Story 3: Tickle for Your Talent (Dark Magic Defeated)
Fluttershy woke up to Celestia's yellow sun glow shining through her window. The first activity of the day to enter her mind, as always, was the morning feeding of her beloved pets. Appearing from the stairway, she softly called out to them, "Time for breakfast, my little ones!"
The first of the pets to come into her view were the pair of ferrets. They were ones to like variety with their breakfasts, and Fluttershy remembered to ask them "So, what do you want?" The ferrets let out a string of squeaks... but Fluttershy couldn't make any of it out. The squeaks did not translate into words for her. "Sorry, can you repeat that?" she said. The same squeak pattern came out, but again, she didn't understand it at all.
Fluttershy gulped. How could this be? She always understood animal language. Being able to communicate with them was one of her specialties. Something that made her life different from other ponies'. Why can she not do it, all of the sudden?
Well, regardless, the ferrets needed to be fed, so she gambled on a random choice with chicken, which they seemed to begrudgingly accept. That must have not been what they wanted, and Fluttershy chalked up their behavior to them not wanting to deal with the communication problem and just go eat.
The pegasus tried to go around the house and talk to her other pets; same result. Unlike yesterday, the noises made no sense. She did not detect anything to understand out of them.
At this point, Fluttershy started to hyperventilate. "What am I going to do without this?!"
"It's buckin' time!" Applejack said to herself as she exited the family barn and stepped out onto the apple fields. Having gotten a good night's rest and good morning's breakfast, she was all pumped up to get some work done today. She laid down her two baskets under a tree and gave that bark a swift kick from the back hooves... only to not feel any sort of satisfying power or workout rushing through her body.
Not only did a total of zero apples fall down, but she suddenly felt time-teleported to the days of her beginning practice as a tree-bucker, albeit still in her adult body. Her legs sure acted like it. And on the third attempt, she twisted and fell back-down to the ground, holding her leg in pain. "What in tarnation is goin' on here?"
Sparkling Medley, a.k.a Sparkler, while waiting for her roommate Autumn Apple to emerge from their hotel room shower (they live in Appleloosa but were currently vacationing in Ponyville), magically summoned her blue acoustic guitar out of her suitcase for a bit of practice, as always. She had the music in her veins and pumped up for a big strum... except that all the notes didn't seem to ring out, there was a lot of new fret buzz, and she felt... uncomfortable.
Suddenly, these open chords that she had mastered over a decade ago and acquired as second-nature got her to shake her hoof in pain relief, as if her muscles knew nothing about making these shapes. Her fretting hoof kept muting strings that should have been heard, the strumming was jerky and off-rhythm, and overall, Sparkler just couldn't play to the best of the abilities she knew she had.
"What the frax is happening?!" Sparkler said to herself. "I have years of experience here!"
Something was clearly not right in Ponyville. It was way more than just those three who were experiencing a sudden, inexplicable draining of their talents and abilities. The things the ponies' cutie marks symbolize and that they had years, even decades of experience in mastery of it, were just... not there. They all felt like newbies again, making rookie mistakes. The Wonderbolts, during practice, kept making misjudged turns and slamming into obstacles, again and again. Rarity found herself ruining works in progress with the sowing machine.
A sizable amount of the population opened the front doors of their homes to report the mess to other ponies, who were echoing the same thing. Some reported their talents were still with them, though their numbers dwindled as time progressed. More and more outliers began to experience the same thing as the crowd.
"We'd better talk to Princess Twilight about this." one mare said. Everypony around her agreed and they journeyed together to the Castle of Friendship.
Meanwhile, a young marine biologist, dolphin-loving mare known as Sea Swirl, saw today as the right time to shake the boat a bit and make a cupcake for breakfast. She came out of bed with a sudden urge to try it again, after her previous attempts all burned in failure. From there, Sea Swirl always claimed she just wasn't cut out to bake things. She also works at a theme park, so she often ate at the restaurants there anyway.
But living alone and really, really wanting a cupcake today, she took the plunge again.
As the oven dinged and she opened the door, that thing looked... exquisite. Whereas her previous cupcake attempts didn't even look like cupcakes, more like charred sludge, she did not find a single thing wrong with this one as far as the eyes could see.
Taking a bite of the cupcake after she finished icing and sprinkling it (the icing was also homemade by her), it was like her taste buds had just entered dream land. From a food made by somepony who once said "Every time I've tried to bake or cook, it's been a bust."
"Did I just become Pinkie Pie all of the sudden?" Sea Swirl joked to herself.
"Okay everypony. Hold up. I'm on the case." Princess Twilight Sparkle announced to the crowd outside her castle. She seemed to succeed at calming them down, and she rushed straight for her library.
"What's going on again?" Spike asked. He had been mopping the kitchen floor and was a little out of the loop.
"Ponies are saying that they can't use their cutie mark talents!" Twilight responded in a panic. "Suddenly, Fluttershy can't communicate with her animals anymore. Applejack can't buck apples off trees. And it seems that everypony is having this happen to them! Ooh, I hope I can still research! What if I lose my talent as well? Then I can't research and help anypony!" Twilight hyperventilated and began to show tears in her eyes.
"Twilight." Spike said, walking over to her. "Equestria experiences unexplained, strange things all the time! And you've always been the one to solve it! Remember the time that ponies' cutie marks got swapped and you became an Alicorn after solving that? That's what this whole thing reminds me of."
"Yeah, but I was unaffected! I was the only one who still kept my proper cutie mark, thus I was able to help! There's no guarantee I'll be unaffected this time!"
"Some ponies have said they still have their talents, and some previously reported that they did, but then lost them." a bystander said, leaning through the window into the castle. "Check to see if you can still research, and if you can, take advantage of it while you have the chance."
Twilight sighed. "You're right. I guess I am only wasting precious time by panicking. Now, does this book have anything? It is all about dark magic and stuff, after all."
As the morning went on and transitioned into the afternoon, things did not look good for the town of Ponyville. It only really occurred to the residents today the extent of how ponies' unique cutie mark talents keep day-to-day operations afloat. The cafe was held up in a long line after the chef kept botching the meals, Miss Cheerilee forgot much of the material she had been repeating many times over the years, and what was the weather going to do?
"Am I sure I'm awake? I would be so relieved to wake up and find this was all a dream." one mare said.
"Well, if you're dreaming, then I am too, since I'm communicating with you." another mare responded. Not to mention I already slapped my own hoof, so nope, not dreaming."
"Man... I really hope somepony can find an answer soon. If not Twilight, well, are other cities affected too, or is it just Ponyville?"
"You have a point. We should go check some other cities out."
"Who knows if maybe it started in Ponyville but is spreading elsewhere..."
"If it hasn't spread elsewhere, then I'm daggum unlucky, because I live in Appleloosa, but on this here day, I just so happen to be in Ponyville." Sparkler said.
"Oh, shoot. Yeah."
Meanwhile over in the outskirts of Ponyville, at a hybrid aquarium-theme park called Big Blue, a certain mare with a double-dolphin cutie mark was on the stage of a theater, delivering an educational presentation about dolphins to an audience of kids and parents; probably the most prevalent activity in her career.
"In conclusion, dolphins..." she was just about to wrap the show up, when suddenly, a distant siren was heard in the background. Clearly, Sea Swirl wasn't the only one to notice it, as the entire audience turned their heads, with some of the kids jumping into their parents' laps.
Not much later, a stallion wearing a puffy white hat, whom the dolphin mare recognized as one of her coworkers, charged right through the door looking like a living pepper. Boy, was he red and sweaty. What was wrong?
"Sea Swirl! Please help! I made a grave mistake and a fire is starting in the kitchen of my restaurant! You were the nearest worker to me and I know this isn't your job but we don't have much time and the firefighters suddenly lost all their talent!" he panted out.
"On it." Sea Swirl assured. She jumped off the stage and scurried her legs over there as fast as possible, with a whole heap of confidence about this task inside her, she noticed. Upon entry, her coworker was right. Running into the kitchen, there was a fire on one of the stoves. It was small, but could only grow. The patrons were evacuating out the emergency door as the alarm blared across the building.
Sea Swirl found herself remembering the entire cabinet layout, inside and out. She knew where the remedy for this situation was stored. Sea Swirl got up on her hind legs with that fire extinguisher and pulled on the lever with a bullseye view. That blaze was killed dead right at her hooves, with all the orange glow disappearing and the entire restaurant giving her a thundering cheer.
"Sea Swirl! You saved us!" her coworker from before said, hugging around her neck. "My, how did you handle it all so well? You looked like a pro firefighter, running right towards us and all!"
Perfect opportunity for Sea Swirl's mind to spring up. "You know, I'm finding myself suddenly being skilled at a lot of things today. Things that I couldn't normally do before. This morning, I baked myself a breakfast cupcake to the quality of gourmet wedding cupcakes, when every time I tried to do it before, it ended up burnt-black and de-shaped."
"I also sprinted from my home to work in the matter of a few minutes, as if I was a gold-medal marathon runner. Last time I ran a marathon, I came in 43rd out of 50th." Sea Swirl said.
"Wait a minute." a stallion said, trotting over to the conversation. "I-is this the product of what's been happening in Ponyville today? Like, could it be? Are ponies losing their cutie mark talents because they're getting transferred to another pony? Sea Swirl being that pony?"
The restaurant filled up with a slew of "Oh", "Yeah, maybe", and the like.
"It sounds plausible." Sea Swirl said. "The pattern is right there. Should we all go to Twilight?"
"We should. But we're really far away from there."
Sea Swirl's mind perked up. "No need to worry." She lit her horn and poofed the entire restaurant crowd over to the Castle of Friendship in the matter of a split-second. While a unicorn, Sea Swirl had never been very skilled at magic, and had never learned to do the teleportation spell. But guess what was something else she acquired today?
"Wow. This infection actually turned out to be useful for once." somepony said.
"Yeah. It did. You there, Twilight?" Sea Swirl called out through the open window.
Twilight turned her head around from her research. "Yeah, I'm here, what's going on?" she said, walking towards the window.
"I think those of us over at Big Blue just uncovered something." Sea Swirl announced. "While most of the population is seeing their cutie mark talent drained away from them, I seem to be acquiring those talents in the process. Today, I baked like Pinkie Pie. I ran at the speed of an Equestria Games runner. I put out a fire like a pro firefighter. I think that is what's happening."
Her words clicked with Twilight. She saw a glimmer of hope for getting out of this mess. "Oh! Thank you, Sea Swirl! Yes, that would line up! Now, let's just see if I can finally find an entry about this in this hugely massive book before I see my research talent go down. Ooh, I can already feel it fading..."
Here came the suspense of hearing Twilight turn the pages, hoping and praying to Celestia that she would find at least some form of info. Even Sea Swirl, who likely now understood magic to a Twilight-like degree thanks to this, did not have the slightest clue what could be the cause.
But the suspense was interrupted by a noise. Fast clopping of hooves could be heard coming from the other direction, those hooves being from a pony (or actually, not a pony) with black and white stripes.
"Twilight! Twilight! I think I have found the light!"
"Zecora! It's you! Hi!" Twilight said, smiling. "Did you find the answer?!" Her heart was pounding out of her chest.
Zecora nodded. "Just take a look in this book."
Twilight read the description, and Zecora was right. She had indeed found the light. "Yes! That's it!" Twilight yelped. She smacked open the front door to announce the news."Everypony, look what Zecora found out! This is indeed a case of an entire population of ponies losing their cutie mark talents in favor of them packing together into one pony! And I think we all know who is that one! We've got Sea Swirl right here!"
"Is there a cure?" a member of the crowd shouted out from the back. Probably why he shouted.
"Ah, yes! Let's look under 'cure!' Twilight's eyes darted straight to that section of the page, but rather than a "eureka!" followed by cheers, the entire landscape slowed down. "Whaaat?" she drawed out.
"Uh, what?" a crowd member said.
"Uh... it says the only cure, to get the selected pony to lose the transferred talents and get them back to all of you, is to... tickle them. Uh, okay." Twilight said.
Now there would be crickets chirping if it weren't daytime. Thoughts were running through everypony's head, about how strange that was, about what would happen if the selected pony hated being tickled... they all looked stressed out, that is, except for Sea Swirl, who did nothing but smile.
"Heehee! All of you are in luck today, because guess what? I love being tickled!" she announced. "Really, I do! Might be my favorite activity not related to dolphins or the sea!"
"So do it, everypony! Tickle me silly! Get your talents back!"
Her enthusiasm seemed to work; a sea of smiles popped up in the crowd, and they took no time to start the discussions. "So, where do we go? Do we tie her up? How many ticklers can there be?"
"We shouldn't have to designate just a few of you as 'the ticklers' so long as you peacefully take turns and don't bump and squeeze through each other." Sea Swirl said. "And you can tie me up if you please, though I'm not sure where I'll be laying."
"Just the grass should work." Twilight said. "I do kind of want my abilities back as soon as possible, hehe."
Sea Swirl walked out into the open greenery and laid on her back. "Then let's get this started!"
She could hear the giggling getting closer to her. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash spread their feathery wings and started stroking them on Sea Swirl's lilac hooves, their wing tips each taking one hoof and moving in all directions.
"Ooh, this is a fun way to get my communication with animals back!" Fluttershy giggled.
As the yellow and blue wings struck, yep, Sea Swirl was ticklish alright. The laughing didn't even take time to build up and increase in volume. She just burst it right out. Sparkler then came onto the scene and started tickling her sides with her two front hooves, followed by blowing a raspberry.
"How will we know if the magic is reversing?" Fluttershy asked.
"The book says you should be able to look." Zecora said. "The word is marked that the magic is dark, and so the hack will show up black."
"Then let's tickle, everypony! Make her laugh until we see an aura of black magic coming out of her and into you!" Twilight said.
The pegasus-wing tickling on her hooves continued while Sparkler turned around and brushed her fluffy, pointy tail all over Sea Swirl's sides and tummy, going at max speed for her tail muscles, while a single feather could be felt tickling the under-foreleg pits as well. Looking upward, Sea Swirl saw that Applejack had joined.
"HAHAHAHA! So much fun! HAHA!" she laughed.
Shortly, a pound on the ground was heard, and the source turned out to be a certain pair of two royals. "We heard what was happening." Princess Luna said. "And we would like to join in on the action." Luna and her sister both flashed their deluxe-sized alicorn wings.
"Holy seacow. I can say I've never been tickled by those before." Sea Swirl said.
"Not until today, at least." Luna said as all four large alicorn wings started stroking her tummy, which just so happened to be her most ticklish spot.
"HAHAHAHA! That ti-hi-ickles! Sea Swirl was laughing her lungs out, and that seemed to be the golden key, as the elusive dark magic began to illuminate her horn and visibly enter the air.
"Keep going, everypony!" Twilight said. While Celestia and Luna seemed to have everything perfectly on track right then and there, they wanted to keep up the fun for everyone, so they lifted their wings off and allowed other ponies in on the tickling, with the bystanders cheering them on. Sea Swirl felt her sensitive tummy still getting the treatment, with one pony blowing buzzing raspberries all over it, as both her sides were tickled too with soft brush bristles, then the large princesses moved their wings to her back hooves.
The tickling was so super intense that she couldn't do a single thing to stop the deep, muscle-working laughter, which was clearly a good thing here, as the dark magic was in her view, the cloud getting larger and her horn feeling sweaty and hot. While uncomfortable, it was long-established that a horn fever is what unicorns should look for when trying to rid themselves of dark magic.
As the tickle assault rightfully continued, eventually it reached the point where the ever-familiar sound of shooting magic was heard and Sea Swirl's entire body lit up in white. Having no horn fever anymore, she had succeeded at releasing the dark magic, and with no host to go to, the black cloud faded away.
The entire front yard roared with cheers and claps, as Sea Swirl stood on her hooves from the finished tickling. "Whew! This is a day I'll always remember!" she said.
"Good tickling, everypony! I loved every second of it." she continued, giving out hoof-bumps. "Sure is good to have everything back to normal. I must admit, though, it was kinda nice having all those various skills. Like, since we acted so fast, I ended up not using a whole lot of them. I do wonder what it would be like to understand animals. That's one I didn't get to experience.
That's when Fluttershy came into her view. "You know, if you ever wanted to come over to my house, understanding animals is something you can learn. I've also, uh, never met you before, so, hi. I'm Fluttershy." she giggled.
"Sea Swirl. Pleased to meet you." she said, shaking Fluttershy's hoof. "Yeah, who knows? Maybe someday I will stop by at your place."
"Yeah! And I'm also somepony who has barely talked to you at all." Twilight said to Sea Swirl. "Though I didn't tickle, I feel like I got to know you a bit."
Sea Swirl smiled. She liked the sound of that.
"I don't think I've really seen ya before either." Applejack said. "So I started it with ticklin'. Hehe."
Sea Swirl giggled in response, plain-and-simply happy. Did she really have an opportunity to make new friends, after that chaos was just erased, so quickly and smoothly? Wow. Tickling was magic.
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Another great chapter!
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Thank you!
Hey! I haven't finished all the stories yet but I just finished the third and I think it's my favourite out of the lot so far! I love how adorable this is, from start to finish. The only things that I would change would be Spike's involvement in Chapter 2. Even though it isn't sexual, there's still cuffs and it just feels weird with him being a child while the rest are adults, though I'm sure that was not your intention. I also think that the general public would be a little more alienated by the idea of group tickling a mare in Chapter 3, but it's small beans because I love that chapter.
I look forward to more tickle fics from you! You've inspired me to brainstorm more ideas.
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Totally understandable. That never crossed my mind while I was writing the chapter, because I didn't feel it was creepy or anything, but yeah, maybe the innocence level could have done better without it. "A Friendly Game" was also my first tickling story to feature bondage; I don't normally use it, so my skills perhaps could use some honing in.
Under normal circumstances, yeah, probably. In retrospect, this chapter was assisted by the citizens' desperation to get their talents back. They probably would resort to more intense measures than otherwise when trying to defeat dark magic, is how I see it.
That's great! Always feels good to know my work can inspire.