The Gravity of the Situation

by Masem

...Stays Up...

The trip to Sweet Apple Acres took only a few minutes, and fortunately for Twilight, the crowds thinned out after they got through the center of town. She still worried that rumors moved faster than one could expect, and wondered how soon her predicament would reach Canterlot.

Applejack was out harvesting apples from the front part of the orchard when they arrived, but hadn’t seen them come up. “Hey, AJ,” Twilight called out.

Applejack finished giving another tree a hard kick. “Heya, Twi! Don’t tell me its time to start settin’ up for that del—” She turned to look at her friend, and caught herself short, covering her mouth with a hoof to stifle a laugh.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s a long story,” Twilight said while rolling her eyes. “You might as well get it out.”

“Ya look just like one of Pinkie’s balloons,” Applejack snickered. She tried to catch herself, but couldn’t help but breaking out into laughter.

“You have to admit, Twi, it is kinda funny,” Spike offered, trying to contain his own giggles.

“I could always cast the spell on you, and see how you like it, mister,” Twilight nagged at her assistant.

Applejack had collected herself, catching her breath from laughing. “How’d did ya manage that, Twi?”

“Oh, I was trying to practice gravity-nullifying spells but somehow got caught in my own magic. There’s a cancellation spell but I just cannot get it to work. And unless Spike keeps hold on this rope, I’m afraid I’ll just drift away!”

“Did ya try contactin’ the Princess?”

Twilight shook her head furiously. “I can’t let her know I can’t cast the cancellation spell. I know she’s going to hear about me floating around, but at least I can just say its part of my practicing. It’ll wear out by tomorrow, but we have that delegation arriving tonight! I need to find some way to keep to the ground.”

Spike nodded. “She’s tried to weigh herself down with books, but if they tip the wrong way, she just floats off.”

Applejack scratched her chin. “Hey, ah’ve got an idea. Come with me to the barn,” Applejack offered, pointing her hoof to the building.

Applejack led Spike over to the main barn, opening the doors and stepping inside. Spike followed along shortly, with Twilight drifting along behind him. “Spike, watch o—OW!” Twilight winced as her head banged against the top of the door.

“Oops, sorry about that, Twi,” Spike apologized.

Applejack had gone over and taken a dusty tarp off one of her carts. It was a smaller one, with just two wheels and a hitch. “Here we go!”

“A cart?” Twilight raised her eyebrow incredulously.

“Yup, a cart!” Applejack demonstrated by lifting the hitch with a hoof. She let it go, and the hitch quickly fell back to the ground. “We get you into that, and you should be just fine.”

“I can’t go pulling around a cart all night at the event!”

“Ya don’t have to,” Applejack offered. “Remember how the Princess would just stand there and greet her guests at the Gala? Ya just have to do that. We’ll hide the cart with some curtains or somethin’ and we’ll cover for ya otherwise.”

Spike’s face lit up. “And you can move about otherwise on your own to get the preparations done!”

“Ohh, I see, that actually might work!” Twilight broke into a grin. “Spike, reel me down so we can try this.”

It took just a few minutes to secure the hitch around Twilight’s barrel. Applejack used her teeth to get the strap nice and tight. “That feel good, Twi?”

Twilight gave her body a tentative shake, feeling the strap snug against her coat. “Seems fine here, and I feel its weight keeping me down. But now for the real test...” She took a single step forward, remembering what happened in the library when she had tried the same. She felt her body want to float off as she pressed against the ground, but the weight of the hitch kept her down. “Hey, it’s working!”

Applejack and Spike watched as Twilight took several more cautious steps, slowly building to a normal walking speed as she pulled the cart behind her. “Lookin’ good, Twi!”

“Thanks, AJ, this is just per—AUGGH!”

The cart hit a small mound of dirt in the barn, causing one of the wheels to jump a bit. When it came down, its speed caused the hitch to bounce a bit. As it rebounded, Twilight felt her hooves disconnect with the ground, and momentum took over from there. Her weightlessness caused the cart to slowly tip upwards on the single axle. She tried to wheel her legs to stop the action, but it was far too late. Moments later, the cart had fallen against its back, the hitch sticking straight up with a helpless Twilight hanging snug in the hitch’s straps.

Applejack and Spike turned to look at each other, and broke out laughing.

“Yeah, yeah, very funny,” Twilight nagged, trying to rock herself to get the cart to right itself somehow..

Applejack took a quick breath between her guffaws. “Sorry, Twi, that’s gotta be the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long while!”

“You look ridiculous, Twilight!” Spike offered.

Twilight stopped her actions of trying to get free, and sighed heavily.

Applejack pointed to one of the other tarps, covering a larger object. “Ah bet we can probably do better with one of the four-wheeled carts. They won’t have a tendency to tip like that, Twi.”

Twilight shook her head. “I can’t check on preparations properly if I’m stuck to one of those larger ones. Just get me down from here!”

The two helped to get Twilight lowered back to the ground and retied Spike’s rope to her. “You know, Twi, ah think Rarity might have a solution.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow “Rarity? Really?”

“She’s a pretty good problem solver. She might have a really good idea for helpin’ with yer floatin’, there.”

---

Rarity held up a cloth banner in her hooves. It was about six feet long, of purest white, with clear embroidery in a deep purple that formed the cursive “R” that Rarity used for her signature logo. She looked up to Twilight with a wide smile and bulging eyes.

“No,” Twilight tersely said.

“Ple-eeeease?” Rarity got to her hindlegs and knelt below Twilight. “Even just for an hour?”

“No, I’m not going to help with your advertising like this!” Twilight snorted. “Let’s go Spike—I don’t even know why AJ thought Rarity could help.”

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry I asked,” Rarity let go of her banner. “But Rainbow Dash refuses to even consider the idea.”

Twilight narrowed an eye at her. “And you thought I would?”

“Well, er, maybe?”

Twilight let out a calming sigh. “Do you think you can do anything to help my problem here?”

Rarity levitated her working glasses to her nose and started peering around Twilight as if she were a dress form. Twilight was still suspended in air, spinning very slowly, but otherwise held in place by Spike’s rope. The dragon simply stood there entranced by his crush.

“Hmm,” Rarity said inquisitively with a frown. “I’ve made dresses for pegasi that are light enough and give them space for their wings, but this is an entirely different challenge.”

“I just need something to hold me down. It’s got to balance out my center of gravity—well, mass, I guess now. Loading my saddlebags was too lopsided, and AJ’s cart idea was too much off-balance.”

“So we just need to spread the weight around...i-deee-a!” Rarity entoned. She trotted over to a chest, using her magic to open it and bring out a burlap sack. “I think I’ve finally found a use for these!”

“What’s in there?” Twilight asked. She noted that the sack looked rather heavy from how it hung as Rarity carried it over.

“Here, hold out your hooves,” Rarity instructed. Once Twilight had done so, she carefully laid the bag across them and released her magic. The instance her spell was gone, the bag dragged Twilight down to the floor with a loud thump. The back half of her body still floated off the ground, but her hooves were pinned beneath the bag’s weight.

“Whoa! What’s in this?”

“Loadstones, darling,” Rarity said while levitating one of the bag. It was dull silver lump of something metallic, no larger than a pebble. “They happen to occur naturally with gems, and are pretty much valueless, but I’ve found a few uses for them here and there. But I think this is the first perfect opportunity to truly put them to their potential!”

Twilight stared incredulously at the little rock as she tried to leverage her back legs to the ground with the weight of the bag. “I can’t imagine a dress where that would look good on.”

“Oh, no, they won’t be on the dress, they’ll be in the dress,” Rarity giddily explained as her magic brought over a quill and piece of parchment from her desk. She focused herself on the paper, sketching out a new outfit while continuing to talk. “I can place little pockets of loadstones throughout the dress, distributing the weight across your body. That should keep you on the ground, no matter how much you walk around. It’s just a matter of making sure that those pockets are well hidden. They’d sag the dress terribly, I’m afraid, but that’ll be an excellent challenge to work around.” She finished off a few more strokes and showed her sketch to Twilight. The sketch showed a two-layered dress with a detailed neckstrap, a rather fancy hem, and a modestly short train. “Notice how the bows and bunting are lined up on the hem of the dress? They’ll be perfect place to place those pockets.”

“That’s a great idea, Rarity!” Twilight beamed. “We’ll have to distribute the loadstones just right but that’ll definitely keep me from floating off!”

Rarity had turned to her fabric rack and studied the bolts intently. “It will only take me a couple hours to complete it—”

“Wait, that’s no good—WAGH!” Twilight had instinctively pulled a front hoof from underneath the loadstone bag and pointed it at Rarity, realizing too late her mistake. Her body lifted off the ground, twisting along her other hoof and causing it too to slip out from under the bag. Now free of her ballast, Twilight spun until her tether to Spike pulled taut, leaving her hanging upside down. “How am I supposed to check on the preparations like this?” she nagged, her hooves crossed.

Rarity ignored Twilight’s plight, having brought a few of the fabric rolls over to her with her telekinesis to compare their color against Twilight’s coat. “Don’t worry, Twilight. You’ll have the dress in plenty of time for the event.”

“Ugggh,” Twilight groaned. “Thanks, Rarity. That dress idea is really wonderful, but I was hoping for something more immediate as well.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to wear my banner? Please?”

“NO,” Twilight stated firmly, and then brought her hoof up—relative to her orientation—to bop Spike on the head and wake him from his trace. “Come on, lover boy. Maybe Fluttershy has a few ideas.”

Author's Note:

Boy, Twilight, I bet you wish you had wings about now!

Comments

[Xaldon Ajide]

even with wings she'd have a little difficulty.

[thewaffler]

I was expecting Spike to grab some card-stock, make a stencil of Rarity's logo using his claws and spray paint it onto Twilight's coat, regardless of whether or not she said, "no."

Lead in Saddlebags?

[Sergiovan]

Is this proyect dead too? Just put it on Cancelled, or something so I don't worry about waiting, please

[Masem]

3030178 No, but I've had a lot of writers block to finish out about 25% of the remaining story, but I should be good to get this done in the next couple of weeks or so.

[Sergiovan]

3031658 Ah, OK then. It's just, so many great stories are kept like this FOREVER!... And that is sad and unnerving. But if you say you are continuing... carry on :D

[Periphery]

I know! Twilight needs to just pig out on a really huge, heavy meal. Or would anything inside her instantly also be affected by the spell?