’t exactly overjoyed at the new arrangement, but it was still an improvement.
I guess you have a point” he conceded. “Thanks for the help man, even if I had to fight you for it.” Crimson followed that up a brotherly pat on the back and a warm smile. Despite still not being entirely ok with the cheating, Crimson was his best friend, and with all the power Looking Glass had, he figured he did kind of owe it to him to use it for his benefit sometimes.
“Anyway, I’ve got to go. At the party Pinkie had offered to let me help her do some taste testing today and between your prank and this I’m way behind schedule, I’ll see you later.” Crimson’s mouth was already beginning to water at the thought of the tasting experimental treats he was going to be judging soon.
“See ya” Looking Glass responded as Crimson took off to Sugarcube Corner. With his friend gone, Looking Glass saw no real reason to stay in the apple orchard and started making his own way out. It seriously amazes me how immature Crimson is sometimes. Looking Glass thought to himself.
Immature? Yes. Wrong? Not so much.
Excuse me?
Just saying, Crimson may have a point. Why aren’t we using these powers for our own good?
Cause it would be wrong.
How so? Unicorns use magic all the time to make their lives easier.
That’s not the point, it would be an abuse of power.
Well wouldn’t not using it be a waste of power?
…I guess but-
And nobody said anything about abusing the magic. When life hands you a gift, especially one that came at a price like yours, aren’t you obligated to take advantage of it?
Maybe, but still-
And what about Twilight? She’s one of the most powerful unicorns there are and she uses her advanced magic all the time.
That’s entirely different.
Why?
Because, she’s naturally gift.
Exactly! She did nothing to earn that power, you lost years of your life for yours; doesn’t that entitle you to at least a little bit of compensation?
…Yeah I guess it does.
Crimson just showed us that we can you these powers to our advantage, and he was also right earlier, who knows what our limit is? We could turn reality itself on its head!
You’re 100% right, me. It’s my power now; I should be able to do with it what I want.
That’s the spirit. Now what do you want to do first? It was at this point that Looking Glass’s stomach decided to remind him that he hadn’t eaten since breakfast that morning. Alright, food, that a place to start. The brown Unicorn looked all around him until he spotted a massive, juicy apple, struggling to remain attached to the branch it clung to. Okay, picking an apple isn’t exactly what I had in mind as a use of your theoretically infinite power.
Who said anything about picking? Looking Glass concentrated hard, focusing all his magic into the apple which began to glow with his dark blue aura, the apple shook and pulsed until it split into two, perfectly identical copies, one still on the tree, and one suspended in Looking Glass’s magical aura.
Duplication. Impressive, there aren’t too many who can cast that kind of spell.
Are you kidding? Looking Glass thought as he walked through the throng of trees. Besides me I doubt anypony could cast the spell so easily.
Agreed, no pony has ever had this kind of power before. But enough ego stoking. What is important now is whether or not you plan to be using this new power for anything besides just some free apples? Looking Glass took a big bite out of his freshly acquired apple and smiled, suddenly listening to the jingling of the handful of bits he had on him.
Please, I haven’t even started yet.
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1887574 Ah, I based it off of the first 4 chapters, I was going to do it on the whole thing, but I got caught up in other work. So, instead of just not doing a review, I based it off the chapters I had read.
Also, he said not to end it with a period if the dialogue tags come after it, this is right, but he forgot to say that you replace it with a comma.
1887860
understood, Thanks a lot for the review, I'll give you mine as soon As I'm done with it, might take a little while though
1887885 Thanks, it is a rather long piece. I await your feedback.
So this is just amazing.
Pros:
-I laughed my ass off. I can't get over how funny this was.
-Great OC's which is always a plus.
-Engaging plot.
Cons: Maybe make it a tad darker?
Notes: Overall I gotta say this fic is just awesome.
1926288
Woah, didn't expect that much praise lol
As to the darkness of it: I've got a plan
I'll give your story a read in a little while and give you my opinion