Ponywatching

by ThunderTempest

Prompt #303: Enter The Illusion

There was absolutely nothing around her. Nothing but an great expanse of black and more black.

“So, uh, what am I supposed to do here, Twilight?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“As I said, Rainbow,” said Twilight Sparkle, her voice seemingly omnipresent, “It is is an experiment to determine the viability of self-generated illusions, as the changelings have demonstrated. Queen Cocoon was kind enough to explain the principles to me as part of the treaty, to see if they can be improved, but first I need to make sure the basic concept works first.”

“Won’t this drain my love or something, though?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“No, Rainbow. That’s a separate spell entirely, and is unique to changelings. Changelings design these illusions to keep the ponies happy and with something that they love, but it is possible to cast it without any specific bias, so that’s what I have done. Just think of something, and the illusion should make it real.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, but in her mind, thought of the best possible thing she could: an open sky, with a few clouds scattered around for practice.

And no sooner than she had finished thinking about that, than she found herself floating, and falling, through a completely clear sky. It was a little disconcerting to look down and see that there was no ground below her, but this was completely awesome.

Rainbow opened her wings, and transitioned from a free-fall and into a long swoop. Rings of cloud appeared as her mind came up with increasingly more intricate courses, pushing her agility to the absolute limit. With no ground to worry about hitting, she could dive forever, building up speed, and getting to experience the joy of total free-fall for minutes at a time.

It was an adrenaline rush like she had never experienced before. Another flare of her wings brought her back to level flight, pushing her downward momentum into forward momentum. Rainbow reached into the deepest place inside of her that she knew. Memories of the Best Young Flyer’s competition came rushing back to her. Rarity falling, and Rainbow being the only one that could save her in time.

And just like that, a falling figure in the distance materialized, clad in way too much clothing and fancy stuff. Rainbow pushed forwards. The cone started forming around her, the air resisting her attempts to be as awesome as she knew that she could be. But just as the barrier was about the fully break, the image around her shattered, and she was lying on Twilight’s basement science lab’s table, her wings having broken the restraints, and Twilight gripping onto her with her magic field.

“Rainbow!” said Twilight, “stop, Rainbow!” Rainbow Dash stopped flapping her wings, realising that she was trying to propel herself into the opposite wall.

“It’s cool, egghead,” said Rainbow, as Twilight’s magical hold on her relaxed, and let Rainbow down onto the ground. “You get everything you wanted?”

Twilight nodded, “before you started trying to do a Sonic Rainboom underground, I got a lot of useful information about how the illusion interacts with your mind. It’s subtle, but it seems there’s a slight addictive element to it, which would make sense. And that addictive element can be tuned to specific emotive states”

“English, egghead,” said Rainbow Dash.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Basically, the illusion makes you want to stay in there. Over the course of years, it would eventually ruin a pony’s mind completely beyond repair, turning them into simple love factories for the changelings to feast on. “

“Yeesh,” said Rainbow, a wince scrunching her face up.

“Nopony ever said that the changelings were pleasant, Rainbow.”

“I know, but still,” said Rainbow, shrugging, “It still seems wrong that we’re allied with them now, you know? They tried to kill us once, Twi.”

“Hive mind, Rainbow. Only the Queen actually has intelligence. The rest of them only really have basic instinct and a few bits of knowledge specific to their role in the hive.” Said Twilight.

“Still seems weird, though. Just use that spell of yours to figure out how we can stop them from eating our love, okay, Twilight?”

Author's Note:

Written for Prompt #303: "Mind Games"

The prompt: Your mind makes it real